Chapter 30: The Knight Does His Side Job Seriously Too (1)

Rustle-!

Dawn. As the sun was still slowly creeping up into the sky, gradually brightening it up, illuminating the dark mountain, the air was particularly cold. It was a spectacular sight to behold, a treasure-like scenery to see the first time someone woke up in the morning.

Unfortunately, there weren’t many people who were diligent enough to appreciate such wonderful scenery.

Especially…

[Arin, hurry up and wake up! If you don’t get ready now, you’ll be late!]

“J-Just…five more minutes…”

[You already said that fifty minutes ago! Wake up!]

The students who were always sleep-deprived.

“Ugh…!”

Even after the ghost girl nagged her to no end, Irene wasn’t moved at all. Instead, she let out a groan, showing no willingness to wake up.

Seeing that, the ghost girl let out a frown and decided it was time for a desperate measure.

[Arin, if you keep doing this, you’d get unlucky.]

At that moment…

“Unlucky!!?”

Irene jumped up, as if she had never had a bad night’s sleep. Due to her low blood pressure, she always had a pale face whenever she woke up in the morning, but after hearing the word ‘luck’, her face turned red with vitality.

This was because the word ‘luck’ had another meaning to her. It was to the point that at times, she’d get excited whenever she heard it.

[Hehe, stupid Arin.]

“You… YOU!”

Only then did Irene snap out of her sleepy state and realized what had just happened. Without hesitation, she immediately hurled profanities at the ghost girl.

There are things that you aren’t allowed to do!

Like, how could she tell a test taker that she’d get unlucky?!

What a vicious bitch!

[You know that I can hear you, right, Arin? Also, why are you so scared of the word ‘unlucky’ anyway? I don’t understand…]

“…You don’t need to know, you unlucky girl.”

How could a ghost understand  the fear of a college entrance test taker? Hmph!

Snap-!

Irene then let out a sigh while snapping her finger. Soon after, a blue energy wave spread around her with a woosh. In an instant, an amazing phenomenon occurred.

The curtains that had been blocking the sunlight were drawn back as the windows snapped open. Then, the stale air and dust that had been accumulating overnight were released out of the room.

Before long, her room had already been covered by the morning sunlight that came together with the clean air. She then stretched her body while breathing in the unpolluted oxygen.

“Phew… Having magic sure is convenient~”

[You know, others will say that your talent is wasted on you if they saw what you used it for…]

“Hmph, only conservative old farts will ever say that! Ugh, thinking about it again just makes me angry again.”

[I agree with you on this one!]

She remembered the words of the mages and magic professors from the Academy, and that got her to start huffing in anger.

Basically, what they were saying was that magic was something only the chosen ones could have, and that magic was a higher degree of wisdom that would never be understood by the other ignorant humans.

Hearing those words made Irene feel sick.

That’s why mages are looked down upon by everyone else in this world! They’re all just a bunch of lunatics!

Everyone, except for me, of course!

[Arin, getting yourself so self-absorbed is good and all, but shouldn’t you start preparing now?]

“…Haa… But I don’t want to go…”

As someone who had gone to school for twelve years, the thought of waking up early in the morning for another three years to take even more classes was already enough to make her feel depressed. But, there was nothing she could do but to let out a deep sigh.

At that moment…

[Oh! It’s the instructor!]

“He’s so diligent… Eep!”

[…Your eyes turned so bright all of a sudden, hm?]

What Irene was seeing was Instructor Lee Han on his morning run. Seeing how his body was covered in dew-like sweat beads that reflected the sunlight, he must have started running long before she got up. She couldn’t help but be amazed at his diligence.

How can someone run like that every single day?

This was the sight that she had seen every day ever since she moved here.

Of course, she wasn’t complaining or anything, if anything, she respected his diligence.

But, that respect only lasted for a moment, as there was something that caught her eyes more than his diligent lifestyle; his bare body.

Anyone who saw her gawking at him would definitely think that her gaze was extremely suspicious.

“…He doesn’t know that we’re looking at him, right?”

[Maybe, but who cares! Take a picture of him first, Arin! Quick!]

“B-But, taking someone’s picture secretly is a crime…”

[It isn’t if you don’t get caught!]

“…I-Is that really how that works?”

Logically speaking, that famous phrase made sense, and that was enough to make Irene feign ignorance before taking out ‘that item’.

It was a rare magical item created by a certain water mage. They said its price was worth as much as a building. Its name was [Shape Copy Camera], quite the grand name, but to Irene, it was just a plain old camera. By the way, the greasy duke was the one who gifted it to her, much to her dismay.

But now…

“Mm! Got it!”

After she succeeded in taking the picture, for the first time in her current life, she felt happy for this gift that the duke gave her.

