Chapter 105. It’s Going to Be More Fun From Tomorrow (1)

After simply suppressing the rebellion(?).

Patrick gathered the four representatives and spoke.

“This instructor’s training of the trainees has been approved by the professor. So I hope you will not have any objections.”

‘You should have said that first.’

‘Does he have to say it after beating someone to a pulp?’

‘Son of a bitch…’

‘Devil. A real devil.’

Receiving the four pairs of eyes full of complaint and distrust, Patrick spoke.

“This instructor’s role is to make you chicks at least act like humans by the day of the tournament. To do so, I am prepared to use any means necessary.”

At Patrick’s words, the four tensed up, while at the same time, a sense of anticipation welled up in a corner of their hearts.

They knew it too.

That Patrick was a master of a caliber incomparable to themselves.

The opportunity to receive the teachings of such a master was more precious than gold.

But until now, even when they requested a duel, Patrick would refuse, saying it was a bother, and just sip from his liquor bottle.

They had been disappointed by such behavior more than once, so they were even glad that he was now offering to give them proper guidance.

“Now, let me ask you this. What is good guidance?”

“……”

“……”

“……”

“What? Don't you have mouths? Don't you have thoughts? Or are you perhaps being defiant? Why aren’t you answering?”

At Patrick’s words, the four hurriedly shouted.

“Improving the Aura Blessing is what’s most needed.”

“No, we should focus more on how to handle the sword.”

“Basics, lower body.”

At their answers, Patrick smirked and said.

“Aura, swordsmanship, basics—yes, they’re all correct. Correct, but.”

Patrick looked at them and continued briefly.

“In what lifetime?”

“Huh?”

“Ah… that is…”

“Umm…”

“To kids who have to fight in a tournament in 40 days, you’re talking about aura? Swordsmanship? Baaasics? If it were that quick, there wouldn’t be a single person in the world who isn’t a master. You bastards. Do you even have brains? Is that round thing on your shoulders just for decoration? Huh?”

“……”

“……”

“……”

It was infuriating.

He asked the question himself, and they answered to the best of their ability, only to be scolded like this?

What was most infuriating was that he was right.

For them, who had Arcana right around the corner and needed to strengthen their power in a short amount of time, such obvious training methods were unlikely to be effective.

Then Alex spoke.

“Then what should we do? Are you going to tell us to just swing our swords thoughtlessly?”

“Ooooh, that’s a bit better. You’re right.”

“Right. That can’t be…. Huh?”

“If you can’t strengthen what you have right away, you should at least learn how to use what you have properly. For that, constant repetition of real combat is the best.”

“Real combat? Are you saying you’ll constantly spar with us?”

“Nope. No matter how realistically I beat you up as if it were real combat, a spar is a spar. As long as there’s a sense of relief that ‘I won’t die’ even while getting beaten up, it’s not real combat. I’ve tried it, and it doesn’t work.”

What on earth is this bastard’s personality…

Alex asked again.

“Then what are you suggesting we do?”

“I’ll show you that with your bodies from now on. Everyone, follow me.”

And Patrick led them off the road and began to climb a mountain.

“What are you doing? Not coming quickly? Run!”

The four hesitated, but at Patrick’s roar, they hurriedly followed him.

Moving as if running up the mountain, the place they arrived at was…

“Ta-da, welcome to the real combat training center.”

In a secluded terrain, a palisade had been erected to form a wall, and on top of that palisade, even a watchtower for sentry duty had been built.

What do you usually call a place like this?

“It looks exactly like a bandit hideout.”

That’s right. This was the den of some nameless band of bandits.

“How did you know this was here?”

“Then the real combat training is…”

“Real combat with bandits?”

“Aah… I thought it was something else.”

They smiled in relief.

Everyone here was a swordsman who had achieved at least the 3-star level.

It was a bandit group that didn’t look very large at a glance, and it didn’t seem like they would have much trouble with them.

Seeing them sigh in relief, Patrick said.

“You’re smiling. You must be confident.”

“We may still be lacking, but we can subjugate a small bandit group like this anytime.”

“Hoooo… is that so?”

“Of course.”

“Let’s just get started quickly.”

“……”

Seeing them drawing their swords, overflowing with motivation, Patrick smiled and said.

“Haaah. Good. Good. Shall we begin then? Ah, before that…”

In that moment, Patrick’s eyes narrowed, and his hand moved like a flash of lightning. And then…

“Keok.”

“Cough…”

“Uuugh…”

“Kuk… what are you doing?”

The moment Patrick’s hand moved, they felt a sharp pain, and the strength drained from their bodies.

And Patrick, grinning, said.

“It’s nothing much. I just sealed your Dantian, no, your Aura Hall.”

“…What?”

“Using aura against a bandit group would be too easy, right? There should be this much of a handicap to make it fair for them. Don’t you agree?”

“Wai… wait a minute, wait.”

“Shall we begin then?”

As he spoke, Patrick swung his sword.

And the aura that flew from the tip of his sword blew away the bandit group’s main gate without a trace.

Kwaaaang!

“What was that?”

“Enemies. It’s an enemy attack!”

“Emergency! Everyone, get out here!”

Patrick’s single strike stirred up the bandits like a hornet’s nest.

And Patrick, the one who had provoked them, stepped back and said to his seniors.

“Well then, fighting!”

And seeing Patrick quickly retreat, Alex and the other four just stared blankly.

Then, a beat later, as they were trying to come to their senses…

“Enemies! There are enemies over there!”

“There are only four of them.”

“Everyone, get out here!”

