SWNOVELXO Chapter 71 - Stimulation (4)
Chapter 71: Stimulation (4)
A space filled with pure white light.
Within it stood a massive wall and a girl holding a spear.
Thud— Thud— Thud—.
Theresia relentlessly thrust her spear toward the wall.
The wall before her was already densely covered with marks from countless hours of training.
Like a giant beehive, the wall was filled with thousands upon thousands of holes.
Thud— Thud— Thud—.
As she thrust her spear toward the wall, Theresia wondered.
‘I… was in the middle of training?’
Thud— Thud— Thud—.
At the same time, she realized.
‘Ah… this is a dream.’
It was a lucid dream.
A dream in which one is aware that they are dreaming.
But that awareness soon blurred, and a haze of confusion clouded her mind.
‘Is this a dream? Or reality?’
Theresia was bewildered.
Was this truly a dream?
Or was she actually training in reality?
When had she started doing this?
Everything was unclear.
So, she decided to stop thinking.
‘…It doesn’t matter.’
Whether it was a dream or reality, what difference did it make?
She had always been thrusting her spear.
In reality.
In her dreams.
Theresia was so obsessed with thrusting her spear that the boundary between the two worlds began to blur.
There was only one reason for this.
To break down the wall in front of her.
Thud— Thud— Thud—.
She continuously thrust her spear for that sole purpose.
And finally.
Thud—.
Craaaack—!
The wall, riddled like a beehive, finally crumbled down.
Thud—.
As the massive wall collapsed into fist-sized pieces of rubble, a spark of light flickered in Theresia’s eyes, which had looked as lifeless as those of a dead fish.
‘Ah!’
It was pure joy.
The overwhelming emotion of finally breaking down a wall.
Theresia slowly walked forward.
Through the rising dust.
Beyond the wall that had been blocking her.
One step.
Two steps.
Then three steps.
After exactly three steps.
The dust that had thickly filled the air settled, and her vision cleared.
What appeared before her was…
‘Ah…’
Another wall.
Not the wall she had just broken, but a clean, unblemished one.
And it was taller and thicker than the previous wall.
After breaking one wall, another wall now blocked Theresia’s path.
As always.
‘……’
The joy that had filled Theresia’s eyes quickly vanished, leaving them as lifeless as before.
She gripped her spear tightly.
‘Again…’
Thud, thud, thud.
Theresia walked silently to the wall and began thrusting her spear once more.
As always.
Thud— Thud— Thud—.
Yuri tilted his head in disbelief at the story.
“A deformed child?”
“She had many nicknames besides that one. A cripple, an inferior child, and so on. The Winchester family is a very famous family, so when such a scandal broke out after a long time, everyone had something to say.”
“Wait a minute, you mean ‘cripple’ as in someone with a physical disability?”
“Yes, that kind of cripple.”
“But Theresia Winchester didn’t seem disabled at all.”
Although he hadn’t known her for long, Yuri had never seen Theresia show any signs of discomfort.
In fact, she seemed healthier and stronger than most people.
She didn’t seem like someone who should be called a deformed or crippled child.
Johan responded immediately to Yuri’s question.
“Well, that’s because she has already…”
“Old man, if you say one more word…”
Grrrrr—.
“I’ll gnaw at you like a dog until every bone in your body is crushed.”
“Ahem, ahem. Anyway! It’s true that they used to call the Winchester family’s child a deformed one.”
“But she looks perfectly fine?”
“Tsk, the appearance might be fine.”
“Then…?”
“That child was never meant to be born into a martial family.”
“…What do you mean by that?”
“Do you know how a family gains its reputation?”
“What are you talking about all of a sudden?”
“Because they have power? Because they have wealth? Because they have excellent magic body techniques? Of course, those things do contribute. But what truly makes a family renowned… is its bloodline.”
Yuri still looked confused, so Johan continued to explain slowly.
“To be precise, it’s the talent passed down through generations within the bloodline that creates a prestigious family.”
“Ah…”
Building power.
Accumulating wealth.
Mastering magic body techniques.
Since all these things are done by people, talent was indeed crucial.
And for the descendants of a family that rose to prominence through martial arts, it was only natural to possess exceptional talent in mastering magic body techniques.
That was the most obvious thing.
But what was obvious for others…
Wasn’t so for Theresia.
“As one advances in their skill, they inevitably face a wall. Whether at a lower or higher level, one must either surpass or break through the wall to progress. And those who are called geniuses have incredibly low walls compared to others.”
The walls geniuses face weren’t just low.
They were also thin and easy to break through. While others might encounter a wall after ten steps, geniuses might not face one until they’ve taken a hundred or a thousand steps.
With such little obstruction, their growth was naturally rapid.
But Theresia’s situation was different.
“Theresia… that child is… naturally predisposed to frequently encounter walls.”
“Is that even possible?”
“If there are geniuses, then it’s only natural that there are those who are less talented. So, of course, there are people who run into walls more often than others, don’t you think?”
“…That makes sense.”
