Chapter 40: The Knight Wears an Octagonal Hat (3)

The Sacred Mountain, Vulcan.

Ever since the volcanic activity of the mountain stopped, it became the most rugged mountain in the kingdom, but at the same time it also became the most beautiful mountain in the kingdom.

Unfortunately, since the mountain had no proper mountain path, and ferocious wild boars often appeared there, only a few people dared to climb it. There was even a rumor among the herbalists that they had seen bears roaming around in the mountain.

These things alone already made climbing it difficult, and yet there was also the fact that the environment of the mountain would drastically change regardless of the season. During the day, the temperature of the mountain would rise to as high as 40℃, while at night, a cold wave of -30℃ would rage in the mountain, creating some ice here and there.

But, because the cause of such radical change in the mountain’s environment was a mystical phenomenon, all the plants and animals that managed to adapt all bore special medicinal properties, turning them into a highly sought commodity, which in turn, turning the mountain into an actual sacred mountain.

However, since someone could easily die while climbing—due to either dehydration or frostbite—climbing it wasn’t exactly the wisest thing to do.

While there were some people who’d climb the mountain willingly, those were mostly mayflies who tried to make a fortune by digging up some medicinal herbs.

That was why…

“Aarrgghh! T-This is crazy—!”

Climbing the mountain for the ‘purpose of training’ was nothing but foolish. It would be appropriate to refer to those who did it as foolish lunatics.

“Ugh!”

“I-I’m dying…”

“W-Water…! W-Water, ugh…”

The cadet’s death count—no, the fainting count kept rising the more they climbed the mountain.

This wasn’t anything strange, as the mountain’s steep and rugged slope was not made for climbing in the first place. Actually, calling it a slope wasn’t right. It was straight up a cliff.

Rather than walking on their two feet, the cadets had to crawl like turtles using both arms and legs. Though, unlike turtles, who couldn’t step back because that was how their bodies work, the cadets couldn’t take a step back because that would spell their death—those guys couldn’t take a step back in order to stay alive.

But, in such a situation…

“Haa, it isn’t called a sacred mountain for nothing. The air sure is crisp and refreshing.”

“Yes! The air’s pretty refreshing, Instructor.”

“Well, it’ll turn crazy hot in the afternoon. Pretty sure there’ll be a heat wave until like, 6 pm?”

“…The air here’s pretty erratic, Instructor.”

“Haha, you finally understand now?”

Lee Han, who packed nearly 20 times as much as everyone else, looked completely relaxed, as if he was walking on a normal mountain trail. Even though he was clearly walking up the same steep cliff as the cadets, it felt like he was affected by a different law of gravity compared to them.

Because he wasn’t walking on all fours unlike them, but standing on his two feet.

The cadets didn’t even know if they could even praise him for having such a monstrous sense of balance.

“Your toes are crazy strong, Instructor.”

“I trained it quite a bit.”

“…I’m not sure that’s something that can be achieved through training.”

“Well, you’re looking at the result right now.”

“…”

Also, he was climbing barefooted. Since he was grabbing the ground with his toes as he climbed, wearing shoes would only hinder him if anything. The way he walked as he left trails of footprints reminded the cadets of wild animals.

“Don’t just talk to me, take care of that guy over there.”

“Yes.”

Woong-!

Irene moved her magic to grab someone. She was the person on duty to lift everyone who had fainted or was suffering from dehydration with her ‘telekinesis’.

“Haa, carrying them like this is hard.”

“You don’t have to do it if you don’t want to. Of course, you’d need to actually walk on your two feet instead.”

“…I’ll do my best on the rescue operation.”

Currently, Irene wasn’t walking like the others. She was moving her body in a slightly floating state as if she was levitating. This was also some form of telekinesis. In a way, this was against the spirit of the training, but Lee Han specifically allowed her to do it.

After hearing the metaphor that telekinesis was like a warrior’s muscles to a magician, Lee Han became more open about her freely using it. Besides, her physical strength was still too abysmal to handle this kind of march in the first place.

There was no way that she could handle this kind of march with stamina that was even weaker than a kitten.

And so, he decided to let her do the rescue operation work instead.

She’s useful.

Originally, Lee Han was going to load the ones who collapsed onto the cart, but with her being here, there was no need for that anymore. Even though he still had some reservations about magic, he couldn’t deny its convenience.

“Oh, someone fainted again.”

Sniff-!

At the moment, she wasn’t only carrying her own body, but also over ten cadets at once. They all either fainted or collapsed, and among them was Levy Fault, who fainted at the beginning of the climb.

Lee Han had no intention of scolding her, though. It was already a miracle that she managed to walk this far with her physique. At one point, she purely used her mental strength to march forward instead of her physical strength.

“She is better than the sprouts in terms of mental strength.”

“Levy is quite strong. She told me that she has to work harder to raise her family or something.”

