Kevin’s mother, Madame Morris, laughed until tears welled up in her eyes.

“Brother, even for a joke, aren’t you going too far?” Kevin laughed as he posed the question. Tears had formed in the corners of his eyes as well.

Henry responded immediately.

“I don’t think you and I are close enough to be joking around like this.”

“Henry, as Kevin said, this is too much to be a joke. Why are you like this all of a sudden?” Hans chimed in.

“It’s exactly as I said, Father. If Kevin is truly confident in his abilities, then wouldn’t it be worthwhile for us to duel, as I suggested?”

“Well, that may be true but… will it really be okay?”

There was a mix of concern and curiosity in Hans’ response. It was no secret that Henry was not as skilled as Kevin, and Hans knew that a duel would hurt Henry’s pride.

“Of course. If you’re not too busy in the morning, I would like to request your presence at our sparring session.”

“If that’s what you really want, then sure. Both of you, head to the training center.”

Hans seemed uncertain about Henry’s decision, but Henry had spoken with such confidence that Hans felt that he had no right to interfere.

Meanwhile, Kevin continued to laugh as tears streamed down his cheeks, and Madame Morris seemed lost for words at Henry’s provocation.

Before long, about a dozen people, including the conductors of the bout, stood upon the sparring grounds of the training center.

“Brother, take this.” Kevin spoke confidently as he threw a wooden sword at Henry.

The sword was deceptively heavy. It seemed to have been weighted similarly to a real sword for the purpose of training.

‘This should be more than enough.’

Henry rotated the wooden sword around like a stick before placing it lightly in his right hand.

The onlookers’ eyes twinkled. To them, the outcome of the fight had already been decided, but they were pleased to finally have something worth watching after a long time.

The eyes of the servant Caughall, whom Henry had beaten the previous night, shone brightest.

‘Hmph! Just because you’ve gotten a bit bolder, you think you can defeat Young Master Kevin?’

Caughall cheered Kevin on as he stroked his bandaged jaw. Indeed, Henry’s status in the family was so low that even the servants looked down on him.

“The objective is to subdue your opponent. But don’t go too harsh on each other, you are brothers after all. Now, let’s begin the bout.”

Hans brought his hand down in a straight line before taking a few steps back.

With a confident look on his face, Kevin said to Henry, “I will yield the first move to you.”

It was typical to yield the first move to the lesser opponent. This was proof that Kevin truly thought nothing of his half brother.

At Kevin’s words, Henry burst into laughter before accepting the offer.

“So be it.”

Thud.

Before stepping forward, Henry twisted his feet around, remaining in a standing posture.

Invisible energy began to flow up from the bottom of Henry’s feet until it embraced his entire body.

‘Enhanced strength, enhanced agility, enhanced reflexes…’

‘Strength’, ‘Haste’, and ‘Reflex’ too.

They were self-buff spells that Henry had used in his previous life. Of course, the spells would be less effective than in his previous life, but they were still more than enough to punish an arrogant child.

After casting the spells, Henry made his move.

Ta-dak - Swoosh!

“Uh, huh?”

Crack!

Although the distance between the two was quite significant, Henry covered it quickly in just a couple of steps. As soon as he closed the gap between himself and Kevin, he raised his wooden sword and struck downward.

Caught off guard and not even in a ready posture, Kevin had no choice but to hurriedly defend himself against the sudden attack.

There was not much weight behind Henry’s first strike, but, it was still a powerful attack thanks to the various buffs he had cast.

There was a sense of unexpected urgency written on Kevin’s face. If he wanted to take back control of the situation, he would have to reset his stance first.

Henry stretched his left hand out toward Kevin’s neck. Kevin was still staggered and leaning slightly.

“Kurgh!”

A strong grip tightened around Kevin’s robe, choking him.

Then, Henry kicked Kevin in the ankle, knocking him to the floor.

Crash!

Although Kevin was the heavier of the two men, he collapsed helplessly.

Henry kicked away the wooden sword that Kevin had dropped into the corner.

And then…

Thud! Thud! Thud!

He began to rain strikes upon Kevin, who laid on the floor, unable to defend himself.

‘Tough talk from a useless bastard.’

The cost of provoking the Archmage’s anger was severe. Henry used his wooden sword like a club, evenly striking Kevin from head to toe.

Everyone present was lost for words.

The initial attack by Henry had already been shocking enough, but what truly silenced them was what followed afterward.

“No, no, if you defend yourself like that, your opponent will easily break your bones.”

Whack! Whack! Whack!

Now, Henry was holding Kevin by his back with just one hand, while lashing away at it as if he was airing laundry.

Madame Morris could not stand it any longer and begged Baronet Hans with a desperate look on her face.

“M-my dear! S-stop this!”

“Uh, uh, yes! Henry! Stop this now! Haven’t you already proven yourself the victor?”

Whack! Whack! Whack!

However, despite Hans’ dissuasion, Henry did not relent. He did not think that Kevin was punished enough.

In the end, Hans could not take it any longer either, and shouted out loudly.

“Henry!”

Crunch! 

At the same time that Hans shouted, Henry plunged his wooden sword into the ground with all his might. It was embedded in the ground above Kevin’s head, like a tombstone marking the grave of a loser.

After unleashing his punishment, Henry looked at Hans and Madame Morris.

“Do you have anything more to say?”

“N-no, it’s okay. You’re right.”

“Let us discuss admissions to the academy tomorrow. Right now I am tired, so I’ll be off.”

Having accomplished his task, Henry leisurely left the training center, and Caughall hurriedly scampered behind him.

