Ren glanced over at Mandy, who was now carefully folding his dress with meticulous attention to detail... smoothing out wrinkles, aligning seams, treating the garment like it was valuable equipment rather than just clothing.

"Keep those disguise items close and easily accessible..." Ren instructed. "We don’t know when I’ll need you to transform back into a girl, it could be tomorrow, it could be next week. Hell it could be in an hour if circumstances change."

Mandy’s eye twitched involuntarily, but he caught himself before the annoyance could show on his face. He sighed instead.

"...Alright, my lord," he said with as much dignity as he could muster.

’Please let it be never,’ Mandy thought miserably as he bent down to carefully pack the wig, dress, and fake breasts into his spatial storage ring. ’Please let that disguise never, ever be needed again. I’ll pray to the Goddess everyday if that’s what it takes.’

But he knew better than to voice that wish aloud.

Ren then turned his attention to Eternia, who immediately bowed her head down the moment his eyes landed on her with her purple hair falling forward like a protective curtain to hide her face from view.

"What kind of skills can you use?" Ren asked directly.

He wanted to know if she had any of the abilities mentioned in the original novel... even just the starting stages that could be developed later. If she did, they could work on refining and strengthening them over time through proper training.

He didn’t really need to earn her trust or bond with her emotionally or make her like him.

That would be nice, certainly, but it wasn’t strictly necessary for his plans. As long as she understood he was competent enough to protect her and strong enough to be worth following, and as long as she made a genuine effort to grow stronger herself, that was sufficient for his purposes.

’Besides,’ Ren thought while watching her carefully, ’I’m pretty sure she had some kind of power that could suppress Awakened Caliburn in the later story arcs... I saw speculation about it on Reddit back in my old world, so it’s probably true even if the specifics were never fully explained in the Chapters I read.’

He vaguely remembered that everything related to her unique abilities stemmed from a skull-shaped mark on her back... which was some kind of hereditary curse or blessing that granted her anti-holy powers specifically designed to counter divine weapons.

If she could suppress Caliburn even when the Holy Sword reached its Awakened state, that would make his life infinitely and immeasurably easier in the future when he inevitably wanted to bully Jace some more.

The woman bowed her head all the way down to the ground in a gesture of absolute submission.

She stuttered as she spoke.

"A-apart from being able to shift my lower body into a snake’s tail," she said haltingly, "I... I can’t do anything else. I have no other skills... no magic... no special abilities... I’m useless, I know, I’m sorry, please don’t—"

"Oh," Ren said simply.

Eternia immediately raised both arms to cover her face in a defensive gesture, flinching as if expecting a blow.

"P-please don’t hit me again!" She cried out. "I’m sorry I’m worthless! I’m sorry I can’t do anything! Please don’t..."

Ren’s eye twitched in irritation.

’She’s making me sound like some kind of abusive woman-beater who goes around hitting people for no reason,’ He thought with annoyance but he didn’t respond verbally to her pleading.

Instead, he simply focused his attention on her and pulled up her status screen.

A translucent blue window materialized in his vision.

...

『 Name: Eternia 』

『 Age: 17 』

『 Race: Snakekin 』

『 Relationship: Slave 』

『 Affection Points: 0 / 100 』

『 Hearts: 0 』

『 Emotional State: Terrified, Resigned, Faintly Curious 』

『 Likes: Sketching landscapes in charcoal, Sunbathing in quiet places where no one will bother her, Honey cakes with almond paste, Ancient history books about former civilizations, Being genuinely praised for her efforts (though she would never admit this to anyone) 』

『 Dislikes: Humans in general, Loud shouting that makes her flinch, Having her attempts at art mocked or dismissed, Cramped enclosed spaces with no windows, Her own weakness and inability to protect herself 』

『 Note: I hired you to conquer Heroines but you’re going after a Villainess?... Peak taste though, I’ll admit. Maybe you’re not as bland as I initially thought, you fucking human. 』

...

Ren read through the information quickly, filing away the details for future reference, then dismissed the screen with a thought.

