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Chapter 145: Proof

“Uh, did you really understand it all? You don’t need to feel too pressured! We have plenty of time!”

A flustered Jeryd waved his hands.

As the head of the Inquisition who personally brought Ethan, he thought Ethan might be feeling compelled to show something worthy of those expectations.

30 minutes? It was an impossible feat.

It would be difficult just to read it all in that time.

However, Ethan smiled and shook his head.

“It’s enough.”

He made such a bold claim because it truly was enough.

‘It’s the Inquisition’s manual. I already know a lot of it.’

When he played MePan as part of the Followers of the Moon, he had clashed with the Inquisition countless times.

In the process, he had obtained the Inquisition’s manual and even experienced stealing an inquisitor’s uniform.

‘Of course, this manual will be more accurate and detailed than that.’

So 30 minutes was sufficient.

It was hard for Jeryd to believe, but seeing Ethan’s expression, he couldn’t say anything more and just nodded in agreement.

“Alright. I’ll be back in 30 minutes.”

***

“You’ve arrived, Director.”

“Benjamin.”

Benjamin Rewrite, the deputy director of the Inquisition, greeted Jeryd.

“Were there any results?”

“Results? They were overflowing. There were many excellent students.”

“You seem quite satisfied. So, did you make an offer to Sir Claudie?”

“No.”

“I guess seeing them in person wasn’t impressive. But aren’t we in a hurry right now?”

“That’s not it. I asked someone else instead of Sir Claudie.”

Jeryd explained about the Interdepartmental Exchange Event and Ethan.

“Ohhh.”

Benjamin’s face lit up after hearing the whole story. According to Jeryd’s explanation, Ethan Whiskers was an excellent educator, more than capable of teaching new inquisitors.

“However…”

As soon as Benjamin finished exclaiming, Jeryd’s expression stiffened slightly.

“What’s wrong?”

He should have been relieved to have brought such a skilled teacher, even if the education hadn’t started yet.

Nevertheless, Jeryd’s expression wasn’t very good.

Was there some problem in the process of bringing him?

“Well…”

Jeryd explained what had just happened.

He told him how when he gave Ethan the Inquisition’s manual and asked when he could start teaching, Ethan said he could do it in 30 minutes.

“What? 30 minutes?”

Benjamin also looked bewildered at those unbelievable words.

“Yes, at first I thought he would ask for 3 weeks, no, a month.”

“Of course, at least a month is needed. It takes quite a while just to read that thick manual. And it’s not enough to understand and memorize it in a month. Didn’t the previous instructor take 3 months to teach the basics to new recruits?”

Benjamin said incredulously.

Three months to teach the basics to new inquisitors. If so, it wouldn’t be strange if it took even longer to perfectly master this manual.

If this teacher Ethan Whiskers had an exceptional ability to understand, it might be possible in about a month, but…

“30 minutes is a bit… I understand why your expression hardened like that.”

“Right? 30 minutes, it’s just impossible.”

Benjamin nodded at Jeryd’s words.

“He might just skim through the manual roughly and try to assess the state of the new inquisitors before starting the actual education.”

“That’s probably it. I already told him the new inquisitors are rough.”

“Since you personally brought him, Director, it’s probably strategic. Don’t worry too much. I’m sure this Sir Ethan has his own plan.”

“I suppose so. We agreed to meet again later, so let’s move on for now. How are their movements?”

Benjamin began reporting in detail to Jeryd’s question.

“Three teams have been deployed now. The cleanup is mostly finished, we just need to flush out and deal with those still holding out in the forest.”

“What’s there that they keep holding out for?”

“There’s something called the Moon Fragment, a kind of magic stone.”

“Moon Fragment?”

“Yes, it seems to be a magic stone with quite condensed mana, with a special energy called the moon’s aura, according to the clan from the nearby forest.”

“Are they trying to obtain this Moon Fragment?”

“Yes, those holding out now have it.”

“We need to retrieve it. If we get that, we can track the movements and goals of those Followers of the Moon bastards.”

As they received reports and discussed future plans, the 30 minutes quickly passed.

“Let’s go together, Deputy Director Benjamin. If possible, try to kindly tell Sir Ethan not to feel too pressured.”

“Ah, yes, understood.”

Benjamin was also quite curious about this Ethan Whiskers. If he was someone the Director was impressed by his skills and brought instead of Claudie, he must be truly exceptional.

Of course, the claim that he only needed 30 minutes was a bit strange, but they would find out when they met him in person.

***

“I’m all prepared.”

The room prepared for Ethan was quite neat and spacious.

“You say you’re all prepared?”

Jeryd wore a puzzled expression.

“Ah, let me first introduce my colleague here. This is my deputy and current deputy director of the Inquisition, Benjamin Rewrite.”

“Hello, I’m Benjamin Rewrite, the deputy director of the Inquisition. I’m pleased to meet you, Sir Ethan, who will be working as our instructor for a while.”

Benjamin extended his hand with a smiling face.

The first impression he got was that Ethan Whiskers was quite a handsome young man, more than he had expected.

Especially those hazy eyes.

He gave off a somewhat weak impression.

Of course, he could sense the strength hidden in those eyes, but he didn’t look as special as he had imagined.

“I’m Ethan Whiskers. It will be a short period, but I look forward to working with you.”

As the two shook hands, Jeryd asked again.

“What do you mean by saying you’re all prepared?”

“I mean I’m ready to teach the new inquisitors.”

“It has indeed been 30 minutes as you said, but…”

Even though Jeryd had personally brought him, this needed to be clarified.

