25: New Change (2)

Dream.

A mental phenomenon that occurs during sleep, allowing one to see, hear and feel various objects as if one’s consciousness was awake.

Of course, most dreams don’t follow common sense.

From walking in a forest, the background suddenly changes to desert and sweating in hot weather suddenly changes to freezing in winter.

The flow of events is all jumbled up, and the characters have no connection.

This was why most people think that dreams are out of touch with reality. They think of dreams as things that have no meaning.

However, Irene was different.

‘… it started.’

The boy who had started to dream felt the scenery change.

The yard that is neither narrow nor wide, the weeds that grow in it, the wall around it, the blue sky, and the white clouds.

And in the midst of all that, an unknown man silently raised his sword.

Everything was the same. That day, the day before, and today.

It had already been 6 months since Irene Pareira started to have the same dream.

The dream never ended.

The boy would possess the man’s body and train.

Constantly swinging the sword. And those memories continue even after he wakes up, affecting his body and mind.

‘It was all because of the dream that my lazy self turned into this… uh?’

It was when the deadbeat noble thought that while living the same dream as always.

It was odd.

To be precise, something changed.

As it started, Irene wasn’t Irene.

He was the unknown man who wielded his sword nonstop from morning to night, and his consciousness sank into the depths.

But it didn’t happen.

He was able to maintain his ego despite not waking up from the dream.

‘How is this possible?’

It could be possible if he had consciousness, and he wasn’t able to move in the dream. As always, the man cleared his breath and raised his sword, swinging it.

Whik!

‘Hmm!’

Irene was shocked.

The sensations from the man’s body felt too vivid.

It has never been like that before.

Although it was an image that was strong enough to affect reality, a dream was a dream.

What the boy felt was a blurry and hazy memory, as if walking in a foggy dawn.

After being washed away by the memories, nothing could be grasped except for the emotions.

But that didn’t seem to be the current case.

Whik!

‘Umm!’

Wielding the heavy sword.

As a result, pressure was put on every part of the body.

Even the tensing and relaxation of the muscles, the heartbeat, the release of heat from the body and the breathing could be felt.

A lot of time passed in the same state.

Whik!

Repeat, repeat, and repeat.

An average person would fall with a couple of such strong swings.

Even if he wasn’t swinging. The man did his very best in every moment.

It was a difficult time with pain everywhere. The feelings of the man who had the strength of steel were being transmitted to Irene Pareira.

However, what the boy focused on wasn’t the pain on his body.

It was shockingly the delicate concentration of the man who was perfectly in control.

‘Amazing.’

The action of raising the sword upwards and bringing it down vertically or obliquely.

In a way, it looked like a simple action done by a 5-year-old kid for fun.

However, it wasn’t. No matter how rudimentary the movement seemed, it required a high level of skill for it to be displayed ‘perfectly’.

Refined breathing.

Stable center.

Perfect balance.

The perfect movement of muscles, ligaments, and joints made it possible.

The man’s swordsmanship contained everything, and it was his concentration that made that possible.

Naturally, it was far better than the ‘best’ version that Irene Pareira could display.

As if he turned into the countryside man, the image of the boy turned vague, and the only thing he felt was the man’s senses.

However, it didn’t last for long.

“… I woke up.”

Irene, who woke up from the dream, mumbled.

He hadn’t slept for long. It was around 3 hours? It was dark outside. Which meant that it wasn’t even 4 in the morning yet.

Of course, there was no physical pain yet.

The recovery magic token, which was hanging over the bed, helped them recover from the pains and make the trainees feel maximum efficacy with the least amount of sleep.

Irene had never once thought of sleeping after waking up.

Today was different. Even though he forced himself to sleep, it was because he wanted to experience that again.

But he couldn’t.

Such mysterious dreams couldn’t be dreamed of several times in the same day. No, he wasn’t even able to sleep at all.

It was because Irene’s body had changed.

In the end, he decided what had to be done.

The boy got up and walked to the sword hall.

** *

A day passed, a week passed, and a month passed.

Irene Pareira’s dream continued to change.

It became more vivid and closer to reality.

All his senses, including sight, hearing, touch, became sharp.

It was as if Irene had been teleported into another world the moment he slept.

Thanks to that, the boy was able to immerse himself in the man’s swordsmanship in his dreams.

It was as if his body could be felt, in perfect control with high concentration that made every movement accurate.

The changes in the dreams, of course, had a significant impact on reality too.

“Kay, now I am going to show you a movement which is a combination of the 4th and 6th basic Krono sword techniques. This is a useful skill when dodging an attack. Let me show you this again.”

Whip! Whip! Whip!

Movements that were smooth like water.

The word ‘basic’ was complicated. At least, that was the case for the trainees in class C. Most kids were displeased.

However, Irene was different.

