Ch.156EP.38 – The Knight Does Not Forgive the Bully (5)

The sword that had unleashed the plum blossom technique shattered like sand.

Its blade power had completely dissipated.

I’m not disappointed though, since it belonged to that western assassin anyway.

‘The completion isn’t bad.’

Originally, the plum blossom sword technique would bring tremendous fatigue after use, but the technique Ihan had just performed showed as much difference from yesterday’s as between a chicken and a duck.

What kind of difference is that?

‘Well, being able to fly is indeed a significant difference.’

A small yet enormous development.

Ihan no longer felt tired after using the plum blossom sword technique multiple times.

…Or more precisely, he could replenish his physical and mental energy as quickly as he consumed it.

The reason this was possible was probably…

‘That my training has paid off.’

If Taechang were here, he’d go on about how it was thanks to attributes like [Diamond Monk] or [Indomitable] that protected physical and mental strength, but Ihan tended to filter out half of those game ability explanations.

He was living in reality, and his strength, stamina, and skills were products of effort, not game skills.

The same applied to the plum blossom sword technique.

He had trained like mad, and because he had grown since yesterday, he could now perform it consecutively.

Faster and sharper than when he first performed it!

‘About twenty times?’

Swish!

Confident that he could comfortably perform the plum blossom sword technique twenty times, Ihan swung the sword he had taken again.

It was quite a decent blade with considerable sword energy, and thanks to that…

Whoosh!

The scattered plum blossoms were also substantial.

Slash! Slash! Slash!

“!!?”

“-·-!”

“-·-·-ugh‥-?!”

The men cried out in pain, but they couldn’t speak proper language, as if their tongues had been cut.

“You’re all strange ones. Why cut out perfectly good tongues?”

Ihan lightly chided them, but they were in no state to answer.

The swirling plum petals penetrated the assassins’ skin and passed through their organs including their hearts.

Literally like scattered bullets.

The power of plum blossoms lay in their penetration and cutting force.

However.

“Still, you’re not completely incompetent, are you?”

Crunch!

The plum blossom sword technique was intense, but once the eyes and body adapted, countering it wasn’t impossible.

This was evidence that his plum blossom technique still had many flaws.

Even so.

“I’ve dealt with all the weaklings, so it was decent enough.”

“-‥-!”

About half of the more than fifty men had been cut down.

Among the remaining half, some had severe wounds or were spewing blood, but their injuries weren’t fatal. The surviving assassins radiated intense hostility and killing intent toward him.

But strangely, Ihan didn’t feel threatened at all.

Even though he was never careless no matter how weak his opponents were, why did they seem so…

“Why are assassins so slow?”

“!!”

-manageable?

Bang!

The moment Ihan kicked off the ground, he instantly appeared behind them.

The naturally flowing Palace God Bullet Shadow technique seemed completely integrated with Ihan.

This was the result of his efforts after the tunnel battle, and now that he could naturally perform the Palace God Bullet Shadow technique…

Whoosh!

Hunting assassins felt as simple as an owl hunting mice.

“-‥-44-·-1!”

Perhaps this was the one giving orders among the assassins.

As soon as he realized the huge gap between Ihan and themselves, he issued some command, and suddenly the assassins’ aura changed as three of them rushed at Ihan.

And then…

BOOM!

The charging assassins “self-destructed.”

A charge that turned their own bodies into bombs.

It was a chilling move meant to eliminate the opponent with one’s life, and using their entire body as a bomb was incredibly threatening.

Stimulating their fighting energy to explode their bodies meant that bones and flesh would detonate like claymore mines to eliminate the target.

The power was stronger than most explosives, and even a skilled knight would be unable to avoid serious injury.

That was “common sense.”

However.

“Ugh, how disgusting…”

Pat pat.

“……”

“Why do assassins always use such filthy methods? Tsk!”

…Common sense might apply to mediocre individuals, but not to him.

Ihan’s body didn’t have even a scratch.

Only his clothes were dirtied and torn.

And through his torn clothes, his body was truly…

“…How can someone have a body like that?”

One of the assassins, the only one with an intact tongue, asked a question for the first time.

It was an astonishing physique.

A miraculous body like ‘steel,’ making one doubt if it was human skin at all.

Would an ogre or troll have such a body if they trained their muscles?

…He didn’t know. He had never seen ‘something like that’ before.

Perhaps, he thought, this man had undergone illegal procedures like them.

“…Such a natural procedure should be impossible.”

Magical procedures had a fatal weakness—they distanced one from human form.

Normally, the skin should change to resemble that of a magical beast, yet no such traces were visible on his body.

And to this assessment, Ihan…

“You think I’m like you?”

He snorted.

Illegal procedures, what nonsense!

“I spent over 12 hours a day on physical training to build this body.”

The tearful effort to use Palace God Bullet Shadow and Diamond as passive skills.

Frowning at the disparagement that ignored his efforts and attributed his physique to illegal procedures, Ihan said:

“Then can your procedures do this too?”

Whoosh!

He punched the air.

