Chapter 117
Karl's eyes opened.
The first sensation he felt upon opening his eyes was refreshment.
His body, lighter than ever before, felt as if the waste products within had been expelled outside.
As he sat up, he found himself dressed in clean clothes, as if someone had changed them for him.
There was no one around to ask how much time had passed or what had happened after he fainted.
Creak.
"Commander, are you alright?"
Kelvin opened the door and came in, worry palpable in his eyes.
"How long was I like this?"
"About half a day."
"Half a day?"
He was surprised that surprisingly little time had passed.
It was because the actual short moment of agony had felt eternally long and difficult.
"What on earth happened?"
"It's hard to explain."
"...?"
Kelvin blinked his eyes at Karl's hard-to-understand words.
"Anyway, the sun is still high in the sky. Isn't it time for you to be supervising the members' training? Carry on."
Thwack! Thwack!
He intended to pat his shoulder encouragingly, but the sound was strange.
Kelvin, whose upper body nearly collapsed, looked up with an aggrieved expression.
"I spent the whole day washing you, changing your clothes! Nursing you! And this beating...!"
Kelvin shouted and ran out.
Karl stared at the spot with a dumbfounded expression.
"...Why all of a sudden?"
Karl got up from the bed and picked up the water glass placed beside it.
Crunch.
"Hmm...?"
The metal cup, a gift from a familiar lord, crumpled just from being held.
"What the...?"
Staring briefly at the hideously crumpled cup, Karl gripped the edge of the nearby table, just in case.
Crack!
Cracks spread across the black ironwood table, said to be as hard as mediocre metal despite its lightness.
"What in the world..."
Karl briefly checked the changes that had occurred in his body and walked out to the training ground, moving as carefully as possible.
When he lightly pushed off the ground from his spot and jumped, his body soared high for a good while.
It was movement utilizing only his pure physique, without employing any Qi within his body.
"Well, this is... I should apologize to Kelvin with a gift or something."
The moment he consciously tried to use strength, monstrous power beyond the imagination of an ordinary person was exerted.
Karl went outside the castle walls and headed towards the forest.
While moving, he checked his movement speed using purely his physique without using Qi.
The body changed upon becoming a Free Knight, and the body changed once more upon reaching the Master level were astonishing, but now he felt like a superhuman even without using Qi.
"Even without operating Qi at all, I could easily handle up to high-level Experts."
It was obvious where this unbelievable power came from.
It was likely the effect of the body enhancement potion.
It might have created a synergistic effect with the Elixir.
‘Good.’
However, it seemed time would be needed to control the strength.
Until he could fully control his strength, even life inside the castle seemed difficult.
If he lived inside the castle like this, no belongings would remain intact.
"This worked out well. Since I'll be living outside anyway, it might be good to put the knights through commando training."
Though the details of the training would need to be modified according to the knights' functions and levels, the tactic of attacking the enemy opportunistically according to the situation outside the battle line was something worth borrowing from commando training.
Thus, a few days later, a new type of training ground was set up in the County of Collo.
A wide open space and barracks, along with various other training facilities.
The Knight of the Lighthouse style all-weather simulated combat training ground began from Karl's small whim.
***
"...Our Commander, is he even human?"
"Human? Maybe not. Has anyone here seen the Commander eat or sleep during training?"
"..."
"..."
That was right.
Karl hadn't put water or food to his lips even once during the past three days of training.
Moreover, he hadn't slept either.
Although everyone here were knights who far surpassed the limits of ordinary people, enduring training under conditions of extremely limited water, food, and sleep for three days was difficult.
The problem was, even if they tried to protest this training, their Commander, Karl, was enduring even harsher conditions, making it hard to say anything.
"We shouldn't think of the Commander as human. Therefore, we humans should receive different training than the Commander. We must make a decision now."
"Have you forgotten what happened to that half-wit who mentioned rest last time, Rogério?"
"..."
Rogério, who had been advocating for a decision, firmly shut his mouth at Vice-Commander Definir's words.
"But we can't just stay like this, can we? We've already endured like this for 3 days! 3 days! Let's raid the Commander's tent tonight. The reason the Commander can endure like that must be because he's secretly stockpiling food and water."
"...Stop escaping reality."
Silence fell instantly.
About two more days passed like that.
It meant it was the 5th day of enduring with 4 hours of sleep per day, even that taken intermittently, a few sips of water, and jerky that disappeared after a few chews.
