Chapter 52: The Knight Holds a Banquet (3)

Hans Schmidt, an instructor of the Metallurgy Department.

Dorothy, a lecturer of the Fine Arts Department.

Kam, an instructor of the Statistics Department.

Den, an instructor of the Architecture Department.

And…

Alain de Wagner, a professor of the History Department.

They were renowned instructors within the Academy, and were well-known outside for their extraordinary talent—they could even be called the greatest of the great. And yet, these people were here, hanging around in the [Parasite Abyss], an extraterritorial where even the kingdom’s elite soldiers would be reluctant to enter.

With that in mind, why would they willingly come into this place?

This was enough proof that something suspicious was going on with them.

However…

“W-Wait a minute! T-This is a misunderstanding, a misunderstanding! L-Let’s talk about this, shall we?”

“T-That’s right, Sir Totle! L-Let’s talk it out for a moment! T-There’s a big misunderstanding between us!”

“A-Ahem, please don’t be impatient, we all have our own reasons—”

Whoosh-!

“Hu…h…?”

Thud.

Before he could finish his words, the master architect, Den, was struck with a needle to his chest. The needle was a hidden weapon often used among assassins, it stabbed him directly on the center of his chest, making him fall to his knees and start vomiting blood.

“I laced that one with goblins’ poison. You should know how difficult it is to detoxify those fuckers poisons because they mixed a lot of shit in it, no? In any case, that should hurt a lot.”

“W-What on earth did you—?!”

How could he just throw a hidden weapon without saying anything! This reckless and lunatic bastard—!

Lee Han’s actions triggered the instructor’s rage.

“H-How did you know?!”

Wooong-!

Under his mocking laugh, the instructors displayed their ‘magic’. However, unlike Irene Windler’s magic—which showcased beautiful colors—theirs were murky and dirty. Lee Han knew that it was also magic, though.

To be specific, it was magic unique to the ‘illegal mages’ who had abandoned their humanity.

Woong-!

The murky energy melted and disappeared without a trace. Before long, Den had burned the poison in his chest with his magic.

“Ugh! This is terrible!”

However, he still had difficulties proceeding from there because the goblin’s poison was just that terrible. He had done his best to detoxify it, but its nature as a mixture of countless filthy poisons prevented him from detoxifying it completely—he was still unable to fully control his body even after all that. If it weren’t because of his magic power, he probably wouldn’t be standing again.

“You filthy knight, how dare you—!”

At this point, the friendly smile the instructors always showed Lee Han whenever they talked with him had gone, replaced by contemptuous looks.

Though, Lee Han was completely indifferent to their angry gazes. No, actually, rather than indifferent or apathetic, it just motivated him to kill them even more.

Shudder-!

Receiving his killing intent, Hans flinched in discomfort, but he tried his best to not show it on his face and clenched his teeth.

“You bastard, how did you know?”

“About what?”

“Our true identities!”

“Wow, that’s the thing you are curious about in this kind of situation?”

“Of course! It’s the innate nature of us mages, our thirst for knowledge!”

“Pfft! Thirst of knowledge my ass! Are you telling me that pests who spread diseases have something like that?”

“…”

Lee Han glared at Hans, his eyes filled with pure, genuine anger.

“You brainless pests, did you really think you wouldn’t get caught when you were so blatantly trying to use others, huh?”

“…”

“You thought you were so smart, huh? Was it fun when that dumbass Odwal did things according to your wishes? That dumbass is probably smarter, and definitely more helpful than you lots. You guys are worth even less than maggots and are dirtier than even rapists, nothing in this world could compare to your filthiness, you know that?”

“…I swear, I will never let you live—”

“What are you, a gnoll? A kobold? Why do you keep barking like a dog?”

“!!”

Whoosh-!

Since the instructors deemed that any further conversation would be meaningless, they took out their staffs and raised them to punish the insolent ‘inferior thing’ who had dared to insult them.

However…

Wooosh-!

“Watch where you point that finger of yours, you stupid fuck.”

Slice-!

“Kuaaaak!”

At that moment, Hans’ wrist was cut off by Lee Han’s axe as a punishment for the magic freak’s lack of basic courtesy.

If someone were to ask Lee Han, ‘When did you notice something suspicious about these guys?’, his answer would be…

From the beginning.

That’s how stupid these guys are.

“[Blow, bloody wind of the North Wind!].”

He couldn’t smell a painter’s unique smell—the smell of paint and graphite—from Dorothy, or rather, the woman who had stolen Dorothy’s ‘skin’s fingertips. If she was the real Dorothy, a famous painter, the smell of an atelier should linger around her, but it wasn’t the case. Instead, the only thing Lee Han could smell from her was the rotten smell of corpses.

