After training outside, Mordred returned to Wyvern and then to the royal palace.
Next day, he had swordsmanship lessons with Hector once again.
Until now, Mordred didn't quite reveal the full extent of his Mana Burst to Hector because there was no need to while he still practiced the basics.
Hector has naturally noticed Mordred's ability to sometimes burst out with greater strength and speed, but he attributed it to his talent for Sword God Style and to how his Magic Power boost worked. He would burst out with greater speed, but not eject Magical Energy from his body simultaneously because of the high Mana cost of doing that.
However, Mordred felt that the way that he was currently training to use the sword did not entirely compliment his advantages that he had thanks to Mana Burst because he was still primarily taught the defensive Water God Style to be his foundation. That's why on that day he decided to showcase Hector his Mana Burst skill in full glory.
In a private training ground of the palace, he first was warming himself up and doing some simple practice drills.
By now, the two had already moved from the open public training square to holding lessons in a private training ground of the palace.
Soon enough, Hector arrived at the scheduled time.
"Your Highness." Hector Grant bowed down in a greeting while touching his armored chest.
"Teacher." Mordred also lowered his head out of respect, just not as low.
"It looks like you're warmed up. Let us begin."
"Teacher, before that I want to tell you something. I recently developed a new technique that's useful in sword fighting."
"Hm, a new technique?" Hector sized him up.
"Yes. It's something to be used with the sword to improve explosive power and speed. I called it Mana Burst."
"Mana Burst? Then it's a move that relies on Magic Power?"
"Yes."
"Show it to me."
Mordred faced off against Hector with a wooden sword in the square.
"I'll begin."
After saying this, Mordred began to gather Mana in his body.
Crackle, crackle.
As violent energy surged through his body, small red electric currents began to crackle along his limbs and a booming red aura appeared all around him.
This caused Hector to raise his eyebrows. 'Red lightning?'
A moment later, as the energy inside Mordred's body reached its limit, he suddenly exploded from where he stood.
'Hm?!' Hector's pupils widened.
It was a level of sudden acceleration that was simply impossible for the human body!
Even though swordsmen can be incredibly fast, even for a Sword God it takes several steps to reach maximum running speed just like for a mortal runner. But Mordred wasn't constrained by this. He simply exploded from where he stood, instantly beginning to dash forward at full speed!
Hector didn't get distracted. In the next moment, his sword met Mordred's first strike.
He blocked it without problems, but he was still surprised because the power behind this attack was a few times greater than normal!
As he didn't use the Water God Style technique to cushion the blow, it felt like a strike from a real Sword King!
Continuing forward, Mordred began to continuously assault Hector, aggressively drowning him in a series of sword strikes and thrusts, sometimes leaping around him like an agile monkey.
Hector stood his ground and met all of his strikes without fail, rendering them fruitless.
Yet, although Hector managed to easily block and parry all the blows without using Flow, he was still impressed when he felt their impact.
His expression grew increasingly dignified.
Every few sword strikes there would be a blow significantly faster and a few times stronger than the others, threatening to break through his guard.
This was a level of strength that bordered on King rank!
And it came from a little 6-year-old boy! It was something shocking beyond belief.
After a few dozen fruitless exchanges, Mordred paused a little over one meter away from his opponents, eyeing Hector while holding his sword in a medium guard of the Sword God Style.
Crackle, crackle.
Red Magic Power and lightning began to surge around him as if a storm was brewing, and then, after around one second, he stepped forward to slightly close the distance.
Overload!
Boom!
Lightning flashed with a blinding light and a shockwave suddenly exploded right in front of Mordred, striking Hector and sending him flying.
"What?!"
The Water Emperor was shocked as the shockwave blew him off his feet and sent him tumbling back across the ground.
After rolling for around 20 meters, Hector agilely regained his footing as he broke his fall. From a kneeling position, he looked at Mordred in the distance in surprise.
Meanwhile Mordred had already begun casting a spell.
Lightning Arrow!
A crimson ball of lightning began to form in front of Mordred's empty left hand while he held his sword in the right.
'Trying to use Magic?' Hector raised his eyebrows and a slightly amused smile appeared on his lips.
All Magic is useless against Water God Style swordsmen. And he was a Water Emperor, a master of cutting down Magic!
Mordred would of course know it well, yet he still used a Magic Spell against him.
