Chapter 42: I Should Start Training in Earnest (2)
Chapter 42: I Should Start Training in Earnest (2)
It was a total nightmare.
When I first started training them, they seemed to follow along with a fair amount of enthusiasm. But honestly, the training Petrick imposed wasn't something you could survive on enthusiasm alone.
Petrick knew exactly where the human limit lay and forced the soldiers to train until they were on the verge of death.
The soldiers spent their days in such agony that they probably dreaded the sun rising every morning.
Naturally, some reacted with rebellion, desertion, or simply giving up. But Petrick didn't give up on a single one of them, dragging every last soul back to the training ground.
How did he do it?
What else?
In the Radiant Dragon Hero’s dictionary, violence was the ultimate cure-all.
Petrick grabbed them one by one by the scruff of the neck and dragged them, kicking and screaming, into the world of the strong.
As a result, the soldiers of the Schneider Barony were soldiers in name only; in reality, they were powerhouses who wouldn't fall behind even if pitted against knights.
‘I wanted to make the Twin Dragon Sect like this, if possible.’
In truth, the biggest reason the soldiers grew so quickly was that Petrick had poured in the results of his lifelong research—the martial arts he had constantly refined and studied for the sake of the Twin Dragon Sect in his past life.
Because Petrick had died an untimely death, the disciples of the Twin Dragon Sect never got to enjoy those benefits. Instead, the soldiers of the Schneider Barony in another world across dimensions were reaping the rewards.
“Consider it an honor, you bastards. Hmm… am I out of booze?”
Realizing his bottle was empty, Petrick reluctantly tried to get up to fetch more, but…
“Here it is, Young Master.”
“Huh? Oh… quick on the uptake, aren't you, April?”
“Thank you.”
A maid stood there, politely handing Petrick a bottle.
But was it even right to call this woman a maid?
The clothes she wore were certainly a maid’s uniform. And she was attending to Petrick with impeccable etiquette. Even if the setting was the roof of the manor, she was, by all accounts, a maid. She acted the part perfectly. However…
“Is something the matter?”
“No, it’s just… you’ve gotten even prettier.”
“Thank you, Young Master.”
“No, I mean, stop getting prettier. I told you it’s not good to be too beautiful, didn't I?”
“I understand. I will do my best to stop being beautiful.”
“How? You’re not planning on scarring your face or something, are you?”
“If it is your command, I shall—”
“Don’t you dare! My mom would kill me!”
“Then I shall try my hardest to become ugly.”
“Is that even something you can achieve through effort?”
“I will find a way.”
“……”
She’s gone a bit strange too, Petrick thought.
April.
She was the girl with the Nine Yin Blocked Meridians whom Petrick had treated in the past. She was now working as a maid for the Baron Schneider family.
The reason it was hard to simply call her a maid was…
‘She really did become insanely pretty. She could slap the faces of the Five Beauties of China and they'd have nothing to say.’
The problem was that she had become far too beautiful to be just a maid.
Her dazzling blonde hair looked like molten gold. Her pale green eyes, reminiscent of spring greenery, were beautiful enough to enchant anyone who looked into them. Her skin was flawless and fair, and her features were so fantastic they looked as if they had been sculpted from all the beauty in the world.
April was pretty. To put it in Petrick’s terms, she had become ridiculously beautiful.
Was that a bad thing? No. Petrick was a man, and naturally, he liked pretty women. His wife in his past life had once been called the Greatest Beauty of Sichuan, after all.
‘But there’s a limit to how pretty someone should be, right? Everything needs moderation.’
That was the issue. April was too beautiful.
Petrick knew that curing the Nine Yin Blocked Meridians would drastically enhance one's appearance. Even his mother, Madam Ava Schneider, had become beautiful enough to make people lose their senses.
But with April, it was on another level.
If someone with weak mental strength looked at her, they wouldn't just be impressed; they’d be bewitched. She had attained a level of beauty where her mere presence could make both men and women lose their minds.
‘A true case of the Nine Yin Blocked Meridians, indeed. But I wonder if this is entirely a good thing…’
A woman’s beauty could often be the source of trouble. What Petrick worried about was the conflict her beauty might incite.
