It was a real living hell. When he first started the training, they seemed to follow along with a certain degree of enthusiasm, but to be frank, the training Patrick ordered wasn't something one could follow with enthusiasm alone.
Patrick had a precise grasp of the limits of a human being and truly forced the soldiers to train until they were on the verge of death. The soldiers spent their days in such torment that they seemed to fear the rising of the sun each morning.
Eventually, there were soldiers who showed reactions like resistance, desertion, and giving up, but Patrick didn't give up on a single one of them and led them all to the training grounds. How was that possible? What else could there be?
In the Radiant Dragon Grandmaster's dictionary, violence was the cure for all ailments. Patrick grabbed them one by one by the scruff of their necks, dragging them into the world of the strong.
As a result, the soldiers of the Schneider Fief were now soldiers in name only; they were strong men who wouldn't lose out at all if pitted against knights.
‘If possible, I wanted to make the Twin Dragon Sect like this.’
In truth, the biggest reason the soldiers grew so quickly was that Patrick had invested the results he had obtained from constantly improving and researching martial arts for the Twin Dragon Sect in his past life.
Because of Patrick's untimely death, the disciples of the Twin Dragon Sect never got to enjoy those benefits, but instead, across dimensions in another world, the soldiers of the Schneider Fief were the ones to reap them.
“Consider it an honor, you bastards. Hmm... Am I out of liquor?”
Realizing the bottle was empty, Patrick, despite the bother, was about to get up and fetch some more liquor, but...
“Here you are, young master.”
“Oh? Ah... You’re quick on the uptake, April.”
“Thank you.”
There was a maid politely handing a new bottle of liquor to Patrick. But, was it right to call this woman a maid? The clothes she wore were clearly a maid's uniform.
And she was attending to Patrick with flawless, impeccable etiquette. Although the location being the roof of the mansion was a bit unusual, she was, in any case, a maid. She was behaving exactly as a maid would.
And yet…
“Is something wrong?”
“No, just that you've gotten prettier.”
“Thank you, young master.”
“No, I mean, stop getting prettier. I told you it's not good to be too pretty, didn't I?”
“Understood. I will do my best to stop getting prettier.”
“How? You're not planning on scarring your face, are you?”
“If it is the young master's command, I will…”
“Don't. My mother will kill me!”
“Then I will try my best to become ugly.”
“Is that something you can achieve through effort?”
“I will manage it somehow.”
He thought to himself, she’s gotten a bit strange too. That was Patrick’s thought.
April.
The girl with the Nine Yin Severed Meridians whom Patrick had treated long ago, she was now working as a maid for the House of Baron Schneider. The reason it was difficult to simply call her a maid was…
‘She’s gotten ridiculously beautiful. She could probably put those so-called Five Beauties of the Central Plains to shame, couldn't she?’
The problem was that she had become too beautiful to be just a maid. Her dazzling blonde hair was like molten gold. Her light green eyes, reminiscent of the new green of spring, were so beautiful they could instantly captivate anyone who looked into them.
Her fair skin, without a single blemish, and her fantastical features, as if crafted from all the beauty in the world. April was pretty. To put it in Patrick's terms, she had become ridiculously beautiful.
Was that a bad thing? No. Patrick was a man, so of course, he liked pretty women. His wife in his past life was a woman once called the number one beauty of Sichuan.
‘But shouldn't there be a limit to how pretty someone is? Huh? Everything needs a sense of proportion.’
That was right. April was too pretty.
Patrick knew.
He knew that curing the Nine Yin Severed Meridians would result in an astonishingly beautiful appearance. Hadn't his own mother, Lady Ava, also become so beautiful that others would lose their senses looking at her? But with April, it was even more severe.
If a person with a weak mind looked at her, they would go beyond admiration and become completely entranced. She possessed a beauty that made people, regardless of gender, lose their senses just by her mere presence.
‘As expected of the True Nine Yin Severed Meridians. But I wonder if this is entirely a good thing…’
A woman's beauty can sometimes be the cause of trouble. What worried Patrick was the conflict that April's beauty might create.
‘In my past life, there was a huge mess over marrying a woman called the number one beauty of Henan.’
