Chapter 31: The Knight Does His Side Job Seriously Too (2)

When they first heard that they’d be doing rope jumping, the cadets were all dumbfounded, muttering ‘What the hell is this?’ under their breaths.

After all, in their eyes, rope jumping was something that only children would do. So, they wondered why the hell would they need to do something like this.

Those who aspired to be knights especially immediately had the urge to rebel when they heard it, but the moment they saw the red marked ropes…

“W-What is this?!”

Those are not jump ropes!

Those are rebars!

Those things are made of woven iron!

He asked us to jump rope with these things? We can barely even lift them!

The cadets picked up the rope, hoping that it was just the rope’s appearance that was menacing, but…

Crack-!

The thing was as heavy as it looked. It was to the point that they almost lost their minds because of it.

From its handle to the rope itself, everything was heavy.

…And we’re supposed to do rope jumping with this…?

The task genuinely sounded like a ridiculous task..

However…

Swish-! Swish-!

“Haha! This is fun!”

They saw Kunta jumping while turning the rope, like a kid who had found a new toy. That gave them enough hope to think that it wasn’t such a ridiculous task after all. And so, they decided that they should just try doing it.

But, as expected…

“I-I can’t lift it!”

“How am I supposed to spin this thing?!”

Let alone spinning it, they could barely even lift it.

“Keuuuuuk!”

However, they had learned Combat Techniques, so they managed to use that to make the rope spin.

At first, they dismissed the whole rope jumping thing as a joke, but now they were quite literally risking their lives with it. After all, just a slight mistake would break their wrists or elbows.

Swish-! Swish-!

That was just in the beginning though. They gradually regained their confidence.

Because as long as they were using Combat Technique—or rather, they thought that as long as it was ‘them’, they definitely could spin this rope. They even thought that they might be able to complete the reps that their instructor assigned them to do, until…

Swish-!

Thud!

“…”

They realized that they could straight up die after doing just a few reps.

This realization came after they saw one of them get hit by the rope, or rather, the ‘heavy iron chain’, and fainted.

Thud-! Thud-!

When that happened, a chain reaction occurred; others also got hit by the rope and started to faint. Meanwhile, the rest of them were terrified by this and stopped. They thought that if they got hit in the head by mistake, something terrible would actually happen to them.

“You weaklings. How the hell did you pass out just from that? The rope barely hit you. Tsk, you guys surely are weak.”

-…

The cadets wanted to rebuke him, telling him that this wasn’t a matter of them being weak or not, but an actual life-or-death situation, but they couldn’t bring themselves to.

Because…

Swish-! Swish-! Swish-! Swish-!

“You guys just need to do this. It isn’t even hard, how the hell did you guys fail, huh?”

The instructor did the rope jumping that they found terrifyingly hard with quite ease.

But, at that moment…

Bang-!

The rope hit the instructor’s head hard.

They were sure that it was a clean hit, but…

“Ah, whoops, that was my bad.”

He was completely fine. There wasn’t a single wound on his head. Instead, he just showed an embarrassed face because he made such a mistake after trying to show off to them.

Is he even a human?!

“Doesn’t it hurt, Instructor?”

“Of course it does, but I can endure this much with my body. A knight should be able to do this much at least, you know?”

“I beg to differ…”

You’re the only one who can do that!

All the cadets had to restrain themselves hard from saying that out loud.

Of course, Lee Han didn’t just give his students those heavy iron chains without thinking. After all, he had common sense, he knew that his body was special. And that was why he knew.

That his students were strong ‘enough’ to do this training.

“As some of you may have already noticed, different colors mean different weights. The yellow ones are normal ropes, the green ones weigh around 3 kg, and the red ones weigh 10 kg.”

-T-Ten kilos?!

A commotion erupted among the cadets as soon as they heard it. In particular, the cadets holding the yellow and green marks were shocked as they looked at those with the (blood-stained) red ropes.

Are you saying that these guys have been spinning something like that all this time?!

However, Lee Han just continued his explanation without paying attention to the commotion.

“I remember our training on the first day. Except for a few, most of you were instantly subdued by me. Ah, if you don’t remember that, you can just tell me. I can personally remind you how everything went.”

