Chapter 37: The Knight Hates Magic Freaks (5)

After all that, Lee Han and Odwal were called to the dean’s office to be reprimanded.

In Lee Han’s case, it was because he twisted Odwal’s wrist. However, since he did it by accident because Odwal grabbed his collar first—turning it into an extenuating circumstance, he was able to leave the office scot-free.

As for Odwal, the dean reprimanded him harshly. After all, not only did he trespass into another department’s territory, he also caused trouble there, so it wasn’t something that could be taken lightly.

However, he only ended up getting a six-month salary cut.

For someone with such a huge backing, that isn’t even a punishment.

Lee Han, who had heard a long time ago that Odwal got as much money as a regular faculty member’s monthly salary shoved into his pocket weekly from his sponsorship, knew that this punishment wasn’t a big blow to Odwal.

The dean probably knew about it too, and yet he still gave him that kind of punishment.

Did the dean take the money and filled his own pocket with it?

Lee Han couldn’t help but have such suspicions. However, he quickly realized that was just a misunderstanding.

“The dean is not in a position to care about the nobles’ opinions.”

“His family is rich, like, the top five richest families in the kingdom rich. Even if all the biggest noble families were to pressure him, he still wouldn’t budge.”

“If anything, if there were any nobles who dared to offer him a bribe, they’d be sent to the guillotine by the next day, haha!”

…The more I find out about him, the more I realize he’s such an absurd person.

Hearing all these facts he hadn’t already known about from the teachers that he befriended, Lee Han blinked his eyes.

“Then why did he only give him that much punishment?”

“It should be to protect you, Sir Totle.”

“Protect me?”

“Yes. While you aren’t afraid of Lord Odwal, Sir Totle, you are still all alone. Wouldn’t it be difficult for you to deal with the nobles who support Lord Odwal?”

“…?”

What? How would it be difficult?

He almost blurted those words out, but he decided that it would be better to just continue to listen to them.

“I believe the dean made that decision so that Sir Totle wouldn’t be harmed by the nobles.”

“No matter how strong Sir Totle is, you couldn’t just handle all those nobles by yourselves, after all.”

“Dealing with them will always give you a headache.”

They said such words with a bitter expression. From the look of it, they seemed to have some experience standing against those nobles. Then again, no matter how extraordinary their abilities were, they were still mostly commoners or fallen nobles, so they probably had dealt with this kind of trouble at least once or twice.

“It was a wise decision from the dean. That’s why, you should calm down now, Sir Totle. Unless you have a strong backer, it would be a foolish move to mess with Lord Odwal.”

“Hmm.”

They pat him on the back, trying to comfort him. Facing such a genuine gesture, Lee Han could only nod his head. The teachers smiled at his action. They now believed that the incident during the Entrance Academy was just a one-of thing. He wasn’t a violent person that would go out of control at the first sight of trouble, and he was quite intelligent too.

However…

A backer, huh?

The night after that conversation with the teachers, Lee Han took out a piece of stationery—a rare sight to see—and wrote some sentences in the paper, before sealing it, and handing it to the innocent maid.

A few days later…

“…You! It has to be you—!! There’s no one else but you—!”

Once again, Odwal went crazy and interrupted the Swordsmanship Class.

Facing the mage, Lee Han…

“What the hell are you on about?”

Just shrugged his shoulders, as if he genuinely didn’t know anything.

Then again, the only thing he did was…

I just asked someone I know for some [counseling], why the hell is he acting like that?

Lee Han looked at Odwal like he was someone crazy before the guy eventually grabbed the back of his neck and fell down.

Half a day later, the news about the nobles who had supported Odwal cutting off their support to him began to circulate secretly, causing an uproar in the academy.

An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.

Just like how poison could only be suppressed with poison, those in power must also be suppressed with those in power.

…Though, Lee Han had to admit that the poison he used was a tad bit too strong…

Lately, there was never a dull moment in the Academy.

To be exact, there were a series of topics that caught everyone’s attention, and everyone was busy talking about them.

-Professor Odwal picked a fight with a knight of the Swordsmanship Department.

-The instructor of the Swordsmanship Department broke Odwal’s wrist.

-Professor Odwal and a knight from the Swordsmanship Department were competing to win Duke Galahad’s adopted daughter.

-The knight from the Swordsmanship Department was favored by a great noble.

Regardless of the era, it seemed like people loved to spread rumors.

For the energetic young cadets who were always hungry for entertainment and stimulation, the fight between a mage and a knight was the best kind of entertainment they could get. They couldn’t help but wonder who would win between the two, as the topic itself interested them so much.

However, unlike his peers, when a certain gray-haired cadet heard of this noisy topic, he could only make a troubled face.

“No, this isn’t supposed to happen…”

The reason why he was troubled obviously wasn’t because of the childish bet that the other cadets started on who would win the fight between the mage and the knight.

…It was because the ‘story’ had become different from what he knew.

Odwal, Odwal… That guy is one of the main villains who will help the villainess Young Miss corner the protagonist, right? But why is he already appearing on stage?

If things went perfectly like he knew, there was still half a year left until [the main story] started, but things already went awry. All the information that the gray-haired cadet knew was proven to be wrong, and he was extremely confused by it.

At this rate… All my knowledge will become meaningless…

Luckily for him, he was smart, and he could rack his mind quickly. It didn’t take him long to review all the information he received and find out that one thing—or rather, one person who was involved in all the incidents that happened in the past.

