The sullen mood melted away before I knew it.
It was partly because I was facing a new opponent after a long time, but the sword aura—or whatever it was—he showed at the end was quite impressive. And since I thoroughly crushed a guy like that, it naturally felt incredibly satisfying.
If anyone had seen me, they’d probably say I have a filthy and insidious personality...
'They're right.'
Lee Han humbly admitted it.
His personality was a bit more twisted than others. And he was indeed insidious.
That said, he wasn't the type to derive pleasure from looking down on others.
He simply possessed enough insidiousness to feel a slight thrill when crushing those 'obnoxious bastards' who strutted around proclaiming their strength with their entire being.
It was a rather rewarding moment.
'I wasn't originally this kind of guy.'
Lee Han originally wasn't the type to enjoy fighting, but after being reincarnated in a medieval fantasy world and living for 30 years—and not just living, but surviving through all sorts of ugly sights—his disposition was bound to change.
On top of that, he'd spent the last three years getting beaten up by the captain old man almost every single day...!
Honestly, it was impossible for him not to harbor a [yearning] for 'victory'.
"Was I a bit too harsh?"
"N-no. I-if anything, thank you for going easy on me."
"I held back a bit. If I had hit you any harder, you'd be a corpse right now, heh."
"...Haha."
Lee Han patted his shoulder in a somewhat joking tone. But to the listener, it was a bone-chilling statement.
Jord. His body had skipped across the ground like a stone skipping on water before crashing into a wall, but fortunately, he only suffered minor bruises, with no major injuries visible.
This was partly because Jord was a swordsman who had mastered Aura techniques, but as Lee Han said, he was only safe because he had held back.
'It was an incredible blow.'
Jord's body was still trembling.
Even when he swung his sword imbued with a sword aura, Jord had harbored the expectation that while he might not win, he could at least land a hit on him.
But as if to prove that was merely an illusion, the man had swung his sword into a defensive stance once more, and the moment their blades collided...!
'I can't remember.'
Right, he remembered their blades clashing, but beyond that, he drew a blank.
He had simply been sent flying, his consciousness blowing out like a flickering fuse.
However, what his body remembered instinctively was that the man's strike was incredibly heavy, and incredibly strong and fast.
'That man wasn't just trying to send me flying; he could have sliced me in half.'
Senior Lee Han. He still didn't show any signs of exhaustion and looked brimming with composure.
Jord smiled bitterly, deeply admitting in his heart that his sword had been completely overwhelmed.
He had believed he could make everyone except Aura Users kneel...
'The world is vast.'
The young genius swordsman wore a bitter expression as he tasted the sting of his first defeat in life.
* * *
After the sparring match between Lee Han and Jord, people approached Jord with admiration, not hesitating to show their goodwill.
It was likely because the sight of him manifesting a sword aura was impressive.
Which family he belonged to, which faction he was from. The name of his master, and so on.
They had so many questions, just like senior soldiers in the army.
...Not in a good way, of course.
"Everywhere you go, the army is always like this."
"Don't look at it so negatively. Family, faction, and the presence or absence of a master are important to nobles."
"Right, a commoner bastard with no family or faction should just step back, yes sir."
"...I didn't say it like that."
"Just think of it as me being a twisted bastard."
"Good grief. You're obviously doing this on purpose to be sarcastic."
Jake shook his head.
He knew that deprecating himself like that and speaking in a sarcastic tone for everyone to hear was like bait to induce others to pick a fight with him first.
Of course, everyone knew it was an act and didn't dare touch him, usually avoiding him instead. There might be some new recruits who would fall for it, but after seeing the spar with Jord, no one here had the guts to challenge him.
"You must have warmed up enough by now. So give it a rest."
"If anything, warming up halfway just makes it itch more, tsk."
"...Don't look at me like that. I am absolutely not sparring with you."
Jake quietly stepped back, avoiding the gaze of the guy who looked like a fighting dog.
If he got caught up in it, his body wouldn't survive intact, so retreating was the best policy.
Refusing a sparring match offered by a fellow knight was against etiquette, but that depended on the opponent. Fighting a 'mad beast' was out of the question.
'...If a barbarian warrior existed, would he be like that guy?'
The barbarians, an ancient tribe living in the deserts and jungle temples.
They were born warriors, said to hone their skills and strength through actual combat.
A foolish method of not kindly learning from someone else.
Yet, weren't the barbarian warriors honed through such foolish methods said to be stronger than any knight in the kingdom?
'No matter how I think about it, he's just like them.'