His words scratched their pride, but none of the cadets refuted them. After all, he was right.

Lee Han wasn’t trying to insult or embarrass them with that though.

“I noticed it yesterday, you guys are really lacking in your basics. Especially considering that you guys wish to be a knight. How could you wish for something so grand with awful basics like that? Seriously, do you think you can be a knight with only that much skill?”

-!!!?

Because these words were the real insult.

While yes, they had lost badly, they were still descendants of knight families. And yet he still asked them nonsense like that.

Of course they felt insulted.

However, Lee Han only scoffed at their insolent gaze.

“Those who find my words insulting, open your ears properly, okay? You guys are fools. You don’t even know what you lack since you only listen to all those pleasant words that people say to you. That’s why your basics are poor, because you’re surrounded by those people who always flatter you. If you guys were to go to war, you’d either die first or live long. How would you live long? You’d get hurt before you could even go to war, that’s how. Trust me, the military isn’t stupid enough to send pitiful guys like you—pathetic guys who can’t even take care of themselves—to war.”

“…”

An uncomfortable silence enveloped the training field as soon as Lee Han spoke those words.

Because most of the students wondered if there really was a correlation between them being bad at rope jumping with them lacking in their basics. In their minds, even though some of them got hit by that…rope…that didn’t mean they were that bad.

Of course, there were some who still failed to accept the truth even after Lee Han laid them bare like that, which was something that he expected. To those guys, he just snorted at them.

It’s useless even if I were to explain it to them a hundred times.

“I know that there’ll be some fools who won’t accept the truth even after hearing all my explanation, well not that I’ll expect you to immediately understand anyway. That’s why I’ll give you an example so you can understand it with your own eyes. Kunta, Arno, Galand, come forward.”

Thud-!

“Kunta! Here!”

“I can guess what we have to do.”

“Huh, you’re doing exactly the same thing as my old man… Are you actually one of his hidden sons?”

The three of them came forward, as if they had been waiting for this moment. Seeing their attitude—the perfect attitude for learning—Lee Han smiled in satisfaction.

“I hope that at the very least you guys know some shame. Because the most skilled ones among you guys are the ones who perform the exercise without complaining. It was those with below-average skills who yapped the most.”

Lee Han gestured to the three cadets at that moment. He didn’t say anything to them, but they understood well enough what he wanted and proceeded to carry out his instruction silently.

Swish-! Swish-!

The iron chain in their hands moved while kicking a heavy blast of air.

In Kunta’s case, he handled the rope freely as if it were a toy, while Arno did it with an exemplary and stable posture that one could probably see in a textbook somewhere.

As for Galand, he seemed to be doing it halfheartedly, but his posture was just as stable as Arno’s.

They did their job without making a single mistake. Though there was a difference in speed between them and their sweat poured down like rain, they kept on spinning the rope without any sign of fatigue.

Ten, twenty, then thirty.

Slowly but steadily, they filled their quota.

The sight made the students wonder if this was something that could be done so steadily. Even those who couldn’t do three reps and got themselves injured were thinking so.

As some of the students who had been complaining were at a loss for words and blushing in shame…

Tap-!

Lee Han suddenly tapped Kunta’s rope, breaking off his rhythm. As a result, his back was slapped by the heavy iron chain.

Thud-!

A booming sound echoed, followed by a loud cracking sound. Those sounds were so loud and terrifying. If the students didn’t know any better, they’d think that Kunta was being hit by a whip and a hammer at the same time.

Of course, getting hit by that heavy iron chain wouldn’t just bring one pain. It could break their bones and force them to a three-months-recovery period.

But…

“Ugh… I-Instructor is mean. Kunta hurts…”

“Stop being a drama queen. You’re strong enough to endure that.”

“What hurts hurts.”

“Stop whining… Fine, I’ll buy you something tasty later.”

“Instructor is good person!”

Kunta was fine.

Well, of course he wasn’t completely fine, since the part of his skin that was hit was completely red, but still, the fact that he managed to endure such a force surprised the rest of the students.