…That instructor from the Swordsmanship Department.

Lee Han Totle.

He was the center of attention, and the only [character] whose existence he didn’t know about.

The boy pondered about that instructor’s name—which had become familiar to him at this point—and decided that he should meet the man at least once. If he could do that, he figured that he might be able to solve some of his questions.

But, there was just one tiny little problem with that plan…

“Hey.”

“!!?”

“Hm? Is something wrong?”

“A-Ah… N-Nothing! I-I was just…surprised…”

The fact that the boy had a communication disorder, and it was extremely difficult for him to talk to people.

Not only that…

“Really? Why is your face so red then? Are you sure you don’t have a cold?”

“T-That…”

“…Oh my~”

As the beautiful female cadet, who seemed to be a noble lady, approached him, the boy’s face turned red. This refreshing reaction only made the female cadet approach him more aggressively with a smile on her face.

Noticing that the playful girl had found out about his condition, the boy closed his eyes tightly and chanted a magic spell in his mind.

U-Until the East Sea dries and Mount Baekdu is worn away…

As if his communication disorder wasn’t enough, this boy also had zero immunity towards the opposite sex.

After graduating from a rural elementary school with only five boys and a male teacher, he went to an all-boys’ middle school, an all-boys’ high school, an engineering college, the military, and even entered a game company that only employed men. That was the boy’s life tech tree, he had never had a proper conversation with the opposite sex in his entire life.

The boy tried to calm himself down by reciting the spell up to the fourth verse, but…

“So, what’s your name?”

“…!!”

The playful girl seemed to be adamant on not leaving the boy alone.

When the scent of lilac flowers—too stimulating for a boy with zero immunity to girls—entered his nostril from the girl’s direction, he immediately turned his back and ran away.

“H-Huh? H-He’s already that far away…?”

His speed was incredibly fast, making the girl blink in surprise at the sight. However, the thing that made her blink wasn’t exactly because he was fast, but because her sensitive ears managed to catch the boy’s words.

“Did he just say, [Acceleration]?”

Unfortunately, the boy who held the answer to the girl’s question had already run away.

Thud-!

“Pick it up, you Sword Freak!”

“…You’ve finally gone crazy.”

Over the past four days, the relationship between Odwal and Lee Han had become more hostile than it should be for two people who were tangled in petty feuds, and it seemed that it would only grow more hostile from there.

Well, most of the time, Odwal would get himself hurt after picking a fight with Lee Han and retreating every single time, however, even an earthworm squirmed when they were being stepped on, so how could a proud mage like him just endure the humiliation he suffered from a mere knight?

The mage, who had suffered all sorts of humiliation along with the loss of his sponsorship, finally lost his patience and came to throw his glove to Lee Han.

This was a popular custom among the nobles. It basically meant the one who threw the glove was requesting a ‘showdown’ or a ‘duel’ to the person they threw it to.

Lee Han looked at the glove and the magic freak who had thrown it to the ground alternately before letting out a sneer.

“I see you’ve given up on living.”

Woosh-!

Instead of grabbing the glove, Lee Han just aimed his wooden sword at the magic freak.

Even though he had no reason to be afraid of something like a wooden sword, Odwal felt a chilling sensation slithering around his body for a moment there. He knew that it was just an old and worthless sword, but for some reason, when it was being pointed at him, he felt like he was about to be stabbed by a sharp spearhead.

Odwal wiped away the sweat that was beginning to form and waved his hand.

“It seems like you are misunderstanding something. I’m not challenging you to a fight.”

“The hell are you even on about?”

“I was challenging you to a duel between my cadet and your cadet!”

“…What?”

For a moment, Lee Han thought that the spell freak was just talking nonsense again, but the guy quickly made an excuse that made his words sound less of a bullshit.

“E-Even though I also felt that it’s a shame, but the Academy doesn’t permit a fight between instructors! Also, this is an edict issued directly by the royal family!”

“…”

“Keheum.”

After that Lee Han finally put down his sword, deciding that he should just listen to the freak’s words for the moment. That was the cue for Odwal to continue his words.

“T-This is what I was trying to say. W-While it’s impossible for us to fight against each other, it isn’t the case if it was the students who’re competing! Rather, the Academy encourages it!”

“Hmm.”

Not limiting any kind of competition. The Academy’s motto was that people would grow through competition, which wasn’t a strange motto at all. After all, there were many cases where wisdom or skills were put into competition, so it wouldn’t be strange if ‘power’ were to be put into one too.

However…

“So, are you suggesting that instead of a fight between you and me, we should do a ‘proxy battle’?”

“That’s right.”

“…What a loser. You’re selling out your cadets now after knowing you can’t win against me, is that it?”

Lee Han clicked his tongue and shook his head. No matter how he looked at it, that seemed to be the case. The guy knew he couldn’t win if he were to fight Lee Han directly, that was why he dragged his cadets into this.

Hearing his words, Odwal was thrown into anger again and shouted.

However, this time…

“Bastard—!”

“Hey, hey, watch it, you’re younger than me, how dare you call me a bastard, you rude rascal!”

“…”

He was quickly subdued.

“How dare a brat who is still wet behind the ears…”

“S-Still wet behind the ears…”

“Oho! What is it this time? You dare to question the words of someone who’s older than you, is that it?”

“…”

“I’m going to straighten that attitude of yours!”

“…”

In front of the power of Confucianism that had been lying dormant inside Lee Han all this time, the mage found himself utterly powerless.