The Son-In-Law Of A Prestigious Household Wants A Divorce-Chapter 40: Resisting the Limitation of Talent

“...”

“...”

A cold wind blew amidst the silence between the two people facing each other.

One of them, holding a tachi, its tip pointing towards the ground, resembling someone hanging their head down.

“Normally, people would have accumulated mana in their bodies—their bodies would absorb the mana spread in the atmosphere like breathing, it’s an autonomous process.”

Rianna explained in a quiet tone.

“The mana accumulated won’t pile up endlessly, as the amount of mana a body can accept is genetically determined. Once that amount is filled, the body will push out all the excess mana it absorbed.”

Breathing, sweat, excretion, sleep, and so on.

The body would push out the excess mana in various ways.

If there was too much mana in one’s body, it could lead to ‘mana saturation’ where one’s body would swell up, or ‘mana crystallization’ where crystallized mana would form in one’s organs.

It could also cause one’s mind to go awry, ‘mana berserk’.

“In your case, your mana capacity is overwhelmingly insufficient... If I can be honest...”

Rianna hesitated for a moment.

Not knowing how to explain, she stumbled over her words.

“Yours...isn’t even on the level of a wolf... Maybe a little less than a dog? No, a little more than that?”

“...”

“I don’t think it’s in the level of trees, but it’s definitely better than flowers... That much, I’m certain...”

“Is that supposed to sound comforting...?”

Rianna pressed her lips together.

Isaac knew her well, so he knew that she was just trying to comfort him, but...

To others, it could easily be taken as her mocking him.

“Well, Aura isn’t necessarily the most important thing, right?”

Silverna, who had been listening, tried to comfort him, though it came out awkward.

In reality, not being able to use Aura wasn’t really a significant weakness.

After all, even the Grandmaster was unable to use Aura at all.

“I haven’t really used Aura until now either. Father hardly uses it too.”

There were also the Cardias, as they never really relied on Aura.

However, this wasn’t because they couldn’t handle it, but rather because they developed a spearmanship style that had ordinary soldiers in mind.

There were only a handful of soldiers who’d be able to use Aura in the first place, after all.

The most uptodat𝓮 n𝒐vels are published on freёnovelkiss.com.

“I agree. Being able to use Aura doesn’t necessarily make you strong.”

Rianna added. What she was trying to say was that, while being unable to use Aura might come with some difficulties, being able to use it wouldn’t automatically make one an outstanding martial artist.

“But I need it.”

And this was the problem, Isaac needed Aura.

He became even more certain about this after dueling with Sharen’s Crimson Essence.

“...”

“...”

The two women could only watch Isaac as he became lost in his thoughts, worrying about his problem, as if it was their own.

But suddenly, a bell rang in the distance.

Dong!

Dong!

Dong!

Three times.

“There’s an attack on the front wall.”

Silverna, with her spear on her shoulder, immediately started running, while the other two followed.

*   *   *The attack on the front wall continued until lunchtime.

But the situation was immediately resolved when Silverna’s spear pierced through a Named, a troll who was in command.

The battle that had started early in the morning finally ended after lunchtime.

Right now, Isaac was inside the medical room inside the castle.

“T-Thank y— Ugh!”

“Don’t talk. You still have thorns stuck inside your body.”

It wasn’t because he got injured, but because he was carrying a soldier who had been pierced by thorns that were shot by the troll.

The soldier was hit by the thorns that Isaac had dodged, so he took responsibility for it and brought him to the medical room.

“Haaa... It’s been like this since morning...”

The mage, with impressive dark circles under her eyes, busily moved around the medical room, checking on the soldiers.

Isaac was expecting healing magic to be used, but the mage instead just used a large disinfected pair of tongs to remove the thorns out of the soldier’s body before stopping his bleeding.

As Isaac watched this scene, the mage let out a weary smile and clacked the tongs together.

“When I was first dispatched here, I used tweezers, but now I’ve thrown them all away. Tongs are just better to pull out these forearm-sized thorns. Oh yeah, the head chef gave these to me.”

“My name is Isaac.”

“Oh my, I forgot to introduce myself.”

The mage wiped her hands on her robe.

“I’m Vivian. A mage from the Magic Tower.”

“And here I thought you’d just use magic to treat them...”

