Diancang Sect.

    It was a sect that often appeared in martial arts novels, which was also one of the Nine Great Sects of Murim who was famed for their prowess in Swift Swordsmanship.

    For Lee Han—who used to read a bunch of martial arts novels day and night while on duty—it was a memorable name.

    How so?

    -Shooting the sun and piercing it… Even if it’s just fiction, it’s still cool.

    Sun Shooting Swordsmanship, a technique that aimed to shoot the sun. Sunset Swordsmanship, a technique that aimed to make the sun fall. Sun Piercing Swordsmanship, a technique that aimed to pierce the sun.

    The names of those techniques were nothing but memorable, but that was all there was to it. The more Lee Han learned about the Diancang Sect, the more he became disappointed.

    -How are they gonna be slashing the sun if swinging their swords quickly is all they do?

    Growing disappointed at the thoughts of the swordsmen who were obsessed with Swift Swordsmanship and only used their techniques to cut people, a certain thought crossed Lee Han’s mind: ‘They should’ve changed their swordsmanship’s name into Human Shooting Swordsmanship instead of Sun Shooting Swordsmanship’.

    -If they’re so hell-bent to protect that name, then they should at least pretend to throw a spear into the sky. Seriously, the only grandiose thing about their swordsmanship is its name.

    However, even he knew that such a thing was only easy to say. There was no way a human body could reach the sun, let alone shoot it down.

    Even a weapon of mass destruction like missiles could only reach the stratosphere, after all. It wasn’t a wonder that even though the swordsmanship had such an overbearing name, they only used it to cut people down.

    Back then, he mocked himself, telling himself that he was only thinking about such strange things because he was sleep deprived.

    But now…

    I never thought I would actually do it.

    The moment someone put the thing they imagined into practice, it was no longer imagination.

    At this very moment, Lee Han was trying to recreate the Sun Piercing Swordsmanship.

    Although, in a way that was so ignorant that even he himself thought it was ridiculous.

    “Keuuuuk!”

    “Hang in there a bit more, Slave.”

    “I-I’m not a slave!”

    “If you don’t want me to call you that, then do your job well.”

    “Ahhhhhhh!!”

    The man beside him, a mage, screamed, as if letting out all of his resentment.

    He was none other than Odwal Bernard, the professor of the Magic Department. Using telekinesis, he lifted a 600kg tree into the air.

    The sight was absurd and unrealistic. At the same time, it was something that could make people understand why a single mage was enough to be called the terror of the battlefield.

    However, no matter how strong a mage’s telekinesis was, it still had its limit. After all, the magic power they had wasn’t infinite. Moreover, to lift that much weight to the air required a mage’s full concentration.

    But Lee Han didn’t care about the guy’s struggle. He just kept barking out his demands one after another.

    “You’ve eliminated as much air resistance as possible like I’ve told you, right?”

    “Y-Yes! I-I wrote down the spell myself! I even enchanted it three times!”

    “Just three times?”

    “!!?”

    “Unskilled motherfucker.”

    “Did you expect me to do it more than five times in just ten days?!”

    Lee Han told him to do a lot of things, such as strengthening the durability of the things he wanted, minimizing their air resistance, increasing their penetration power, adding fire magic to them, and so on.

    In short, what he asked of the mage was the equivalent of making a weapon of mass destruction. It was a demand that would be instantly rejected if he brought it to any other mage in the kingdom.

    In the first place, one could only place a fixed amount of enchantments on an object. The fact that Odwal could place three of them in just ten days proved that he was an extraordinary mage. Of course, the hardships he had to endure to pull that off was indescribable to say the least.

    As evidence, his face—which already looked like an old man to begin with—was covered in age spots. It was unthinkable that this man was still in his 20s.

    However…

    “If this is the best you can do, then there’s nothing I can do either, you useless slave.”

    Lee Han wasn’t someone who’d think about the struggle of a magic freak.

    “!?!!”

    “Shut up, you punk. I’m going to beat the shit out of you if you break my concentration.”

    “H-Hik…!”

    Instead, he ignored the magic freak’s useless tantrums and focused solely on one thing.

    I’ll make do with what I have.

    In the first place, he wasn’t someone who’d be fixated on things he didn’t have. Instead, he’d try to get the best effect possible with everything that he had.

    Right now he only had one projectile, so he put all his focus on the ballista filled with a large amount of gunpowder that he received from the princess.

    In truth, there was no launcher in the kingdom that could launch such a huge projectile into the sky, so even he himself wasn’t sure if his attempt would succeed.

    However, he trusted his ‘strong body’.

    He had to act as the firing pin that would hit the huge projectile from now on. No matter how confident he was normally, this time, he couldn’t be sure that he could actually pull it off.

