Chapter 105: The Knight Doesn’t Want to Be Reinstated (4)

“To think the commander of the First Order is the famous ‘White Lion’… It’s really surprising.”

A knight who had just joined the order this year blinked at the new revelation. It seemed like he never expected that he’d find a royal in the Knight Order. To that, one knight who seemed to be his senior nodded his head, implying that he understood his feelings.

“Most newbies are surprised by this, but it actually isn’t a rare case. There are many royals who joined the Knight Order, most people just don’t know it. They’re all in the First Order.”

“…The Royalists.”

“That’s right, the First Order, the place where royalist nobles gather. Only a royal or a high-ranking noble could lead them, this is why the important positions in the First Order were held by royals for generations. Although, a royal becoming a commander is a rare case.”

“He must be incredibly skilled.”

“Do you want to compete against him?”

“Yes, at least once…”

“Ahaha! You are so honest.”

The senior knight burst into laughter at the junior’s bold statement—essentially, he declared that he wanted to fight against a member of the royal family. However, the senior knight wasn’t making fun of his junior’s arrogance. If anything, his fierce competitive spirit was something to be praised.

After all…

The arrogance of a skilled person is not arrogance, but a display of confidence. This guy is more than qualified.

As far as he knew, the junior knight in front of him was the most skilled one among the new recruits this year. He never slacked off on his training, and even in the Third Order, there had been talks about how only a few people could handle him. In fact, most senior knights tried so hard to avoid him because he kept asking them to spar every single day.

When that guy was still in the order, he kept challenging the other knights. And now, after that guy left, another guy who’s similar to him appeared.

There really are all kinds of people in this world…

…Of course, ‘that guy’ is a rare case. I doubt there would be someone as unique as him in this world.

In any case, while the other senior knights seemed to be burdened by this energetic newbie, this particular knight was cheering them on.

He genuinely believed that knights should possess as much fighting spirit as him.

However…

“Unfortunately, I doubt that he’s going to fight you.”

“Why?”

“Because the First Order doesn’t really interact with the Third Order.”

Sometimes, reality was a cruel mistress, and the senior knight had to let him know that things wouldn’t always go their way.

“Hmm…”

Hearing his senior’s words, the junior swallowed what he wanted to say.

The Third Order of the Order of Silver Lion. Unlike the First or the Second Order, which were filled with high-ranking nobles, the Third Order was filled with many low-ranking nobles, or fallen nobles. Perhaps because of that, they were treated like strays within the order and thus ignored.

Thinking back on that, the junior knight showed a look of discontent.

“Haa… The more I experience this damned order the angrier I become. Sure, I get it that politics cannot be left out because this is the palace, but I never thought that it would be this bad! In the past, I thought that as long as I’m skilled enough, I could easily become deputy commander.”

“How arrogant. Do you think it’s easy to become deputy commander here? Don’t joke around. You haven’t even been in this place for half a year yet.”

“…I have a newfound respect for you now, Senior. It’s nice to see a clean knight like you in a place like this.”

His words sounded like flattery, but they were actually very sincere.

As far as the junior knew, there were only two people in the Knight Order who were clean and had no connection to politics, and one of them was the senior in front of him. As a royal knight, he realized how difficult it was to do something like that, and he even began to feel another sense of respect towards him.

This man was an actual role model for knights.

“You should respect someone who deserves to be respected. I’m not particularly clean, I just do my job as a knight while making some compromises.”

The senior knight, Jake Farman, who was receiving his junior, Yord’s respectful gaze, shook his head, telling the other guy to not think too highly of him.

“I’m just a descendant of a knight family that has fallen to the point where we can’t even get involved in politics. Above all, I’ve already given up on my career because I made the wrong guy as a friend, and that made all the superiors dislike me.”

“…Oh.”

“Don’t give me that pitying look. Thanks to that I didn’t need to waste my time on useless things, and I have all the time in the world to improve my skills.”

“…I can see that. It’s always fun to spar with you, Senior Jake.”

“While I always got goosebumps because of you.”

Jake let out a bitter smile.

If only he had a higher status, he would have risen up the ranks quickly.

Jake genuinely felt that Yord’s skill was being wasted. He was clearly the most skilled among the new recruits, but no one saw his real worth just because he was a member of the Third Order.