“…It seems like you have become quite close with Chick Number 1?”

“I don’t think so…? We just drink tea and eat together a couple of times. We’re not friends yet, but we’re already familiar with each other.”

“Yeah, normally, you call those kinds of people friends.”

“I-I haven’t really made many many friends, so I don’t really know…”

“…I see… Um… I’m sorry…”

“…Having you apologize only makes me feel more miserable, Instructor.”

[This is why you shouldn’t say useless things, Arin! Ugh, so embarrassing…]

Unexpectedly, the human guerrilla march was getting off to a smooth start.

It was just…

“S-Save me…”

The cadets wouldn’t share the same feeling as Lee Han.

In the end, they failed to conquer Vulcan. Or, rather, they failed to reach its summit. However, that was Lee Han’s intention all along. He never said that the summit was their goal, he just told everyone that they were going to climb the mountain.

Instead of the summit, their destination was…

“Put your luggage down.”

Right in the middle of the Vulcan Mountain.

Thud-!

After a full three hours of hiking, the cadets could finally put down their stuff, making the ground shake. That just showed how many supplies they had brought with them.

“I-I’m saved…”

“…I really thought I was going to Avalon at this age.”

However, they were more grateful over the fact that they had come this far alive than for the amount of supplies they had brought. After all, they had to experience an extremely harsh experience to get here.

No, harsh wouldn’t cut it. It was outright hellish.

“Tsk, what the hell are you guys doing? Look at the maid, she’s smaller than you guys and yet she’s doing fine.”

-…

“Tsk tsk, pathetic bastards.”

-…Keuk.

The cadets wanted to refute their instructor’s words, but they couldn’t. After all, most of them had either fainted or collapsed from exhaustion in the middle of their climb. On the contrary, the aforementioned ‘maid’ was doing way better than them even though she was carrying significantly more luggage than them.

“Hehe, the air is nice here, Sir! Can I pitch my tent here?”

She didn’t even seem to be out of breath.

As for who was this maid who was acting so lively and cheerful after that rigorous climb…

She was none other than Leila Winter.

Seriously, what the hell is she…?

Seeing the cadets who were left dumbstruck by her, Lee Han shouted at them.

“You should be ashamed. Leila, who’s much smaller than you, completed the march with more luggage than you.”

Actually, even Lee Han found it strange.

She looks so fragile, how the hell is she still okay after all that?

Back during the climb, Lee Han told her to go with Irene’s telekinesis instead, but she…

-It’s not that hard, though!

Said such a thing.

There wasn’t even a hint of fatigue on her face. No matter how Lee Han tried to look at it, she clearly wasn’t an ordinary person. He even suspected that she was born with either the Heavenly Martial Body or Phoenix Body that often appeared in martial arts novels.

However, Lee Han decided to push that curiosity back for now. Because the most urgent matter here was to turn these sprouts into ‘wildflowers’ within a month.

That was why he had been adding fuel to the fire to these guys’ hearts, so that he could ignite their motivation again. He needed to do at least this much so that their future training would be satisfactory.

Becoming an instructor isn’t so easy either, huh?

While injecting more oxygen to the embers in the cadets’ hearts, Lee Han secretly sent his respects to the instructors.

“Levy Fault is the same. You guys have learned swordsmanship, but Levy Fault has not. She’s weak and hadn’t even learned Combat Technique. And yet she walked 10 km in that condition. And that was with just mental power!”

The cadets looked at Levy Fault. Even though the girl’s legs were still shaky, she kept trying to get up.

…With that weak body.

“You’ve just lost. No, I’m not saying that you should be embarrassed because you lost to a woman! I’m saying that you should be embarrassed because you lost to a ‘beginner’! From your mental strength, perseverance, guts! You lost in everything!!”

Hearing that, the cadets clenched their fists tightly. The stimulus they received wasn’t on a level of oxygen anymore, but an oil that poured directly to a fire. Their minds, which were about to collapse from exhaustion, were rekindled with motivation.

“Get a grip already! The training has already begun! I helped the guys who fell during the march, but it wasn’t because I wanted to help you, I saved you because I ‘felt sorry’ for you guys.”

Those words fueled their passion even more.

This showed that Lee Han knew how to tread the line between riling up someone and breaking someone.

“Damn it…”

Most of the cadets clenched their teeth in anger, disappointed in their own inadequacy. They were in a mood to run wild, wanting to vent their frustrations right away.

Looking at them, Lee Han knew that it was time to tone down their fire a bit. After all, if a fire flared up too suddenly, it would go out quickly. Keeping it small was the secret to keeping the fire going for a long time.

“I hope you come to your senses a little. Tsk, alright, you have thirty minutes to set up the tent. Then, I will allow you to rest for ninety minutes. After that, I’ll explain about the basic training and the overall training schedule to you, so get as much rest as you can. Understood? Get as much rest as you can.”

