Chapter 1
Translator: True Detective
Chapter 1: I Became the Youngest Son of a Count (1)
"Ethan! Let's settle this today!"
"Haa... You've come again?"
A sigh escaped me at the familiar voice drifting in from somewhere while I was training alone.
Turning my head, I saw a female student with beautiful pink hair pointing a sword at me.
The reason it had come to this was quite simple.
"I keep telling you, if the skill level is similar, a sword cannot beat a spear."
"Shut that mouth!"
It was because she was stubborn.
I was an ordinary college student juggling my studies and a part-time job.
My hobby was reading web novels.
Webtoons, which only came out once a week, progressed too slowly, so I looked for something I could read more frequently and ended up here. Now, I had become an avid reader.
The number of novels I had read so far was around 80,000 chapters. It was lacking compared to the "real" hardcore readers, but it was by no means a small number.
Recently, having read too much of a specific genre, I felt a bit burnt out and was exploring new territories.
That genre was none other than Romance Fantasy.
Although it contained romance, there were many works that were easy for a man like me to get into, so I had been enjoying them lately.
On my way home after my part-time job, I turned on my smartphone on the bus and was reading a web novel.
Having just finished the latest chapter of the work I was reading, I was searching for a new one when a striking cover caught my eye.
A woman with long, flowing pink hair smiling in the middle of a flower garden while clutching a sword to her chest.
Thinking 'This is it,' I tried to read the first chapter immediately, but just then, an announcement played in the bus.
It was the stop where I had to get off.
Was it because the tension released once I got home? The accumulated fatigue burst forth, and lethargy dominated my body.
I managed to wash up somehow, then immediately threw myself onto the bed and fell asleep.
And when I woke up, I had possessed someone in a fantasy world.
At first, I had a mental breakdown and stayed cooped up in my room for several days.
I tried shouting [Status Window] and even prayed to God, doing all sorts of things, but naturally, no miracle occurred to send me back home.
Eventually, since acceptance was the only thing I could do, I began to accept reality.
Once I actually accepted reality, adapting was fast.
The place I had possessed was the family of a Count in a kingdom. Even if it was the medieval era, being a child of a family with money and power was incredibly comfortable.
Furthermore, fitting for a fantasy world, magic was developed here, so conveniences comparable to modern civilization existed, allowing me to settle into my new life well.
"Have you come?"
"Yes."
"Then, first run 5 laps back and forth across the training ground."
"Understood!"
I began to run across the training ground according to the instructions of my master, an old knight.
It was daily physical training, but perhaps because I was still young and my stamina built up quickly, I felt more at ease with each passing day.
After running around the training ground, I started exercises to increase my basic stamina.
Since I was too young to do serious strength training yet, the exercises my master taught me were mostly of the type that consumed stamina.
After the basic stamina exercises came spearmanship training.
My workout concludes after training to internalize the movements by repeating the same actions while correcting my posture to ensure no bad habits are formed.
One might question why I am training in spearmanship rather than swordsmanship.
After all, people usually consider the sword the king of all weapons.
But my thoughts were a bit different.
Looking at the history of war, the weapon of the infantry throughout human history was mostly the spear, while the sword was more like a symbol of the wielder's authority.
The spear was simply not chosen by those in power who preferred something special because it was cheap and anyone could use it; otherwise, it could be called the true king of all weapons.
If the skill level is similar, a sword can never beat a spear.
I valued this point highly.
When most martial artists choose the sword as the King of Ten Thousand Weapons, wouldn't it become my advantage if I alone used a spear?
The fact that I had liked Zhao Yun since I was a child was a bonus.
Anyway, I was systematically building my body from a young age to become a knight.
Since I was training from a young age, one might think the Ibres Count family was a famous family of knights, but that wasn't the case.
The Count Ibres family was a founding contributor to the kingdom, and if one had to categorize it, it was a family famous for administration.
People of our family usually entered the royal palace to work, but what they valued more than that was networking with other noble families.
My eldest brother is scheduled to inherit the family, and my second-born sister is learning magic, but marriage talks with the royal family are already coming and going.
Because of that, I planned to fill the lack of military power in our family and raise my value.
It would be good to become the family's knight and live a life of leisure, or it wouldn't be bad to enter another family as a son-in-law and become a trophy husband.
There was a high probability of a political marriage, but if my abilities were sufficient, it wouldn't be difficult to marry a beauty.
