The Imperial Supreme Commander Has Returned - Chapter 19

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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The Empire’s Supreme Commander Has Returned — Episode 19

A Mana Art was the totality of methods for accumulating Mana within one’s body.
And the very first thing one had to do?
Of course—one had to sense the Mana first.
You couldn’t accumulate something inside yourself without knowing what it was.

It was the opening stage and an absolute requirement, yet it was far from easy.
In fact, it was grueling enough to test one’s limits.
For that reason, it was often used as a standard for measuring natural talent.
Initially, by how quickly one could detect Mana.

“It seems I picked it up rather quickly.”
“…Extraordinarily so.”
“How long did it take you, sir?”
“Two days…”

Rubian’s words came out tinged with disappointment.
But internally, Delram’s jaw dropped.

‘Insane. Only two days to sense Mana?’

Generally speaking, it was best to begin a Mana Art while young.
In truth, gathering Mana was difficult in childhood.
The young lacked focus and had no clear purpose.
Even the heart itself—the vessel meant to hold Mana—remained underdeveloped.
So the efficiency was correspondingly poor.

Yet there was an advantage to it.
Namely, that Mana was far easier to sense.

Mana existed everywhere in the world.
In grass, in the sky, in the earth.
It accompanied every breath drawn in and released.
Therefore, growing older simply meant prolonged exposure to Mana, and one’s ability to detect it could only atrophy with time.

‘That’s why they say six years old is optimal for beginning. Sensing Mana takes roughly a month on average.’

The shorter the interval, the greater the talent.
Among true prodigies, some could detect it in a single week.
But Rubian claimed two days…
How could Delram not be astonished?

He’d need to revise his assessment of Rubian considerably.
He’d taken her for merely talented, if somewhat reckless.
Perhaps she was actually a prodigy outside all normal categories.

‘After all, she’s already Mid-Rank in her late twenties. That alone marks her as at least gifted.’

As for Delram before his Reincarnation?
It had taken him a full two years to sense Mana.

Reaching High-Rank Knight had been pure luck.
No—it had been born of sheer desperation.
Where others trained their whole lives, he’d been forged in daily—sometimes twice-daily—combat, and his mastery simply had no choice but to advance.

So Rubian, momentarily deflated by the comparison, fell silent.
But her expression soon brightened.
Come to think of it, if he was teaching her not just swordsmanship but Mana Arts as well, then Delram had become her master in every sense—there was no getting around it.
It was cause for joy—a promising disciple had appeared.

“Now that you’ve sensed Mana, the next step is application. At first, it won’t move smoothly. But if you concentrate your mind on the Mana and project your will strongly and continuously, you can draw it into your body.”
“I understand.”
“After that, circulate it according to the Mana Road sequence I’m about to teach you. That, precisely, is the Entry-Level Form of the Mana Art.”
“Yes.”

Delram closed his eyes and centered his mind.
Rubian’s Mana flowing into his body.
He merely pretended to circulate it according to the Mana Art.
It was because of the collision between Mana Arts.

One could learn multiple Mana Arts without issue.
More precisely: some could coexist, and others could not.
What determined this was Attribute.

A Mana Art aimed at fierce courage like flame.
A Mana Art pursuing icy composure like ice.

What if one attempted to master both together?
On a bad day, the Mana Road could explode.
All the carefully gathered Mana would simply dissipate.
The Mana Road becoming unusable was the least of the damage.

‘Still, if I analyze them, there’s plenty to gain, isn’t there?’

Delram knew a diverse array of Mana Arts.
During his time as Commander-in-Chief, he had conquered several kingdoms.
In the process, he had diverted Mana Arts—enough to fill a wagon.

The pity was the quality of those Mana Arts.
Among the great families that formed the pillars of each kingdom, a Mana Art was the very history and spirit of the family itself.
Most chose to burn them entirely rather than see them violated, so he had obtained almost no Secret Arts.

‘The Bistache Family’s were no different.’

