Chapter 4: I Am Knight Lee Han (2)

After he finished his morning training, Lee Han thoroughly washed his body. He’d hate it if people around him say that he reeked of sweat.

When he was done with that, he ate again. After all, consuming enough nutrients was just as important, or maybe even more, as the exercise itself.

This time around though, his food of choice was stew. Last night, he boiled everything he needed to make the dish; a bunch of meat, veggies, tomato sauce, and many more. Surprisingly enough, stew was one of the dishes where he could gain various nutrients from since the ingredients themselves varied.

In the case of stew, even if one only used cheap ingredients, as long as one were to boil it long enough, the ingredients would become softer and easier to digest. Moreover, he could use commonly available herbs like tomato sauce and basil to enhance its taste.

“Huuu… That was a nice meal.”

After eating, it was his time to rest. His resting time was also something that Lee Han paid close attention to, just about as much as his food. This time, it was a short 30-minute REM sleep session.

Though it wasn’t as effective as a deep sleep, one still could gain numerous benefits from REM sleep. It had a short but powerful effect in helping to recover physical stamina and mental fatigue.

After that brief sleep, Lee Han stood up and stretched.

Stretching, exercising, a deep sleep, and taking some nutrients after waking up. Swordsmanship practice, body cleaning, taking some more nutrients after everything was done. A short Rem sleep, followed by another round of stretching.

That was the routine that Lee Han always took at the beginning of his day.

It had been this way for about three years, and he hadn’t missed doing it even for a single day. Even if he was beaten up to pulp by the knight commander, who, at this point, was more like his archnemesis than anything, he still did all of his routine the very next day.

If anything, after getting beaten up by him and recovering the next day, I feel better than before. A shitty feeling, but hey.

As for why he stubbornly continued doing this kind of crazy training, it was because the training was effective. Obviously if someone were to train their body to the point that it broke down and healed it with the recovery power of a troll, their body would only become stronger.

Though the progress was only as fast as the crawling speed of a snail, it was still ‘progress’. Even if his strength and stamina only increased by 0.01, if he kept on doing it for a hundred days, eventually, they’d increase by 1; repeat this for a thousand days, they’d increase by 10.

After vividly experiencing that, Lee Han trained steadily.

While some people would be driven to despair if they found out that their effort would only get them 0.01 worth of progress, for him—someone who wasn’t a noble, had no proper teacher, and only had his body to train with—that meager number was like a beacon of hope. Besides, sometimes he’d get 0.05 worth of progress, or even 0.1, so it wasn’t all that bad.

And more importantly, the sense of accomplishment he felt from all those progress that he gained was incomparable to anything else. He genuinely believed that he was quietly moving toward self-perfection.

“…Phew… But, seriously though… When the hell will I win…?”

However, people were not machines. Sometimes, depressing moods would come to Lee Han uninvited. And today was that kind of day for him.

It wasn’t such a good day for him.

As Lee Han walked away from the outskirts of the castle, where the peasants and commoners lived, a bustling city greeted him. It had an overwhelming majesty worthy of its status as the capital of the Pendragon Kingdom.

The closer he got to the royal castle, the more crowded the area became, and the more often he’d see enormous buildings that were as sturdy as those in modern times and sculptures that could be considered as true works of art.

Originally, the city wasn’t as big as this. But, since the kingdom’s power rose after the previous war, the kingdom decided to develop the capital to match its status. If someone were to show the current city landscape to someone who was familiar with the old landscape, they’d probably stand in a daze for a while, finding it hard to believe how different they were.

When Lee Han entered the part of the city where the capital’s nobles lived, he saw the royal castle, showcasing all its grandeur. It wasn’t a wonder that some people would look at it with longing eyes.

Even Lee Han admitted that the castle was nothing short of splendid, but…

“…I really don’t want to go there…”

He wore a distorted expression. Even if he tried, he couldn’t make it more clear that he didn’t want to go there. He even stopped walking for a few minutes, as if he was having a fierce war of nerves inwardly. Eventually, he let out a sigh before making his way to the castle gate since it wasn’t like he had another choice.

Then…

“Salute! Sir Lihan!”