A pretty daughter was born into an ordinary merchant family. As her beauty spread and her fame grew, all sorts of men jumped in, wanting to marry her, and it turned into a complete mess.
When he rushed to Henan under his Master's orders to mediate, nearly a hundred men had gathered, aiming their weapons and fuming, while the woman called the number one beauty of Henan was trembling in fear.
‘It’s absurd even thinking about it again, you bastards.’
Sometimes, there were quite a few fellows who seemed to think not with their heads, but with their loins. In any case, Patrick realized then. A beautiful woman could be a source of trouble just by existing.
And that fact was probably no different in this world. For now, she stayed inside the mansion as much as possible, and the servants inside had grown somewhat accustomed to her, but she couldn't be locked up in the mansion for her whole life, could she? So, a few years ago, Patrick began to seriously teach April the sword.
In fact, that had been his original purpose. From the time he treated April's Nine Yin Severed Meridians, he had intended to teach her martial arts once her body recovered. But when he actually tried to teach her, his mother was so fiercely opposed that he had to postpone it.
[How can such a small and fragile child learn the sword?]
Sometimes, Ava cherished April so much it was as if she were her own daughter. In the end, Patrick was unable to teach the sword to the girl with a Heavenly Martial Body right before his eyes. However, with his persuasion that she, who was growing more beautiful by the day, needed the strength to protect herself, and crucially…
[My lady. If the young master wishes it, then I want to learn.]
Because April herself decided to follow Patrick's will, he was able to pass the sword down to her. At that moment, Patrick let out a sigh of relief and began to seriously teach her martial arts. He formally passed down the martial arts of the Twin Dragon Sect, including the Great Clarity Heart Technique that he had taught the soldiers.
And the result…
[Is it over now?]
That was what April said, standing alone and proud after taking care of all the soldiers in the training grounds. No one stood up at her words. Even Sanson, the strongest among the soldiers, could only lie on the ground, struggling to catch his breath.
April bowed her head to the soldiers and said.
[Then I shall take my leave…]
And as they watched April leave the training grounds with light steps, the soldiers said.
[She's a monster.]
[To think there was another monster besides the young master.]
[And she's a different type of monster from the young master.]
[I'm sure she didn't even know how to hold a sword at first.]
[That's right. She was like that at first.]
The soldiers had seen it clearly. They had seen April entering their training grounds for the first time, learning step by step from the horse stance and how to grip a sword. That was just two years ago.
And yet…
[She got that strong in just two years?]
[Haaah… Life is bitter.]
[What's the point of living? Let's all just die.]
That day, the soldiers of the Schneider Fief fell into collective despair. Just when they had worked their butts off and were starting to gain some confidence, their pride was utterly shattered by a sixteen-year-old maid. And so, at the age of 16, April established herself as the second most powerful person in the Schneider Fief.
However, that second most powerful person afterward put on a maid's uniform and worked diligently as a maid for the barony. As if swordsmanship training was merely a means to better serve the young master, not her main job. As Patrick gazed at her intently, April spoke as if she didn't know what was going on.
“What is it?”
“No, I was just looking because you're pretty.”
“I apologize. I will make an effort to become ugly as soon as possible...”
“It's fine. Don't do it. My mother won't like it if you don't dress up.”
“Understood.”
“And sometimes, don't just stick to my side. Go somewhere else. Do you have nowhere else to be but by my side?”
“Yes.”
The reply came without a second's hesitation. Ugh, this girl scares me. The Radiant Dragon Grandmaster Jin Cheon of all people.
The man known as the official number one madman in the martial world, across the Righteous, Unorthodox, and Demonic paths, was here, intimidated by the mindset of this person. Patrick let out a sigh, then picked up the liquor bottle and rose from his seat.
“Let's go to the Orc tribe.”
“Yes, understood, young master.”
The soldiers now managed well on their own without Patrick having to teach them every little thing. They had learned to walk, so he just had to leave them be. But the Orcs still needed a bit more of his care.
Was it because the Orcs were weaker than the soldiers? No. Although the soldiers had gotten much stronger, the Orcs had grown stronger too, and their power was nearly equal.
