Ch.149EP.37 – The Knight Grew to Hate the Ball (4)

“Has he already had lunch?”

Ring-ring.

A bicycle with a trivial bell sound races forward enthusiastically.

Levi, she was pedaling her bicycle diligently today as well.

The familiar road she’s been taking with her bicycle recently.

Somehow, even the originally bumpy road had been repaired, allowing the bicycle wheels to roll along quite smoothly.

Clunk.

In the basket of the bicycle she was riding was a fairly large lunchbox.

It was filled with food she had packed herself, and since she had learned a bit of cooking from the chef responsible for Tristan’s kitchen, the taste shouldn’t be bad.

“I hope he likes it…”

Devotion prepared for one person.

However, if he accepts this devotion and simply shows happiness, it would be more than enough reward for her efforts.

Above all, the person she knew wasn’t someone who would say her food tasted bad after receiving such sincerity.

Rather, he was someone who would eat it more deliciously than anyone else.

“Hmm…”

Thinking about this, a slight blush rose on Levi’s cheeks, and she increased her pedaling speed.

Unlike her delicate appearance, her body, which never missed a day of training, didn’t tire from maintaining a speed of just 30 kilometers per hour for an hour.

A maiden with a heart full of love was bound to be strong.

After pedaling for some time, the familiar cabin gradually came into view in the distance.

As soon as she saw the cabin, Levi, with a deeply contented smile, increased her speed.

As if maintaining a constant speed until now was to use her strength at this moment.

But.

“…Huh?”

Levi blinked her eyes.

About 3 meters before reaching the cabin, she saw a man collapsed on the ground.

It was a familiar silhouette, and Levi applied the brakes and approached the fallen man.

“A-Assistant Instructor Damian Pollet?”

“…”

“W-What are you doing here?”

“…Ugh.”

“…A-Are you crying?”

“…W-Why is my life so hard, why am I the only one rolling around like this, sob…”

“…Hmm.”

…Ah, it’s the same as usual.

Recognizing this as an already familiar scene, Levi nodded.

‘Master must be “educating” the assistant instructor again.’

The relationship between her instructor and Damian Pollet was already famous at the academy.

His daily routine of running without rest or doing paperwork all day was bound to become notorious even if he didn’t want the attention.

It wasn’t difficult to guess what had happened.

Therefore.

‘…I envy him.’

Levi envied him.

The one receiving such ‘private tutoring’ from her master.

If Damian could read her thoughts, he would go crazy and jump up in anger, but she wasn’t simply envying him for monopolizing her master.

Although it seemed like he was being unreasonably pushed around, Damian Pollet was definitely growing.

‘He’s grown again.’

Damian Pollet was already among the stronger students in the Swordsmanship Department.

Being the descendant of a prestigious knight family, and with training befitting his reputation, he was clearly at a higher level than other students.

This year was particularly unusual with many abnormally talented students being called geniuses, but originally, it wouldn’t have been strange for Damian to be the top student in the Swordsmanship Department.

But now, due to being rolled around under her master, his growth rate was definitely following a steep curve.

Perhaps if he continued to grow at this rate, he might not catch up to the Black-Haired Young Master, but he might one day catch up to one of the three.

‘They say people become stronger in times of crisis, maybe that’s what’s happening to Assistant Instructor Damian?’

A person who becomes stronger to handle the danger that is her master.

For Levi, who wanted to become stronger as quickly as possible, Damian’s growth was enviable.

…Though it must be hell for him personally.

“…What are you doing here?”

“Ah, Master!”

“Little bear cub, what are you doing here?”

“Ah, I, I thought we could have lunch together, i-if you haven’t eaten yet…”

“…If I said I already ate after you packed all that, I’d be the villain, wouldn’t I?”

“Hehe.”

“Laughing…, fortunately, I haven’t eaten yet. I was about to bake some pizza in the oven, let’s eat it with what you brought.”

“Yes! Ah, but what about Assistant Instructor Damian…?”

“Leave him be. He’s just being dramatic. He hasn’t been listening to me lately.”

“That’s too harsh, really…” Damian grumbled as he got up when Master said, “If you’re not going to eat lunch, there won’t be any for you.” Seeing this scene like a comedy, Levi couldn’t help but…

“Hehe.”

She laughed brightly.

* * *

The documents that Assistant #1 had worked hard to obtain back and forth occupied Ihan’s table, but Ihan merely flipped through the papers while reading, clearly more focused on his lunch.

He was silently eating the stretchy cheese pizza from the oven and the rice-shaped pasta that Levi had made.

“That’s too much, how did you even get that…”

“Enough of that, is this all?”

“…That’s all the information they had for now. And Simon the Guild Master asked me to tell you, ‘I hope this will make you view the guild more favorably now?'”

“What a joker.”

“…You’re probably the only one who can talk about Guild Master Simon like that, Instructor.”

It was quite remarkable how he could order around someone who was essentially the head of the royal capital’s guild.

And the guild master who obediently followed the instructor’s orders was no ordinary person either.

‘Is this what they mean by powerful people understanding each other?’

“Despite his arrogance, his abilities are just mediocre. Is this all he could find? And he wants me to think well of him? The man has no conscience.”