How could she expect him to believe that she was a painter with a scent like that?

Whoosh-!

A razor-blade-sharp wind blew towards Lee Han, but he didn’t seem to care about it. He just charged forward, facing the wind magic that could cut through human flesh with ease directly.

Crack-!

“Heup!”

“Brush your teeth, it stinks.”

Bang-!

At the end of the day, the wind was only as sharp as a blade. How could a blade hurt his body to begin with?

After tanking that spell unscathed, he grabbed the mage’s jaw and crushed it mercilessly. Now, let alone casting spells, the woman wouldn’t be able to eat anything other than porridge. Well, assuming that she survived this encounter, of course.

“L-Leny!”

“Oh, so that’s her name? Where’s the real Dorothy then?”

“You bastaaaaard! Let her go!”

“Sure.”

As soon as Lee Han said that, he threw the mage’s body towards her friends.

They tried to grab her body with their telekinesis, but unfortunately…

Stab-!

“!!?”

“T-This crazy guy!”

Just as they were about to grab her, Lee Han’s sword pierced through her stomach, but it didn’t stop there. It also pierced through another mage’s neck without a hindrance.

“Keuuuk…!?”

The instructor of the Architecture Department, Den. For a famous master architect, he didn’t have any shred of dignity befitted of a master. His hands were also too smooth for a craftsman.

It was as if he didn’t even bother trying to disguise himself.

“[Stab! Become sharper and more ruthless!].”

“[Fire, spread! Become hotter and burn! Like lava…!].”

Their spells came out from their mouths like a shriek.

What a bunch of morons. I’m already this close to them, do they really think that I’d just let them cast their spells?

Woong-!

Stab-!

Before long, Lee Han’s axe pierced Kam’s chest. He was the instructor from the Statistic Department, known for his talent that even the royal family coveted. And yet, there wasn’t a shred of intelligence in his eyes, and he was reek with the scents of drugs. It was as if he was a total crackhead with an empty head.

“[Fire-].”

After Kam’s death, the other mage tried to finish the spell he chanted, but…

“━Shut up━!”

Unfortunately for him, a roar fiercer than the roar of a lion—no, fiercer than even the roar of a huge tiger, poured out from Lee Han’s mouth, canceling his chant.

Lion’s Roar.

Lee Han’s loud voice, which was filled with great spirit, reverberated and shook the entire street. It cracked even the walls of old buildings in their surroundings.

The roar was incomparable to the one that he had shown to the cadets; it was filled with murderous intent and spirit, making it inherently more powerful than before.

“M-My ears! I-I can’t hear—! My ears—!”

“Ahhhhh…!”

And that roar served as his attack.

The mages flipped over due to excruciating pain they experienced from the backlash of their chant getting interrupted, but the greatest damage they received was still caused by the roar. Blood flowed from their ears, eyes, noses, and many other parts of their body. One of them even fainted on the spot.

Alain. Rather than a legendary historian, he was more like a ‘human butcher’ who reeked of women’s excrement and blood.

“You fuckers didn’t even try disguising yourselves. Dumb bastards.”

Parasite Abyss.

Many people called it a street where cancer cells and parasites of the kingdom lived, but in Lee Han’s eyes it wasn’t the case. Those people weren’t parasites or cancer cells, these filthy mages were. After all, they were the lowlives who lived off the skins of others and even parasitized their lives.

That was his sincere assessment of them.

“H-How…”

The only remaining mage, Hans, trembled. In an instant, four of his comrades vomited blood, either fainted, or died.

Overwhelming. Lee Han completely overwhelmed them. He crushed them as if they were just a bunch of pests.

“S-Sir Totle…”

“Oh my, didn’t you call me a bastard before? Why are you calling me with honorifics now? Can’t you even try to stick to one thing?”

Step-! Step-!

His steps were getting closer and closer, meanwhile Hans also getting more and more scared, to the point that it drove him crazy.

What kind of monster is he—?!

Hans had heard from people that he was nothing but a demoted knight, but his skills weren’t something that a demoted knight should have.

“Y-You…! What are you—! W-What is someone like you doing in the Academy—?!”

“…”

“A-Are you after this thing too?! D-Did you also infiltrate the Academy to get the blueprint for the ‘Musket’ left by the Great Alchemist?! I-If so, I-I’ll give it to you, b-but please, s-spare my—”

“Your voice’s disgusting, so shut the fuck up already.”

Crunch-!

“Keeeukk!”

After saying that, Lee Han stepped on the guy’s ankle. He even went a step further, grabbed the guy’s jaw and…

Crunch-!

