Chapter 138
Chapter 138
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 138
Chapter Title: Monster Hunter (4)
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"No way..."
Professor Kyle looked flustered.
The manual he'd received clearly listed only ten sword forms.
Was he really so unskilled that he hadn't been taught everything?
He couldn't accept that. Forcing a smile, he turned to Clea.
"Exchange student, do you think it's appropriate to tease your professor on the first day?"
"I'm not teasing. I'm just telling you the truth."
The blue-haired girl responded without missing a beat, her words crisp and unyielding.
Kyle could no longer see her as just a beautiful woman.
"So you're saying you know more about it than I do, an Imperial Knights Order veteran?"
Everyone turned to stare at Clea.
She adjusted her monocle and replied without flinching.
"My sister used to work as an Imperial secretary. She said they created two versions when the royals and the Knight Commander compiled the manual."
Her face remained coldly impassive, utterly indifferent to the attention focused on her.
Up close, her mental fortitude seemed tougher than a block of steel.
"One for beginners, and one for the proficient. The beginner version was made for the 'unskilled' knights in the order whose abilities fell below average."
Clea held up two fingers.
She fixed Kyle with the same icy gaze she'd once used on the former warden.
"If you'd like, I can put you in touch with my sister?"
Was it her unyielding attitude?
The students watching Clea began to murmur among themselves.
Like a litter of young meerkats.
"So, does that mean Professor Kyle didn't know those two forms because he was below average in the Knights Order?"
"We don't know yet. The exchange student only heard it from her sister. I trust the professor."
Kyle's throat tightened, his body twitching like a broken machine.
The dean, observing invisibly with transparency magic, was in the same state.
'That smug bastard was actually unskilled? No wonder our academy's swordsmanship scores have been dropping in tournaments lately!!'
The classroom grew chaotic.
Kyle, aware the dean was secretly present, broke out in cold sweat.
What about his image as the perfect lecturer?
What about his popularity?
To him, who'd only been pointed at and called inadequate in the Imperial Knights Order, this academy had been paradise.
Then this girl appeared out of nowhere.
Beautiful like a blue rose, yet her eyes and demeanor stabbed at him like a blade.
'Could her sister really be close to the royals?!'
"Fine, go ahead and contact her. I'd be delighted to learn something I didn't know."
Professor Kyle responded calmly for now.
Exploding in anger at a student's words would only damage his own image.
Instead, he planned a cunning counter.
"But here's the thing..."
Even if his martial prowess was subpar, he still had his silver tongue.
The professor tried to smoothly shift the topic.
"Let's say your sister knew because she was an Imperial secretary. But how does our warden Derek, stationed in some remote outpost, know this?"
He pointed directly at the shady noble youth.
The students' gazes followed his finger to me.
"Isn't it strange for a frontier civil servant to know such classified info?"
The guy who'd changed the subject kept yapping relentlessly.
Like sprinkling salt and pepper on garbage to mask the fishy smell, he stirred confusion with sensational bait.
"And what exactly is your relationship? I heard you two whispering in each other's ears earlier. Did you plan this together to humiliate me?"
For the first time, I turned icy at his sly tongue.
'This bastard's trying to paint me and Clea as having some illicit affair.'
A dangerous situation that could endanger even her disguised self.
Though I'd tried to stay composed, I stood up personally for my subordinate, that damned professor who'd crossed the line.
"Calm down, Professor Kyle. Why the rush to change the subject?"
"I haven't changed it. It's about preserving the honor of the Imperial Knights Order where I served."
I strolled to the podium, hands clasped behind my back leisurely.
"It's your personal honor, not the order's."
"What?"
Professor Kyle hid his displeasure, tugging at his suit collar as a gesture.
But his real ordeal was just beginning.
Daring to spar words with me in front of everyone...
"An academy professor should prioritize student safety above all. Yet you're trying to drag an innocent questioner into the mud by linking her to a 'shady' figure like me."
Meaning he'd picked a fight with a former Imperial Prime Minister who'd rolled in the dirtiest political arenas.
"It's true that Clea and I are acquainted. But there's nothing improper about it."
"Is that so? In this vast empire, it takes four days by carriage just between the west and north. What special connection could there be?"
We truly had no prior overlap.
Clea, knowing this well, watched my judgment with faint tension.
"Clea here is an aspiring bodyguard we've got our eye on at Minster Group."
A lie.
But if you can turn a lie into reality, you can wear a brazen face like this.
Sending one messenger bird could produce an idol in no time.
"An aspiring bodyguard...? Who even aspires to that?"
"Sir Kyle, you're out of touch with trends. Our group manages the famous Wolf Boys."
At the mention of Wolf Boys, the female students perked up their ears.
No matter how handsome the professor was, he couldn't compare to real celebrities.
"We're planning a new group with female bodyguards this time. We had exceptional Clea in mind for one spot."
Professor Kyle's eyes twitched beneath.
Meaning...
The woman who'd struck at him was just an idol hopeful.
"Isn't this going too far? Ganging up like this over one comment in class feels like pure retaliation."
Students' hearts sway like reeds.
As Clea and I transformed into agency CEO and aspirant, they grew confused.
"Honestly, I took this guest lecture gig with no ulterior motives. Just scouting for talent."
Implying they too could become stars like Wolf Boys.
The students' gazes toward Clea softened.
