I Became a Swordsmanship Instructor in a Romance Novel

Duke Eustia’s eyes were wide open, his face hardened.

“What is the meaning of this…?”

The negotiations had abruptly fallen apart, interrupted by the voice of an unknown man.

He should have realized then that something was wrong.

Fear of the unknown, the incomprehensible, washed over him.

It was a bizarre sight.

The traps they had prepared were useless.

Poisoned spikes, coated with a toxin that would cause anyone who touched it to wither and collapse, had no effect.

Neither did the massive logs and boulders they rolled down the mountainside, nor the pits lined with sharpened stakes.

If the enemies had at least noticed and avoided the traps, he wouldn’t have felt this way.

But no.

They simply advanced, seemingly oblivious to the traps.

No matter how large the boulder that crushed them, no matter how deep the pit they fell into, they would rise again, like immortal beings, dusting themselves off.

A barrage of flaming arrows and spears followed, but they too were ineffective.

Finally, the creatures reached the Eustia Knights’ encampment.

And the carnage began.

The ten thousand soldiers of the Eustia Ducal House were being slaughtered without resistance.

Spears couldn’t pierce them, and swords bounced off them as if they were shielded by an invisible barrier.

Countless Eustia soldiers were flung down the mountain.

With monstrous strength, the creatures grabbed the soldiers by their collars or hands and tossed them aside as if they were mere objects.

“Uwaaaaaaaaaaaah!”

Eustia soldiers plummeted down the steep cliff.

No one could survive a fall from this height.

Not only did they possess such brute force, but the fifty figures leading them displayed a strength of a different dimension altogether.

Wherever these shadowy figures, moving with an uncanny swiftness, passed, the heads of Eustia Knights would vanish.

It was a horrific nightmare, watching a mere 700 figures decimate an army of 10,000.

Among the six figures in black robes leading the shadowy assassins, one man stopped and pulled back the hood of his robe, tilting his head in confusion.

“What the… What are these weaklings?”

He said, resting a massive greatsword on his shoulder.

* * *

Soi looked up at the giant who stood before her.

He was at least twice her size, with a thick-browed, menacing face and a shaved head.

Tullak, the Battle Bishop of Lost Hope, had shed his robe, finding it cumbersome.

“How dare you… kill our followers…”

Tullak clicked his tongue, looking at the bodies of his followers scattered around.

Each one had died in agonizing pain, mouths frothing with blood, eyes wide with terror.

He turned his head and fixed his gaze on the small, brown-haired girl.

“…What are you? An assassin trained by Eustia?”

“You… you’re strong… Really strong…”

But Soi spoke as if she hadn’t heard him, her voice slurred.

“But you’re not as scary as that monster instructor… But you’re still strong…”

“…Hah, you’re not going to answer my questions, are you?”

Tullak twisted his lips into a sneer.

Clearly, this was a deliberate attack on Lost Hope.

Julie wouldn’t have betrayed them on her own.

If she had shown any signs of betrayal, the Demon King wouldn’t have granted her his power.

That meant someone had recently approached Julie and persuaded her to betray them.

He couldn’t fathom how they had managed to break her strong faith, but he knew he couldn’t be too careful.

‘This girl… doesn’t seem like that type.’

She was more like him.

He could smell the scent of a kindred spirit, someone who focused solely on crushing their enemies without thinking too much.

The “monster instructor” this girl had just mentioned was probably the mastermind behind this incident.

‘Hah, two bishops dead… No, if we count the traitor, there are only seven bishops left… This is truly unexpected… Who the hell is behind this…?’

No matter how much he racked his brain, he couldn’t understand anything.

As expected, he wasn’t suited for complicated tasks like interrogation.

He scratched his chin with a thick finger.

‘Sigh, Boss. I can’t do this.’

Suddenly, his hand, which was scratching his chin, blurred, and then—

“I’ll start by ripping off your limbs!!!!!”

A fist the size of Soi’s head flew towards her face with ferocious speed.

***

‘You said you’d rip off my limbs!!!’

Soi’s face turned pale as she dodged the fist aimed at her head.