Isaac muttered as he looked at the other soldiers on the beds that the mage had treated.

From what it looked like, she was also extremely proficient in basic medical knowledge.

“Ahaha, healing magic is a precious resource, you know? Unless the patient is in an extremely critical condition, I’d rather treat them directly. Also, you’d need to have medical knowledge to use healing magic.”

Despite her haggard appearance, the mage was quite sociable.

Which meant, her appearance was an indicator on how difficult things were for those who got dispatched to the Malidean Wall.

“May I ask you something?”

Regardless, with a mage here, it was a good opportunity.

He could ask for her advice about the mana-related concerns he had been pondering since dawn.

“Well, if I go to the dining hall now, there’ll probably only be broth without any chunks left anyway, so sure.”

Vivian joked with a laugh.

“What would you like to know?”

“I found out that my mana capacity is lacking.”

Hearing that, the corners of Vivian’s mouth slowly turned down.

Her previously harmless eyes seemed to fill with color, turning as sharp as a blade.

“I’d like to increase this somehow. Is there any way to do so?”

“Hmm.”

Vivian nodded slowly, then walked to the window and pointed out with a smile.

“You can try to jump from here.”

“...”

“Get reincarnated. There’s no other way. Do you know where mana is stored, Sir Isaac?”

As if she was in a play...

Vivian’s voice grew louder as she approached Isaac with big strides, seemingly excited.

“It’s the heart. The heart. My goodness, have you ever seen someone live after changing their heart? I haven’t. I’ve never heard of such a case either.”

“...”

“That’s why we call it a core. ‘Mana core’. And this is also why mages are rare.”

Vivian’s face was filled with pride as she smiled.

Her palm, placed on her own chest gently, as if it was protecting a precious treasure.

“It is something that’s determined from birth.”

They did say that mages are mostly elitists...

Isaac had heard that mages had different hierarchies when it came to their views of people.

It came from the Magic Tower, which didn’t belong to any kingdom and operated independently.

Their hierarchy system had only two categories.

Mages and non-mages.

To them, even nobles and royalty were just lower-class people who couldn’t handle magic.

“As you know, there are various elixirs in the world, and Helmont’s Roselixir is one of them.”

Though she tried to maintain his politeness as much as possible, her actions and atmosphere showed otherwise.

“Those elixirs serve to enhance one’s physical ability, and such matter is indeed closely related to mana. But! They still won’t increase one’s mana capacity.”

From her tone, Vivan seemed to be quite irritated at Isaac since he had the audacity to touch something that was like an absolute truth to mages.

“It’s unfortunate. But there are things in this world that are determined from birth.”

Vivian bowed slightly and smiled.

“That’s why people are fascinated by geniuses. Because they have something that others can never possess.”

“...”

“How was my answer?”

“It was informative.”

Isaac nodded, still wearing the same expression as before he asked his question.

His face, still deep in thought, showed no sign of giving up as an option.

“...It doesn’t seem like it was a satisfactory answer.”

This reaction dissatisfied Vivian.

In her eyes, she had spent his precious time explaining and persuading him, yet the man in front of him was still acting the same way as before.

“Listen carefully. There’s a thesis in the Magic Tower called ‘The Correlation Between Growth Environment and Mana Storage Capacity’—“

“If you had low mana capacity, would you have given up on being a mage?”

“Now you’re interrupting me... Of course. It’s a matter of talent. Is there any need to challenge the impossible? Hence, you should give up.”

‘It’s a realm where those without any talent can’t even set foot,’ she added.

“But there are people who can’t afford to give up.”

As someone who had never given up on wielding a sword, even when he turned into a cripple, that was something Isaac had the right to say.

“It seems like we aren’t very compatible with each other.”

Thinking there was no point in continuing the conversation, Vivian frowned and went back to checking on the soldiers.

Watching her back, Isaac scratched his cheek awkwardly.

I think I get along better with people like Jonathan than her.

Jonathan, someone who became a knight of Helmont after abandoning his primal nature just because he admired Arandel.

Isaac thought that he was similar to the guy.

Feeling there wasn’t much more to discuss, Isaac was about to leave the medical room when...

“Ah, here you are.”

Silverna, who had performed brilliantly today, blocked his way as she stood in the hallway.

