Children of the Holy Emperor
chapter-15

Several days passed.

In the meantime, Sungjin spent a fruitful time going back and forth between the library and the gymnasium. It was a faithful time he had only experienced decades ago in his school days, devoting all his energy to self-development without any worries.

There was Morres’ personal library in the Pearl Palace, which was very large compared to the size of the palace and had many collections.

Just when he thought he’d take the time to look into it, Amelia cautiously asked him to use the library. He said that he was interested in the international situation and the situation of neighboring countries, and she wanted to study specialized books.

There were only small libraries in the Blue Rose Labyrinth, the palace of the princes, and the Silver Rose Labyrinth, the palace of the princesses. However, going to the Imperial Library or the library of the main palace was too far away.

On the other hand, the Pearl Palace library has the advantage of having a large collection of books and not far from the Silver Rose Labyrinth.

– There are not many libraries that have this many specialized books. It was because it was prepared by referring to the theological academy.

This is what the librarian and administrator said with great delight when a person came to the library, which had been flying only flies, for the first time in a while.

Indeed, it was said that the queen had built it with all her heart and soul for the education of the third prince, but it seemed that the level was comparable to that of a specialized educational institution.

And Seongjin, who visited the library for the first time with Amelia, learned a shocking fact.

It’s true that the language he used so far was not actually Korean!

[Wow, I thought it was lacking somewhere before, but did you only know that now? I’m more curious that you didn’t know that until now.]

The demon king sneered. Seongjin made a fussed face as he flipped through the books written in an unfamiliar language.

‘Can it be that I have to study the spelling again?’

After recognizing that fact, Amelia’s chatter next to me came to me with a very strange feeling. Why didn’t he know until now? Sentence structure and pronunciation is a foreign language completely new to him?

What was even more surprising was that despite this, Seongjin had no major problems understanding her words.

Seongjin asked the demon king with a sudden thought.

‘Just in case, aren’t you speaking Korean right now……’

[What? Punk?]

The answer that came back was absurd.

[Why would I, the Demon King of Gehena, speak the language of a low-level world like Sigurd District 34, and not even an official language at that, but a corner country? I don’t even know what it means.]

‘Then how are we still talking?’

[That’s because this body is in the middle of a direct dialogue with the soul through thought waves. Ignorant Earthling.]

The demon king, who seized the opportunity to pretend to be proud after a long time, was arrogant.

[If you’re like me, it’s not even a task to read thoughts before words. There is no language that this body cannot understand.]

ah. Is that so.

Then, is Seongjin’s understanding of words related to the fact that the demon king reads his thoughts first?

The Demon King answered his question coolly.

[Shall we try it?]

Then, in an instant, his presence disappeared from my mind.

‘……!’

They said I could get away from this body a little bit, so it was like this.

While he was thinking blankly, Amelia, who was wandering around, approached him with an excited face and spoke to him.

“There are so many books here, Morres. It doesn’t seem to fall short even compared to the main palace library! Can I use it more often in the future?”

“Yes, of course, Big Sister Amelia. Feel free to use it anytime.”

Unfamiliar language still flowing softly from his own mouth. It seems to have nothing to do with the existence of the Demon King……

‘Could it be that I was a language genius?’

However, the demon king, who returned after a while, dismissed his opinion at once.

[The language center is in the brain, right? The soul is Lee Seongjin, but this body belongs to Morres. Shouldn’t this be seen as what Morres’ body remembers?]

It was a very plausible statement. If so, maybe……?

With a glimmer of hope, Seongjin pulled out a book and began to look closely at it. After looking at it for a while, sure enough, there were a few letters that were recognizable.

That is, onomatopoeia, and very simple words.

[It is at the level of a child who is just learning letters.]

The demon king summarized it in one sentence.

Wow, Morres you fucking son of a bitch.

How is it that a prince can’t even read properly even when he’s reached puberty?

Seongjin, who had suddenly started to study a foreign language unexpectedly, looked at the sky with a bewildered face, and the demon king comforted him and chuckled.

[Consider it luck that Delcross adopted the phonetic alphabet. Won’t you learn quickly because you know the language? Go for it!]

On the other hand, life at the gymnasium has undergone many changes.

First of all, it is because Seongjin, who has lost quite a bit of weight, cuts down on physical training and aerobic exercise, and starts learning swordsmanship from Sir Marthain in earnest.

The standard swordsmanship of the Imperial Knights he was learning was a very simple and effective swordsmanship that a genius knight named Banahas refined based on the swordsmanship of the Delcross Empire about 100 years ago.

It is a practical swordsmanship that organizes old swordsmanship, originally passed down in 15 types and 9 types, into 8 types and 10 types.

It was a great swordsmanship that was established as the basic swordsmanship of the knights along with the Banahas technique he devised.

Among them, Marthain focused on Seongjin for the most basic movement 1 and movement 2. It was the basis of all the movements, but it was a process that had to be mastered first in order to learn the Banahas practice method.

“Well, that’s strange.”

Marthain said curiously to Seongjin, who wielded a wooden sword while sweating.

“Certainly, the prince does not have the basics of swordsmanship or attitude at all. Even so, you seem familiar with handling weapons.”

That’s right.

After wielding the claw of a monster for decades, it’s easy to come up with a cool form of your own.

“And I can already see a lot of bad habits. The arm holding the sword must be stopped with full force. But you have a habit of swinging it with all your might and subtly relaxing it before stopping it. The same goes for a frontal stab. Why do you keep rotating it counterclockwise?”

Holy shit. What he wielded at will for decades returned as poison.

Seongjin gritted his teeth and tried to make his sword as plain as possible.

