He dislikes discrimination.
Perhaps because he has so much history of being discriminated against?
Representatively, there was the trash of all trash who succeeded in ultra-fast promotion just for being the division commander's son.
Conversely, there was the history of remaining a perennial sergeant despite 10 years of long service, skipped over for promotion for absurd reasons.
Having suffered so much that it seeped into his bones, he came to value fairness to an absolute degree in dealing with others.
As such, he had no intention of giving special privileges to the seedling squad just because he was of lower-class origin, nor would he abandon them even if they were children of nobles.
Fairness means treating everyone equally, after all.
Therefore.
"—Now, let's give it our all again today."
"……."
Lee Han had come to the Academy.
All 54 cadets of the Swordsmanship Department who remained at the Academy instead of going to Vulcan looked at their instructor with absurd expressions.
…What is this, a dream?
"…In-Instructor."
"Speak, chick number 3."
"W-well. Y-you clearly said you were going to Vulcan for training."
"That's true, but?"
"A-and the distance between Vulcan and the Academy is, as far as I know, 40km."
"Exactly 37.9km."
"I-I see."
No, that's not what's important right now!
"Why are you here? You should be in Vulcan."
"I came to teach you."
"…What about Vulcan?"
"I beat them down during the day and came back. After teaching you, I have to go beat them down again at night—I mean, go train them."
"……."
"Why are you looking at me like that?"
"…No, I just thought you really are a peculiar person."
"Everything is peculiar to you. I'm just being diligent."
"Haha…"
To be fair, he's someone who ran a round trip of 75.8km just to not skip class, so how could he not be diligent.
Faced with a reality she couldn't bring herself to argue against, the female cadet called "chick" let out a hollow laugh.
* * *
…It's only being said now, but the news of Lee Han and Odrwal having a war game caused a huge uproar.
Even in the Academy's history, the Swordsmanship Department and the Magic Department always had a hostile relationship, but even so, there had never been a history of such a direct clash.
However, the progress of the war game had already spread like wildfire without even a chance to stop it, and even nobles were looking forward to it, so the Academic Board couldn't stop it even if they tried.
The justification and momentum had already become uncontrollable.
And because of this, Lee Han had to be summoned to the Dean's office once again.
He got scolded.
Being asked how many times he was going to cause incidents in just the first semester.
Of course, there were many counterarguments.
The one who picked a fight first was the spellcaster, and the one who started a fight over trivial matters was also the spellcaster.
Therefore he was confident, and the Dean had a stiff neck from frustration and shook his head.
…Yet seeing as he provided activity funds for the cadets, the Dean was certainly the Dean.
'After only meeting corrupt teachers, it's nice to meet a true educator like that.'
However, the face of the Dean giving a large sum of money didn't seem to hold much expectation.
It was clearly visible that he thought the Swordsmanship Department would lose in the war game.
And this wasn't just the Dean's feeling; it was the atmosphere circulating throughout the entire Academy.
As if the victory and defeat had already been decided.
"It can't be helped. In war games, warriors are like pawns in chess. Skilled warriors are treated as bishops at best, but mages are treated as queens or knights."
"The treatment of warriors is too harsh. Narrow-minded people."
"…The track record is what it is, what can you do."
"That's because true humans are weak."
"Is there anyone who isn't weak compared to you, Instructor?"
"I'm also relatively weak."
"……."
The expression of a cadet who collapsed as if hearing the most ridiculous remark this year contorted.
No, perhaps the reason it contorted was more from the severe pain than the absurdity.
"Keugh…"
"Uuuugh!"
"Keuhak! Cough…!"
Cadets collapsing or dry heaving were everywhere.
Under the name of unlimited free sparring instead of wire crossing, everyone who sparred with the instructor was slammed to the ground and cried out in pain.
However, strangely, no one was seriously injured.
They were slammed down, but the instructor controlled his force at the end.
…Though this was even more humiliating.
"I didn't go easy to humiliate you. The recovery room priest told me to stop sending kids, so I had no choice."
"…There are quite a lot of injured."
"In-Instructor. Did you really run here from Vulcan?"
"What stamina…"
Seeing someone who beat them all so thoroughly yet showed no sign of excitement, it was hard to believe that he was even slightly drained of stamina.
"It's true I have less energy than usual. Even for an instructor, making a round trip of that distance leaves you short of breath. But why would I struggle against 'greenhorns'?"
"……."
"You feel frustrated, right? Then strive to become stronger. The instructor will teach you with all his might."
"……."
"Why are you looking at me like that?"
"…I was just curious. Why someone so passionate didn't take us to Vulcan."
"Are you talking about the special intensive training?"
"……."
"Hmm, I said it the day before too, but I told those who wanted to go to gather on the departure day, right? But you didn't show up."
"…That's…"
The cadet who unknowingly revealed his disappointment clenched his teeth, thinking it was a childish sense of rebellion even to himself.
But it couldn't be helped.
It wasn't that they didn't go because they didn't want to.
"W-what can we do when the family tells us not to go."
"You're adults, and you're still caught by your families?"
"…!"
"Haha, just kidding. Do you think I don't know your circumstances?"