“Good morning, Sir Lihan.”

“Yes yes. Thank you for all of your hard work… Also, my name is Lee Han, not Lihan.”

“But, what’s the difference?

“…”

Grandfather… The honorable Deokse Lee Clan is being ignored by people of the medieval world.

Should I beat these guys up?

[Stop saying nonsense, you brat! Just do your job.]

…Okay…

For some reason, he felt that his grandfather from his previous life would say something like that if he were to complain to him, so Lee Han just shook his head and showed the guards his credentials; a necklace that looked like a dogtag.

The guards then illuminated the necklace with a magic item, which turned blue when they did. It was a technology that reminded him of a fingerprint or iris recognition device, and it made him realize once again how amazing magic was.

“No problems found. Please do your best at work today too, Sir Lihan.”

“I don’t want to…”

“Haha, your joke is as funny as always, Sir Lihan.”

“…”

This punk… What did he find so funny about that, huh?

Lee Han entered the castle with an uncomfortable feeling since he felt that everyone was happy except him. No one knew about this, but he was currently quite stressed. If someone decided to mess with him right now, he’d certainly unleash all his stress toward that person.

Please, someone, just one guy, please, come and mess with me…

Holding that kind of anticipation, he quickly headed to the outskirts of the compound, where the knights were gathered.

“It’s Lihan.”

“He came.”

“What do you think will happen today?”

“The commander is here, right?”

The people here, donning the same armor as Lee Han—silver armor, with a white lion engraved on them—welcomed(?) him as he walked into the area. Of course, they did it quietly while avoiding his gaze.

Spineless fuckers.

If a commoner barges into your place, shouldn’t you nobles glare, swear, and pick a fight with them? Do something… I don’t know, kill them? Push them into a trap? Hell, you just throw assassins at them.

But these fuckers just don’t have any balls at all.

I missed those ballsy guys from before.

What Lee Han was talking about were the knights from the noble families who once tried to stab him and send assassins to kill him. They were his source of fun since whenever his stress piled up, they would give him a legitimate reason to beat people up.

But there were no such people anymore. Perhaps because he had beaten up so many of those guys, at some point, people stopped confronting him so aggressively. Seeing how things had changed made him think about how cruel the passage of time was. Time truly had changed everything.

It was my bad, I should have kept some of them around.

He felt regretful toward his past actions, he really thought that he should let those chihuahua-like guys run around so that he could beat them up whenever they asked for a fight.

His eyebrows furrowed due to this small regret that he felt.

“Why are you making that kind of face, Lee Han? Who are you trying to kill today?”

“…If I tell you, would you try to attack me?”

“Of course not. What kind of lunatic would willingly attack a monster like you?”

“Oh, stop being wussy.”

“I’m not, you punk.”

Although he hailed from a noble background, this man, Jake, was someone who didn’t look down on Lee Han even though he was a commoner. He was one of the few friends Lee Han had in the Knight Order.

Also, he was someone who could pronounce his name correctly. On top of that, his skill was among the strongest in the Knight Order, making him a good target for Lee Han to vent his anger, even if he only acted as a sparring partner.

“Don’t look at me like that. I’m not sparring with you.”

But, Jake didn’t even give Lee Han a chance to pick a fight with him, as if he was trying to prevent a crisis from happening. All in all, he was a sharp guy.

“You’re a noble. If you see a commoner acting arrogantly like I do, grab your sword and kill him. Why can’t you do such a simple thing? Tsk tsk tsk.”

“…I don’t know much, but I know how narrow-minded your view about nobility is.”

Jake entered the Knight Order at almost the same time as Lee Han. That was why he knew how much conflict Lee Han had with the nobles during his early days in the Order.

Of course, he also knew what exactly happened to the nobles who dared to clash with him.

I still get goosebumps whenever I think about it…

The shock he felt on that day still left a deep impression on Jake.

Back then, a particular knight tormented Lee Han to the point that Jake genuinely thought that he was going too far. But then, that knight got even more aggressive for some reason. That triggered Lee Han and turned him into a beast worthy to be called ‘Demon’ and beat the living daylights out of that knight.

