Swish-! Swish-!

    “…”

    Today, too, the cadets of the Swordsmanship Department vigorously did their assigned rope jumping exercise. Some got knocked down by the rope, some gasped for breath due to exhaustion, and some blankly watched the instructor train his body.

    Though, what the instructor did was closer to self-torture than training.

    Even though they saw it with their eyes, they still couldn’t believe what they saw.

    “…Hey, Young Master. Is it normal for knights to train like that?”

    “Lay down the sarcasm and just refer to me by my name, Mercenary.”

    “Hm… But you’re doing the same.”

    “You started it first.”

    At that moment, a young man and a boy bickered.

    Though they were both of the same age, the Mercenary King’s disciple was big and had a rugged body, making him look relatively older compared to the boy; the descendant of a famed noble family. However, the latter, Arno Offen, envied the former, Galand, as unlike himself, who looked rather childish, the other guy had a manly appearance.

    Of course, he refused to show that jealousy in any of his gestures.

    “…It’s obvious, isn’t it? What kind of knight would do such crazy training?”

    “He’s doing it right now, though?”

    “Even I found it hard to believe, even though I have been seeing him doing it from the start.”

    “…I see.”

    What they were seeing was someone effortlessly swinging a club with 80 kg rebar attached to it.

    It was the kind of sight that was so hard to believe—even if Arno were to tell someone else about it, no one would actually believe him.

    Torn-! Torn-!

    Every time he swung the club, an ominous sound would come out of the instructor’s body. At a glance, it sounded like his bones were screaming that they were breaking, but if one were to pay closer attention, it sounded more like his muscles being torn apart.

    And the latter was correct, his muscle was indeed tearing apart. The shrieks really did come from his muscles.

    “Ugh!”

    However, it wasn’t the instructor who let out such a groan, but his students. They involuntarily let out such a sound because they had experienced that kind of pain beforehand.

    It was one of the phenomena that someone would experience when they underwent systematic training to strengthen themselves from childhood; the pain of muscles being torn. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call it an internal injury, and it was gruesome.

    “That hurts. Kunta hates anything that hurts.”

    Kunta, a boy with an exotic appearance and awkward way of speaking who was a head taller than Galand—even though he was quite tall himself—shivered. Though his personality was rather naive, he was more innocent than naive, that was why the expression he made felt more sincere than the others.

    In any case, the fact that such sounds came from the instructor’s muscles was proof that he was experiencing something painful beyond imagination.

    This fucking hurts— No, actually, ‘hurts’ doesn’t explain the pain enough…

    He felt as if a knife was cutting into his burning flesh. The more intense his training was, the more severe the pain was, making it even more unbearable.

    Or at least, that was supposed to be the case…

    “Instructor, hurt?”

    “It does. It’s bearable, though.”

    “…Instructor. Weirdo.”

    “I’m not a weirdo. This is something that any knight can do.”

    “…Lie.”

    It was a blatant lie that even the naive barbarian wouldn’t fall for.

    After that, Lee Han tried to make the barbarian lift the club once, but Kunta just moved away from him. He still observed his training until the end, though.

    Boom-!

    “Huuuu!”

    The ground vibrated as Lee Han put down the iron club. He lightly wiped his sweaty body with a towel before tossing the iron club somewhere. Then he immediately picked up his special jump rope.

    It was a 50 kg rope. Though the rope itself was only ‘slightly’ heavier than the 10 kg ones the cadets were holding. The thing that made the difference in weight was the 20 kg dumbbells that were attached to each handle.

    He wanted to make the rope heavier, but it would make it too big to spin, so 10 kg was the limit.

    While he genuinely felt that it was a shame, he believed in the saying, ‘When the world gives you lemon, you should use it to make lemonade,’ that was why he tried to make up for it with the dumbbells instead. Anyway, he started his exercise with such a rope.

    Swish-! Swish-! Swish!

    Slowly but steadily…

    His muscles trembled as the number of his jumps increased one by one.

    There were times when Lee Han made a mistake and the rope ended up hitting his skin with a ‘paat’ sound, but he just ignored the pain and continued to jump.

    Thump-! Thump-! Thump-!

