A Knight Makes House Calls (2)
Lee Han's home visits, against every expectation, turned out to be a roaring success.
“...At this rate, hasn't nearly everyone agreed?”
Astonishingly, the applications had drawn consent from close to nine households in ten. The ones who had not signed were students with tangled family affairs, like Blackie and Taechang, so in practice it was nearly the entire student body.
In a world where the very notion of a home visit was unfamiliar, how was something like this even possible? Suspicious, Lee Han turned to his students.
“You remember I said only the ones who wanted it should sign, right? This isn't mandatory.”
He had wondered whether some misunderstanding had produced the result. His worry proved unnecessary.
“No. My parents were pleased, actually. They said they were curious about my grades, too.”
“The moment they heard they could see you, Instructor, they signed on the spot. Grades are one thing, but they also seemed curious about how my swordsmanship improved so fast.”
“W-we're much the same.”
“...My parents appear determined to hear your opinion on my future, Instructor.”
...Did this world have education fever, too?
Secondhand, Lee Han could feel a parental passion for their children's schooling that ran hotter than he had expected, and his face went sour. Across eras and worlds alike, it seemed, every parent fretted too much about a child's future.
“Hm. This is too many. Visiting all seventy-three households is going to be no joke...”
“Then why not have the parents come to you, like last time?”
“That wouldn't be a home visit. It'd turn into a class with the parents sitting in.”
“So you mean to visit every one of them yourself?”
“...I'll hand out fresh paper.”
For Lee Han, it was a choice he could not avoid. He had expected less than half this number to respond. He had never imagined so many would agree. So he decided to follow the students' suggestion. Even so...
“There may still be people who can't come. Tell me about those households separately. Those, I'll be sure to visit.”
“Oh, then our house...”
“Ah, me too.”
“Us as well.”
“R-right. This many is a mercy...”
Yes. Set against seventy-three households, twenty or so ought to be manageable enough, shouldn't it?
“—It was not.”
By the time he had finished with ten homes, Lee Han found himself barely holding together.
For the first time, Lee Han understood that the work of an educator was hard. So those people had their share of grief after all.
Honestly, his opinion of teachers had never been particularly good. In his school days in his previous life there had been a few decent ones, but he had met an overwhelming number of garbage teachers — the man he had thrashed at the Grand Temple the day before chief among them. The image he carried was closer to human trash: people who went around collecting bribes and taking their tempers out on children.
...Well, once he was grown and watched the news, it had looked as though teachers were suffering in all sorts of ways, as if paying off the karma of the past. But the ones who actually deserved punishment were the old bastards, and the ones taking the damage are the young ones... Was it because he himself had become an educator? Feeling a bitter sympathy for people in the same line of work who had inherited the karma of the bad ones, Lee Han shook his head with a sour smile.
“Instructor, what are you doing?”
“...Nothing. Fooling around.”
“Pardon?”
“...Just tired. My head was full of junk.”
“Y-you certainly do look exhausted.”
Levi, who had volunteered to trail him like a secretary, watched him with worry. She had never seen him this worn down. Even so—
“I-I think it's entirely reasonable to be this tired.”
Having assisted him all day, she thought back over the homes they had visited. Nobles, commoners, merchants, the lower classes — she was remembering the parents of students from every station.
“Thanks to Sir Turtle, the boy's been walking tall these days, heh heh. Grades are grades, but you should see how much his swordsmanship has improved! As expected, the teaching of the renowned Silver Lion is something else. Which brings me to this — might you tutor our youngest ones privately? If you would only do that, I wouldn't stint on any reward. Our house's history may be short, but in influence I daresay we yield nothing to the great houses. Hardly a bad offer for Sir Turtle, I should think...”
A parent requesting private lessons, not a consultation.
“Um, e-excuse me, c-can our child become a knight? T-tell me, Instructor! H-he can, right?! That's right, isn't it!! If that child can become a knight, I'll do anything! S-so please, I'm begging you, make him a knight, my lord!!”
A parent who made one wonder whether this was for the child, or whether they meant to rewrite their own lot in life through their offspring.
“Eh? He's at the Academy? ...Since when?”
And even a parent with no interest whatsoever in the child's affairs.
