Chapter 103: The Knight Doesn’t Want to Be Reinstated (2)

“You can’t perform Airwalking just by exploding your strength. What you need is a high level of concentration and senses.”

Lee Han explained it in the easiest way to understand.

It was his life motto to keep his promises. So, once he decided to teach them, he’d do his best in teaching them.

“It’s not about kicking the air, but to quickly gather your energy with your toes, spread it widely, and quickly use it as a stepping stone. Since you guys should be good at handling your Combat Power, it should be easy for you…”

However, unlike him who was putting his all to teach…

“…Tsk, every single one of them looks miserable.”

The knights he taught were scattered here and there, prompting him to click his tongue in disdain.

“…Is it really possible to learn this technique?”

“Hoeeekk!”

“Urrrg… I’m getting motion sickness…”

The hundred knights who belonged to the prestigious order, whose skills were so amazing that even the foreign countries knew about them were rolling around on the ground.

They all failed to learn Airwalking.

While they didn’t die, they all looked terrible.

Why are these guys so noisy when they fail…?

There were various reasons why the hundred knights failed.

One of them jumped too hard in the air and flew 15 m upwards before falling down.

There was also one who suddenly flipped over and fell.

And the most ridiculous one was…

That guy who did a somersault and crashed into the cliff. Well, at least that one was funny.

The poor guy provided Lee Han and the other knight with a year’s worth of laughter. While he must be in pain—after all, he crashed into a cliff—for others, his suffering was nothing but a sight to see.

Anyway, as for the other guys, they were mostly the same.

They had similar failures and self-destructed. After seeing all hundred of them fail, Lee Han tried to identify the problem, and soon enough, he found it.

“It’s their Combat Technique…”

As previously explained, Combat Technique was a technique that amplified the energy inside the body by exploding it like a bomb. The way it worked was that one would convert the energy of said bomb into physical ability. The higher the grade of the Combat Technique, the more powerful the explosive power.

Handling such explosive energy wasn’t an easy task to begin with.

That’s why I thought it would be easy for them to learn this because they’re so good at it, but it seems like I’m wrong…

There was no one among the knights who hadn’t heard others praising them as a genius. That was why Lee Han thought they would be able to learn it quickly. Never in his wildest imagination did he ever think that such a difficult problem would pop up.

“…Will we not be able to learn the Airwalking?”

A knight noticed Lee Han’s expression and posed that question. To that, Lee Han shook his head.

“No, it isn’t that you can’t learn it, you just need to learn how to handle your Combat Power more delicately. In short, you need to develop fine control skills.”

“I’m quite confident in my fine control, you know…?”

Bale muttered, and the rest of the members nodded their heads.

It would be one thing if they were just beginners who had just learned Combat Technique, but they were the ones who had honed their Combat Power control to the limit in order to develop their endurance.

Hearing them voicing their objection to his words, Lee Han…

“You guys are too arrogant. Even my kids have that much control. The level I want you guys to reach is— Haa! It’s easier to show than explain.”

‘What’s the use of explaining it a hundred times?’ As he mentioned earlier, all of those guys were people who were considered geniuses by others.

And geniuses like them had strong pride about themselves that they deter them from listening to others. Even though they were learning from him, there was bound to be someone who wouldn’t be convinced by his explanation, or even doubted him.

So, Lee Han gave up explaining it and looked around for a moment. Then a tree with a bunch of leaves entered his field of vision.

“Huh, that’s good enough.”

“?”

He picked up a leaf that had fallen on the ground around the tree and immediately floated it on the lake.

Looking at him, The knights blinked, wondering what he was doing.

But then…

“Watch carefully.”

Bam-!

Lee Han leapt into the air, somersaulted and dove down towards the lake. And what happened next was…

Tap-!

“…?”

A sight that defied the laws of physics.

“W-What is that…?”

“Just where did he learn such things?”

“…Am I dreaming?”

The knights watched with their mouths wide open, feeling like they were fools. They thought the water would splash around when he jumped into and dive towards the lake, but instead of that, the lake retained its calmness.

And on top of that lake…

“Do you see it? This is what it means to control your strength.”

Lee Han was standing on one foot using a leaf as the stepping stone.

Crossing the River on a Single Reed.

