Chapter 162: Chapter 162

After Shan finished speaking, the training ground fell dead silent, without even the slightest murmur.

At first, the students doubted whether they had misheard something.

Had he not amplified his voice with a sound-amplification magical device, a few of them would have truly believed they had misheard.

Soon, a commotion began amongst those who had mentally processed his words.

Emotions bordering on hatred flickered across the faces of the small minority who had looked down on him from the start, while confusion and fear settled upon the faces of those who had shown admiration and respect.

‘Hmm, was this a bit too harsh?’

Shan inwardly felt uncomfortable as he watched their reactions.

He did not care what those who disliked him thought, but treating those who liked him harshly was always uncomfortable.

But that was only for a moment; he composed himself, recalling what Darkal had said.

Here and now, Shan had to be the object of fear and hatred that all the students must unite to oppose.

All of this was for their sake.

If they failed to unite when marching onto future battlefields or fighting monsters, they would only meet death.

“It seems none of you understand what I’m saying. On my way here, I saw and heard plenty of things. What a spectacle. You were sent here to train faithfully for the kingdom and its people, yet you engage in brawls, splash water in the middle of the night, secretly tear training uniforms, and put laxatives in food… Is this a place to raise knights, or a place to raise neighborhood hooligans and thugs!”

His speech, which began as a low murmur, grew so loud and intense by the end that it was nearly a shout.

Empowered by the formidable human spirituality dwelling within his soul, his voice oppressed the minds and bodies of the students much like the roar of giant monsters.

Although months of academy life had already accustomed them to the instructors’ shouts and curses, Shan’s rebuke was difficult to brush off casually.

Seeing fear and shame settle on the students’ faces, Shan lowered his voice once more.

“You probably cannot even imagine how dangerous the enemies you will have to fight in the future are. Setting aside other knights or soldiers, monsters in particular are always stronger and faster than knights, and sometimes even cunning. You, over there!”

The person Shan pointed out was Blois, who stood in the front row.

He looked astonished that Shan, who was always gentle and kind when dealing with him, was expressing such fierce anger.

“What does a knight need when fighting a monster stronger than themselves?”

“Equipment! We are human, so we can use tools!”

“Correct. And what else?”

“And…”

Perhaps his time at the academy had sharpened his wits considerably, as Blois looked around before delivering the answer Shan wanted.

“We can join forces with our comrades!”

“Well said. All of you here are comrades. Comrades who may have to join forces in the future to slay cockatrices, ogres, gryphons, and perhaps even dragons.”

After naming the monster that had not appeared again since driving the Arman Empire to destruction five hundred years ago, Shan slowly moved his steps and looked around as if evaluating the students.

Standing at attention, the students tried hard to follow him with only their eyes while wearing tense expressions.

“Yet as I see it, you do not seem to think of each other that way. You don’t seem to understand that you are all fellow knights of Pendia and comrades. Is that not so?”

After a brief silence, a voice shouted from behind, “That is not so!”

It was a relatively high and slender woman’s voice.

“It is not?”

“That is correct!”

Vivian, a girl standing in the back row of the female faction, felt the overwhelming pressure yet grit her teeth and answered.

Circling around to approach her, Shan thrust his face forward so close their noses almost touched and growled.

“I think differently. Can you prove it?”

“I can!”

“Well spoken. Then let us see you prove it from now on!”

Inwardly grateful that a decent instigator had stepped forward unexpectedly, allowing the conversation to proceed smoothly, Shan gestured toward the instructors standing nearby.

They brought over various weapons prepared in advance and handed them to the students.

“Th-This is…?”

“A spar. The condition is simple. If you use whatever means necessary to make me shed even a single drop of blood, you win.”

Even while holding chilling real swords, spears, and axes, the students wore stunned expressions.

A spar, them? With that mighty Duke Thousand-Slayer?

If this was a joke, it was an atrociously unfunny one.

Although they too possessed outstanding talent and had devoted themselves to intense training for over half a year, they were currently only capable of barely overpowering one or two soldiers at most.