"I won’t hit you unless you actually deserve it..." He said flatly. "Which means... don’t attack me, don’t disobey direct orders, and don’t do anything stupidly self-destructive. Follow those rules and you’ll be fine."

He gestured with one hand.

"Now stand up properly. Stop groveling, It’s annoying to look at."

Eternia hesitated for a long moment, clearly uncertain whether this was some kind of test or trap, then slowly pushed herself back to her feet.

She stood there awkwardly with her arms at her sides, not quite sure what to do with her hands or where to look or how to hold herself.

Ren then turned to Mandy, who had finished organizing his disguise items and was now standing at attention like a proper butler should.

"Mandy," Ren said, "why don’t you go prepare three swords and bring them out to the backyard of the inn?"

"My Lord..." Mandy said carefully with a hint of concern entering his voice. "if you’re planning to conduct some kind of intensive combat training, I must respectfully advise against it. It’s already late afternoon, and the carriage we hired will arrive in just a few hours to take us to Astelvern. We won’t have much time."

Astelvern.

Ren sighed internally at the mention of that Adventurer town’s name.

That was the town where the Hero’s aunt lived and worked as an A-rank adventurer with the professional title "Twilight Witch"... a woman named Astrid who was, according to the original novel’s plot, desperately searching for a husband but had impossibly high standards that no normal man could ever hope to meet.

According to the way the original author had written her character, Astrid had an entire mental checklist of requirements that potential suitors needed to fulfill before she’d even consider them as marriage material: strength, intelligence, good looks, noble bearing, combat prowess, and a dozen other criteria that eliminated ninety-nine percent of the male population.

...Which meant she’d been single for over a decade despite genuinely wanting to settle down and start a family.

"We won’t be doing intensive training," Ren said, addressing Mandy’s concern. "I’m just going to teach you two the absolute basics of sword fighting."

He leaned back against the couch, crossing one leg over the other casually.

"Until the Academy semester starts, we’ll all be working as adventurers in Astelvern to build up our reputations and gather resources. Or what, did you think you were going to stay back at whatever house we rent like housewives waiting for me to come home?"

Mandy trembled slightly at Ren’s words with his face going pale.

’What does he mean by learning the art of swords... from the Sword Demon himself?!’ Mandy thought with mounting horror. ’We’re going to die! This is how it ends! I’ll be beaten to death with a training sword in some random inn’s backyard!’

He glanced over at Eternia’s face, hoping to see some sign that she understood the danger they were about to face but she didn’t seem bothered at all.

Her expression was blank, neutral, showing no concern whatsoever about the upcoming training session.

’How would she know what we’re about to go through?’ Mandy thought despairingly. ’She hasn’t seen Lord Ren fight! She doesn’t understand that we’re about to enter absolute hell!’

"Mandy," Ren said. "Did I stutter?"

"No, my lord!" Mandy snapped to attention immediately, his butler training overriding his fear. "I’ll retrieve the swords right away!"

Then he looked at the torn, filthy rags that Eternia was wearing that was barely holding together, stained with dirt while offering almost no protection or coverage.

"My lord," Mandy said hesitantly, "aren’t we going to purchase proper clothing for her before we begin training? She can barely move in those rags without them tearing further."

Ren looked at Eternia with a critical eye, taking in her appearance properly for the first time since leaving the slave market then he shrugged.

"Why would I spend my hard-earned money to buy clothes for someone who hasn’t contributed anything yet?" He asked rhetorically. "She’ll wear those rags until she proves herself worth the investment. I paid a whole gold coin for her. That’s already more than generous so she needs to earn anything beyond that."

Eternia’s hands clenched into fists at her sides, but she said nothing.

With that declaration made, Ren stood up from the couch and began walking toward the back door that led to the inn’s rear courtyard.

The other two followed after him automatically... Mandy because he was a trained servant who obeyed orders, and Eternia because she didn’t know what else to do.