He and Levi had met a truly varied gallery of human beings, and each time Levi had been on edge. If he lost his temper, she thought, his presence alone might be enough to put someone in the ground. Fortunately, unlike her nerves, Lee Han treated them with a certain gentlemanly restraint. She had honestly expected him to get angry, and the gentleness left her puzzled. When she asked about it—
“Well, people can be like that. A request, or desperation, isn't a bad thing. There are indifferent guardians, too, but none of them had gone so far as wrecking the kids' lives. At that level, it isn't mine to step into. ...So long as they don't wound the children.”
“Ah.”
In that moment Levi was grateful all over again. She knew better than anyone what he meant by the measure of a wound.
“...Master, you really do seem like a wonderful teacher.”
“Me? I'm pretty ordinary, aren't I?”
“I don't think so. Hehe.”
“...?”
At his student's sudden good mood, Lee Han tilted his head. What was she so happy about? He was falling apart, and there she was, smiling like that.
...Nice to look at.
He reached out and gave her hair a light pat.
The blue looked cold at a glance, but it was only a little cool. What came through more strongly was something soft and warm.
“Hehe...”
She smiled as happily as someone who had been given a prize, and Lee Han found a kind of healing in the purity of the reaction. The two of them were letting their laughter bloom, each savoring a moment of healing in their own way, when—
“...Excuse me. When do you intend to visit?”
Arno, unable to bring himself to step between them, offered a low objection.
Tactlessly.
Offen, the house of swordsmen.
Where most other great houses claimed histories of five centuries or more, Offen had a comparatively short one, somewhere around two hundred years. Even so, one would search the world in vain for anyone who dared slight the name. Small wonder. Offen was famous for the swordsmen it produced. Among them were renowned knights in plenty, and mercenaries who had made their names in war, and swordsmen who had carried Pendragon's fame to other continents. Short history or not, it was a house whose authority and strength even noble society could not ignore — and in Pendragon, the kingdom men called the kingdom of knights, that influence ran deeper still. The closer one drew to the estate, the more heavily it made itself felt.
“...Am I imagining things? There's a sword hall on every corner.”
Was it a trick of the eye, sword halls crowding into the places where shops, taverns, and inns ought to have stood?
“You are not imagining it. Most of this region is where disciples of House Offen settled, so there are simply a great many sword halls.”
“I thought it was odd. Not a single piece of riffraff in sight.”
“It is not a place where someone lacking skill can survive...”
Just as a famous bakery can revive a whole commercial district, turn bread into the local specialty, and draw bakery after bakery up around it, the region inside House Offen's domain had flourished in sword halls, and countless swordsmen filled its streets. Children carried wooden swords instead of books, and even the rare innkeepers and restaurant owners all showed calluses across their palms — not from cooking. From training with the sword.
“Curious place.”
Arno answered as if reciting something cut into the house itself.
Offen does not withhold its teachings.
“That is the family precept.”
“That doesn't mean they really teach just anyone, does it?”
“That much is true. Several conditions have to be met.”
The first is character.
The second is effort, and character.
The third is passion, and character.
“—And the fourth is a sense of responsibility, and character.”
“......Why do I feel like every one of those conditions is the same?”
“That is how seriously they take character. In the past they placed even greater weight on talent, but those with talent, they say, were mostly people who betrayed the house, or whose ambition was enormous. From then on they began to value character. Especially...”
“Hm?”
“Because that person proved a genius is not guaranteed to become the greatest, they had all the more reason to prize character.”
As he spoke, Arno turned a proud gaze toward a certain statue and paid it his respect.
A colossal statue revealed itself the nearer they drew to the Offen estate: an old knight carved with his sword lifted high. Lee Han's eyes were drawn to it as well.
Soon enough—
“......That's incredible.”
Admiration escaped him, and his eyes flashed.
“Master?”
“Bear-Girl. Take a good look at that statue. The role model you ought to be chasing might be something like that.”
“Pardon?”
“That statue was carved with a sword. With a rapier, at that.”
“...?!”
Levi's eyes flew wide, and she looked at the statue again. Even coming from him, it was a claim too hard to believe. And for good reason. ...But that's bronze. And he was saying a rapier had carved it? A bronze statue that perfect?
“Ha...”
Master, the standard you've set for me is far too high...
Levi's face crumpled toward tears.