Chapter 56: The Knight Hates the Exam (3)

Trolls.

They were monsters that were known as the ‘Man Eaters’, said to be born from the corruption of beings that once served as the guardian deity of the forest.

The story of the guardian deity of the forest becoming one with rocks after being betrayed by humans and transformed into a monster that prey on humans to take revenge was quite famous as a fairy tale and comedy.

Said story was spread wide thanks to this world’s oral tradition. Even children would’ve heard of the danger that trolls possessed.

As such, there were various rumors about trolls circulating around, and the most famous ones among them were…

– ‘Although its entire body was covered with solid rock, its agility and intelligence are comparable to the cunning wolves.’

– ‘It has the regenerative power of a flame that never runs out of firewood, and it has the power to shake a mountain and kill everything in its sight.’

– ‘Man-eating demon of rock.’

Those rumors painted trolls as a nightmare; the kind of tale that would keep children up at night, no matter if they were nobles or commoners.

The catch here was that those weren’t merely rumors; the trolls were actually terrifying monsters. To subdue a single troll, the knights must be deployed, and even then they had to be ready for casualties. This was why trolls easily reigned supreme as the nightmare of the warriors.

However, since the trolls’ heart and blood possessed enormous ‘value’, a lot of people tend to dismiss the danger that they possessed. Then again, who would blame them? After all, one could easily recover from most diseases and all kinds of wounds just from ingesting troll’s blood.

Not to mention that they had discovered how ingesting a troll’s heart could give one countless benefits, including increasing one’s own lifespan. Although, if they were to eat it without processing it properly, they’d just die right there and then.

In any case, a troll’s appearance—whether it was in the forests or mountains—was akin to a treasure trove. Even if one had to sacrifice something to hunt them, as long as their hunt succeeded, the gains would be overwhelmingly larger than the losses.

That was why mercenaries and adventurers were always out to hunt for them. Unfortunately, they had become rare creatures nowadays due to indiscriminate hunting. It was hard to see them in regular forests or mountains anymore, and the only place one could see them were inside the areas known as the Demonic Territory.

That was why…

“—Someone told me that we can see a real troll hunt during the Swordsmanship Department exam. What a bunch of bullshit, don’t you think so? I mean, just think about it a little! How could there be a ‘real troll’ in the royal capital?”

Seriously, they have to be a different kind of idiot if they were to think that those ‘artificial products’ are real trolls.

Such a cold remark came out of Karin Guinevere’s mouth, a girl whose beauty resembled the violets. Hearing her words, a certain boy who was being held by the girl like a doll as he got his hair trimmed, responded to her words while blushing.

“M-Miss Karin, y-you’re too close…”

“Don’t you think that those guys are funny? Like, how could someone just keep a troll around? The best thing we can keep around here is a [rock troll] made with alchemy!”

“…U-Umm…”

The girl’s fascinating prey, Derrick, was confused on how to handle her, and she noticed how his body reacted to her touches. His introverted nature screamed at him to get away from her, so he tried to bend down and get away from her, but…

Grab-!

“Where are you going?”

“…”

His effort ended in vain.

“Anyway, calling those monsters trolls is just funny to begin with. Those guys are just rocks stained with troll blood— Actually, we don’t even know if said troll blood is real or not.”

“R-Regardless, they are still dangerous, no…?”

“Well, yeah, to ordinary people, that is.”

The artificial corpse snatchers, or rather, the rock trolls, weren’t actually living things. They were artificial life forms or golems; the products of the alchemists who tried to create their own troll’s heart and blood because of how difficult it was to find real trolls.

However, the artificial troll’s heart and blood could barely imitate 20% of the performance of the real troll’s blood, disappointing a lot of people because of it. Even so, 20% was still plentiful, and it wasn’t like they had any alternatives for it either.

Hence, they developed plenty more products from them, and [Rock Trolls] were one of them. They were golems that were created by soaking rocks with the artificial troll’s blood.

The rock troll’s origin wasn’t exactly a well-known fact, but everyone knew that its fighting power couldn’t even reach half of the original. That was why they were often used for training or for evaluating someone’s skills. The Swordsmanship Department exam was also being held with such a thought in mind.

“I’ve seen a rock troll once. There was one time when my family bought it to test the new knights’ skills, but their power was just too disappointing. They don’t live up to the moniker of the Forest Demon or Corpse Snatcher at all.”

“…They aren’t the real deal, so it couldn’t be helped, no?”

Eventually, Derrick just gave up on shaking off her touch and just accepted his fate. Even so, he still answered her questions faithfully, albeit there was a strange atmosphere around him now.

“Huh? Was it something I said? Why are you acting like this all of a sudden?”

“A-Ah, nothing. I just had something to think about…”

“Hmph, you’re thinking about other things when there’s a wonderful woman like me pampering you like this?”

