"Now, this is how you do it."
Ihan held a dagger and swung it softly.
Swish.
—Petals fully bloomed from the tip of the sword.
The cadets stared blankly at the beautiful petals with wide eyes.
Even after confirming it was an ordinary dagger, not a magical item, the petals still scattered.
Truly a moment like magic from a fairy tale.
The chicks' eyes became moist like girls immersed in fairy tales, and the bear and the young master recalled the knightly epic poems that wandering minstrels used to tell whenever they visited fiefdoms or villages, feeling their childhood ambitions rise.
Not only scattering petals with the sword, but using them as a means of attack...
Wasn't this exactly the kind of artistry knights from epic poems would display?
Rustle.
The petals melted like snowflakes as they touched the earthen ground.
However, what remained in that place where they melted was the ground hollowed out exactly in the shape of the petals.
It showed that it was not merely beautiful, but its power was also not to be underestimated.
The boys and girls watched the Plum Blossom Sword Technique with eyes full of admiration.
"Wow, how is something like that possible?"
"It's beautiful...!"
"P-Please show us again!"
They shouted for an encore.
"...Can't you stop already?"
It was the tenth encore, and Ihan was getting tired.
Even though it looked easy, the stamina consumption was enormous.
However, audiences never care how hard the performer works.
"J-Just once more, please? I beg you..."
"...Ugh."
He couldn't become a cold-hearted adult who could refuse the pleas of the chicks on the verge of crying.
"Sigh, it's my fate."
Having unexpectedly become a performer, Ihan once again made plum blossoms bloom with his sword.
'Would I hit it big if I did street performances?'
Ihan was unexpectedly blooming a talent that could bring in substantial profits.
* * *
The reason Ihan was playing the performer like this was none other than this:
—I-Instructor, c-could you teach us that technique?
Disciples desperately desiring the Plum Blossom Sword Technique.
Even the elite kids who said they only needed one aura technique subtly revealed their greed for the Plum Blossom Sword Technique.
It meant the sword technique was that appealing.
Well.
'They can't resist blooming plum blossoms with a sword.'
Making flowers bloom with a sword and even attacking with them?
This was undoubtedly a sword technique that had fulfilled every aspect of style.
No wonder in his previous life, the Huashan Sect kids were often the main characters.
...However.
—I'm sorry, but I can't teach this yet.
It wasn't the problem of the fundamental martial arts that he had playfully mentioned.
The real problem was that this technique was still incomplete, so he couldn't teach it.
An incomplete technique.
The Plum Blossom Sword Technique, not only in its method of use, was his own original technique awakened solely through Ihan's special senses and intuition.
He hadn't even had enough time to establish it as theory, and even that was still endlessly clumsy.
On top of that.
—When I use this, my qi gets drained too much.
If the sword qi Roen had shown the day before was an artwork completed through the complex combination of techniques showcasing his genius, then Ihan's sword qi was simply the manifestation of sword power used at the cost of recklessly consuming his entire body's qi and the sword itself.
In other words, it was nothing more than a one-time use.
Moreover, not only was it a one-time use, but the risk was also considerable.
After using sword power, the premise was that he would unconditionally lose his sword.
It goes without saying how ridiculous it is to lose one's weapon on a battlefield.
But not only that, enormous fatigue followed after using it...
'Even I'm like this, there's no way they could handle it.'
Even he, who boasted stamina ten times that of an average knight, found it this overwhelming, so who knows what kind of physical damage they would suffer if they used it.
It would be fortunate if they only fainted; there would also be a significant risk to their lives.
Therefore, although he was usually not stingy about teaching techniques, he had no choice but to refuse this time.
He explained such sufficient and valid reasons, and the cadets understood, but...
—T-Then! Could we not at least watch it once?
—W-We want to see it!
Does the concept of vicarious satisfaction exist in every world?
Even if they couldn't learn the Plum Blossom Sword Technique right away, they desperately wanted to see it, and Ihan couldn't refuse the request of the kids he had grown fond of.
'Maybe that old man was right that I have a rather soft-hearted personality?'
