The Heavenly Knight

Chapter 16 - Holy Lion

Shinra Kazan and Kenzou Arata were both sitting in the living room, because he wanted to discuss something important to him.

“Kazan! Starting tomorrow, I’ll be training you with some light exercises! Yeah, just think of it as exercise!” said Kenzou Arata.

Shinra Kazan just nodded quietly, but inside he was actually smiling with joy—this meant he could finally start training little by little.

“In five—no, ten years, I have to reach the Light Level!” Shinra Kazan thought to himself.

Even though the training wouldn’t be intense, for Shinra Kazan, it was a golden opportunity.

“Come with me!” said Kenzou Arata, then stood up and led Shinra Kazan to his room.

Shinra Kazan found it confusing that Kenzou Arata was leading him into his room.

“Is there a secret place under his bed? Why is he keeping this place a secret? Even though he’s also a member of the Golden Lion Sect?” Many questions popped into Shinra Kazan’s mind.

It was common for all knights, whether from heretical or orthodox factions. They all had certain secrets unknown to anyone, even their own members.

“Let’s go down!” said Kenzou Arata.

Shinra Kazan galloped downstairs and followed Kenzou Arata, who was walking toward a large wooden chest.

The basement was small. It was only two square meters.

“This is the Book of the Holy Lion; it contains ten different techniques! I’m sure that someday you’ll be able to master them perfectly!” said Kenzou Arata, then handed the scroll to Shinra Kazan.

“Why are you giving this to me, Master?” asked Shinra Kazan in surprise.

“Shinra, even though you haven’t trained in anything yet, I’m still going to give this to you. You know that life is full of mysteries! Before it’s too late, I’m giving you this scroll, so keep it safe!”

Kenzou Arata explained that while this book wasn’t a magical tome like other ancient texts, it would be extremely useful to Shinra Kazan.

If one studies the book thoroughly and perfects every technique, then the knowledge from the Sacred Lion Book could become the deadliest art of all.

The book frequently studied in the Golden Lion Sect is a new book; it is a fragment of one of the Sacred Lion books, of which there are actually two.

A married couple of knights founded the Golden Lion Sect long ago;

The husband held one, and the wife held the other.

Each of these books has its shortcomings. To perfect every technique from the Golden Lion Book, one must possess both books.

One can conclude that the two books will complement each other and compensate for each other’s shortcomings if combined.

The wife has the Sacred Lion Book; Kenzou Arata possesses it. The students are studying the husband’s book.

“When you’re truly ready, study that book, but never use the Sacred Lion techniques in front of Masaki Raikou!” said Kenzou Arata.

Shinra Kazan nodded, then tucked the book away under his shirt.

“Do the Knights of this sect really not possess any enormous weapons besides swords, machetes, and the like?” Shinra Kazan wondered to himself.

“Let’s hurry out, and you should put that book in a safe place for now!” said Kenzou Arata.

***

The next day, Kenzou Arata and Shinra Kazan went to the foot of Mount Thousand Flowers. Kenzou Arata intended to train Shinra Kazan in secret there because it was the safest place.

While they were still on their way there, Shinra Kazan noticed that Kenzou Arata’s expression was a little different; it looked as if he were deep in thought.

When he returned from his assignment, Kenzou Arata didn’t go straight home; he stopped by Masaki Raikou’s house first to report that everything had gone smoothly.

However, Masaki Raikou brought up another matter—namely, that Shinra Kazan had been in his sect for three months.

That evening, Masaki Raikou caught a brief glimpse of Shinra Kazan as he passed by Kenzou Arata’s residence, and at that moment, he saw Shinra Kazan as if he were meditating.

This made Masaki Raikou very curious, and he asked whether Kenzou Arata had given Shinra Kazan any guidance on how to meditate.

He didn’t want other sects to accuse his sect of forcing a young child to learn and practice things typically done by students aged 7 and older.