“I want to teach our new inquisitors thoroughly and accurately. If I was going to teach them half-heartedly, I wouldn’t have personally invited you, Sir Ethan.”

Jeryd said.

Ethan grinned at those words.

“Then let me demonstrate by teaching the Director first. That way, you’ll know whether I’ve mastered this manual and am ready to teach the new inquisitors, right?”

Ethan then looked at the deputy director.

“Deputy Director, please join us as well.”

***

In a spacious training ground.

Ethan, Jeryd, and Benjamin stood on the sparring arena.

To be honest, the Director and Deputy Director were perplexed.

They both clearly thought Ethan couldn’t have perfectly mastered the manual.

It was natural. How could anyone master that in just 30 minutes?

30 minutes wasn’t even enough time to simply read it.

And to claim he could teach it to someone else to that extent?

He must be either a genius or a braggart full of bluster.

In Jeryd’s view, Ethan was clearly the former. That’s why he entrusted him with the instructor position.

However, on this matter, he slightly suspected Ethan might be the latter.

-What should we do? 

The Deputy Director asked in a quiet voice.

-Since we’ve already invited him as an instructor, we have no choice but to entrust this education matter to him entirely. But if he hasn’t properly mastered it and is just being overly enthusiastic, we’ll unfortunately have to find a new instructor.

Wrong is wrong. Even if it meant embarrassing him, teaching the new inquisitors was currently a very important matter for the Inquisition.

Jeryd steeled his resolve.

“I’ll teach as if you were new inquisitors.”

“Ah, yes, go ahead.”

“Recruit, from now on, all responses will be ‘Ack’.”

“What?”

Bang-!

Suddenly, a powerful force spread out from the center of the sparring ground.

Both Jeryd and Benjamin were surprised by the strong force that spread just from stomping on the ground.

“Without using mana…”

“Response.”

Ethan spoke emotionlessly. As if he was a different person, the atmosphere had completely changed.

Finally grasping the situation, both shouted loudly.

“Ack!”

“Ack-!”

For some reason, it felt like they had to respond that way.

“Take up the mace and demonstrate your skills.”

At Ethan’s words, Jeryd picked up the mace. Then he demonstrated the basic blunt weapon techniques written in the Inquisition manual.

The mace used in blunt weapon techniques was heavy, unleashing powerful force with each strike.

Therefore, these blunt weapon techniques were designed to accurately target vital points to maximize that power.

Whoosh-!

It started with the back of the hand.

Jeryd deliberately swung the mace like a novice inquisitor.

Originally, he should have used his shoulder to make one big rotation for an accurate strike.

That was how to maximize the attack power.

But just now, instead of rotating the shoulder in a circular motion, he just swung the blunt weapon using only arm strength.

Seeing Jeryd’s movement, Ethan grabbed a wooden sword placed in the corner of the sparring ground.

“Again.”

As Jeryd swung the mace in exactly the same way as before, Ethan’s wooden sword moved to match that speed.

Tap-. Tap-.

As Heo’s Acupuncture had been mastered, Ethan’s correction ability had also greatly improved.

Therefore, it didn’t matter if the opponent didn’t relax their strength.

He would automatically strike the problematic areas, inevitably correcting the posture accurately.

“…Huh?”

Jeryd wore a puzzled expression for a moment at that correction.

That movement just now was a perfect swing as written in the manual.

It delivered an accurate strike to the desired spot by fully utilizing the centrifugal force of the shoulder.

“What, what is this.”

Jeryd didn’t know.

How Ethan educated.

He only knew that Ethan was an exceptionally good educator based on what his senior Ghost Sword had said and seeing the students Ethan had trained at the Interdepartmental Exchange Event.

That’s why he was surprised.

Could education be done in this way?

“Concentrate.”

The blunt weapon technique in the manual.

Its first movement was being accurately reproduced in his body.

“And continue. Don’t stop.”

Jeryd continued to demonstrate the blunt weapon technique as if possessed.

This time, corrections were made precisely as he performed the technique.

“Im-impossible.”

The Deputy Director was shocked as he watched Ethan correcting Jeryd’s posture.

He knew this too, having received countless training sessions.

“The manual…”

Did he really master the entire manual?

In just 30 minutes?

If not, there’s no way he could make someone take such a perfect stance!

Benjamin suspected that maybe Jeryd was deliberately taking the stance to support Ethan.

Benjamin looked at Jeryd.

Jeryd was even more surprised than Benjamin. His pupils kept shaking, and if this was acting, he could be ranked among the continent’s best actors.

“You really memorized the entire manual.”

It wasn’t just memorization, but precise understanding.

Otherwise, he couldn’t correct it so accurately.

Jeryd, who received Ethan’s education, felt that the most.

Jeryd, unable to hide his surprise, stood in place. He looked at his own hand holding the mace, then at Ethan.

“…I was foolish. I personally brought you, Sir Ethan, believing in your skills, yet I doubted you like this. I’ve committed a great disrespect.”

Jeryd immediately bowed his head.

Benjamin, who had been dazed, also bowed his head together.

“If you could forgive such rudeness, I would like to ask once again.”

“Please, we ask you!”

In their minds, they saw the new inquisitors who had greatly improved after receiving Ethan’s education.

If Ethan properly educated them, they could be immediately deployed in this fight against the Followers of the Moon.

Ethan gestured to them to raise their heads, saying it was alright.

“I’ll make them properly.”

Ethan said.

“Into people.”

Author's Thoughts

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