Thus began the demonstration of the Plum Blossom Sword Technique.
Since he didn't use it at full power like when he fought the King of Ghosts, the dagger didn't break immediately, and he didn't completely exhaust all the qi in his body.
It unexpectedly became practice for the Plum Blossom Sword Technique as well, and by roughly the eighth demonstration, he succeeded in making flowers bloom with just light hand movements.
However, as the price of reaching maturity.
"Oh my, I'm dying..."
"I-Instructor, are you okay!? Here, have some water and food!"
"...Thank you."
Having finally collapsed from exhaustion, Ihan lay on the grass, recovering his strength by eating the drinks and sandwiches that Irene Windler gave him.
Looking at such Ihan, Irene Windler said,
"You...! What are you doing to him! He already suffered so much the day before, how could you make him suffer like this!"
"W-Well..."
"Don't make excuses!"
"......I haven't even made an excuse yet."
The girl was furious, and the cadets had no choice but to lower their heads and watch her mood.
Strictly speaking, Ihan had gotten more excited treating it as practice, which led to this situation, but to the girl blinded by love, the other cadets were nothing but villains.
The girl growled, and the cadets became completely cowed.
Normally when Irene Windler growled, she was just cute like a Pomeranian, but now it was different.
'How can we talk back to someone who causes natural disasters with magic.'
'It was an incredible magic.'
'We absolutely must not provoke her. If we do, our fiefdoms will be destroyed too.'
Did they not see it?
The terrifying magic of the girl, whom they had thought was merely physically weak, controlling the entire lake with magic, and furthermore manipulating the gusts to create a waterspout.
Even if it was a small waterspout, it had enough power to sweep away a medium-sized fiefdom, and thinking about this, opposing the girl was absolutely something they shouldn't do.
They had grown so close that they forgot, but they newly recognized that Irene Windler, like Roen, was a monster worthy of being called an out-of-standard genius.
"Don't scold them too much. I was also excited and used my sword qi in the middle of it."
"Hmph."
However, calming the monster girl as if taming her, the one who had been lying down sat up.
Though still looking fatigued, he said he still had to do what he had to do as an instructor.
And then he said.
"You've admired it to your fill now, haven't you?"
"......"
"I'm not criticizing you. I'm asking. Your impressions of seeing this sword technique."
"Hmm."
Only then realizing that the instructor had no intention of criticizing them and was asking a serious question, the cadets fell into thought for a moment.
Even wondering why he would ask such a question, they knew he wouldn't ask without reason, so they seriously pondered it.
Before long, the blue-haired girl who was like the representative of the top students raised her hand.
"...I thought it was a technique with many openings. Since the sword qi scatters like petals, it's certainly threatening, but it's not like there's no way to evade or defend against it. Ah, of course I'm not saying it's possible at my level. Just that if it were Sir Arno, Sir Kunta, Sir Garand, or Young Master Roen..."
Glance.
The girl's gaze reached them, and the four each made expressions showing the formal titles attached to them were embarrassing, and answered.
"Just Kunta is fine. And as Bear Girl said, it can be blocked. Though it seems like you'd have to sacrifice some part of your arm or leg."
"Please speak comfortably, Young Lady. ...If I were to answer, I think I could avoid it. There were definitely many openings."
"Embarrassing... Cough, like the others said, it's possible to counter it. However, it seems like it would definitely be an effective means against monsters."
"I share the same sentiment."
Those were their statements, and the cadets blinked.
They thought it was just a flashy and powerful technique, but hearing this...
"That's what I told you. There's no foundation."
It didn't feel like a particularly strong technique.
It wasn't that Ihan was merely underrating the Plum Blossom Sword Technique, nor was he just playing the performer.
He had wanted to show them clearly.
It would work against monsters with endlessly low intelligence, but against humans, it couldn't be anything but a questionable technique...
A technique that was merely flashy, with still extremely terrible cost-effectiveness.
"Whether it's sword techniques or martial arts, there aren't many cases where a flashy exterior means substantial content as well. A warrior I respect once said that a person who practices one kick a thousand times is more fearsome than someone who knows a thousand kicks. Likewise, in swordsmanship, what's important is not how many hundreds of sword techniques you know, but how properly you've honed a single slash. Therefore, value the basics, and don't envy others using sword qi. Walking your own path is more important."