…It was just, there were no reeds around, so he had to make do with a leaf instead.

In any case…

Whether it was a reed, a leaf or a stone wasn’t important.

“What you need is finesse and concentration. The finesse to control your body weight to the extreme, and the concentration to maintain that state for more than 30 minutes. Only when you reach this level can you say that you have excellent control skills.”

“…”

“If you are still not convinced, come out. If you can do it, I’m going to call you big brother for the rest of my life.”

“…Ahaha…”

There’s no way that’s possible…

The knights couldn’t even refute him, and were all left dumbstruck, wondering how the hell did he even do something like this.

And then they thought…

“There’s going to be a lot of guys drowning in the water for a while.”

Those guys will start playing in the water after this…

Although Bale said that, deep inside his heart…

Of course, I’m gonna do it too!

Was filled with the desire to do the same.

Because of this, the whole Knight Order drowned in the water and caught a cold, leaving the marquis speechless, but this was a story for four days later.

Lee Han never told them to practice Crossing the River on a Single Reed, but they did it anyway, So he ended up snickering a lot after watching those guys jumping into the river with a leaf in their hands.

Men are men, no matter which world it was….

I was also like them, I practiced it a lot too…

After he recalled the memories from his past life and acquired Martial Power, he practiced a lot of techniques. However, the one technique he practiced the most was none other than Crossing the River on a Single Reed.

…He could remember countless times when he almost drowned to death.

As for why he did it…

It was because he felt like it.

Of course, those attempts and efforts were not in vain.

In fact, Crossing the River on a Single Reed became the foundation of the perfected version of both Bending Body Launch and Vajra Body.

While those two techniques seemed to be something that could be done by applying some force into it, in reality, they were techniques that required instantaneous control of force and concentration.

That was why Lee Han didn’t bother to stop the knights who kept getting into the water. After all, he had personally experienced that it would be helpful.

Teaching feels so rewarding.

They had passion and talent. As a teacher, there was nothing more satisfying than teaching a smart student. That was a fact.

Moreover…

I also gained something.

Of course, by gaining something, he didn’t mean that he had learned anything from teaching the knights like what teachers often said.

These guys won’t refuse to have a spar with me, it feels good.

Perhaps it was because they were upset about losing to him the other day, the knights approached Lee Han first and asked for a spar.

Sometimes it was 1-on-1, and sometimes it was many versus one. Lee Han welcomed all kinds of spars with them.

No matter how much someone trained their strength and practiced their skills, if they did it alone, they wouldn’t develop any skills that would be relevant in real-life scenarios.

Just having the opportunity to fight, or rather spar, with various opponents was a huge boon for him. Since he always had to spend money to find a suitable sparring partner both in his previous and his current life, having these guys approaching him willingly made him feel grateful.

And thanks to that…

Lee Han, who had been visiting the Marquis Manor for almost a week, was able to maintain his best physical condition.

Normally, sparring indiscriminately like this would make one’s body riddled with bruises, but thanks to the existence of the potion, that became non-issue.

It was even more so for Lee Han.

They all have fun techniques. That Sword Thread in particular… I really want to learn that…

A technique that spreaded sword energy like a thread. In terms of utility, it could be used in a much much wider variety of ways than the Plum Blossom Sword Technique.

I can’t manipulate the plum blossoms as I wish.

Meanwhile, I could probably handle those threads however I want…

However, even if he wanted to learn, the technique required extreme talent and intelligence, so it would be difficult for him to learn it.

Or at least, it’ll be hard to learn it quickly…

Lee Han chewed on his regret.

“Why is your expression like that, Sir Lee Han?”

“Rather than worrying about my expression, you should worry about your appearance. You look like a wet rat.”

After failing to do the Crossing the River on a Single Reed six times in a row, Bale came up to the surface, looking like a wet mouse. When Lee Han pointed it out, he just shook off the water in his body before letting out a bitter smile.

“It’s quite the difficult technique to perform… Just how are you supposed to float on a single leaf…?”

“That’s still nothing. Among those who had truly mastered the technique, there are those who have crossed a river with only a single leaf of a reed.”

“A-A river…?”

“It wasn’t just any river, the river was pretty much like the Nineveh Grand Canal.”

“…That’s just a whole sea, isn’t it?”