But…
“Haaah… What a life. Why is it one mountain after another?”
One would understand why Patrick was like this by going to see for themselves.
“Uwoooargh!”
“Ooooooh!”
In the training grounds made specifically for the Orc tribe in the Schneider Fief. In that training ground, built much more spacious than the one the soldiers used, the Orcs were diligently swinging their stone blades. Yes, they were training hard.
Really hard…
“Hey, you sons of bitches!”
That is, until someone ran up to the Orcs and kicked one of them squarely in the side.
“Kweeeek!”
As one Orc flew away, letting out a pig's squeal, the other Orcs flinched. Then Patrick looked at them with flashing eyes and said.
“Even a Troll would understand if I explained that much, you bastards! How many times do I have to tell you to swing it the way I taught you? Huh!?”
Watching the rampaging Patrick, the brave warriors of the Orc tribe…
“Let’s… let’s do as he taught us.”
“Let's do it again. Again…”
“Stance. We have to get the stance right. Or else he'll get mad.”
They obediently did as they were told. A period of five years was more than enough time for the Orc tribe to learn what kind of person Patrick was. The Orc tribe consisted of brave warriors who did not fear death, but they were scared of a madman.
Fundamentally, you couldn't reason with him. And he was a complete master of violence. In terms of striking a living being, be it human or Orc, in a way that hurt the most without causing serious injury, Patrick had already reached the level of a god.
It wasn't that there were no Orcs who had tried to resist him courageously.
But…
[I don't want to. I'm not doing it.]
[Hoh, is that so? Fine. It's a match between my fists and your guts.]
[Seventeen… eleven hundred… twelve thousand, one hundred twenty-two… Just kill me.]
[No can do. If you die, it'll be too easy for you, won't it?]
[Twelve thousand, one hundred twenty-three…]
Well, that's what happened. The reason Patrick trained the Orcs while berating them like this was to pass on the blade art of the Peng Clan from Hebei.
[Hyung-nim. Even if our family is destroyed one day, please ensure that our family's martial arts survive. That is the price for me teaching you our Peng Clan's secret arts.]
Iron-Blooded Dragon Peng Moojong. Patrick thought he was just a guy who only knew how to charge in thoughtlessly, but surprisingly, he was a guy who could think. At first, Patrick thought he was speaking nonsense.
But…
[Hyung-nim… it's a promise…]
[Stop talking nonsense and shut up, you bastard.]
[I believe in you…]
The Peng Clan from Hebei, who knew no retreat, fought bravely in the most dangerous places when war broke out. What Jin Cheon, who had rushed to help too late, was met with were the last words of his sworn brother as he died in his arms. And Patrick couldn't even keep that promise.
Before he could pass on those martial arts to the descendants of the Peng Clan from Hebei, Patrick himself had also met his end in the war. And from the moment he saw the Orcs, he thought.
‘Could there be another physique so perfect for learning the blade art?’
The most important things for learning martial arts were aptitude and physique. It was great if one excelled in both, but even excelling in just one was enough to be called a prodigy. And in the martial world, the place that valued physique the most was the Peng Clan from Hebei.
The blade art of the Peng Clan focused more on speed and dominance than complexity or profundity, so if one's physique couldn't support it, it was common for joints to dislocate or muscles to tear while using the art. That's why it was said that the direct disciples even looked at physique when taking a wife.
And the physique of the Orcs was, fundamentally, incomparable to that of humans. So Patrick gathered the Orcs and said.
[Consider it an honor. I'm going to teach you the greatest blade art under the heavens.]
Telling the Orcs it was the greatest under the heavens meant nothing to them.
But…
[The great warrior's teachings are good.]
[I'll learn too. Me too.]
[We can become stronger.]
As if proving they were a warrior race, the thought of becoming stronger made everyone rush over, saying they would learn the blade art from Patrick. Seeing that, Patrick smiled.
‘Kuhuhu. This is it. This is how it should be. When the great Radiant Dragon Grandmaster offers to teach a thing or two, it's only natural for them to rush over with such sparkling eyes.’
Or so he thought.
At first.