Fortunately, his tenacity to hold on to one thing shined through, and soon after, he was able to correct most of the pointed out habits. Of course, if he lost his guard even for a moment, his right arm would rotate without realizing it.

Marthain was satisfied.

“Originally, I was going to repeat movement 1 and movement 2 until we entered the Aura practice, but the prince is progressing faster than I thought. I don’t think it would be too much trouble to go through a little bit of swordsmanship training.”

And while learning the 3rd and 4th movements, Seongjin’s bad habit was discovered again.

“Why do you pull the sword down toward your waist while performing a simple slanting up slash? Isn’t this just too twisted with a sword to be a simple habit!”

Seongjin swallowed the tears inwardly.

All of these were things that came from beating the hard outer skin of monsters, but there was no way that Marthain would know his circumstances. In the end, he swung his wooden sword until his palm was grazed all over and corrected all of the pointed out habits.

Needless to say, Marthain was amazed.

“You seem to be a really gifted swordsman! It’s not just a matter of sword talent. It’s not easy to correct a habit even for knights who have risen to the heights, but Your Highness is tenaciously digging into it and eventually fixing it! Being devoted to one thing is one of the most important virtues for a prosecutor.”

However, contrary to the comparatively rapid progress of swordsmanship, Aura practice training was strangely ineffective.

The Aura practice method begins by carefully refining the sense of Aura through meditation and then gradually applying its operation to the basic formula that is the basis.

It is said that there is a time gap of several days to several years depending on the talent in putting the operation into motion. If you succeed in weaving an Aura into one movement according to your will, then you can say that you have entered the practice.

However, it is said that in most cases, it does not take a few days to feel the Aura and begin to accumulate energy in the body in small amounts.

However, Seongjin hadn’t felt any energy for almost a week.

After much thought, they tried doubling the meditation time.

“The Aura melts into every movement in the body. Now, let’s start with breathing in and breathing out. The refreshing air when inhaling and the fine energy spreading in it spreads to the chest with a slight tickling feeling.”

“……”

“Calm the mind and contemplate the inner self. Now, feel the Aura flow through your veins and into every nook and cranny of your body. It puts your mind at ease……”

Even Sir Marthain, who couldn’t wait, tried something hypnotic!

“Hypnosis! I explained the process of absorbing the Aura in detail!”

He was very distressed.

“The prince tends to adapt to swordsmanship training fairly quickly, so maybe it would be a good idea to feel the flow while performing basic movements.”

So they did.

“Now, that’s just the motion. Can you feel a slight tickling sensation running down your arm at the end of that cut? The Aura rotates from the elbow to the wrist and from the inside to the outside.”

“Yes, here you should have the feeling of hitting down from the knee and pushing up from the foot. Tap tap! Like that. Yes, tap tap! It feels like that. It is to make the lower body firmly fixed as the Aura flows in the opposite direction in succession.”

To Seongjin, it sounded like bullshit.

Finally, the exhausted teacher and student collapsed onto the floor of the gymnasium helplessly.

Hey, Sir Marthain. Didn’t you say you’re really confident in one basic class?

“Well, it’s a bit harsh for me to say this, but it seems to me that your sense of Aura is a bit dull.”

Such an assessment finally came from the mouth of the amiable knight commander, who was trying to avoid pointing out Morres’ lack of talent as much as possible.

“It took me twice as long as everyone else to get into the practice, but it took less than two days for me to feel Aura and start practicing.”

Wow, Morres really was an Aura beyond imagination.

While Seongjin wrapped his head in frustration, Marthain looked up at the sky at the gymnasium with a little vague eyes.

“Thinking about it, it’s understandable that you gave up swordsmanship when you were young. Lord Logan, who started the class together with you, succeeded in initiation in just one day, but Your Highness have not made any progress even after a year. It makes sense to get discouraged.”

Sir Marthain. Can you stop beating people up for not being talented just because it’s someone else’s business?

Who is Logan by the way?

[That’s your big brother. You rascal.]

The demon king, who was bored with nothing to do during training, said it was this time and gave the information he knew.

It turned out that the Holy Emperor had quite a lot of sons and daughters, as many as seven.

Logan, the third child and second prince among them, is the son of the empress, and he is the same age as Morres, a few months older than him.

However, this son seemed to be a great talent. He is said to have been gifted with powerful divine power as well as a genius who entered the practice in just one day.

It is said that his appearance resembles the Holy Emperor the most, so there are already many people in the public eyeing the second prince as the next prince and trying to line up.

Even his personality is in great shape. It is said that he is taking the initiative to lead the young paladins for the seawater subjugation.

‘It’s completely different from Morres.’

A fool who only eat and rolls around in a separate palace, having close to zero divine power.

A talented and good-natured young paladin who kills seawater¹ for the sake of his people.

It was a good target for comparison.

‘If you think about it, Morres is quite pitiful……’

As Seongjin was thinking while looking at the passing clouds, Marthain, who had been sitting down with his head down, suddenly stood up with his fists clenched.

“It can’t go on like this. Your Highness! I think we need to take some special measures!”

“……?”

Seongjin looked up in puzzlement, and Marthain’s eyes were burning as if he was prepared for something great.

“It is too early to give up. Here’s something you haven’t tried yet!”

Why not try sooner? Is it dangerous?

“It’s okay. It was a method that helped me a lot when I was young and hit the wall of initiation.”

“Well, if that’s the case……”

“Then, could you give me your hand for a moment?”

Seongjin got up from his seat with a doubtful face and held out his hand.

“Believe me! I will definitely help you feel the sense of Aura!”

The face of Marthain, who emphasized his faith again while holding Seongjin’s hand, was quite grim.

This is really unsettling.

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T/N:

¹I’m guessing this is referring to some type of demon kind or just hostile enemies? I’ll keep it as seawater until given more context.