Masaki Raikou emphasized that if it were true that Shinra Kazan was practicing adult-level exercises, he would not hesitate to confine Shinra Kazan.

Kenzou Arata was certain that wasn’t what Masaki Raikou meant; rather, Masaki Raikou didn’t want any other student to be more talented than his last student, Rensou Takeya.

To prevent Shinra Kazan’s talent from being wasted, Kenzou Arata intends to train him secretly.

According to Kenzou Arata, training Shinra Kazan early on would be better than having to wait another two years.

“We’ll be training here, so get ready for your first exercise!” said Kenzou Arata.

Shinra Kazan nodded; he just hoped that the training Kenzou Arata would give him wouldn’t be too excessive—especially if it pushed him beyond his limits.

“Before you train, you should first listen to an explanation of the basics of the exercises you’ll be doing.”

Kenzou Arata explained that even though Shinra Kazan was still young, there was something very special inside his body that other children didn’t have.

The body and muscle stretching exercises would be very useful for the development of the Black Blood Cells within Shinra’s body.

“The first exercise is to run slowly from here to that gigantic tree over there, and then come back here!” said Kenzou Arata.

The distance from where Shinra Kazan was standing to the large tree was only fifty meters, so according to Kenzou Arata, the exercise wouldn’t be too strenuous for Shinra Kazan.

“Is that all?” Shinra Kazan thought with a faint smile.

Shinra Kazan immediately carried out Kenzou Arata’s order, running with his small, nimble legs.

Kenzou Arata observed Shinra Kazan, who had already covered 20 meters;

Shinra Kazan successfully reached the large tree in question, then turned around and ran back to the starting point.

Kenzou Arata furrowed his brow when he saw that Shinra Kazan’s breathing was still steady even though he was almost back at the starting point.

“Am I seeing things?” Kenzou Arata rubbed his eyes repeatedly, unable to believe that Shinra Kazan was already standing in his original spot.

“If you can still manage it, run some more—and you can rest if you get tired!” said Kenzou Arata.

Kenzou Arata wanted to see just how strong a child born with Black Blood Cells could be, so he put him to the test.

Shinra Kazan nodded, then started running again, and this time Kenzou Arata would count how many laps Shinra Kazan could manage.

“Two! Three! Four! Five! No way…!” Kenzou Arata swallowed hard as he counted Shinra Kazan’s laps.

Shinra Kazan ran as if he wasn’t tired at all; in fact, he still looked incredibly energetic.

Usually, during their first training session, new students aged seven to eight could only run two laps.

But Shinra Kazan managed five laps, and even then, he was still running. Kenzou Arata didn’t know that Shinra Kazan had actually been practicing breathing techniques for the past three months.

“Stop, Shinra!” said Kenzou Arata.

“What’s wrong, master? Is the training over?”

“No! The training continues, but I’m going to change the exercise to lifting your own body weight with both hands as support, then lowering and raising your body—do this five times!” said Kenzou Arata.

Shinra Kazan immediately obeyed; he got into a push-up position, lifted his body with both hands, and then lowered and raised himself repeatedly.

Kenzou Arata began counting Shinra Kazan’s repetitions, and in no time, five repetitions had passed, and he was already up to ten.

Shinra Kazan got through twenty repetitions and stopped at thirty.

Shinra Kazan couldn’t continue past thirty because his arms were aching.

“You’re truly amazing, Shinra! At not even six years old, you’ve already run six laps. Add to that the exercise of lifting your body up and down thirty times—it’s truly hard to believe!” praised Kenzou Arata.

“It seems handing the Holy Lion Scroll to this child was the right choice. Now I must obtain the other scroll so Shinra can master the Holy Lion Technique perfectly!” thought Kenzou as he looked at Shinra.

Kenzou felt overjoyed because he finally had a student who clearly possessed talent.

Even Masaki Raikou had been hesitant to accept Shinra, but Kenzou had no doubts—especially since he remembered Haruki’s request that Shinra Kazan study under his guidance.