Resting was also part of training. It was a statement he always emphasized, and the cadets answered with all their might, as if they were shouting.

Lee Han saw their eyes finally coming to life and nodded once.

Then, he looked at the guys who were completely fine.

“You guys, let me see you for a moment.”

“Kunta wants to rest too.”

“I’m tired too.”

“Instructor, even the mercenary group gives us plenty of rest…”

“What do you want me to do?”

“…”

Whatever their answer was, they had no choice but to be dragged away by force by Lee Han. Though, there was one particular punk who tried to hide among the cadets and avoided eye contact with him.

“You better come out while I’m still being nice.”

“But, rest…”

“An assistant? Asking for a rest? Do you think you deserve such a luxury, huh?”

“…An assistant is a human too!”

“Since when?”

“…Damn it.”

Once again, the assistant’s tears fell.

“-Are you okay, Jack?”

“My lord.”

Jack bowed his head.

Roen, his master, had marched for quite a long distance while carrying his luggage. But, he didn’t look tired at all. It was clear that his physical capabilities were already higher than a regular knight’s.

On the other hand, Jack was completely spent, meaning that his abilities were still lacking. Because of that, he felt a sense of inferiority toward his master, feeling disappointed in himself.

“Rest. You look tired.”

“…I’m sorry for being weak.”

“Forget it. Your talent has just begun to bloom, it can’t be helped. Rather, it’s amazing that you’ve been able to keep up with this forced march in just half a year from the moment you decided to become a knight.”

“…It’s still awfully bad compared to my main job.”

“…That’s indeed true.”

Jack. He was a normal man who had a faint presence.

His appearance looked like the average guy one could see on the street, and some people said that it was hard to remember him because his presence was too faint. But to him, this wasn’t a disadvantage, but a ‘talent’.

A talent that made it hard for anyone to remember him and made it easy for him to blend in as well as hide.

That’s why he was ‘someone who was more suited to be an assassin.’

While he wouldn’t go far as a knight, if he were to walk on the path of espionage and assassination, he’d probably reach the height of that field.

However, he…

“Still, this is my own choice. Even someone like me can become a knight. The one who told me that was you, my lord, so don’t be sorry. Unless you lied to me back then…”

“No, I wasn’t lying to you, that’s my sincere thought.”

“Then it’s fine.”

“…Still, I want to apologize anyway. Because it feels like you forced yourself to change your plans because of my greed.”

“It’s okay. Besides, didn’t you say that your ‘precognition’ isn’t absolute, My lord?”

“Hmm…”

Roen nodded his head at Jack’s words. After all, Jack knew that the ability Roen possessed was [foreknowledge].

Yes, this is enough.

It was enough for him to just know that. Because Roen also didn’t want anyone to know his true secret. After all, if it was revealed, it would only cause greater confusion, and that wasn’t what he wanted.

As Roen was hiding his feelings like that, Jack struggled to get up on his feet and started talking.

“Anyway, the people we’re going to recruit won’t be here until next year and there aren’t many people we can’t recruit at the moment, so we can spend this year building up our capabilities. Also, it seems like you are interested in the instructor’s training, my lord.”

“Because it’s different. If we learn it, it’ll definitely help us later. Especially during our fight against the ‘temple’.”

“Ugh…”

Jack swallowed before scouring through their surroundings at his master’s word, afraid that someone might be listening to their conversation. Of course, he didn’t need to do that. After all, his master wasn’t that clumsy, he had blocked the sounds from leaking out from their surroundings. His worries were in complete vain.

Even so, Roen was still grateful for this gesture anyway, since it showed that Jack’s loyalty was genuine. He tried not to show it though, and instead continued to speak in a firm tone.

“Jack, remember. We must become stronger. The instructor’s harsh training will definitely make us stronger than we are now. I’ll say it again, I can’t become stronger alone. You must become stronger too. I can never defeat them alone.”

“Yes, my lord.”

Why did they enter the academy even though they knew it wouldn’t be that beneficial for them?

There were a few reasons. First, to gain strength in a place where there were no enemies in sight. Second, there was someone that they had to kill here in the capital.

And third…

“Looked around carefully. I’m sure there will be many unexpected talents appearing in this training.”

Supply and demand of talent and establishment of power. This was supposed to be next year’s goal, but from the way it looked, they could probably achieve it by this year. However, it entirely depended on what the sprouts would become through the instructor’s lessons.

“Do you really think so? To be honest, I’m still doubtful…”

“So am I, but Jack, I genuinely think…”

Even though no one cared about these sprouts at the moment, but…

“That a wild flower might bloom from them.”

And Roen was someone who preferred wild flowers to flowers that were grown in a greenhouse.

Seeing the boy’s excited expression, the assassin shook his head, thinking that sometimes, his master acted like a romantic who’d chase after romance.