Chapter 240: The Knight Hated Dysfunctional Family (3)

In his previous life, Lee Han was once a youth who dreamed of becoming a literary scholar.

Unfortunately, he had to quickly give up his dream due to his poor environment and the violent teachers as well as adults around him who were worse than the filth that crushed his dreams…

Still, Lee Han had a history of reading diligently as an aspiring literary scholar, and he still had the romanticism of his youth (previous life, to be exact) in his heart.

Maybe it was because of that, Lee Han read the fairy tale without much expectation because it was written by a noble family,

“This guy, he is really a great writer.”

However, the story turned out to be a surprisingly excellent ‘masterpiece’ that he couldn’t help but worship. It was not at all inferior to the famous works from his previous life.

The overall content was similar to the narrative about an individual named Felicia de Offen. The content was also so good that he couldn’t find any flaws in the narratives.

Since the background is medieval time, it is closer to a novel with pictures inserted than a fairy tale, but that is not a problem at all.

The content itself was certainly cruel and depicted many realistic parts, but despite those parts, it was fantastic. There was also childlike innocence and lessons that both children and adults could relate to. The illustrations were also unique and artistic, and the story and content of the story were extremely attractive.

Some people might find fault in the differences between the story and the actual history, but that was the author’s as well as the story’s privileges to do it like that.

What does that mean?

It’s so damn fun.

Even though it was just an adaptation, it’s still overwhelmingly fun and artistic.

Thud-!

Lee Han nodded his head at the end of the last page of the 10th volume of the [The Female Knight Series.] He then closed his eyes for a moment to savor the story.

Twitch-!

He had spent an entire night reading it, forgetting to even sleep. However, it was worth the time investment, and it was something that showed him again why books were called food for the soul because instead of being tired, he felt more refreshed and alert than ever.

“Sword Duchess, seems like you were quite passionate in the past?”

“Ahem…”

“Still, the romance was good. The scene where you throw down a huge rock to save the village from the flood was really good.”

“Keuk!”

“Oh, your first meeting with your husband was also good. But why did you kidnap your husband? Was that a trend 50 years ago?”

“S-stop!! Stop talking! Why are you bringing up my past in front of me!!”

“I’m just curious. Just how much of the experience of the female knight who inspired this work matches the content of the work? I am really curious as a fan.”

“W-when did you become a fan of that absurd thing!”

“Since the moment I read this?”

“!!!”

Felicia blushed repeatedly, as if she had been hit by a magic attack. At the moment, she didn’t look like the great Sword Duchess who could cut through the clouds with a wooden sword at all.

However, when Lee Han thought about it, he felt like he would also be embarrassed if he stood in her shoes.

My past, especially my love life, is being dug up in detail, and it’s becoming a fairy tale for everyone in the world to read? I’d be so embarrassed I don’t want to leave my house.

It would be embarrassing to have the things he did in his reckless days being exposed to the public.

Even so, Lee Han didn’t stop even though he was being mean to her. He wasn’t doing all that to tease her. How could he do so if he cared about his own life?

Lee Han was simply fanboying right now.

On the other hand, Felicia was embarrassed while holding back her anger.

“W-why did you read that…?”

“Your son said that if I read this, I would understand you better. I guess he wanted us to get closer since we are a teacher and a student.”

“Iliad that kid… He has always been like that. He’s a very considerate kid…”

“Certainly, he’s different from you, Sword Duchess.”

“Right, he’s different from me… Huh? Your tone seems a bit strange when saying that…”

“Don’t sweat the useless stuff.”

“…??”

Felicia felt like she was being mocked, but she just tilted her head and made a confused expression.

…As expected, she’s simple.

No, has she become simple?

Body Reconstruction was scary.

If someone just looked at the contents of the fairy tale book, there’s no one as cool as her. So how could she become so stupid?

The most untalented knight in history, huh?

Lee Han lightly ran his hand over the cover of the fairy tale book as he thought so.

Lee Han opened his mouth and asked his tutor.

“What should I do now?”

“Eung?”

“Don’t ‘eung’ me. I asked you what I should do next.”

“…Ah.”

“Ah?”

“…Ahem, I’m sorry. To be honest, I forgot. I didn’t expect you to follow my training so well.”

“…It’s good that you’re honest.”

Even though Lee Han felt her words were absurd, he didn’t nag or scold her. Why? Because the great swordsman called the Sword Duchess by people was currently in a very unstable state of mind.

Wasn’t that what Illiad said last night?

-I’m sorry to say this about my mother, but when you deal with her, please think of her as a teenage girl with dementia… Of course, she doesn’t really have dementia, but her emotions are just that unstable… Hmm, I personally think it would be easier to deal with a wild cat.

Remembering his advice, Lee Han did not urge Felicia. After all, even though she looked and appeared like that, she was someone who was more serious than anyone else when it came to swordsmanship.

As expected,

“Right, now you probably know what willpower is, right?”

Her mood changed as she began to teach. The Tenacity she naturally exuded was fierce and heavy, stinging his skin, unlike before.

“But you probably still don’t really know what willpower is. You still don’t really know how to use that power.”

“Right…”

Lee Han obediently agreed. As she said, he now knew how great willpower was, but he still hadn’t reached the stage of ‘feeling’ it.

I know that my body has new sensory organs, new senses per say, but I still don’t really know how to use them.

For example, you could say that he had obtained wings or a tail.

