Chapter 149: The Knight Hates Balls (4)

“Did he have lunch already, I wonder?”

Ring-!

Accompanied by the sound of a chiming bell, the bicycle drove down the road quickly.

Just like usual, Levy pedaled her bike through the familiar road she had always been visiting every day. For some reason, the original bumpy road had been paved, letting her bicycle’s wheels spin smoothly.

Thud-!

There was a fairly large lunch box inside the basket of the bicycle she was riding. Inside the lunchbox were food that she had packed herself. Since she had learned a little about cooking from Tristan’s head chef, she thought that the taste should be decent at least.

“I hope he’ll like it…”

She didn’t wish for anything from him in exchange. As long as he was happy to receive her sincerity, it would be enough. Besides, she knew that the man wasn’t the kind of person who’d criticize her even if she did bad. Rather, he’d receive her sincerity well, and appreciate it more than anyone else.

“Hehe…”

Levy blushed slightly at the thought, and she pedaled a little faster. Despite her appearance, her body, which had never missed a single day of training, did not get tired even after maintaining a speed of 30 kilometers per hour for an hour.

Such was the power of a girl in love.

After pedaling for a little bit more, a familiar cabin appeared in the distance. The moment the cabin entered her sight, a happy smile bloomed on her face, and she increased her speed. It was as if she had been holding herself back until that very moment.

But,

“…Huh?”

Three meters before she reached the cabin, she noticed a collapsed man in the middle of the road. Since it was an unfamiliar sight, she stepped on the brakes and approached the man.

“A-Assistant Damien Paulet?”

“…”

“What are you doing here?”

“…Keuk.”

“A-Are you crying?”

“…W-Why am I the only one suffering…? Why am I the only one rolling around like this…? Sob…”

“…Hm.”

At that moment, Levy nodded as she realized. This was nothing out of the ordinary.

Master is [educating] Assistant Instructor again.

The relationship between the instructor and Damien Paulet was famous in the Academy. Though Damien would rather his name not be known, the fact that he was running around doing paperwork every day without resting was bound to make him known.

And so, it wasn’t hard to guess what had happened to him.

However…

…I’m jealous.

Levy was jealous of him. After all, if one were to take a closer look at it, he was receiving ‘private tutoring’ from her master.

If Damien had read her thoughts, he would have thought that she’s not right in the head and jumped up. However, she wasn’t simply jealous of the fact that Damien was monopolizing her master.

Though her master seemed to be treating him unreasonably, it was clear that he also benefited a lot from it.

He’s grown again.

Damien Paulet was already one of the strongest cadets in the Swordsmanship Department. To begin with, he came from a prestigious knight family, he had been through training that befitted of his family’s reputation, so his level was bound to be higher than the other cadets.

Unfortunately for him, there were many abnormal cadets, or rather, geniuses, who had applied this year. If it wasn’t for them, it wouldn’t be strange if Damien became the top student of the Swordsmanship Department.

Now that Damien was being taught by her master, his growth rate was on a steep curve. If he continued to grow like this, while he might not be able to catch up with the black-haired young master, he might just catch up to the level of the trio.

People say that humans become stronger in times of crisis, Assistant Damien seems to be like that.

Her master was someone who became stronger in order to take on danger.

For Levy, who wanted to become stronger as quickly as possible, Damien’s growth was something to be envied.

Although, Damien would think that what he had been through was just a hellish experience, nothing more, nothing less.

“…What are you doing here?”

“Master!”

“What are you doing here, Female Bear?”

“Ah, I just want to ask you to eat this lunch together, Master. If you haven’t eaten yet, that is.”

“…You already packed that much, there’s no way I can just say that I’ve eaten already now.”

“Hehe.”

“What’s so funny? Anyway, yes, I haven’t eaten yet. I was actually going to bake some pizza, but now that you’re here, let’s just eat what you brought.”

“Okay! Oh, but Assistant Damien…”

“Leave him alone, he’s just being dramatic. He hasn’t been listening to my words lately, so he deserves this.”

Hearing her master said, ‘What? Do you want to eat lunch? There’s none for you.’

Damian grumbled, saying ‘This is too much… You’re too much…’ before standing up.

On the other hand, Levy, who was witnessing a situation that was like a comedy routine…

“Hehe.”

Let out a bright smile before she realized it.

The documents that Assistant Number 1 had obtained by diligently going back and forth filled up Lee Han’s table, but he only roughly read the papers fluttering in his hands, more absorbed in his lunch than reading.

He was silently eating the oven-baked pizza with long, stretchy cheese and the rice-shaped pasta that Levy had made.

“You are too much, Instructor. Do you know how many difficulties I had to face to obtain those?”

“Who cares. Is this all?”

“…That’s all they have. Also, Union Leader Simon asked me, ‘With this much, he will look at the guild favorably, right?’.”

“What a funny guy.”

“…You’re the only person who can say that towards the Union Leader, Instructor.”

It was strange that the leader of the Union’s branch at the capital was being treated like that by him. Especially considering that he wasn’t an ordinary person.

Is this how the relationship between big shots goes?

“He barks more than he bites. Did he really think that I’d look at the guild favorably with just this much? Does he even have a conscience?”

“Umm…”

…Or maybe he’s just afraid of getting hit by the instructor.

