《The Swordsman Of Winter》 Chapter 1-birth slow start and mostly just background for now. thanks for reading ============================================================================== There I was laying staring at the pool of crimson liquid that began to appear below me. The sound of the muggers footsteps gradually fade away as he gets farther away. Weird I always thought dying would be more.....frightening but, it''s strangely calming knowing after today I won''t have to worry about anything. *cough cough* As I stared at the stars in the sky in my final moments I wondered about how I had lived my life and if I had truly lived to my fullest potential....guess i''ll never know. ============================================================================================= Huh, where am I, I thought I had died yet, its so warm and comfortable. Somethings happening there''s a light although, I would rather stay here it doesn''t look like I have much of a choice as I''m being pushed towards it... it''s so bright whats happening hmm who is this lady why is she so big, no wait, I''m small but how ¡­. what''s going on? I check my surroundings and there can only be one explanation I''m a baby. This must be like the novels I used to read about reincarnation......this is......AWESOME!!!! ¡°&%$#@#$¡±-midwife hmm the woman who delivered me seems to be concerned...oh that''s right babies are supposed to cry right oh well there is no helping it. *crying* ¡°#$%^&*¡±-midwife ¡°*&^%$%¡± - mother seems to have worked the midwife looks relieved she passes me to mother. wow mother is beautiful her long shiny blonde hair and deep blue eyes are just breathtaking, seems dads a lucky guy. ¡°#$%#$%^&¡±-midwife ¡°*%#@$%Y¡±-mother ¡°*&$*%#¡±-mother the midwife is a brunette with hazel eyes looks to be around 30 she''s quite a beauty but not as much as mother. Hmm this language is very weird I know various languages but I can''t recognize it ugh guess i''ll have to learn it all from scratch. Seems my body is tired guess there''s no choice ill take a nap. ============================================================================================= Its been a month since I was born. There isn''t much I can do so I mostly sleep and eat. I''ve managed to understand the language it wasn''t too hard I''ve always been able to learn languages fairly fast and mother comes to read to me. I''ve learned my name is Azure mother decided it because of my blue eyes. Apart from that I have black hair which apparently comes from dad. I haven''t seem him around so I don''t know if he is still with mother. ¡°Azure, sweetie you hungry¡±-mother here comes mother for feeding time, at first it was weird but I got used to it. Ah here smile is the best I made a promise to myself to protect it but first I have to grow. *slurp* ah that was good *burb* ¡°shh shh go to sleep mommy has to go work¡±- mother I learned mother works at the local library she is the head librarian as well as the town''s mage. When she goes to work the midwife whose name is Sandy comes over to watch me. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.============================================================================================== It''s been 8 months now and I have been very busy since when i was 5 months mom started bringing me to the library with her she would read books to me and let me play in her office while she worked. Since mom is a mage she had plenty of magic theory books and books about the history of magic. Also a lot of basic books on history and other stuff. During the past three months i learned how to sense mana and to refine it among other things. I also was able to see more of the town from what i could gather we live in a village although, it''s small apparently its on the big side for frontier villages. There is a residential district where everyone lives and then there''s the square where everything is located from the small shops like the apothecary to blacksmith workshops and organizations like the adventurers guild. I found out that this world is indeed like the novels I read that have magic and different races. There is discrimination but, not so much here but definitely in the capital. Also I learned why father isn''t here apparently he was an adventurer with mother but he was killed when he went on an expedition to kill a rank B monster before I was born and although they killed it they were ambushed by a second one and many died my father sacrificed himself to buy time for the others to kill it but he suffered a large wound that killed him. Monsters are ranked from S,A,B,C,D,E,F S being the strongest. Adventurers follow the same ranking however a rank A adventurer isn''t equal to a rank A monster as monsters are in general more powerful than humans. ¡°Azure come here were going back home¡± mom picks me up and we head back home. Since it''s late mom goes to sleep and when i''m sure shes not going to wake up I start meditating with the technique i developed with the knowledge from the books in moms office. In this world there exists mana so since it''s