There must have been those among them who wanted to take Lee Han's special intensive course.
Especially those who felt their bodies becoming more solid while training under him.
Without realizing it, they had started to acknowledge Lee Han as an excellent instructor.
…However, they are nobles.
Those who live on authority and honor, belonging to a class society where status, regional connections, and bloodlines are more important than anything.
Therefore, they could never defy their family's orders.
"Heh, probably some of the people here have already been told not to attend my classes. They'd consider attending the class of some commoner-born knight as a stain on their family."
"……."
"I'm not angry. I don't feel bad either. Where do you think I'm from in the Knight Order that I wouldn't know this?"
The official outcast of the White Silver Lion was none other than him.
He had already experienced nobles' sense of privilege to the point of being sick of it.
Well, there were more who got beaten by him after revealing their sense of privilege.
"I understand you. Nobles don't allow foreign substances to mix into their history."
Among the cadets, there would probably be those who want to learn [Gyeong].
After all, it's quite an impressive technique, isn't it?
However, noble families would never allow it.
Nobles whose pride in the combat methods and techniques built up over hundreds of years pierces the sky.
In that sense, Lee Han's technique is something peculiar.
If we compare it to the martial world, the noble families are the orthodox sects, and Lee Han's technique would be treated like the dark path or unorthodox sects—or going further, like the demonic arts of the Demonic Cult.
They'd probably think that if they learned it, they'd become enemies of the martial world—or rather, be disowned by their families.
'There are exceptions, though.'
Mostly Arno and Roen.
Both are descendants of great nobles, but they are relatively free-spirited.
The Offen family has an unconventional nature that doesn't hesitate to absorb other families' techniques, and conversely, in Roen's case, he doesn't care about his family's reaction so he has no qualms about receiving his teachings.
Damien?
He just gets dragged along.
In other words, those who beg Lee Han for teachings now are either truly those with nowhere to lean on, or those who don't care about others' opinions at all.
Their circumstances are different from these.
So they're frustrated.
They too have the desire to learn, and they have a sense of rebellion against their families. But ultimately, they couldn't refuse their family's orders.
"Among you, there must have been some who wanted me to force you to go to Vulcan and train you."
"…Cough."
"But I couldn't do that. The training I'm making them do at Vulcan right now is training for those who are desperate. Even if I forced you to go, there probably wouldn't have been much result. When you're too busy looking forward, how can those who have to worry about various things be desperate?"
"……."
"Still, if I made you feel like only others were getting special treatment, I apologize for that. It wasn't my intention."
"…We should be the ones apologizing."
An average of nineteen or twenty.
The age of adulthood, but being adults doesn't mean they are grown-ups.
They're still at an unripened age.
So understanding that they're still young and whiny is the duty of an adult.
It was Lee Han's sincere apology, and they felt a sudden lump in their throats.
"Thank you for understanding."
Somehow it feels moving and a warm atmosphere lingers.
Lee Han.
"In that sense, this instructor will specially spar with you again. Come at me."
"…Pardon?"
"As much as I gave special treatment to the others, you should also have special training. This kind of opportunity doesn't come easy. Get up quickly."
"……."
The emotion shattering to pieces.
Not that it's particularly important, but Lee Han's MBTI tendency in his past life was T.
* * *
…It seems he's ended up making the recovery room priest work hard again today.
But Lee Han was proud!
Should I say it felt like he acted like a proper educator?
'All those guys in my past life who said I couldn't empathize were wrong. How much more certain can empathy get than this?'
They wanted to grow, and to fulfill that desire, he taught them with all his might, didn't he?
That's the very textbook definition of empathy.
Feeling great satisfaction, he now felt a sense of duty to make the guys doing field training today run twice as much.
'What should I add to the night training?'
He thought about adding individual combat and cliff climbing.
His mind was spinning expansively, and as much as his mind spun, a nightmare was scheduled tonight for the unfortunate seedling squad.
It was a case where unnecessary diligence became poison.
He paused.
"…?"
As he was taking a step, Lee Han's keen senses felt something unfamiliar.
"This is…"
What he felt was out of place was the training dummy sitting there in the training grounds.
It was a dummy used for swordsmanship training, but it hadn't been used since Lee Han became the instructor of the Swordsmanship Department.
He tended to prefer real combat over striking dummies.
As such, the dummy was now being treated as a decoration in the training grounds that even the cadets didn't really touch.
However, Lee Han's keen senses told him there was a subtle difference in the dummy from what it usually looked like.
"Is this a spot-the-difference puzzle?"
It wasn't even a real decoration, but a cloth strip was hanging around the dummy's neck.
It wasn't there originally, and Lee Han muttered wondering which bastard was playing a prank as he untied the loosely tied cloth strip and held it in his hand.
"…Ho."
A subtle smile formed on his face.
He didn't know who it was, but.
"Quite a classic fellow, aren't they?"
A single line of text was left on the cloth strip.
Like a classic method that could appear in a typical old play.
However, even if the method was classic……
"Hmm, 'You must not kill the mage', huh… This guy, this is…"
—How did you know?
It was undoubtedly an interesting content that pierced through his inner thoughts that he hadn't told anyone.