I guess that old man isn’t as bad as I thought~

“When did she get a camera? That’s the first time I’ve seen it.”

Irene probably thought that Lee Han couldn’t see what she was doing or hear what she was saying, but unfortunately for her, both his eyes and ears were sharp enough to accomplish both.

Of course, he couldn’t hear what she said completely since there was quite the distance between them, but he could tell that he was taking pictures of him. He didn’t care about anything else anyway.

But…

“I should ask her to show me how my picture came out.”

He was curious about how his pictures looked and was planning to ask her to show him later.

And that automatically turned her into a stalker who was scheduled to be executed in the future.

After all that had happened, Lee Han was still acting the same as usual.

Even though he had heard stories about angel and that Troublemaker Prince from Jack, he didn’t change his course of actions. He didn’t bother to try and find out more about the story, nor did he bother to ask for advice from people he knew.

The reason?

They’ll show up on their own later anyway.

If he had to say it, the existence of the troublemaker prince was on the same level as rare animals; like albino deers or squirrels.

It would be amazing to see them, but he didn’t care that much even if he didn’t get to see them.

I won’t die if I don’t see them anyway, who cares.

That was why he decided to just wait for them to show up.

There are two of them around me, the rest of them will show up eventually anyway.

Since that was the case, he figured that the other ‘rare animals’ would sense their companions’ presence and came to him on their own.

He believed in the law of attraction. All he needed to do was to just sit down instead of trying to find the rare animals he hadn’t met yet.

“Alright, next you guys are going to do double under. Take the rope that the assistant prepared.”

-…

Besides, he had a duty to fulfill as an instructor.

“Those who have learned Combat Techniques, take the ropes with the red mark, those who haven’t but have learned some swordsmanship, take the ones with the green mark, and those who haven’t learned both, take the ones with the yellow mark.”

-…

“Go!”

-Y-Yessir!

The cadets then each took the ropes that suited them with bewildered expressions.

While double under sounded great, it was nothing but.

“Alright, time to start ‘rope jumping’. Those with red marks will have to do 10,000 jumps, those with green marks 5,000 and those with yellow 2,000!”

-???

“Oho, seems like you guys aren’t gonna listen to me, hm?”

Lee Han let out a faint smile before taking out an iron club.

He then swung it lightly, but it was enough to make the air crack.

“From now on, anyone who disobeys my orders will have an ‘one-on-one session’ with this bad boy at the end of the class. Don’t worry, it will be beneficial for you, so you can look forward to it.”

“…How many did we need to do again, Instructor?”

Since none of the cadets had desires to do a ‘one-on-one’ session with the iron club, they promptly carried out his orders.

Before long, the sound of ropes cutting the air started to echo in the training ground.

…Surprisingly, no one gave up on Lee Han’s class. He could understand if it was just the commoners who were staying, but even the nobles persisted, which he found strange.

Even though there was a high chance that they only stayed because they harbored hidden intentions or some kind of scheme, it was a fact that they still stayed. Of course, Lee Han couldn’t care less what their deals were.

Anyway, the first exercise he decided to introduce to the class was…

“Rope jumping looks fun. I used to do it a lot when I was young, hehe!”

“It won’t be as easy as it looks.”

“Really?”

“…Actually, for you, Maid, it might be easy enough…”

That was when Lee Han realized that it was thanks to her incredible strength that the ropes could reach these kids’ hands. His useless assistant ended up hurting his back when he carried those ropes, so he had to get dragged into the recovery room. Meanwhile, this maid looked completely healthy after carrying all those heavy ropes. She was in an even better state than these guys who had been bragging about being themselves descendants of knights.

“…I swear, that loser.”

“Sorry?”

“Ah, no, I was just talking to myself. Also, you can take a rest if you feel bored, Maid.”

“No, no, I’m here just in case you need my help! Even though it’s temporary, I’m still your maid, Sir!”

“…Thank you.”

Once again, he realized that even though her brain was severely lacking, her heart was pure. He had always been dealing with those vulgar nobles and royalties, now that he was facing such a pure soul, he could feel that his filthy heart was being cleansed.

…Wait, doesn’t that mean I’m admitting that my heart is as filthy as those vulgar motherfuckers?

For a moment, such a thought crossed his mind, in which he immediately tried to deny. The thought of him being the same kind as those kinds of people repulsed him.

As he was thinking so…

Thud-!

It began.

“Ah, yeah, there’s indeed something I’d need your help with, Maid.”

“Yes?”

“Can you sprinkle some water on those guys? The ones who’re lying down right now?”

“Ah!”

“…Those weaklings…”

Watching the cadet faint after being hit by a rope weighing only ‘10 kg’, Lee Han clicked his tongue.

Kids these days…

Why are they so weak?

I swear, they’re so weak, I could call it a disease.