The Bistache Family Mana Art.
From what Delram understood, the Bistache Family’s symbol was power.
Their Mana Art was similar.
The essence of the art was to maximize destructive force from among the many Attributes within Mana and obliterate an enemy with a single blow.

‘Whereas my Flux is centered on stability and flexibility.’

For that reason, they could not be mastered simultaneously.
But if he analyzed them, there would be considerable material to study.

Of course, what Delram had received was only the Entry-Level Form.
A fragment, one might say—the secret depths of the Secret Art carved away.

Yet there was no cause for disappointment.
Even a scattered fragment, in the end, was a refined result based on a single original source.
A knight of Delram’s experience and insight could glimpse even the secrets of the Bistache Family through such a foundation.

‘…Wait. What’s this?’

As Delram continued learning the Mana Art from Rubian,
he soon sensed something odd.
Two things, even.

‘This is supposed to be an Entry-Level Form?’

The Entry-Level Form of the Mana Art that Rubian was teaching him.
But that entire sequence of architecture—the twisting, weaving, and cutting—
was extraordinarily refined and intricate.
It was on par with the Secret Arts of other prestigious clans!

Ordinarily, an Entry-Level Form operated at roughly twenty percent of a Secret Art’s efficiency.
Suppose two people trained Mana equally for ten days.
The one who’d learned the Entry-Level Form would accumulate twenty units of Mana, while the one who’d learned the Secret Art would gather one hundred.
The difference in power was beyond question.

‘If this is truly an Entry-Level Form…’

Then the Secret Art would be five times stronger than those of other major houses.
Which meant accumulating five hundred units of Mana in ten days.

Of course, that was absurd.
If that were the case, why was the kingdom even called Piyor?
It should have been Bistache instead.

Continental unification, demon invasions—none of it would matter.
The Bistache Family alone would handle everything.

So the conclusion was simple.
She had taught him not the Entry-Level Form, but the Secret Art.

‘What, has this woman actually lost her mind?’

A mistake was utterly impossible.
The volume difference between the Entry-Level Form and the Secret Art was enormous.

So it came down to one of two things.
She was mad, or she’d gone insane.

Opening his eyes slightly to peek, he saw that Rubian too was flustered.
She shifted restlessly, occasionally letting out a sigh.
Her face had that look—’Well, I’ve done it now, so what do I do?’

‘The gap between how she talks and how she acts is ridiculous.’

Delram clicked his tongue.
What would the patriarch of Bistache do if he found out?
He’d probably come charging with a greatsword immediately.
Determined to erase Delram from this world entirely.

‘But then again, that’s fine.’

As long as Delram and Rubian kept their mouths shut, no one would know.
Even if they did find out, that would be later.
By then, he’d have risen to a position or level where he could handle even the patriarch of Bistache.
After all, he was a Reincarnate.

‘Now for the second problem… this is a Secret Art that the direct line learns, so why is its condition like this?’

Obtaining the Secret Art was fine.
But even at a glance, something was off.
There were gaps in several places.
And there were more than a few spots where the architecture was twisted inefficiently.

Still, it remained an excellent Mana Art regardless.
Yet it had been refined over dozens of generations in a great family, so calling this a deficient version would be putting it mildly.
It was not a half portion, but rather two-thirds.

‘Did she give this to me on purpose?’

There were occasional instances of such things.
To lure the talented toward ruin.

But look at this stubborn woman standing before me.
The likelihood of that was exceedingly slim.

Moreover, the Mana Art contained no traps.
The kind of trap that deliberately twisted a technique to cripple its user entirely.
It was simply, genuinely, inferior.

‘At least… the Mana Art’s focus on destructive power meant the deficiency wasn’t visibly obvious on the surface.’

The Bistache Family’s Mana Art was, at its core, about destruction.
Whether one struck with eighty units of force or one hundred—if the opponent fell, the difference looked the same anyway.

But even so, there was still a problem.
When one encountered an opponent capable of withstanding that destructive force, or when attempting to reach the next realm, the difficulty spiked dramatically.

