Chapter 27: The Knight Finds It Rewarding Being an Instructor (1)

The moment Baltar Grace’s name was mentioned, excitement rose in everyone’s face, regardless how calm they were previously. An understandable reaction since this was an opportunity for them to learn from the top knight of the kingdom. No, actually, even if they couldn’t learn from him, just meeting him face to face would already be an incomparable gain for them.

That was how significant Baltar’s presence was.

“…He isn’t lying, right?”

Though it was just a muttering directed to no one in particular, those words were still considered as rude. After all, despite everything, Lee Han was still a knight, and he had even sworn by the honor of his Knight Order. Common sense dictated that there were no knights who’d go against his words after swearing in the name of his Order.

“I am not.”

And surely enough, he nodded without even an ounce of hesitation.

Since he clearly declared that he wasn’t lying, half of the cadets in the Swordsmanship Department swallowed dryly as greedy desires rose up in their hearts.

He’s still an active knight… Could I beat him…?

It should be impossible to beat him using ordinary methods, but if I wear him out, maybe—!

I need a good strategy, a good strategy—

The cadets started racking their brains to come up with something. Well, it was a little too much to expect those children to come up with an outrageous strategy to beat an active knight, especially when they had no way to know of the knight’s strength in the first place.

Though that didn’t mean they were stupid for doing this, they were just a bunch of simpletons.

And the biggest simpleton of them all…

“Kunta, going forward.”

Was this man who spoke with a funny accent because of his awkward pronunciation. He was a warrior from the jungle, grassland, and desert who wasn’t yet familiar with the continent’s common language, a warrior who reminded Lee Han of a certain handsome black panther. He was none other than a brave warrior from the Barbarian Tribe, who was famous for their mystical nature.

“Kunta, son of Urba, the great warrior who serves the white-feathered snake…”

Whoosh-!

“…Request a duel!”

The S-shaped single-edged sword the man wielded reflected the sunlight and gleamed magnificently. Khopesh, also known as the sickle sword or the circle sword. It was a sword that was notoriously difficult to use, but once someone mastered it, all those who faced up against it would be having trouble dealing with it.

At that moment, a resonance phenomenon happened to the sword that the barbarian wielded. However, it wasn’t Sword Resonance, it was merely a phenomenon that happened to someone who had almost attained the Sword Resonance.

But, this alone showed how familiar the barbarian was with the sword he wielded. At the same time, it also showed how skilled he was with it.

Seeing that, the cadets realized that the barbarian warrior wasn’t weaker than them at all, but rather he was far stronger than them.

They let out a vexed laugh.

With that level of strength, even the instructor would find it difficult to deal with him…

It’s finished.

Though they held jealousy towards the barbarian warrior, at the same time, they also hoped that he would be able to hold the instructor back as much as possible.

Right now, his strength would work in my favor—!

Bam-!

Rumble-!

As they thought so, they suddenly saw Kunta’s body flipped over and fell to the ground.

“???”

Meanwhile, Kunta just blinked, not even realizing that he had already lost.

“What the heck? What happened!?”

“I-I couldn’t see anything—!”

That series of events happened so quickly that no one could see it properly.

While the cadets were left baffled, Kunta, who was still lying on the ground, was lifted by the instructor.

…How could he lift such a big guy with ease?!

“Your stance and swordsmanship was good, but you’re arrogant, that’s why you lost without a chance to fight back. So, tell me. Why did you let your guard down?”

“…Kunta never let his guard down.”

“My ass. You let your guard down because I’m smaller than you, right?”

“…Kunta was told not to bully those who are smaller and weaker than Kunta.”

“That’s what we call letting your guard down, you dumbass.”

Bang-!

The instructor flicked his finger lightly at Kunta’s forehead, but that was enough to cause him to fall backwards.

That simple finger flick managed to knock over a 2-meter-tall man.

“Ugh!”

“Next time, don’t ever let your guard down. Keep doing that, you’ll end up dying someday.”

“…Kunta will take your advice to heart, Instructor. But, what was the name of the technique you used? It’s Kunta’s first time seeing that kind of close combat technique.”

“It’s called the shoulder wheel.”

“Mm, Kunta will remember that.”

And just like that, Kunta accepted his defeat and trudged back to his original position. Even though it was a humiliating defeat for him, he didn’t seem to take it to heart.

After that…

“Who’s next?”

-…

“Come out quickly.”

Even though Lee Han said so, the cadets were all silent.

In reality, Lee Han hadn’t done anything special. He just dug into his opponent’s body before striking his wrist with the palm of his hand. In other words, he just used the so-called open-hand strike.

He snapped his wrist to release the strength in his palm, all while taking his opponent’s sword away and lifting him up with his shoulder before throwing him away.

The principle behind his attack was very simple.