“...Weren’t you going to eat?”

“I was. With you! Ta-da!”

She held out a basket in her hand, which was filled with sandwich ingredients neatly stacked.

“Right now, the second wave of battle should already start in the dining hall, so we should just eat somewhere else.”

“When did you prepare this?”

Looking at the food’s condition, it didn’t seem like it was prepared today—perhaps yesterday. Also, Silverna wasn’t the type to prepare things herself.

“Hmm, why does that matter?”

Anna did it for her, I see.

Well, whatever.

“Let’s go, I’ve prepared something special too.”

Silverna then rummaged through the basket and showed him a chunk of smoked meat wrapped in large green leaves.

Now this was something that she got recently, as it was still steaming hot and the unique smoked aroma was still going strong.

“Looks amazing isn’t it? Have you heard of Northern troll’s meat? It’s tough if you eat it as is, but if you smoke it Northern-style, the taste is out of the world!”

“Pfft.”

“Hey, why are you laughing? This isn’t something you can eat anywhere else!”

She came to his side and bumped his shoulder, then pulled him along with a smile.

“Let’s go, let’s go! Let’s find a place with less wind and eat sandwiches together.”

I shouldn’t think like this, but...

If she has a tail, it’s probably wagging behind her like a puppy.

Clunk.

“Ah.”

Just then, Vivian came out of the medical room.

She was probably going to eat lunch, as she glanced their way, gave a small nod, and headed towards the dining hall.

Silverna looked back and forth between them, and after confirming Vivian had gone far enough, she asked.

“Did something happen? Even though she looks like that, she’s usually quite friendly with people.”

“Well...”

Isaac briefly explained that he seemed to have touched a sore spot, and Silverna nodded with a complicated expression.

“I’ve never heard of anyone increasing their mana capacity either.”

Neither have I.

Even in the future, 10 years from now, he hadn’t heard or met someone who had successfully done that.

Silverna glanced at Isaac, who was wearing a troubled expression, and carefully asked.

“So, are you going to give up?”

“Huh?”

“Are you going to give up on Aura?”

“No?”

When Isaac replied as if it was obvious, the corners of Silverna’s mouth twitched upwards.

“But why? I mean, with your mana capacity, it seems impossible...”

“It’s always been like that.”

Isaac let out a bitter smile as he followed Silverna’s footsteps.

“Impossible, futile, delusional. I’ve heard those words so much that I’m used to them. I don’t really feel much when I hear such things anymore. Besides—“

The truth that Vivian had spilled out didn’t even scratch Isaac’s will.

“My efforts haven’t been meaningless.”

Isaac added, scratching his cheek.

After all, it was the knowledge he accumulated during his days as the Ink Sword that made him the way he was right now.

He was still laying the groundwork and doing the preliminary work, but...

He was clearly moving forward one step at a time.

“You’re such a punk.”

Seeing this, Silverna slapped his back and laughed.

“None of them is meaningless, huh? You should try to pray to the Goddess every night.”

“Why?”

“You never know. The Goddess might suddenly be moved by your prayers and give you an ‘ultra-mega-super gift’!”

Silverna raised both hands exaggeratedly.

Somehow, their conversation had turned into a rather silly one.

“Ultra-mega-super? Don’t you think that’s too much?”

“No! Because ultra-mega-super is ultra-mega-super!”

“What are you even talking about?”

“Never mind! Let’s find a place to eat! Sandwiches with smoked Troll meat are ultra-mega-super delicious.”

Is she in a good mood because of how well she performed today? Well, whatever.

Isaac brushed it off and looked around, then hesitated for a moment.

“But are you sure this is okay? Eating with just the two of us?”

“Of course! We’re friends, aren’t we?”

“W-Well, yeah...?”

“So, stop saying strange things, my married friend!”

What’s going on...?

Isaac was sure that his rejection the other day—using his married status as a shield—was clear, but...

It felt like she just used his married status as an excuse to approach him freely.

“What’s wrong, my married friend? If you want to call your wife to eat with us, go ahead.”

“No, it’s fine.”

Isaac’s answer was sharp as a knife.

“I thought so.”

Unfortunately, Silverna’s mischievous whisper was stolen by the Northern wind, and failed to reach Isaac’s ears.