A Knight Begins Anew (5)
The students would never have believed it, but Lee Han and Rak had fought while holding themselves back as far as they could.
They were underground, after all. In a place like that, wasn't caution the only sensible way to fight?
So for today alone, neither of them used Fighting Art or Gyeong. Pure flesh and pure technique had been enough to produce a result like this.
...The Fairy's Blessing really was something else.
On raw physical ability alone, he could now put out something close to a knight-order vice-captain—Lv.5.
"I'd like a round with weapons too, but the kids would probably pass out, so let's stop here."
"......Next time, I'll be the one to call you."
"Well, look at that. You admit it helped? You actually bent that stubborn neck?"
"...Shut up!"
It had clearly been a satisfying bout for Rak as well, not only for Lee Han. He must have needed the same recalibration of body and sense, and from today he had adjusted a great deal of it.
I'd say I got about sixty percent of the way there. That guy's probably at eighty.
On raw sense alone, he wasn't someone Lee Han could dare compare himself to. The next spar might leave him at a disadvantage.
Of course.
The tighter the spot, the more I welcome it.
The stronger the opponent, the faster his own adjustment would come. He welcomed that.
Lee Han was already planning to bring a sword to Galahad next time, and he was turning the idea over when—
"—Have you been learning Fighting Art?"
"Huh?"
"It is a Fighting Art that holds Galahad's secret arts, and my own interpretation of them. You are you, so I doubt you would, but I would rather you did not pass it on to anyone else."
"...And here I thought you were about to say something useful."
Advised, Lee Han let out a dry laugh. Who was lecturing whom?
"Don't talk like we're strangers. You're the one who'd better not go around leaking my techniques. No—leak them if you want, but get permission first. And from the moment you learn them, you'd better remember you belong to the One Hundred and Eight Arhats."
"...A knight of Galahad is not permitted a second post...."
For the first time, Rak groaned.
......The last battle in the Empire.
To fight a monster that had lived more than four centuries, Lee Han and Rak had shared their secret arts. Rak gave Fighting Art. Lee Han gave Gyeong. The situation being what it was, they had handed over everything, and for that span of time both of them had felt something close to omnipotence.
Lee Han had jokingly called it Transmission of Power Across Bodies, but the method had truly been worthy of the name, and thanks to it they had been able to drive that monster back.
...Looking back now, though, he could not deny it had been a mad gamble with their lives. Any secret art was a dangerous technique meant to be learned carefully over years, and they had swallowed it in a single breath. Had they never received the fairy's blessing, Lee Han and Rak might each have been left with a permanent disability. Lee Han might have suffered aftereffects as if gunpowder had detonated inside his body again and again, and Rak's whole body might have twisted into a grotesque shape until he was nothing but a living vegetable.
What they had done was that foolish. Foolish twice over.
That the fairy had repaired their bodies was, in hindsight, an immense blessing. And because of it, something remained inside them....
The seed is still there.
It no longer felt like omnipotence. At best he remembered the residue of that day's Fighting Art, and the sensation of it. If the power of that day had been a furnace breathing heat of thousands of degrees, what remained now was no more than the spark on a match. Rak would be the same.
...But however small a spark, growing it was nothing but a matter of one's own ability.
Lee Han was confident. He already had the experience, and the way to grow it was drawn inside his body. Learn it step by step, and someday he might wield a power like that day's again. He dared to expect as much.
Well....
"I'm only going to pick out the parts I need, so I'll probably throw away half of what you taught me."
"Blasphemous bastard! Do you even know what Galahad's secret art is!"
"Bullshit. It's impressive because you people learned Fighting Art from the start. For me, it isn't. More than that, I still can't see the end of what I'm learning now. Where would I find the time to look somewhere else? So in the end, Fighting Art or fighting-energy, it's nothing but training wheels for the road I'm already walking. Nothing more, nothing less. ...And you'll be the same."
"......"
