Chapter 17: Instructor Lee Han (3)

The one who spat out such foul words was Damien, the second son of Count Paulet. He was muttering one thing after another after getting caught in a surprise that his voice was louder than he expected. The reason for that was probably because his surroundings were death silent when he spouted those words.

However, the volume of his voice wasn’t the important thing here. It was the fact that he had spit out such insulting words to other people and everyone found out about it.

My academy life…

Now that he knew for sure his image had been damaged from the very beginning, he felt sick on his stomach.

As for him insulting the knight…

He didn’t care. After all, the knight was nothing but a demoted knight. He was perfectly sure that the knight wouldn’t dare to challenge him to a fight just because he swore at him. Unless he wanted to pick a fight with a Count—

“Was it you?”

“…Huh?”

But, contrary to his expectations, the knight on the stage spoke to him arrogantly. Because of that, Damien was a beat late in responding.

“You dare speak informally to me, you rude bastard?!”

The next moment, he saw a glimpse of the podium flying towards him, then his vision went black.

Kwaaang-!

In an instant, the silence in the Entrance Ceremony was replaced by chaos.

…Meanwhile, other people were dumbfounded because of the scene.

What just flew?

For that big podium to just fly like a ball like that…

It was clear that they had a lot to say about this, but they couldn’t bring themselves to say them all out loud. Instead, they focused their stares at the instructor who was standing on the stage while hiding their complicated feelings.

“That was my bad. I wanted to throw a glove, who knows the podium would fly away with it.”

-…

“No, no, I’m serious. You see, I couldn’t hold back my anger because of the insult just now, so I tried to throw a glove at him. I didn’t expect that the podium would also fly together with the glove. Whatever the podium was made of, it’s too light, I think.”

As if trying to convince everyone that he was serious, the man blamed the podium. Because of that, everyone’s expressions turned complicated.

What’s the deal with that crazy guy?

Meanwhile, Damien still hadn’t come to his senses—well, he was hit by a podium, after all—so, the people of the Paulet Family made their move in that instant.

“Damien!”

“How dare you! To be so mannerless in this kind of place—!”

The Paulets who were sitting in the VIP seats glared at the instructor, as if they were going to tear him apart at any moment. They fully directed their blazing murderous intent at him.

Meanwhile, Lee Han…

“What a load of bullshit.”

Just laughed mockingly at them.

It went without saying that it only added more fuel to the Paulets’ already burning anger.

“You bastard!!!!”

Swish-!

A knight from the Paulet Family drew his sword. In an instant, an incredible force rose from his body. The swirling haze that came from his body was reminiscent of the hot aura of flames.

This was a type of murderous intent.

It was a skill that could be awakened by martial artists who had reached an extreme height in their Combat Techniques. Not only that, it was a level higher than the swordsmanship that Yord had shown the other day; A testament to how outstanding this knight’s skills were.

And the sword of such a skilled knight was being aimed at the crazy instructor. Before anyone could stop it, that sword had already moved to stab its opponent.

However…

Whoosh!

“Huh?!”

Before the sword was able to pierce his opponent, a hatchet already flew through the air and disrupted the knight’s concentration, causing him to hesitate for a moment.

Not long after, he realized that he shouldn’t have hesitated there.

“Hwaaaaak!”

“Huh? Why are you acting as if I’m the one who started it?”

Bam-!

When did he—?!

Like a bird, diving down to catch its prey, Lee Han approached the knight in an instant. He grabbed the knight’s arms, the back of his neck, then he proceeded to lift the knight’s body up. In that position, the knight began to hang down like a puppet with its strings cut off.

Because his feet were not on the ground, the knight became unable to fight back.

Boom-!

Then, his head struck the ground first.

“Keuuuuuuuuk!”

He let out a horrible scream.

If he hadn’t trained his neck, it would probably have broken from that alone. However, even if it wasn’t broken, the shock of being thrown from a high place already made him pass out. Also, even if he managed to hold on to his consciousness, the shock had also paralyzed his body.

But, despite that…

Boom-!

Lee Han did not stop.

Still holding the knight’s neck, he lifted him up once again and slammed him back down.

“Keuuuk!”

The knight swung his sword in counterattack, expressing his strong will to survive, however, it was nothing more than a vain struggle, as he wasn’t able to do anything to his opponent.

Thud-!

“…Impossible—!”

“This is why I trained my body, you know?”

The knight tried to stab Lee Han in the stomach, but his effort ended in vain.

This surprised him—rightfully so—since there was no way he’d know just how tough and durable Lee Han’s muscles and bones were.

While he might be able to cut his skin, he would never be able to pierce his flesh.

After all, this was the same body that had endured all those spars with an Aura User for three years straight. There was no way that it would be so weak.

Nevertheless…

“Well, that wasn’t bad.”

Boom-!

Lee Han praised the bastard’s determination before slamming him into the ground again.

Boom-!

One time, two times, three times…

He held the knight’s nape and repeatedly struck him against the wall and floor for a grand total of five times, as if testing to see whether his opponent would give in first or if he would get tired first.

