In Mushoku Tensei with an A.I. Chip

Of course, it was all a misunderstanding on his part. Like Luna, all of his personal guards had only started training eighteen months ago. While some of them may have had some experience of using weapons in the past, none had received any formal training before. 

The aura that radiated from the group of them stemmed from the body enhancing elixirs Luke fed them, as well as the Knight Training Manual they practiced. 

All of them had physical stats that now exceeded 4 points, and most had also instinctively learned how to use Touki. Although there wasn't a systemized way to impart Touki in the Central Continent, Luke had the A.I. Chip developed training regiments that could maximize the likelihood of developing Touki. 

Additionally, the Knight Training Manual also included techniques to expend their innate vitality and lifeforce to unleash a powerful attack. It became much easier for them then to understand the concept of 'drawing upon an inner strength' in order to develop Touki. 

The only one who failed to understand Touki was… Jude. Even after consuming Azure Ocean potions to increase his Magic Power, the dummy still failed to sense the expanded mana in his body. He was simply not able to comprehend Touki, and so failed to develop this crucial ability to strengthen one's body.

Despite his lack of Touki, Jude could still display strength, speed, stamina and durability at the level of Saint-rank Swordsmen only due to having gone through the Branded Swordsman procedure that increased his biological physique. Which meant that the power behind every move came only from his bodily strength, with no mana reinforcing him. 

All things considered, Jude would have been judged as a failure by Luke's exacting standards if not for one quality of his that Luke greatly appreciated–Jude had exceptional tolerance. 

The dim witted young man had taken to the Branded Swordsman procedure remarkably well. If he took off the black wrappings covering his entire body, the Boreas family would be treated to the sight of his entire body being covered in black brands inked all over as well as magic circles and arcane formations. 

Jude would have suffered from incredible pain during the procedure and afterwards when recovering as well. He had to be awake during the process, otherwise there would have been other complications. 

Others would have gone into shock halfway through the procedure or fainted from the pain. But Jude bore through it like a champ with only a grimace and occasional grunts. 

Although the magical tattoos ran throughout his body, there were large gaps in between magic circles—blank canvases left for future branding once the A.I. Chip enhanced the current procedure.

The ancient Branded Swordsmen in the Magus World could at most match a peak Rank 1 Official Magus, a limitation of their flawed design. But the Original had improved upon the procedure to create Branded Swordsmen that could rival Rank 3 Crystal Phase Magi. 

It was a pity that the knowledge was lost in transit when the Split Soul arrived on the Six-Sided World. Luke could only recreate peak Rank 1 equivalent Branded Swordsmen in the new world with his fragmented memories, but it was fortunate that the power system in this world was quite compatible with the procedure. 

The magic on the Six-Sided World was lot more malleable than the Magus World, and magic circles were limited only by imagination given enough time to experiment. 

These magic circles was engineered to take in environmental mana and enhance the Branded Swordsman's body's physique, not unlike Touki. The difference being it used pure mana to achieve the same enhancement rather than Touki. 

It was not difficult, following the successful transformation of Jude to a Branded Swordsman, for Luke to replicate the reinforcement of his physical body through the use of pure mana from observing first hand how the mana flow would function. 

Luke raised a hand and snapped his fingers. The sharp snap echoed much louder than it should have been, like a thunderclap in a confined space, though not as jarring or painful on the senses. 

This was also his first reveal of chantless magic, though the Boreas family had not thought too deeply about it. There was, after all, the existence of magic items capable of replicating the effects of spells. 

Only Ghislaine, who had superhuman senses, winced slightly at the loud sound. Her one unconcealed eye immediately focused on the young man with a questioning gaze. 

His personal guards all snapped to attention at the familiar sound. 

Luna immediately shouted out as the representative of the guards, "Salute to master!" 

They all simultaneously pounded their left chest with a closed right fist generating a thundering boom.

Luke let them hold their stiff and straightened salute for a moment before nodding, "At ease." 

"Form up!"! Luna instructed before running to the center of the room and the rest followed her lead, getting into ranks of five by four, with Jude in the first row while Luna stood in front of them. 

"What is your instruction, master?" The bunny girl asked, looking at Luke with an expression full of deference and respect. 

The young master of Notos Greyrat simply put up a hand, "At ease, Luna. We simply require the training chamber for a short while. Take a short break with the rest."

"Understood!" She snapped a firm salute with a fist to her heart, "You heard master! Take a break! Now! Move it!" 

The personal guards all quickly ran to the far side of the room where the benches were located before they all sat stiffly. Even while resting, the youths maintained perfect discipline in front of the person they felt they owed their lives to.

Like Luna and Jude, who each bore individual burdens when they first stepped into Notos Keep for the selection, every one of them had their own circumstances as well. Luke had, aside from offering them a lucrative job, training, supplements and security for their family, the young lordling had also provided solutions to their respective burdens – either through financial or magical aid, or exercising the authority of his status. 