'Let's see what you've got.'
Boom!
The red lightning ball exploded from Mordred's palm and shot straight at Hector, turning into the shape of an arrow of pure thunder as it flew.
Hector slashed out with his sword and cut down the lightning arrow, instantly dispersing it.
He looked at Mordred, impressed. He said, "Impressive. Being targeted by such a powerful spell, even a Water King would find it difficult to take it."
Mordred was silent. He used that one spell exactly because he felt that Hector would be able to cut it down while it still would not be easy for him.
Casting Magic requires preparation, split focus and is telegraphed, while in close quarters a sword is always much faster than Magic at the same level, so there was a limit to Magic being useful to a swordsman at point-blank range.
In other words, if he tried to blast Hector at close range, his Magic would have been cut down prematurely or Hector would see this coming in advance.
However, Overload was a nice move that he could brew inside himself to later release and create distance.
Hector added, "The way you developed to use your Magic Power to boost your speed and power is also impressive. You could already do that before, but now you've improved that skill. I've never heard of anything like it."
Mordred was silent.
Hector rested his sword and continued, "Well, then. From the beginning I saw that you're suitable for the Water God Style, but you tended to gravitate toward the Sword God Style. It seems that going forward I'll have to put more emphasis on teaching you the Sword God Style."
There are three major swordsmanship schools in this world: Sword God Style, Water God Style and North God Style.
To put it simply, Sword God Style focused on offense.
Water God Style focused on defense and counters.
Meanwhile, North God Style was based on using the environment to your advantage.
Currently the Sword God Style is considered the strongest, even though Water God Style and North God Styles are not weak.
In Sword God Style, the emphasis was on speed and on the first attack killing the enemy in one strike. A second strike shouldn't even be considered.
This made Sword God Style swordsmen extremely deadly but weak against Water God Style users because they lacked defense and were not as skilled at counter-attacks.
But despite that weakness, Sword God Style was still considered the strongest.
It was because of the technique called [Longsword of Light]. It was a move that supposedly could make the sword's velocity reach the speed of light at the extremes, making it a sword strike that's impossible to be dodged or blocked.
Once Longsword of Light was unleashed, it could cut through the opponent's sword, armor, protective Battle Aura and everything. The fight would be over.
Because of this one technique, the Sword God Style dominated.
And such an aggressive approach was especially good at countering the North God Style, which relied on the environment and dirty tricks to gain the advantage.
Thus, a common view was that the defensive Water God Style countered Sword God Style, because it could prevent Longsword of Light from being launched, the aggressive Sword God Style countered North God Style, because one would simply overwhelm the enemy in a direct confrontation, and the tricky North God Style countered Water God Style, in a rock-paper-scissors fashion.
So while the Sword God Style was crowned as the strongest, all the major swordsmanship schools had their strong points and Mordred wanted to learn all three.
Thanks to his Instinct, he was extremely suited for Water God Style.
Even so, he still had his preferences.
Mordred said, "I just think that while the Water God Style is good, if I'm strong, I should just attack and kill the enemy."
"That isn't a wrong way of thinking. This ability of yours makes you most suited for aggressive offense. It is only a shame…"
'A shame?'
Hector continued, "There's probably no one else in this world who could use this skill apart from you, because you're a Miko. It's such a shame. If it was a Battle Aura technique that others could learn, then you could be like the First Water God or the First Sword God and establish a new school of swordsmanship based on that!"
Mordred faintly raised his eyebrows. Creating his own Sword Style?
In truth, he had already thought about it. Once people witness him use Mana Burst with the sword in the future, they would assume that he's using a special sword technique and might begin calling it a new sword style unique to him.
In that case, there would be no problem with calling it a new sword style because it really was one - using Mana Reinforcement, Mana Burst, his lightning affinity and techniques derived from it as the core. Meanwhile, the other three styles combined would be its foundation.
For that time in the future, Mordred had already decided on the name - the Lightning God Style!
And it isn't true that no one else in the world could learn Mana Burst. Perhaps no one who's currently alive could, but in the future his children, carrying the blood of Pendragon, might inherit his talent for Mana Burst.
At any rate, following that point, Mordred hoped to begin practicing a more aggressive combat style under Hector while also having a chance to clash swords with him while using his complete strength with Mana Burst.