The backyard behind the temporary inn where they were staying was actually quite spacious... a large open field covered in somewhat overgrown grass, it was easily big enough to practice with even longer weapons like spears or halberds without worrying about accidentally hitting the fence or building.

A few weather-worn training dummies stood in one corner... left behind by previous guests or perhaps provided by the inn itself for adventurers who wanted to keep their skills sharp while traveling.

Ren walked to the center of the field, still shirtless with the afternoon sun illuminating his well-defined muscles and the various scars that marked his body from years of brutal training.

"Mandy," he said without turning around. "Pull out the swords."

Mandy reached into his spatial storage ring with a thought and withdrew three identical practice swords, each one bearing the Crowhurst family crest engraved on the pommel... a stylized crow with spread wings perched atop a thornbush.

Since Ren was a dedicated sword user who’d built his entire combat style around blade techniques, his mother Lady Stella had ordered Mandy to stock the storage ring with over two hundred Crowhurst family swords of various types: practice blades, real combat blades, specialized blades for different fighting styles, backup blades in case of breakage.

Mandy still didn’t understand why anyone needed two hundred swords, but he’d learned long ago not to question Lady Stella’s decisions.

He threw one sword toward Ren in a clean arc through the air.

Ren caught it effortlessly without looking with his hand closing around the hilt at exactly the right moment.

Mandy then walked over and handed one sword to Eternia, who took it silently without offering any thanks or acknowledgment.

Finally, Mandy gripped the third sword himself and took a basic ready stance with his feet shoulder-width apart and the blade held at a forty-five degree angle in front of his body.

’I’m not a bad swordsman myself...’ he thought with a slight bit of pride despite the circumstances. ’There’s a reason I won the selection process against ninety-nine other candidates to become Lord Ren’s personal butler. I can hold my own in a fight if necessary.’

But compared to this monster...

Ren had merely angled his face slightly to the side, just enough that Mandy could see the corner of his lips from his position several meters away.

A devilish smile was there... It was just... devilish. Like he was imagining all the terrible, sadistic things he was about to put them through.

Mandy could almost see the brutal training regimen forming in his lord’s mind... hours of endless repetition, corrections delivered through painful strikes and pushing them past their limits until they collapsed from exhaustion.

"I want each of you..." Ren said slowly, turning around to face them properly.

Mandy flinched involuntarily with his body tensing as he prepared for the order to attack his lord with everything they had.

This was it! The nightmare was beginning!

"...to do this exactly one hundred times."

’Huh?’

Mandy blinked in confusion.

’Wait... What?’

Why wasn’t Lord Ren telling them to rush at him? Where was the command to attack with killing intent? Where was the sadistic grin that usually preceded their most brutal sparring sessions?

Ren took one step forward and executed a perfect downward vertical slash with his practice sword.

WHOOOOSH!

The blade cut through the air with such speed and precision that it created a visible wind pressure as a sharp gust blew directly into Mandy and Eternia’s faces, making their hair whip backward and their clothes flutter.

"That," Ren said simply, bringing his sword back to ready position. "Do exactly that motion one hundred times... Focus on proper form: weight distribution, hip rotation, follow-through, recovery position. I’ll correct your mistakes as you go."

He looked at Mandy’s expression which had gone from terrified to shocked to confused in the span of three seconds and raised an eyebrow.

"Wait," Ren said with amusement. "Don’t tell me you actually thought I was going to make you two attack me directly in actual combat. That wouldn’t be training at all... That would just be me beating you unconscious for no educational purpose whatsoever."

Mandy blinked several more times then he sighed deeply.

"I apologize for doubting your intentions, my lord," he said formally then, inexplicably, Mandy raised his own fist and punched himself directly in the face.

THWACK!

"Ow!" He stumbled backward with a groan, clutching his now-reddening nose. "Stupid assumptions! Stupid fears! Stupid me!"

Ren stared at this display of voluntary self-harm with a mixture of confusion and exasperation.

"...Once you’re done with all of that self-harm," Ren said dryly, "Focus on the actual training since we don’t have much time, Mandy."