A peculiar guy who learned from no one, armed with only basic swordsmanship, fighting others to hone his strength and skills.
It was clearly an ignorant method, yet the fact that no one in the knight order could overwhelm him...
It was undeniably that of a barbarian warrior.
"Lee Han, the barbarian warrior."
"Is that an insult or a compliment?"
"Both."
"...I'm not sure whether I should be happy or offended."
Even Lee Han himself couldn't bring himself to deny the barbarian warrior remark.
He knew what underlying meaning it held.
...Much to his mixed feelings.
* * *
"As expected, an incredible talent."
"Yeah, how is something like that even possible?"
"I wouldn't even dare to try and copy it."
"...It also just looks like ignorantly brute strength."
"Isn't that impressive in its own way?"
The members evaluated the spar between Lee Han and Jord, sending Lee Han looks of admiration and jealousy.
Though they were fellow members, they were also competitors.
Among them, Lee Han stood out obtrusively like a rock, acting as a massive wall, making him the perfect target to be labeled a public enemy.
...Though Lee Han couldn't care less about climbing the ranks or whatever competition they had.
'More importantly, talent... Is that how it looked in their eyes?'
Lee Han smiled bitterly, finding it not even funny.
Talent.
If he had such a thing, how great would it have been.
'It would have been easier than now, right?'
To put it precisely, Lee Han's talent was just slightly above average.
To use grades as an example, if 300 students took a math test and the average was exactly 60 points, Lee Han's level would be at 70 points, just 10 points above that average.
A talent slightly better than average, where just taking good notes in class would result in decent grades.
Hearing it like this, it sounds somewhat decent, but in reality, with this level of talent, becoming a knight was normally impossible.
A knight's talent couldn't just be 'slightly better than average'; at the bare minimum, it had to be a talent where just casually listening in class would easily land you in the top 10 of the school.
Those guys who seem to do nothing but play and sleep, who seem to put in minimal effort, yet strangely get good grades.
They are called prodigies or geniuses.
That was why there wasn't a single guy in the knight order who hadn't been called a prodigy at some point.
Even those arrogant nobles might have had backing, but they still received proper prodigy education and possessed the talent worthy of a knight.
But Lee Han did not.
As mentioned earlier, he merely had talent slightly above average.
However, while he lacked the same level of talent as others, he had a peculiar physical constitution, a so-called 'peculiarity'.
So while he didn't have as much talent as others, he had 'functionality'.
He didn't know any Aura techniques, nor did he possess the talent to learn a technique after seeing it once and instantly becoming a master, but the functionality built into his body allowed him to defeat them.
'The old man said so.'
[Your body is fascinating. It possesses a wondrous quality that makes up for your lackluster talent. However, there will be limits. There are plenty of guys even in the knight order who can overwhelm that level of wondrousness.]
Advice and a curse he had heard on a day he was beaten black and blue.
So, he had asked sarcastically.
'Then what am I supposed to do?'
-he had asked.
Then, the old man contained a sneer.
[It's simple. You just need to further reinforce the 'functionality' your body possesses. As for how to reinforce it, figure it out yourself. It's your body, so you would know best.]
He was right.
He had learned how to enhance his functionality from the assassination organization he once belonged to.
Shattering the limiters of the flesh.
The principle of tearing muscles and breaking bones to make them tougher and harder.
[Good, it seems you have an idea. Hmm, I'll give you one more piece of advice. Fight many people and accumulate experience—no, in your case, it would be accumulating information.]
It's not like he thought of people as actual machines...
But that advice was definitely helpful, and it was also the reason Lee Han had picked fights with the knights almost every day for the past three years.
Just as that man advised, fighting all sorts of people allowed him to successfully gauge how to deal with them instinctively.
Even if he still didn't know exactly how to execute swordsmanship, he could make instinctive judgments on how to move his body.
Even if his head couldn't remember, his body would.
'It's funny.'
Am I really not a human, but something like a machine?
Of course, he wasn't an actual machine.
If only because the sweat and effort he had shed were not false.
It was just clear that he was sweating in a different direction than others.
'As long as I get stronger, that's all that matters.'
He wasn't a seeker yearning for the martial path.
If he had to label it, it was just as Jake said.
'The barbarian warrior mindset fits.'
As long as he wins, that's enough.
Things like growth and enlightenment were unknown to him, like something he couldn't reach.
And he found himself...
'Not bad.'
Thinking it was quite fine.
At the very least, he wouldn't have to go around getting beaten up anywhere.