As a result, even without any soul-binding oaths, Luke's personal guards each held intense loyalty to the one whom they addressed as master. Not just loyalty either. It was practically worship at this point. They had been commoners just 18 months ago. Now every one of them has reached Intermediate-rank at the very least. Jude himself, the strongest of the bunch, was even technically a Saint-rank warrior. 

Money, strength and most importantly–self respect and life-defining purpose. What Luke gave them was worth more than their lives, in their opinions. 

Luke looked amusedly at their antics, before turning back to his guests who seemed perplexed at the exchange, "Apologies. My men can be overly enthusiastic at times. Shall we?"

He gestured towards the now empty arena before moving towards it without waiting for a response. 

Ghislaine stopped Sauros, Pilemon, Hilda and Eris a fair distance from the arena's actual perimeter.

"You shouldn't stand too closely. He is a magician, after all."

Pilemon looked at the size of the arena that looked to be at most 15 meters across. It was clearly designed to be a ring for physical combat rather than magical ones. 

"I've seen you fight before, Ghislaine. Wouldn't you cross the distance in an instant and win immediately?" He asked, with a confused furrow of his brow. "He's not intending to lose on purpose is he?"

Sauros narrowed his eyes, a flicker of concealed anger burning behind them. 

The entire duel's premise rested on Luke having to 'prove himself stronger than Ghislaine', in order to meet Eris' unreasonable and impossible demand. Sauros had initially thought that the boy might stand a fair chance if the duel was started with sufficient distance between the combatants. 

Generally, a magician only stood a chance against a swordsman of equal rank if there was a fair amount of distance between them. The stronger the swordsman, the more space the magician needed at the start of a duel to buy enough time to chant incantations and cast spells.

With Ghislaine as an opponent, Sauros had initially believed they would be brought outside of Notos Keep proper, so Luke could have enough space and time to actually cast a spell before Ghislaine's blade reached him. 

Now, looking at the small arena, Sauros had come to the same conclusion as his son. That Luke was leading them on a wild goose chase without any real intention of putting in effort for the duel. 

Granted, Eris's demand had been unreasonable from the start. Sauros hadn't expected Luke to win, genius magician or not. But the least the lad could do was show a modicum of respect for the Boreas name and display some damn gumption before throwing in the flag.

Now that he was actually thinking about it, Sauros was getting angrier. 

"If he's going to waste our time like this then make sure to spank him a little harder than necessary, Ghislaine." The Boreas lord ordered with a whisper not audible for anyone other than the Beast race Sword King with enhanced senses… as well as Luke who only smiled faintly with his back turned. 

Ghislaine was slightly puzzled at their words. "My lord, I don't think he is trying to waste our time. Did you not notice it?"

Sauros quirked an eyebrow, "Notice what?"

"When he snapped his finger. It was abnormally loud. My ears are still ringing from the sound… It had to be magic of some kind, a magic item perhaps." She said, recalling through old and faded memories of her tribesmen using magical howls to stun their enemies. Ghislaine had, embarrassingly enough, never learned to do what had come naturally to her kin. 

Thus, she was tempted to take off her eyepatch to see through Luke's secrets with her Demon Eye.

The Boreas lord widened his eyes slightly in surprise before calming down the next moment. "I see. I understand now. Master Anthony definitely would have provided Luke with life-saving artifacts. He would not risk the life of his only disciple to a quick sword or stray arrow."

A Fire King, especially one that had worked for the Asuran Royal Family for as many decades as Anthony did, naturally would have more than enough resources to either buy or craft powerful magical artifacts for self-defense. 

Pilemon lifted his eyebrows in realization, "Magic items! So that's how he intends to win this duel! I would have said that he is being underhanded, but then again he has only just turned 10 years old…" 

"Magic items?" Eris blinked at their words, before loudly harrumphing, "As if Ghislaine would lose to anything like that!"

Sauros only laughed awkwardly. Now that he realized Luke was not trying to waste their time, his respect for the boy, who seemingly intended to put in his best effort, had grown even more. Yet, his own granddaughter was cheering for the Notos lad's defeat instead.

He wondered if he could get away with secretly asking Ghislaine to lose, but shook his head the next moment. 

Though Ghislaine was their retainer, she was still a warrior at heart. And this was no friendly spar, it was a duel for his granddaughter's hand in marriage! Ghislaine would never dishonor herself and Eris and her family in such a way by throwing the match. 

Sauros let out a helpless but resigned sigh. If Eris insisted on her unreasonable condition no matter what, then a matrimonial alliance between their families would simply be unfated. 

"Can you win, Ghislaine?" 

The Sword King shrugged, "I don't know what magic items he has, so I can't really say…" Then she glanced at Eris' expectant gaze and returned a confident but subdued smile. 

"But I will definitely do my best to defend my lady's honour." 

Eris, who usually hated being called a lady, grinned brightly. "Yeah! Go Ghislaine! Kick his ass! Defend my honour!" She exclaimed enthusiastically. 

Pilemon felt a sweat forming on his temple as he watched the exchange between the two in confusion. Why had this suddenly turned into an honour duel?

Ghislaine nodded resolutely, before turning to approach the arena, her body tensing with every step.