better to start early I have been doing this every night after mother goes to sleep. The process is simple but most children who are taught start at around 8 years old because that''s when they understand a bit more and can follow directions but, since I am older mentally I can start now and become super op later on hahaha *ehem* Seems I got a little too excited. Now lets start by sensing the mana around me....now to let in enter my body.......after that I refine it until its it reaches sufficient purity and for the final step I take that mana and circulate it all threw my mana veins and body so to have them grow stronger and sturdier. *Phew * This is the method I came up with after I read the books in moms office. I also concluded that your mana veins can only be made stronger in infancy since they are still fresh although, it might be possible when your older you would need a huge amount of medicine to help you recover every time so as long as I follow this exercise I will become powerful and if there is anything I have learned from the light novels I read is that no matter what strength is needed especially in a world like this one where monsters exist. Chapter 2-potential These past years i have continuously trained my mana and body although i only recently started training my body since i don''t want to hurt it''s growth by overdoing it. Besides that i haven''t done much only helping mother and training. However, today i am super excited because i am turning 5 and moms friend will come to test whether or not i have potential to learn magic. except i already know i do, not only that but my mana pool is incredibly large and pure. fufufu i can''t wait to see mothers face when she sees the results. "Azure come eat."-mother(Amelia) "Yes, mother."-Azure she had made a simple breakfast consisting of some eggs and toast. "Azure i know you''re excited but don''t get your hopes up too much ok sweetie"-mother(Amelia) I could see the worry in her eyes and it brought warmth to my heart. "Ok mom. when will your friend get here."-Azure "Oh you, she should be here in about an hour."-Amelia "Ok mom i''ll be out back playing"-Azure "Ok sweetie"-Amelia while i wait i''ll do some exercises. Recently with my body growth i started training my body in order to have a solid foundation. The exercises i am doing are something from my past life where i had been a martial arts fanatic thanks to my grandfather and using those memories I created a series of movements like kata in Japanese martial arts. The series of movements i''m doing now focuses on flexibility. As i move from one form to another smoothly time flies by and mom calls out. "Sweetie, she is here."-Amelia Yes, finally it is time to see how much my effort paid off. As i walk in i see a beautiful young.......ELF a real elf no way, wait then maybe not so young *shiver* ugh what was that well lets forget about it for now. "Hello, my name is Azure nice to meet you pretty onee-san."-Azure "ara he''s a polite one isn''t he."-? "Yes he is although, he can be childish at times but for the most part he is usually very mature."-Amelia wa mom what are you saying. "well young Azure my name is Syvis. Are you ready for your test your mom tells me you couldn''t wait."-Syvis A tint of red creeps on my face "haha yes i was very excited and i''m ready."-azure Syvis takes out two crystal balls. "One ball measures your mana and the other will tell us your affinity if you have one. Now place your hand on the first."-Syvis I place my hand on the ball and nothing happens but, that can''t be I clearly have a lot of mana. suddenly the ball starts to crack and shatters. Everyone including me is shocked but Syvis is clearly confused. "That was weird since it broke I will directly see if you have mana ok. Don''t worry it won''t hurt give me your hands"-Syvis I give her my hands and i can feel a slight tingle coming up from my hands up my arms and into my chest. "t-this is impossible, the amount of mana you have is already comparable to mages who have been training for years. You are definitely a genius who only comes around once a millennium "-Syvis If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. hehe mom is totally shocked she looks so adorable although, i can see some sadness i wonder why. "Here touch the next ball to see your affinity"-Syvis I touch the next ball and it lit up with a chilly blue that was so deep and profound it looked like it would swallow and freeze you. "oh my, it is certainly unique color it appears to be water with a specialization in ice"-Syvis This time mom seems proud i wonder why. "oh that''s right your family has a history of powerful ice warriors right Amelia"-Syvis "Yes, since a long time ago my bloodline has had many ice attribute descendants but recently besides my mother no one is the past 4 generations had it although, i had my suspicions since his eyes are deep blue like my mothers instead oF a lighter shade like mine. Since in our family the deeper the color would usually determine the strength of our affinities.I''m so proud of you Azure."