“Well, it’s not that Theresia is untalented. In terms of basic abilities, she’s certainly exceptional. The problem is that, compared to her talents, she encounters walls with an unusual frequency.”
It wasn’t just that she faced many walls.
Theresia’s walls were higher and thicker than those of others.
To break through or overcome them, she had to invest several times more time and effort than others.
“In a martial family where talent in mastering magic body techniques is valued, such a strange constitution is… practically a curse. That’s why she was called a cripple and a deformed child.”
Johan continued speaking slowly as he observed Yuri’s silence.
“Think about it. Even if you start at the same point and reach the same level, you advance in a single step, without encountering even one wall.”
“……”
“But for Theresia, to cover the distance you do in one step, she would have to face 10, 100, or even more walls.”
Yuri cautiously asked, “So… what happens then?”
“Are you really asking because you don’t know?”
No, Yuri knew. He was only asking to confirm what he already understood.
To see if his thoughts were correct.
Johan, noticing this, responded in a calm voice.
“People in this field often spend years, even decades, frustrated and tearing their hair out, stuck at a single wall. It’s not uncommon for some to lose their sanity as the frustration deepens. Facing many more walls than others would be… a pain unimaginable for people like you or me.”
“……”
“If she had been born into an ordinary family, that curse of hers wouldn’t have been much of an issue. But she was born into the Winchester family, a prestigious martial family.”
Had Theresia given up on living as a child of a martial family, her life might have been a bit easier.
But the Theresia Yuri had seen was not someone who had given up.
If she had, she wouldn’t have entered the Cradle, nor would she have trained so obsessively, thrusting her spear even to the point of fainting.
“Ah…!”
Yuri let out a short sigh.
His expression became slightly dazed.
‘…So that’s how it was.’
He finally realized.
The frustration and irritation that had arisen when he saw the unconscious Theresia.
The root of those unpleasant feelings.
It was…
‘Disgust.’
A sense of disgust toward himself.
‘Theresia, she…’
Her skills were no less than his own at that moment.
And that was a result of her overcoming her curse through sheer effort.
She had survived in the Cradle by her own hard work.
She had relentlessly pushed herself, earning the top spot among the 49th generation cadets.
Even then, she didn’t rest.
After the sparring match, hadn’t she immediately resumed training?
She had even pushed herself to the point of losing consciousness.
But what about him?
‘When was the last time I trained so intensely?’
Since entering the Forest of Beginnings, he hadn’t trained in any meaningful way.
‘Was I too busy to train?’
That wasn’t it either.
He could have trained whenever he wanted.
No, if he had reduced his sleep, he could have continued training no matter how busy he was.
Hadn’t he lived that way before entering the Forest of Beginnings?
That’s why he had been able to grow quickly.
Yet just this morning…
[Isn’t it okay to take it easy for once?]
He had thought that as he walked along the forest path.
With that, Yuri mocked himself.
‘Take it easy? Me? What have I done?’
Was it because he took fifteen steps during the Hundred Steps Ceremony?
Because he forced the Sword Master to step down from his throne?
‘But… that wasn’t my doing, was it?’
His limit was only ten steps.
That alone wasn’t enough to make the Sword Master take notice of him.
It was only after he took fifteen steps, only after Johan’s magic flow made the Sword Master descend from his throne, that things changed.
All of that was due to Johan’s magic flow, not his own efforts.
‘And yet, I was so arrogant as if I had achieved it all by myself.’
Seeing the unconscious Theresia had made him realize that.
His heart understood, but his mind was slow to catch up, causing the frustration and irritation to build.
‘Theresia…’
He thought about it again.
What must Theresia have felt, being born into a martial family with such a curse?
And the effort she must have put in to enter the Cradle as a holder of the Golden Dragon Plaque and achieve what she had.
‘Jerry said that Theresia hadn’t stood out until recently.’
Until then, she must have been no different from the other Golden Dragon Plaque holders.
And only recently had the fruits of her painstaking effort started to shine.
‘…Theresia Winchester.’
For the first time in his life, Yuri felt envious of someone’s ‘effort.’
And he felt ashamed of his own.
At the same time, strangely enough, his heart began to race.
He felt an overwhelming urge to start training immediately.
Johan watched the now silent Yuri with quiet interest.
‘Hmm?’
The ever-changing look in Yuri’s eyes intrigued Johan.
‘Something must have happened between him and that girl, Theresia.’
It seemed that something about Theresia had triggered Yuri.
One of the emotions flickering in those ever-changing eyes was competitiveness.
And Johan didn’t mind that at all.
In fact, he welcomed it.
‘For Yuri, a rival is… not something that will come easily.’
Just as it had been for him, Yuri too would likely outpace his peers in any competition.
In time, Yuri would become a goal for the others to strive toward, while he himself would continue to fight a lonely battle at the forefront.
That was why it was such a valuable experience for Yuri to find motivation through a peer.
‘In that case, I should make sure this valuable experience is put to good use.’
Johan smiled to himself inwardly.