Chapter 78
Chapter 78
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: EP.21 – The Knight Teaches (2)
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"Here, like this."
Lee Han held the dagger and swung it gently.
Sarrruk.
-Flower petals bloomed from the tip of the blade.
The cadets stared blankly at the beautiful petals, their eyes wide open.
Even after confirming it was just an ordinary dagger, not a magic item, the petals scattered.
It was a moment straight out of a fairy tale.
The chicks' eyes grew moist like girls lost in a storybook, while the bear cub and the young master recalled the heroic tales of knights that bards had shared during visits to their estates or villages in their childhood, stirring up long-forgotten youthful aspirations.
Not only scattering petals with the sword, but using them as a means of attack...
Wasn't it exactly the kind of feat a knight from those heroic poems would display?
Sarak.
The petals melted like snowflakes upon touching the dirt ground.
But what remained in their melted spots were craters shaped exactly like the petals.
It showed that it wasn't just beautiful—it packed serious power.
The boys and girls gazed at the Plum Blossom Sword Technique with eyes full of admiration.
"Wow, how is that even possible?"
"So beautiful...!"
"P-Please show us again!"
They called for an encore.
"...Can't you guys cut it out?"
It was the tenth encore, and Lee Han was starting to tire.
It might look easy, but it consumed an enormous amount of stamina.
However, audiences never care how exhausting it is for the performer.
"J-Just one more time, please? Pretty please...?"
"...Ugh."
He couldn't bring himself to refuse the chicks' pleading faces with their pitiful expressions.
"Sigh, what a life."
Having unexpectedly become a clown, Lee Han bloomed plums with his sword once more.
'Man, if I did street performances, I'd make a killing.'
Lee Han was unexpectedly blooming a talent for earning some nice side cash.
There was a simple reason Lee Han was playing the clown like this.
- I-Instructor, c-can you teach us that technique?
Disciples desperately craving the Plum Blossom Sword Technique.
Even the elite types who said one Fighting Technique was enough were subtly revealing their greed for it.
It was that appealing of a sword art.
Well, yeah.
'I can't resist blooming plums with a sword.'
Blooming flowers with a sword and attacking with them?
It was a sword technique that checked every box for coolness.
No wonder so many stories from his past life featured Volcano Sect kids as protagonists.
...But.
- Sorry, I can't teach this yet.
It wasn't just playful words ignoring classic martial arts tropes.
The real issue was that the technique was still incomplete, so he couldn't teach it.
An unfinished technique.
The Plum Blossom Sword Technique wasn't just about the method of use; it was an original skill Lee Han had awakened through his unique senses and intuition.
He hadn't had time to formalize it into theory, and even that was still terribly crude.
On top of that.
- After using this, it drains my energy too much.
If Roan’s sword aura from the day before was an artistic masterpiece born from a genius's complex fusion of techniques, then Lee Han's sword aura was simply the manifestation of sword force fueled recklessly by his entire body's energy and the sword itself.
In other words, it was one-and-done.
And not only was it disposable, the risks were substantial.
Using sword force meant inevitably losing the sword.
No need to explain how absurd it is to lose your weapon on the battlefield.
And beyond that, immense fatigue followed...
'If even I'm like this, those kids absolutely couldn't handle it.'
He boasted stamina ten times that of an average knight, yet it was still grueling for him—what kind of damage would it do to them?
If fainting was the worst, they'd be lucky; it could even threaten their lives.
So, though he was usually generous about teaching techniques, this time he had to refuse.
He explained the sufficient and valid reasons, and the cadets understood.
But.
- Th-Then! Could we at least watch it once?
- W-We want to see it!
Was the concept of vicarious satisfaction universal across worlds?
They couldn't learn the Plum Blossom Sword Technique right away, but they desperately wanted to see it, and Lee Han couldn't refuse his attached disciples' requests.
'Maybe that uncle was right—I'm the type who gets too attached.'
And so, demonstrations of the Plum Blossom Sword Technique unfolded.
Since he wasn't going all-out like against the Demon King of the Ear, the dagger didn't shatter immediately, and he didn't exhaust all his energy.
It unexpectedly turned into practice for the Plum Blossom Sword Technique, and by the eighth demonstration, he succeeded in blooming flowers with just light hand movements.
However, at the cost of maturation.
"Aigoo, I'm dying..."
"I-Instructor, are you okay!? Here, have some water and food!"
"...Thanks."
Finally drained, Lee Han lay on the grass, recovering his energy with drinks and sandwiches from Irene Windler.
Looking at such a Lee Han, Irene Windler said,
"Eeeek...! What are you all doing! How could you make someone who already worked so hard yesterday go through this!"
"Th-That is..."
"No excuses!"
"......I haven't even made an excuse yet."
The girl exploded in anger, and the cadets could only lower their gazes and peek at her mood.
In truth, Lee Han had gotten into it as practice, leading to this, but to the love-blinded girl, the other cadets were nothing but villains.
The girl growled, and the cadets shrank utterly.
Normally, Irene Windler's growling was as cute as a Pomeranian, but now it was different.
'How do you stand up to someone who causes natural disasters with magic?'
'It was an incredible spell.'
'We absolutely can't upset her. If we do, our territories might get wrecked.'
Hadn't they seen it?
The girl they'd thought was just a stamina weakling manipulating the entire lake with magic, even conjuring a waterspout with wind.
Even if it was a small one, it had enough power to wipe out a mid-sized territory.
Thinking of that, defying the girl was absolutely not to be done.
She'd become so friendly they'd forgotten, but Irene Windler was, like Roan, a freakish genius beyond norms.