…
After that swordsmanship lesson it was a rare occasion during which Mordred visited the royal garden.
When he reached the central area he noticed a little girl with beautiful cyan-colored hair and delicate skin white like milk. She sat at one of the benches while reading a book.
It was of course Benedicte.
Before this, the other royal kids did not give up easily, but Mordred eventually managed to make them stay away with Julius's support. Benedicte was no longer bullied, but because of her hair, which marked her as a child of a slave and a demon, she was still shunned.
It seemed that Mordred was her only friend.
Mordred previously recommended her to read books in her free time when she had nothing else to do; he said this because it seemed that while he was not around all she did was absentmindedly wait for him in the garden hoping that he'd appear.
"Hi, Benedicte," Mordred said with a small smile as he approached the girl.
Benedicte pulled back her gaze from the book and her face colored with joy. "Mordred!"
Mordred smiled, thinking, 'So cheerful. People do change.'
In the novel, Benedicte rarely spoke and gave off the feeling of an emotionless doll, but after this one year since meeting him, she became much brighter. She was a different person.
Mordred said, "It's been a while. How have you been?"
"I was alright…"
"Well, okay. You've been learning Magic for a full year by now, right?"
"... Mm, yes."
"Then let's go to our usual spot. Today I want to try teaching you something!"
Mordred led Benedicte to the glade with the red trees where he first taught her Water Ball.
Once the two sat down on the grass, Mordred asked, "Did you try to shorten your Incantations before?"
Benedicte was surprised by this question, then lowered her head and replied in a defeated tone, "Yes… But it didn't work."
"How did you try to do it?"
"... I just skipped saying the early parts, like you did. But it never worked for me."
"Aand?... Is that all you did?" Mordred stared at her.
"Umm? Yes…" Benedicte answered quietly and became confused as if she didn't know what else she was supposed to do.
"Hmm, okay."
Mordred hummed and thought for a moment. It seemed that Benedicte simply tried saying an Incantation while skipping the first two sentences, hoping that it would somehow work out with the spell's name if she tried hard enough. But she might not have even tried to replicate that initial flow of Mana!
As expected, a 5-year-old would have not thought of that.
They might even believe that the words are what holds the magical power of making a spell work, which is a common misconception. Words are in truth just a trigger to help adapt a certain flow of Magic Power – whether that formula was coded in people's Magic Circuits or in the world's laws, Mordred had no idea, but the idea stood.
Mordred said, "Okay, then let's try something. Cast Water Ball."
"Huh? Normally?"
"Yes, normally. But while you do that focus on the way your Magic Power flows through your veins and try to remember it."
"Okay…"
Benedicte looked to lack confidence, but still said the Incantation of Water Ball, creating a sphere of water. Water Ball was one spell that she was best at.
Mordred said, "Next, try to replicate the feeling from before. Try to create a Water Ball but without saying anything."
"Eh? I can't… It's too…"
"Just try it," said Morred.
"... Okay."
Following that Benedicte began to hum with a concentrated expression.
Mordred watched with an expressionless face. He did not expect her to succeed in completely skipping the Incantation on the first try, not unless she had the Laplace Factor like Sylphy
But nothing in the novel indicated that she did; even her son Pax Junior seemed to have little to no talent for Magic.
And how could the Laplace Factor be so common?
Laplace factor, as far as he remembered, was the result of the Demon/Magic God Laplace splitting out his soul and sending out his traits to the people of the world in order to reincarnate in the future. One of those traits was his Magic Power talent, which Rudeus and Sylphy both had.
Someone with a Laplace factor would surely become a famous character and Orsted would pay a level of attention to them, but he never mentioned Benedicte in such a light.
If he wanted to be realistic, this was the sad truth. Benedicte might have some talent for Magic, but she would not have the Laplace factor like Sylphy. He'd have to teach her step by step if he wanted to see results.
But in the next moment he saw a blob of water appear in front of Benedicte's hands.
She succeeded.
Mordred was stunned. What?...
"Huh?" Benedicte was flabbergasted. As her Water Ball collapsed, she looked at Mordred with an astonished face. "Uh, I did it? Without a chant?"
Julius also casually watched the scene in the garden from a distance and was shocked. This was Silent casting!
Prince Mordred taught the 18th Princess how to do true Silent Casting?! This skill can be learned?!
