Antagonist Protection Service-Chapter 230: Training Arc

Chapter 230: Training Arc

Time passed steadily for a while.

Shortly after my failed execution, the emperor made an announcement regarding the Demons and how the empire would immediately begin preparations to fight.

The secret had already made itself known, and after that event, there was no use hiding it.

Though, since Lucretia mentioned the original plan was to transport a few Demons anyway, I suspected she was already intending to reveal their existence regardless and prepare for war.

If they were really dangerous, the empire likely had no choice, after all.

In any case, as planned, the other three had returned Lucretia to the Imperial Palace roughly a week after the kidnapping, soon releasing a statement that claimed she was indeed taken by me, who was working alongside the Demons.

At which point, naturally, their enthusiasm to ‘get back’ at the Demons was amplified manifold.

From then on, with myself remaining in the Sunlit Temple’s hideout and continuing my internal training, everything proceeded more or less smoothly, with any messages that needed to be passed on being transported by Joádin and his teleportation.

In regards to the magic energy training, which was extremely mentally draining whilst still in the stage of mapping out my own body, the burden was certainly lightened by the power of the Winter Mother’s divine energy, and incidentally, that wasn’t the only training I decided to undertake.

As the one who simply waited for everyone else to finalise the plan, I had quite literally nothing else to do, so in addition to the magic energy training, I had the Saint teach me how to more effectively utilise the aforementioned divine energy, and as well as that, I had the redhead teach me what he could about swordsmanship.

I only realised it belatedly, but I truly was in the most perfect situation to learn the three practices from three of the people most suited in the entirety of the empire to teach it.

Because they were all former love interests, potential male leads in the original work, it meant they were each supremely skilled in their particular subject.

And so, I was tutored.

From Mikhael Avalon, I was taught that divine energy, like magic energy, could be effectively controlled with practice, and it could also be used to enhance specific areas of the body just the same as magic, something I could do only because it was an aura and not trapped within my blood.

Further than that, however, it could even be used to perform certain miracles depending on its properties, something I was also keen to delve into.

Even though he wasn’t someone who had divine energy present within him from birth like Lucretia or the emperor, or even the late crown prince, he was still able to manifest it to an extent through a prayer to the Sun Father, and apparently his utilisation of that force was said to be unmatched by anyone else outside the Imperial or Archducal Families.

I guess that’s what made him the Saint in the first place, despite his age.

From Kran Vyckard, I was taught the very bare-bones fundamentals of Drakon-Rasa’s Imperial Swordsmanship, attempting to apply it with both the Holy Sword and Villainous Blade before quickly realising the latter’s form wasn’t very well suited to the style.

We had Joádin bring us to some field in the outskirts on occasion so we had the freedom to spar, and although originally I thought I would have no problem winning if I wanted to, I soon realised I underestimated him.

Sure, I beat this guy in a duel back during my first visit, but a long time has passed since then, and not only did he become much stronger physically, but his technique, strategy, footwork, utilisation of magic energy enhancement, and everything else had also grown equally as much, if not more so.

Not to mention with every factor combined, even if it was a contest of purity, he would likely win in every category unless we started from a distance and I summoned the Black Wisp, but that was cheating.

I suppose one of the only exceptions would be a duel using only magic energy enhancement―although his was stronger than mine, it wasn’t autonomous and permanent, so even if he could enhance specific parts of his body for an explosive burst of power, so long as I could last long enough for his magic energy to run dry, I would win.

The other exception would be if I used divine energy, since the enhancement of that appeared to be far stronger than I initially realised, but since he didn’t have any divine energy, I also decided not to use it.

After all, this was a time for me to improve, not to win.

Sparring and training, training and sparring, meditating to finish up my magic energy flow mapping, then sparring and training some more, my schedule was fuller than it had ever been, and I was so constantly busy that I even forgot about the reason I was doing it in the first place.

For a while, I forgot about the Protagonist, forgot about Demons, forgot about the Black Fang, about my status as the most evil and wanted man in perhaps the empire’s entire history, about everything. I wasn’t paying attention to anything that was going on outside in the Imperial City, I didn’t need to.

I didn’t have the luxury to think about those kinds of things when almost every waking moment was spent training or practicing in one way or the other, but rather than feeling trapped or mindless, on the contrary I actually found it rather refreshing.

The knowledge that I was constantly learning and improving, growing in real time.

It was the same sense of satisfaction and gratification I got when spending World Stability in the Shop, the realisation I was now better than I was.

The days flowing by like drops of water in a stream or grains of sand in an hourglass, I trained.

Until I had finally completed the three-dimensional visual map of my entire circulatory system inside my head, going one step further than that and being able to sense the flow of magic energy through every inch of my body, and then, learning to control it.

Until I had attained a level of Imperial Swordsmanship not even close to comparable to the son of the Imperial Army Commander Kran Vyckard, but still praiseworthy nevertheless, considering the short time span I had to actually learn.

Until I learned proper application of the Winter Mother’s divine energy, using it offensively, defensively, and as utility, even being able to wield it in ways I hadn’t previously imagined possible, such as with lesser miracles.

None of it was perfect, not by any means, but even instinctively, I knew I had improved significantly.

It was to the point where I felt not much else could be accomplished with the little time we had remaining.

Before I knew it, two months had flown by, and the Demon War began.