If one is a child of a Count, just being average causes one's value to rise significantly.
That is why I had been designing my future well in advance since childhood.
Of course, it wasn't just for such calculated reasons.
Was it thanks to training steadily from a young age?
My body and skills grew rapidly, and the sensation of becoming a superhuman—something I couldn't feel on Earth—made me fall in love with training.
Additionally, just because the Ibres Count family was famous for administration didn't mean they were lacking in other areas.
Perhaps due to the ideology of sword supremacy, knights who made the spear their main weapon were rare.
However, since our family had connections with knightly families as well, I was able to meet my current master, who just happened to be looking for a successor.
Assigning me an excellent master, buying me high-quality elixirs, and even providing an environment where I could focus solely on training.
The Ibres family created a situation where I couldn't help but fall into the path of a martial artist.
Like that, dreaming of a future where I could eat and play, I spent my days striving to become a knight.
Time passed, and I turned 13.
Master said I finally needed practical combat experience, got my father's permission, and took me to a nearby goblin village that had formed recently.
The goblin village I arrived at wasn't very big, fitting for a place that hadn't been known for long.
At most, there might be about twenty goblins.
Objectively, it wasn't a difficult place to subjugate. Even a single apprentice knight would likely wipe them out quickly.
However, I was only 13 years old.
Thanks to building my body since childhood, my physique is on the larger side for my age, but by Korean standards, I'm only in the 6th grade of elementary school.
Back then, I was playing with a soccer ball with kids on the playground, but now I'm in a position where I have to fight twenty goblins...
If monsters slightly smaller than me were to attack in a swarm, it was clear that it wouldn't be easy to dispose of all the goblins in a situation where my only armament was a single spear.
Before the battle began, Master asked me.
"Ethan, as a martial artist, what do you think your advantage is?"
"My advantage? Hmm... Thorough preparation?"
"Of course, there is that too. However, the greatest advantage I have seen in you is your eyes."
"Eyes? are you talking about my eyesight?"
"No, I don't mean simply that your vision is good. You have a wide field of view and good observation skills. If you can use that ability harmoniously with your ability to handle a spear, this training will not be difficult."
'Eyes... Eyes, huh.'
I didn't quite get a feel for what Master was talking about yet.
Well, if my head doesn't get it, I'll have to learn with my body.
I hid my body between the bushes and trees and carefully...
"What are you doing?"
"Yes?"
"Go dignifiedly."
"There?"
"Yeah."
"Head-on?"
"Yeah."
My plan to defeat them one by one through stealth action was ruined by Master's instructions.
I ended up having no choice but to advance dignifiedly.
It was a small village with a little over 20 of them, but there were individuals standing guard.
"Kiiieeeeeeek!!!"
The goblin that discovered me let out a sound like a pig being slaughtered, signaling that an intruder had come to the village.
'Master told me to go forward, he didn't tell me to wait until they all gathered.'
As soon as the battle started, I rushed toward the individual standing guard.
In times like this, wouldn't it be easier later if I eliminated even one more of them in advance?
The guy pulled out a crude sword to respond to me rushing in.
"If it had been a spear, you might have at least tried to extend it, but choosing a sword is your cause of death."
Puk-!
The sensation of digging into flesh traveled up the spear blade.
It was an incredibly filthy feeling, but unfortunately, there was no time to rest.
"Keeek...!"
Behind the goblin collapsing with a pierced chest, the goblins who heard the signal first had arrived.
Goblins gasping for breath, holding only a single weapon as if they had rushed over in a hurry.
I suppressed them one by one, stabbing with the spear from maximum range, utilizing the spear's reach.
"One. Two, three."
Since the guys who already had shorter arms than me were holding short weapons, I was able to dispose of 3 additional goblins without much trouble.
The problem was what came next.
The time it took to catch the preceding 4 goblins wasn't very long, but in this small village, it was enough time for all the goblins to gather.
"...Wait, wouldn't you like to fight fair and square, 1 on 1?"
"Kerek! Kekerek! Kerrrrrek!!!"
I requested an honorable duel like a knight, but there was no way these uncivilized green monsters would know the honor of a human.
Triggered by the goblin who appeared to be the village chief screaming wildly, they rushed at me all at once. I could suddenly understand the feelings of an AV actress being chased by 100 men.