Chapter 15
Ivan got up, smoothing down his tousled hair.
The lingering heat clung stickily to his body. Ivan opened the window to air out the area.
Elena still hadn't fully come to her senses and was muttering in her sleep.
“Ugh···enough already···.”
I did push her a little too hard last night. It seemed she still needed more rest.
Careful not to wake Elena, Ivan pulled the blanket over her and went outside.
He lifted a bucket of water and poured it over his head in one go, feeling his mind clear.
Ivan welcomed the cool morning air with his whole body and smiled contentedly.
Life had been a lot of fun lately.
Then again, I'd been getting screwed over so badly all this time. Maybe it was about time I got to be happy.
After roughly shaking off the water, Ivan wandered around wherever his feet took him.
He had expected people to bother him by striking up conversations, but surprisingly, there was no sign of anyone doing so.
As he walked, he spotted a group of children who looked to be around ten years old.
It seemed that several of them had surrounded one child and were bullying them.
“Hey, didn't I tell you not to stand out? Do you think my words are a joke?!”
“N-no!!”
“Then why do you keep hanging around and pissing me off?!”
When the apparent leader roughly grabbed the child by the collar, a shrill scream rang out.
Ivan quietly approached and placed a hand on the large child's shoulder.
“What the hell···Gah!!”
“Kids these days are awfully rough. Friends should get along with each other. Right?”
In this primitive medieval-fantasy era, there was no concept of exempting juvenile offenders from criminal punishment.
The warriors of the North often gave immature brats generous doses of discipline.
It wasn't as though Ivan would beat a child senseless, but the kids had no way of knowing that and trembled in fear.
“Y-yes! We'll get along from now on!”
“I'll let it slide this once. If I catch you bullying this kid again, you know what happens, right?”
“Thank you!! Thank you!!”
The delinquent kids quickly ran away without even looking back.
Ivan was left alone with the child sprawled on the ground, so he gave them a once-over.
The child's almost unnaturally white skin, frail build, and sickly appearance all stood out.
Ivan gave them a friendly smile and held out his hand.
“Can you get up?”
“Y-yes. Thank you for helping me···.”
The child's voice, untouched by puberty, had an androgynous quality to it.
The child looked up at Ivan with admiration.
“Y-you're Ivan, right? I'm Rowan···.”
“That's a pretty name. Boys tend to be rough with girls they like, so don't take it too seriously.”
“I-I'm a boy···!!”
“······?”
Ivan momentarily failed to control his expression. Wait, he was a boy?
“I'm sorry. I misspoke···.”
“···N-no, it's okay. Everyone else gets it wrong, too. It's because I'm not manly enough, hic···s-sorry···.”
Unable to contain his surging emotions, Rowan sank to the ground and began to sob bitterly.
It was easy to imagine how much he had been bullied simply for not being manly enough.
“W-why was I born this way···? I wanted to become a great warrior like you···.”
He could have offered some perfunctory consolation and moved on, but doing so would probably only have left him feeling uneasy. Besides, he didn't have much to do these days.
Ivan offered him a small kindness.
“Then why don't you try working out? I could help you.”
“I-I can't···. With a weak body like this, there's no way···.”
“Enough.”
Ivan cut him off coldly.
“Have you done nothing but spout pathetic excuses like that? If all you're going to do is make excuses, just give it all up.”
“I-I tried. But even if I do, it's not as though anything will change···.”
“What matters isn't the result, but the process. If you keep moving forward without giving up, that alone can make you a better person than before. Want to hear something interesting? I used to be a weak little brat just like you.”
“R-really?”
“Why would I lie?”
It was a lie.
But surely a white lie was acceptable if it was meant to motivate him.
Even if Teacher Oh Eun-young had seen this, she'd have had no choice but to applaud like a seal and approve.
“Of course it won't be easy. You'll have to work twice as hard as everyone else. But if, despite all those hardships, you still want to become a better person···take my hand.”
“···Can I really change?”
By now, Rowan was practically won over. Ivan gave him a warm smile.