    If he was aiming to break the projectile, he was confident that he could do it, throwing it without breaking it however…

    Well, it’s coated with telekinesis, so it shouldn’t be completely impossible…

    Anyway, here we go… Push!

    A push. A striking technique to push an object away instead of hitting or destroying it.

    Normally, one would do it with the palm of one’s hand, but Lee Han used his feet instead. After all, the muscular strength and the destructive power of a human’s feet was five times stronger than the arms’.

    On top of it, he also applied his Martial Power, which would also test the limit of his mind.

    Crack-!

    A sound that would make one think that his legs would burst echoed through the area, but he just ignored it.

    Clench-!

    Utilizing the condensed power and centrifugal force of his toes, as well as the help of his intuition and sixth sense that surpassed any ordinary humans’, he kicked away.

    Bang-!

    That kick released a tremendous amount of power that could even push the huge projectile in front of him.

    And of course…

    Crack-!

    Unleashing that amount of power meant that he had to endure the risk of his legs bursting out. After all, there was no way that he’d end up unscathed after trying to send such a huge projectile flying with his human body.

    One of his legs was soaked in blood, but he just smiled despite the pain. It wasn’t because he was a pervert who enjoyed being in pain, though.

    Whoosh-!

    “It flies well.”

    He smiled because he felt that the result of his effort would be more than satisfactory.

    Whoosh-!

    The projectile flew like a javelin being thrown. Before long, the magically processed log spear reached the dark clouds without any issues.

    And then…

    Bang-!

    [[—-!!]]

    The spear pierced the center of the giant’s wrist.

    “Explode.”

    Boom-!

    As if trying to time it with his playful provocative words, the projectile exploded.

    Since the log spear contained all of Lee Han’s power, it was pretty much a giant bomb.

    Not only that…

    Crackle-!

    The massive amount of gunpowder inside the spear exploded, engulfing the spear in fire and began to burn the giant’s hand.

    Sun Piercing Swordsmanship.

    The spear, which contained Lee Han’s unique interpretation of that technique, pierced through the demon instead of the sun.

    **** * ****

    “W-What is that…?”

    “…Oh, Lord…”

    Meanwhile, those who were watching the series of events unfolding on the ground were struck speechless.

    They knew that giants and demons existed in legends. One story about the Knight King and the Lion King destroying those creatures by splitting them in half in one blow came to their minds.

    However, at the end of the day, legends were just legends. No one ever thought that they were real.

    But now…

    The legends are real…?

    Giant killing.

    Everyone was so dumbfounded to the point that they actually thought the legends they heard were actually based on a real story.

    And so, they opened their eyes wide.

    To stare at the figure of the knight who had recreated the legend of the giant killing right before their eyes.

    The knight who was standing firm in the center of the Colosseum.

    However, he…

    “Female Bear…”

    “Y-Yes!?”

    “Go and evacuate everyone. The assistant should be trying to do so right now, but it won’t be enough if he’s doing it on his own. Mobilize all the cadets from the Swordsmanship Department and get everyone out of here. Understand?”

    “Y-Yes?”

    “Ugh, I knew it, this isn’t enough…”

    “??”

    Seeing the knight suddenly wore a bitter expression on his face, Levy Fault blinked in confusion.

    Point-!

    “Look.”

    “…Ah.”

    The knight then pointed to the sky, thinking that it would be better to let her see it directly rather than hearing his explanation. Only then did Levy Fault understand why he ordered her to evacuate the people.

    Bubble-! Bubble-!

    Even though it was hard to believe, the giant’s arm was slowly regenerating even as it was burned by a fierce fire.

    Furthermore…

    [GR-RR-!]

    It managed to pull this all off even though it was still in the middle of being ‘summoned’.

    …Needless to say, it was a horrible revelation.

    **** * ****

    “Evacuate! Please evacuate! Stop staring around blankly like that and quickly evacuate, you commoners—!!”

    Damien Paulet shouted as such, flaunting his aristocratic supremacy. But unlike his harsh thoughts and words, this slave of a certain instructor was actually trying his best to evacuate the people, to save just one more life. While sweating profusely, he carried the pregnant women and the elderly people who had difficulty controlling their bodies.

    Although his body was screaming in pain, he just gritted his teeth. He couldn’t just leave those people be, or else they would just end up dying.

    At that moment, a certain thought came to his mind.

    He was right… It really happened…

    The words of the instructor—the same words that he dismissed as him going mental—turned out to be true.

    He remembered the thing that happened back then. Ten days ago, the instructor suddenly brough Odwal, the Magic Department’s professor, to his room and started giving them orders.

    -A monster will appear on the last day of the exam period. Prepare yourselves. You two will be helping me.