Mandy nodded sheepishly, lowering his hand and trying to look professional despite the tears in his eyes from punching his own nose.

A few minutes later, after Ren had positioned them at appropriate distances from each other to avoid accidental sword collisions, both Mandy and Eternia began executing downward slashes in synchronized rhythm.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Their forms were rough at first with Eternia’s stance too narrow and Mandy’s follow-through too short but Ren moved between them offering corrections in a calm voice.

"Eternia, widen your feet another two inches. You need a more stable base."

"Mandy, your recovery position is leaving you open. Bring the blade back faster."

"Eternia, use your hips more. The power comes from rotation, not just arm strength."

"Better... Both of you... Keep going."

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

After about ten minutes of this, once they’d both found a comfortable rhythm and their forms had improved noticeably, Ren walked away from them to focus on his own training in a different section of the field but he didn’t pull out his sword to practice any techniques or forms.

Instead, he let the practice blade rest against the fence and turned his full attention inward, focusing on his own capabilities and limitations.

He stared at his right hand, flexing the fingers slowly, watching the way muscles and tendons moved beneath his skin.

’I can use Blade Resonance to enhance not only actual sword blades, but also my fingers, my hands, even random objects like sticks or metal rods...’ Ren thought, channeling mana through his internal pathways.

Blue aura flickered across his index finger in a thin precise coating of compressed sword energy that glowed.

The technique transformed his finger into something harder than tempered steel and sharper than any blade forged in a normal smithy.

It was how he’d blocked that attack from Jace back in the city by meeting an actual sword with just his fingertip and stopping it cold without taking any damage.

The blue aura pulsed gently, responding to his will and intentions.

’But here’s what I’ve been wondering...’ Ren mused. ’Can I somehow expand Blade Resonance outward into space itself? Can I detach it from my body and turn it into a projectile slash?’

He already had Lightning Blade that allowed him to send arcs of crackling electricity flying at range, capable of striking targets dozens of meters away with devastating power but Lightning Blade was inherently visible and obvious.

Everyone could see the lightning coming so anyone with decent reflexes could dodge or block it if they were prepared.

Sword Aura was different.

It was pure cutting force manifested through mana compression so if he could somehow stabilize the Blade Resonance after detaching it from his body and send it flying through space as a cutting wave...

’It would be completely invisible,’ Ren realized with growing excitement. ’A technique that no one could see coming which is perfect for ambush tactics and perfect for cutting down enemies before they even realize they’re under attack.’

The problem was that mana normally dispersed almost instantly the moment it left physical contact with the body... it needed some kind of container or framework to maintain coherence in open air.

That’s why most mages used elemental spells: fire, ice, lightning, earth. The elemental substance itself provided the necessary structure to keep the mana from dissipating into nothingness but Sword Aura was pure mana shaped into cutting force through willpower and technique.

’Still,’ Ren thought with determination, ’if I could figure out how to stabilize it for even just a fraction of a second... less than a tenth of a second, that should be enough for the cutting wave to reach its target before dispersing.’

The other major problem was that he’d never, ever seen anyone else do this.

Elite swordsmen all across the known world in the novel possessed Blade Resonance... it was the fundamental technique that separated amateur sword users from true sword users but none of them, as far as Ren could determine from both the original novel’s lore and his own observations since arriving in this world, had ever used Blade Resonance as a ranged projectile attack.

Which made him wonder: was this actually impossible? Or was this something that simply hadn’t been discovered yet because no one had thought to try?

’Well then, there’s only one way to find out,’ Ren decided.

He channeled Blade Resonance onto his index finger again, coating it completely in that distinctive blue aura then he made a sharp, fast slashing motion through the air with all the proper form and technique... putting real force behind the movement, using his hips for rotation, following through completely.

... Nothing happened.

The aura remained stubbornly attached to his finger, refusing to detach or project forward into space.

He tried again, this time consciously attempting to push the mana outward with his willpower as he executed the slash, trying to force it to separate from his body but there was still nothing.