They were drying up.
Their eyes sunken, they found it increasingly difficult to maintain rationality.
"This won't do. Let's go to the Commander's tent first. Does it make sense for the Commander, who is just like us, no, who hasn't even had a sip of water, to be perfectly fine like that? This doesn't make sense. Master or whatever, where is such a thing? I'm a Master too. But look at me."
Kelvin too looked terrible, as if he couldn't endure much longer.
In contrast, Karl, who trained with them and neither ate nor drank, was exactly the same as before the training began.
The Knight of the Lighthouse, undergoing the training dubbed Extreme Simulated Combat Training, could no longer endure and swarmed towards Karl's tent during his absence.
"There's nothing. Absolutely nothing."
"That can't be right, how can that be. Our Commander is human too!"
Seeing only a simple cot inside Karl's barracks, their eyes glinted with disbelief.
"This is impossible!"
As their disbelief deepened, madness further settled in their eyes.
"What are you all doing?"
Just then, a chilling voice came from behind the knights.
"We were wondering if the Commander was alright..."
"Thank you for your concern. But there's no need for such worries."
"..."
The faces of the present members contorted.
"I'm proud that you have the leisure to worry about me. I was planning to end this training today, but it seems extending it for a few more days would be fine."
"...!"
The members' eyes turned towards Kelvin in unison.
"Commander! It was Team Leader Kelvin."
"That's right! Team Leader Kelvin led us here."
The members named Kelvin in one voice.
"Huh... Huhh... Huh!"
Kelvin could only exhale hollow breaths, his mouth agape.
"Is that so. Indeed, it's Team Leader Kelvin. The rest will wrap up training and return, rest freely in the castle. Team Leader Kelvin will train a bit more with me before returning."
"Ha... Hah... Ha!"
Kelvin, looking like his world had ended, only let out hollow breaths towards the sky and disappeared somewhere with Karl.
***
The sun, which had been high in the sky, slowly descended, and the red light of sunset entered Karl's office.
Warm tea steam rose gently, and Anne, seated inside Karl's office, lifted her teacup.
"The atmosphere here seems to get better and better. People's faces are full of smiles too. It feels like... I'm in a different space, not our continent."
"Is that so?"
"Of course, if it weren't for the work I have to do, I'd want to settle down here for life."
"I see."
Karl, seemingly not displeased by her praise, quietly smiled and took a sip of tea.
"Looking closely, you have refined hobbies contrary to your appearance. A hobby of drinking tea, imagine that."
"Is that a joke?"
"It is."
"...So, any trace of those creatures?"
"Are we getting straight to work already? I've barely had one sip of tea?"
Despite Anne's joke, Karl's expression remained stiff.
It showed how greatly enraged he was by the incident in the Andersen Domain.
"We found traces of them near the Holy Knight Order headquarters."
Slurp.
The warm tea slightly calmed Karl's heart, which had been blazing with anger.
He quietly waited for Anne's next words.
"This time, it seems they are gathering girls under the age of 15. We haven't yet figured out where the disappeared children went. However..."
"Please continue looking into the whereabouts of the disappeared children. Thank you."
"Compared to the favor you did in Andersen, this is nothing. Well then, let's leave that at that..."
After talking with Karl for a while longer on various topics, she casually tossed her outer garment onto the coat rack.
"The night has deepened. I'll sleep here and depart tomorrow."
Karl chuckled softly and affirmed.
***
There were two men walking on a relatively well-maintained dirt road.
Judging by their attire, one was undoubtedly a knight, and the other a squire.
However, the attitude of the man who looked like a squire was insolent.
"Haven't you formed a knight order now... Why on earth did you call me? I'm not even Sir Karl's squire anymore, if you need an attendant, can't you just take any knight? Why did you have to go so far as to ask Lady Anne to call me again? Again!"
Sancho, with his dark skin and pouting lips pushed forward, grumbled incessantly.
"The Knight of the Lighthouse has training they must do right now. And... I'm always grateful to you."
"What...!? What did you just say? What was that?"
Sancho hurriedly followed Karl, who had tossed out a single word and turned away sharply.
"No, Sir Karl! Wait a moment, stand right there. What did you just say? What did you say? Please say it again! You said thank you, right? Right?"
Sancho, his mood instantly lifted, bounced along behind Karl.
The two were heading towards Amberg, where the Holy Knight Order headquarters was located.