“!!!”

Broke it with sheer force.

Not only that, he…

Stab-!

Also stabbed the guy’s heart.

“Mages won’t die easily even if their hearts are stabbed, maybe it’s because their core organ has shifted from their heart to magic power. This is the reason why they’re stronger than ordinary people. However… If they hearts are suppressed like this, they’ll be unable to use their magic power at all.”

“!!”

Hans—or rather, someone who was using Hans’ name and appearance—whose jaw was broken and had his magic power sealed, struggled as he experienced the painful torture. But, no matter how much he struggled, it was meaningless.

Escaping from Lee Han’s hands would be the equivalent of putting your hand in a crocodile’s mouth, thinking that it would do good.

“Hoo.”

After stepping on the guy, Lee Han looked up at the sky.

Seriously—!

“These damn mosquitoes! I kept killing them again and again, why do they keep on coming?!”

Lee Han grumbled as he caught one mosquito after another that continued to bug him, even though summer was over by now.

He did it with such nonchalance, as if he was in the middle of a stroll or something.

Meanwhile, as if to prove that the numbers of visitors in Parasite Abyss was unusually high today, two people were secretly watching the battle between Lee Han and the mages.

“It’s really surprising. Those guys weren’t ordinary, and yet he still won so easily.”

“They weren’t just strong, but they were also considerably experienced. They always have something up their sleeves.”

It was just as Jack had said. These mages weren’t some stupid and inexperienced mages like the ones that the cadets of the Swordsmanship Department had defeated earlier today. These were second-grade illegal mages who wouldn’t hesitate to commit murder or crime in broad daylight. Normally, the kingdom would need to send upper-class or high-ranking knights to stop them.

As second-grades, their power and danger level weren’t small. However, it only took their instructor less than a minute to neutralize them.

He had been dealing with them as if he was playing with a child, but any experienced person would know…

The fighting style he was using was one that was specialized in subduing and killing mages. A clever style that showed how experienced he was.

“He has properly mastered the ‘way to fight’ mages. I assume that he must have honed such skills through countless real battles.”

“It feels like killing mages is like breakfast for him…”

“That probably isn’t far from the truth…”

“…”

They assumed that he had been killing mages ever since he was born, otherwise they couldn’t find a reason why he was so skilled at doing it.

Does he have a personal grudge against mages…?

While Jack and Roen were wondering like that…

“-How long are you going to sit around like that?”

“…”

“Come out already, you arrogant young master.”

“…”

At that call, the youngest prince of the north, Roen, let out a bitter laugh.

As expected, I got caught.

Roen knew that they couldn’t fool the instructor’s eyes, he just never thought that he’d be able to catch them this easily.

“My lord…”

“Let’s go.”

“…He’ll definitely beat us up if we go there, though…”

“It is what it is then.”

Roen accepted his fate coolly. Even if the instructor ended up beating them up here, he decided to just accept the beating.

Nevertheless…

“There you are, you insolent brat.”

“…My apologies, Sir.”

“At least you know how to apologize. I had to keep him alive because of you.”

Thud-!

“…”

Lee Han threw a crumpled piece of paper onto Roen’s chest, then it helplessly fell to the ground. This was the same paper that the former had found in his training doll the other day. He didn’t actually know who had left the paper for him to read, but the moment he noticed Roen’s presence, he instantly figured everything out.

“Thank you for not killing him for my sake, Instructor.”

‘This guy has seen right through me, huh?’ Roen nodded, as if he was calmly acknowledging the truth. Then he looked around.

“Three of them appear to be dead.”

“No, I killed two. That woman over there, I avoided her organs and just pierced her stomach. She’s still breathing, but she could die from blood loss at any time. None of my business though.”

“…I see.”

…He seemed to have only spared those who don’t have the right to have a comfortable death.

Does he have some kind of ability to read the severity of someone’s crime?

Well, whatever it is…

“You’re amazing, Instructor.”

This is the result that I want.

Facing such praise from his student, Lee Han…

“Oh, am I now? If I’m so great then, I’m going to hit you a little.”

“…Ah.”

He had expected this, but Roen still couldn’t help but break out in cold sweat. Of course, he came here fully prepared to be hit, but now that he was actually here, he became significantly less confident that he could take a hit. The streets that were splattered with blood made him flinch a little. And there was also the fact that the instructor was strong enough to crush a person’s jaw as if it was jelly.

Even if he only hit him ‘a little’, Roen still wasn’t sure if he would be able to live to see the sun tomorrow.

…I-I should have left a more polite message…

That was the moment when the regressor realized, no matter how quickly he regretted something, regrets always came too late.