Jake felt regretful that his favorite junior couldn’t soar any higher than this.

This guy should be the one representing the Silver Lion…

In each of the prestigious orders, there was always a young knight representing them.

Like Sir Bale of Tristan and Sir Maximus of Lionel, both representing the Red Eagle and Black Iron respectively. As for the Silver Lion, the one who represented it was none other than the Eighth Prince. But, when Jake observed the prince’s skills from afar, the best assessment he could give him was just ‘He’s pretty decent’, never ‘He’s amazing’.

This was what he genuinely felt. He didn’t have any prejudice against the prince just because he was a royal.

Being the representative of the order means that they have to show [overwhelming ability].

Talented people were plenty in the order. That was why if someone wanted to represent the order, they had to show overwhelming achievements or abilities that surpassed those numerous talents.

In the Eighth Prince’s case, the one who was commonly called ‘Pendragon’s White Lion’, his talent was far from that. Because of that, Jake couldn’t help but make a few guesses, even though it was irreverent.

Maybe the royal family is trying to make up for their lack of legitimacy?

The current royal family, or rather, the current king lacked legitimacy.

While it was quite ridiculous to say such a thing about the royal family, everyone would probably agree with his opinion.

The problem is that the king’s older brother was too great of a man…

Unfortunately, said older brother, or rather, the previous king, the God of War of the kingdom, did not leave any successor. He had two children, but his first son succumbed to a chronic illness, while his second son, a man of great talent, was chosen by the magic sword and took Galahad’s name instead.

Because of that, the current king, the God of War’s ‘younger brother’, was chosen to be his successor.

He was the prince whom the previous king trusted to inherit the throne, but it was said that there was much talk within the kingdom because of that.

The current king is not incompetent, but… Haa…

It was presumptuous and disrespectful for a knight to try to measure the king’s ability, but at this point, he wasn’t the only one who was doing it. Everyone must have done it at least once.

‘Is the current king truly fit to succeed the God of War?’

Because the subject of comparison was too great, the current king’s ability fell short of people’s expectations, and as a result, the current king often made ‘mistakes’ that caused many disasters.

That was why the current royal family had less power and legitimacy than ever before. Although, at the very least, an outstanding successor, Princess Isis, had appeared, so the future was pretty much secured. But, since the king was still an active king, the princess’ succession to the throne was something that would only happen in the future.

Hence, given the situation, the royal family made various attempts to forcibly increase their legitimacy and authority. Jake guessed that was the reason why the Eighth Prince was the first among the royal family to become the commander of the knight order while also being hailed as a promising candidate was also due to those royal circumstances.

In other words…

The knight worthy to bear the name of the Silver Lion, or rather Pendragon, is not the Eighth Prince.

Even the current Yord wouldn’t cut it. He had the potential to, but was not yet mature enough.

The most worthy knight that Jake could think of was none other than…

…That guy keeps saying that he doesn’t need fame, but he’s the only one that comes to mind.

The only knight who was able to send all of the senior knights to the temple’s bed the moment he joined. The knight who continued to train with Sir Baltar for over three years without becoming disabled. Lately, he even heard that he was hailed as ‘The Hero of the Academy’.

Yeah, you need to be at least on his level to represent Pendragon—

“Huh? What are you doing here?”

“…?”

“Hey, it’s been a while.”

“L-Lee Han?”

…Why is that guy here?

Jake blinked, bewildered by the sudden appearance of his friend whom he had been thinking about just a moment ago.

Of course, he was happy to see him. As stated, it had been a long time since he had seen him. It was just…

“S-Senior.”

“Huh? Who are you?”

“I-I’m Yord Decker. The guy who fought with you before you were transferred…”

“…Ah! You were that rather competent guy from back then. It’s been a while.”

“Thank you for remembering me… B-But…”

Yord showed a similar reaction to Jake. Even though the guy was a senior he wanted to meet, he couldn’t bring himself to act happy right now.

After all…

“W-What is that?”

It was hard for anyone to keep their composure after watching the man dragging another man by the scruff of his neck.

Lee Han scratched the back of his head at the question from his friend and junior whom he hadn’t seen in a long time…

“Can you…pretend not to see it…?”

