The Imperial Supreme Commander Has Returned - Chapter 20

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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 Imperial Commander Has Returned — Episode 20

‘Today is the day I finish this.’

Lately, what Delram had been absorbed in was the Mana Art.
More precisely, the combination and recreation of Mana Arts.
The Bistache Secret Formula he had obtained not long ago was the subject of his work.

‘My Phlurex Arts, and the Mana Arts of other great families… alongside the Bistache Secret Formula that Rubion taught me.’

He had sufficient materials.
Among them, what he examined most carefully was the Bistache Secret Formula.

Mana Arts were ordinarily refined and refined again over dozens of generations, which meant their structures were inevitably complex.
But at their root lay a single origin.
It was what Delram had been doing these past two months.
Tracing back to that beginning.

Delram moved the mental tweezers in his mind ceaselessly.
He carefully dismantled the abstruse Mana Art.
He stripped away the extraneous flourishes added by later generations and separated out the vestiges of other Mana Arts that had been haphazardly grafted on in the name of reinforcement.

What remained at last was the Original Form.
It was the founder’s will — one that valued only power.

‘Finally finished. Now let me work with this.’

Delram began to touch that Original Form once more.
The materials lay broken and heaped up in one corner of his Mental Realm.
He gathered them and reassembled them anew.

Of course, it wasn’t identical to before.
If it were, there would have been no point in taking it apart.
He kept the basic framework intact while streamlining the inefficient portions, and boldly cut away sections that were tangled or knotted.
These were likely parts that had fallen into disuse due to some historical event, or traces of clumsy tampering by some untalented family head.

Snick, snick.

Delram excised all such portions.
The world was the same whether you spoke of people or Mana Arts.
When you drew the blade, you had to cut clean if you wanted anything to live.

‘Hmm… what would work best?’

Delram pondered, looking at the empty spaces he had carved away.
Several Mana Arts decomposed in his mind and faded.
From that process, the most effective adhesive was selected.
It was the Phlurex Arts.

The Phlurex Arts.
Phlurex was not grand enough to be called the great sea.
It was neither wide enough, nor could it embrace all things.

But it was indeed a great river.
One that never runs dry, no matter how parched the season.
A main current that cuts across the land without breaking, flowing ever toward the sea.

It makes all things flow.
It lets nothing run dry.
Thus, it would also excellently fill the gaps left scattered and severed throughout the Bistache Secret Formula.

‘With this… it’s complete!’

The Bistache Mana Art, now fully realized.
No—it was the Bistache-Delram Mana Art.

He’d deliberately appended his own name, taking credit where perhaps he shouldn’t.
The completed Mana Art far exceeded what Delram had anticipated.
Enough to draw admiration from Delram himself, who knew countless Mana Arts.

‘This is actually incredible.’

The Bistache Mana Art had transformed.
It had gained something that the original formula lacked entirely: focus.
A concentration toward a single point that had scattered almost imperceptibly during the modifications.
But with a frame of reference now established, its power had increased by fifty percent or more.

‘But this isn’t because the Bistache Secret Formula is remarkable… It’s the Phlurex Arts woven through it that’s truly exceptional, isn’t it?’

The Phlurex Arts suddenly seemed far more formidable than before.
And dimly, he could see the path he needed to walk.

Why had Delram modified the Bistache Secret Formula?
Of course, to repay kindhearted Rubion.
More precisely, to cultivate her into a hero capable of slaying demons.

But his true purpose was his own advancement.
More specifically, it was work to evolve the Phlurex further.

[Stability of the Phlurex Arts]
[Destructive Power of the Bistache Secret Formula]

The natures of the two Mana Arts were antithetical.
As such, each had much to learn from the other.

So then, the Phlurex’s weakness.
Should he supplement its lack of destructive power with Bistache?

Normally, that would have been the path.
But Delram made the opposite choice.

Upon dismantling the Bistache Secret Formula, it became clear.
Which formulas to touch and how, to draw out the Mana Art’s destructive potential to its absolute maximum—the structure of it all.