-Amelia What so mom has that kind of background huh. I''ll have to ask her about it later. "Amelia with this kind of potential it is clearly beneficial for him to start his studies early on don''t you think"-Syvis "But isn''t don''t they usually start basic education at 8 and magic/swordsman studies at 12 i was going to teach him myself until he turned 12."Amelia "Usually yes but with his potential the earlier the better"-Syvis I could see mom was starting to feel down and i realized this was why she was worried earlier about my magic potential but who cares all I know is that I don''t like that face i like her smiling face better. "uhum I believe I have the right to decide when i go right and i don''t plan on going until i turn 12 mom is more than capable of teaching me what i need to know right"-Azure I give my mom my best smile. Mom breaks down and hugs me i guess it''s only natural she lost her husband and it''s been only us for a while so the thought of me leaving must have been scary. "Amelia, you know i wouldn''t separate you two i was suggesting it don''t worry actually I have a better idea with me here he doesn''t have to even go to school I''ll personally teach him how does that sound."-Syvis "sniffle Really you''ll do that for us,"-Amelia "Of course we have been friends for a long time right. For now i have to go prepare things while i''m gone so it''ll take a while but, I''ll be back in about a year or two ok"-Syvis "ok thank you Syvis truly thank you"-Amelia "Thank you Syvis nee-chan"-Azure hehe this turned out better than expected i will be able to stay by moms side longer and have a powerful teacher since i heard from mom that Syvis is one of the most powerful mages on the whole continent. After Syvis left mom stayed around me and we slept together guess it was a really big scare for her, and our lives went back to normal. Chapter 3-Lessons I edited the first two chapters a bit nothing major was changed but if totally check them out if you want to, Thanks for taking the time to read my story. ================================================================================= I dodge to my left letting his fist graze my cheek and deliver a counter to his chin. He goes down. "That''s enough."-? "Yes, grandfather."-Marc(Azure) "You have improved."-grandfather My grandfather is the head instructor of this dojo. After my parents death in a car crash i was taken in by him i was 12 at the time but, he had certain conditions one being i had to train here at least once a day which was fine but he had me spar with a student everyday and i would get pummeled since i had no experience with fighting at all but, i learned and even though his methods were harsh i have to admit i improved quite quickly. After a year i could fight evenly with the weakest student this continued for 8 years until today. The person i just finished off was the dojos strongest beside grandpa. "Yes grandfather thanks to your guidance"-Marc(Azure) "You have grown splendidly now it is time for you to live your life i opened a bank account for you with a million dollars go live however you want even though i wasn''t the best grandfather i will always have a room ready for you at the house"-grandfather "Thank you, grandfather"-Marc(Azure) I couldn''t help tearing up a little as he was always strict and thought he thought of me as a burden, ================================================================================ " I wonder why I remembered that now. I wonder how he''s doing."-Azure I got up from bed and washed up. I could smell breakfast so i went downstairs to the kitchen where mom was busy setting the table. seeing her so lively brought warmth to my heart. "Good morning"-Azure "(smiling) good morning i was just about to call you to come eat"-Amelia " After we eat were going to the library however, this time i''m going to start giving you lessons so be prepared."-Amelia "kay"-Azure It''s cute how she tries to look serious. Although I have plenty of knowledge about the basic things about this world it will help to have mother teach me so i can get a better understanding of this world. ========================================================================================= Once we get to the library we go to moms office. After getting books and other materials out mother starts with the lesson. After she makes me do some basic arithmetic she moved on to the geography which to summarize that the world is made of four continents starting with the dragon continent which is a mystery because of how hard the journey there is plus there are legends stating that it is a land of dragons. Next, we have the Demon continent which isn''t isn''t what you might think. It is inhabited by more aggressive races like the Lycans, dark elves, and some beastmen also, some darker races like vampires, necromancers, and well demons hence where it got it''s name. There''s the Magic continent which is a dangerous land where many strong monsters live. There is a variety of inhabitants here from all over set on finding treasures on this land or just adventuring the unknown. Finally. there''s the Central continent many races live here you have the elves in the forests to the west, the dwarves in the northern mountains, the beastmen in the south plains, and finally the humans in the middle. Towards the east there isn''t much known since it is still being explored. It is also where we are currently living. ¡°That''s all for today. We are going home now.