“!?”

“Hmph!”

“M-Miss Karin…?”

“Hmph-!”

“…”

…How do you appease a woman in a situation like this again…?

Derrick couldn’t help but feel troubled as if he was facing the world’s greatest challenge.

Anyway, rather than that, I need to figure out what to do next…

Even as he tried to appease the delicate girl, Derrick’s confusion still persisted. He entered the Academy Exam ‘Arc’ before he realized it, which wasn’t anything strange on its own, but the problem here was…there was one more arc that should have happened before that.

The illegal mages were supposed to commit terrorism before the exam, but it didn’t happen…

He was prepared to report the illegal mages disguised as the Academy instructors to the Knight Order, but they had already disappeared before he could. Though he was confused by this development, at the same time, he felt relieved because the terrorism didn’t occur in the first place.

But, what’s going to happen to the Odwal’s Corruption Route?

However, the feeling of urgency hadn’t left him. After all, the scene that was part of the main story failed to occur, and this made him feel like all the information he knew slowly started to become useless. Because of that, he couldn’t say for sure what was going to happen in this arc, making him feel even more worried than before.

The exam arc is something I can’t do anything about too…

He couldn’t even predict how the butterfly effect would occur. There were too many uncertainties in the progression of the ‘Exam Period Arc’. Not only that, this arc was like a  canon event, he had no justification or authority to stop it. After all, he was merely a cadet now, nothing more, nothing less.

…I can’t do anything… I’m useless…

What’s the use of having a bunch of information when I can’t even do anything with it…?

“…Why are you making that kind of face?”

“Huh?”

“I’m asking why are you suddenly making such a sad face?”

“A-Ah, n-no, i-it’s just…”

“No, I’m not angry at you. I’m just asking because I could tell that you’re hiding your feelings again, Derrick.”

“…”

“Come here.”

“I-I…”

“Come. Here. Are you going to reject the woman who courageously reached out to you first?”

“…”

She embraced him.

Before he realized it, he had fallen into the girl’s arms. This girl was clearly younger than him, and yet she managed to figure him out, scolded him appropriately, and even went out of her way to comfort him. Needless to say, it was quite the embarrassing situation he got himself into.

Nevertheless…

I feel better now.

He found out that even if he was an old man mentally, he still couldn’t defy his physical age—the age when one’s actions were ruled by their hormones.

Meanwhile, Karin affectionately stroked the boy’s gray hair, doing her best to comfort him. She hoped that the boy’s sad eyes would be softened, even a little by this gesture.

But, in contrast to her noble feelings…

“They are at it again.”

“That envious brat.”

“…I wish that was me…”

The people in their surroundings sent them envious gazes.

Summer truly had bloomed in full force.

Roar-!

“Huh, this is a rock troll?”

Since he was an instructor of the Swordsmanship Department, Lee Han was able to see the trolls that the cadets were going to fight in advance.

[Gu… Ah… Ah… Ahhhh…!]

“…This thing’s just a doll with a speaker on it.”

Real trolls usually boasted a size of about 6 meters—no smaller than a certain large truck when it turned into a robot. On top of that, its entire body was covered in rocks, and its ferociousness was like an untamable beast.

But the monster in front of him…

Woong-!

“This thing’s too small…and slow…and weak…”

That was his impression the moment he saw the 3-meter-tall troll, or rather, rock-shaped monster, moved.

He could see that people would feel threatened by it, he just didn’t feel that way in the slightest.

“This guy isn’t a troll.”

He concluded.

The monster wasn’t a troll. It was nothing more than a cheap imitation of one.

Hence…

“Lame.”

Bang-!

He slapped the rock monster with his palm without hesitation. It seemed like a normal slap, but the effect it created was enormous.

Bang-!

Its back exploded and the monster collapsed right there and then.

“Hmm… It feels like I’ve been using this technique a little too much…”

Striking Method. His attack, which possessed an incomparable destructive power compared to the strike Levy Fault had shown the other day, tore the monster apart easily.

This technique was inspired by Baltar’s Energy Penetrating Attack. It was quite the convenient technique, but such convenience made him feel uncomfortable instead. Because it felt like he was relying on it too much.

I should come up with another one soon.

Convenient techniques are good and all, but using shortcuts like those to become stronger isn’t good either.

Tingle-!

“…Anyway, this thing’s pretty sturdy.”

As he was thinking about the technique, he felt a tingling sensation in his fingertips. It didn’t hurt much, but his hands did feel a little numb.

The fake monster in front of him was weak and had a lot of weakness that could be exploited, but its defense wasn’t too shabby.

On top of that…

Wriggle-! Wriggle-!

