The transparent panel before Raine's eyes now had a third page.

The title at the top read Militia.

Beneath it lay another dense grid of icons, but only one had lit up: Basic Swordsmanship.

After practicing for some time, Raine discovered that Basic Swordsmanship advanced at a lower rate than Horseshoeing on the Blacksmith Apprentice panel.

[Practice: Basic Swordsmanship Training]

[Basic Swordsmanship EXP +1]

Two hours of practice had earned him a single point.

Basic Swordsmanship Lv. 1 (2/100)

Raine ran the numbers.

*If I practice eight hours a day, it'll still take nearly a month to reach Lv. 2.*

*No, I won't average eight hours. Next week is introductory houndmaster training, and the week after that is archery. The three subjects will cycle for three months.*

*That gives me only one week of swordsmanship each month, or an average of two hours a day. At this rate, Basic Swordsmanship will need at least three months to reach Lv. 2.*

That was far too slow.

The estate's selection would take place in three months.

Becoming a guard offered him a chance to step onto the transcendent path. If there was any possibility of securing that position, Raine intended to seize it.

After some thought, he decided to spend one of his precious skill points on Basic Swordsmanship.

He also wanted to learn exactly what a skill point could accomplish.

*In a transcendent world, standing out as a swordsmanship genius is far better than standing out as a blacksmithing genius.*

Raine focused and assigned the point.

The entry on the panel changed.

Basic Swordsmanship Lv. 2 (0/300)

A flood of training memories poured into his mind.

Fragmented scenes flashed past: footwork, cuts, thrusts, and endless repetitions. The movements settled deep into his muscles.

When Raine opened his eyes and performed the three forms again, his body responded like that of someone who had trained eight hours a day for an entire month.

Every strike flowed more smoothly.

[Basic Swordsmanship EXP +1]

[Focused Practice: Basic Swordsmanship, 1 hour]

[Militia EXP +1]

Raine's attention sharpened.

After Basic Swordsmanship reached Lv. 2, Militia EXP also began rising faster.

*Is Lv. 2 swordsmanship pulling the Lv. 1 Militia class along with it?*

"Raine, when did you learn Basic Swordsmanship?" George stared at him. "You trained behind my back? That's not fair."

Only then did Raine notice his sweat-soaked friend watching him in disbelief.

George had realized that Raine's movements now looked practiced.

Raine shook his head. "I didn't. Where would I find the money for lessons?"

George considered that and nodded.

True.

Then he caught himself.

"Wait. Doesn't that mean you're a swordsmanship genius?"

Raine paused.

"Probably not. I just have a feel for the basics."

George thought for a moment, then nodded again. "Right. Basic Swordsmanship is only the simplest entry-level sword art. Being good at it doesn't necessarily make you a genius."

"My brother told me that nobles practice sword arts passed down through their families. Those are much harder than the basics."

"Is that so?"

Raine was briefly surprised, but he soon put the matter aside.

He had only just begun learning Basic Swordsmanship. There was no point looking too far ahead. First, he would build a proper foundation.

Every tower began at ground level.

Raine ended the conversation and returned to training, sweat streaming from his body.

The steady rise of EXP held his full attention.

+1. +1.

He lacked no motivation.

George watched him, dumbfounded.

*Does this bastard never get tired?*

Raine had been the same while trimming hooves, driving himself at full force every day.

George tried to rally his own resolve. He couldn't fall behind his closest friend.

A short while later, the truth became painfully clear.

The drills were dull, repetitive, exhausting, and brutally difficult to maintain.

---

Before long, the merchant boys noticed the change in Raine.

"Bushy Brow, look at him." Freckles narrowed his eyes. "Something's wrong. He could barely perform the forms at first, but after just over an hour, his movements already look decent."

Bushy Brow followed his gaze.

After watching Raine complete several forms, his expression soured.

"He must have trained before. He's almost caught up to me."

"He's that good?" another boy asked. "Isn't his family made up of tenant farmers? Where would they find the money for swordsmanship lessons?"

"Exactly. And look at George. He's Raine's best friend, yet he's still fumbling with his sword. It makes no sense for poorer Raine to have lessons when George didn't."

Freckles glanced at George's clumsy swings and identified the heart of the problem.

Against that comparison, Raine's smooth movements were impossible to ignore.

The merchant boys fell silent.

Could Raine truly be a swordsmanship genius?

Impossible.

They could accept that geniuses existed in the world. They simply couldn't accept that one of them might be Raine, a farmer's son.

---

Swordsmanship Instructor Humbert had also noticed Raine's transformation.

It astonished him.

Years of training page boys had sharpened Humbert's judgment. If Raine truly had never studied Basic Swordsmanship, his present skill wasn't the best in the group, but his rate of improvement was unmatched.

At the beginning, Raine's three forms had been stiff and awkward. One glance had been enough to identify him as a complete beginner.

Now he moved like someone who had trained diligently for one or two months.

Did the boy possess exceptional comprehension of swordsmanship?

Or some natural affinity for the sword?

Humbert decided to observe him longer.

Some boys liked to play clever tricks.

It had happened in previous training programs. A boy would conceal his earlier swordsmanship lessons, exciting Humbert with seemingly miraculous progress. Then his improvement would stall and expose the deception.

Given time, prior training and genuine talent were easy to distinguish.

In truth, Raine was already holding himself back.

He had deliberately reduced the speed and accuracy of his ironwood sword. Otherwise, his performance would have drawn even more attention.

---

While the page boys practiced Basic Swordsmanship, the children of minor nobles and wealthy merchants arrived at the outer bailey for their own sword training.

The chestnut-haired noble girl led them.

As Count Habsburg's youngest daughter, Claire drew attention wherever she went.

From a distance, she glanced over the page boys drilling their three forms and nodded to herself.

Good. The estate's training program was being conducted properly.

Then two or three boys caught her eye.

The first was a freckled youth. He practiced the three forms seriously, and his talent appeared passable. After several repetitions, his movements improved slightly.

Decent for a commoner.

The second was a tall boy with thick brows and large eyes.

His Basic Swordsmanship was the most polished in the group, but his movements had already settled into a fixed pattern. Several repetitions brought almost no improvement.

He had probably trained in advance.

Claire dismissed him from consideration.

The last was a thin, black-haired boy on the far edge of the formation, drenched in sweat as he repeated the three forms.

His posture remained far from correct, and the flow of power through his body still had problems. Yet his focus and effort were obvious.

Claire's gaze sharpened.

Every few repetitions, one of the boy's movements became visibly more precise.

That rate of improvement...

Perhaps he was a promising seedling.

Claire tilted her head and beckoned to the head maid beside her.

"Shadia, who is the black-haired boy on the far right?"

"That is Raine, a farmer's child. Both of his parents are tenant farmers of the estate."

"And the freckled boy?"

"Leonard, son of the owner of the Beech Inn in Goldflash Town."

Claire nodded and said nothing more.

A noble youth who had been watching her couldn't restrain himself.

"Miss Claire, they are only lowly commoners. They hardly deserve the attention of someone of your station."

"Dennis." Claire turned toward him, displeasure plain on her face. "They are subjects of House Habsburg, not the rabble you call them."

She had heard that commoners in the Eagle Federation on the New Continent could already run for seats on local councils.

Yet here in the ancient empire, many nobles still believed their superiority was innate and that commoners were born base and ugly.

The attitude exhausted her.

Dennis flushed with anger at her rebuke but didn't dare show it. He swallowed his resentment.

Behind him, a boy dressed in silk glanced from Claire to Dennis.

Something about the exchange amused him.

The corner of his mouth curled upward.