¡±-Amelia ¡°Ok mom¡±-Azure After mom finishes cleaning up we head home. ¡°Sweetie, do you want mommy to teach you some magi once we get home?¡±-Amelia ¡°Really mom you''ll teach me magic!¡±-Azure ¡°Yes since your affinity with ice is so high I''ll have to teach you about our family methods of training and also it might be time for you to learn about your history¡±-Amelia I could see some sadness in her eyes when she mentioned ¡°family¡±. ¡°Ok mom but, you can wait if you want too ok I don''t know why it makes you sad but, I don''t want to see you like that.¡±-Azure Mother stops walking and hugs me. I''m surprised but quickly return the hug. ¡°Thank you, Azure but, it is time you know this now lets hurry home and make something to eat it''s been a long day then we can talk about this.¡±-Amelia Once we get home mom makes dinner and oh boy was it delicious. I can still taste a bit of it in my mouth. ¡°Ok sweetie lets see where to start..... yes I guess the very beginning would be best. See our family comes from a long line of nobles who not only were influential but, were very powerful. The first head of the family was a General who was given a title after successfully completing a difficult campaign, he was known as the General of Ice since he would slaughter armies without showing a hint of emotion there was also the fact that he was a powerful ice mage and swordsman.¡±-Amelia ¡°Wow he was so powerful.¡±-Azure ¡°Yes, he was however, was only human and eventually died. The family was prosperous for countless generations but recently they are in decline even though it is not widely known the trait of having ice affinity is showing up less and less within our family and in order to try to make our bloodline stronger they prearranged all the females marriages beforehand. Whether it was some powerful mage or someone with a high ice affinity was all that they cared about. I couldn''t do that and with the help of your grandma, my mother, I escaped and joined an adventurer team I bounced around all over the place never staying still. To me everything was so new and amazing I just wanted to travel everywhere and see all that I could.¡±-Amelia Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. Wow talk about a shit family glad I don''t have to meet them although, I hope I''ll be able to meet grandma one day she sounds alright. ¡°Of course after years of traveling I met your father and we decided to live out here where my family would not find us. We never expected any strong monsters to appear here as the strongest you could find are rank c monsters and they are scarce at that. Only at the true frontier were you supposed to be able to see high rank monsters. But when we heard about the monster Your father risked his life so it wouldn''t reach here.¡±-Amelia Mother almost broke down when she mentioned father it pains me to see her like that so I give her a big hug and pat her head. ¡°It''s ok mom you can stop here for tonight come on lets go to bed and you can finish tomorrow ok¡±-Azure I guve her one of my biggest smiles yet. After that we went to bed of course I stayed with her I had lost my last mother too early and this time I won''t let her suffer anymore than she has to and if my company helps it is but a matter of course that I''ll stay by her side. For once I woke up earlier than mother so after washing up and getting changed into a simple shirt and pair of trousers I headed to the kitchen to make some breakfast. ¡°Lets see what should I make for mother..hmm not much to work with¡±-Azure I found some tomatoes and mushrooms outside in our garden then I started making some eggs while I let the tomatoes and mushrooms cook on the pan. After finishing making the eggs I put it all on a plate and quickly prepared some bread as a toast to go with it. After finishing I went to get mother. ¡°Mom wake up it''s morning I made us some breakfast¡±-Amelia After some quickly going threw her morning routine she came downstairs and was surprised I had cooked. ¡°lets see here.... This is delicious what did you put in this¡±-Amelia She was shocked but that was only reasonable because while they do have some spices here there are plenty more they don''t know about and after a quick look around the edge of the forest while I was in the garden I found some that I found up and sprinkled in the eggs. ¡°hehe it''s a secret¡±-Azure we quickly finished breakfast and after I washed the tableware I headed to the living room where mom was waiting. ¡°Ok now lets see I had already talked about our history and about how we ended up here as well...hmm well I guess all that is left to tell you why I told you about our family now. You see sweetie, in our family it was dangerous for the