Published: August 15, 2025
After finishing breakfast, I headed to the knights order training ground as part of my daily routine.
For the past few days, instead of taking the mini bus, I’ve been walking to the training ground, so Wilfried has completely left me behind.
Today, only Darmel, my Guard Knight, walked with me from the room. Brigitte and Brother Cornelius had already gone ahead to train. I had one Guard Knight accompany me while the others went off to train.
“I envy Lady Rosemine’s mana capacity,” Darmel muttered quietly on our way to the training ground. I wondered if it was a lovesick sigh, and glanced up at him.
“Increasing mana capacity depends on training, I suppose. Lord Ferdinand once told me my mana is extremely compressed. I was desperately fighting to survive,” I explained.
“...Eh?”
Looking around to make sure no one was nearby, I motioned for Darmel to crouch down. When he kneeled to meet my gaze, I lowered my voice.
“I’ve lived without magic tools, so my mana barely fit in my body, and I was constantly on the brink of death.”
“Ah...”
“That’s why, without realizing it, I kept compressing it to survive. That’s how I have this much mana now.”
I said just that and started walking again. Darmel stood up and followed.
“Darmel, your mana is probably still increasing, right? If you envy my mana capacity, why not try taking off your magic tool and compressing it while barely surviving?”
“I’m sorry for my thoughtlessness.”
Having known me from my commoner days, Darmel remembered how unlike noble children, I didn’t usually wear magic tools, and lowered his brows apologetically.
“Whew, whew... we finally arrived.”
“Let’s head to the resting room.”
The back-and-forth between the training ground and my room provides me with enough exercise.
Upon arrival, we first rest. After catching our breath, it’s time for radio calisthenics. Then, today’s training is over... or rather, training continues until we return to the room.
I thought to call on Brother Eckhardt again for radio calisthenics, but one of the knights frowned.
“Eckhardt is currently summoned and absent. We apologize, but could you wait until he returns?”
“Understood. Thank you.”
Since Brother Eckhardt, who supervises me, is absent, my training was forbidden. In that case, Darmel would have to focus on his Guard Knight duties rather than training.
“It’s not safe to move around without Brother Eckhardt, is it?”
“No.”
When knights practice magical attacks, stray spells sometimes fly about. It’s uncertain whether Darmel alone could defend me. It’s dangerous for me to wander around without Brother Eckhardt.
I sighed softly as I looked at the still awkward Darmel.
I knew Darmel lamented his low mana as a lower noble, and that Brigitte had excluded him from romantic consideration from the start.
But since I’ve already given my blessing, there’s nothing I can do. He has to put in the effort himself.
“Hey, Darmel. I heard that at the noble academy, they teach how to handle mana, including compression. But just like memorizing the names of the gods, there might be differences between my method and the academy’s.”
“Huh?”
The most important thing when handling mana is to visualize it clearly in your mind. If I teach him my image of compression, maybe it will help.
I looked around the resting room and spotted a wooden box and a leather pouch.
“Darmel, open that wooden box and put your cloak inside.”
“Huh? Yes.”
Darmel hesitated with a puzzled expression but took off his cloak, rolled it up, and stuffed it in the box. The crumpled cloak stuck out a bit.
“Imagine this wooden box is your body, and the cloak is mana. This is the state of mana with no compression at all. If you want to compress mana and increase capacity, what would you do?”
Darmel silently folded the cloak neatly and placed it in the box. Compared to when it was rolled up, there was more space inside.
“Right. I think mana compression means folding the mana like this and filling the body with it. Is that correct?”