"Ugh…"When I woke up, I felt terrible and exhausted. Deciding not to get up, I continued to lie on bed and stare up blankly at the ceiling. I didn"t need my gla.s.ses to tell me that it was morning outside. Or at least it was daytime – I could see the sunlight stream through the windows.
Blinking several times, I forced myself to sit up on the bed, grimacing as my sore muscles ached from the effort. Reaching out for my gla.s.ses, I put them on and glanced around. As I suspected – especially since I could detect the faint scent of ethanol and disinfectant – I was in the infirmary. A public hospital that was reserved by the Global Federation to take care of injured partic.i.p.ants in the national high school tournament.
Speaking of which, I wanted to know the results of yesterday"s match. I knew it was highly unlikely that my team would have been eliminated yesterday, given the fact that I had eliminated five of their core members during the individual matches, especially their captain, who was the ace of their team and their most powerful fighter. Given the capabilities of Harrison and the others, they shouldn"t have any problem defeating the reserve team of Saint Teresa Academy, even if Rossetti Picket was available to lead them.
Fortunately, I didn"t have to wait long before my friends arrived.
"Richie! You"re awake!"
Dong Fang Yue Chu was the first one in, almost running excitedly. Except that it was against the rules to run in the hospital, for obvious reasons, so he calmed himself down and strode toward me in joy. I nodded at him.
"Yeah, I am. What happened? Did we win?"
"Ha ha ha ha!" Craig burst out laughing as he followed Yue Chu into the room, Sheila at his side. "The first thing he asks after he wakes up is that? Aren"t you underestimating us?"
"He"s been out the entire time, so it"s understandable," Sheila reminded him.
"We won!" Yue Chu a.s.sured me. "Thanks to you, we won 10-2! We actually beat Saint Teresa Academy 10-2, of all opponents!"
"It was a much easier victory than antic.i.p.ated, thanks to you eliminating all of the core members during the individual matches." Harrison strolled in and greeted me with a wide smile. "You"ve done Jing Tian Academy proud, Richard. Great job. Very well done…seriously, I never expected you to pull off a miracle, but you did. I stand humbled."
"Nah," I began awkwardly. "You guys did your part as well."
"Our part was made much easier thanks to your efforts," Lily informed me, taking her place beside an excited Yue Chu. "We really, really appreciate what you"ve done."
"But you should take better care of yourself," Pearl chided me, frowning. "We were all so worried when you collapsed."
"You should have seen Pearl freak out," Theodore said with a gruff laugh. "We all knew you would be all right, that you ran out of mana after that last fight…"
"But still…!"
"Now, now." Harrison raised his hands to defuse the argument. "Richard is all right, we won, and we"ve progressed to the semifinal. Now we should worry about how to take down Pendragon Academy."
"You had better not pull the same stunt again," Pearl told me sternly. "I don"t care if it worked this time, but I will not allow you to try and replicate fighting against five members in a row during the individual matches again."
"I don"t think I"m in any condition to try that again," I a.s.sured her wearily. I hadn"t even fully recovered from yesterday"s series of grueling matches, and even though I probably would recuperate in time for the semifinals tomorrow, I didn"t want to risk exhausting myself. I doubted Pendragon Academy would be as easy.
"Ha ha! Come on, at least leave some of the glory to us!" Craig complained playfully. "We want a share of the wins too! Don"t hog the limelight on your own!"
"Speaking of which, the fact that you defeated Kureha Franklin, the Sword Saint – that fact alone was already incredible enough." Theodore grinned. "You got everyone talking about your victory on social media. How you overcame the legenary Sword Saint of our generation with nothing more than a couple of basic summoning spells…when you were exhausted and almost running on empty."
"Not to mention the fact that you pulled off an all-kill! The first in the tournament history!"
Yue Chu was way too enthusiastic for his own good, practically jumping up and down by my bedside. I resisted a smile when I thought how Harvey, Adrian and the rest of my "fans" would be reacting after my attainment of an upset.
We were the underdogs, and most pundits didn"t think we would win and progress to the semifinals. Yet we didn"t just win, I achieved an all-kill, something that hadn"t been achieved in the history of the national high school tournaments.
"This secures our place against Pendragon Academy in the semfinals tomorrow," Cody reminded us, his arms crossed as he leaned against the white wall. He shook his head in disbelief. "We have gone much further than we have last year…to think we actually reached the semifinals this year…I"m still in shock."
