Summoner Sovereign

Adrian and Melina paid no attention to the surrounding people and continued onward, until they spotted me stepping out from the stairs and into the ground floor.

"Sensei!" Melina called out to me, delighted. "Did you see that?"

"Yeah." I nodded and waved at them.

"We did it!" Adrian cheered. I grinned and reached down to ruffle their hair.

"You certainly did! Excellent job, the both of you! You make me proud!" I couldn"t help but puff my chest out, unable to contain the emotions welling up within me. This must be what it meant to be a teacher, to watch your students grow up and far surpa.s.s your expectations. "Awesome! You guys were amazing!"

Some people glanced in our direction, having recognized the duo, but they didn��t say anything. There were admiring glances, curious gazes and perhaps looks of envy, which was to be expected. We ignored them all, lost in a world of our own.

"Hey, that wasn"t fair! Sensei, when did you teach Adrian summoning magic?! Why didn"t you teach me?"

"Uh, because you were busily learning swordsmans.h.i.+p?" I sighed. "Focus on one skill at a time. If you had been distracted by summoning magic, you wouldn"t have been able to demonstrate your excellent grasp of swordsmans.h.i.+p today."

"Ugh…" Melina couldn"t argue because she knew I was right. That didn"t make her any less pacified, though. She glared at Adrian. "Then why isn"t it the case for Adrian?"

"Unlike you, he didn"t focus much on swordsmans.h.i.+p, and he was able to master wood magic relatively quickly. Summoning magic is based off the elementary element magic, so once you"re good at a certain element, you have a great foundation upon which you can establish summoning magic."

It was too bad that most people didn"t really learn summoning magic or view it as an extension of their elemental magic, usually because it was too complex to learn, they deemed it too slow and impractical or it cost too much mana. Adrian was only convinced because he saw me using summoning magic and he wanted to emulate me, otherwise I doubted he would ever consider it.

"We should have a party tonight!"

Amelia showed up with a bright smile. Apparently she had watched the match, though I had no idea how. I didn"t see her among the spectators at all. Maybe she watched the live stream. In any event, she had come to pick up Melina.

"Oh…okay." Melina looked a little surprised, but then she beamed and nodded. "You"re coming as well, right? Adrian? Sensei?"

"Yeah…" Given that we all stayed in the same manor, it wasn"t as if we had any excuse to skip the celebration party. Besides, I was so overjoyed that I did want to celebrate. Adrian felt similarly, nodding excitedly.

"But I didn"t expect you to summon those Treeants." I was shaking my head. "I thought you would still need some time to develop a proper Soul Beast."

"Oh, my real Soul Beast has yet to be revealed. I"m still in the midst of developing him." Adrian grinned at me knowingly. I raised an eyebrow, but didn"t say anything. I was sure he wanted to present a surprise, but he probably wouldn"t make it in time for the end of the tournament.

"You too, Melina." I turned to grin at her. "I see you have completely grasp the concept of a feint. I know some people might accuse you of being dishonorable, but ignore them. On the battlefield, honor is of no use to you if you"re dead. Do everything you can to stay alive."

Then I noticed that Melina wasn"t paying much attention to me at all. Amelia was also gripping my sleeve, drawing my attention. Blinking, I turned around and saw why.

"Master!"

Amelia bowed when a familiar figure stepped forward. Dressed in a resplendent suit that probably cost more than my dad"s house, Fergus Franklin approached us, his expression stern.

"F…Father." Melina sounded incredibly nervous. Fergus glanced at her, and his expression softened. He smiled and patted her head. The affectionate display didn"t last long, though, for he raised his head, his eyes turning grim, as he regarded another party.

"That was truly a splendid match," he said, stepping between his daughter and the other person. I turned around and stared at another middle-aged man who I did not recognize. "Your daughter has certainly demonstrated a great deal of strength, Mister Mallory."

I recognized the family name immediately. Mallory…so this man must be the father of Nirvana. That pig-headed girl with pigtails was nowhere to be seen, however. She was currently in the infirmary where Teacher Cure was either reattaching or regrowing her arms. Whatever the healing spell she used, the medical procedure was going to take a very, very long time.

"Sir Franklin!" the Mallory dude smiled, though I detected no trace of warmth in his expression. "I must redirect that praise to Lady Melina! I was astonished at her tenacity and overzealous desire for victory!"

I raised an eyebrow at his words. There was a tinge of sarcasm to them – the guy was subtly criticizing Melina"s drive to achieve victory no matter the cost. How naïve.

"As was I," Fergus Franklin responded diplomatically, his smile still on his face. "I had always known that my daughter was talented, but even I was taken aback by how far she has progressed." He then feigned an apologetic façade. "I"m very sorry about your daughter. I will tell Melina to hold back in future. She had been excessive in her attacks…forgive my daughter, she is still young and unable to control herself."