“This is unbelievable…”

The harsh beating left Kevin crawling on the floor, and the onlookers were left speechless at what they had just witnessed, looking as if they were possessed.

* * *

“I saw it, I’m telling you!”

After their masters’ meal was over, Caughall exclaimed in a hoarse voice as the servants began their late breakfast.

“I mean, does that make sense? How did Young Master Henry suddenly defeat Young Master Kevin? There’s a huge difference in their amount of training…”

“Exactly! Oh, Bolton! You saw it too, right? You were there as well!”

“What Caughall said is true. It was a very one-sided victory.”

The news of what had happened that morning spread like wildfire throughout the estate.

Some said that the oldest son had hidden his power all along, while others said that Kevin lost intentionally to avoid going to the academy.

However, whenever strange rumors began to circulate, Caughall quickly shut down those rumors, and the story of Henry’s overwhelming victory became fact accepted by everyone.

Meanwhile, Henry thought to himself.

‘He didn’t seem like he was that bad a person.’

With nothing to do, Henry took a bath to warm his body. This was a method of recovering from fatigue he had used frequently in his previous life, and it was one of the leisurely activities that he had enjoyed, even when he was not particularly tired. As he bathed, Henry contemplated the capabilities of his new body. Since it was a body he would be stuck with for the rest of his life, he thought it was better that he familiarized himself with it.

‘Decent sensitivity to magic, and not a bad physical foundation either. This body couldn’t do anything simply because the owner was lazy… but now that this body is twenty years old, having a weak foundation is dangerous. I’ll have to do something about this.’

All men in the empire would usually start to familiarize themselves with weapons when their age reached the double digits. Even prospective mages in their respective territories were tested by qualified mages at the age of ten to determine whether they possessed enough talent.

But the owner of this body seemed to have done neither.

Since Henry was starting ten years later than others, it was necessary to quickly build a strong foundation.

Henry had already dismissed the servant for the day, and he was left alone in the bath. He sat cross-legged in the bathtub.

‘Let’s try it one more time.’

He had been able to get up to the 3rd Circle with his skill alone. However, his deep understanding and mastery of magic alone was not enough to achieve the 4th Circle. This body lacked the amount of magic needed to reach this crucial next step.

However, Henry was determined to overcome the lack of resources with his sheer skill alone.

But once again, just as he was about to draw out the 4th Circle…

Pzzzt!

“Urgh.”

When he forcibly tried to bring out the 4th Circle, his heart pounded and he felt his body weaken from overexertion. Henry loosened his crossed legs with a look of helplessness on his face.

‘In the end, the problem is the insufficient amount of accumulated magical power…’

This was a problem that not even the 8th-Circle Archmage could solve. Henry pondered for a long time about how to increase his magic power in a short period of time.

Some time passed.

‘That’s right! There is a solution!’

Splash.

Henry got up quickly from the bathtub as soon as he came to a realization, causing water to flow over the brim of the tub.

“Clean.”

After drying himself with magic, Henry hurriedly changed his clothes and called for Caughall.

“Caughall!”

“Yes, Young Master!”

Overnight, Caughall had become highly loyal.

The overwhelming display of Henry’s skills that morning had made Caughall more fearful of Henry than the beatings he had received the night before.

“Bring me a paper and pen.”

“Yes, here it is.”

Caughall handed over the writing materials that he had sensibly prepared beforehand to Henry. Henry hurriedly jotted down a few items on the paper.

“Get these items. Quickly.”

“A-aren’t these medicines? Are you feeling unwell, Young Master?”

“There’s no need for you to know, just bring them to me.”

“Y-yes!”

There was no need for him to tell a servant what need he had for the materials.

As soon as Caughall received the order, he left the estate.

‘I hope the materials are available.’

Henry looked at Caughall in the distance as he prayed that the materials were available. Although this area was the realm of the Baronet, it was still a remote place on the edge of the empire, and Henry could not help but worry that the materials could not be found.

‘Wait, now that I’m dead, the recipe for the elixir doesn’t exist anymore.’

It was the reason why Henry had sent Caughall out for the errand. He intended to create ‘Miracle Blue’—the mysterious elixir that Henry made every year for the young mages.

Miracle Blue.

It was an elixir that he had created during his time as a 7th-Circle mage, after half a year of research, to increase the number of mages in the empire. It remained one of the greatest parts of his legacy. It was a mysterious elixir that unleashed the maximum potential of a mage’s power upon consumption. If one was lucky, it could even raise one’s existing magical power by several times.

Originally, the recipe for the elixir was supposed to be left behind upon his death, as one of his numerous legacies, but he was unable to make the necessary preparations because of how hastily he had been executed.

But now, none of that mattered. He had been resurrected, and was now free to fulfill the legacy that had almost been lost in vain to the tide of history.

After returning to his room, Henry began to write down the recipe for Miracle Blue on a spare piece of paper, in preparation for any unforeseen circumstances.

Despite Miracle Blue being such an excellent elixir, there were also disadvantages to using it. It was not possible to use the concentrated, undiluted solution as it was; its concentration had to be adjusted according to the level of the user.

Miracle Blue was an elixir, but by itself, it was also a highly poisonous drug. Moreover, since its purpose was to stimulate the heart beyond its natural limits to expand one’s magical potential, it could only be used once in a lifetime.

Therefore, the first intake, which was also the last, had to first have its concentration adjusted as precisely as possible to suit the level of the user.

Henry reviewed the complete formula several times, searching for any possible errors in his calculations.

‘Alright, that’s perfect.’

He was the great 8th-Circle Archmage, and the smartest being in the empire. There was not a single problem to be found in his perfectly reproduced formula.