"Yeah! I"m still buzzing from yesterday"s win!" Yue Chu cheered.
"Let"s all do our best for tomorrow as well," Harrison suggested with a nod. "I don"t know how far we can go, but we don"t have to fear anybody. Let"s go all out and surprise Pendragon Academy with everything we"ve got." He glanced at me. "Don"t worry, Richard, you won"t have to do all the fighting tomorrow."
"I don"t think I"m in any shape to do so," I admitted. Everyone burst out laughing at that.
"Well, rest for now. We"ll be holding a strategy meeting for now, and I"ll send you a brief summary as well as video replays of Pendragon Academy"s matches, but you should take the chance to rest and recover as much strength as possible."
"Sure." I nodded and watched my friends leave. Sinking back into bed, I shut my eyes briefly and allowed my mana to flow through my body and coalesce.
*
"Richie, how are you doing?"
I sat up when I heard the familiar voice, my jaw dropping when I saw who had came in to visit.
"Dad? What are you doing here?"
"Checking on you, of course!" Dad grinned as he came over and rubbed my head. "Of course I"ll be concerned after you collapsed during yesterrday"s individual matches."
"You were watching all that?" I felt a little embarra.s.sed for some reason. Dad threw his head back as he bellowed in laughter.
"How could I miss my son"s matches? And his historic achievement of getting an all-kill for the first time in the national tournament"s history? You made history, son. Even years after this tournament, people will continue talking about what you did yesterday. You"ve basically become the yardstick, the guy everyone else will have to measure up to."
"Nah…"
I wasn"t sure how else to react to that.
"Oh, by the way…you have another visitor." Dad stepped back and nodded toward the door. Again, I was surprised when I saw someone completely unfamiliar stride inside and lower his head politely at Dad.
"Um…?"
I didn"t recognize the newcomer. He was a man who looked to be in his fifties, and possessed white-silver hair, along with a neatly trimmed mustache and beard. He was also dressed in flamboyant, exquisite clothing, a formal white s.h.i.+rt and tie inside a huge crimson, black and gold jacket. He regarded me hesitantly.
"This is the Duke of the Franklin family, Fergus Franklin. The current head of the Franklin family, in other words…you do know of the Franklin family, right?"
I nodded at Dad"s words. The Franklin family was one of the ten great families, and the clan who gave birth to the Sword Saint, Kureha, as well as the fencing prodigy, Shawn – both of whom I had met and even exchanged blows with.
Fergus Franklin bowed his head at me politely "I believe you"ve met my daughter, Melina, as well as my nieces, Kureha and Eliza. Also…I believe you fought alongside my nephew Shawn before his death."
The Stuart Corporation Building incident. I wouldn"t say I actually fought alongside Shawn Franklin, but the both of us did indeed attempt to stop Yuan Dao Yue Guang before he could attack Lionel Stuart. That attempted ended in Shawn"s death.
However, I was too overawed to correct him, and I nodded dumbly.
"Uh, well, yeah…"
"I believe my daughter Melina has already approached you about this…" Saying so, he glanced at the door, where the familiar figure of a blond, diminutive girl poked her head out. I wasn"t surprised to see Adrian also hiding behind the wall, accompanying her. He gave me a friendly wave, but neither teenagers stepped into the room until Fergus gave Melina a stern stare.
Gulping, Melina reluctantly stepped into the room as well, and then lowered her head while cupping her hands respectfully.
"Sensei."
"Uh, what? Sensei?"
"Be patient, Melina," Fergus chided her. "Wait until he actually accepts the offer first."
"Offer? What offer?" I was getting confused. The Duke turned to me apologetically.
"Well, as I said before, my daughter has made a request of you…asking you to teach her swordsmans.h.i.+p. I would like to make the same request as well."
He raised his head and smiled gruffly.
"I"ve seen your performance yesterday, and like everyone else, I was utterly impressed. I feel like if it"s you, you can definitely lead my daughter to achieve unprecedented heights."
"Begging your pardon, but why me? I"m still pretty young and relatively inexperienced, especially when compared to many other teachers and masters out there…I"m sure you"ll be able to find more appropriate masters to teach Melina. I don"t have any experience training anyone."
