In the backyard of the Lemurian Palace, a shrill, metallic noise reverberated. A black haired boy and a girl with fiery red hair was fiercely clashing swords.
The black and red colors blended into each other time and time again. Then…
Kin!
The black haired boy’s sword was flung into the air. It spinned as it dropped to the ground.
The boy raised his hands.
“I give, I give. I’m really no match for Carolina. As expected from General Garphis’ daughter, the female knight who joined the Empire’s Ten Fingers at merely 14 years old. I’m not fit to be your opponent at all.”
“That’s not true, I fought with my all just now… Your Majesty could really handle a sword.”
Carolina complimented Hercule. Considering that he was able to hold his own against Carolina who was one of the Empire’s Ten Fingers, Hercule was clearly quite strong himself.
“Not just swordsmanship, Your Majesty is excellent at martial arts, archery, horse-riding and spearmanship too, aren’t you?”
“That’s only because I was taught well. Even an ordinary person can become proficient at anything if he has a good teacher and sufficient practice… That said, even if I’m somewhat skillful, you are way beyond my level.”
Hercule shrugged his shoulders. An ordinary person can become proficient at anything, but they will never reach the realm of superhumans.
Hercule evaluated that this was the limit of his physical capabilities.
“To begin with, weren’t you going easy on me because we were using weapons?”
Hercule picked up his sword. The sword made of iron had had its blade grinded down to a round edge. Carolina’s sword was rounded in the same way for safety reasons.
They should be using wooden swords if they were serious about safety, but then they wouldn’t be able to feel the weight of iron. Elves didn’t have to worry much about safety though, their bodies are stronger than other races so they didn’t die so easily.
“You would beat me handily if you used your contracted spirit and magic.”
“Your Majesty can use your own spirit as well, can you not?”
Magecraft.
Magic.
Spirit art.
These were the three powers that most elves could use.
Magecraft was a “field of study” that analyzed the princinples of this world so as to interfere with the world. Therefore this field involved a number of philosophical and religious elements.
Magecraft was very time-consuming; during the time it took a mage to shoot a fireball strong enough to scorch an enemy’s armor, a longbowman could take out five soldiers. There were also many ways to easily nullify a magecraft attack.
Magecraft was simply unfit for use on the battlefield. But it’s a handy skill for medical treatment, manufacturing, construction work and castle sieges.
Magic was a lot like magecraft, but in fact totally different. It was much stronger than magecraft in combat.
Firing fireballs like in RPGs was only possible with magecraft and the to-be-mentioned spirit arts, however.
Magic is dinstict from magecraft in that it couldn’t be learned. Anyone could learn to use magecraft if they tried hard enough, but effort was meaningless when it came to magic. People who could use magic were simply born with it, and they came to be able to use it from their personal experience. People who possessed magic were also few in number. That was the most prominent characteristic of magic.
Magic was classified into three categories.
First was innate magic—that is, magic that the user was born with. An example was Carolina’s innate magic, “Extreme Speed”. As the name would suggest, it accelerated her movement speed several times over.
Second was hereditary magic. This type of magic also existed from the moment one was born, but it’s inherited from their bloodline. For instance, the Galeanos family’s—Carolina’s and Garphis’s magic, “Our Swords Serve the Emperor”.
It increased their physical capabilities when they held a weapon in hand. It was not limited to swords though; the magic worked just fine with spears or bows. It would even activate with a spoon or a fork if the user recognized the object as a weapon.
Third was inherited magic. This kind of magic could be transfered from one person to another by desginating a successor. Unlike hereditary and innate magics, these magics were one of a kind.
For example, Hercule’s “Imperator”. This magic had been inherited by generation after generation of Lemurian Emperors; it was the proof of legitimate imperial succession.
The effect of this magic was to dominate elves psychologically.
It’s very difficult for elf to refuse the order from an Emperor with “Imperator”. Of course, they could still refuse if they really hated the order, and a detested emperor could very well find himself assassinated.
They had to overcome a high psychological hurdle, however.
Hercule met little oppsition from the elven clans while going about his financial reforms thanks to this power.