Nineveh Grand Canal.

It was a large waterway that was managed by Galahad that was often called a river. They said that oftentimes, those who first saw the waters of the Nineveh thought that it was the sea.

Because the river was so large that it could literally be mistaken for the sea.

And yet he said that someone could cross such a river with just the leaf of a reed.

“Is that person some kind of fairy or Aura user?”

“I don’t know, maybe? All I know is that those guys are monks.”

“Monks? So are they saint-level monks? If so, maybe they had some mystical ability…”

“…”

Although Bale had committed the atrocity of treating a Dharma like a priest, Lee Han didn’t correct him. In a kingdom where almost all religions except [Light of Brilliance] were treated as pagans, mentioning Buddhism would get the Heretic Inquisitors knocking on his door.

Since he didn’t want that, Lee Han just quietly let the misunderstanding be and changed the subject.

“More importantly, there’s something I’m curious about. Your technique, the Sword Thread…”

“Sir Lee Han! Is Sir Lee Han Totle here?”

“…?”

When he was about to ask about the Sword Thread, one of the marquis’ servants suddenly called for him, and that prompted him to stare at that servant blankly.

However, before he could say anything, Bale already opened his mouth.

“Why so noisy? Don’t you know this is the training ground?”

“S-Sir Bale! E-Excuse me, this matter is urgent…”

“An urgent matter?”

“Yes… T-There…”

“…Hmm?”

“Hehehe! Hello!”

“…?”

At the end of his gaze, stood a royal maid. The maid, Leila Winter, smiled and greeted him, and almost instantly, his anger at the servant just dissipated.

Ignoring Bale who made such a dumb expression, Lee Han sent her a puzzled look.

“Maid?”

“Sir Knight~”

Lee Han blinked at Leila’s appearance. Normally, she’d be taking a nap in the hammock near the cabin at this time of the day as she had developed a habit to nap under the cool shade recently. He was curious as to why she gave up her nap time to come here.

“I was asked to deliver this to you!”

“…?”

What the maid handed to him was a luxurious-looking letter with a candle wax that had a lion on it.

Looking at the lion’s emblem, Lee Han’s face stiffened. It was the emblem of the Silver Lion.

Seeing it gave him an ominous feeling.

I want to burn it…

The letter came from his original workplace, so it wasn’t a strange thing that he felt uneasy in many ways. But, it wasn’t like he could just burn it while everyone was watching, so he just took it from Leila’s hands.

I’ll just put it in my pocket and deal with it later…

However…

“Oh, I was told to tell you that you should read it as soon as you receive it. The princess is worried that Sir Knight might burn it secretly.”

“That auntie—!”

It was as if she possessed a mind-reading technique that allowed her to read all of his actions. His hands furrowed when his mind wandered to the only person who was able to do something like that.

“…Tsk.”

He opened the letter with all his might while making a dissatisfied face before reading it. As he expected, the letter was filled with elaborate and confusing phrases.

Just reading it already made his head spin, but after he read it carefully to understand it…

“… What kind of nonsense is this?!”

He crumpled up the letter.

[Order of temporary reinstatement of Lee Han Totle.]

That was the brief summary of the letter, prompting a grimace out of his face.

What am I, her trained mutt–?!

She told me to leave, and now she wants me back?!

Is this a joke?!

Did she think she could just toy me around like that?!

I’m not going to let this fucking slide!

Lee Han made up his mind. Regardless of whether she was his step-sister or not, he was going to hit her properly this time. At the same time, he also made up his mind to trim the hatchet that was sleeping in his bosom..

“Oh, that’s right! The princess also told me to give you this!”

“…”

“Hehehe, she said that you’d like it, and it seems she is correct!”

“…Maid.”

“Hm?”

“…If you have this, you should’ve given it to me first.”

“I’m sorry.”

“No, it’s fine, Hahaha!”

Lee Han let out a hearty laugh. The moment he saw the gift the maid took out of her pocket, it felt like cold water had been poured down to douse his boiling anger. It was an understandable reaction, as the gift was none other than…

Ambrosia!!

The Ambrosia, which color was more brilliant than the one he had seen before, emitting a stronger golden glow.

Its brightness managed to dissipate his anger into nothingness.