“Of course. A miraculous day awaits you.”
“······!!”
That was the finishing blow. Rowan grabbed Ivan's hand while holding back his tears.
“Mr. Ivan, I···I'll do it!! No matter what happens, I won't give up!!”
“Yeah, but that title is too formal. Just call me hyung.”
Rowan panicked and waved his arms around.
“H-how could someone like me dare···?”
“Now, now. I said to call me casually.”
Rowan fidgeted and watched Ivan's reaction before lowering his head shyly.
“O-okay. Then···hyung?”
Ivan's expression hardened.
“···Not that casually. Just call me hyung-nim.”
“Y-yes···.”
***
From that day on, one more activity was added to Ivan's daily routine.
“I-I think I'm going to die!!”
“It's okay. You won't die. So just one more. That's it!! Now really, just one last one!!”
“Hieeeek···!!”
Twenty-first-century training backed by scientific research proved remarkably effective even in this primitive medieval-fantasy world.
Ivan completely slipped into the role of the personal trainer who had worked him to the bone in his previous life and pushed Rowan mercilessly.
‘I genuinely wanted to kill him when I was the one being worked to death, but is this what it felt like?’
At last, he understood how his personal trainer had felt. A small smile spread across Ivan's lips.
“All right, we've finished chest, so we're moving straight on to triceps, right?”
“I-I'm done now···.”
“Remember saying you wouldn't give up no matter what happened? I have no intention of giving up on you either.”
Rowan's expression went pale.
Meanwhile, Rowan's rate of growth was far beyond what Ivan had expected.
‘He's already developing muscle definition?’
It hadn't even been a few days since Ivan started training him, yet he'd already come this far. He was a promising talent with a bright future.
“Very good. Five-minute break!”
“Huff···pant···.”
No sooner had Ivan finished speaking than Rowan slumped over and began gasping for breath.
Someone watching from behind cautiously spoke up.
“Um, Ivan···. If you don't mind, could I talk to you for a moment?”
“You are···.”
Who was that again? They hadn't exactly made an impression.
“You don't remember? Bjorda. The first person you defeated at the coming-of-age ceremony···.”
“Oh, that guy? What did you want to talk about?”
Bjorda asked cautiously, as though making this request was an enormous imposition.
“I've been watching you for a while. The way you train your body is highly unusual. It's a method I could never have imagined. I know this is a presumptuous request, but would you be willing to teach me?”
Ivan readily agreed.
“Sure. It's no trouble.”
“Th-thank you! Thank you so much! I'll repay this kindness without fail!”
Bjorda jumped up and down like a child, genuinely delighted.
That was how it began. Before long, other warriors of the tribe came flocking to Ivan and asked him to teach them.
The number of people seeking his instruction had easily surpassed a hundred.
‘Why the hell are these guys suddenly acting like this?’
Until then, they'd avoided his gaze even when their eyes met. Their attitudes had changed completely in an instant.
Havel answered his question.
“Because they were afraid of you.”
“Me? Why?”
“What you showed them was that overwhelming. And since they knew nothing about you, they must have been wary of approaching you.”
“Then why are they suddenly so eager to flock to me?”
“Once they talked to you directly, they found you were a little different from what they'd expected. And now you're even teaching them without asking anything in return.”
Even among warriors, sharing techniques without asking for anything in return was uncommon.
If someone tried to steal a technique without formally learning it as a disciple, it could even end in a sword fight.
But as someone from the modern era, Ivan had little awareness of such conventions.
Besides, he hadn't invented these techniques himself; he was simply teaching things that had already existed.
Regardless, things had grown larger than he'd expected.
Ivan kept a close eye on Rowan while giving the others cursory instruction in his spare time.
“You'll get hurt if you do it like that. Straighten your back.”
“Don't lift it with just your arms through brute force. Use your whole body.”
“Oh, that was good. One more. Just one more.”
Ivan didn't realize it, but throughout the process, the warriors of the tribe were steadily building trust in and gratitude toward him.
He had gained a base of support that would take his side no matter what happened.