‘Come to think of it… she’s not even thirty yet and is on the verge of reaching High-Rank with this?’

Low-Rank, Mid-Rank, High-Rank, Peak-Rank, Sword Master.

The classification of a Knight’s progression.
Each advancement imposed immense strain.
Yet she had broken through with a two-thirds Mana Art?
The implication was straightforward.

‘She’s genuinely an extraordinary genius.’

Unlike Delram, who wielded the cheat of Reincarnation.
She was a pure embodiment of talent, as it truly was.
Suddenly, a word flashed through his mind.

Hero.

Why had Delram undergone Reincarnation in the first place?
Because he had slaughtered every Hero on the continent into extinction.
So this time, he needed to keep Heroes alive as much as possible and prepare for war against the Demons.

Yet Rubian was no less a Hero than those others.
A question surfaced unbidden.

‘Why not create Heroes instead of just preserving them?’

And for some reason, she had been favorable toward him.
So much so that she had shared the family’s Secret Art Mana Art with him.
If he nurtured her well, wouldn’t she prove quite useful?

“Ah… hmm.”

Just then, Rubian turned her flushed face away slightly.
His gaze had been far too intense.

* * *

[Special Forces Unit]
A specialized intelligence and covert operations division of the kingdom’s military.

Naturally, their treatment differed entirely from the regular infantry.
The regular ranks were sent to the battlefield with only minimal training, as if the kingdom’s attitude was [plenty of bodies to spare].

The Special Forces Unit was the opposite.
Considerable effort was poured into training the unit members.
The missions assigned to them were inherently difficult—completion was impossible without rigorous preparation.
So after three days of training and adaptation, soldiers were assigned to specialized squads, then trained for another two months.

“Bit of a breeze, isn’t it.”

Yet the newest Special Forces recruit, Delram, was different.
Rather than training, he lay in a luxurious barracks, mumbling to himself.
It was already his second month there.

Training?
There was no one left to instruct Delram.
He’d already passed every training exercise with record-breaking scores, so the veterans themselves had to come learn from him.

So instead, what he was granted was personal training time.
It was the result of a request made when Rubian visited the commander of the Special Forces Unit.

Truth be told, from the commander’s perspective, it was an unwelcome situation.
Delram was now, undeniably, a member of the Special Forces Unit.
No matter his status as a knight, no matter his affection for Delram—overstepping by dictating terms regarding one’s own subordinate was nothing short of overreach.
Yet the commander had acquiesced because of a single statement.

—I’ve transmitted our family’s Mana Art to him.
—In that case…!

A soldier already possessed of abilities that defied reason, and now Mana on top of it?
It was like giving a tiger wings.
Mission success rates would naturally climb, and the credit would flow entirely to the commander himself.

But the Mana Art was merely a tool.
What good was even the finest instrument in one’s hands if you didn’t use it?
Only when you put it to work does the profit follow.

In other words, simply possessing the Mana Art wasn’t the end of it.
You had to actually gather Mana with it for it to hold any meaning.

And of course, that took considerable time.
Was gathering Mana ever easy?
You had to focus your mind, breathe in the Mana, guide it along the proper Mana Roads, and draw it into your own heart—only then did you accumulate even a small amount.

The two months of personal training time were allotted for that reason.
Simply: gather as much Mana as you can and report back.

“Oh, this is pretty good.”
Munch, munch.

So Delram was indeed training diligently.
Outwardly, he appeared to be doing nothing but snacking, but he wasn’t.
For Delram, Mana wasn’t actually the priority.
It gathered naturally just from walking around—why concern himself with it?

‘Something of a higher-order understanding.’

This was what mattered.

And he had just acquired the perfect tool to spark that realization.
The Bistache Family’s Secret Art Mana Form.

‘Let me try fixing this first.’
Soft threads of light unraveled.

The Secret Art began to disassemble before him.
In Delram’s mind, piece by piece.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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