Isn’t that just—

“If there’s any of you who thinks, ‘Isn’t that just the special ability of a barbarian?’, you should just gouge your eyes right now. Especially those of you who have learned Combat Techniques. What’s the use of your eyes if you can’t see, huh?”

A new kind of disdain accompanied Lee Han’s venomous words. He noticed that there were quite a few who thought that Kunta was using a barbarian’s special ability or whatnot.

Lee Han let out a smirk at those guys before continuing his explanation.

“I’ve never learned Combat Technique, but I understand some of its basics. Combat Technique is a technique to release the body’s potential in an instant, and that potential can be developed through training. Am I right?”

“Yes, Instructor, you’re correct.”

“Thank you for your sincere answer. As expected, you have the potential. How about becoming my assistant?”

“…I will have to decline.”

“That’s too bad.”

The one who answered his question was Arno. Even though the young man had jumped over a hundred times, he still didn’t look tired at all.

“As you can see, Cadet Arno is using the Combat Techniques on his knees, ankles, wrists, elbows, and shoulders. Only the parts that are at risk of getting hurt by this intense exercise. Not only that, he also isn’t wasting any unnecessary strength, only using light movements. He isn’t using his Combat Technique for anything else. Now, do you understand what that means?”

“Ah…”

Only then did the cadets start to react as if they understood something.

Too bad, their realization came too late, making Lee Han feel like he was teaching kindergarteners. He only gave them a pitiful look before answering his own question.

“Basically, Cadet Arno only applied his Combat Technique in necessary parts of his body. Which also means, he spinned the rope with just his physical strength.”

“…Instructor, how do you see through it if you never learned combat technique?”

“By seeing it, of course.”

“I-Is that so?”

“Anyway, this is what’s important. Cadet Arno, Cadet Galand, and Cadet Kunta have all solidified their basic and physical strength. They’re not like you guys who use Combat Technique for everything just so you can train comfortably.”

People called Combat Technique an all-purpose power, but actually, the person using it was more important than the Combat Technique itself. It was just like a sword. No matter how good the sword was, if the person wielding it was merely an amateur, they wouldn’t even be able to cut a tree.

That was why those cadets were wrong.

In terms of martial arts, they’re basically those who only trained their internal energy but never touched their external energy.

They’re nothing but a glass cup that couldn’t even hold water properly.

No, putting it like that is too much of a praise for these guys.

They aren’t glass cups, but paper cups.

Just when will those guys become human?

“In other words, what you sloppy guys need right now isn’t swordsmanship training or Combat Technique training, but to build up your physical strength, stamina, endurance, and durability.”

“…Why didn’t you just tell us that we need to do all that from the start, Instructor? There’s no need for this long-winded process beforehand, is there?”

Such a razor sharp remark came from Galand, who, at the end of Lee Han’s long speech, had jumped for around 200 times. In any case, hearing Lee Han’s words, the cadets’ expressions turned dark.

Isn’t it too late to start training our basics now…?

“By the way, the part of the Knight Order’s entrance exam that filtered out the most people is the physical exam. It’s the easiest one among them all, but those people somehow flunked it. Ah, right, I guess this doesn’t matter since you’ll just enter your families’ Knight Order, huh? None of this matters since you’ll get in without a test anyway. Nepotism sure is nice, huh? Haha!”

“…”

Telling them something like this right to their faces was no different than telling them ‘You’re a parachute’. For nobles who valued honor as much as their lives, it was like telling them to might as well bite their tongue and die.

With that, all the cadets that opposed him disappeared, leaving him satisfied since all the noises were gone together with those guys.

Seeing the face of the cadets who finally understood what he was trying to say pleased him.

“Well, don’t worry, I won’t just make you do this boring thing forever.”

At most, I’ll just make them do this for a single semester.

“Trust me, follow my words just for this semester, your physical abilities will be incomparable to what you currently have. But of course…”

Lee Han scanned each and every cadet before continuing.

“That’s only if you follow along well.”

However, his gaze as he said that looked as if he was saying:

‘I wonder if any of you can even do that.’

It was a mocking gaze towards the cadets, which prompted them to think…

That they wanted to hit him at least once and nothing else.

Too bad for them though, that wasn’t something that would happen for a very, very long time.