Chapter 42: Fair Instructor (1)

Discrimination was something that Lee Han hated.

It was probably because he had a long history of being discriminated against.

For example, there was a guy who was promoted very quickly because he was the son of a division commander. Meanwhile he was stuck as a first-class sergeant despite him already serving for ten years as they held back his promotion under the pretense of various ridiculous reasons. Because he had suffered so much, he came to value fairness to the point where it could be said to be his absolute way of dealings with others.

That was why he was not going to give special treatment to the sprouts just because they were from the lower class like him while abandoning the other cadets just because they were descendants of nobles.

To him, fairness meant that he should treat everyone equally.

That was why…

“Let’s do our best today.”

“…”

Lee Han went back to the Academy.

A total of 54 cadets of the Swordsmanship Department did not go to Vulcan and remained at the Academy. They were all staring at their instructor with dumbfounded faces.

…W-What is this…? Am I dreaming right now…?

“…I-Instructor.”

“Speak, Chick Number 3.”

“U-Um… I thought you said you’re going to Vulcan for training…?”

“That’s right. Is there something wrong with that?”

“A-As far as I know, t-the distance between Vulcan and the Academy is 40 km…”

“Not quite. It’s exactly 37.9 km.”

“I-I see.”

N-No, wait! That’s not what’s important right now!

“B-But why are you here…? Aren’t you supposed to be in Vulcan right now?”

“I came to teach you guys, of course.”

“…What about the other guys in Vulcan?”

“Well, I’ve been putting them in a grinder during the day, I’ll be putting them on a grin—no, I mean, I’ll be teaching them again tonight.”

“…”

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“…N-No, I just think that you are an amazing person.”

“I’m not. I’m just being sincere.”

“Ahaha…”

‘I can see that… You ran a 75.8 km round trip just to attend your class, how could it not be considered sincere…?’ Unable to refute that statement, the female cadet—Chick Number 3, let out an awkward laugh.

…Though it was something extremely recent, the news that Lee Han and Odwal would be up against each other in a War Game spread through the Academy and caused a huge uproar.

In the long history of the Academy, the relationship between the Swordsmanship Department and Magic Department had always been bad, but even so, such a direct conflict had never occurred before.

However, the news about the War Game had already spread like wildfire, leaving the academy no time to stop it. Since even the nobles were looking forward to it, even if the Academy wanted to stop it so badly, they simply couldn’t at this point.

The justification and flow were already out of control as well. Because of that, Lee Han was once again called to the dean’s office.

It went without saying that he was in deep trouble this time.

After all, he had been causing trouble after trouble even though this was his first semester as an Instructor.

Of course, he got the chance to explain the circumstances and correct some misunderstandings and such. After all, it was the magic freak who started the fight over a mere petty complaint. Lee Han was confident that he didn’t really do anything wrong here, leaving the dean shaking his head so many times to the point that his neck became sore.

…However, judging from the fact that the dean showed his willingness to pay for the expenses necessary for the War Game—perhaps it was because he thought that this would be a good thing for the students as well—Lee Han realized that he was indeed the real deal.

After meeting that corrupt professor, it feels nice to meet a true educator around here.

However, even though the dean gave him a large sum of money, he didn’t seem to have much expectation on his face. It was clear that he fully expected the Swordsmanship Department to lose in the War Game.

Of course, he wasn’t the only one with that kind of sentiment. Quite literally everyone in the Academy shared it, as if the victor and the loser had already been decided before the game even started.

“There’s nothing we can do. In War Games, warriors are like pawns in chess, at best, the skilled warriors are treated as bishops. Meanwhile, mages are treated as knights or even queens.”

“They looked down on warriors too much. Those narrow-minded people—!”

“…What can we do when the records clearly favor the magicians?”

“This is all because humans are weak to begin with.”

“Everyone is weak compared to you, Instructor.”

“Not true, I’m relatively weak myself.”

“…”

Hearing that, the expression of one of the cadets who collapsed on the ground became extremely distorted, as if it was the most absurd thing he had heard this year. Actually, the reason why it was distorted so badly was probably because the pain he felt was stronger than the absurd words he had just heard.

“Keuuuk…”

“Euuup!”

“Cough! Cough…!”

The cadets’ bodies, scattered around the training grounds—either collapsing, vomiting, or both. Everyone who had been beaten up by the instructor under the pretext of having unlimited sparring lessons instead of doing rope skipping was lying on the ground and crying out in pain.

However, no one was seriously injured.

Even though he was beating them up, the Instructor still adjusted his strength to match their level.

…But that only served to humiliate them even more.

“Okay, look, I didn’t do that to humiliate you guys. The priest back at the recovery room had been begging me to stop sending kids his way, I have no choice.”

“…And yet, there are still a lot of us who got injured here.”

“I-Instructor. Did you really come running from Vulcan?”

“But you’re still so strong…”

It was just hard for the cadets to believe that he was a little out of shape after running all that distance when he just stood there indifferently after beating the hell out of them.

“I’m not as strong as usual, that much is true. I mean, even I would be out of breath after running all that distance. But why would I have a hard time against ‘kids’ like you just because of that?”

“…”

“Are you angry? Get stronger then. I’ll do my best to teach you.”

“…”

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“…I’m just curious. Even though you’re so passionate about training us, why didn’t you take us to Vulcan?”

“Ah, do you also want to do the special intensive training?”

“…”

“Didn’t I tell you the other day? Those who wanted to go should gather at a specific time on the day of the departure. But you guys didn’t show up.”

“…T-That.”