When a human suddenly had wings or a tail, would it be possible for them to use them naturally?

It would probably be impossible. They suddenly appeared was one of the reasons. The other one was because it was something they had never had, so it would be awkward and difficult.

In the case of willpower, it was like a ‘seventh sense’ that was even more difficult to handle than tail or wings, so it was only natural for Lee Han to have no idea how to use it.

As Baltar said, it was just something he used unconsciously, and thanks to the teachings of the Sword Duchess, he had barely come to recognize the existence of the senses. In other words, his current level would be no different from that of a baby who had just started walking.

“Haha, there’s no need to be that discouraged.”

“But I’m not disappointed at all?”

“I’ve felt what you feel before. However, as long as you put in the effort, it’s something that can be overcome!”

“…You’re not listening to me, are you?”

Felicia started her long speech, ignoring Lee Han’s muttering.

“You remember when I first mentioned willpower, right? ‘Tenacity’ and ‘faith’! These two things are important. I’m not just talking about Tenacity without thinking.”

“You aren’t?”

“Then, do you think I’m such an ignorant woman?”

“…”

“Dear?”

“…More than that, what about Tenacity and faith?”

“Dear!?”

Lee Han, he was a man who hated lying, even in pleasantries.

Lee Han heard a lot of things as Felicia opened her mouth without stopping for about 30 minutes. Before that, he was also surprised that a person could talk for 30 minutes without even taking a break.

He knew that older people were usually very talkative, but dealing with them like this made him feel dizzy, and if he wasn’t in a position to learn something from such long talk, he would have run away long ago.

After being tortured to the point where he thought his eardrums would be damaged, Lee Han succeeded in interpreting what she was trying to say to some extent.

‘… So, it’s really about Tenacity and faith?’

Strangely enough, the more Lee Han listened to the explanation, the more he found himself convinced by her.

Willpower was literally…

Something like ‘As long as you believe it, it will come true?’

Humans couldn’t fly.

Humans couldn’t breathe underwater.

Humans couldn’t move faster than the wind.

It was all common sense, and the many Darwin Award candidates who attempted to fly from the rooftop and became paralyzed showed humanity the dangers firsthand.

…But willpower was the ‘power’ that broke the impossible.

Like making a sword fly in the air, or splitting the clouds.

-I just believed. My sword could fly in the sky and my sword could split the clouds. That was all.

It was a sentence that summarized Felicia’s words, and Lee Han thought he finally understood why Iliad explained that willpower was the ‘guide to the path to transcend humanity.’

It was a really intuitive and easiest explanation.

“That man, or rather that sir author, is good at teaching others.”

Lee Han, who became a fan of Iliad after reading his words, called him the author with respect and admiration, and she, who had been talking nonstop, smiled proudly when he suddenly praised her son.

“Hmm! Hmm! Our Iliad is indeed pretty good!”

“Yes, he’s really good. He’s the head of a family and a great author who wrote masterpieces.”

“Woohoohoo!!”

They say no parent dislikes praise for their child, and it seemed like it was also the case for a Sword Duchess since she was raising her chin proudly, looking pleased at the surprise compliment.

Although it was a bit of an eyesore, Lee Han understood her feelings. If he had a child like the author, he would want to brag about it as well.

However,

“He showed me how unfair the world is.”

“It’s not because he’s my son, I feel he’s really great!”

“Even that copper statue he made is beautiful. I guess he has a great sense for not only paintings but also sculptures and crafts.”

“Yes, the statue is inde–”

Flinch-!

Felicia stopped talking without even finishing her words. She then looked up at him with her eyes wide open.

Looking at her, Lee Han nodded and smiled refreshingly. He felt immense satisfaction from the fact that his prediction was correct.

─Yes, isn’t he a child with a ‘talent’ that his parents don’t have?

“As expected, Sir Author is also strong.”

“S-since when…”

“Did I notice?”

“…”

“Um… From the very first time I met you?”

“??”

“Don’t you remember?”

When they first met, Felicia, who had disguised herself as her grandson, pointed to the statue…

“You were so proud of it.”

“…”

“Later, I misunderstood it as you wanting to show off what you had carved, making me think of you as some kind of narcissistic. But now, I know that you aren’t that kind of person, Sword Duchess.”

“…”

“Of course, it can be the case of you being proud of the statue you made, but the way you looked at it was just different. That’s why I thought maybe someone else made it. But I didn’t expect it to be your disciple or blood relative…”

“…”

“But by process of elimination, only the author remains.”

“…Haaa.”

“Of course, it’s not because of the swordsmanship that I become sure. When I listened to the way Sir author explained willpower to me, I felt that he was quite an expert on the subject. Most of the explanations he gave felt different from what I just knew in theory.”

Lee Han knew that because he’s also in the position of teaching his disciples. In order to teach or advise others, one had to study it quite deeply themselves.

In that sense, Iliad…

“He is someone who studied swordsmanship deeply. Maybe, his skills as a swordsman…”

“-He’s better than me.”

“…”

“He’s much, much, much more talented than me.”

“…Hmm, did I say the wrong thing?”

Lee Han showed an apologetic expression as he saw the way she responded to his words. He wondered if he had touched something unnecessary.

However, Felicia just slowly shook her head at that apologetic expression.

“You don’t have to feel sorry at all. On the contrary, the one who should always feel sorry and guilty…”

Is me…

She reproached herself with mockery, like a candle that seemed ready to go out at any moment.