I Became a Swordsmanship Instructor at the Academy Chapter 22

Became a swordsmanship instructor at the academy

Chapter 22

Even so, I have no intention of fighting with all the people who challenged me to duels.

On weekdays, I have classes, and on weekends, I need to train with my teacher.

I don’t want to spend time and energy on these meaningless matters.

“What are you going to do?”

What do you mean what am I going to do? I’ll just pick out a few strong ones to beat up, and the rest will back down on their own.

“I’ll handle it myself. I apologize for causing trouble for the school.”

“Well, I don’t think of it that way, but personally, I’m curious about how you plan to handle it. Can you tell me?”

“If I refuse them, they’ll just make a fuss about it, and I don’t have time to duel with all these people. I’m thinking of just selecting a few famous ones or hunters with higher ranks than me to face, and then things should quiet down.”

“Oh, is that so? Are you confident you can win? There are quite a few A-rank hunters among the applicants. Ah, I suppose you could decline those since their ranks don’t match.”

“No. This is actually better. I’ll just accept challenges from A-ranks.”

If I pick out and defeat a few A-rank guys, the riffraff will filter themselves out.

“So you’re going to beat the strong ones and let the weaklings drop out on their own.”

He understands immediately, though his expression is quite direct.

“Yes. Realistically, I can’t face all of them anyway.”

“Then how about sparring with me once?”

“I… I must have misheard.”

For a moment, I couldn’t help but doubt my ears.

Has this old man gone crazy?

No, if he’s going to go crazy, he should do it properly. An S-rank hunter wants to fight with a B-rank hunter, not even an A-rank?

I’m not sure if this is a proper suggestion or nonsense.

“Last time when you had that honor duel, I didn’t show it, but I was quite surprised. Honestly, I thought you would lose.”

Seeing your surprise, I thought that’s what you were thinking.

“Ah, yes.”

“It was unexpected. Moreover, it didn’t seem like you showed your full abilities. From what you just said, it sounds like you’re confident you can handle A-rank hunters.”

No, that’s only because they’re A-rank.

S-ranks are a different story… No, a very different story.

In fact, even A-rank hunters aren’t opponents to take lightly, as there are only about 1,000 of them in Korea.

Teacher Jung, who I dueled last time, was only applying for A-rank evaluation, not a genuine A-rank hunter.

Of course, my level is now different from then—I’ve reached the peak, and considering the characteristics of hunters and martial artists, I’m proud to say I can beat them all.

But S-rank.

Exactly 10 people in Korea, and not even 100 worldwide.

Among S-rank hunters, magicians are treated as strategic weapons, and hunters with other abilities are superhuman individuals called one-man armies.

Especially if the opponent is this muscle monster who is among the top tier within S-rank, I don’t want to fight even more.

In the original novel, around the beginning of the second year’s first semester, the protagonist gained confidence after eating wild ginseng like rice during the break and got cocky, only to be destroyed by this gentleman.

And not just destroyed, but completely annihilated.

Of course, unlike the protagonist who only learned internal energy cultivation, I directly learned martial arts from my teacher, and my teacher also said I would be much better than someone who just ate medicinal herbs like rice.

I think I might be able to put up a decent fight if I do well, but honestly, I’m not confident.

An S-rank hunter would be at least a supreme peak master by my teacher’s world standards.

After reaching peak level, I once asked my teacher if I could reach supreme peak level by buying and eating a few more wild ginseng roots.

His answer at the time was ‘impossible.’

From supreme peak onwards, enlightenment is needed, and internal energy, spirit, and body must harmonize, but while I have sufficient internal energy, he says I’m seriously lacking in other areas.

“Teacher Kang?”

“Ah, I’m just so taken aback…”

“Wouldn’t sparring with me once be much better than fighting with several A-ranks? After the sparring, I’ll publicly acknowledge that you’re truly skilled. Then these duel challenges won’t come anymore, resolving everything at once, don’t you think?”

Certainly, if Kim Man-dong, one of the hunters known as the Top 10 with only 10 S-rank hunters nationwide, acknowledges my skills, these pathetic duel challenges won’t come anymore.

No one would be able to say that Kim Man-dong gave me special treatment because we’re teachers at the same school.

When you think about it, it’s not a bad condition, but that’s only if I earn Kim Man-dong’s recognition.

Kim Man-dong is an upright person.

When history teacher Kim Han-ju caused trouble last time, I resolved the rumors with his help, but if my skills don’t satisfy him, he definitely won’t speak well of me.

In other words, he’s absolutely not someone who would flatter me to avoid any awkwardness.

If he just says I seem decent enough, duel challenges will only increase.

For me, there’s no benefit.

“What, you’re not confident?”

…I should definitely say no, but seeing Kim Man-dong’s provocation, it stirs my pride.

Is this a martial artist’s competitive spirit?

“Yes. I’m not.”

Spirit or not, what’s impossible is impossible.

Only protagonists challenge things they know they can’t achieve.

As an extra, and a fragile peak master like me, I need to know my limits.

“That’s a shame. If you could land even one effective attack on me, I would not only acknowledge your skills publicly but also exempt you from the training you need to take during the upcoming break.”

Training exemption?

That changes the story.

It’s just the beginning of July, so soon the hunter school’s vacation will start in August.

It lasts exactly one month.

Of course, the salary still comes during this period, and most teachers rest, but new practical teachers must attend training.

It’s organized by the Hunter Management Bureau for three weeks, and according to what I found online, it’s training in name only—just like military reserve training.

Three weeks of group lodging: one week of theory, one week of practice in portals, and one week of lectures from senior teachers.

It’s all re-education of things I already know, so it’s completely useless.