“Hmm…”

…Or perhaps he’s just following orders out of fear of being beaten up.

That was Damian’s small prediction, and while feeling a sense of camaraderie with the guild master, Damian noticed that although the instructor seemed to be focusing only on his food, he was actually reading the documents thoroughly.

He could tell because he had often witnessed how meticulously the instructor read documents when he needed to check them personally.

‘What incredible concentration.’

For someone who wasn’t fond of paperwork, he was showing remarkable focus.

His fierce gaze was as if he was engaging in battle with the documents.

‘When he concentrates, he always treats it like a battle, this guy.’

Is that why he’s so strong?

Just as this question crossed his mind.

Tap.

“So he’s not dead after all.”

“?”

“Ah, I’m not talking to you. Just hurry up and finish eating, you know you need to plant basil and fruit trees today, right?”

“…Instructor, I’m an assistant instructor, not a laborer. And how am I supposed to do all that today?!”

“Did I say you had to do it alone? You have interns, work them hard.”

“Ah!”

…This person might be a genius.

Damian looked at the instructor in awe, either because his reason had been numbed or because he was simply happy to have a legitimate reason to work the interns hard.

Realizing that there were countless ways to torment people.

Damian had gained a great lesson.

Regardless of whether his assistant was learning something bad or not, Ihan didn’t care and was thinking based on the materials he had received.

‘Name: Greg Bin. Was a mage belonging to the Imperial Magic, but fled to the southern continent after conducting illegal experiments in the Tower. Originally active in Britain, but was captured and executed during wartime.’

However…

‘It was discovered that the executed body might have been a fellow prisoner. Since his specialty magic was exchanging facial skin, there’s a high possibility he survived by switching faces with the prisoner.’

He can swap facial skin.

At the mention of being a master of human skin masks, Ihan judged that there was a high probability this guy was still alive.

And let’s also check the content of the illegal experiments he conducted…

‘Methods of transplanting [Mystery].’

Extracting someone else’s Mystery and transferring it to oneself.

The subject whose Mystery is extracted dies, but since the Mystery can be preserved and maintained permanently, it would be helpful from a military perspective and also help enhance the royal family’s authority – that was the claim of the spellcaster named Greg Bin.

“…Worse than a greedy bastard.”

Ihan sneered as he read this guy’s logic.

As expected of a spellcaster.

Though his words sounded plausible, in the end.

‘He’s just envious and resentful of others’ talents, so he researched ways to steal those talents. This guy is definitely from the Dark Path or Blood Cult.’

In martial arts novels, there are often stories about kidnapping people with special abilities like Nine Yin Manual or Five Elements Body to absorb their powers, and the spellcaster’s words were similar.

Isn’t it the logic of gaining power by killing others?

‘A bastard worse than a beast that sucks the blood of others—’

Ihan’s eyes flashed with the thought that if Greg were before him, he would certainly kill him.

“An Imperial guy…”

Ihan focused on the fact that the guy was formerly affiliated with the [Imperial Tower].

Tower.

From what he’d heard, it was the ivory tower of mages that existed only on the central continent?

‘What a load of crap.’

Though they use the elegant term “ivory tower,” it’s just a gathering of spellcasters.

For Ihan, it felt like discovering an irritating termite nest.

The Tower itself was also very suspicious.

‘So the Tower also knew about these experiments, right? And yet they let this guy escape? How could such an incompetent organization continue to exist?’

…Ah.

‘There are those white cats, right.’

He almost accepted the Tower’s incompetence thinking it was similar to the Order of the Silver Lion, but Ihan didn’t let go of his suspicion.

He wanted to investigate the Tower right away if there were doubts, but would he have time to go to the central continent…

“Wait, I don’t have to go myself, do I?”

It was something he had heard vaguely, but he definitely remembered hearing that someone from the Tower was coming.

…Clearly the reason was-

“Instructor~!!”

“……”

“Hehe.”

“…The neighboring chick is more useful than I thought.”

Was it to meet ‘that’?

The neighboring chick, who seemed to have just woken up despite it being past noon, was flying over cheerfully, and Ihan had a good idea.

Namely.

“Little bear cub.”

“Yes, Master.”

“I’m curious about something. Is kidnapping a Tower spellcaster a crime?”

“……Huh?”

“Righteous theft, or in this case, righteous kidnapping?

“Just, I have something I want to ask personally.”

“Um…, t-then why not just ask? Instead of kidnapping…”

“That won’t work.”

“?”

“A spellcaster wouldn’t willingly answer my questions, would they?”

“……”

…Despite stating an extremely obvious fact, seeing his disciple’s face filled with disbelief made his heart ache.

This innocent one.

She’s like this because she hasn’t experienced enough of the world yet.

“You definitely lack social experience. Seeing that you don’t know something so obvious.”

“…Hmm, am I the strange one?”

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

How to handle spellcasters, that is.

“I’ll teach you this time.”

“…??”

He wore a satisfied smile, feeling that he had something new to teach his disciple.

And that.

‘Practical experience is indeed the best social education.’

Ihan was pleased with the opportunity to let her learn through experience rather than explanation.