By contrast, the young man before them was only a year or two older than them, yet he had already built a reputation by slaughtering countless actual active-duty knights who were even stronger than the instructors.

Considering his achievements of single-handedly leaping across several pirate ships in the South Sea or tearing through the Kingdom of Ajun on his own, he was truly a living god of war and a superhuman of this era.

Even if all of them charged at him, a dozen minutes later the instructors would likely be clearing a mountain of corpses piled high on the training ground.

As everyone wore reluctant expressions, not even daring to face him, the eyes of the students shifted at his next words.

“As I mentioned earlier, this is to see your ability to cooperate, so the spar will not be one-on-one. Join forces and try to make even a single drop of blood spill from my body by any means necessary. I will only use this, and if a fatality occurs among you, that will also count as my defeat.”

Saying so, what Shan pulled out was a long six-foot staff.

Made of hard birch wood with metal bands wrapped around the ends, Shan lightly brandished it and looked at everyone as he spoke.

“Do you still think it impossible? Can two hundred people who received combat training fail to inflict a single wound on a person wearing no armor and holding only a staff? When this side even promised never to kill you?”

Still, that much might be possible.

Several students looked at one another, conveying such thoughts through their eyes.

For no one was unaware that the multiple powerful magical items he wore had played a massive role in the Lord Protector’s overwhelming military achievements.

Having received combat training, the students knew well how huge a difference equipment made for a warrior.

Speaking somewhat dramatically, a single knight fully decked in magical gear could easily fight five or six knights of equal caliber who held only weapons on their bare bodies.

Conversely, the moment he was unarmored, it meant he became roughly one-sixth as strong.

However, there was still one remaining problem: why on earth should they fight?

Even if they won, stabbing the guardian of the kingdom carried fearful future consequences, and even if they wouldn’t die, getting hit would hurt in the first place.

Shan decided to provide motivation for those who were calculating so shrewdly.

“If you don’t have the confidence to attack, get out of here! The taxes of the Pendian people are not used to raise cowards who lack even that much courage. Those who flee even from a safe battle like this would flee in real combat later anyway!”

All the students were appalled by his declaration that he would expel them if they did not fight right away.

They could not claim that he would never dare do such a thing.

For the young man before them was the strongest knight of the kingdom and the Lord Protector who oversaw all military affairs.

With his strength and authority, it was something he could easily do.

After making that declaration, Shan noticed Darkal standing behind him, watching him with a somewhat reluctant expression.

Just from an exchange of glances, he could tell it meant, ‘I didn’t tell you to go that far?’

A moment later, confirming that none of the students had stepped back, Shan called out in a low voice.

“For your information, if I do not bleed by the time all of you collapse, every single one of you will be expelled. If you cannot even manage that much after learning as much as you have, it means you had no talent in the first place!”

*

After Shan’s declaration ended, the students looked at one another and whispered softly.

Since they could no longer back down, it was to discuss how they might defeat him.

Of course, having no reason to give them time to devise a strategy, Shan immediately stepped toward the students.

Armed with proper bladed weapons, dozens of students flinched and stepped back at the attitude of the Lord Protector striding toward them while holding only a single six-foot staff.

But that was only brief; Dike, the leader of the Western faction, let out a shout.

“You cowardly bastards! I’ll go first! Raaaah!”

He brought down his greatsword with all his strength, not holding back in the slightest.

Thanks to robust physical strength and refined skill for a boy still in his mid-to-late teens, the greatsword was fast and sharp enough to decapitate a horse’s neck in a single blow.

‘Die!’

The moment he saw Shan, he remembered his father.

Those broad and firm shoulders that had given him piggyback rides when he was young, and that thick, low voice chuckling softly.

He also remembered his mother and sister wailing when his father returned dead from the war, and how the fortunes of a long-standing knight family rapidly declined.

Of course, his father had not been killed by the knight before his eyes but by some unknown knight, yet in any case, he was an enemy!

“Keugh!”

However, Shan skillfully used his six-foot staff to entangle and deflect the opponent’s weapon while thrusting at his solar plexus.