Spirit art was the art of contracting with a spirit to make use of its power. It’s also called the demonic pact technique.
It was the specialty of the elf race; the Lemurian Empire expanded through the use of spirit arts. Unlike magic, anyone could use spirit arts once they had signed a contract with a spirit; and unlike magecraft, they didn’t require troublesome calculations and chanting. Spirit arts had a lot of merits to them.
If he had to point out a flaw, it was the necessity of signing a contract. The content of this contract differed from invidual to invidual, but the one thing they had in common was magic power. Hence when creating the same phenomenon, magecraft consumed less magic power than spirit arts.
Most elves were contracted to a spirit and able to use spirit arts. The majority of spirits were low-class and could only make a light breeze. That may sound useless, but… Even a light breeze, when collectively fired out by ten thousand shamans would turn into a squall. That gust of wind could be used to boost arrow fire or hurled at the back of cavalry; it was quite a military asset.
Because of this, spirit arts were highly valued. To a degree, it was useful for weater forecast, agriculture and fishing as well. It was thanks to spirit arts that Lemuria became a great power.
“My innate magic is just plain old “Body Enhancement”. It’s nothing compared to your magic. My spirit is also not battle-oriented.”
Hercule shrugged. Even magics with the same effect had different ranks; Hercule’s “Body Enhancement” was a very common one. On the other hand, within the same group of body enhancement magics, the ones comparable to Carolina’s “Our Swords Serve the Emperor” and “Extreme Speed” could be counted on one hand.
“But…”
“Isn’t it a good thing that you’re strong? You just have to protect me. There’s no need for me to be strong in the first place.”
With that, Hercule placed his lips on Carolina’s cheek. Carolina’s face reddened from the surprise attack.
“Come on, let’s do it again.”
“P-Please don’t make fun of me.”
“Peaceful, isn’t it…”
“Um… Your Majesty, don’t you have business to attend to?”
“I don’t care.”
Hercule was reading a book while resting his head on Carolina’s thighs. These days Hercule had taken to having Carolina giving him a lap pillow while he idled away.
Carolina made a troubled yet also somewhat relieved expression while gently brushing Hercule’s hair. Following Hercule’s example, she picked up and read a book, which was something she normally didn’t do.
This was the two’s recent daily routine. But then two men barged in, spoiling their sweet atmosphere.
“”Your Majesty!!””
One person who just arrived was General Garphis Galeanos. He was Carolina’s father and the commander-in-chief of the Imperial Lemurian Army.
The other person was General Christos Augusto. He was Hercule’s uncle, and the commander-in-chief of the Imperial Lemurian Navy.
The two men hurried to Hercule’s side as if to compete with each other and kneeled.
“Your Majesty, I implore you to expand armaments.”
“Your Majesty, I need to discuss with you about military funds.”
The two men said simultaneously then glared at each other.
“Carolina, your dad and my maternal relative are scary.”
“There, there.”
Carolina stroked Hercule’s cheek with a wry smile. Then she tried to persuade Hercule.
“Your Majesty, isn’t national defense an important duty of the Emperor?”
“Haa… If you say so.”
Hercule got up with a sigh, then fixed his hair as he said.
“Last year I used most of the increased revenue for public projects… but this year I plan to allocate more fund to expand the military.”
Hercule had spent most of the Empire’s increased income on flood control, irrigation, repairing bridges and roads for military use, building aqueducts and public health services. He had to strengthen the foundation of the nation before thinking about military expansion.
But without expanding the military, they could not win against foreign enemies.
The barbarian tribes of this world had no regard for peace treaty, they would repeatedly invade the Empire to pillage and plunder. No matter how much effort he put into internal affairs, if the army remained weak, the Empire would be devastated and it all would be meaningless.
The current Lemurian military was weak. Hadrianus III had encountered successive defeats in part because of his own lack of military talent, but the major reason was the fragility of the military.
Therefore it was absolutely necessary to reorganize the mitary. Just like how he had made financial reforms. But…
“It’s a pain you know… I don’t feel like doing it all.”
“…Then.”
With a slightly blushed face, Carolina said.
“If Your Majesty manage to strengthen the military, I will do anything for you.”