Although she didn’t say it out loud, she was tense enough for her fading reason to briefly return.

“Phew, that was just a greeting. I didn’t think you, who tormented our followers so much, wouldn’t be able to dodge such a simple attack.”

The giant man chuckled and took a fighting stance.

‘He’s strong… Much stronger than me.’

Her instincts continued to whisper, urging her to flee and live to fight another day.

But for some reason, Soi couldn’t take her eyes off him.

Suddenly, her scattered combat senses focused entirely on him.

A hazy fog seemed to cloud her mind, and the reason she had desperately clung to flickered and threatened to disappear.

Bang!

Tullak charged.

The distance between them closed in an instant.

He slammed his left foot into the ground, putting his weight behind it.

Crack!

The ground beneath his foot cracked, and a fist, propelled by his rotating body and sheer weight, grew larger as it approached her face.

A single, powerful punch, enhanced by rotation and weight.

It threatened to crush her skull.

‘You said limbs!? Why are you only aiming for my head!?’

A jolt of intuition.

Alarm bells went off in her head.

‘I need to dodge.’

But this was enemy territory.

She was surrounded by enemies ready to seize her if she tried to escape.

With her vision and all her combat senses fixated on him, she couldn’t move.

So, Soi squeezed her eyes shut.

If she couldn’t take her eyes off him, she would simply close them.

It was a gamble, a desperate decision made in her fading consciousness, but Soi’s gamble paid off.

Though she lost her sight, her scattered combat senses returned.

‘There’s no one on my right!’

Her stiff body regained its agility.

Soi gritted her teeth and leaped to the right, narrowly avoiding the fist.

Whoosh!

A sharp gust of wind swept past where she had been standing, and the edge of her clothes disintegrated from the force of his punch.

“Hoh… You dodged that…?”

Tullak said, a hint of admiration in his voice.

Soi immediately kicked off the ground, twisted her body, and flung herself backward.

‘Uh… I think I’m really losing it now… Please, just don’t open your eyes. Don’t open them…’

She landed where one of the followers stood.

In mid-air, Soi’s blade twisted and flashed.

“Uwaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!!!”

A fountain of blood erupted as the follower’s wrist, outstretched to grab Soi, was severed.

Instinct, fueled by Tullak’s power, had taken over, leaving not a shred of reason behind.

With her eyes closed, her intuition sharpened even further.

“I… I need to run… I’m scared…”

Soi turned and fled.

“You… damn girl!! Where do you think you’re going!!! Fight me!!!!”

Tullak, about to charge again, roared, but he hesitated.

Soi, with her eyes closed, was now free from the limitations of [Lost Sight].

Her instincts screamed at her to avoid a direct confrontation with him.

Her intuition pointed her towards an escape route.

It was straight into the heart of the enemy, where the Lost Hope followers were densely packed.

No one had ever chosen to close their eyes against Tullak before.

And no one had ever used Lost Hope followers as shields.

Soi weaved through the crowd like a squirrel, darting towards wherever the Lost Hope followers were clustered.

And as she did, followers fell one by one, bleeding and dying.

Tullak’s brow furrowed in anger.

“You damn bitch!!!”

Tullak was a powerhouse, relying on his massive physique.

Delicate attacks were not his forte.

He could unleash a charge powerful enough to catch her, but he risked harming other Lost Hope followers in the process.

He couldn’t bring himself to kill his own followers, so he continued to chase her, but he couldn’t catch the small girl who was using the crowd as cover.

“Kyaaaaaaaaaak!!!!!”

“Gurk!!!!!”

“Aaaaaack!!!!”

Finally, Tullak’s patience snapped as he watched Soi Spoon single-handedly slaughter his followers.

“Uwaaaaaaaaaaah!!!!!”

Tullak roared and charged.

He thrust his shoulders forward and kicked off the ground, his massive body launching forward like a cannonball.

Several followers were crushed and flung aside as he charged, but he managed to grab Soi Spoon’s ankle as she tried to escape.

“Got you! You little rat!”

He snarled, his face contorted with rage, as he lifted Soi into the air.