children who have really high ice affinity because it would cause them to unconsciously freeze themselves sometimes even their hearts while they slept. So a sort of curse was put on us by our elders so as to seal the ice affinity deep inside but only if it is high enough to be a threat to the child and although it can be tested to see if you have it like you it is not accessible until you turn 8. That was another reason I wasn''t going to let you go to school until then. There are two things needed to dispel the curse one is the blood of a parent and the other is an ice crystal condensed by an ice mage from our family. Thankfully my mother gave me two when I left in the rare case I had children with high ice affinity. That''s why it is important for you to learn to control your magic beforehand. ¡±- Amelia ¡°Ok mom is that why you are going to start teaching me magic now?¡±-Azure ¡°Yes sweetie, so when I dispell your affinity you won''t be overwhelmed sine you have so much mana. What I will teach you is simple how to control your mana in order to teach you spells we will have to wait till your 8 but, don''t worry ok I have an idea tomorrow we will see a friend of your fathers who is in the guard and see if he can teach you swordsmanship and how to use your mana in close combat.¡±-Amelia ¡°wow really mom thank you.¡±-Azure This is great although, I do know bare handed martial arts I don''t have much experience with swords this will be a great help in making me stronger. ¡°Come on now although, I know your excited you still have your lessons ok¡±-Amelia ¡°Yes mother¡±-Azure ugh this is the only thing I don''t like but, well it''s fine since it makes mother happy. When we got to the library we headed straight for moms office and started today''s lessons ¡°Mom are all these subjects really necessary some of these don''t seem to be basic like etiquette and magic theory.¡±-Azure ¡°Yes , well your my son so of course you have to learn proper manners and your smart enough to start learning how mana works and interacts with the world it will help you when your learning how to use magic so no complaining ok¡±-Amelia After that we headed home. Today was more rough than usual but I did learn some great stuff. Like that mana is a part of everything which I knew but also that when we use mana we are rewriting whats there and creating a phenomenon to take the place of whatever was there using mana from ourselves to change the mana that is already there. That is why it is important to have an affinity. For example I have ice affinity so in order to freeze something I would have to make my mana which has ice attribute condense in a spot and turn all the mana there ti ice making it cause a freezing attribute. Of course that is just a basic description and it is more complicated than that but that is basically what happens and the more pure your mana is the easier it is to overpower or overwrite the existing mana that is already there. Of course you can always use quantity instead of quality to achieve the same results. Well I guess I''ll go to sleep for now since I get to meet dads friend that might teach me swordsmanship. Chapter 4- training Here is chapter 4 thanks for reading and sorry for slow updates will try to release a bit more chapters per week. I woke up the next morning and quickly went threw my morning routine and after breakfast we headed to he guardhouse. ¡°Mother, can you tell me about dads friend¡±-Azure ¡°Hm well lets see he is quite old now but in the past he was a great warrior he was also the man who taught you''re father so you know he''s strong he used to be an A rank.¡±-Amelia ¡°Wow I can''t wait to meet him¡±-Azure Hm I wonder how he''ll be. Nearing the guardhouse I could start seeing some of the town soldiers going on their patrols and some of the newer recruits training on the training grounds. We walked straight into the post and headed towards the captains office although, we got some curious looks no one said anything. Guess it''s because they recognize mother since she''s the towns mage. Knock Knock ¡°Come in¡±-? A rough voice answered from the other side of the door. Mother went in and I followed the office was simple with only a desk and some bookshelves with a handful of books on it. The man sitting behind the desk was old but had the aura of a true warrior he reminded me so much of my old grandfather that my eyes started to itch however, I quickly got my emotions under control. ¡°Hello Gale how have you been?¡±-Amelia ¡°Amelia it''s a nice surprise to see you I told you to tell me if you needed anything I thought of you and Arthur as my own children after all. Hm and who is this little one.¡±-Gale ¡°My name is Azure, sir¡±-Azure ¡°Yes, sorry I have not had the time to come here plus it''s still hard to come here. I haven''t been here since his death but, enough of that I came today to ask for a favor.¡±-Amelia ¡°Anything you name it and I''ll get it done¡±-Gale ¡°Well I was hoping you could teach Azure the way of the sword and maybe how to better control his mana like a swordsman would.