Falling flat with a small groan, Dike gasped and wheezed, unable to even breathe properly due to the pain.

Looking down at him quietly, Shan spoke.

“Is there only a single courageous person?”

“Let’s go!”

“Surround him and overwhelm him all at once!”

Spurred by this, the students shouted together and thrust their weapons toward Shan.

After all, no matter how famous the Lord Protector was, he was still human.

If he was a human with one head, two eyes, and two arms just like them, he would be unable to cope if they simply launched a pincer attack from all directions.

Rather, they would have to be careful not to accidentally inflict a fatal wound.

Although a priest was right beside them, if he died instantly, he could not be brought back…

Those thinking like that widened their eyes at the scene that followed.

“Uh…”

“Kyaah!”

Under Shan’s grip, the utterly plain six-foot staff painted afterimages as it knocked away every single incoming weapon.

Its appearance was as if spears and swords were being sucked into a whirlpool.

Moreover, amid all this, his two legs did not merely step on the ground or walk, but constantly kicked or shoved away the approaching students.

While a leg could be severed the moment he made even a slight mistake, he consistently delivered only the most rational attacks from the most precise positions.

Attacking from behind was also useless.

As if he had eyes on the back of his head, every time the long six-foot staff thrust forward and swung backward, those attempting surprise attacks were struck, screaming as they fell flat.

Even though their side numbered in the hundreds while the other side was just one person, they felt as if they were desperately resisting against a monster just to avoid dying.

No, it felt less like facing a living creature and more like standing against a natural disaster, like a typhoon or torrential rain.

‘This is pretty tough.’

However, contrary to how relaxed he appeared, Shan was actually fighting quite hard.

More than anything, not getting hit even once was trickier than expected.

Because when fighting in reality, he usually utilized his armor effectively to lightly deflect ordinary attacks.

Furthermore, those struck by his attacks normally died instantly from a single hit to a vital spot, but with this six-foot staff, it was difficult to inflict such fatal attacks.

Because if he hit them in the head by mistake, they could actually die.

Likewise, since they could die, he could not use the strategy of using an enemy’s body to absorb attacks either.

Furthermore, since there were several instances where they got back up and charged even after suffering fractures, in reality he was practically fighting nearly twice as many people.

Had the students even used nets and bows or been thoroughly trained to attack in proper coordination, even Shan could not have won under these conditions.

Thus, ten-odd minutes had already passed since the brawl suddenly began.

At first, Shan had simply pushed them back unilaterally, but as time passed, small changes began occurring among the students as well.

“Argh!”

“Over here!”

“My shoulder is dislocated! Pop it back in!”

“Here, bite on this…”

Originally split into several cliques and charging separately, they naturally joined forces.

They tended to the injured so they could fight again and dragged the wounded to the rear.

Those attacking also charged recklessly at first, but now they coordinated their timing to attack together and aided each other’s defense.

Even those belonging to originally hostile factions did so.

Facing the unreasonable disaster named Shan, they had finally begun a hostile symbiosis to somehow survive.

Yet if joining forces solved everything, all manner of tragedies would not exist in the world.

Before long, Blois, struck precisely on his collarbone until it broke, collapsed with a scream, and Feyuv, kicked in the stomach, vomited up everything he had eaten.

Vivian became unable to fight because both of her arms were broken.

After a considerable amount of time passed, the two hundred-odd students finally realized that every single one of them was sprawling on the ground.

Bloodstains were smeared here and there on Shan’s body, but they were entirely the students’ blood, with not a single injury to be seen.

Breathing heavily, Shan threw aside the thoroughly battered six-foot staff and spoke.

“Is there no one left who can fight?”

A few students groaned as if trying to stand up before collapsing back down.

Most could not even dream of fighting, as they had broken bones in a place or two or were exhausted.

Soon, someone burst into loud tears.

The path of a knight was the most certain way to seek advancement in status while working with a blade, yet with everything turning to dust, they could not contain their sorrow.