Of course, he also used a similar move to the Energy Penetrating Attack that Baltar had used against him the other day in his open-hand strike, but it was so poorly executed that he felt embarrassed to even call it a technique. In the end, it was just a simple strike that anyone could block if they wanted to.

However, that simple technique…

“Keuk!?”

“How are you so weak? And you called yourself a swordsman?”

Managed to drive all the cadets helpless.

16 consecutive wins.

That was Lee Han’s current winning streak number, which meant, there were that many people whom he had slammed to the ground.

And during all that matches, he defeated them all by only using either the shoulder wheel or joint-locking them. As he used these guys as practice targets, he could feel that his skills were gradually improving.

Seriously though, why are these guys so weak?

Lee Han looked at them with a pitiful look.

Aside from his first opponent, Kunta, no one else caught his attention. At best, they were only a little better as practice targets than the ugly rag doll that he had.

After finding out that the cadets were only at this level, dissatisfaction quickly filled his heart.

They’re all talk.

When he fought against that Lake guy the other day, Lee han realized that the kingdom had a lot of skilled knights besides Baltar. But, after seeing the states of these cadets, he couldn’t even pray for the kingdom’s future.

The reason why they lost wasn’t just because he was overwhelmingly stronger than them.

But rather…

Most of these guys don’t even have good basics.

Because there weren’t many cadets who had a solid foundation. Out of the sixteen people Lee Han had faced so far, only two of them had it, which he found it hard to believe.

This is a problem…

He had been hearing how everyone praised these guys as elites, but seeing them all directly only left him with disappointment more than anything.

As Lee Han was thinking so…

“…Ho, finally.”

When he saw the two people standing in front of him, his furrowed brows finally relaxed.

“My name is Arno, Instructor. Arno de Offen.”

“My name is Galand, Instructor.”

“…Two of you?”

“Is there a problem?”

“Of course not. If anything, I’m glad that someone finally started using their brain.”

From the very start, Lee Han never said that the fight would be strictly one-on-one. On the contrary, he told all the cadets to come at him.

That was why he praised these two’s intelligence, because at the very least they understood the implication behind his words.

Shiing-!

The two of them came at him, one wielding dual swords, one wielding a spear. They both were quite skilled, probably on a similar level to Kunta, the guy who first challenged him.

However, unlike Kunta, they didn’t let their guard down. On the contrary, they were going all out from the very beginning. Which meant, Lee Han shouldn’t also let his guard down and foolishly get hurt.

Guess since I’d gotten rid of some of the weaklings, the famous ones are coming out.

Of course, Lee Han knew who these two were. Even though he mostly didn’t care about the cadets, they were too famous for him to ignore, after all.

One of them was the eldest son of the famous Offen Family, the family who had produced countless swordsmen and generations of military generals. Meanwhile, the other one was the disciple of the great mercenary who led the legendary mercenary group, the Wolves of the Wilderness, the Mercenary King.

In truth, just like Kunta, both of them were too skilled to enter the Academy. Lee Han believed that they should just apply to be a knight right away instead.

“So, why are you guys here? You wanna play around in this place, is that it?”

“I came here because I wanted to challenge Young Master Roen to a duel, but… I am already satisfied enough to be able to duel with someone of your skills, Instructor.”

“As for me, I want to become a knight. It should be better than becoming a mercenary, I think. But, I want to enjoy my youth a little more rather than applying to be one right away, so yeah.”

“…You two are weird, do you know that?”

“I don’t think you have any right to say that, Instructor.”

“That’s not for you to say.”

Now that such satisfactory guys had appeared, a happy smile appeared on Lee Han’s face. For the very first time, he picked up a wooden sword.

Though it was weird to see him picking a wooden sword against those two, who were using real weapons, since he had beaten everyone with bare hands so far, one could tell the level of his sincerity this time.

This meant that he regarded these two men’s skills highly.

“I appreciate it, Instructor.”

“You’re still not using a real sword?”

“I could, but I don’t want to kill you guys by accident.”

“…”

“…He’s as scary as my old man.”

Whoosh-!

Arno swung his sword, marking the end of their conversation. In his left hand, he held a short but wide military sword, while in his right, he had a slightly longer sword than the one in his left.

Generally, dual wielding was nothing more than a futile endeavor, but Arno wielded his two swords with ease, showcasing his expertise with this particular sword-wielding style.

Whoosh-! Whoosh-!

As he dished out one attack after another with one hand, he waited for an opportunity to strike with his other hand, just like a scorpion preparing for an attack.

But of course, his swords weren’t the only thing that Lee Han had to deal with. Galand’s spear that approached him without an ounce of hesitation in it was not an ordinary spear either.

Bang-!

Just from a glance, Lee Han could already tell that this spear, which possessed both a blade and a spearhead was extremely heavy.

