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Chapter 147: I Don't Know Either

Retoma frowned for a moment as he saw the new inquisitor collapse.

What on earth was happening all of a sudden?

He never imagined such a thing would occur. Given the Academy teacher’s seemingly weak appearance, Retoma thought he would either try to persuade them verbally somehow or be driven out as is.

But to take down one of them without any explanation…

‘If it goes like this, things will get out of control.’

They had already seen one of their own fall. Although they hadn’t received proper training, they had developed a sense of camaraderie after going on several missions together.

Now that a comrade had fallen, they would surely act roughly.

‘They could get seriously hurt.’

Retoma looked at Jeryd.

‘It looks like he’s expecting something.’

Tilting his head in confusion, Retoma turned his gaze to the deputy director. He, too, wore the same expression as Jeryd.

‘What the hell? What are they expecting?’

The two of them were expecting something from Ethan.

‘No matter how new these inquisitors are, their skills aren’t novice level. They’re only new in terms of the Inquisition.’

If they were determined to take Ethan down by force, Ethan wouldn’t be able to withstand it.

There were 32 of them. With one fallen, now 31.

31 new inquisitors. It was enough manpower to easily handle a small branch of the Followers of the Moon.

As soon as Retoma made this prediction, one of the inquisitors rushed at Ethan.

“You damn bastard!”

He charged at Ethan, cursing, with a mace in his hand.

Ethan easily dodged the inquisitor’s charge by simply shifting his body.

Then he stuck three needles into the inquisitor’s wrist.

The inquisitor was taken aback by Ethan’s lightning-fast speed. Due to the Frost Thunder Swordsmanship, all of Ethan’s movements were imbued with the power of lightning and cold.

“Urgh-!”

As the inquisitor dropped his mace due to the needles stuck in his wrist, Ethan approached and stuck a needle into a vital point on the back of his neck.

Another inquisitor collapsed to the floor. Ethan grabbed the mace he had dropped.

“Now there are exactly 30. That’s about right.”

Ethan took a deep breath and focused his eyes.

As the Eye of Horus activated, he could see all the movements of the charging inquisitors.

The Eye of Horus, now more advanced than before, made him feel as if time had stopped for that brief moment of concentration.

‘Disorganized.’

Properly trained inquisitors would never move like this. They were attacking recklessly, simply trying to take Ethan down without any strategy.

‘They’re not even maintaining groups of three, let alone forming any formation.’

Ethan intended to thoroughly educate them on this right here and now.

An inquisitor who instantly reached Ethan swung his mace.

‘He’s just thinking of it as a blunt weapon, not maximizing its power.’

Ethan easily dodged the attack.

Then he took a step forward.

Although he should have retreated as much as possible to avoid being surrounded when fighting multiple opponents alone, Ethan instead deliberately moved forward to allow himself to be encircled.

Whoosh-!

‘Dispersion of power. By spreading the force across the entire mace instead of concentrating it at the tip, the destructive power is weakened.’

Boom-!

The mace struck the ground. If Ethan hadn’t dodged, it would have hit him squarely on the head.

‘It’s quite usable. Rich in mana. But there are too many openings. Focusing only on destructive power leaves too many gaps after attacking. This way, you can’t protect your comrades.’

Ethan thoroughly analyzed the new inquisitors’ problems based on the Inquisition manual in his mind.

Seeing that Ethan wasn’t counterattacking, the new inquisitors continued their attacks more fiercely.

But they simply couldn’t catch Ethan.

It was nearly impossible for these anger-driven, destructive power-focused individuals to catch Ethan, who was moving with the subtleties of the Frost Thunder Swordsmanship.

‘My eyes are starting to hurt.’

He had now identified all of their shortcomings. Having identified the deficiencies, the next step was education.

“Damn it.”

“Just keeps dodging like a rat, what kind of Academy teacher is this? What are the Academy students supposed to learn from watching this?”

Though the inquisitors tried to provoke him, Ethan wasn’t drawn in at all. Rather, he showed a gentle smile.

‘Their way with words is terrible too.’

That’s not how you provoke someone.

“What are they supposed to learn? You half-wit trash. If I were an invading Follower of the Moon, you’d all be dead by now without having accomplished anything. Drunk on your fancy uniforms, relying only on individual strength with no coordination with your comrades. You must have fought together on several missions, but what have you been doing all this time?”

At Ethan’s words, the inquisitors’ expressions suddenly flared up. Some even turned red up to their ears and the napes of their necks.

To agitate an opponent, you need to poke at their weak points.

What these people lacked now was preparation to fight the Followers of the Moon.

Without proper training, they relied solely on individual strength.

Ethan accurately jabbed at this point.

‘They get riled up easily. Their mental fortitude isn’t great either.’

Ethan knows well how despicable the Followers of the Moon are.

They will use any means necessary to achieve their goals.

Among those were many techniques to shake one’s mental state. There were even cases of insulting the opponent like this to create an opening and then self-destructing with them.