Surprisingly, the Phlurex possessed destructive aspects as well.
These were the portions overlapping with Bistache.
Though only marginally.

Delram removed that part entirely.
From the already weak Phlurex, he excised the vestigial destructive elements that remained like the traces of a vestigial organ.

‘The path beyond Upper Knight!’

Before his regression, Delram’s final realm was Upper Knight.
No matter how hard he’d strived, nothing lay beyond it.
But now, dimly, he began to understand.

Why his cultivation had stagnated.
Ironically, it was because of knowledge itself.
He knew too many Mana Arts, and since they were all advanced techniques, he couldn’t bring himself to abandon any of them.

[Selection and Focus]

Take what’s worth taking, discard what’s worth discarding.
Delram had only grasped this truth after dying once.

That was why he’d modified the Phlurex Arts.
To create a Mana Art that reached the pinnacle of gentleness.
To witness the ultimate expression of a single discipline.

“Obtaining the Bistache Secret Formula was truly fortunate.”

Delram murmured to himself as he sensed the mana around him.
The mana drew closer with far greater intimacy.
Along with that, the stability of the Phlurex Arts advanced to a new level.
Now mana accumulated even as he drew breath.

That wasn’t all.
When he exhaled, the turbid impurities within his body expelled along with it.

[Circulation]

The circulation of water, the circulation of humanity, the circulation of mana.
At last, Delram understood the subtle principle underlying them all.

In any case, Delram had gained much.
So he decided to pass on the Bistache-Delram Mana Art—which he’d labored over for two months—without greed, offering it freely to her.

Delram conducted one final inspection of the modified technique.
If there were any flaws, Rubion could be put in danger.

Of course, no matter how carefully he examined it, he found nothing of the sort.
Yet he did discover one hazardous element.

‘I can’t afford to provoke Rubion anymore after this.’

The Bistache Secret Formula modification could be defined in a single word: [Overwhelming Strength].
It was inevitable—she converted all her mana into raw power.
And now that power had grown stronger still…….

If he took a hit from Rubion after she properly mastered this technique?
It would be a one-way ticket to the afterlife.

Swish, swish.

At that thought, Delram’s hands moved of their own accord.
He swept up the crumbs of a snack that had fallen on the Barracks floor.
This was Rubion’s personal Barracks, after all.

It was strange when he thought about it.
A man in the private quarters of a Knight—and a female Knight at that?
It was proof of how much Rubion trusted Delram.
It meant she was willing to endure whatever strange rumors might spread.

‘What if she suddenly decides to take me as a live-in husband, grabs me by the collar, and drags me off to the Bistache Family?’

Word was, she’d beaten her philandering former fiancé half to death.
According to the rumors, he was still bedridden.

“If I want to avoid that, I suppose I should climb higher soon.”

Delram murmured this to himself, drawing his concentration inward.
Six months since the regression.
The Mana he had steadily accumulated from those days as a potato farmer in the Rural Village now filled his heart to the brim.

It was like a cup on the verge of overflowing.
Left and right ventricles, left and right atria.
The Mana densely packed in those chambers rumbled like it would sprint through the aorta and vena cava the moment the trigger came.

So where exactly was Delram climbing to?
The answer was simple.

‘To the realm of a Lower Knight!’

* * *

The final droplet of Mana was absorbed into his heart.
In that instant, a violent pulse thundered through the Barracks.

Thump—thump—

It was no illusion.
It was loud enough that anyone standing beside him would have heard it.

The evolution from Mana User to Lower Knight.
In simple terms, it was the act of releasing all the Mana gathered in the heart at once, expanding the space that Mana occupied.
But it was far from easy.
Since it was his first time, it was difficult to know precisely how much Mana to release and how far to expand it.

This was why a master’s presence mattered.
Though each person’s expansion range differed and exact guidance was impossible, even tips proved invaluable.
There was also the matter of protection.
One was vulnerable even while gathering Mana; asking about the dangers of making such a leap was pointless—it would only exhaust the tongue.

