Three months had passed since Patrick entered the academy. Who was it that said it? Humans are creatures of adaptation.
Although he had caused a major incident when he first arrived at the academy, Patrick was gradually adjusting to academy life. When he woke up in the morning, he would put on the clothes April laid out for him, go to the dining hall to eat, and then attend morning classes.
He'd swing his wooden sword around carelessly, letting the professors' words go in one ear and out the other, and before he knew it, it was lunchtime. After lunch, in the afternoon, he would oversee Matthew's training. While training under Patrick, Matthew was experiencing something close to hell, but he was gradually getting used to it...
“Oh, looks like you can handle it now? Let’s increase the weight.”
“Kuaaaack....”
The day he got used to it never came. And it probably never would. But the results were certainly showing.
Thanks to the training Patrick made him do, his once slender frame began to build muscle. He could probably hold a bare-bodied horse stance for half a day with ease now. After the training ended, Patrick would personally carry the collapsed Matthew back to his dormitory.
Basically, Matthew's training didn't end until he collapsed. And after laying Matthew on his bed, he would infuse energy from head to toe, mending his torn muscles and correcting his twisted blood and energy flow.
The unconscious Matthew wouldn't know, but the reason his body hadn't broken down despite Patrick's grueling training was all thanks to Patrick, who performed Guiding and Inducing Energy on him every day to restore his body. This was something Patrick had never even done for the soldiers of his own fief. Why hadn't he?
How could I do this for 200 people one by one?
“You should be grateful. You’re the first one I’ve ever taken care of so intensively.”
Patrick grumbled, but he restored Matthew's body every day without fail. When the recovery was finished and he came outside, April was waiting.
“You’ve worked hard, young master.”
“Yeah. What’s for dinner today?”
“I believe it’s a chicken dish.”
“Chicken... Sounds good with a drink.”
“Shall I prepare some?”
“Ahem, how can I drink in the academy’s dining hall?”
Patrick, chiding April with a stern expression, licked his lips and said.
“I have to go out to drink.”
That’s even worse, you bastard.
“Kuh... This is nice. Life in the capital isn’t so bad.”
His days consisted of training Matthew during the day and wandering the night streets of White Town, drinking leisurely with Red’s money. Unauthorized outings and drinking. Baron Schneider would probably clutch the back of his neck and collapse if he saw this, but regardless, Patrick was spending his days quite contentedly.
“Come to think of it, I’ve always longed for this kind of leisurely life.”
The great hero of the righteous path, Radiant Dragon Grandmaster Jin Cheon, who saved the martial world from crisis.
“Hmph... What nonsense.”
He had never wished for such a thing. The high-and-mighty nobles of the righteous sects spouted words like great causes and honor, but the Patrick of his past life had never even said such things out loud. Titles like Grandmaster were just names given by others; he had never asked to be called that himself.
So why did a man like that fight like a madman at the forefront of the battle against the unorthodox alliance? There was only one reason.
“Master, you know, I wanted to be praised by you.”
After taking a sip of the drink in his hand, Patrick looked up at the sky and spoke.
“That’s really all it was.”
Defeating the unorthodox alliance, helping the unfortunate, and hunting down demonic cultivators who deserted from the Heavenly Demon Sect or the Blood Asura Cult… The motivation for Radiant Dragon Grandmaster Jin Cheon, who had struggled so much and performed such heroic deeds, was just that.
Like a child seeking affection from a parent, Patrick had thrown his body on the line, hoping for a single word of praise from his Master. His Master was that absolute to him. The Master who had picked him up when he was a wildcat of a child, thinking the whole world was his enemy, and made him human.
It was then that Patrick had personally understood the meaning of kindness for the first time in his life. He could never forget the single bowl of thin porridge made for a little brat caught stealing, even though his Master had nothing for himself.
To repay the grace of that one bowl, Patrick had dedicated his entire life to his Master.
“Hmph, come to think of it, I had no right to call my Master a pushover or anything.”
He had dedicated everything, unable to forget the grace of a single bowl of porridge. Truly, like master, like disciple.
“Master, at the end, when I died at Falling Phoenix Slope... were you very angry?”
He wouldn't hear an answer, but it was obvious how his Master would have acted. He would probably win the war. At that time, Radiant Dragon Grandmaster Jin Cheon had taken most of the unorthodox alliance's elite forces down with him.
The military power of the unorthodox alliance gathered to capture Patrick at that time exceeded eighty percent of their total strength. Since most of them died with Patrick, the war probably ended in a victory for the righteous path.
‘If they couldn't win against the remaining twenty percent, they deserved to go die.’
No matter how incompetent the leaders of the Martial Alliance were, they couldn't be that pathetic. So, the war would be won.
But…
“Are you okay, Master? Even without me?”
No matter how shameless and corrupt the men of the righteous sects were, they wouldn't dare to openly persecute his Master and the Twin Dragon Sect. So, even without Radiant Dragon Grandmaster Jin Cheon, the Twin Dragon Sect would be fine. But would his Master like that?
“No way.”
He would be angry. He would be sad. He would grieve over the death of his disciple and shed tears of lament.
Patrick had no way to comfort such a Master. What could he do when they lived in completely different worlds? In practical terms, Radiant Dragon Grandmaster Jin Cheon was dead.
“I’m sorry, Master. …I’m sorry.”
He offered an apology that could not reach. With a lingering hope that it just might.
“…Tsk, what am I doing getting all sentimental like this?”
Patrick grumbled to himself. There was nothing more foolish than clinging to something with no solution. Patrick knew this well, but for him to be acting this way…
“Have I gotten old?”