Seeing the bandits surrounding them with various weapons, the four, with their aura sealed, gulped.

“Wai… wait a minute.”

“Wait for what!”

“No, I’m serious, just wait, this is, you see…”

“Attack! Kill them all!”

“Uwoooooooh!”

“Ah, seriously!”

If they were people with whom common sense worked, why would they be living as bandits?

In the end, to face the charging bandits, Alex and the other three drew their swords.

“Damn it, we fight back!”

“Yes!”

“Don’t back down!”

“……”

Even though their aura was sealed, they had trained with the sword their entire lives.

They had no intention of going down without a fight.

“Die!”

“Bring it on!”

The bandit group of about 30 and the 4 swordsmen began to clash fiercely.

“Tsk, tsk, they do just fine when they get down to it.”

On a tree in a slightly distant location.

Patrick was watching the scene while sipping liquor with beef jerky as a snack.

And next to him, Professor Leyte was fidgeting as he watched the scene of chaos.

“Is this really okay?”

“Didn’t you ask me to make them stronger?”

“I… I did say that. I did, but…”

“Then just leave them be. To pull them up in a limited, short amount of time, real combat is the best.”

Originally, there is no other way for a martial artist to become stronger. The only answer is to strive every day to overcome the self of yesterday.

But that’s when you have enough time.

To become even a little stronger in a short period, a slightly drastic prescription is needed.

Practical swordsmanship.

‘To be honest, this is more of an Unorthodox Alliance method than an Orthodox Sect one.’

Unlike the Orthodox Sect members who grow through systematic training within their sects, the Unorthodox Alliance members are mostly forged through real combat.

To survive, they cast aside face and everything else, and with the grim determination to do whatever it takes, they become stronger whether they like it or not by crossing the line of death.

No, it would be more accurate to say that those who aren’t strong would have died long ago.

Patrick does not completely deny this method.

Because, one way or another, quite a few skilled swordsmen emerge from the Unorthodox Alliance guys who are raised this way.

‘Though they all died if they ran into me. Still, it’s clear that this method brings definite growth in a short period.’

It’s not that you survive because you are strong.

You become strong because you survive.

Sometimes, crossing the line of death once could surpass a hundred days of training.

“What if they die doing this?”

“I’ll make sure they don’t.”

“How… Huk! The princess was just hit by a sword!”

“She got a scratch on her side. Don’t make a fuss.”

“How is this something not to make a fuss about?”

“Hey, she won’t die. She won’t. If we assume a person gets stabbed an average of 5,000 times in their life, she can still get stabbed 4,999 more times.”

“……”

Is this bastard a devil?

“Tsk, tsk, she got hit again because she wasn’t paying attention. Oh my? She’s going to die at this rate. Ooh. Alex is saving her. Haaah… that’s camaraderie. It’s moving.”

No. Even a devil would see this guy and say, ‘Even I wouldn’t do that.’

“Huk… hukhuk…”

“We… we won.”

“Kaaaargh… we won. We won.”

“We survived.”

For Alex and the other 4th and 5th-year students, this was not their first real battle.

During their knightly training, they had subjugated bandits many times and experienced real combat with monsters.

But now, at this moment, they were feeling a stronger sense of victory than ever before.

The victories they had achieved so far were in battles against opponents they could sufficiently defeat just by displaying their skills.

But today’s battle was truly dangerous.

With their aura sealed, fighting with only pure swordsmanship and physical ability, even the axes and spears of ordinary bandits were extremely dangerous.

There were countless moments in between when they were on the verge of death.

In a battle where the relief of survival was felt more strongly than the joy of victory, they didn’t even have the energy left to cheer.

Patrick approached them as they were blankly worn out.

“What are you doing? If you’ve won, you should get up on your feet. Why are you all spacing out?”

“Patrick… you bastard?”

“Huh? Why? What?”

The anger that had soared to the sky plummeted straight to the depths of the earth.

Are you being defiant now? Is that it?

The moment he met Patrick’s eyes, Alex realized.

What was harder than facing dozens of bandits with his aura sealed was fighting that devil-like guy.

The others seemed to think similarly as they avoided Patrick’s eyes and gritted their teeth.

Seeing them, Patrick laughed.

“Good work, everyone. It was light since it’s the first day. From tomorrow, I’ll be rolling you for real, so be aware.”

What? This is the first day?

You’re going to continue this crazy stuff from tomorrow?

That day, they seriously contemplated ditching Arcana and everything else and running away.

* * *

In the dead of night, when everyone was asleep.

A woman in a tight-fitting black outfit with her face covered by a mask appeared before Patrick.

“You’re here? April?”

“Yes, Young Master.”

The mysterious masked person was April.

She was supposed to have remained in the capital, but she insisted on assisting Patrick and had been accompanying them at a certain distance in this disguised state.

Such an April had been busy acting under Patrick’s recent instructions.

As for what that was…

“Young Master. As you commanded, I have found a few more bandit groups suitable as practice partners.”

“Good, well done.”

It was the scouting of bandit groups.

She had entered the Magellan Kingdom ahead of them to scout for bandit groups that the brats could use as practice partners.

“Hmm, this one’s a bit small in scale.”

“The scale is small, but the leader is a former 2-star mercenary.”

“Ooh, nice. It’ll be thrilling.”

“Including the schedule to get to the capital, it seems we can move forward by clearing out this one, this one, and this one first.”

“Good work. Keep scouting for suitable guys.”

“Yes. Understood.”

After sending April away, Patrick grinned and said.

“It’s going to be more fun from tomorrow.”

A great devil that would make even devils weep was here.

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