358 Chapter 358: Assassin’s Pride II

"…excuse me?"

I wasn't sure I heard Melina correctly. This had to be some sort of joke…right?

"Private tutor? Me?"

"Yes, that's right." Melina nodded earnestly. Beside her, Adrian grinned brightly, as if he was prud of me. The blond girl continued, taking encouragement from her friend's smile. "You are the perfect person for the job. You are strong enough to defeat my older brother – no mean feat in itself, considering that Brother was the candidate for the Sword Saint before Cousin Kureha. That alone is more than enough qualifies you to teach me."

No, it didn't, but I doubted she would let the truth get in the way of her agenda. Maybe I was mistaken and she held some grudge against me for being involved in her brother's death in an indirect form. This had to be a trap. There was no other reason behind this nonsense.

"Furthermore, you're the only one who can help me." When she saw that I had remained silent, with a suspicious expression on my face, her own features fell. "No one else is willing to teach me swordsmanship."

"…what? Really?" I raised an eyebrow at that. "I saw you fight earlier. Those were some superb skills. Where did you learn that from?"

"Self-taught. I imitated the sword techniques of my relatives by watching them train. But none of them agreed to teach me."

"Really? Not even Kureha? Kureha would be a much better and more apprioriate teacher for you. I'm sure she will teach you if you ask her instead…"

"About that…" Adrian was the one who cut in this time, raising his hand. "Melina has some, uh, problems with her family. They don't recognize her as a swordsman…at least not a swordsman in the Franklin tradition."

"What the hell is even a 'Franklin tradition'?" I demanded, growing increasingly skeptical of this nonsense.

"As you know the Franklin family is a clan of swordsmen. You know, you've met Brother Shawn and Sister Kureha. Among the ten great families, they are known as the Paladins."

"…so?" I glanced from Adrian to Melina, still not sure what the hell they were driving at.

"So, to preserve their honor and reputation as Paladins, all members of the Franklin family must excel in swordsmanship, or…stay out of the public."

"…I'll be married off to someone from one of the other ten great families," Melina whispered sullenly. I shrugged.

"That's great. Why don't you and Adrian get married?"

Both kids gaped at me, their faces turning bright red, and they began spluttering. Adrian finally found his voice.

"Come on, Brother Richard! Be serious!"

I was actually being serious, but I could understand if the two young mages still didn't want to resort to marriage at their current age.

"I wish to choose my own partner…and above all, I wish to prove to everyone that I can be a swordswoman. An excellent, peerless swordswoman just like Cousin Kureha." Melina puffed her not significant chest out determinedly. "I want to show everyone that I can be a Paladin just like Brother and Cousin Kureha, and stop everyone from looking down on me!"

"A noble goal," I conceded, pushing my glasses up. "But that doesn't explain why Kureha would refuse to teach you. I know her personally, and she doesn't strike me as someone…mean and petty. She seems like a nice and helpful person to me."

"That's…well, a little more complicated than that." Melina fidgeted a little, turning her head away and avoiding my gaze. Adrian quickly stepped in to help her out.

"Melina is known among the noble families and the school as the Incompetent Talented Girl."

"WHAT THE FUCK!?" I bellowed. "Are we ripping off Assassin's Pride now?! Screw this bullshit! At least change the nickname or something!"

Both Adrian and Melina were staring at me, and I sighed before burying my face in my palm. Suppressing my fury, I gestured for them to continue.

"Aside from ripping off a light novel with the most ridiculous nickname that you couldn't even be bothered to alter, what does that have to do with anything?"

"Melina has been judged as talentless or untalented when it comes to swordsmanship," Adrian explained, casting an apologetic look in her direction. "So her family has basically given up on her. They also told her to give up on learning swordsmanship, and instead focus on becoming a lady befitting of serving as a noble's wife."

"Like hell I'll do that!" Melina snarled defiantly, balling both of her fists.

"I know, that's why I suggested that you approach Brother Richard for help." Adrian turned back to me. "Please, Brother Richard. Even Sister Kureha has abandoned Melina, saying that it'll be a waste of time to teach someone without talent."