Play their cards right, and they might snag an idol friend.
'This should be enough public favor.'
"Now, let me explain how I know all twelve Imperial Knights sword forms."
I eyed Kyle with the gaze of a man weathered by storms.
"It's simple. Before facing Stillman in the Northern Supreme Sword selection, I received instruction from Her Highness the Princess."
How do you crush a boastful, honor-hungry fool?
Mention someone of even higher honor.
"Y-You learned from Her Highness the Princess...?"
"Yes. She taught me effective forms against the Holy See. One was the Lichten Swordsmanship, also called the Veil Form."
The empire's top royal had been invoked.
Unless he dragged in Prince Ivan, Kyle was out of options.
"Of course, my skills were lacking, so I couldn't use them in actual combat. But grasping the theory alone let me read Stillman's trajectories."
In truth, Camilla hadn't kindly taught me.
It was the swordsmanship she'd swung at me under confession magic during our first meeting.
Well, she did demonstrate it personally, so not a lie this time.
"........."
Trained directly by the Princess—a total smackdown.
Kyle's smooth lips cracked and dried.
I whispered to him softly.
Like the serpent punishing the one who touched the fruit of good and evil, slithering close.
"Getting the royals involved scares you a bit, huh?"
He rolled his eyes at me silently.
I narrowed mine to slits toward him.
"Since we're here, let me give you a chance. How about a light spar?"
"Here in the classroom now?"
"Yes. You seem to doubt my skills nonstop. I'd like to prove them if you want."
"Don't make me laugh. Think I don't know dagger arts have the edge in tight spaces?"
A cool-headed Imperial knight type.
Not biting easily, so time to tease more.
"I'll use a wooden sword too. As you saw in the Northern Supreme Sword match, daggers suit me better."
"...Is that true?"
"Yes—if I were sword-proficient, why skip it in that crucial match?"
"Fair point, but I still can't trust it. What if I refuse?"
Kyle was sharp.
Lacking skill but propped up by looks and political savvy to reach this post.
And I knew exactly how to handle his type.
'He'll dodge a fight at all costs.'
But what if the offer's irresistible?
I roughened my voice.
Then bellowed loudly.
"I'll demand a formal apology for bullying my valued student—through the North Times newspaper."
Said for the dean listening invisibly.
After my duel with the Sword Sage, my senses sharpened.
I could faintly feel even the tower master's presence now.
Not pinpoint yet—that needs Grand Master level.
But enough that his watchfulness here sufficed.
Cells doubting Kyle's skills were already multiplying in his head.
The blond, handsome professor's eyes darted anxiously.
Toward the dean somewhere unseen.
Sure enough, he exchanged covert glances with Percival.
The conclusion? Obvious.
An internal professor mattered more than a week-long guest.
"Fine... I accept."
The dean himself pushed his professor to fight.
"No daggers or hidden blades."
"Of course. Just these wooden swords."
Word of the two professors' wooden sword duel spread.
Spectators poured in from other classrooms.
Amid the crowd, only two stood on the podium.
The academy's star professor and the frontier warden.
"Though it's a spar, remember it's all for the students' education."
Kyle clung to professorial dignity to the end.
I agreed with a meaningful smile.
"Naturally. All for 'education.'"
"Ends when the opponent yields or can't continue."
The professor assumed a formal stance first.
A special ceremony pose even in the Knights Order—showing off every flair.
I just bowed my head lightly and lifted it.
"Begin."
A few seconds of silence.
Kyle advanced slowly, probing.
"You're definitely no swordsman. You grip it like a club."
Scraping at me with his usual banter, closing distance bit by bit.
Not dumb—he used his head.
Plus, he kept fit for his looks, so even as a professor, his body was solid.
Good enough to brag as ex-knight anywhere.
Of course.
Back when I was Knight Commander, he'd have been beaten senseless.
"Like a club."
Yeah, like now.
Whooosh――――――!!
I swung the one-handed wooden sword full force at his head.
He hastily raised his blade to block.
Using the textbook 'beginner' defense.
Clang!!
A clear wooden crack echoed through the room.
But it soon turned from wood to snapping pillar.
Clang!! Clang!! Crack!!
Punishing his idiotic textbook guard, I hammered the same spot relentlessly.
Like brute clubbing.
"What the...!!"
Infused with mana, like beating a dog in summer heat—a barrage of clubs.
Kyle's crumbling stance twisted his face completely.
Then, as his skinny wrist slackened and his guard dropped.
My club nailed his temple dead-on.
"Gahhh...!!"
He crumpled to the podium with a strangled scream.
I kicked him around like a soccer ball, gleefully.
"Scum like you ruin new recruits. Know how much I slaved reteaching them?"
The gruesome scene made Percival Dean drop his invisibility unwittingly.
He watched with the same stunned face as the students.
His high-paid star lecturer getting pummeled by the empire's shadowy boss.
"…………."
The sight was faithfully recorded by the academy newspaper club.
Soon, in print:
A group scattered across the empire began trembling in fear.
Derek Minster's old classmates who'd tormented him once.
The illustration showed terrifying serpent eyes.
Ruthless stomps and clubbing without mercy.
Seeing the scene steeped in madness, they realized.
Derek Minster had descended on the academy to exact revenge for his school days.
The day the paper hit, mystery "friendship fees" started pouring into the warden's account.