‘Me? I don’t need any of that.’

Of course, Delram was different.
He had been an Upper Knight, even with a reputation to his name.
Reaching the Lower Knight realm was nothing—he could manage it with his eyes closed.

Besides, the Phlurex Arts were the pinnacle of stability.
And he had just reinforced it moments ago.
At this level, even if someone stabbed him with a blade beside him, he’d die from blood loss before risking Mana detonation.

‘Then let’s begin.’

Whoosh!
Delram released the Mana from his heart.
The Mana spreading outward soon struck what felt like a wall and halted, forming a circle centered on his heart.
This was the mark of a Knight—

‘A Knight Circle… it’s been a long time.’

The circle was the size of two hearts.
From Lower to Middle rank, and as one’s realm ascended.
This circle’s size would grow exponentially.

What was good about it growing?
Since the circle was Mana’s domain, naturally the total Mana quantity increased.
His responsiveness had improved as well.
As the time it took for mana to race through his limbs shortened, the quantity, quality, and speed of his Aura all increased.

‘They say when you become a Sword Master, your circle expands beyond your body.’

From that point on, assassination becomes impossible.
Anything that happens within that radius—
a Sword Master cannot miss it.
It was, in a sense, an absolute barrier.

“Boy, boy!”

Just then, urgent footsteps sounded from outside.
It was Rubion who hurried through the Barracks entrance.

“Are you all right?”
“Ah, Knight.”
“Phew! Thank goodness. I was heading back to the Barracks when I suddenly felt a surge of mana, so I came running in a panic.”

Rubion exhaled deeply upon seeing Delram unharmed.
Delram answered matter-of-factly.

“Oh, it’s nothing serious.”
“Nothing serious?”
“I was practicing the Mana Art as you taught me, when the mana in my chest suddenly began to surge. I was curious what was happening, so I observed it, and then my mana’s domain suddenly expanded by about twice its size.”
……

Instead of answering, Delram picked up a nearby Knife.
Then, focusing his mind—

A soft hum resonated.

The Knife trembled faintly.
And blooming above it was a faint, luminous glow.

As a Knight, Rubion could be more certain than anyone.
That was unmistakably the mark of a Knight—an Aura!

“That… that can’t be. An Aura…?”
“Ah, so this is what an Aura is.”
“But you’ve only been learning the Mana Art for two months now… and on a dining knife at that, not even a sword….”
“It just seemed like it would work.”

Delram answered straightforwardly, but it made no difference.
Rubion had already stopped listening, muttering something incomprehensible.
By her pallor, she was clearly in shock.

Becoming a Knight was easier than becoming a Mage.
But that was only a relative matter.
No matter how advanced a Mana Art one possessed,
without sufficient talent, one remained a mere Mana User.
To manifest an Aura—the condition the Kingdom recognized as becoming a true Knight—even a genius needed to refine themselves for two or three years.

But Delram?
Merely two months!

Yet Delram scratched his head.
He hadn’t even mentioned the truly surprising part yet.

“Actually, it didn’t work at first. I wondered why, and after thinking about it, I discovered there was a problem with the Mana Art itself.”
“What do you mean there’s a problem?”
“I noticed an inconsistency in the design. So I corrected that section on my own—and that’s what caused all this.”
“No!”

At those words, Rubion let out a sharp cry.
Her face was no longer merely pale—it had turned a sickly green.

A Mana Art was not simply a methodology.
It was a precisely engineered blueprint.
Not a single line, not a single step had been made carelessly.
No matter how insignificant it might appear, every element was a masterpiece built on profound theory, forged through countless experiments.

And he had rewritten it on his own?
A novice who’d been studying for just two months?

Rubion’s mind conjured the scene that was about to unfold.
Delram, his body erupting with blood, falling dead……

“No—!”

Rubion lunged toward Delram in desperation.
Her hand shot out and seized his wrist.

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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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