Chapter 38: The Knight Wears an Octagonal Hat (1)

…In truth, Lee Han didn’t have to accept Odwal’s challenge.

Why?

Because I’ll gain nothing from it.

Indeed, Lee Han had nothing to gain from accepting his challenge.

Besides…

Those punks aren’t even as strong as a real human being yet, what’s the use of sending them to fight?

The young masters, the sprouts, and the chicks…

To him, all the cadets were nothing more than weak animals, as they all still had a long way to go.

There are some who are better than an average knight though, I’ll admit that.

Those were the descendant of the barbarian, the young master of the famed swordsmen family, the disciple of the Mercenary King, and of course, the resident regressor. They were on a completely different level than the rest.

However, besides them, the others were just lacking in his eyes. If he were to make a somewhat extreme analogy, those four were like an eagle while the rest was nothing but rats.

Those guys are even weaker than Assistant, how could I call them human?

Funnily enough, the strongest guy after those four was Damien Paulet, Lee Han’s assistant(slave) for the next three years. To continue the previous analogy, Damien would be a cat.

As expected from a descendant of a noble knight family, not only was his foundation solid, his Combat Technique was also excellent. On top of that, in the jump rope training that Lee Han gave him, he consistently showed decent results.

This was another absurd comparison, but if the four people he mentioned before possessed the highest tier in terms of talent, then Damien’s would be at least top-tier. While his personality was lacking, everything else about him was quite good.

That was why he had no intention of letting those cadets join a trivial game like the proxy battle because even if he were to let them, they’d only bring a disastrous result.

But…

“Instructor! Let us do it.”

“We aren’t afraid of these mages! There’s no way we’d just run away from this challenge!”

“That magic freak dares to come at us! Tsk! He even disrespected a knight!”

“Watch me, I will cut off their heads for you!”

“Please send us out, Instructor. I swear I’ll make them tremble in fear just by hearing the name of the Swordsmanship Department.”

“…You rascals.”

Hearing their continuous pleas, Lee Han was a little torn. He didn’t know whether he should say, ‘As expected of the Academy’s cadets’ or ‘As expected of knight candidates’.

Though, he knew for sure that…

Right. There’s no way a knight would just sit still when a magic freak is throwing himself at him.

And he also realized…

These guys are growing well.

Lee Han hid his happiness by wiping his ticklish nose.

Finally, he felt the rewarding feelings that a teacher felt whenever they witnessed their students’ growth.

Perhaps because he sensed the students’ strong will, Lee Han decided to put some weight on accepting the bastard’s offer. On top of that, he also decided to lend his ear to whatever nonsense the magic freak was going to say.

As expected…

“‘The winner of this proxy battle must unconditionally follow the winner’s orders for the rest of their teaching career.’… Did I read it correctly?”

“Yes.”

“Funny guy. What kind of childish condition is this?”

As Lee Han expected, he went out of his way to set such a dirty condition.

“J-Just tell me whether you’ll do it or not!”

At this point, he probably also realized that the condition he listed was a little too much.

For Lee Han, this kind of condition was just crude, though. The fact that the mage even put in this kind of condition was proof of his childish nature.

His appearance and speech fooled me.

The fact that there weren’t many mages in the kingdom to begin with meant that even the faculty didn’t have many of them. That was probably why he was able to become a professor at such a young age.

…Well, it could be that he got that position because he got the looks for it...

Anyway, despite his looks—which made him look like he was 82 instead of 28—he was still extremely immature. On top of that, he was also short-sighted and seemingly unable to suppress his fiery temper.

Those things will get fixed as he grows older though…

No, wait, actually, fuckers like him would only get worse with age.

This fucker’s already so hot-tempered at his age, the more power and authority he gets, the worse will his temper be.

He’s exactly the kind of person that people hate to deal with.

Well, right now, he’s still easy to deal with though.

“I refuse. What can I even gain from this, huh? Besides, why should I listen to a magic freak’s order?”

“What can you gain—?! Fine, if I lose…!”

“If you lose?”

“…I’ll follow your orders! All of them! Do you know how valuable this opportunity is?”

Perhaps it was because he didn’t want to be educated by his fist, Odwal quickly changed his tone. But, Lee Han could still feel a trace of confidence in his voice. Maybe it was because he believed that a chance to be able to order a mage around was an opportunity that was even more valuable than any treasure.

He had set that condition because he knew his own value, and of course, he had thought this through beforehand.

“…I’m asking because I’m curious, but what on earth do you want to order me by setting this kind of condition?”

“Hmph. The first thing I will tell was to let Young Miss Irene go.”

“And then?”

“I’ll make you kneel!”

“…Then?”

“Then of course… Ahem, there’s nothing else.”

“…”

Now, that’s the kind of craziness I haven’t seen yet.

This guy actually is willing to sign a slave contract just for that?

When Lee Han brought that topic up—which he found ridiculous—the bastard got angry and yelled at him.

“I’m prepared to do anything to protect the honor of mages!”

“Seriously…”

Even though he was a petty villain and a filthy supremacist with a bad personality, he was ridiculously clumsy.

And you’re telling me he’s a professor of the Magic Department?

This kind of childish fucker is a professor?

And here I thought he’d ask me to introduce him to my backer.

He isn’t even asking me to become his test subject, he just wants to give me some petty orders…

Like, even if I agree to this condition, lose to him, and decide to not abide by it, there’s nothing he can do about it.