The cadets, who had unknowingly revealed their disappointment, clenched their teeth, thinking that it was just a childish rebellion. However, there was nothing they could do. After all, it wasn’t like they didn’t want to go. But…

“O-Our families told us not to go… We can’t do anything about it…”

“Ah, those adults who spent most of their time home?”

“…!”

“Haha, kidding, kidding. Do you think I did not know about your circumstances?”

Lee Han knew that some people among the cadets actually wanted to go, especially those who felt their bodies becoming stronger while training. The problem here was that they simply couldn’t.

They recognized that Lee Han was an excellent instructor, whether it was knowingly or unknowingly.

…However, they were nobles.

They belong to a class in society where authority and honor, as well as status, region, and blood relation were the most important things. Disobeying their family’s orders just wasn’t an option for them.

“I know that some of you probably have been told not to attend my class. Some of your families probably think that you attending the class of a knight of low birth will only bring disgrace to your families.”

“…”

“Hey, I’m not angry. I’m not even offended. I know all this already, I belonged to the Knight Order, you know?”

He was the official outcast of Silver Lion. At this point, he had grown sick and tired of the nobles’ entitlement, even though he had beaten enough people because of it.

“I understand your situation. Nobles were people who wouldn’t allow foreign substances to be mixed into their history.”

Among the cadets in front of him, there were probably some who wanted to learn [Martial Power] since it was quite an impressive technique. However, their families would never allow that to happen.

After all, the nobles were so proud of their fighting methods and techniques that they had accumulated for hundreds of years. Because of that, they probably treated Lee Han’s technique as something vile and wicked.

To put it into Murim terms, the noble families were like the Orthodox Faction, while Lee Han’s technique was considered to be something from the Unorthodox Faction. Or to put it more harshly, it was the arts of the Demonic Cult. Imagine someone from Orthodox Faction learning such a technique; chances were they’d get expelled from their family, or even worse, from gangho altogether.

Well, there are people who don’t think that way, of course.

Like Arno and Roen.

Both of them were descendants of great nobles, but they were relatively free-spirited. In Arno’s case, this was because the Offen family had a strange quirk in which they wouldn’t hesitate to absorb the techniques of others.

Meanwhile in Roen’s case, he simply didn’t care about his family’s opinion, so he didn’t have any worries about being taught by him.

As for Damien?

He was just rolling with it.

To put it simply, the ones who were begging for Lee Han’s teachings were those who really had no one to lean on, or those who didn’t care about what others think.

However, the situation of the cadets in front of Lee Han was different, that was why they were upset.

They wanted to learn, and they even had a slight discontent against their family. But in the end, they couldn’t refute the family’s orders.

“There must have been some of you who wanted me to force you to go to Vulcan and train you.”

“…Ahem.”

“But I can’t do that. The training we are doing in Vulcan right now is solely for those who’re desperate. Even if I forced you to go, the training probably wouldn’t be effective on you. Besides, you’re already too occupied by what’s coming for you in the future. How can you reach that level of desperation when you have to worry about so many things?”

“…”

“If I made you feel excluded, I apologize. It wasn’t my intention.”

“…We are the ones who should be sorry.”

Even though the cadets were nineteen or twenty on average—which could be considered as adults—they weren’t exactly adults yet. After all, they were still immature, that was why it was an adult’s duty to understand their immaturity.

Since Lee Han was apologizing sincerely, they couldn’t help but to feel some itch.

“Thank you for understanding.”

The scene was quite touching, making the atmosphere strangely warm.

However, at that moment…

“That’s why, I will have you spar with me again. Come on.”

“…Yes?”

“You were right, you need to have special training, just like the other guys. This opportunity doesn’t come often, so get up quickly.”

“…”

Lee Han destroyed that atmosphere.

By the way, this wasn’t that important, but Lee Han’s MBTI inclination in his past life was T¹.

…In the end, Lee Han ended up making the recovery room’s priest suffer again today.

However, he was proud of it, because he finally felt like he acted like an educator.

All those fuckers who told me I have no empathy were all wrong! I could empathize with these kids greatly!

Since they wanted to grow, Lee Han did his best to teach them so that he could make their wish come true.

If that wasn’t the epitome of empathy, what was?

Because of that, he felt a great sense of satisfaction. Along with that, he felt a sense of duty to double down on the guys who were doing guerrilla work today.

What else should I add to the night training?

He wondered if he should add individual combat training and cliff climbing or not.

As he was racking his brain like that, the sprouts’ horrible fate tonight was pretty much decided.

It was a case of excessive sincerity turning into poison.

Halt-!

“…?”

As Lee Han took a step forward, his keen sense suddenly felt something unfamiliar.

“This is….”

He sensed something strange about the dummy that was standing in the training ground. It was the dummy that he installed for his own swordsmanship training, but ever since he started working as an instructor, he never used it anymore. After all, he preferred a live combat than hitting the motionless dummy.

In the end, the dummy was treated as a decoration in the training ground; even the cadets didn’t touch it.

However, Lee Han’s keen sense told him that there was a strange difference between the dummy he was currently seeing and the one he usually saw.

“Am I supposed to try to find the difference here?”

He noticed something suck into the dummy’s neck, something that wasn’t there originally. While grumbling, thinking that someone was playing a prank on him, he untied the thing from the dummy and held it in his hand.

“…Ho.”

At that moment, a strange smile appeared on his face.

Even though he didn’t know who it was…

“This guy’s pretty old-fashioned, I guess.”

In the piece of cloth Lee Han took from the dummy, there was something written on it.

It was a classic act, like something out of a typical old play.

However, even if the act was classic…

“Hmm, ‘You must not kill the mage,’ huh? This guy…”

─How did he know?

It was an interesting piece of information, taken from his inner thoughts that he had not told anyone about.