‘In my past life, there was a huge uproar over who would marry the woman called the Greatest Beauty of Henan.’
A beautiful daughter was born to an ordinary merchant family. As word of her beauty spread and her fame grew, every Tom, Dick, and Harry jumped in claiming they would marry her, causing a massive scene.
When Petrick rushed to Henan under his Master’s orders to mediate, he found over a hundred men gathered, brandishing weapons and huffing with rage, while the girl herself was shivering in terror.
‘Thinking back on it, those bastards were pathetic.’
Sometimes it seemed like people did their thinking with their lower halves rather than their heads.
Regardless, Petrick realized then that a beautiful woman could be a source of trouble just by existing. And that fact likely wouldn't be any different in this world.
For now, she rarely left the manor, and the servants inside had grown somewhat used to her, but he couldn't keep her locked up forever, could he?
That was why Petrick had started teaching April the sword in earnest a few years ago.
Actually, that had been the original goal. From the moment he cured her Nine Yin Blocked Meridians, he intended to teach her martial arts once her health improved.
However, he had postponed it because his mother had been so vehemently against it.
[How could such a small, fragile child learn the sword?]
At times, Ava doted on April so much it made one wonder if she wasn't her own daughter. Consequently, Petrick hadn't been able to teach her, despite having a Heavenly Martial Body right in front of him.
But eventually, he persuaded his mother that April needed the strength to protect herself as she grew more beautiful, and most decisively…
[Madam. If the Young Master wishes it, I want to learn.]
Since April herself chose to follow Petrick’s will, he was finally able to pass on his techniques.
Petrick had breathed a sigh of relief then and began her training in earnest. He taught her the Twin Dragon Sect’s martial arts, including the Supreme Purity Mental Method he had taught the soldiers. And the result…
[Is that the end?]
Those were the words April spoke, standing tall and aloof after clearing out all the soldiers in the training ground.
No one stood up to answer her. Even Sanson, the strongest among the soldiers, was busy lying on the ground, gasping for air.
April bowed to the fallen soldiers and said,
[Then, I shall take my leave…]
As they watched April trot away from the training ground, the soldiers muttered:
[She’s a monster.]
[To think there was another monster besides the Young Master.]
[And she’s a different type of monster than him.]
[She didn't even know how to hold a sword at first, right?]
[Yeah. That’s how it was in the beginning.]
The soldiers had seen it clearly. They remembered April entering their training area and learning everything from the horse stance to the basic grip of a sword, step by step.
That was only two years ago. And yet…
[She got that strong in just two years?]
[Sigh… life is bitter.]
[What’s the point of living? Let’s just all die.]
That day, the soldiers of the Schneider Barony fell into a collective state of despair. Just as they were starting to gain some confidence through their grueling efforts, their pride was utterly shattered by a sixteen-year-old maid.
Thus, at the age of sixteen, April established herself as the second-strongest person in the Schneider Barony.
Yet, that second-strongest person continued to work diligently as a maid of the barony, wearing her uniform. It was as if her swordsmanship training was merely a means to better serve the Young Master, not her primary duty.
“……”
As Petrick stared at her intently, April asked, sounding puzzled.
“Is something wrong?”
“No, I was just looking because you’re pretty.”
“I am sorry. As soon as possible, I will find a way to become ugly—”
“Forget it. Don’t do that. Mom hates it when you don’t look your best.”
“I understand.”
“And occasionally, stop sticking to my side and go somewhere else. Do you have nowhere else to be but next to me?”
“Yes.”
“……”
The answer came without a second of hesitation.
Whoa, she scares me.
Even the great Radiant Dragon Hero, Jincheon—the man known throughout the martial world as the undisputed craziest bastard among the Righteous, Evil, and Demonic factions—found himself intimidated by this girl’s mindset.
Petrick let out a sigh, picked up his bottle, and stood up.
“Let’s go see the Orcs.”
“Yes, Young Master.”
The soldiers were doing fine now without Petrick having to teach them every little thing. They had learned to walk, so he could just leave them be.
However, the Orcs still needed a bit more of his care.
