I Became a Swordsmanship Instructor in a Romance Novel

Zeke quickly assessed the battlefield and moved.

Those who had been captured as sacrifices were bound together at the wrists,

so the more they tried to escape, the more chaotic the situation became.

Snap.

He cut the ropes connecting groups of about ten people.

“Can you move?”

“Ugh… S-save me….”

“This won’t do. Please bear with me for a moment.”

Zeke gripped the rope tightly in his hand and leaped into the sky.

“Uwaaaaah!!!!!”

“Kyaaaak!!”

Fifteen people were pulled into the air with him, their wrists still bound.

He shoved them into a prepared pit a short distance away

and placed a small piece of bread into the mouths of those who seemed on the verge of death.

Light returned to the cloudy eyes of the dying.

“Gasp… Wh-where is this…?”

“This should be enough for first aid. Those of you who are conscious, please tend to the person next to you.”

“…W-wait… Where are you going…?”

One of the rescued reached out to grab Zeke, but he was already gone.

Soon, more people began to enter the pit one after another.

Zeke prioritized rescuing those who appeared to be in critical condition.

He cut the ropes binding the wrists of the others, allowing them to escape on their own.

“Th-thank you!!!”

“There’s a pit behind you. Go in there and hide.”

“Wh-where is the hero…?”

“I’m following Duke Yohaiden’s will.”

“Y-Yohaiden!!!!”

A short distance away, Duke Yohaiden and his White Tiger Knights could be seen rescuing people.

Fortunately, the situation was being brought under control before it could escalate into the worst-case scenario.

“Damn it! There are guys stealing our sacrifices!”

“These bastards are in cahoots with them!!! Attack them!!!!!”

As people began to disappear, the Lost Hope members finally noticed the Yohaiden Knights and charged.

Whizz-

Slash-

In the process, a few Lost Hope followers also attacked Zeke,

but they quickly quieted down after he personally sent their heads flying.

Zeke let out a soft sigh and assessed the situation.

About two-thirds of the Lost Hope members had gone to deal with Eustia on the mountainside,

and the rest were clashing with the Yohaiden Knights.

Although the Yohaiden Knights had suffered some casualties,

they were coping surprisingly well, with several knights ganging up on each opponent.

The reason for their valiant fight was probably Soi Spoon.

Soi was attracting a lot of attention with her flashy movements, allowing the others to focus elsewhere.

She was swinging her sword, unleashing all her pent-up emotions.

Like a beast released from its cage, harboring hatred towards humans.

Soi’s swordsmanship had no form.

A sword that unleashed cruelty and savagery without restraint.

An exhilarating swordsmanship focused solely on attack.

She truly lived up to her nickname, Mad Dog.

However, Soi’s Mad Dog Swordsmanship, which boasted such intense power, had one fatal flaw.

It was vulnerable to evasion and defense.

Of course, she instinctively sensed and reacted to life-threatening attacks,

but she tended to prioritize landing one more hit, even if it meant ignoring moderate damage.

No matter how much she suppressed pain due to her emotional overload,

the accumulation of minor injuries would eventually become unbearable.

Her body would gradually grow heavy, and the fatigue and wounds accumulated over time would hold her back.

But Zeke wasn’t particularly worried about her.

‘That’s why I trained her to counter that.’

Soi’s swordsmanship training was different from others.

First, it started by forcing her into a berserk state,

and then she would spar with other children as had lost her reason.

When they clashed, Soi, wielding a real sword without restraint, would eventually force her opponent (mainly, Rosnante) to show an opening, and that’s when Zeke would step in.

He would repeatedly throw pebbles at the areas where her defense was weak.

This way, he ingrained a conditioned reflex in her, making evasion and defense automatic.

Having received such training from Zeke, she was fighting quite well in actual combat.

The thought briefly crossed his mind that this might be a bit of a harsh debut for a romance fantasy protagonist, but Zeke shook his head.

‘Nope, it was much tougher in my time! I even had insurance, so this much is nothing.’

After experiencing such intense emotions once, her threshold would increase, and she would be able to control herself to a reasonable level in the future.

It was a win-win situation!

There was no reason not to utilize it.

Zeke, whose standards were set in dark fantasy, couldn’t find any fault in his methods.

Of course, the onlookers felt differently.