Adding his past and present lives, he was over sixty. His body was vigorous, but it seemed parts of his heart had softened with the flow of time. As evidenced by him indulging in such pathetic sentimentality.
Swoosh!
But just then. A sound that tickled Patrick’s ear as he passed the training grounds. A familiar sound.
A sound he had heard more than any other. It was the sound of a sword cutting through the wind.
“Who is it? Who’s this admirable person training so late at night? Could it be Matthew?”
He knew Matthew had good grit, but if he was dedicated enough to be training on his own at this hour, it was worthy of great praise. If it was Matthew, Patrick thought of going over to teach him a thing or two as he sauntered over. And what he saw when he arrived at the training grounds was...
“Ugh... that gutless Matthew.”
It wasn't Matthew. There stood a peerless beauty with hair as black as ebony, swinging a sword in the empty air. A beautiful woman, staying later than anyone else to train alone in the dead of night.
The woman’s identity was Isabella Black Atronia, a third-year student at the academy and the princess of this country. Patrick had, at some point, sat down in a corner of the training grounds and was watching the scene.
Watching her swing her sword, her black hair, a rare sight in this world, flying, reminded him of his wife from his past life...
‘Nope, doesn’t remind me of her.’
Well, his wife didn't know how to use a sword. The Tang Clan of Sichuan primarily used poison and hidden weapons, and in rare cases, their women used whips. However, Radiant Dragon Grandmaster Jin Cheon’s wife, Divine Physician Saintess Tang Su-ryeon, used neither hidden weapons nor a whip.
She…
[This feeling in my hands is the best.]
With a body that could rival Shaolin’s Golden-Arhat, she would rush in with her two fists clenched and pulverize her opponents. In fact, like most of the people Patrick was close to in his past life, she was far from ordinary.
“Still, she was a very peculiar woman. It was so bad that my father-in-law said this at our wedding.”
When stealing away a cherished daughter raised in a prestigious family, aren't there normal things a father-in-law is supposed to say?
Live well.
Don't make her suffer. If you make her cry, I won't let you get away with it. He had expected words like these.
But the head of the Tang Clan of Sichuan at the time, the Radiant Dragon Grandmaster’s father-in-law, was different. He came up to Jin Cheon, grasped both his hands tightly, and with tears welling in his eyes, said one thing he could never forget.
[No returns] [... Pardon?]
Then, with a look of relief as if his hardships were finally over, he turned and left without a second glance.
‘Still, we were a good match. I miss her now that I think about it. My wife.’
As Patrick was lost in memories of his past life…
“Huh?”
He suddenly realized. Princess Isabella was staring blankly in his direction. It wasn't like he was hiding his presence, but…
‘What? Why? What do you want?’
Patrick, who had never once backed down from a staring contest, stared right back at Princess Isabella.
“...”
“...”
The two of them stared at each other from a distance. Then, Isabella was the first to approach Patrick.
“You? A first-year?”
“Yes. That’s right.”
“...”
“Why? Did I do something wrong? Is it a crime to just be in the training grounds?”
Patrick responded defiantly. In the martial world, spying on someone else’s training could lead to a sword fight, but there was no such unwritten rule here. Besides, even in the martial world, Patrick had never paid much mind to such rules.
So Patrick acted confidently, as if his conscience was completely clear. But Princess Isabella’s pretty finger pointed at something as she spoke.
“Is that alcohol?”
“... Uh oh....”
This was a rare sight. Patrick was genuinely flustered.
‘Ah, right. I was drinking.’
No matter what, an academy student caught drinking inside the academy by a senior was bound to be a problem. Here, Patrick decided to use an excuse used by the renowned masters of the martial world.
“Hahaha. This is not alcohol, it is grain tea.”
“... That’s alcohol, isn’t it?”
“It’s not working? You bald-headed monks.”
“...?”
Anyway, those bald guys are no help in life. No help at all. Princess Isabella spoke to Patrick in a stern voice.
“I’m going to report you to the professors for drinking and bringing in prohibited items.”
“Ugh... How petty of you, to speak the truth.”
Is that considered petty? Patrick’s sense of ethics aside, he was cornered.
“Alright. Go ahead then.”
What could he do? He was caught. I’ll just get confined again.
Patrick had the typical thoughts of a delinquent student. Princess Isabella spoke to that Patrick.
“Are you okay with that?”
“What can I do if I’m not? They wouldn't expel me, would they?”
“They would.”
“... Really?”
He didn't know that. Isabella spoke to the startled Patrick.
“Drinking inside the academy, bringing in items that violate school rules, and if you went out to buy it yourself, that's an unauthorized outing too.”
“...”
“It’s sufficient grounds for expulsion.”
“Uh... That’s not good.”
He was just starting to get a liiiiiittle fond of this place called the academy. They fed him, gave him a place to sleep, and it was easy to sneak out and buy drinks. It was true that a man should play in big waters; the developed capital was indeed better than his rural fief.
But if he got expelled now…
‘This is troublesome. If I get expelled now, my father will lose it, right?’
He had come to the academy to be a little filial for once, so this was a problem. Patrick glanced at Princess Isabella and said.
“Can’t you just not say anything?”
“Why should I?”
“That is...”
Come to think of it, there was no reason for the princess to keep quiet. There was no bond of loyalty that would make her keep quiet, nor was there any benefit for her in doing so.
‘What should I do?’
Usually, in times like this, Patrick would solve most of the world's problems by beating the other person up to shut their mouth, but...
‘This is my first time dealing with royalty.’