“Huh, so it can also regenerate itself…”

He had been wondering why the monster had ‘troll’ in its name, and he finally found out why. Seeing this, he reevaluated his impression on it, more specifically the part where he thought that it had a lot of weakness. After all, he was sure that when he crushed the monster’s head, he also cut its windpipe at the same time.

In any case, this definitely wasn’t an ‘opponent’ that a normal cadet would beat.

I can see the regressor and the other three beating this thing easily. Maybe the assistant too, though it’ll be close. But the rest is definitely going to struggle.

He predicted that the bears wouldn’t be the only ones who’d find it hard to beat, but the young masters too.

In fact, he wasn’t even confident that they could beat it even if they were to train for another year. At their current level, they would just lose.

How so?

Because those guys have zero destructive power whatsoever.

As the one who taught them, he knew that better than anyone. Those weaklings were still a long way off from dealing with this rock troll.

However, he also knew that the exam wasn’t held with the goal to beat the monster to pass.

I’m sure that the examiners would be the senior officials of the military. If it’s them, they’d try to assess the cadets’ combat ability instead. Also, they’d try to evaluate how those guys would act when pitted against this thing.

Lee Han could tell that they were trying to push the cadets to their limits to figure out their strengths and weaknesses—all so they could determine their potential. It wasn’t a bad evaluation method. After all, with this method, even if the cadets hadn’t learned any Combat Techniques, as long as they could show a ‘remarkable performance’ and ‘great fighting spirit’, they would definitely pass the exam.

“…But now I understand why the bears’ seniors could only last until the second year.”

The bears’ seniors, the commoner cadets from the previous year. While they were weak, they were the people who had passed this exact exam—that was the reason why they made it to the second year in the first place.

However, they probably realized the moment they became a second year that their abilities wouldn’t get them far. At most they’d become excellent soldiers or strategists, but never a knight. Such a realization was probably the main reason why so many cadets opted to drop out of the Academy.

But still…

“That’s just stupid. They’re good enough already, they should just stay in the Academy even if it’s only to learn some more Combat Techniques. And yet they abandoned such special talents and decided to drop out instead.”

“…”

“Don’t you think so too, my friend?”

“…Outsiders aren’t allowed here, don’t you know that?”

“Hahaha, I sneaked in, so they won’t find out. Nothing to worry about!”

“…What a shameless person.”

Even with the sudden appearance of an outsider, Lee Han was still calm. After all, he had already sensed their unfamiliar—or rather, annoying presence. He just didn’t want to involve himself with this outsider for no reason. Besides, it wasn’t like they had any hostile intentions towards him in the first place.

However, he was extremely annoyed by the way the outsiders suddenly approached him and read his mind.

He really read my mind, didn’t he?

“I’m not, I could just tell what you’re thinking, that’s my ability. Believe me, it isn’t like I want this either! I somehow acquired this ability by chance!”

“…That’s what people call mind-reading.”

“Hahaha, I guess that’s true, but the real mind-reading is the one that my elder brother has! My ability doesn’t amount much compared to his!”

“…I hope I never get to experience that.”

“Believe me, you won’t think so when you meet him! Unlike the rumors brewing in the capital, my elder brother is quite the gentleman!”

“Let’s be realistic here. Why would I even meet him?”

“Huh? Did I even tell you who my elder brother is?”

“If someone couldn’t tell who he is after looking at you, then they are just dumb.”

“?”

“…”

What a strange guy.

Even though he was good enough at reading other people’s thoughts to the point that it was comparable to a real mind-reading, he looked clueless about everything else.

Did he really think that people couldn’t tell where he came from? Dude, that ‘winged lion’ [imprint] on his forearm is already a dead giveaway.

Not only that…

“You should’ve hidden your hair and eye shape too.”

“Oh, did they stand out?”

His jet-black hair was quite literally the characteristic of the Northerners, which, in itself was another giveaway, but the biggest giveaway of them all was his eyes that resembled the eyes of a lion. Only people who were part of a certain family had these eyes; those who had inherited the heart of a lion.

And those people with the eyes of a lion were usually…

“Hmm, I was planning to hide my identity, but… What a shame…”

“In my eyes, it seems like you never had the intention of doing that at all.”

“No, really! I was planning to hide it in the beginning, but… When I watched you, my blood just boiled, and I just didn’t have the leeway to hide it anymore!”

“…”

“I’m not someone without something to hide, but… This is a trait of our family! I can’t help it!”

Smirk-!

“Anyway! Do you want to fight with me? Fight to the death, of course!”

Crazy [Berserkers] loved to kill more than anyone.

This knight who had Lionel’s blood running in his vein requested a death match as if he was confessing his love.

“…Crazy bastard.”

I swear, I kept getting caught by the guys from the Demonic Cult—no, [Northern Sea Demon Cult].

Why is it always one of these fuckers who approaches me in this way, huh?!

I just don’t understand!