"No…not at all. Nirvana is the one who embarra.s.sed herself in front of everybody." Mallory looked bitter now. "To think that she had stooped so low to bully a fellow cla.s.smate. I"ve been hearing all these rumors – everyone has been chatting about it, and it appears there are so many eyewitnesses. I"m surprised that the school hasn"t stepped in to deal with bullying when it happens right under their nose. I"ll be reprimanding my daughter…the apology is mine to make."

"Not at all. As I said, they are both still young, so we"ll have to excuse the foibles of our children. That said, you are correct. I am alarmed that such bullying has been going on in the school for so long, and that the teachers have not stepped in to do anything about it. Make no mistake, I will be submitting a complaint to the board itself."

For some reason, Mallory turned extremely pale. "Uh, that might not be necessary. I have direct connections to the board, and I will definitely relay your concerns."

"Oh? Then I will be counting on you." Fergus Franklin smiled thinly. He probably shared the same suspicions as me, confirmed by Mallory���s panic and words. Someone on the board had been instructing the staff to turn a blind eye to Nirvana"s bullying of his daughter. "I hope they take decisive action. But, knowing Headmistress Taylor, I"m confident she will not allow them to throw the blame onto a scapegoat."

"In…indeed." Mallory was suddenly sweating very profusely. "Well…well then, I believe it is time for me to go. I will see you then, Sir Franklin. Hopefully this…matter will be resolved by then."

"I hope so too." Was it my imagination or was there a hint of warning in Fergus"s voice?

We watched Mallory walk away, and then Melina stepped forward.

"F…Father…!"

He turned around and hugged her.

"Congratulations on your first win, Melina," he whispered into her ear. "I saw everything. I"m proud of you. I"m sure your mother would be proud of you too. You did a great job."

He then grinned.

"This is off the record, but I approve of everything you did. If someone bullies you, pay her back a hundredfold. That is the Franklin way!"

Melina brightened up at that. "Yes, Father!"

"Now it"s Kureha and Eliza"s turn. Your cousins have been…condemning you as incompetent all these years. Now that you"ve proven them wrong…" Fergus"s grin grew wider. "It"s time for a counterattack. As I said…pay them back a hundredfold. Even if they are supposedly our relatives."

"Uh…okay…"

As expected, even Melina was taken aback by that.

And then Sacha Stuart and his wife arrived, along with Cecilia. Adrian waved at his parents before rus.h.i.+ng over to them. Sacha patted his head, and then glanced at the other man present while his wife gave Adrian a hug.

"Oh, Sir Franklin…you"re here too."

"Sir Stuart." Fergus rose to his feet and acknowledged the other n.o.ble. He glanced at Adrian and smiled. "I am very grateful to your son for teaming up with my daughter."

"Not at all." Sacha chuckled. "Both of them performed pretty well. I"m very impressed."

"Yes. Our children did us proud today."

"A lot of it is thanks to Richard." Sacha turned to me and nodded. "I don"t know what you did, but you certainly whipped our kids into shape! We"ll continue to count on you for the future!"

"Of course." I bowed politely. "I"ll do my best."

"I"m sure you will." Sacha laughed. "You"re already doing a better job than most of the teachers here!"

"He definitely is an excellent tutor," Fergus agreed, looking impressed. "My nieces had all but given up on my daughter, but this young man actually nurtured her to such a level. I don"t know what sorcery you used, but you could probably become rich and famous with that."

"Nah…" I raised both my hands and shook my head. "I"m not interested in that. Besides, the tournament isn"t over yet. There"s still too early to celebrate."

"Regardless," Sacha said. ��Today"s performance has already earned recognition for everyone here. No matter how far the children progress, they have gotten the acknowledgement they deserved."

"That"s right," Mrs. Stuart concurred with a smile. "You should all be proud."

Aw shucks…I couldn"t deal with this…

Fortunately, I didn"t have to, and the adults dispersed, leaving us kids to celebrate on our own in Melina"s personal manor. Honestly, we didn"t have much of a party, just a small feast. As I said, the tournament wasn"t over yet. Adrian and Melina still had several matches to go.

The euphoria lasted for a bit longer. The next day, they made it past the second round, and then to the third round, and finally to the semifinals.

There, they finally fell to a five-man team who emphasized on teamwork above all else, and went straight for their flag. Despite defeating four of the members, they lost because they were not able to recover their flag by the time the fifteen minutes were up.

Even so, given their splendid performances throughout the tournament, there could no longer be any doubt as to how talented or skilled both Adrian and Melina were. Additionally, they had been fighting at a distinct disadvantage from the start, with only two people on their team. Plenty of spectators speculated that if they had even just an extra member, they might have quite possible won the tournament.

Whatever the case, the son of the Stuart family had finally stepped out of his venerable cousin"s shadow and the youngest daughter of the Franklin family was finally recognized as a superb swordswoman.

And that…was more than enough.

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