Edgar looked at Bai Shi and spread his hands helplessly.
“Me? What could I possibly think?”
“You don’t expect me to go to war with you, do you?”
“Or do you think if I said, ‘Godrick is my lord, don’t kill him,’ you would change your mind?”
Bai Shi shook his head.
“Of course not. Just stay here in Castle Morne.”
“Godrick still has to be killed. I’m just giving you a heads-up.”
Edgar sighed.
He had known this day would come.
But he would never have brought it up before Bai Shi did.“My opinion doesn’t matter, does it?”
“I don’t have a strong stance to defend.”
“Castle Morne is the land I inherited. I don’t have any special feelings for Godrick.”
“I follow his orders only because the castle I inherited is under his rule. If you want to kill Godrick, then kill him.”
Edgar looked at Bai Shi again and continued.
“Although I hold great respect for both the ancient king and for you.”
“My identity as a Banished Knight is merely something passed down to me.”
“That ancient glory is too distant for me, too difficult to grasp.”
“I don’t have a strong enough position to support either side, and being caught in the middle is very uncomfortable.”
“Besides, after the rebellion at Castle Morne, I just want to stay here and watch Irena grow up.”
Bai Shi nodded. Edgar’s position was indeed a bit awkward.
On one side was his family’s lord; on the other, the forces from his family’s homeland.
And he didn’t seem particularly close to either.
As the saying goes, he was caught between a rock and a hard place.
“However, I will still support you. I can provide supplies and information.”
Edgar chose to side with Bai Shi because he owed him a debt of gratitude, not because he was choosing to align with the storm.
After all, Bai Shi had saved Irena and resolved the rebellion in Castle Morne.
It was a debt Edgar had to repay, no matter what.
Hearing Edgar’s words, Bai Shi was relieved.
He didn’t want to come into conflict with Edgar, so this was an excellent outcome.
—
Leaving Edgar’s room, Bai Shi made his way to the door of Erlisa’s chamber.
After knocking, Bai Shi met with Erlisa.
Learning the ice storm in a single day was a difficult task, but Bai Shi still wanted to try.
At the very least, he could get a start on it.
After he explained his purpose, Erlisa readily agreed, as they had already arranged this.
Erlisa grabbed her curved sword and followed Bai Shi out of the castle to the open ground before the main gate.
The grass here was noticeably lighter in color than elsewhere; it was all newly grown.
This was the same spot where Bai Shi had once trained with Edgar, and now he was back to torment the young sprouts again.
Erlisa stood facing Bai Shi and held out a hand.
“Place your hand on mine. Let me see if you have the aptitude to learn the ice storm.”
As Bai Shi placed his hand on hers, Erlisa released a faint wisp of cold energy.
The wisp of cold drifted through Bai Shi’s body, occasionally getting blocked here and there.
After circulating through his body once, the cold energy returned to Erlisa’s hand.
Erlisa spoke, giving Bai Shi some bad news.
“Your aptitude for learning the Zamor Ice Storm doesn’t seem very good.”
Bai Shi knew it was probably because he had never put any points into Intelligence, so his affinity for magic was rather low.
Bai Shi frowned. This time, he was truly a simpleton.
“Then what should I do? Does this mean I can’t learn it?”
Erlisa shook her head and handed the Zamor Curved Sword to Bai Shi.
“It’s not that you can’t learn it, it’s just that it will be very slow. The Banished Knights who came to the snowy mountains back then generally had poor aptitude as well.”
“It took them a very long time to master it, but you probably don’t have that much time.”
“However, there is another way.”
“Since learning the Zamor Ice Storm directly won’t work, you can use the weapon skill to commit the path for unleashing the ice storm to your body’s memory.”
“This is just a clever workaround. You won’t be able to truly master the magic, but you will be able to cast it.”
Bai Shi understood. It was just like when he first started learning the storm-series skills, using his body to directly memorize their execution.
After that, with Edgar’s guidance, he was able to thoroughly master all the various storm-related skills.
But it was different this time. The Zamor Ice Storm was inherently a form of magic.
Bai Shi’s Intelligence was only nine, and his affinity for magical power was very low.
Even by forcing his body to memorize it, he wouldn’t be able to master it as completely as he did with the storm skills.
But that didn’t matter.
As long as he figured out how to unleash the ice and snow, Bai Shi could try to modify it himself.
He could replace the storm component of the Zamor Ice Storm with the storm he was most familiar with.
Even if the power of the ice and snow part was weaker, the strength of Bai Shi’s storm part would make up for it.
This way, he should be able to cast an ice storm with satisfactory power, even with insufficient Intelligence.
Bai Shi took the Zamor Curved Sword from Erlisa.
The blade had a unique design, with an exaggerated curve that resembled a frozen gust of wind.
As the weapon came into his hands, a memory of a Zamor warrior on a battlefield, wielding the curved sword and reaping the lives of enemies, surfaced in Bai Shi’s mind.
Only, the figure of that Zamor warrior was very familiar.
Bai Shi looked up and compared the figure to Erlisa. He could almost confirm that the figure was her.
Channeling his magic power into the Zamor Curved Sword, Bai Shi followed the guidance of the memory and plunged the blade into the ground.
The magic power was converted into ice and snow within the curved sword.
Then, with the blade as the epicenter, a storm of ice and snow instantly formed.
The frigid air froze the nearby grass solid, and as the storm raged, the ice shattered into pieces, dissipating into the wind.
After casting the ice storm once, the surroundings had been completely transformed into a frosted land, with even the soil frozen solid.
Bai Shi recalled the feeling of executing the skill just now.
He suddenly found that modifying it would be extremely difficult.
Although the Zamor Ice Storm had “storm” in its name, the dominant force was actually the ice and snow magic.
It used a storm to spread the ice, whereas Bai Shi wanted a storm that carried ice within it.
They sounded similar, but the actual difference was immense.
If Bai Shi had enough Intelligence, he could take the best of both and achieve an effect greater than the sum of its parts.
Unfortunately, Bai Shi was a warrior with an Intelligence of nine.
Magic was a completely foreign domain to him.
Even though he had cast it through the weapon’s skill, Bai Shi had no idea how it was done.
Let alone separating the ice and snow from the storm components and adding his own storm into the mix.
With a sigh, Bai Shi gave up on the idea.
He would wait until he could get help from Teacher Sellen to research it, or perhaps try to improve it after raising his Intelligence.
For now, he would just obediently imprint the process of casting the skill onto his body.
Bai Shi began to cast the Zamor Ice Storm over and over again.