I Reincarnated as a Shinai

Reiji returned to his dojo without being detected by the village's defense array.

Well, it wasn't surprising considering that his Mystical Energy Manipulation has leveled up to 5 already. This is due to his constant usage of the skill for the past five years. 

After all, this ability is unlike the others that he can purchase through the guide's help, he can't just spend his SP to level it up and can only increase it through his constant use.

"Master!"

Ruthren was the one to first notice Reiji's arrival. It was followed by Mio and Shiori.

"Mhmm… How's the selection?" The Sentient Arcana asked. 

After hearing the question, Mio and Shiori looked at Ruthren to let him explain.

"Master, we decided to conduct an assessment… Tomorrow there will be a final battle between six practitioners."

"Oh… Six of them? Tell me their names."

"Of course, Master. You are familiar with most of them as they've been your students. One of them is Vinete, the young lady of the Reboroz Village. There's also Imane and Mourad from this village. Then, there's the dual wielder Stasis. The ones that you're probably unaware of are Alee from the same village as Vinete and the other one is Droltob. He's one of the famous triplets in this village."

"I see…" Reiji nodded at this but he's thinking of something else.

'Hmm… Is this alright? I'm already planning to give them a chance to summon their Arcana since they're my direct students. Ugh… Well, I guess they'll work harder if they know that only a single chance is allowed for now.'

The sentient Arcana thought for a moment before he decided to keep it a secret and wait until the winner is selected before telling them that they would have a free chance at a later date.

After all, he couldn't summon an Arcana by himself! 

The Ancient Arcane Stone will just be wasted to him if he didn't use it. So he decided to change the future of these young children by teaching them Kendo and giving them weapons.

Aside from that, these young half-imps were also tired of their tradition of relying on the nine imp gods. They wanted to do something different and change the way of their life. 

Especially Mourad, he is the young man who wanted to avoid any activities that are related to hunting humans. He'd rather laze around than waste his energy on them.

Of course, if not for Reiji, he would still have to force himself to hunt humans in either of the two Kingdoms sandwiching them.

"How are Alee and Droltob's abilities?" Reiji asked since the two managed to stand equally to his four students.

"Master, they just got lucky as they didn't fight strong competitors at that time." Ruthren answered.

"Their skills are at the 2nd-Kyu, Master". Tenri added. 

She just arrived after waking Ayumi. The latter was still a bit sleepy but she wanted to show her respect to her master. 

"Second Kyu, huh… So you guys can already tell their skills as well. Very good. Anyway, who do you think will win among my students?" 

The sword slaves went silent as they were considering their swordsmanship skills.

However, Ayumi didn't think that long before she answered.

"I think that among your students, Stella would come out at the top."

"Eh?"

Reiji was confused. He was only asking about the four news students, but Ayumi probably didn't hear their previous conversation so she mentioned her name. 

However, he was still curious how she selected that young lady. After all, they barely know each other and most of the time, they will only hear Stella's achievements.

That's right, they already know her after mentioning it to them.

Apparently, in the past five years, they have returned to the Chodora Kingdom a total of five times that would take about a week in each visit.

They would do this to get some supplies that are extremely difficult to find in the unclaimed land like Arcane Potions, high-quality clothes, Magic Items, and even some hygiene things. 

Of course, they wouldn't forget to gather information about the latest news. 

They heard about the exploits of the Angel's Mercenary Squad. The squad is being led by a powerful and beautiful lady who was said to possess a Mythical Rank Arcana that could transform her into an Angel for a few moments.

The people that have seen her true appearance were scarce as most of the people who fought against her have died or wouldn't talk about her holy appearance. 

Aside from that, the Sword Slaves were also made aware that Stella was capable of fighting 10 Knight-Lieutenants of the Chaos Knights at the same time!

The only one who recently managed to stop her was a female Knight-Commander named Marian Fraser.

If not for her appearance, no one would've been able to contend against Stella at all, unless they decided to send their old Arcanists to fight her.

Anyway, her mercenary squad was only defending their base and didn't plan to join the Dukedom's conquest to expand their territory at all. So there wasn't much news about her unless the Kingdom decided to strike the Dukedom's headquarters.

In the end. Reiji listened to sword slaves' opinions about his students. This made him realize that Mourad was actually the most likable student within this land.

'Master… What's going on?' Szaaz suddenly asked as he was probably unable to take it any longer. 

He couldn't relate to their conversation and decided to take their attention.

'Ah… Right.'

Reiji was then reminded of his existence and introduced the Trident Arcana to his other slaves.

He doesn't have plans to just put the Arcana within his Storage Space as it would waste his potential. It would be better to bring him in his missions and fully use his abilities.

"Alright, I'll observe the competition tomorrow… Tenri and Mio, I want you to tell Szaaz about our current situation. He's been imprisoned for a very long time so he needs to get updated. Aside from that, learn the history from him especially about Nero then write them for me."

Reiji instructed. 

"Yes, Master…" They answered.

This Ancient Cursed Arcana was at the same generation as Nero and he would definitely know a lot of unknown things from the past!

However, he doesn't have the patience to listen all day long and let his slaves take note of the important things instead. He can just clarify it with Szaaz if he has some trouble understanding it or if he wanted more information.

After doing all of this, he finally went to his room to check the attributes of the items he found.