It was a mysterious action with no apparent reason, but…

Splat!

“!!?!”

Soon they had to widen their eyes again.

Thud…

One assassin’s head turned into something like a stomped tomato, killing him instantly.

-Mountain-Breaking Fist.

He threw punches indiscriminately, but the assassins couldn’t block them.

How could they block invisible fists that came like cannonballs?

“Block it.”

Kindly, he warned them as he punched the air again.

And so…

Splat!

The number of assassins turned into tomatoes increased, enough to teach ‘panic’ to assassins who had endured cruel and thorough training.

“Why can’t you block it even when I warn you?”

Ihan was kind, but unfortunately, not a single assassin could accept his kindness.

* * *

Thud…!

All the assassins had become headless.

In other words, they had all bid farewell to their heads.

“…They were tough ones.”

Though it seemed like he handled them easily, Ihan knew.

He was able to win easily because these guys were caught off guard by his techniques.

Starting with the plum blossom sword technique, then Palace God Bullet Shadow and Diamond, and finally Mountain-Breaking Fist.

They had no chance to adapt to fighting methods they’d never seen in this world.

Don’t call it cowardly. There’s no such thing as fair or unfair in a fight.

But that didn’t mean the assassins were pushovers.

Especially their self-destruction tactic was both disconcerting and extremely cruel.

If it had been someone other than himself…

“Hmm, maybe not?”

Ihan thought that the situation might have been resolved even if he hadn’t deliberately stepped in like this.

After all…

“Impressive as always, Sir Turtle. My coming to assist seems unnecessary.”

There were others guarding besides himself.

“…Not Tristan, but Galahad or Lionel?”

“Galahad, sir.”

“I see.”

There were quite a lot of assassins besides those Ihan had stopped.

This crazy tanning maniac must have had money to burn to hire a truckload of assassins.

However, Ihan only blocked those coming from the east, not bothering with the rest, because he knew there were others working to protect the children.

From the presence felt in the western direction, it seemed to be Tristan.

The energy was familiar.

So the unfamiliar ones blocking the remaining two directions were…

“Ah, you do look familiar now. You’re one of the black-masked men who came when the chick became my neighbor, right?”

“…You still remember that incident?”

“My memory is generally poor, but strangely, my body remembers well. I might not remember faces, but I remember auras, you could say.”

“Impressive…”

Shadows of Galahad.

It must have been about half a year since he last saw them when Irene Windler became his neighbor.

“I fought unnecessarily… if you were here, I wouldn’t have needed to step in.”

Tristan and Galahad.

They must be guard knights dispatched to protect the bear cub and the magician chick.

They did a good job.

‘What are those white cats doing?’

While knights from other houses were preventing potential incidents like this, Pendragon was really…

‘How embarrassing, what is Lady doing?’

The princess he knew wasn’t incompetent and would have predicted a situation like this.

It was somewhat shameful.

After all, for better or worse, it was his workplace.

“Haha, your fight wasn’t unnecessary. Those assassins you faced were the strongest among them. If you hadn’t stopped them, there might have been significant damage, or our defenses might have been breached.”

“You don’t need to flatter me…”

“I’m being honest. As expected of someone who scolded the Duke.”

“…Were you there too?”

“Personally, I thought it was impressive.”

“…So you witnessed my dark history.”

Ihan could only smile bitterly.

At the fact that this man was one of the spectators who saw his dark history—his impudent scolding of the Duke…

But the Galahad knight wore a cheerful expression.

“Haha, only Sir Turtle would call that dark history. In Galahad, we call you the ‘Loyal Brave One,’ the Loyal Brave One.”

“Loyal Brave One…?”

“It’s short for ‘a brave one who doesn’t spare loyal advice.’ Besides the late military god, achieving the feat of scolding His Highness is probably impossible for anyone else, ahaha!”

“Hmm…”

It was an awkward nickname to say the least.

‘Is that praise or criticism?’

Ihan scratched his cheek, but seeing how the man approached him with goodwill, he could tell that Galahad’s retainers didn’t dislike him.

Well.

“…Though that one seems to hate me terribly.”

It was impossible to win everyone’s favor.

—Crunch!

A spear that pierced about ten remaining assassins at once.

It was a truly generic spear, representing the basic form of what a “spear” should be.

Yet when that plain-looking spear was thrust, it looked like a destructive ballista that could pierce anything.

It was an admirable spear technique, and even if one didn’t want to admit it, one had to acknowledge that if there was an ideal “thrusting” motion, that was it.

It was that perfect.

And as luck would have it, the face of the knight who performed this perfect thrust that drew such admiration was one Ihan knew.

“His thrusting is art, but his personality is a wreck.”

“…Haha.”

The Galahad knight couldn’t help but laugh.

The situation was too funny.

Just moments ago, the vice-captain who had witnessed his battle had also said:

– Hmph, his personality may be rough, but his punches are first-class.

He had made the same kind of statement—acknowledging the opponent while insulting them.

Seeing this, the knight thought:

‘Are skilled people all alike?’

They really are interesting humans.