However great Fighting Art might be, what Lee Han meant to see through to the end was the power he was learning now. Gyeong. The completion of his own martial art.
That was....
"Hmph. Arrogant."
Deeply offended that anyone would treat Galahad's secret art as training wheels, Rak creased his brow without mercy. There was no denying the man was irreverent.
...And yet a trace of admiration and curiosity lived in his eyes: the question of just how far the founder of a new martial study might go.
—Not that he had the slightest intention of saying so aloud.
......Silence fell.
Even blinking felt reckless, and swallowing a dry throat was difficult.
Yes. The students, at this moment—
So that's the power of the highest knights.
I knew the instructor was strong, but th-that strong....
The fame of the knight who guards the lake wasn't a lie after all! ...But why was the instructor really a nobody? Strong as that...?
They were overwhelmed. If someone could look on martial power like that and stay perfectly calm, that in itself would have been the strange thing.
......At the same time, they despaired a little. They had learned how cruel and enormous the wall was in the world they meant to reach. For half a year they had been proud of growing stronger in their own way, only to discover they had been frogs in a well. That their pride was cracking could not be helped.
But Lee Han had not shown them the spar in order to smash that pride.
"—If men like us came at you as enemies, how would you deal with it?"
...Was he teasing them?
That was the first thought his question raised as he wiped away the blood and threw it at them.
But.
"Answer me, Bear-Girl."
"Uh, um, that's...."
He was entirely serious, and Levi's face went awkward.
Only for a moment.
"This is only an example, but if someone as strong as Master were my enemy, then first I would... run."
"Yeah?"
"Yes."
An answer without the slightest hesitation. It was not the sort of thing a person of Pendragon was supposed to say, not in a kingdom of knights that worshipped honor and struggle. Levi was measuring not honor or struggle, but reality.
"With my skill, I could live again hundreds of times and still have no way to beat Master. Tactics, tricks—before overwhelming power, they're meaningless."
Levi remembered the monster assault, and she was one of those who had seen the Ghost King head-on when it came. Unless you were at a level that could fight a monster of that caliber even briefly, fighting it was more foolish than hurting yourself.
Still.
"If I were given five hundred capable soldiers and ten Senior Knights, I think I could hold Master off for a little while. ...Even then, it would be a short time. Not even ten minutes."
"...Ho."
It was not arrogance. It was an answer calculated with cold realism, and Lee Han laughed, as if he had heard something thoroughly entertaining.
"With that force and those knights, you could pin me for ten minutes?"
"Yes. And if I and the troops were prepared to throw our lives away, couldn't we buy another five minutes on top of that?"
"......"
Eyes full of certainty. Lee Han looked intensely curious about what kind of simulation was unfolding inside her head.
...If the future had not changed, this was a glimpse of the extraordinary quality in the hero who would have taken the title of Mercenary Queen, and even the other students could not hide their admiration at the conviction in her. To say such a thing after watching knights fight was courage in itself. She had answered that she would run, and yet in Levi's upright bearing the students glimpsed bravery.
The dignity of a knight.
"Then tell me. If a situation comes that you absolutely cannot avoid, and you can't count on any troops either, what will you do?"
"...Then."
The students half expected some playful line—Then I'd have to die, wouldn't I?—but what came from Levi's mouth was unexpected.
"......"
Resolve was in it. Her blue eyes held a quiet light, and shone.
"Wasn't that always Master's teaching? That doing your best at anything matters, and that even in the hardest situation, you should thrash with everything you have."
"Live today as if it were your whole life, so you can survive, and so you won't regret the life you've lived."
"So I have to fight. Because that—"
—was the teaching I received from you.
"......"
The utterly calm answer ended, and for a moment silence flowed around them. They had realized the words were not a lie, but carried her sincerity.
And well they might. They remembered. The sight of her fighting bravely during the attack....
So there was not a student who could disbelieve those words.
