Chapter 29: The Knight Finds It Rewarding Being an Instructor (3)

With that, the fight ended in an anticlimactic manner, contrary to the expectations of many.

Though Lee Han was extremely disappointed with this, the spectators held a different feeling from him.

-…Gulp.

The biggest change that happened to the students was the way they looked at Lee Han.

Originally, some of them looked at Lee Han with a gaze filled with disgust, but now, there was nothing of that sort anymore. Instead, there were those who looked at him with longing and admiration.

Most of the ones who had that kind of gaze were commoners, meanwhile the nobles mostly had one filled with contemplation when they looked at him. They probably judged that it would be beneficial for them to make a connection with him.

This is why these nobles piss me off. Why can’t they just hate me all the way through instead of changing their minds midway?

After all that, Lee Han finally gave the students a proper greeting.

“I introduced myself already before those fights, but I’ll do it again. My name is Lee Han Totle. Lee Han, not Lihan. Remember it well.”

-…

“At least give me an answer, you tactless bastards.”

-I understand!

“Good, good.”

When will these precious chicks finally turn into human babies, hm?

“…Like you all know, I used to work in the Order of Silver Lion, and I’m a commoner. Oh, right, if there’s anyone who doesn’t want to be taught by me because of my backgrounds, just leave, no need to attend my class, just like the second year and the third year. It really won’t make any difference whether you guys leave now or later.”

“But, the penalty points…”

“I won’t give you any. It’s better for me to teach only the people who want to be taught by me anyway. As long as you do well during the exam period, it’ll be fine. Well, if you want to have good grades, that’s it. If you don’t care about that too, just take another class. Yes, the class selection period is over, but I’ll ask other instructors and lecturers to help you out with that.”

Lee Han tried to show his good intentions to the students. Even though it would be a shame that the number of his toys would decrease, he wasn’t the kind of irresponsible person who’d force the kids who wanted to seriously learn to play around him.

Also, he welcomed kids who wanted to work hard.

Just like how running with someone else was more effective than doing it alone, training together would always yield a better effect.

“Ah, right. Anyone who wants to attack me, just do it whenever you want. I welcome it.”

“Kunta! Coming forward!”

“Not you. Heal your injury first. Seriously, what the hell did you do when I was sparring with the others?”

“…Muu…”

Hearing Lee Han’s answer, Kunta became gloomy.

Lee Han’s answer didn’t just apply to him, though.

“It goes the same with all of you too. Those who didn’t treat their injuries because they were busy watching the fights, go and quickly treat them. Otherwise, the numbers of patients will pile up.”

“But you caused our injuries in the first place, Instructor…”

“And so what?”

“…I’m just saying.”

After Lee Han casually ignored Garland’s jib, everyone who was rolled by him today quickly disappeared into the recovery room where the healing priests were waiting.

As expected of the Academy, the amount of support they provide is crazy.

Considering that the annual salary of a single healing priest was roughly equivalent to that of a vice president at a large corporation, one could already tell the extent of the support that the Academy provided. It wasn’t only that, hiring a healing priest meant that one had the obligation to pay a monthly donation to the temple.

The Academy could probably build a whole new building every week with that much money alone.

I should use it often in the future.

While Lee Han was feeling a strange sense of satisfaction while thinking of the Healing Priest…

“I-Instructor, may I ask what we will learn from your class?”

A question came from one of the girls, whom Lee Han didn’t pay much attention to.

“What’s your name?”

“L-Levy Fault, Instructor.”

“Hmm. Are you a noble?”

“J-Just a baron, Instructor.”

“Do you want to learn swordsmanship?”

“…If I can learn it by taking the class, I will… No! I want to learn it!”

“Oho…?”

From appearance she looked like a pretty smart girl.

It was obvious from the first glance that she was a noble girl who had never learned swordsmanship before. She looked like a girl who’d put her preparations for her social debut over swordsmanship. In other words, she wasn’t someone who’d fit into the Swordsmanship Department.

However, her being here wasn’t a strange thing at all. Aside from her, about half of the girls in the department were like that. As for the reason why those girls who had never even done dishes their entire lives came to his lecture, it was none other than…

They’re here to find a fiancé or a debutante partner.

Just like the prom king and queen that often appeared in American movies or dramas, a great partner was important for debutantes. In noble society in particular, it was common for those who wouldn’t be able to become knights in the future to get engaged as soon as they had their social debuts.

Those girls were most likely the type of girls who came here for that reason. Even though Lee Han found it annoying in some ways, he didn’t particularly mind it. After all, the reason why the Academy could maintain its existence was because of the massive support from the parents of these girls. In other words, they were part of the reason why the Academy could afford to hire a healing priest.