Well, it’s not badly rated since it helps teachers build relationships, but would that apply to someone from a non-hunter school like me?

It’s already known that I’m from a non-hunter school, and I’m either treated as invisible or provoked by practical teachers at our school. It would only be worse there, not better.

I’d be lucky if I don’t get unnecessarily provoked.

There’s also a generation culture, so it feels like I’m the only civilian service worker attending a marine corps reserve training.

I had resigned myself to it, but if he’s offering to exempt me, it’s hard not to be tempted.

“I thought the training was organized by the Hunter Management Bureau. Can you really get me exempted?”

“You know about the outstanding teacher system that selects two people each semester, right?”

“Yes, I know.”

“Outstanding teachers get a training exemption benefit. The vice principal and principal each select one.”

“This is the first I’ve heard of such a benefit…”

“Most people go to training even with the benefit because it’s not that difficult, and they want to get to know other teachers, so it’s not strange that you wouldn’t know. But your situation is different, isn’t it?”

That’s right, my situation is different.

This guy must be really eager to spar with me if he prepared such an appetizing bait.

“Um… Vice Principal, may I also set one condition?”

“A condition? I wouldn’t mind if you asked me to use only one arm, but then others might think…”

One arm? This guy is crossing the line.

“That’s not what I meant.”

No matter how much of a novice he thinks I am, there’s a limit to disrespect.

The competitive spirit that I had been suppressing rose up again.

“I heard that the outstanding teacher announcement is made during the closing ceremony before the break.”

“That’s right.”

“Then let’s set the sparring date for the day before the closing ceremony.”

At my words, he makes a “is that all?” expression… This guy is crossing the line again.

“If that’s the condition, it’s not difficult, but are you really going to do it? It would be troublesome if you back out on the day. I’d like you to know that I might be an instructor at the training.”

“A man’s word…”

“Is worth its weight in gold. Indeed, you’re my kind of person.”

He cuts off my words and continues with his own as he laughs.

And “my kind of person”?

I like women, so I’ll pass on the muscle monster old man, even if offered by the truckload.

“It’s about time for class to start. You better get going.”

He keeps smiling as he speaks, pleased that I accepted his proposal.

Sure. Old man, laugh all you want now.

I’ll shatter that smiling face of yours during our sparring in a month.

***

After getting off work and having dinner, I stopped by the dormitory just to change clothes and came to the physical training room.

It’s been a while since I came here, but still, there’s no one around.

I’m supposed to meet Choi Seo-ra at 9, but until then, I thought I’d sweat a bit since I’ve mostly been practicing internal energy techniques at school.

Internal energy is nearly omnipotent, but its effects are halved without basic physical strength.

My teacher also said my internal energy is sufficient.

I was lightly running and doing some weights when I sensed someone behind me.

“You’re working hard.”

Turning around to see if it was already 9, I found Choi Seo-ra standing there.

“You’re here?”

“I didn’t think you were thin, but you have more muscle than you appear. Can I touch?”

Just like last time, she’s being flirtatious again.

“No.”

“It’s not like it’ll wear off if I touch it. How stingy…”

“I smell of sweat.”

“I may not look it, but I’m a physical arts teacher, you know? This much doesn’t bother me at all.”

As she spoke, Choi Seo-ra reached out her hand, but I easily dodged by twisting my body.

“Stop joking around. Why did you want to meet?”

If she received orders from Antas to either recruit me again or silence me, it would be quite troublesome.

“It’s because you haven’t contacted me at all, senior.”

“I got rejected by you and left Antas because of it. It would be weird if I contacted you.”

“That’s true, but they don’t check my phone records at Antas.”

“Really?”

“Your resignation was processed normally, so don’t worry. The reason I wanted to meet today is because of that drug from before.”

“Genesis?”

“Yes. It seems our side has also obtained information that China is selling drugs.”

“How? Did you tell them?”

“No. I mentioned that Antas China and Japan had a big confrontation recently, and it seems the Chinese guys were caught selling drugs in Japan as well, not just in our country.”

Hmm, this is a story that wasn’t mentioned in the original work.

Did they give up on Korea and move to Japan because of what we did last time?

It wasn’t like the place was raided, we only diverted a month’s worth of drugs, so they wouldn’t have given up on Korea.

I did mention Mei Lin’s name, but the person I talked to would have been turned into an idiot, so the China side wouldn’t know.

“America and Europe have stepped in to mediate, and we decided to observe, so I don’t know exactly, but I thought there might be a problem, so I wanted to let you know.”

From Seo-ra’s story and the circumstances, it seems like this conflict also occurred in the original plot.

“It doesn’t seem to be because of us, so there’s probably no need to worry particularly, but thank you for letting me know.”

“Don’t mention it. You’ll testify for me later anyway, so I should give you as much inside information as possible. By the way, I heard you distributed pizza at school yesterday?”

I only gave pizza to the high school students, but it seems the rumor has spread to the middle school as well.

“Ah, that was just me buying a snack for our kids, but the grade head complained that other students felt alienated. So I thought if I buy for everyone, there’s no problem, and I flexed a bit.”

“The grade head is a hunter too, right?”

“Yes.”

“Seems the practical teachers are still the same. But isn’t there about 600 students in the high school? The cost must have been considerable.”

“It wasn’t as much as you’d think. I invested in some stocks recently, and they went up quite a bit. How have you been lately?”

“Me? Nothing special… Oh, yesterday during morning assembly, one of my class students came with their face completely wrecked. But they won’t say who beat them up. They clearly got beaten, but they keep saying they fell down the stairs, and the other kids won’t talk either, so I was really troubled.”

“So, did you find out who it was?”

“Who else would it be? It was that worst delinquent of the middle school, Lee Ji-sung.”

It’s the protagonist.