A normal person would get exhausted after doing such a rigorous action repeatedly, but that wasn’t the case with Lee Han.

Instead, he’d jump into the air, trying all kinds of poses, each different from the previous ones, as if he was trying to kill the knight for real. It was clear that he was trying to relieve all the stress he had built up.

His flow was just different.

No matter how strong the body of a trained knight was, there was no way that he’d be able to endure such repeated attacks. Lee Han was confident that he could overpower the knight’s body easily, even if it was as strong as cast iron.

At that moment…

“Stop-!!!”

Boom-!

“Keuk…”

Clench-!

…Fortunately, the knight did not die. All because another knight blocked Lee Han’s final free fall attack with his whole body.

However, just because another knight had blocked it, it did not mean that the first knight was unscathed.

“…I thank you for stopping.”

“Well, I still need an explanation. After all, you’re basically interfering in the middle of a ‘duel’ here.”

“…That is true.”

The middle-aged man who stood in front of Lee Han nodded. Whether it was the right thing to do or not, at the end of the day, it was him, Count Paulet, who intruded on this duel, tainting the honor of the knights who were participating.

Additionally, it was also the knight of his family who drew his sword first, declaring the start of the duel on his own; a duel that would only end when someone’s head was cut off.

That was how a duel between knights was. Winning or losing was determined on whether one was able to take their opponent’s head or not. This was the tacit rule that had been kept for a long time.

And this was why Lee Han strangely acted like a proper knight, as he went on and connected everything with honor and whatnot.

It was a dumb and reckless move, but it worked.

Then again, the reason why it worked in the first place was because of the overwhelming might he had shown just now. If he were to come off even a little weaker, it would produce a totally different outcome than this.

“…I’m Count Roden, the head of the Paulet family.”

“I’m Lee Han. The demoted knight.”

“…First, please forgive me in place of my foolish son who mistakenly insulted you as well as the Silver Lion…”

“If only you said those words before this guy attacked me, we’d be able to save all the hassle, don’t you think?”

As the two of them were talking, the knight was still dangling in Lee Han’s hands. His eyes were rolled back and it wouldn’t be strange if he were to lose his life at any moment.

Count Roden stared at the knight with sad eyes before opening his mouth again.

“Yes, I should have stopped him—”

“No, you shouldn’t have just stopped him back then, you should have stopped him from the start. If I had been pierced by this guy’s sword, I know you wouldn’t even think of coming forward. You only did because you thought that this guy was about to die.”

Crack-!

At that moment, a sinister sound echoed. It came from the knight’s throat, which indicated that even if he were to survive this, he’d need to recuperate for a while. Well that also meant, as long as he survived, there was still hope for him.

“He’s the vice-commander of my knights and also my disciple. Even though he has a rough personality, he’s too good of a talent to be killed here. Please, I will take all the blame and offer my neck to you, so please, show him some mercy…”

Clank-!

Roden put his sword down and knelt. He was literally offering his neck to save the life of his young knight.

It was such a noble sight that moved all the students and guests in the hall who were taken aback and left speechless by the sudden duel.

A knight or a noble who valued honor and nobility would have praised the Count for the sight alone and forgave all his wrongdoings. Unfortunately for the Count though, Lee Han wasn’t such a person.

“No.”

-…

To him, honor and nobility held no value whatsoever.

Once again, the people were left speechless.

“…Is that guy crazy?”

“What in the…”

“Is that a human, or an ogre?”

“A-Ah…”

The hall was filled with all the people’s exasperations. There were also resentments slipping in due to the vicious action of the instructor for not showing any mercy despite the Count’s show of nobleness.

But, even though most of them felt that way…

“…He’s amazing.”

Some people thought otherwise.

“My lord?”

“That knight is excellent. Indeed, one needs to thoroughly trample whoever stands in their way.”

“…?”

“He’s also extremely skilled in actual combat. Did you see that, Jack? He completely took away his opponent’s rhythm by throwing that hatchet out. You can’t just learn that. That’s something you need to hone through countless combats and training. That knight is something else.”

“I-Is he really? I could only see him as someone who’s just forcefully using his strength…”

“That means you’re not skilled enough. Those who are, will know. In a duel between swordsmen who have reached a certain level, two things became more important than anything else. Psychological warfare and stealing your opponent’s timing. In both regards, that knight is excellent.”

“…Huh?”

His young master’s words surprised Jack. Not because he found out how skilled that knight was, but because it was the first time that his young master had ever praised someone like this. Which meant that knight had truly shown him something really shocking. After all, he wasn’t someone who’d often get surprised by the actions of others.

“We’ve already found a treasure, Jack.”

His master. Roen Dmitri de Lionel’s eyes sparkled as if he had found a jewel.

And he wasn’t the only one who reacted that way.

[Amazing…]

“Irene?”

[He’s totally my type…!]

“Huh??”

[Hehehe!]

“???”

The ghost woman, who had a different taste from others—preferring wild men over handsome ones—drooled.

Meanwhile, Lee Han was completely oblivious to the fact that he had unintentionally attracted the attention of the target of his surveillance on the very first day of the mission.