However, for some reason, those girls’ eyes sparkled as they were staring at him, as if they genuinely wished to learn something from him.

Why are they like this…?

“It’s probably because the fight between you and Young Master Roen left such a great impression on them, Instructor. After all, people tend to yearn for things they can’t do.”

“…Is that so?”

“Yes, especially in the case of girls from noble families. They grew up in a greenhouse for their whole life, so that kind of stimulation is something so rare that it could be considered mystical for them. Well, this won’t take long, though. Noble women hate sweating, they’ll disappear the moment they start to sweat. That’s why women in the Swordsmanship Department tend to stop showing up to classes after one semester.”

“You know a lot, don’t you?”

“Hehe, my brother is an alumnus, so I’ve heard a lot of things from him.”

“I see. Guess you’re pretty useful, after all, like some kind of source of information.”

“Thank you!”

“…But, Assistant.”

“Yes?”

“Can you stop shoving your face to me? When I see your face, I feel like hitting you.”

“…Okay.”

“Good, good. That’s how you should always be like whenever you talk to me.”

“…Dammit.”

“I can hear you, Assistant.”

Damien, or rather, Assistant (slave)’s eyes became moist once again.

That marked the end of today’s classes. Just like how universities usually would finish classes earlier on the first day, Lee Han also showed such flexibility.

Before long, all the students left the training ground and the place turned quiet, leaving only Lee Han and the beautiful dusk sky.

“Hmm.”

But, he wasn’t free enough to look up at the beautiful sky. He had something important to do; to look back at the series of spars he just had.

Tsk, I should’ve asked them to show me more…

Even though all the matches he had were against those who were significantly weaker than him, he still had things to learn from those spars.

After all, there was a reason why prestigious families were called prestigious.

While those guys were atrociously bad at the basics, they knew a lot about advanced techniques.

It was like casting pearls before swine, but as long as it wasn’t a swine who was holding those pearls, it would still be worth something.

In particular, there were four guys who he decided to keep his eyes on.

What was his name? Kunta? I’ll fight him again tomorrow, but this time, I’ll take it slow. He’s similar to me, so it’ll be fun.

Both the guy with the twin swords and the guy with the Sky Piercer were also good.

…And also, that regressor guy. He’s more cunning than I thought.

Somehow he became more interested in them than he had expected. There was just a lot for him to learn. Unlike him, they had limitless potential, as they were the so-called geniuses.

He felt that if he were to keep on observing and fighting them, his body would gather new information every time.

What Baltar said came to his mind.

He told him that he needed to accumulate more information through actual combat than theoretical training.

The fact that there were a few guys that he could learn a lot from only benefited him.

“…Now that I think about it, this job is pretty good.”

Isis practically forced this job on him, but after actually going through a day with it, he genuinely thought it wasn’t a bad job at all.

No, actually,  he thought that it couldn’t be better than this.

“It feels quite rewarding…?”

Being the Academy’s instructor… Looking back, he realized how much more rewarding it was compared to being in the Knight Order.

Finding a job that suited his aptitude in such an unexpected way, he let out a bitter laugh.

To him, the Knight Order was boring, since everyone there avoided sparring with him. Besides, being there also wasn’t very rewarding.

Moreover…

“Hey, you little rat.”

There were also quite a few interesting students here.

“Just come out quickly. Why are you stalking me again today, huh? Yesterday wasn’t enough for you?”

Whoosh-!

A sudden wind blew, as if licking the grass in that empty lot.

Well, it actually wasn’t licking anything since it was an empty lot, but, well…

In any case, in the midst of that strange situation, Lee Han grabbed the hatchet on his bosom.

Whoosh-!

“…Please forgive me, Instructor, I didn’t mean to bother you.”

At that moment, a man suddenly appeared.

Lee Han recognized this guy’s face, as he was one of the students he had seen today; the guy who kept clinging right next to Roen.

I believe his name is…

“Hans?”

“…It’s Jack, Instructor.”

“Oh, I see.”

“…Can you please put the hatchet away?”

“Not before I hear what you have to say.”

Thud-! Thud-!

Lee Han lightly hit the ground with the hatchet, trying to force the guy to answer. He was trying to say that he had been lenient enough to not throw the hatchet at the guy even though he noticed that he had been loitering around him all this time.

In such a dangerous situation, Jack forced out a smile, even though he was sweating profusely.

H-He noticed that I was watching him yesterday…?