"Uh, well, there certainly are more esteemed and prestigious teachers, but I think you"re the one best suited for my daughter." Fergus took a deep breath. "And I guess there"s no point hiding this from you, but there currently is a delicate political situation taking place in our Franklin family right now. To be more precise, a…political struggle, especially over who gets to become the next head of the Franklin family."
What did that have to do with me? I sure as h.e.l.l didn"t want to get involved with their family politics.
"As you know, the current contender and the next successor to the position of Franklin family head is most certainly going to be Kureha. She"s the Sword Saint, the most powerful in her generation and the inheritor of the Franklin clan sword arts, after the late Shawn. There are very few rivals, except Eliza, but Eliza is from a branch family, and her claim is not as strong. Needless to say, there are a few very powerful backers supporting her to be the next head, even though the person in question is not so keen about it."
"Okay…"
I still didn"t see what that had to do with Melina, or what that had to do with me becoming her Sensei.
"As a father, though…" Fergus reached out and ruffled Melina"s hair. "Of course I would like to see my daughter be the next head, no matter how unrealistic it might be. Especially since she wasn"t able to learn the Franklin sword style…"
"I will do it!" Melina insisted. "I"ll learn swordsmans.h.i.+p and make you proud, Father!"
"I know you will." Fergus granted his daughter a smile, then he turned back to me. "Regardless of the head situation, I want Melina to be able to stand tall and proud among our family. I have heard what both insiders and outsiders say about my daughter, even the servants, and believe me, it"s not pleasant. I want to prove them all wrong…and show them that my daughter can become a superb swordswoman, one who makes me proud."
There was something in his expression that told me that he wasn"t telling me everything. There was more to this issue, but I couldn"t put my finger on it. Judging from how this was a rip off of a.s.sa.s.sins Pride, I bet it had something to do with Melina"s parentage – that everyone was now claiming that her beloved mother and Fergus"s dear wife had an affair, and thus Melina was an illegitimate child. That was the only explanation for her lack of swordsmans.h.i.+p. That sort of bulls.h.i.+t.
Fergus didn"t give me any chance to ask, though. He continued on.
"I would have taught her myself, but…as you know, being the head comes with many responsibilities, and I have a city to govern. I hardly have time to see my daughter everyday, and I fear I would not be able to impart her the skills I wish I could."
That was just an excuse, old man. If you really wanted to teach her, you would find the time to do so. You were just dumping her on me.
And honestly, I wanted no part of this…
"I wouldn"t be able to teach Melina Franklin sword style," I protested. "You"re asking the wrong person."
"Oh no, that"s fine. I don"t need my daughter to actually learn Franklin sword style." Fergus gave his daughter another ruffle on her head. "I just want her to be a brilliant swordswoman. Someone who can proudly lay claim to her status as a wielder of the sword, without being mocked or scorned or looked down upon. To that end, I don"t care what swordsmans.h.i.+p she learns." He lowered his voice. "I"m ashamed to admit that I did try to teach her Franklin swordsmans.h.i.+p when she was younger, but…to put it bluntly, some people are not meant for it."
He then straightened up, his cheeks flushed.
"Then I thought…why not have her learn a different school of swordsmans.h.i.+p? When she mentioned you, and I saw your match…something just clicked. I thought, ah, this must be fate."
This, my friend, was what you call bulls.h.i.+t.
"Well, discussing all this is a moot point because I already agreed to it."
"…huh?" I turned to gape at Dad, who was looking all smug for some reason. Fergus coughed.
"Ah, yeah, well…I actually discussed this with your father earlier. He agreed to it."
"Exactly." Dad beamed. "So Melinchan here will be coming to our dojo several times a week after the tournament."
b.l.o.o.d.y h.e.l.l, Dad, don"t go off making decisions on your own. On the other hand, if Melina was coming to our dojo, then I could push the job off to Dad. He could train her himself. I didn"t have to lift a finger regarding her. h.e.l.l, Dad was a much more appropriate teacher than me, so I was actually glad about this development.
Speaking of which, why the "chan"? Oh, because Dad was a weeabo otaku who loved manga and anime. Never mind.
"Okay…"
"I"l be in your care." Melina was bowing somewhat timidly and politely. Scratching my head, I sighed and nodded.
"Uh, right."
In any event, I didn"t have to worry about this until after the tournament, or so I thought. And even then, Dad would do most of the teaching, so I could leave it to him.
Too bad reality never worked out the way I wanted it to…