¡±-Amelia ¡°Hm I don''t mind but, my training isn''t easy are you up for it Azure.¡±-Gale ¡°Yes, sir¡±-Azure ¡°Ok then we''ll see what you got and call me master from now on. Amelia you can leave Azure here I''ll take care of him.¡±-Gale ¡°Alright I will come by in the afternoon to pick him up. Azure give it your best ok¡±-Amelia ¡°Yes, mom I will do my best¡±-Azure We moved to the training grounds. ¡°So Azure first I will teach you how to sense mana inside your body and how to control the flow of mana.¡±-Gale Although, I already learned how on my own I still listen to his explanation and don''t bother telling him since he''ll ask me to show him so I might as well wait and do it when he asks me to. He told me to first concentrate and to feel the blood flowing in my veins then to look a bit deeper and try to find a similar feeling as that but different from it. ¡°ok, I did it¡±-Azure After I said it he looked a bit shocked but quickly regained his composure ¡°You sure that was quite fast. Now I need you to follow that flow and steadily increase its strength once it reaches a certain strength then try to pass that feeling to your muscles, skin, blood, and mind it will help boost all your abilities. However, do not use this too much yet as since you are still young it could be harmful.¡±-Gale I could easily feel the mana flow but this was the first time I would to move it to the outside. I first increased the flow which was easy then I started having trouble passing the feeling to the rest of my body. After a while I managed to get it to pass through my blood then it naturally went to the rest of my body. Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. I opened my eyes and could see that quite a bit of time had passed even though at most it felt like a couple of minutes. I could also see that Gale was really shocked because this time his mouth was slightly cracked open and he didn''t quickly regain his composure until I coughed. ¡°Well it seems you really do have quite a bit of talent. Okay now I''ll have you wear a special training armor that will help you achieve finer control and train your body.¡±-Gale He left and came back with what seemed to be plain leather shirt and trousers that you see at tailors shop I expected some heavy iron armor or something that would be really heavy. ¡°Heh that doesn''t seem so hard¡±-Azure After I said that I saw him smile. It gave me a weird feeling that maybe there''s something different about those clothes. ¡°Okay put them on they will automatically change to your size.¡±-Gale I quickly put them on and they really did change to fit my size. Wonder what else it''s hiding. When I tried to move I found out I couldn''t. ¡°Give it a bit to finish the adjustments.¡±-Gale said as he smirked ¡°These clothes are special that they will increase in weight according to the wearers age and strength so it will keep increasing with you to help you train of course there is a limit of 16 years old then it won''t change much. It wasn''t easy to get these I managed to win them of a traveling merchant a long time ago in one of my travels they are a one of a kind. They also have one more function whenever you use mana enhancement they will restrict your movements with the extra mana the user waste it allows for the user to get accustomed to using the exact amount of mana needed. In other words the less waste of mana the weaker the restrictions if you do it perfectly there won''t be no restrictions.¡±-Gale After, his explanation the magic clothes had finished their adjustments and had I really felt the weight coming down it felt like I was carrying rocks or something as I got more comfortable with the added weight I tried mana enhancement and found I couldn''t move at all. ¡°Hehe seems you can''t move at all. Don''t worry it will get easier now for now all I want you to do is to build up your strength. You can start with running around the training grounds.¡±-Gale I started running and kept running until I couldn''t run anymore the perimeter of the grounds is about a quarter of a mile I could only run around it twice. Next, he made me swing a practice sword until I couldn''t anymore I managed about 60 swings. It seems that today he wanted to test my endurance in order to make a training menu. ¡°Okay we are done for today take a break while you wait for your mom to come pick you up. Also, keep the clothes only take them off if necessary like taking a bath and such.¡±-Gale After I waited for about 15 minutes mother showed up. ¡°Hey sweetie, how was your day¡±-Amelia ¡°It was great mom¡±-Azure On our way home I told mom all about my day she seemed happy. Once we got to the library mom gave me lunch before we started the lessons. Afterwards we headed home ate dinner and then went to bed. All in all it was a good day. The next day besides master giving me a training menu and weighted sword he told me to not come back until I could complete the menu in under an hour which was running around about 2 miles or 8 laps around the grounds and doing 500 sword swings. So this is what my next couple of months consisted of.