Chapter 39

Chapter 39

Meanwhile, Gulba was enraged as he looked at the students scattered here and there across the training ground.

“What are you guys! You invaded Gulba’s territory! How dare you!”

A professor with a disastrous intelligence, who didn’t even realize that the only people entering his territory were the students attending class!

With even the axe that was on his back in hand, Gulba let out a battle cry.

“Bugs! I will catch you!”

— Aaah! Professor!

— Mother, Father, Hiloa!

Then, due to the wind pressure violently bursting out, a situation unfolded that was nothing short of a natural disaster for the students.

“Aaah, Roan, save me!”

In particular, Demona flew away like a kite and landed completely outside the training ground.

‘As expected of the Miracle of the Archipelago…’

Roan was holding his ground quite well, but he couldn’t help but frown because of the howling wind.

While there were various minor reasons such as authority that allowed the barbarian Gulba to convert,

in truth, the biggest reason was that at the time of the archipelago conquest, there was an extremely small number of active paladins or monks in the Empire who could handle him with physical force.

Of course, the same was true now.

Deploying such pillars of the Empire just to handle Gulba would also be a massive loss.

By appointing Gulba as a professor at Acherandir, the Empire had practically dumped him onto Harden.

‘I just need to hold out for a little bit.’

However, if swinging his axe without even recognizing students like that was a daily routine, Harden would have dealt with Gulba long ago.

Gulba had a final ‘safety device.’

Pop—!

Right before Gulba swung that monstrous axe.

Some kind of white fairy-like thing popped out of his body and blocked his way.

[……! ……!! ……!]

Then, as if angry, it waved its hands wildly and shouted something.

To the students, including Roan, it was only felt as a vibration or wavelength emitted by a tiny fairy.

The fairy was none other than the materialized form of ‘Primitive Communication.’

It was the result of Harden specially adding power to control the wildly rampaging Gulba.

“Uh… Uh…”

Gulba, who was blankly listening to the words upon the fairy’s appearance.

Soon, his storm-like momentum vanished like a lie.

After alternating between looking at the angry fairy and the devastated students for a while, he—

Clatter—!

soon dropped the axe from his grip,

“Uh… Students. I’m sorry. I didn’t know. Uwahhh!”

fell flat on the ground and began to pour out tears.

— …I want to drop out.

A student who was lying face down on the ground, covered in dirt, couldn’t hold back and muttered.

It was a single sentence that perfectly summarized his complicated state of mind.

— Hey, don’t say that.

— We can’t drop out.

The surrounding students reluctantly patted him on the back.

However.

“Uwaaaaah! I’m sorry!”

As even Gulba’s crying exerted significant pressure on the students, the atmosphere grew even darker.

I really want to drop out…!

At that moment, Roan approached Gulba, radiating a holy aura to block the pressure.

“I won’t tell Professor Kaina. Please calm down.”

Why Professor Kaina?

The students tilted their heads in confusion.

What did Gulba have to do with Professor Kaina?

Surprisingly, however, upon hearing Roan’s words, Gulba’s crying gradually began to subside.

“R-Really? You won’t tell Professor Kaina?”

“Yes. So please calm down, seriously.”

“Uwahhhh!”

Now, Gulba hugged Roan outright and wailed loudly.

Even though Gulba was sitting down, just holding his head was a struggle for Roan.

— He subdued the giant…!

— As expected of Darc, the owner of a divine beast’s egg!

The students hesitantly got up from their spots and murmured.

Although Gulba was still crying, since Roan’s black mana was blocking the wavelength, the surroundings had already become peaceful.

And there was one more unexpected student who drew as much attention from the students as Roan did.

— To think he would charge at such a guy, isn’t Trian amazing?

— As expected of the Lesterol family!

It was none other than Trian, who was temporarily evaluated as Roan’s rival.

Trian, thoroughly flustered by his friends’ sudden praises, broke into a cold, reddish sweat.

“I-It’s no big deal!”

Although he made an excuse like this because of his pride,

his insides were burning black.

Since the territory of the Lesterol family was near the Budor Archipelago, which was Gulba’s birthplace, he was also well aware of the rumors about Gulba.

In the Lesterol territory, Gulba’s nickname was slightly different.

‘To calm down the Disaster of the Archipelago, just what kind of guy is he?!’

A legend who sank fifteen imperial fleets in the sea with only a single axe, and only knelt after fighting the Central Paladin Commander, who was in charge, on equal terms for a week.

For such a Gulba to end up in that state over a single word!

***

Because Gulba was not from the continent and had absolutely no connection with continental culture,

further explanation was needed to properly understand him.

“So… he did convert, right?”

Rafia asked Roan, stealing a suspicious glance at Gulba.

Her face was slightly flushed.

That was because the attire covering Gulba’s body was a mere leather skirt and a few leather straps on his upper body.

Roan nodded.

“Yeah. He received baptism in his own way, and even got Professor Kaina’s recognition.”

The process had not been easy, but he did not bother to explain it in detail.

At any rate, thanks to his baptism and authority, Gulba could utilize a unique holy power combined with the primitive strength of the archipelago people.

— I see…

For some reason, the students nodded more vigorously when they heard ‘Professor Kaina’s recognition’ rather than the baptism.

Of course, this ‘conversion’ was a bit different from the image of conversion that civilized imperial citizens thought of.

What Gulba believed in was closer to a folk faith, which was about worshipping the ancient chieftain, ‘Deep Root,’ like a god.

Deep Root was a grand chieftain who summoned a demon and united the archipelago roughly ten thousand years ago.

Not only Gulba, but all the barbarians living in the archipelago respected Deep Root.

