Ch.17EP.5 – I’m Instructor Ihan

The one who had spoken rudely.

Damian, the second son of Count Pollet, was embarrassed when his muttering to himself echoed much louder than intended.

Perhaps the surrounding silence had amplified his voice.

However, the volume wasn’t the important issue now.

The problem was that he had directed insulting words at someone else, and everyone had heard it.

‘Oh no, my academy life…’

He felt sick knowing his image had been damaged from the very beginning.

Insulting a knight?

That didn’t concern him much.

After all, wasn’t he just a demoted knight?

The man couldn’t possibly retaliate over being insulted.

Unless he was foolish enough to challenge a count’s family…

“Was that you-?”

“…Huh?”

The knight on the platform addressed him with certainty, and Damian, responding a beat late.

“‘Huh’ is informal speech, you disrespectful bastard.”

The next moment, Damian’s vision turned black.

Because he saw the lectern flying toward his body.

CRASH!

In an instant, chaos erupted.

* * *

…For a moment, people were dumbfounded in a different sense, simultaneously stunned into silence.

What just flew through the air?

No, more importantly, was it even possible to throw such a large lectern like a ball?

People had much to say, but they kept their various thoughts to themselves as they stared at the instructor standing on the platform.

“Oh my, I meant to throw my glove but the lectern went flying instead. A mistake.”

– …….

“Really. I couldn’t contain my anger at being insulted and tried to throw my glove, but this went along with it. Hmm, is the lectern made of particularly light material?”

He blamed the lectern as if asking everyone to understand his sincerity, and people wore indescribable expressions.

What is he, this madman?

While everyone shared this common thought, Damian was still unable to regain his senses after being hit by the lectern, and the Pollet family members moved.

“Damian!”

“How outrageous! Have you ever seen such a barbaric person!”

The Pollet family members in the VIP seats glared at the instructor as if they would tear him apart, directing killing intent toward Ihan.

In this situation, Ihan…

“Bullshit.”

He sneered, which naturally poured oil on the already blazing fire of anger.

“You bastaaaaard!”

SWISH!

A knight of the Pollet family drew his sword, and suddenly an overwhelming aura rose from his body.

The shimmering heat haze resembled hot flames.

Materialized killing intent.

A martial art skill mastered by warriors who have reached the pinnacle of fighting spirit.

It was undoubtedly a level above the sword aura Yord had shown the day before, demonstrating how exceptional the knight’s skills were.

And now that knight’s sword was aimed at the crazy instructor, and before anyone could stop him, the knight’s blade lunged to pierce his opponent.

However.

WHOOSH!

“Huh?!”

Before the knight’s sword could pierce his target, a flying hand axe disrupted his concentration, momentarily making the knight hesitate.

And the knight should have known.

He should never have hesitated.

WHOOSH!

“You started it first?”

SWISH!

When had he moved?

Like a bird diving with acceleration, Ihan instantly closed the distance, burrowed into the knight’s space, grabbed him by the nape, and lifted the knight’s body upward.

In an instant, the knight’s body floated up like a puppet with cut strings.

With an intense feeling of weightlessness, before the knight could counter…

CRACK!

His head was slammed into the floor from a high drop.

“GAAAARGH!”

A terrible scream.

An impact that could have broken his neck if it hadn’t been well-trained.

Though trained enough not to break, the impact of being slammed from such a height had nearly rendered him unconscious as his entire body went numb.

Nevertheless.

WHOOSH!

He, Ihan, didn’t stop.

Still gripping the knight’s nape without letting go, he lifted him again and slammed him down once more.

“Keuugh!”

The knight, his neck in Ihan’s grip, manifested his survival instinct by swinging his sword in a reverse grip.

It was nothing less than an expression of will to not die without a fight, but.

THUNK.

“…This can’t be.”

“It’s because I didn’t train my body to be weak.”

The knight tried to stab him in the stomach but couldn’t penetrate.

That was only natural.

The knight couldn’t know how tough and hard his muscles and bones were.

His skin might get scratched, but his flesh wouldn’t be pierced.

Why would his body not be intact after fighting Aura users for three years?

So.

“That was pretty good.”

WHOOSH!

Ihan praised the man’s will and slammed him down once more.

CRASH!

Once, twice, three times…

A total of five times, he gripped the knight’s nape and repeatedly slammed him against the wall and floor.

As if testing whether his opponent would break or he would tire first.

Though a normal person would have been exhausted by now, Ihan showed no signs of fatigue.