To be exact, Jack was watching Irene Windler instead of him, but nevertheless, he didn’t expect that this monstrous guy actually noticed him.

As expected, just as my lord said, this guy isn’t ordinary…

A dangerous man… Not only is he strong, he also has something special about him…

Just like my lord…

I guess it’s a matter of drawing a line.

Jack barely managed to open his dry lips.

“…My lord has a message for you.”

“Why couldn’t he just say something earlier, huh? Seriously, you nobles are just…”

“Do you know anything about ‘angel’?”

“…?”

“So you don’t. That’s enough.”

“Angel?”

“I can only tell you this, but… Please don’t believe in the angels or the temple.”

What came out of his mouth was a statement that Lee Han failed to understand.

Angel…?

…Does he have some kind of mental illness?

There are still a bunch of suspicious circumstances around him, I’ll hit him on the head later, who knows, he might get better.

Lee Han thought sarcastically, secretly showing his good intentions(?) to treat him.

“For one, I’m an atheist.”

“Haha, you’re just being irreverent, aren’t you? Well, I’m also the same, I guess…”

“Hmm… I don’t know what it is, but I’m guessing you came here with some really twisted intentions, huh?”

“…I won’t deny it.”

At that moment, Jack thought that he might die right there and then. If the instructor was actually trying to kill him, there was no way that he’d be able to put up a fight.

But…

“How old are you?”

“Pardon?”

“I said, how old are you, you rascal?”

“T-Twenty years old, Instructor.”

“…You have a severe case of farsightedness. I almost thought that you lied about your age when you entered the academy.”

“That’s just too much, Instructor…”

Hearing Lee Han made such a shocking accusation suddenly, Jack’s face turned sour.

To that, Lee han just laughed before shaking his head.

Of course, this was something that he had expected to some extent. While he didn’t know the details about that angel or whatever, in romance novels, those guys would usually appear as a regular villain, just like a skeleton in fantasy novels.

If it isn’t royalty, then the temple is the villain of the story.

Such a thing was normal, just like people who used bone for beef broth.

After that, he asked a question, just in case.

“So, are there any more people I should be wary of?”

“…You believe me?”

“I have a feeling I should. You don’t look like someone I need to be wary of anyway.”

“…You really are quite special, Instructor.”

“Enough with the flattery. So, is there anything else you want to tell me? Something fun, preferably.”

“F-Fun…”

Jack thought that saying anything else here would be an overstepping of authority, but at the same time, doing it wouldn’t put him in danger anyway, so he decided to do it. Besides, Lee Han seemed like the kind of person who’d listen to a fun story that the bards usually tell.

Also, he had a feeling that if Lee Han liked him enough, he would be of great help in the future.

“…Do you know anything about the second prince, the Troublemaker?”

“The second prince? So, the kingdom is still raising a prince?”

What Lee Han knew was that, ever since the eldest princess became the crown princess, all the princes in the country had disappeared; either kicked out or just straight out disappeared. That was why he didn’t pay any attention to them.

And yet, according to this guy, there was a prince left.

“T-The prince is not a dog, Instructor…”

H-He casually treated the prince so rudely…

I-Isn’t he a knight? Why couldn’t he be more careful with his words…?

“Oh, c’mon, forget about that. So, what is it about the Troublemaker Prince or whatnot? What kind of nickname is that anyway?”

“Uh… He’s quite famous, you know? They said that not only is he cruel, he’s also mentally ill.”

“What’s wrong with him?”

Lee Han asked, wondering why a prince he was never interested in suddenly came up.

“…I heard that he entered the Academy this year while hiding his identity. As for the reason… I don’t know why either…”

“He enrolled here?”

“Yes. Honestly, I don’t think we have to be on guard against him, but since he’s a prince, some degree of caution is still needed, I think?”

Lee Han couldn’t refute those words because the logic was sound, so he just nodded his head slightly before asking if the said prince had any special traits.

“Hmm…. Ah! I heard something about his mental illness.”

“About his mental illness?”

“Yes. Apparently, he often points his finger at the air and does stupid things.”

“…”

“Is there something wrong, Instructor?”

“…No. I just think about how crazy he must’ve been to do something like that.”

Again, Lee Han spit out another rude word towards royalty, but this time Jack scolded him because someone might have heard it by accident. However, Lee Han didn’t care.

Rather than being concerned about lèse-majesté, he…

…What the fuck, there’s another one?

A rofan transmigrator…

And a regressor…

Those two were already too much, and yet…

It’s someone with a status window this time?

Now that he thought about it, though…

“Haaaa.”

At the very least, his life in the Academy wouldn’t be boring.