Mordred knew that Julius was watching, but he didn't care. Apart from the fact that he trusted Julius, it didn't matter if this information happened to leak out and reach some people.
Firstly, people would doubt the truth for the most part.
Additionally, if one day the obvious 'secret' of how to perform Silent Casting spread, it would not be anything bad for him. Although other Magicians capable of chantless Magic would appear, he would still always be far more powerful than all of them and all these amateurs would only make his abilities and strength stand out more and be more valued.
He could even use his own experiences with Silent Casting and knowledge to attract geniuses to his nation.
But Mordred had confidence that Julius wouldn't speak of anything without his permission anyway. As for Benedicte's maid, he previously asked her to go fetch them some tea and pastries, so she wasn't even there.
After the Water Ball, Mordred had Benedicte attempt silently casting Fireball.
She didn't succeed on the first try, but she managed to cast it by saying just the spell's name, so it seemed that with a bit of practice she'd grasp it too.
"Bene, you're a genius! You're amazing!" Mordred complimented her joyfully, not holding back the praise.
"No… Not really…" Benedicte looked embarrassed as she quietly muttered a response.
"You are! And you're so beautiful and cute too!" Mordred said while staring at her with a smile.
"Aah?" Benedicte stared with eyes wide open, stunned.
Then Mordred said, "Let's marry in the future."
"Ah? Wha-what?" Benedicte's eyes opened even wider in shock.
"You don't want to? Okay…" Mordred looked away, pretending to be disappointed.
"No… I don't mean I don't want… but…"
Mordred looked back at her and cut her words, asking her, "If you do not not want to, then it means you want to?"
"Eeh?… That… Uhh… It's…"
"Hahaha!" Mordred bursted into laughter after seeing Benedicte being stumped and struggling to find the right response, interrupting her. He then said with a teasing smile, "Okay. You don't need to answer just yet."
After being lost for words for a few moments more, Benedicte silently looked away, her face red from embarrassment.
Mordred chuckled.
Having finished teasing her, he then proposed to bring Benedicte into the Court Magician's tower. He did this to ensure that her Silent Casting remained a secret as he began teaching her himself from now on.
After hearing his proposal, Benedicte was actually delighted to move in with him.
In regards to Benedicte and her Magic aptitude, Mordred felt it was more likely that she had the Laplace Factor.
He believed that it was not something that should have been the case in the novel. It is more likely that because of his earlier appearance in this world and early Magic practice, or because of Morgan's machinations, Benedicte of this world was born with the Laplace Factor.
Could his appearance in this world alone cause such a shift in Benedicte's Fate?
It was possible because not only his ordinary soul from Earth was an anomaly, but his soul now also had the qualities of Mordred Pendragon – because it is what contained his source Magic Circuits which then extended into his physical body – that was supposedly also of an outsider. The initial impact of his appearance could not be compared to Rudeus, who only slipped in with his ordinary human soul…
And most importantly, he was born before Benedicte was even conceived.
In the future, it was inevitable that Mordred's existence would completely change Benedicte's Fate, while he already knew that in the future he might meet her – Benedicte Kingdragon.
Regardless of the reason, since Benedicte likely had the Laplace Factor or just great Magic aptitude, it was very worth it to invest into her!
It even felt like she was 'his Sylphy'. The two drew many parallels.
Mordred wouldn't teach her everything, like Gravity Magic which she might not even grasp, but he still wanted to teach her Magic and make sure that she'll be even stronger than Rudeus's Sylphy in the future!
In the first place, Benedicte already began learning Magic at just 4 years old instead of 5 like Sylphy.
In addition, Benedicte was very beautiful, for a little child at least; she'd grow up to be a gorgeous girl with aquamarine-blue hair and milk-white skin. Neither Sylphy nor Roxy could compare, he guessed.
'She'll be my beautiful princess! Let us grow up together and I'll teach you how to make nuclear bombs and how to use a shotgun!…' his heart thought.
There was only one thing that he agonized over.
Why did they have to be related?
And why did she have to be a loli?!
Seriously, why is the author of this world such a damn degenerate?!!!
However, he was supposed to be King Arthur's clone! He was not even supposed to exist in this world! So perhaps they were not related at all?
Mordred held onto that hope while doing mental gymnastics to justify the idea of dating his little sister in the future.