Afterward the students—especially the boys who called themselves knight candidates—flushed. Faced with a bearing firmer and braver than their own, the way their pride had been about to break felt nothing but shameful.
Hearing her words and reading his disciples' reactions, Lee Han nodded.
"A model student, as expected. I like that answer."
"Hehe."
"Still a B+."
"Pardon?"
"It's a little short of an A."
"Aww...."
The corners of Levi's eyes shone pitifully, like a puppy caught in the rain, and Lee Han only laughed.
...What Lee Han had wanted to hear from the students was their resolve, and the posture with which they would meet a fight.
Put in the extreme, there was no telling how many more monsters like Tur or the Ghost King might appear from here on. Of course, never having to face such things was best. But a person always had to keep the worst case in mind.
So today Lee Han had shown them how strong he was. Not to boast. Only to show them that among the ones who would threaten them in the future, there might be things worse than this. He was bothered that the kids' spirits had sunk, but it had probably served as a vaccination of sorts, and that would have to be enough.
"...Me too."
It wasn't only the kids who had been inoculated. Hadn't Lee Han himself received a powerful vaccination in the Empire?
I definitely overdid it. No—I was reckless.
He did not regret fighting the Magic Tower itself, but he admitted the process had been reckless. He had fought on emotion and nearly died for it. If the plan had slipped even a little, he would have died.
...Emptily.
I ought to reflect.
It wasn't only the kids who needed a talking-to. He needed to rebuke himself as well. He had nearly died in the most pathetic—
"Hehe, Sir Knight, you're doing very well. So please don't blame yourself too much!"
"......"
"Why are you looking at me like that?"
"...My lady, please stop reading my thoughts."
"I can't do anything like that, though?"
"......"
"Hehe."
Layla Winter, spilling an innocent laugh, circled at his side and offered comfort, and Lee Han scratched his cheek, ill at ease. He always thought it, but in front of this maid there seemed to be nothing he could hide....
"—But, Sir Knight. I heard you received a blessing from a fairy?"
"......"
"Is that true?"
"Th-that's...."
...For an instant Lee Han's body locked, and cold sweat ran in streams.
Why? Why did this sting so much? He was facing her usual bright, beaming smile, and yet somehow he had shrunk.
Wh-why am I like this?
Was this the tension of a thief caught in the act?
...Either way.
I think I'm screwed...?
Lee Han wondered what on earth he was supposed to say. But soon—
No. I'll meet it head-on!
Right. What was wrong with receiving a blessing from a fairy? And she wouldn't know how he had received it, would she....
"Lady Irene said it through her tears. That you received the fairy's kiss...."
"......"
...There had been a loose-lipped chick nearby.
"Hmm...."
"......"
Lee Han could say nothing, as if he had turned to stone. He had no words. He and she were nothing to each other, and yet before her he had to feel like a guilty man.
Ah. Is it sadder that we're nothing?
It was a moment that left him somehow gloomy....
"Hehe. Sir Knight, why are you like that? I'm not angry."
"...?"
"I'm sorry for being mischievous, Sir Knight. But there was something I wanted to confirm. And I think I've confirmed it!"
"??"
"Knights fall for fairies quite often, you know. But you don't seem to be one of those, Sir Knight."
"...I'm not?"
Lee Han kept asking like a fool, but Layla looked unmistakably pleased. She slipped past his side with a smile, and just as he utterly failed to understand the shift in her feelings—
A light tap.
"...What?"
A whisper came, lightly tickling his ear, and Lee Han's eyes went wide. What in the world did that mean? He wanted to ask, but he could not bring himself to catch her.
...Because he had seen her cheeks glowing faintly red.
"........."
Having confirmed it, Lee Han stood blank for a while. Then—
Crash!
......He flung himself into the nearby river.
A heat fierce enough to drive him mad had come over him. A heat that had not yet broken, hot enough to set even the heart hammering....
Yes. It was because of the sweltering heat.
...It was summer.