Was it because the Orcs were weaker than the soldiers?
No. While the soldiers had grown much stronger, the Orcs had also improved, and their strength was roughly equal. However…
“Sigh… what a life. Why is it always one mountain after another?”
One would understand why Petrick felt this way upon seeing them.
* * *
“Woooooah!”
“Oooooh!”
A separate training ground had been built within the Schneider Barony specifically for the Orcs.
In that training ground, which was much larger than the one used by the soldiers, the Orcs were vigorously swinging their stone blades.
Yes, they were training hard. Truly hard…
“You sons of bitches!”
…until someone ran up and kicked one of them squarely in the ribs.
“Squeeeak!”
As one Orc went flying, letting out a sound like a stuck pig, the others flinched.
Petrick glared at them with wild eyes and shouted,
“Even a troll would understand if I explained it that much, you bastards! How many times do I have to tell you to swing exactly the way I taught you? Huh?!”
Watching Petrick fly into a rage, the brave Orc warriors…
“Let’s… let’s do it the way he taught us.”
“Do it again. Again…”
“Posture. Must keep the posture. Or he gets angry.”
…meekly did as they were told.
Five years had been more than enough time for the Orcs to learn exactly what kind of human Petrick was.
Orcs were brave warriors who didn't fear death, but they were terrified of a madman.
Fundamentally, you couldn't reason with him. And he was a master who had reached the pinnacle of violence. In terms of striking a living being in a way that caused the most pain without causing fatal injury, Petrick had already reached a divine realm.
It wasn't that there weren't Orcs who tried to resist bravely. However…
[I hate this. I won’t do it.]
[Oh, really? Fine. Let’s see which wins: my fist or your grit.]
[Guh… guuuh… just kill me instead.]
[No can do. Dying is too easy, isn't it?]
[Grrrr…]
Well, that’s how it went.
The reason Petrick went so far as to badger the Orcs into training was to pass down the saber techniques of the Hebe Peng Family to them.
[Brother. Even if our family perishes in the future, please ensure our family’s martial arts remain. That is the price for me teaching you the secret techniques of the Peng Family.]
Iron Blood Dragon, Peng Mu-jong.
Petrick had thought he was a guy who only knew how to charge blindly without thinking, but surprisingly, he was capable of deep thought.
At first, Petrick thought he was just talking nonsense. But…
[Brother… it’s… a promise.]
[Stop talking crap and shut up, you bastard.]
[I trust… you…]
The Hebe Peng Family, who never knew retreat, fought gallantly in the most dangerous places when the war broke out. What Jincheon found when he rushed to help was the final testament of his sworn brother, who breathed his last in his arms.
And Petrick hadn't been able to keep that promise. Before he could pass those techniques to the descendants of the Hebe Peng Family, Petrick himself had met his end in the war.
He had thought about it from the moment he saw the Orcs.
‘Is there any other skeletal structure so perfect for learning saber techniques?’
The most important factors in learning martial arts are comprehension and skeletal structure. It’s best to have both, but having even one made someone a prodigy.
And in the martial world, the place that valued skeletal structure the most was the Hebe Peng Family.
The Peng Family’s saber techniques focused on speed and dominance rather than complexity or subtlety. If one’s skeletal structure didn't support it, it was common for joints to dislocate or muscles to tear while using the techniques. There was even a saying that the direct descendants looked at a woman’s skeletal structure when choosing a wife.
And the skeletal structure of an Orc was fundamentally incomparable to a human’s.
So, Petrick had gathered the Orcs and said:
[Consider it an honor. I’m going to teach you the greatest saber techniques under heaven.]
Of course, telling Orcs it was the "greatest under heaven" meant nothing to them. However…
[The teaching of a great warrior is good.]
[I will learn too. Me too.]
[Can become stronger.]
True to their nature as a warrior race, the thought of becoming stronger made them all flock to Petrick, eager to learn the saber.
Seeing that, Petrick had smiled.
‘Heh. This is it. This is how it should be. When the great Radiant Dragon Hero offers a lesson, it’s only natural for people to come running with sparkling eyes.’
That’s what he thought.
At first, anyway.