Commoner-born children thought of their families who looked only to them, while the nobles also could not hide their despair at the thought that their family honor would fall to the ground.

If word spread that they were all expelled by a disappointed Lord Protector after fighting among themselves, what kind of glares would people cast at them…

Quietly watching the scene turn into a sea of tears, Shan smiled and clapped his hands.

“Congratulations. You passed!”

Seeing everyone looking bewildered by his abrupt words, Shan pointed near his left shoulder.

Those nearby could see that his clothes were slightly cut, with blood seeping through.

Though it was merely a lightly grazed scratch, it was clearly the trace of someone’s weapon brushing past.

“It was terrible at first, but at the end it was quite good. You, what’s your name?”

The one Shan pointed to was the boy who had charged at him first, Dike.

He answered with a dazed expression.

“Dike Bargen…”

“Your sword narrowly grazed me at the end. It was sharp.”

At Shan’s words, Dike wore an incredulous expression.

Because he had already been struck several times and his mind was hazy, even he had thought his final attack was a mess.

However, looking at the blade, he saw that a faint trace of blood truly stained the tip.

Truly, he had undeniably landed a strike on that Duke Thousand-Slayer!

“I heard your father was Sir Belfera Bargen, who participated in the Battle of Mount Aman. Is that correct?”

“T-That is correct.”

Never imagining that Shan would know even his father’s name, Dike stuttered like a fool without realizing it.

Shan patted him on the shoulder and spoke.

“To have a child like you, he must have been a splendid knight. In the first place, among the knights I fought on Mount Aman, there were no cowards.”

Dike felt confused by his words of praise, acknowledging that although his father was an enemy, he was worthy of respect.

The person before his eyes should be his father’s sworn enemy, yet hearing him express respect for his deceased father felt far too pleasant.

So much so that the contempt and resentment stemming from being branded the descendant of a traitor were washed away in an instant…

Afterwards, Shan picked out several more fallen students to praise them.

Mentioning what parts were good, or what areas needed correction.

They shuddered in awe upon realizing that Shan had accurately picked up on their characteristics even while fighting hundreds of people alone.

As Shan stepped back after leaving those encouraging words, Darkal, who had been quiet until now, stepped forward and shouted.

“You were crushed wretchedly! But it’s fine! Because there aren’t two such monsters in this world!”

Terrified by the headmaster’s audacity in calling His Grace the Duke a ‘monster,’ everyone looked at Shan, but Shan chuckled and shook his head to signal that he did not mind at all.

Only then were they reminded anew that the old headmaster was the teacher of the Lord Protector.

Though it was originally a well-known story, seeing something once hit closer to home for people than hearing it a hundred times.

“Since it will take time for everyone to recover from their injuries, classes are suspended for the next three days and autonomous outings are permitted! Furthermore, the Lord Protector highly appreciated your unity and prepared a banquet, so reassemble after recovering and enjoy yourselves to your heart’s content!”

“Woaaaaah!”

“Hoo… argh for the Lord Protector!”

Originally, for those confined somewhere, no reward was sweeter than an outing.

At the permission for outings (normally reserved only for top performers) several students raised broken hands to cheer, only to scream in pain.

After recovering for a good while with the help of priests, the students’ jaws dropped at the luxurious banquet brought in by chefs.

Because high-end dishes seasoned with all kinds of spices, which were normally rarely served in academy meals under the pretext of being bad for health, entered the room.

Although they were students who had been suddenly called out and beaten until their bones broke just a moment ago, with plenty of delicious food served after so long, alongside prize money and permission for outings, their ill feelings melted away in an instant.

Although they were horribly beaten, in any case, they had won.

Against none other than that Lord Protector.

This alone would become a story to brag about for the rest of their lives.

“I’m telling you, my spear thrust from the side back then really helped!”

“No, it was me throwing sand from behind…”

Even those who usually growled and fought behind each other’s backs conversed and mingled, even if a bit awkwardly.

The sense of camaraderie from having faced and overcome a terrible disaster until just moments ago had forged a new bond between them.