His eyes were wide open as he looked at Instructor Karaka’s movements.

It wasn’t that difficult.

He was already sharing the senses of the man in his dream, and his concentration had changed too.

Although still lacking, the boy’s observation skills rose too.

“Kay then, shall we try?”

Seeing wasn’t enough to learn.

Irene, who raised his sword, took a deep breath and reproduced the movements of the 4th and 6th sword techniques.

The high-quality swordsmanship which he unfolded brought the attention of nearby trainees.

He moved so gently that even instructor Karaka, who was stingy with his praise, clapped his hands.

“Wonderful! I know that the movement of the arm which swings the sword is important, but the light footwork is more important. With a little more refinement, you’ll be ready to use it in real situations!”

“Wha-how did he do that?”

“Wasn’t he lagging behind until a few days ago?”

Murmurs around.

It was true. Until a week ago, Irene wasn’t able to keep up with the progress of class C.

Not anymore.

After repeating the motion three times in a row, the boy closed his eyes and felt his body.

As if an image appeared on a clear lake, the sensations on each part of his body began to be perceived by the brain.

‘The body isn’t a large mass. It is a complex of numerous sites which perform different roles in order to perform a single action…’

This sensation could tell him his limit and supervised his body’s movement.

Efficient use of the body and muscles with no waste of energy.

All that comes together for an ideal movement.

Ceaselessly, continuously, constantly.

Irene, who pictured the sword in his mind, opened his eyes. And performed the action once again.

A clean and powerful one.

Karaka’s eyes widened.

‘Was Irene Pareira this talented?’

No. Irene’s talent had always been the same.

It was just that his attitude towards the movements had changed.

The result of concentrating on swordsmanship alone, even his mental strength in the past, looked meaningless.

And, of course, maintaining such concentration for a long time would cause mental strain.

“Pant, Pant Pant…”

“That one is panting these days.”

“Really? He’s better than Judith in terms of stamina…”

“Did he eat something bad?”

Some of the trainees mumbled as they looked at Irene, who looked particularly tired during self-training.

It was something they couldn’t understand.

But it was natural for Irene.

However, the others didn’t know.

After deeply feeling the movements and the time he spent on the man in his dreams, Irene was no longer swinging the sword as roughly as he did in the past.

“Ugh.”

Swish!

Irene swung the sword and continued to swing it.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t keep the best concentration at every movement. Like a long-distance runner whose feet slow down over time, the body had no idea how the mental exhaustion could be stopped.

However, it wasn’t an unfamiliar experience to him.

A day passed.

A week passed.

Another month had passed, and it had been only three months since the trainees began their sword classes.

After that long time, Irene Pareira was able to maintain his concentration from morning till late night.

“Ugh.”

But he wasn’t satisfied.

He still dreamed and shared feelings with the man every night.

So he knew.

That the strongest movement he did with the utmost concentration fell short in front of the man.

‘How do I get to that level?’

The level where he used his muscle masses such as the biceps, triceps, chest, and thighs perfectly.

While in the dream, it felt like every fiber in his body was under Irene’s control.

Of course, what Irene was displaying now was amazing to the eyes of others.

However, Irene didn’t want to stop there.

It wasn’t greed or longing. It was because his actions held a meaning.

The boy wanted to get closer to the man whose name was unknown.

After having that dream for the first time, Irene felt a strong urge to use the sword, which had never interested him before.

“The dream…”

“Uh? What did you say?”

“What are you doing! Don’t stop during battle.”

Judith heard Irene talking and only asked to annoy Bratt.

They weren’t on good terms, but after Bratt’s suggestion, the two managed to stop yelling at each other.

Irene would wield a sword alone beside them.

But not now.

As he pondered on something, he silently walked away to the side of the hall where benches were placed. It was installed for the sake of relaxation, but Irene hadn’t used them until that day.

Making both Judith and Bratt puzzled.

“Yah ya! What are you doing! Do you even hear me? Yah!”

“Leave him. He looks tired.”

Irene Pareira, who looked tired, was going to rest. It was never seen before, but there was no other way to explain it.

Losing interest, Bratt tried to get Judith to start the practice battle again.

Irene, who got close to the bench, laid on it.

And he slowly closed his eyes.

“What’s up?”

“Is he sleeping here?”

“It can’t be!”

“Is he really Irene Pareira?”

All the trainees nearby became confused.

So did Judith, Bratt, and Lance Peterson, who followed Bratt.

They all had puzzled expressions as they were witnessing a phenomenon which they had never seen before.

‘If I take a posture similar to sleeping, won’t I be able to get that feeling even a little?’

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Whether the others were shocked or not, Irene did his best to feel the sensations he felt in his dream.

Around 30 minutes passed.

Blink.

Irene got up from the bench with eyes sharper and clearer than before.