This was not a teaching given only to the cadets.
He had felt it through this battle, but Ihan had to recognize how lacking he was.
If he had trained a sword technique capable of beheading a monster in a single strike like Baltar, what would the result have been?
He probably wouldn't have been defeated so vainly.
'It's because I relied too much on raw power.'
Rather than merely believing in his physical functions, he thought it might be time to delve deeper into what he had.
Basics are basics, but he needed to raise the degree of completion of his techniques.
Vajra Body.
Lion's Roar.
Bow God's Shadow Arrow.
Hundred Steps Divine Fist.
Internal Heavy Hand Method.
Crown's Single Spear.
And even the Plum Blossom Sword Technique obtained this time.
He needed to train all of these deeply and raise the completion level of the techniques rather than their power.
And if that happened.
'Then whether it's the King of Ghosts or whatever, I'll kill it with my own hands.'
It was a resolution not to let someone else determine his fate.
Ihan hoped that his disciples would not make the mistake of putting off important things like he did, and he passed on what he considered his most important teaching.
* * *
Meanwhile, Derek, who had somehow become like a bundled-up package left behind, was sighing.
'How did I end up here...'
He wasn't the athletic type, so why was he at the ultimate athletic department of this world?
'Is this the life of a debtor?'
'If you're going to pay off your debt, either pay with your body or pay with information, right?'
—Those words had forced him to transfer to the Swordsmanship Department, and while Derek was endlessly bewildered, he had committed something against him so he had no choice but to accept even his unreasonable demands.
However, Derek wasn't staying by his side merely because of the debt.
'I need to move proactively too.'
Hadn't he realized it through this incident?
He couldn't be a bystander forever, and he couldn't just wait for help like this time.
It would be a better choice to be where there were reliable people and where the main characters gathered.
If something happened, they'd at least be able to respond.
Therefore, coming to the Swordsmanship Department wasn't merely to pay off his debt, but was a great resolve to try moving first.
But looking at it like this...
'N-Now that I look at it, only named characters are gathered here?'
Derek realized that every single person gathered in the Swordsmanship Department was a named class.
The barbarian, the bloodline of the Sword Duke, the disciple of the Mercenary King, and others could become the best of allies or enemies.
They were also people who would have played major roles in
...Right now though.
'The villainess young lady doesn't seem like a villainess though.'
Somewhere the route got twisted, and it was as if the villainess character had disappeared, so he didn't know what kind of people the other important supporting characters would become.
'The Grand Duke of the North too, and the villainess young lady too...'
A reality already 180 degrees different from what he knew.
Derek's head hurt, but he tried not to think about it.
He didn't know by what butterfly effect the man who should have become the Grand Duke of the North had become an academy cadet, or how the villainess young lady had become an innocent girl, but one thing was certain...
'If you do your best, you can overturn fate.'
As that person had shown.
The rebellion against fate shown by an unheard-of hero class.
Having seen this, Derek decided to no longer treat this world simply as a game.
So the immediate important thing was to use the information he knew, but wisely without being swept away.
So for example.
Swoosh...
'...I need to decide whether to prevent the misfortune of someone who will become a big shot in the future. Or whether I should leave them alone.'
Derek's gaze landed on a certain girl whom blue hair suited well.
She looked so different from the face he knew that he hadn't recognized her at first.
But hearing her name and confirming the girl's surname, he realized.
A girl who might actually be more important than Roen or Irene Windler, who had an interesting setting that they had considered entrusting with the role of "Part 2 protagonist" during the planning stage.
'......What should I do about the saintess.'
The girl who would ascend as the saintess of the mercenaries after the Mercenary King died in the future.
'Mercenary Queen [Levi Jeanne d'Arc].'
Derek looked pityingly at the girl who, 15 years later, would be called the terror of nobles as the vanguard of the 'Revolutionary War'.
...Because he knew that the girl's ending, fitting for her name, had no happy ending.