Actually, rather than a spear, it was more like a polearm. However, unlike an ordinary polearm, Galand’s polearm had a unique shape that resembled the famed oriental halberd Sky Piercer¹. He swung such a polearm down with enough force that it looked like it could cleave Lee Han in two.

Everything happened in an instant.

Every time a ‘clank’ sound echoed, sparks would fly, followed by a fierce cracking sound.

Whenever Arno’s two blades were swung, they would left trajectory of lights, meanwhile Galand kept on dishing strikes that were powerful enough to break rocks.

Boom-!

Even a knight would find it difficult to withstand these two’s attacks.

However…

“Hoooooo…!”

The outcome of this was unbelievable, as the two of them were the ones who got tired first.

Both of them were drenched in sweat as they looked at Lee Han as if he was some kind of inhuman creature.

What is this pressure I’m feeling…?

Is breathing always this painful…?

“…Instructor, I know this is a rude question, but… Are you really a human…?”

“Crazy…”

The two cadets were so shocked that they even asked such a stupid question.

Then again, no one could blame them.

One of them was someone from a prestigious family while the other was a disciple of the Mercenary King himself. Both of them had an extremely strong pride, but they decided to swallow it and work together as a team just to defeat Lee Han. And yet, this was the result of that…

“Of course I’m a human. I’m just a little stronger than you guys.”

Lee han didn’t even take a single step back during their fight. Even so, not only did he block all of their attacks, he also pushed them back with strong enough force to the point that they fell backwards every single time.

Moreover, even though he was wielding a wooden sword, it was their weapons that were wailing, as if they were going to break, not his wooden sword.

That wail made their wrists and arms tingle and because of that, they could only look at him with confused eyes.

Meanwhile, Lee Han…

“You two’s problem is that your spirit is a little weak. Well, it’s okay, you both still aren’t fully mature yet, you are bound to have some weak points. As long as you can fix those weaknesses, everything’s going to be fine.”

“…Are you trying to say that we’re weak?”

“Just say it outright then…”

“No, you aren’t. It’s only your spirit that’s weak.”

“…How so, though…?”

“Well, if you have a strong spirit…”

You’d at least be able to do something like this.

Lee Han took a deep breath after deciding that it would be better to demonstrate it to them rather than to explain it.

He gathered all the air he could gather in his lungs, as if limit testing it.

And then…

“Haap━!”

He let out a loud roar.

But no one could properly hear that roar.

Tingle-!

It was just a simple roar.

On top of that, it was a roar that they could barely hear.

It was something that anyone could do.

However, everyone who heard it, especially the fainthearted ones, immediately sank to their knees.

“Keuuuk…!?”

“Kehuk!”

In front of the spirit Lee Han let out, their legs gave out.

As if that wasn’t enough, some of the cadets even almost fainted because of that roar.

The roar of a beast.

Both Arno’s and Galand’s bodies froze due to that roar. They tried to move their bodies, but they couldn’t even if they tried their best to.

“…Fear?”

It was Irene, the mage, who managed to define the phenomenon.

This phenomenon was similar to how large monsters could sometimes make people faint just by using their spirit. It was the same principle that made rabbits scurrying off in panic whenever they were facing a bear.

“I called it the Lion’s Roar, because, well, it’s similar to the roar of a lion, don’t you think so?”

“…”

“Anyway, do you get it now? That’s what we call spirit, the determination to bite down and overwhelm your opponent. If you can easily overcome this level of spirit, it’ll be possible for you to make me take a step backward, but currently, you two are lacking in this regard. Well, it’s probably because you both have been growing up in a greenhouse, so I won’t blame you for it. As long as you experience more real battles and gain more experience, your spirit will eventually mature. In other words, time will solve everything.”

“…Instructor, are you really a human…?”

While listening to Lee Han’s words, they asked him that.

They had the feeling that even if they trained so hard until their limbs broke down and gained more experience than anyone could gain in this world, their spirit still wouldn’t improve to that level.

At that moment, both of them plopped to the ground with a thud.

They tried to keep standing, but they couldn’t.

Seeing them like that, Lee Han threw them a smile. His face looked so refreshed, as if he had just finished warming-up.

And then…

“It’s your turn now, come out.”

“…”

“No one else’s gonna try and challenge me anymore, but you’re different, aren’t you? Well, of course if you don’t want to, you don’t have to come out. Your choice.”

But, who exactly was the person those words were directed to?

Lee Han’s words were like a provocation, which would tick any other person, but this person actually responded as if he had been waiting for this moment.

Step-!

“Of course I do. If anything, I’m the one who’s wishing for this the most out of all of us here.”

A black-haired nobleman stood in front of Lee Han before drawing his sword. At the same time, Lee Han let out a laugh, thinking that he could finally have some fun from now on.

Roen.

The guy Lee Han presumed to be a regressor, as well as the Surveillance Target Number 1.

In his heart, Lee han…

Here comes the big guy~

Was secretly looking forward to this fight.