    The floor shook every time he jumped, making the cadets unable to even stand properly.

    What was that?

    The students stared at him blankly, unable to hide their shock.

    “Why are you guys just standing like that? How long are you going to slack off?”

    “Y-You can still talk even in that kind of state, Instructor?”

    “Even if I can’t, I’ll still make it so that I can nag you slackers.”

    “…I’m not a slacker.”

    “That’s exactly what a slacker would say.”

    “Hng—!”

    Hearing what he said, the group of young masters started jumping again.

    I swear, this accursed rope—!

    One day—! I’m going to break it to pieces—!

    Swish-! Swish-!

    With their hatred renewed, they turned the rope at a much slower speed than Lee Han.

    Way slower, actually, it was unfair to even compare their speeds. Even though Lee Han’s rope was much heavier than the one they used.

    “…How much stronger do you want to become, Instructor?”

    “At least I want to always be stronger than you guys.”

    “…”

    After hearing his answer, the cadets looked even more shaken than before, because they couldn’t sense any traces of lies from his voice.

    **** * ****

    Lee Han wasn’t embarrassed to be seen by others while training. If anything, making people train while only watching them was the thing that made him uncomfortable.

    At the very least he needed to seem like he knew how to do what he ordered them to do himself. Also, if he were to practice along with them, wouldn’t it serve as a great stimulus to those kids?

    When I’m done with this, I should wrestle with Kunta.

    He rated the barbarian pretty highly. Not only was he more skilled than anyone else in bare-handed combat, he was also probably the strongest among all the cadets in terms of bare-handed combat.

    And that fact made it even better, because the barbarian was strong enough to become a practice partner for Lee Han’s martial arts techniques.

    Although Lee Han had a higher winning percentage than Kunta in their fights until now, the reason why he won most of the time was because he was just way stronger than the barbarian in terms of brute force. Kunta still got him beat in technical prowess.

    In addition to Kunta who was his martial arts sparring partner, he also had a sparring partner for swordsmanship and spearmanship in Arno and Galand.

    He also wanted to spar with Roen, but…

    That guy is avoiding me for some reason.

    Is he afraid of approaching me because he might reveal his true intention if we got too close to each other?

    Or maybe he’s just a weirdo.

    Well, whatever it is, I can only guess.

    Lee Han couldn’t just force him to spar with him because it felt like he was also [guessing] something about him.

    The incurable disease unique to war veterans…

    Lee Han could sense it from him.

    …I guess even regressors have their own troubles.

    No way I’m gonna open that can of worms.

    It’s none of my business anyway.

    At that time.

    “I-Instructor.”

    “…Hm? Do you have anything to say, Cadet Number 2?”

    “My name is Irene, Instructor. But more importantly, why am I number 2, not number 1?”

    What she was trying to say was, why wasn’t she number 1 when they were neighbors and she was the first cadet to meet him.

    Well, Lee Han called her that because she was Surveillance Target Number 2, but there was no way he could tell her that, so he made up a proper-sounding excuse instead.

    “Who told you to fail the physical test so often? You’re the youngest chicks so your number should be the lowest, but since I know you, I made you number 2 instead. Be grateful for that.”

    And thus, such a shameless lie was born.

    “…Slapping me with harsh cold reality like that… You’re terrible, Instructor…”

    “What’s terrible is your physical strength, Cadet Irene.”

    “Ugh…”

    Irene Windler. The only mage in the Swordsmanship Department.

    When the other cadets first saw her, countless male cadets blushed and tried to shyly avert their gazes from her.

    Because her appearance was just as beautiful as a fairy.

    Long blonde hair that looked like gold thread, and eyes that looked like blue jewels. Even her skin was as white as porcelain without any blemishes.

    Her beauty was comparable to the fairies, the mystical race renowned for their beauties.

    Not only that, she was also a mage, someone with special mystical ability.

    Those facts alone were enough to steal the hearts of the male cadets in one breath.

    But now…

    Seeing her in that way after seeing how bad she performs physically is just impossible…

    Everyone looked at her with concern rather than adoration.

    It was as if they were looking at an ocean sunfish that could die at any moment.