A scowl creased across my face and I also clenched my fists. Talent? Untalented? Waste of time? What utter bullshit. I had never heard of such nonsense in my life. Since when was someone's worth decided by this intangible and invisible thing called "talent"? How do you decide if someone has talent or not? Just because they were not as good as others? So they should just surrender and stop just because they weren't as good as others?

What rubbish. While I wasn't going to deny that there was a clear difference between geniuses and ordinary people, that was no reason for people to submit to such bullshit. I had absolutely no talent in writing, especially if you read the comments from 99% of my readers, who often claimed that I should stop contaminating the Internet with my trash and accused me of wasting everyone's time by trying to write even though I evidently lack the talent or skill to do so. Yet I wasn't going to meekly obey them and abandon my efforts to write a story, as you can see before me.

So I totally understood Melina's predicament. Being told to stop doing the thing that you love just because you didn't have "talent"? Condescending bastards going around calling you trash because they didn't like what you write, or because you weren't able to execute sword techniques as well as others? Fuck them. They could go rot in hell.

"…I'll see what I can do. Just a disclaimer, though. Please don't expect anything from me. I'm a terrible teacher, and my own swordsmanship is terrible. I'm actually better at magic than swordsmanship. It's actually a better idea to approach my dad and ask him to teach you."

"Really? You will?" Melina brightened up, hope flaring up in her for the second time since I had seen her. "Thank you so much!"

"Like I said, I can't offer any guarantees. And my dad will be a better teacher than me if you truly want to learn swordsmanship."

"Well…" Adrian joined in, musing. "To be honest, Melina is actually similar to you in a way, Brother Richard. She's more proficient in magic than she is in swordsmanship. That's why she's known as the Incompetent Talented Girl. She's incompetent at swordsmanship, but she's talented at producing and controlling mana."

"So the complete opposite of Melida Angel," I remarked with a nod. Both Adrian and Melina gaped at me.

"…who?"

"Never mind." I dismissed the question from the both of them and sighed. "Well, I'll see what I can do, but as you probably know, I'm in middle of a tournament right now, so it'll have to wait until then. For now, I'll talk to my dad. Adrian, you know where I live, right? Bring Melina over someday and my dad will train her in our dojo."

Melina brightened up at that. "That's great! I heard that the Angel of Fire, Huang Shun Yin, is a master of the Miyamoto sword style! I look forward to learning that!"

"Uh, yeah." I wasn't sure why she was so enthusiastic about learning a sword technique that clearly wasn't from her Franklin family's school, but if she was all right with it, then that would be great. I was fine with whatever.

"You and your dad are from the Samurai class, right? Even if I can't become a Paladin, I'll strive to be someone worthy of the title Samurai. It doesn't matter what kind of sword techniques I learn as long as I can prove to everyone that I can become a competent swordswoman!"

Seriously? So she wanted to be a Samurai now? Wait a second…

"Uh, I'm not a Samurai, lady. Neither is my dad. If anything, we're more summoners than samurai. Who gave you the idea that we are Samurai, anyway? Just because we're practitioners of the Miyamoto sword style?"

"…but you're supposed to be this cool-looking Kirito clone, wearing all black, pretending to smile while acting all edgy and mysterious, and concealing your background as an Assassin and half-Lycanthrope or half-Vampire!"

I buried my face in my palm again. I give up. This conversation wasn't going anywhere. These kids were so obsessed with parodying Assassin's Pride that I doubted I would be able to talk any sense into them. For now, I just had to ensure their safety.

Fortunately, there wasn't much danger in the journey back to the hovercraft. Even without Redfield, I was able to trace our route back by relying on the mapping function on my glasses. Tapping my glasses, I watched as a blue line snaked out in front of me, displaying a holographic route across my lenses.

That was pretty convenient.

Even as I followed the digitally constructed route that was visually broadcasted by my glasses, I sent Corvus to scout ahead to ensure that we were on the right track, and to make sure we didn't encounter any monsters along the way. A Gray Wolf showed up, but I summoned the chibi Green Dragon immediately and cut it apart with a single swing of my sword (and a bunch of razor-sharp flower petals). Leaving the carcass toppling on either side of me, I proceeded onward without pause. Behind me, the students followed anxiously, casting an awestruck glance at the Gray Wolf's corpse.