***

Sedan Yohaiden had just managed to defeat a Lost Hope member with the help of other knights.

In the process, his shoulder seemed to have been dislocated after being struck by a powerful force.

“Wait… I think I’ve injured my shoulder.”

“Then go back and rest for a while. We’ll handle the rest.”

“Ugh. Alright, I’ll leave it to you…”

Sedan gritted his teeth.

He was acutely aware of his own powerlessness.

“Huff, huff… Damn it… I really was just a kid…”

The war he was experiencing firsthand was on a completely different level from what he had heard.

The unsettling atmosphere weighed heavily on his shoulders,

and his breathing became labored after just a few swings of his sword.

The muscles in his entire body screamed in protest, complaining of fatigue.

A scene of blood and madness.

Both victory and defeat were horrifying.

He caught his breath and looked around, his eyes widening at a particular spot.

“Uh… Th-that’s…”

Thud-

“K-kill her!!! Kill that bitch!!! Gyaaaaaah!!!!!”

It took five Yohaiden Knights to barely handle one Lost Hope member.

And there was a small girl slaughtering those Lost Hope members all by herself.

‘Soi Spoon…?’

Sedan couldn’t take his eyes off her movements.

Soi moved gracefully, her brown hair flowing as if she were dancing.

She seemed to be the only one free in this chaotic and disorderly battlefield.

Every time the sword in her hand drew an arc,

screams and crimson blood followed its path.

Even surrounded by multiple enemies in a perilous situation,

she effortlessly dodged the thrusting swords and used her enemies as shields to restrict their movements.

When there was no room to dodge, she would roll on the ground or even dive between the legs of her enemies,

simultaneously grabbing their vital points and bringing them down.

Like a beast mimicking human movements.

No, a demon.

“…She’s completely lost it.”

Sedan remembered Soi.

Wasn’t this the same girl who had asked Selena with a serious expression if they could still be friends after graduating from the academy?

He had thought she was just a girl who had come along to serve Zeke Clayman.

But he was wrong.

That innocent face was nowhere to be seen.

The murderous aura emanating from her gleaming eyes made him gasp.

Just then, a large man with a distinct presence appeared in front of Soi.

That man was definitely the one who had crushed dozens of people with his massive body!

“…Oh, oh no. Danger!!!”

* * *

“What the…”

The Lost Hope’s Battle Bishop, Tullak, who had lost the traitor, Julie.

He frowned fiercely and assessed the situation.

Lost Hope followers were being slaughtered everywhere, their blood splattered across the battlefield.

The other bishops had gone to attack Duke Eustia, believing it was crucial to strike at the head, so now he was the only one left behind.

They were being attacked from the rear and were defenseless.

If it weren’t for that little girl disrupting their ranks, they wouldn’t have been so easily defeated.

“Damn it… What the hell is going on…? How did those bastards figure out how to penetrate the ‘barrier’…? No, more importantly, why did that bitch Julie betray us and kill Madam…?”

*Gnash-*

His teeth ground together with a sharp sound.

Nothing made sense.

Especially the betrayal of Julie, the Battle Bishop, was a shock that made his head spin.

The whole situation felt like a joke.

“No, I’ll think later… First, I need to deal with that bitch who’s slaughtering our followers.”

He could figure things out after everything was over.

If he left that brown-haired girl alone, all his precious followers who shared his beliefs would be killed.

Even if he had to postpone capturing Julie, the most logical decision right now was to capture that girl first.

Tullak fixed his gaze on Soi and opened his mouth.

“Hraaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!!!!!!”

A massive roar erupted from his mouth.

Authority. [Lost Sight]

This authority was a kind of provocation ability that fixed the opponent’s gaze solely on him.

The opponent bound by this ability and he himself couldn’t take their eyes off each other until one of them died.

As a bonus, it paralyzed their reason and heated their heads with excitement, simplifying their attacks.

Compared to the authorities of other bishops, the cost was low, and the effect of the ability itself wasn’t that great, but Tullak thought this was the perfect ability for him.

Originally, Tullak had been able to reach the position of Battle Bishop solely through his pure physical talent.

Thud-

Tullak kicked off the ground and landed in front of Soi.

“You bitch, I won’t let you die easily.”

Soi’s reddened eyes stared at Tullak.