"Don't be too hard on the kids. Midway through, I got into it and unleashed sword aura too."
"Hing."
However, calming the monstrous girl like taming her, he raised his body from lying down.
His face still weary, but as an instructor, he had duties to fulfill.
And so, he said,
"You've seen it enough to get sick of it now, right?"
"......"
"Not scolding you. I'm asking. Your impressions of this sword technique."
"Hmm."
Only then did the cadets realize the instructor had no intent to scold and was asking seriously, so they pondered.
Wondering why such a question, but knowing he didn't ask without reason, they thought deeply.
Soon, the top-student representative, the blue-haired girl, raised her hand.
"...I-It feels like a technique with a lot of openings. The sword aura spreads like petals, so it's definitely threatening, but there are ways to dodge or block it. Ah, of course, not at my level. But Sir Arno, Sir Kunta, or Sir Garand, or Young Master Roan could..."
Shuk.
Her gaze reached them, and the four made faces uncomfortable with the honorifics attached to their names as they responded.
"Just Kunta is fine. And like the bear cub said, it can be blocked. But you'd have to sacrifice an arm or leg somewhere."
"Speak comfortably, milady. ...If I may answer, I think it could be dodged. There are definitely many openings."
"So awkward.... Ahem, like the others, it can be countered, yeah. But against beasts, it'd definitely be effective."
"Same here."
That was their take, and the cadets blinked.
They'd thought it was just flashy and powerful, but hearing this...
"That's why I said it. No fundamentals."
It didn't feel like a particularly strong technique.
Lee Han wasn't just lowballing the Plum Blossom Sword Technique or clowning around.
He wanted to clearly show them.
It might work on dumb beasts, but against humans, it was subtle...
Flashy, but with abysmal cost-performance for now.
"Whether sword arts or martial arts, flashy appearances don't guarantee substance. A warrior I respect said that someone who practices one kick a thousand times is scarier than someone who knows a thousand kicks. Swordsmanship is the same—not how many hundreds of techniques you know, but how perfectly you hone a single slash. So emphasize fundamentals, and don't envy others' sword aura. Following my path is more important."
This wasn't just teaching for the cadets.
Through this battle, Lee Han realized how deficient he was.
If he'd trained sword skills like Baltar Grace's that could sever a beast's neck in one stroke, would the outcome have been different?
He probably wouldn't have lost so pathetically.
'I relied too much on power.'
Maybe it was time to dig deeper into what he had, not just trust his physical prowess.
Fundamentals were key, but he needed to raise technique proficiency.
Indestructible Training.
Lion's Roar.
Divine Arrow Flight.
Hundred-Step Divine Fist.
Gravity Palm Technique.
One-Spear Insight.
And now the Plum Blossom Sword Technique.
He had to deeply train all of them, elevating completion through skill, not raw power.
And if he did.
'Then, Demon King of the Ear or whatever, I'll kill it with my own hands.'
It was a resolve not to let fate be decided by others.
Lee Han hoped his disciples wouldn't postpone important things like he had, and imparted what he considered his most crucial teaching.
Meanwhile, Derek, who had become a tagalong, sighed.
'How did I end up here...'
He wasn't the athletic type, so why was he in the final boss of this world's jocks?
'Is this the debtor's life?'
His own words—"Pay debts with your body or info"—had forcibly transferred him to the swordsmanship department, leaving Derek endlessly bewildered but unable to refuse since he'd wronged him.
But Derek wasn't staying just to pay off a debt.
'I need to take initiative.'
Hadn't this incident taught him?
He couldn't be a bystander forever, waiting for help like this time.
Better to be where reliable people and protagonists gathered.
At least he could respond if something happened.
Coming to the swordsmanship department wasn't just debt repayment—it was a big resolve to act first.
But looking around now...
'W-Wait, it's all named characters?'
Derek realized everyone in the swordsmanship department was named-class.
Barbarian and sword prodigy's bloodlines, Mercenary King's disciple—top allies or enemies.
They were also key players in the original [Villainess Lady – 'Irene Windler Subjugation Battle'].
...Though now.
'The villainess lady doesn't seem villainous anymore.'
Somehow the route had derailed, erasing the villainess character, so who knew what the other key side characters would become.
'The Northern Grand Duke too...'
Reality had already diverged 180 degrees from what he knew.
Derek's head hurt, but he decided not to dwell.
Whether butterfly effects made the future Northern Grand Duke an academy cadet or turned the villainess into an innocent girl—who knew—but one thing was clear:
'If you give your all, you can defy fate.'
Just like that guy showed.
An unheard-of hero class rebelling against fate.
Having seen it, Derek resolved not to treat this world as just a game anymore.
So, the immediate priority: use what info he knew wisely without getting swept up.
For example.
Sweek...
'...I need to decide whether to prevent the misfortune of someone who'll be a big deal later. Or let it be.'
Derek's gaze landed on a girl whose blue hair suited her perfectly.
Her face so different from what he remembered that he hadn't recognized her at first.
But hearing her name and surname confirmed it.
Possibly more important than Roan or Irene Windler—a girl with an intriguing setup planned as 'Part 2 Protagonist' in the concept phase.
'......What to do with the saint.'
The girl who, after the Mercenary King's death, would rise as the mercenaries' saint.
'Mercenary Queen [Levi Jeanne d'Arc].'
Derek pitifully gazed at the girl who, 15 years later, would lead the 'Revolutionary War' vanguard and become the nobles' terror.
...Knowing her ending had no happy conclusion fitting her name.