Rather, he rampaged as if releasing accumulated stress, and this time, emitting a different aura than before, he leaped into the air as if to finally kill him.

The flow was different.

No matter how sturdy the trained knight’s body might be, he absolutely couldn’t withstand this.

His body, which even a sharp sword couldn’t pierce, his full-body strength might be like iron, but he was confident he could bend it.

And so-!

“STOP-!!!”

CRASH!!

* * *

“Kuhak…”

Thud…!

…Fortunately, the knight didn’t die.

Because there was a knight who blocked Ihan’s final drop with his entire body.

However, blocking it didn’t mean he was unharmed.

“…Thank you for stopping.”

“You’ll have to explain. You must take responsibility for daring to interfere in a knight’s ‘duel’.”

“…You’re right.”

The middle-aged man nodded.

Mistake or not, it was the Pollet County that first offended the knight’s honor.

And it was the Pollet family’s knight who drew his sword first.

At this moment, a duel was as good as established.

A duel that would only end when someone’s head fell.

That’s how knights’ duels were.

The winner gladly takes the loser’s life.

This was the tacit principle that knights had upheld for a long time.

Although Ihan was called a fake knight, he seemed to have embodied a real knight at this moment, using honor as justification to rationalize everything.

It seemed unreasonable, but the amusing part was that it worked.

And all this was possible thanks to Ihan’s overwhelming display of force.

Because if he hadn’t been strong, this scene wouldn’t have been possible.

“…I am Count Rodan, head of the Pollet family.”

“I’m Ihan. A demoted knight.”

“…First, I must apologize. For my unworthy son insulting you, and by extension, the Order of the Silver Lion.”

“You should have said that before this bastard attacked me, don’t you think?”

The knight, still dangling in Ihan’s grip, had his eyes rolled back and could stop breathing at any moment.

Count Rodan looked at him with pity and said:

“I know. I should have stopped him.”

“No, not ‘should have stopped him,’ but ‘should have stopped him earlier.’ If I had been pierced by his sword, you wouldn’t have intervened. You stepped in because he was about to die.”

Crack.

An ominous sound.

It came from the knight’s neck, and even if he survived, he would need a long period of recovery.

But as long as he was alive, there was hope.

“He’s our vice-captain. Also my disciple. Though rough in temperament, he’s too valuable a talent to be crushed here. Please, I’ll take all the blame and offer my head, so I beg for your mercy.”

Thud.

Rodan put down his sword and knelt.

The count was offering his own head to save a young life.

It was a noble gesture, and the students and guests in the hall, who had been shocked and appalled by the sudden duel, were moved by the count’s sublime nobility.

If they were knights and nobles who valued honor and nobility above all, they might have praised him and forgiven all wrongdoings, but…

“No.”

– …….

To Ihan, honor and nobility held no value whatsoever.

This time, people were truly at a loss for words.

* * *

“…That guy is completely insane.”

“No, seriously…”

“Is that a human or an ogre?”

“Ugh…”

The general sentiment was one of disgust.

But mixed with that disgust was antipathy toward his vicious behavior, refusing to show mercy despite the count’s display of such nobility.

Most felt this way.

…However, saying most felt this way meant…

“…Impressive.”

Some did not.

“My lord?”

“That knight is excellent. One must thoroughly crush those who could become future troubles.”

“…?”

“He’s skilled in actual combat too. Did you see, Jack? That knight completely disrupted his opponent’s rhythm by throwing that axe first. Such things can’t be learned through knowledge alone. It requires proficiency honed through countless real battles and training. That knight is intelligent.”

“Is that really so? He just seems brutishly strong to me.”

“You don’t understand. Those who can see would know. In a duel between swordsmen who have reached a certain level, psychological warfare becomes more important, and how you steal your opponent’s timing is crucial. Excellent.”

“…Hmm.”

Jack was surprised.

Not by the knight’s skill, but because his young lord rarely praised others like this.

That was because his lord was someone who surprised others, not someone who was surprised by others.

“You’ve already found a treasure, Jack.”

His lord, Roen Dmitri de Lionel, sparkled his eyes as if he had found a gem.

Not only that…

[Amazing…]

“Irene?”

[Totally my type…!]

“Huh??”

[Hehe!]

“???”

The ghost woman with a taste different from others, preferring beast-like men to pretty ones, was drooling.

—Ihan didn’t yet know that he had unintentionally caught the attention of his surveillance targets on the very first day.