    Honestly, it was quite shocking.

    Even the noble ladies who had limbs as thin as tree branches would jump rope a hundred times before gasping for breath when they first did it. But Irene was different.

    How could someone fall down to the ground after doing just three jumps?

    Irene was drenched in sweat—as if she had been standing in the rain—while gasping for breath after doing just ‘three jumps’. If it was the heavy rope that she was using, it would be understandable, but it was just a small rope.

    On top of that, she looked like some kind of marionette when she jumped.

    How the hell did her limbs move in different ways during a jump?

    Since it was that severe, Lee Han started to suspect that she had some defect in her body.

    He even took her to the priest in the recovery room, trying to see if she had some kind of hidden illness, but the priest only said so in disbelief:

    -It seems like she just has a serious lack of stamina? How is this possible? How did you live your daily life to have such low stamina? Even if you are a mage, you should still be strong enough to do small tasks, but why is your body in such a state…?

    Later, Lee Han found out that the problem lies in the fact that Irene basically abused her magic in every single aspect of her daily life.

    She was so talented in magic that she could utilize the basic magic [Telekinesis] like it was her own hands and feet.

    -When did you start living like that?

    -Uh, ever since I can use magic?

    -So when was that?

    -…When I was 12 years old

    -…

    In other words, she was like a patient who had been lying in bed for seven years. That was the reason why her stamina was weaker than that of a 3-months-old baby. She ironically had a body as weak as a real chick even though Lee Han named her group ‘chicks’ as a joke.

    When it came to strength, this girl was the number 1 in that group.

    From behind, of course.

    “Huf… Cadet Irene, who is weaker than all the members of the chick group. Have your eating habits become better?”

    “I-I’m eating a lot of meat and vegetables, just like you suggest.”

    “Good. Well, Cadet, you don’t need to worry about your health right now, you just need to eat something. You need to gain weight first before you can do anything, so eat at least five meals a day, understand?”

    “…I understand.”

    “Do you really understand? This is a matter of survival. Survival! If you want to live, you need to eat more!”

    “…I understand.”

    Such a doubtful answer from her…

    Only made Lee Han grow even more uneasy.

    Sure enough…

    “Are you really restraining yourself from using magic as much as possible?”

    “A-About that…”

    “…Please, at least try not to use magic when you go to school. I’m saying this for your own good.”

    “…I understand.”

    …When will this chick become stronger than a chicken?

    No, before that, will she ever grow to have as much stamina as a normal human being?

    Now I know why those rofan main characters fall over so easily. Their bodies are just way too weak!

    Rofan’s female leads always had one unique trait; they fell over easily, got hurt easily, and got sick easily.

    Now Lee Han finally found out the reason why it was the case.

    When Lee Han gave her a pitiful look, Irene felt a pang in her heart.

    For some reason, she felt extremely embarrassed.

    [At least you know how embarrassing your state is, Arin. I still feel ashamed of you, though.]

    Shut up, you bitch! Stop rubbing it in!

    I used magic because it was convenient! I didn’t know that I’d become as weak as a patient because of it!

    In a way, her decision to attend the Swordsmanship Department’s class was a stroke of genius. If not, she would have become an ocean sunfish that would die by simply stepping on a pebble.

    Besides, I can jump 10 times now!

    […That’s not something to be bragged about.]

    The ghost girl nagged at her harshly.

    As Irene blushed in shame, trying to shake off that feeling, her instructor opened his mouth again.

    “So, why did you approach me? Do you have something to say?”

    “Oh, right!”

    Startled, she opened her mouth hurriedly. She forgot her original purpose because of the small talk just now.

    “It’s nothing big, it’s just, I think someone will interrupt the class today. That’s why I wanted to apologize in advance…”

    “Someone will interrupt the class? Oh, ‘that’?”

    “…Pardon?”

    “I’m talking about that, you know, that.”

    “…”

    Irene turned her head slightly at that moment. That was when the person Lee Han pointed as if he was a piece of trash came into her view.

    And without realizing it, Irene…

    “Oh! Yes! That!”

    Ended up calling Professor Odwal Bernard of the Magic Department ‘that’.


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