"You really are strong," Melina murmured, her eyes wide. "That was…Miyamoto sword style? Combined with some elements from the Stuart family's wood magic sword techniques?"

"I never learned anything from the Stuart family." I sighed and glanced at Adrian, who hastily nodded to back me up. "I learned wood magic from school, and combined it with summoning and the sword techniques that Dad taught me. That's all."

"You combined three different skills together? That's impressive." Melina's eyes were shining, and she was growing more excited when she realized that she would be learning under me. Suffice to say, I didn't burst her bubble by informing her that I wouldn't be able to teach her all that. There was no difference between being disappointed now and being disappointed later, except that the length of time she spent disappointed would be shorter.

Without replying, I swung Hei Yue and unleashed a torrent of black petals at a Wood Ape that was swinging from branch to branch, getting ready to descend upon us. the storm of razor-sharp petals caught the poor monster just as it let go of a branch to propel itself forward, thus rendering it unable to evade. The Wood Ape threw up its burly arms to conjure a wall of wood, but I swung Bai Ri and obliterated that wall of wood by summoning a thick log of wood to puncture through it. The black petals burst through the shower of splinters and engulfed the hapless Wood Ape befor shredding the poor thing into countless pieces.

Lowering my swords, I continued striding forward, scanning the area with the suite of hi-tech sensors installed in my glasses. Motion tracker, infrared, whatever. When I spotted a monster nearby, I would unleash deadly flowers upon them without hesitation, eliminating whatever dangers that would potentially threaten my charges before they could fully move into action.

And just like that, we were back at the hovercraft before we knew it. A skeleton crew had been left behind to guard the dropship, their weapons held at the ready. At a makeshift command center, Feng Hai was managing the coms and relaying instructions while surveying the tactical display that marked the locations of each and every mercenary in the forest. Despite the red icons, I knew that the display wasn't 100% precise – as much as Feng Hai tried to get the data transmitted in real time, there were still discrepancies between the holographic display and reality.

Looking up, he rewarded me with a smile when he caught sight of the kids tagging behind me. I turned back and did a quick head count, feeling reassured when I ensured that all of my charges had been accounted for. I then spun back to face Feng Hai before snapping off a salute.

"Sir. I brought them back."

"Well done." Feng Hai nodded and gestured for the students to board the hovercraft. A few of the sentries stepped forward to escort them. Adrian and Melina glanced at me, but I nodded at them.

"These are the Silver Wolves mercenaries. They can be trusted. I'm currently helping them out on a mission right now."

"Amazing!" Adrian's eyes widened. "The Silver Wolves! One of the most renowned mercenary guilds today! Then that guy must be the legendary Hurricane Blade, Feng Hai!"

"Oh, you know me?" Feng Hai chuckled. "I'm flattered."

As the kids were bundled aboard the massive hovercraft, the mercenary colonel turned back to me.

"Get some rest, Richard. Take ten, and then rejoin the rest of the groups in this sector." He swiped his hand across the air and slid one of the massive holographic screens toward the space in front of me. I noted that it was a sector of the forest that was near where Melina directed Redfield toward, where their bus crashed when they came under assault. "Or you can stay here and take care of the kids. It's up to you."

"I'll go look for Ana. I'm sure Adrian and the rest will be safe here." I glanced around and noted the tight cordon that the remaining mercenaries had woven around the clearing. Nothing short of a rank A dragon was going to get past them…or so I hope, but as always I knew it was dangerous to underestimate the lower ranked monsters. Regardless, the middle school students were as safe as they could possibly be under the circumstances. And I was still very worried about Anastasia. "I'll join Redfield and the others."

My concern for her must be showing on my face, for Feng Hai nodded understandingly.

"Good. But take a break first. You've been operating out there nonstop since the mission began. Drink some water, take a breather and catch your breath. We don't want to have to rescue you too if you collapse in the middle of the forest."

"I won't do that."

"That's what they all say before they do." Feng Hai suppressed a sigh and the urge to roll his eyes. Managing a smile, he clamped a hand on my shoulder. "Anyway, go take a break. I'll let you know in ten minutes. And I have some good news for you." His smile grew wider. "Thanks to the information from the kids you found, we're much closer to finding Ana than before."