Damien made that small guess. As he was inwardly showing his sympathy towards the Union’s leader, he noticed that even though the instructor seemed to be focused on eating, he read the documents thoroughly.

He could tell because there were times when the instructors read every document he gave thoroughly, and he was exuding the same vibe as back then..

His concentration is something else.

Though the instructor wasn’t someone who had a good relationship with paper, he still had this incredible concentration when reading. His gaze was sharp and fierce, as if he was fighting the papers in his hands.

Whenever he concentrates, he looks like he’s going to fight someone.

Is that why he’s so strong?

When such a question suddenly came to Damien’s mind…

Thud-!

“As expected, he’s not dead.”

“?”

“Ah, I’m not talking to you. Eat quickly and plant all the basil and fruit trees by today. Understand?”

“…Instructor, I’m not a worker, I’m an assistant. How am I going to do all that by today?!”

“Did I tell you to do it alone? Do it together with the interns.”

“Ah!!!”

…What is he, a genius?!

Either because of his reasoning had been paralyzed, or because he was just happy that he had a proper reason to work the interns to the bones, Damien looked at the instructor in amazement,

He had learned a great lesson and realization. The path of tormenting others was endless and vast.

Oblivious to the fact that the assistant had learned something bad, Lee Han focused on the information he received.

[Name, Greg Bean. A mage affiliated with the Imperial Magic Tower, but after he conducted an illegal experiment at the tower, he fled to the Southern Continent. Originally, he’s active in Britain, and it’s confirmed that he had been captured and executed during the war.]

[However…]

[It was soon discovered that the one who got executed was a prisoner who stayed in the same cell as him. Since his specialty is a magic to swap facial skin, it’s highly likely that he survived swapping his face with that prisoner’s.]

Lee Han quickly surmised that the freak was still alive after reading about how he was able to swap his facial skin.

He then confirmed what kind of illegal experiment the freak had committed.

[A method to transplant [Mystic].]

‘Extracting’ someone else’s Mystic and transferring it to others.

The victim whose Mystic was extracted would die, but since the Mystics could be preserved and maintained permanently, it would become a huge military asset. At the same time, it would also help increase the imperial family’s authority—that was Greg Bean’s claim about his experiment.

“He’s a bastard who is worse than Gnoll.”

Lee Han laughed as he read the guy’s logic.

As expected of a magic freak.

He wrapped it so sweetly, but at the end of the day…

He’s just jealous of other people’s talents, so he’s studying ways to steal their talents and extract them. This bastard is definitely a member of Black Force or Blood Cult.

In martial arts novels, there were a lot of stories about certain groups kidnapping people so that they could absorb their power using either Nine Negative Absolute Pulse or Five Elements Body. From the magic freak’s words, his ways were similar to that.

To put it in other words, he was justifying killing others for power.

A bastard who sucks other people’s blood and is worse than even a beast.

Lee Han’s eyes lit up as he said those words inwardly. If Greg had been in front of him, he would have killed him without even a second delay.

“Someone from the empire, huh?”

Lee Han focused on the fact that he used to belong to [Imperial Magic Tower].

Magic Tower.

An ivory tower for mages that only existed in the Central Continent.

What a load of bullcrap.

They used the lofty term of ivory tower, but in the end, it’s just a gathering of magic freaks.

To Lee Han, all he could feel was the same unpleasant feeling as when he discovered a termite den.

Also, he suspected that the other guys from the Magic Tower had a hand in this too.

They knew about his experiment, no? How could they let this fucker live? Just how could such an incompetent group still exists until—

Ah….

Right, the white cats. They’re similar.

At that moment, Lee Han remembered about the Silver Lion. That was enough for him to convince himself that such an incompetent group existed, but he still didn’t let his suspicions go.

He wanted to investigate the Magic Tower right away, but sadly, he probably wouldn’t have enough time to go all the way to the Central Continent.

“…Wait, I can do that even without going there myself.”

One of the freaks of the Magic Tower would visit this continent, wouldn’t they?

As for why…

“Instructor~!!”

“…”

“Hehe.”

“…Neighbor Chick, you’re more useful than I thought.”

Yeah, that freak’s going to visit ‘her’.

The neighbor chick, who seemed to have just woken up after the afternoon passed, flew around with a bright smile. Looking at her, an idea sprung up in Lee Han’s mind.

It was none other than…

“Female Bear.”

“Yes, Master?”

“I have a question. Is kidnapping a magic freak from the Magic Tower a crime?”

“Pardon?”

Righteous theft. Or in this case, righteous kidnapping.

“I have something to ask that magic freak personally.”

“Um… Instead of kidnapping… Can’t you just ask directly?”

“Nope.”

“?”

“There’s no way a magic freak will just answer my question.”

“…”

Lee Han’s heart ached as he saw his disciple’s face filled with disbelief even though what he said was nothing but facts.

So naive…

You’re still so young, you haven’t experienced much of the world.

“Yeah, I can see you have a serious lack of social experience. You don’t even know such an obvious thing.”

“…Does that mean I’m strange…?”

“No, it’s just because you don’t know yet.”

How to deal with magic freaks.

“Don’t worry, I’ll teach you.”

“…??”

Lee Han let out a happy smile, thinking that he had something new to teach his disciple.

Moreover…

Practical experience is the best social experience.

He liked the fact that he had the opportunity to make his disciple experience everything with her own body rather than relying on his explanation.