How did they subjugate Gulba and the barbarians to the Empire?

It was simple.

‘Harden, who descended upon the archipelago, summoned that demon and beat it like a dog.’

It had been that cruel.

In any case, after that event, the archipelago became completely subject to the Empire, and Gulba, who had been a great warrior, became a professor at Acherandir.

However, in the beginning, he had a disposition to only follow Harden, who had subdued the demon, which reportedly caused quite a headache.

But how did they even get him to convert to believing in Hiloa?

‘…They reportedly took him to Professor Kaina’s secret room.’

…That was an even more cruel story.

A significant portion of the scars covering Gulba’s entire body must have been from that time.

Following that secret conversation (?) with Professor Kaina, Gulba was born anew as a completely different person.

“Class! We’re doing class!”

A reasonably fine subject who taught students in his own way and occasionally prayed.

And he became close friends with Professor Kaina.

The person who started calling him ‘Gulba’ as a abbreviation of his original name, ‘Fallen Rock,’ was none other than Professor Kaina.

Also, when Gulba occasionally lost his senses and didn’t attend class, she personally blew him to the training ground with her hammer.

The commotion just now was in the same context.

‘Is Kaina, who blows Gulba away, amazing? Or is Gulba, who endures Kaina’s full-force swings as if they were a massage, amazing?’

Indeed, when it came to physical might alone, Gulba was someone whom no one within Acherandir could match!

Roan shook his head, imagining that scene.

Perhaps Professor Kaina was simply swinging with the intent to kill Gulba, who was a heretic.

Meanwhile, Gulba swung the giant axe with one hand, making whooshing sounds as he shouted excitedly:

“Defense! We learn defense!”

Under that wind pressure, the students had to grit their teeth and endure once again.

Was this defense?

To anyone’s eyes, didn’t it look like he was randomly brandishing an offensive holy spell!

Yet Gulba was steadily teaching defense techniques in his own way.

“Attack! It comes! Block!”

Whoosh— Snap! Boom—!

— ???

A demonstration that finished in the blink of an eye.

The students were left speechless.

Not only was the movement extremely fast, but they couldn’t even see it properly due to the ridiculous wind pressure.

It certainly felt like something had flashed intensely, but…

“Did you get it!”

Gulba, who had no way of knowing such circumstances, asked brightly.

Only Roan nodded.

‘I roughly understand.’

Excluding his intelligence, which was lacking by quite a bit, Gulba was an outstanding hero-class character.

To the extent that there were almost none on the continent who could defeat him now that he had even utilized holy power.

As such, Gulba’s techniques also had many aspects to learn.

…If only one could learn them.

Regardless, Roan could clearly see the holy power moving as if about to burst through his bulging muscles.

The movement of that holy power was the same.

Not only was Gulba’s utilization of holy power incredibly destructive,

but Roan’s transcendent talent

and the resonance as fellow possessors of authority all worked together as a result.

‘Instantly pour mana into the spot where the attack comes in. Convert that into elastic force and then block.’

It was a very simple principle despite the tricky conditions.

Since it was, in the first place, simple holy power manipulation rather than basic holy magic.

However, it was not a method just anyone could copy.

First, it required an overwhelming amount of mana capable of reliably blocking any attack, reflexes to calculate the exact timing, and dynamic visual acuity to identify where the attack was coming from.

It was a truly Gulba-like technique.

Roan quietly used the Abyss to try replicating Gulba’s defense method.

Since the Abyss also utilized compression, the principle was similar.

Pulling up mana from his dantian, he compressed it with all his might in both arms.

‘Convert the properties and release it all at once!’

As Roan released the Abyss from his forearms to complete the defense technique—

Flash—

a murky golden barrier instantly unfolded as if protecting his entire upper body.

A splendor that made it seem like high-level defensive holy magic!

The students, who had been discussing what on earth Gulba had just done, were startled.

— Look at Darc!

— I heard he has a secret training ground…

— Wasn’t it a secret workshop?

— He probably has both!

Although there were false rumors among them that made Roan frown, Roan’s defense technique was almost equal to Gulba’s.

Gulba also smiled broadly and said.

“Excellent! I want to know the student’s name!”

“I am Roan Darc.”

Roan spoke politely, gathering his black mana.

“Darc! Darc!”

However, Gulba’s reaction upon hearing Roan’s family name was slightly strange.

“Darc is a friend of our tribe!”

“?”

A friend, Darc?

‘No, aren’t the Ehadan territory and the Budor Archipelago on opposite sides of the Empire?’

The more he knew, the more it seemed the Darc family was involved in everything.

At this rate, it was a wonder why there was so little information during the playthrough.

“What does that—”

Roan tried to pry a bit more.

However, Gulba didn’t give him a chance and shouted:

“Demonstration! Excellent student does the demonstration! Darc is excellent!”

“…A demonstration?”

Roan wondered if he had misheard.

A demonstration with Gulba, the Miracle of the Archipelago?

‘Is that axe going to be embedded in my head before Kaina’s hammer is?’

It was only natural to have such a doubt.

“R-Roan, it was only for a short time, but I had fun…”

Meanwhile, Demona approached Roan with a despairing expression and bid him farewell.

Roan replied coldly.

“Don’t say such unlucky things.”

Hector chimed in.

“Right, Professor Gulba is still a professor. Roan, go ahead and show the demonstration. It’ll be a big help.”

To Roan, Hector’s hidden agenda was glaringly obvious.

To anyone, it looked like he was pushing him to his death.

To think he had these guys as roommates…!

“Tsk.”

Roan clicked his tongue and stepped forward.

“I will remember you, Roan!”

Demona and Hector waved to Roan with tears in their eyes.