It was frustrating.

He experimented with different approaches over the next several minutes, trying everything he could think of...

Slashing faster to see if velocity would help tear the aura free, there was no result with that.

Slashing more slowly to give himself more conscious control over the mana flow, there was no result there.

Trying to throw the aura like someone throwing a discus, flicking his wrist at the end of the motion but the aura stayed there.

Attempting to forcibly remove the Blade Resonance after completing a slash, consciously willing it to disperse... but it wouldn’t budge from his finger no matter how hard he concentrated.

It stayed connected like it had been permanently glued there.

The technique was incredibly frustrating to work with when he was trying to modify its behavior in such a fundamental way.

After about five minutes of failed experiments, Ren decided to try one more thing.

’System,’ He thought. ’Do you know what I need to do here? Come on answer me you sick fuck.’

There was a brief pause then glowing blue text appeared in his vision.

『 Of course I know! For the very reasonable price of 1,000 SP, I can provide you with detailed, step-by-step instructions on exactly how to achieve ranged Blade Resonance projection, including the specific mana circulation patterns required, the precise mental visualization technique needed to stabilize detached sword energy, and three different training methods to help you master this skill efficiently! 』

Ren’s eye twitched in irritation.

’Why the actual hell are you charging me just for basic information and answers?’ he thought with growing annoyance. ’Aren’t you supposed to be my helper system? My guide? My support? Didn’t I also earn Employee of the Month status for exemplary performance? Shouldn’t that come with some kind of benefit?’

『 The 1,000 SP price is after your Employee of the Month discount has already been applied! The original full price for this information was 10,000 SP. The 1,000 SP is also calculated after tax deductions, after accounting fees, and after applying your special promotional discount for being Employee of the Week. You’re receiving an eighty percent discount from the base price and you’re still complaining? Ungrateful fuck! 』

Ren stared at the message for a long silent moment.

’You know what? You can go fuck yourself with a rusty sword. I’ll figure this out on my own through experimentation and practice like a normal person would.’

『 As expected of a Human 』

Ren genuinely could not tell if the System was sincerely praising him or mockingly insulting him in the most passive-aggressive way possible.

He tried the Blade Resonance projection technique a few more times with different variations, but nothing worked since the mana refused to detach from his body no matter what approach he took.

After about three more minutes of fruitless experimentation, he decided to give up on this particular training goal for now and shelve it for later when he had more time and privacy to really focus on solving the problem.

Instead, Ren turned his attention back to Mandy and Eternia, who were both still diligently executing downward slashes in that same rhythm they’d established.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Their forms had improved dramatically even in just this short practice session.

Eternia possessed surprisingly good natural form for someone who claimed to have no combat training other than enhanced strength.

Her snakekin physiology probably gave her better natural reflexes and muscle control than the average human baseline plus an instinctive understanding of how to move her body efficiently.

Mandy had even better technical form since his strikes were textbook perfect in their execution.

Both of them would make decent swordsmen with proper continued training and real combat experience.

Which was honestly all Ren needed from them for his plans.

He didn’t need elite subordinates who could match him in single combat... He just needed people who were skilled enough to handle themselves independently while he dealt with more important threats.

Soon, they both completed their hundredth repetition and lowered their practice swords, breathing heavily from the exertion.

"Very good work..." Ren said, nodding his approval at their progress. "Your forms are solid for beginners. Tomorrow, we’ll be increasing the training volume to one thousand repetitions per day instead of just one hundred."

"A thousand?!" Mandy blurted out before he could stop himself, his eyes going wide with shock.

Ren’s gaze slid over to him with a raised eyebrow and Mandy immediately straightened his posture to attention.

"I mean... yes, my lord! One thousand repetitions per day! Completely reasonable! Understood perfectly!"

Eternia said nothing, but Ren noticed the slight widening of her eyes.

She was probably wondering if he was serious, or if this was some kind of punishment, or if he was actually trying to kill them through exhaustion training.

Not actually... he just wanted them to get better at it.