“…”

“Trust me, if you involve yourself with this matter, you’ll get in trouble too.”

“…”

“A-Ahem.”

“…You lunatic…”

Seeing this spectacle, Jake decided to correct his thoughts.

Nope. This guy isn’t worthy. He’s the source of all disaster.

Even though he seemed to be making excuses, Lee Han actually felt the most wronged here.

“He suddenly attacked me like a lunatic! How was I supposed to just let myself get hit?!”

The one who picked a fight with a guy walking down the street should be the one at fault, not the one who got attacked!

Lee Han could only use the logic of power in the style of medieval romance novels, and he thought that his logic was valid.

However…

“Yeah, I get it, but how could you do that to someone from the royal family?!”

“…”

“Do you think that logic would work on the royal family?”

“…Ugh.”

Indeed. Even if he wanted to push forward with the logic of power, the other party just had too much power. Since he beat up a royal, it was only natural that he was the one at a disadvantage here.

If the prince woke up and said he was hit by him, half of the Silver Lion would become his enemies, and if this matter was brought up to trial, he’d end up in the gallows.

However…

Shovel-! Shovel-!

“…Senior, is this really okay?”

“Don’t ask me, ask the guy who caused the accident—!”

“…Senior Lee Han?”

Yord stared at Lee Han with a disapproving gaze.

“Fine, fine, I’m gonna take full responsibility!”

“…”

Yord Decker was dumbfounded, he never thought that he’d go up a mountain to dig a hole this big after he became a knight.

Other doubts rose again in his mind.

…He wondered if this was the right thing to do or not.

“This is just a crime, isn’t it…?”

“Haa, if my father finds out about this, he’s going to kill me for sure.”

Yord mumbled as such, while Jake grabbed his head, thinking that he really had made the wrong friends.

However, Lee Han just dug the ground silently. As there were three knights digging up the dirt, it didn’t take long for a huge hole to be formed.

“What’s the point of a human’s life? When we die, we all return to the ground. This guy just had that day come a little sooner.”

“…”

“Remember, Junior. If you’re going to cause trouble, you have to clean it thoroughly.”

“…That’s a lesson I don’t really want to learn.”

The junior knight mumbled, finding his senior’s words absurd.

However, Lee Han had decided to go out shamelessly.

The only way out for me is to threaten this guy.

Turn him into a missing person for the time being!

It’s the lesser of two evils!

With this, no one would need to worry anymore!

In the first place, Lee Han didn’t plan to kill him like what he had told Yord. Instead…

Threats will only work under extreme circumstances!

If I starved this guy for a week, leaving out only his face outside the dirt, there’s no way he wouldn’t cooperate!

That was his plan. Jake had probably figured it out to some extent, that was why he cooperated to begin with.

“Alright, time to send him off.”

Flinch-!

“…?”

“…”

“…Hmm.”

…At that moment. Lee Han felt a sudden twitch and poked the silver-haired man with a shovel.

Flinch!!

…Then, the man shook his body violently.

After confirming that…

“Hey, are you awake?”

“…”

“…Are you going to open your mouth or not? Or maybe you want to do it after you’re buried?”

“…Gulp.”

“I’ll give you three seconds. Three, two, one…”

“…I’ll give you a chance. If you apologize now, I’ll keep my mouth shut.”

“…”

“This is a special chance. If it’s now…”

“Maybe I should cut off your limbs first. You won’t need them anyway.”

“You lowly humaaan! How dare you do this to me, Arren de Pendragon?! Do you think I’d give in to such threats!?”

“…”

“Kill me! There’s no reason for me to live while enduring such humiliation!!”

“…”

“Come on…!”

“…Alright then.”

Lee Han was genuinely amazed.

At the bastard’s spirited attitude?

No.

Rather…

“…I didn’t even see you move. When did you kneel?”

Because he was someone who could kneel down so quickly that even his eyes couldn’t keep up. He couldn’t help but give him a look that said, ‘You’re quite good’.

As expected, a royal who survived through trickery, I guess.

He isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed, but damn, his survival instinct is something else.

Somehow, he was able to figure out that, even though Lee Han often made jokes, he was the type of person who’d really cut off one of his limbs at the slightest inconvenience.