‘There’s a lot to fix. I’ll rack up some achievements.’

The more deficient they were, the better.

“We’ve been going easy on you since the director brought you here!”

One inquisitor who couldn’t hold back anymore stepped forward.

He was the largest of the inquisitors. With a height well over 2 meters and a thick build to match, he was imposing.

In his hands was a mace much larger than those of the other inquisitors, befitting his size.

Compared to Ethan’s mace, it was like the difference between a toothpick and chopsticks.

“Let’s see you dodge this!”

Since Ethan had been constantly dodging without counterattacking, the large inquisitor thought Ethan would dodge this time too.

But Ethan didn’t dodge.

Because now it was time for education.

“Counter-Radiance.”

Ethan’s mace clashed directly with the giant mace of the large inquisitor.

“Wh-what!”

The large inquisitor who thought he would crush Ethan was momentarily stunned. Ethan’s mace had pushed back his special large mace.

Clang-!

“Ugh!”

It was such a powerful force that it felt like his wrist might break. The large inquisitor’s special mace was deflected upwards, sent flying.

With his mace deflected away, the large inquisitor was left completely defenseless.

If Ethan’s mace swung one more time in this state, it would be over.

However, Ethan didn’t swing his mace and instead kicked him.

Whoosh!

At the same time, another mace came flying from a different direction.

Ethan spun around quickly, assessed the one swinging the mace, and attacked his shoulder and waist with stabbing motions of his mace.

“…Huh?”

The inquisitor stabbed by Ethan’s mace stopped in his tracks, surprised by his changed movement.

“Out of the way!”

Another inquisitor swung his mace at Ethan, pushing aside the stopped inquisitor. It was an attack infused with his unique mana.

“Gale Strike!”

Wind gathered on the mace. The mace, utilizing that speed, aimed for Ethan’s neck.

It was a fast attack, but Ethan’s eyes were following its speed.

Frost Thunder Swordsmanship First Form.

Thunder Shockwave Strike.

Ethan immediately applied only the speed aspect of Thunder Shockwave Strike.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

As before, he stabbed at the completely open areas. This caused the charging inquisitor’s Gale Strike to dissipate, and he ended up in a completely different stance.

Thud.

Likewise, another inquisitor came to a stop right there.

“Keep your movements small. Big movements are meaningless. Be precise and concise.”

As three were completely neutralized, the inquisitors who had been charging recklessly came to a halt.

“That’s right, that’s how it should be. When facing someone stronger than yourselves, you form a formation. A formation that allows you to concentrate your attacking power on one person as much as possible.”

Ethan exuded his power.

Crackle-!

Bright yellow lightning and.

Shaaaa-.

Deep blue cold energy spread around.

It didn’t matter that what he held wasn’t a sword.

Even with a mace, he could fully exert that power.

“Now we begin the real education. This is the first lesson. From now on, I’ll teach you how to form a formation against a powerful enemy.”

***

“……”

Ethan fought quite well. As expected of a teacher from a prestigious Academy, Retoma thought, but on the other hand, he found it somewhat strange that an Academy teacher would display such rough movements.

But there would be limits to his stamina, and seeing their comrades fall, the inquisitors would gradually learn to cope.

Retoma thought that at that point, the director and deputy director would step in to resolve the situation.

But that wasn’t the case.

‘Strange.’

Retoma felt a sense of discomfort. As he focused his eyes, trying to figure out what was off, Retoma’s body twitched.

‘N-no way.’

Ethan wasn’t just fighting.

‘He’s correcting their postures. He clearly had opportunities to take them down, but he didn’t.’

Except for the first two, no one else had fallen after that.

‘And…’

He looked at Ethan in disbelief.

“Is this even possible…”

It was a sight that left him gaping.

“He’s forcing the newcomers into formation by driving them back?”

Letting someone experience something physically once is far more effective than explaining it verbally a hundred times.

But that’s not an easy thing to do. If it were easy to make someone learn through physical experience, who would bother explaining things verbally?

Yet that Academy teacher was accomplishing this difficult task.

And it was an Academy teacher who had come here for the first time today!

“Just who… who is this person?”

Retoma simply couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

The director had clearly brought Ethan here for the first time today.

That meant there was no base for him to teach anything.

To start proper education, one would need to perfectly familiarize oneself with the Inquisition manual first.

That would take at least two months.

Since he was an Academy teacher, he would only work during vacation periods, so out of three months, two would be spent studying the manual.

Then the remaining month would be spent on a curriculum to educate the new inquisitors.

“How is this possible? Didn’t you bring him here for the first time today? I heard he arrived not long ago, so how is he teaching the newcomers now?”

This was education.

Flawless education to create excellent inquisitors.

“……”

Looking at the thoroughly bewildered Retoma, Jeryd answered.

“I don’t know.”

“Pardon?”

“I don’t know either.”

Jeryd’s expression was filled with a bitter smile.

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