The only thing at stake here is our honor, but I don’t have any of that shit to begin with. Hell, I don’t even honor the oath I said in the name of the Knight Order.

To Lee Han, the only things that mattered were his own life and his muscles that he feared might disappear someday when he got older.

“Sure, let’s do it. But don’t you even dare to try and break your promise.”

“I’ll swear on my honor as a mage!”

“Then I’ll swear on the name of Baltar Grace.”

“…To think you’re swearing on his name… Good! I can trust that.”

Seeing how his plan succeeded just like that, the foolish mage didn’t even try to hide his happiness.

Little did he know though, to the person in front of him, Baltar’s name was worth even less than dog food.

“Some of you may have heard this already, but I’m gonna tell you all again. You will have a competition with the cadets of the Magic Department in a month.”

“What competition will it be, Instructor?”

“[War Game].”

“…I see the mages are using their brains, huh?”

“Kunta don’t know what that is!”

“To put it simply, it’s a mock war.”

“?”

“It’s like this….”

War Game. It referred to a game where someone rolled a dice, devised strategies, and moved their pieces on an enlarged map to fight a mock war.

But in the present time, the meaning of that game has changed a lot. It had transformed into something where nobles would be able to enjoy a ‘real war environment’ for the sake of their enjoyment.

Basically a mock war—or rather…

It had transformed into a game where those nobles would willingly spend a lot of money at.

They would buy a forest or an abandoned plain, hire mercenaries or retired soldiers, and have them fight a war on their own, while they were watching from the sides.

To summarize, those nobles had turned those mobile hunting games that Lee Han used to play back in his previous life into a real thing by throwing a lot of money.

All for the sake of watching people fight from the sides.

One would be justified to call them evil for doing this. Actually, there was no greater evil than this.

“…They are treating people’s lives like toys.”

Kunta said honestly.

Understanding his feeling, Arno nodded at his words.

However…

“Well, while yes, such aspects exist in this game, but it isn’t all bad.”

“?”

“For those who make a living with swords, like knights, soldiers, and mercs, this game is pretty beneficial.”

“How?”

“You’ll gain a lot of practical experience from it. On top of that, you could also experience what it felt like to be in a war, but of course, unlike a real war, the risk of death is extremely low.”

“Really?”

“Of course, the ruleset is decided by the kingdom, after all. Not following it means they’re trying to oppose the royal family. Though, there are some idiots who think that they are above the royal family…”

“Ohh!”

Lee Han’s explanation finally clicked in Kunta’s mind. Indeed, being able to experience both combat and war at the same time through this method was an extremely valuable opportunity. It was even more so for the Barbarians, who often died in battles.

“That’s why there are even mercenaries who specialize in War Game Missions, right, Mercenary?”

“Yep. It’s a lot of fun. Especially in our industry since we fight each other a lot, hehe.”

Although no one actually wanted to be the source of entertainment for nobles, it was still a good way to make money in the mercenary industry, where job opportunities were scarce to begin with. The fact that there was less risk of dying or losing limbs only made it better.

With Galand’s notarization, the green sprout cadets who didn’t know much about War Games let out a sigh of relief.

However…

“Kunta still confused. Arno said earlier. The magic freaks used their brains. What does that mean?”

“Oh, that? It’s simple. The ones with the highest winning rates in War Games are mages.”

“…Huh?”

Hearing that, everyone left a dumbfounded noise.

“In war, the most important thing is firepower. Compared to individual strength, a destructive strike is more efficient to quickly subdue your opponent. In that sense, magic is quite overpowered in War Games… Of course, for a powerful knight like me, even overwhelming firepower won’t make me fall.”

Everyone’s eyes turned to Lee Han, and they thought to themselves, ‘Yes, if it is him, he could probably destroy a castle on his own even if the castle is overrun by enemies…’.

But that was only for him. As for them…

“…Doesn’t that mean we’re at an overwhelming disadvantage?”

“T-That can’t be…!”

“W-Will we be okay?”

Confusion spread among the cadets. The green sprouts were especially riled while the chicks became gloomy.

Even though the young masters didn’t seem flustered, it was clear that they were worried. After all, they had been watching War Games since they were young, they knew more than anyone else how great a mage’s firepower was in that game.

However, even though they were nervous, they were still determined not to lose. In the end, the main characters on the battlefield were knights. No matter how much firepower mages had, they still wouldn’t be able to match the knights’ charge’s power and spirit.

Even though they were still cadets, they were still those who lived with the goal of becoming a knight. So even if they were at a disadvantage in the War Game, they were confident that they could win…

“—By the way, the young masters will not participate in this War Game. Only the green sprouts will.”

-!!!?

This time, all the cadets looked at their instructors with silent shock. Everyone had the same thought.

…Crazy guy.

No matter what the cadets said and did after he dropped that news, Lee Han wouldn’t budge.

“It’s your choice.”

They were the ones who said they would fight against those magic freaks and declared that they could win. That meant they had to keep their words.

“Unreasonable? You haven’t learned any Combat Techniques? Pfft, don’t worry, you still have a whole month to train.”

A month might seem short, but it’s actually quite a long time. Some people could lose 20 kg in a month, while others were able to run a 42.195 km full marathon after training for a month.

It was enough time for a person to change—or rather, drastically change.

“As long as you listen to me, that is.”

Even though the cadets couldn’t see it, a hat was sticking out of Lee Han’s back pocket, asserting its presence.

A black octagonal hat.

It was just a normal-looking black octagonal hat, but somehow, the cadets felt an ominous vibe emanating from it.