Village Daughter of a Potato Farmer, Until She Was Praised as a Sword God

Chapter 3: Escape from the bottom, a story that is far from over

      It had been a few weeks since my meeting with the princess and the ferocious beast that attacked our building had been taken care of by the knights on duty. In order to catch up with my classmates, I had decided to run every night. I knew that advanced training was impossible for me, so I decided to run through the streets and parks of Kornegarde as my training.

     At the same time, I continued to practice alchemy. The words of the princess, about my talent, gave me more motivation than I had expected. I didn't quite believe it, but I continued to explore my inner mana with anticipation.

****

     About half a year had passed since I entered the school, when, I finally began to grasp the feeling of the mana within me. It was not very clear, but the feeling was unbelievable. Except for a few students who had already learnt it, I was getting a grasp of it considerably fast.

　“First, gather mana in one place, and then send it to different parts of the body to check its properties and boost functions.” I was saying to myself whilst practicing.

　Mana is life energy, and its usage is divided into inside and outside the body. On the inside, it's mainly about strengthening physical functions. It covered a wide range of things, including muscles, vision, hearing, dynamic vision and reflexes and even accelerates natural healing of the body. On the outside, it is used to make energy weapon constructs and armors.

　In the academy, we were taught that to wear mana meant to get the best of both inside and outside. So, whether or not we were awakened to mana made a big difference.

　Naturally, I had also thought that I would be able to use mana in practical skill class to make it easier. But;

"No, Tremina-san. Put away your mana." I was stopped by Jill-sensei, who was in charge of practical skills and was also just twenty years old. In first grade classes, the use of mana was highly prohibited to maintain fairness.

　So in the end, I was still alone at the bottom of the class except for the endurance races.

****

　About two months after I had awakened to mana, Cepharis also awakened to hers. This was also relatively early.

    She sat in a Zen meditation on her bed and made a difficult face. What she was doing was training her mana with a method called Ren.

　Ren is the basis of alchemy and if it is repeated it day by day, the quality and quantity of your mana will improve.

"Puha, um... An hour and half. That's a new record!" She said joyfully

“Congratulations.” I replied her, clasping her hands

“Thank you, you’re really good at it.” She said back to me

"You're doing it right." I said as I left the room with my sister looking happy.

　Mana kneading requires a lot of concentration, and it was to be quite tiring. But mine had always been completely different. First of all, I didn’t really understand the act of concentrating, so I was somehow kneading mana all the time and therefore didn’t feel tired at all. Whether it was in class, drawing or running, from the moment I wake up in the morning until the moment I go back to sleep at night, I was always able to knead mana.

  ‘Maybe I’m doing it wrong.’ I thought to myself, but my mana kept increasing every day.

　Ren is an important technique that could not be neglected. Therefore, various tips and tricks were described in detail our textbooks.

  I tried to protect the most emphasized sentence while doing my part. ‘Continuity is more important than anything else.’ Fortunately, it was also my specialty.

****

　With the help of my daily training, I advanced to the second year.

　The use of mana was finally lifted in the practical skill class.

　I woke up earlier than everyone else, so I had a slight advantage. I wanted to get out of the bottom of the class.

　Eight male and female students lined up at the starting line for the 100-meter run and among them, I stood, with a faint wish in my heart.

　“Run off at my signal.”

　I moved my hands and feet while wearing mana.

　 “And go!!” 

   And at the signal, I found myself in a strange situation. No one was in front of me or beside me. When I turned around, the other seven were just passing the halfway point.

　My classmates stared at me with dumbfounded faces. They all simultaneously looked at the student holding the clock.

"...7 seconds. Tremina-san's time is in the 6-second range." A roar of amazement proceeded after this.

   And this was still the first event. As it was the first day of the second year, we had to compete in a variety of competitions. It was kind of like a physical fitness test. Endurance run, long throw, high jump, long jump... With my mana, I overwhelmed my classmates in all the events.

　‘What is this situation?’ I asked myself.

　“No way, I'm being carried by everyone...?” I said in bewilderment

　“But are you all using mana properly?” Jill asked, interrupting the celebrations.

　“Anyway, all that's left is to match you students. Lineup and begin to fill your body with mana ” She directed all of us.

I tried to do as she directed, but suddenly my mana began to go awry

"Tremina-san, hold back your mana!" Jill screamed at me. But I couldn’t stop it

And suddenly I was stopped by Jill. And the words that came out of her mouth froze everyone in place.

"Are you trying to kill your classmate?”