    -…Are you high?

    -You’ve gone insane.

    Back then, both Damien and Odwal genuinely thought that he was just talking nonsense. Since it wasn’t the first or the second time that the man had said such nonsense, he thought that he was just doing this to annoy them.

    And so, Damien teasingly said…

    -If that’s the case, why don’t you tell the dean or the royal palace that a monster will appear?

    -I already reported it. But they told me to stop barking like a gnoll and leave.

    -…So you already did that…?

    Even after hearing that, Damien only thought that the instructor was crazier than expected. He even fabricated something like this to make them think that his nonsense was ‘real’.

    However…

    -I even asked an acquaintance to send some Aura Users in. But, all of them were away. In Baltar Grace’s case, he couldn’t leave the palace because he had to protect the king.

    -…

    Aura Users.

    The moment that title came out of the man’s mouth, Damien couldn’t claim that he was being delusional anymore.

    He was serious. The man really thought that a monster would appear at the end of the exam period.

    -That’s why, we have to stop it.

    -W-We?

    -Why me…?

    Damien and Odwal asked.

    There were people other than them, why should they do it? That was what they were trying to ask.

    To that question, the instructor…

    -Your lives are mine anyway. I can use you guys however I want.

    …Made a remark that would make anyone question their humanity. He treated them as if they were criminal slaves, making their stomach churn.

    -T-That’s not the point! W-Why should we, n-no, you, come forward?! Since when did you become a hero, Instructor?

    Damien shouted, ready to get beaten up by the instructor because of this outburst.

    After all, the instructor he knew wasn’t such a heroic man, he was just an apathetic bastard.

    How could such a man act so selflessly?

    It didn’t suit his personality at all!

    Damien tightly closed his eyes, bracing himself for the impact.

    -We have to save the other kids, no?

    -…Huh?

    Surprisingly, instead of getting angry, Lee Han just grumbled as such in annoyance.

    -The higher-ups said that they couldn’t believe me because there’s no evidence, so no one’s gonna help us. Also, our kids won’t be the only ones in danger, the other kids who’re going to see them will be too…

    -…

    -Yeah, just like you said, it’s not certain yet, maybe I’m indeed going crazy and just worrying for nothing, but what if I’m right? Who’s going to take responsibility if the monster really shows up that day? Who’s going to save those kids?

    -…

    -Exactly. There’s none. No one will try to help them, dammit! They’re all afraid of getting hurt themselves, so no one will help them! What choice do I have? I have to do it myself!

    -B-But why…?

    Though that was a simple question, it contained a lot of underlying questions. Why did no one believe him? Why didn’t he choose to run away instead of trying to fight?

    Damien wanted to know the reason, and the instructor answered without a single moment of hesitation.

    -Because, like those fuckers up above who keep talking about moral duty and whatnot, I don’t want people to die!

    -…

    …That simple answer overwhelmed Damien.

    It wasn’t a flowery speech, rather, it was just an ignorantly honest statement without any valid logic or justification.

    But for some reason…

    Hearing such absurd words made his heart boil.

    And then…

    -…W-What should I do then, Instructor?

    Damien asked that question. Hearing that, the instructor answered him. And for the very first time…

    -Damien Paulet, there’s only one thing you need to do. Save as many people as possible. The only ones who are going to fight are me and that magic freak.

    -W-Why should I—

    -Shut up, you spell slave!

    -…

    He called Damien’s name.

    “Please evacuate! Please!!”

    But when the thing actually happened, Damien couldn’t help but let out a grimace.

    Seriously!

    What’s the big deal of getting my name called by him!

    Why am I even following his order so diligently like this?!

    Somehow, the instructor had instilled a different kind of chivalry in him. A somewhat foreign feeling, but at the same time, it made him think that he had to do the right thing, allowing him to move even in the face of death.

    This belief was completely different from the chivalry he knew, as it was an unfamiliar concept to the people of this world. That was the thing that Lee Han had forcibly instilled in him.

    It was a belief that could make someone stop expecting anything from anyone, stop looking for reasons or justification, and just did whatever their heart told them to do, even if they gained nothing from it.

    A belief that could make someone’s heart pound more than ever, and made them able to confidently say that they had lived a fulfilling life.

    Looking at it that way…

    “Hey! Run as fast as you can! Just think that your feet are on fire!”

    …This was perhaps what being ‘chivalrous’ meant..

    Footnotes

    Footnotes

    Footnotes

    1. 1. Five Great Clans and Nine Great Sects & One Union are the main faction of Murim Alliance in Murim Novels.


    0 Comments

    Heads up! Your comment will be invisible to other guests and subscribers (except for replies), including you after a grace period.
    Note
    // Script to navigate with arrow keys