Other knights rushed in to stop him, but all of them ended up getting injured so badly that they had to recuperate for a while. Still, if they didn’t try to stop him, the outcome of that brawl would have been worse.

Actually, if the commander hadn’t stepped forward that day, three knights would have lost their lives right there and then…

After that, people in the Knight Order screamed that Lee Han should either be expelled or punished, but the knight commander ignored all their voices. It might seem like the commander was protecting him, but Jake and few other discerning members of the Order knew better. Lee Han wished for them to take revenge on him, and he’d also gladly welcome the expulsion.

In fact, if it weren’t for the commander, Lee Han would have retired a hundred times over. If anything, the commander was a shield that hindered him rather than protected him. It was to the point that Jake thought the commander was being too much, but then again, he understood where he came from.

After all…

That guy is strong.

Lee Han was simply too talented to be let go.

When Jake said that he didn’t want to fight him, he meant it from the bottom of his heart.

In Lee Han’s view, the knight’s training course was just so-so; neither harsh nor got him tired. It was all because they gave the knights a lot of time to indulge in self-training.

If anyone from the modern time sees this, they’d think we’re a Major League’s Team or something.

He heard that in his previous life, most Major League’s Team’s training was left to the players themselves. They’d spend their own money and make their own time for training, thoroughly hone their individual capabilities to survive in the environment of endless competition, the Major League, so that they were able to keep their status as a Major League Player.

Similarly, most of those who held the title of a knight were students of a famous knight or came from noble families and received support from their families. As a result, they tend to practice on their own to hone their individual power and never try to show off their training methods to others.

After all, not only their training method itself was a secret, it was also their asset.

They all definitely have something like that.

Just like recipes that had been passed down from generation to generation for hundreds of years, those Knights were just like Treasure Goblins. If one were to comb through all the things they had, they’d get surprised by various unexpected things.

Like what currently happened.

Bang-!

Kwaang-!

Two knights were facing each other, each holding unsharpened training swords. Every time their swords clashed, sparks would bloom, creating a spectacular sight. But, the exchange of the advanced swordsmanship that happened was even more spectacular than the sight of the spark itself.

Pak-!

At one point, the sword that one of the knights wielded bent like a whip, creating more pressure on his opponent. But, the surprising thing here was that the opponent broke through that attack without hesitation. He even managed to dish out three swings of counterattacks even when he was being put under such a pressure.

“It’s really gorgeous.”

It was a feast of splendid swordsmanship that had nothing to do with Lee Han; a precious experience that was both pleasing to his eyes and provided him with satisfaction just by looking at it.

…Of course, just because he saw their swordsmanship in play, it didn’t mean he could imitate it.

Aren’t reincarnators in novels all talented people? Especially when it comes to copying other people’s skills. So, why can’t I be like them?

Of course, it wasn’t like he had never tried copying the knights’ swordsmanship before. In the beginning, he sparred with a lot of knights and tried to do exactly that, but instead of copying it, he only became more confused. He just couldn’t understand why the sword moved the way it moved and how all those poses produced so much destructive power.

Then, he heard that a family with a little history possessed something called Combat Techniques. If someone were to learn it, they’d be able to gain skills and make them as strong as ten ordinary men. He also heard a story about those families trying all kinds of stuff just to awaken their Aura. Whether they succeeded in doing so or not, Lee Han still thought that those were amazing. Because those Combat Techniques were just like the ones they used in the murim novels that he used to read back in his previous life.

…I envy them.

“Everyone is so talented.”

“Says you.”

“What?”

“Haaa.”

Huh? Why does this guy suddenly get so aggressive?

Wait, maybe he finally wants to fight—

“For your information, I will not spar with you. Ever.”

“…Ehh.”

Hearing those words, Lee Han was clearly disappointed.

Of course, Jake wasn’t the only one who held that sentiment. Other knights also didn’t want to spar with him, so he was left with no way to relieve his stress.

These punks—

“-Senior Lihan!”

“…Huh?”

“I request for a spar!”

“…OHO!”

Huh, it seems like I was wrong.

There’s still some useful guys in this place, hm?

A bright smile appeared on Lee Han’s face.