474 Chapter 474: Right Before the tournamen (2/2)

”Sensei! That wasn't fair!”

”You still haven't learned the lesson I'm trying to teach, huh?” I sighed. Then I raised a finger to stop her. ”Anyway, think about it. What just happened? Weren't you trying to attack me? How did you end up getting hit instead?”

”That's…” Melina trailed off.

”A feint,” Adrian put in. I nodded.

”I basically deceived you by allowing you to think that you can land a hit on me, but in doing so I caused you to drop your guard with a diversionary tactic. Kicking my other sword at you and forcing you to defend against that, thus leaving you open against another attack from a different angle. In this case, from above. All because I tricked you into focusing too much on the front. You were so engrossed in trying to strike me that you completely failed to notice the second sword at my feet, and were thus vulnerable to the strike from below.”

”So I was deceived…” Melina mumbled, rubbing her head and staring at me in wonder. Adrian nodded thoughtfully.

”And we should try to deceive our opponents during battle…to create these openings and land a decisive strike before they can defend against it…or at least trick them into defending against fake attacks so that we can hit them with the real one when their guard is down.”

”Correct.” I nodded, satisfied that at least one of them understood it. When Adrian explained it like that, for a second time, it helped Melina absorb the lesson better because she was having it reiterated into her head.

”Are we going to learn the three mana states now?” Melina asked. I gaped at her.

”What three mana states?”

”You know, order, chaos and neutral?”

”The hell?” I buried my face in my palm. ”This isn't Assassin's Pride or Shin Megami Tensei, also known as Persona! Already people are complaining when I did the whole joke with Ba Qi, which is a rip-off from One Piece regarding their Haki. I'm not sure another joke like that would go down well, and it'll get repetitive in any case…”

”Huh? Huh?”

”Ignore Master. He's just breaking the fourth wall and making all sorts of obscure references again.”

”I don't want to hear that from someone who's trying to rip off Magic Stabber Orphen and pretending to be Majic!”

”Ugh…” Adrian flinched at that, unable to rebut.

Anyway, that was the end of the flashback. For now. While I was heading to school with the two of them, hoping that they would do well in their practical exams, I caught sight of Rossetti Picket. She was speaking to one of the middle school students as well, and when she caught sight of us, she waved in a friendly manner.

”Oh, Richard! We meet again!”

”Eh? This is…” Melina looked up quietly, but then recognized her senior from the high school section. Adrian also had a brief flicker of recognition in his eyes, because he had watched her take part in the team battle against my school during the high school tournament over a month ago. ”Senior Rossetti?”

”Oh, you can just call me Rose.” Rossetti waved her formality away. ”You too, Richard. Don't need to be so formal. We're all fellow students in Saint Teresa Academy, aren't we?”

”I'm an exchange student from Jing Tian Academy,” I reminded her. She just giggled and waved airily at me.

”Don't sweat the small details. Speaking of which, Miura wants to see you. She has only just heard that you're here, and she's furious that you didn't drop by to say hi.”

”Why would I say hi to her?” I asked, utterly confused. Rossetti frowned and placed her hands on her hips, leaning forward to glare at me.

”You don't know how a maiden's heart work, do you?”

”Uh, I don't even know her…”

”Really? You defeated her in the tournament, remember? As they say, the best way to get to know each other is to trade blows. So you're already the most bosom of friends!”

”The same could be said of Kureha Franklin, Eliza Franklin, Lute Dragoon, and Kufa Van Peer. I don't think they care if I'm here.”

”Actually, Kureha is pretty miffed that you didn't say hi to her. You were former comrades, weren't you? Even fought a dragon together. I suggested that she come say hi to you, but being the proud Sword Saint that she was, she claimed that you have to be the one to approach her.” Rossetti sighed and shook her head. ”I really don't understand her. But at least Miura will be taking the initiative to look for you. It's just that you're quite the elusive fella. You disappeared for a few days when she went to search for you during the ice magic classes by Teacher Einsberg, and you didn't say anything when you came back.”

Because I had no reason to.

”Okay…I'll say hi to her after the practical exams today.” I rolled my eyes. At least the guys weren't demanding for my attention, but then again if they did, it would be creepy.

”Oh, Kufa would probably come along to say hello too. Lute, on the other hand, is too busily trying to steal back his harem from the new student, Xu Wu Cheng. It's a clash of Mary Sues!”

”…”

I wasn't sure how to respond to that, and I decided not to. The funny thing was that it was so true. Both Lute Dragoon and Xu Wu Cheng were Mary Sue characters who automatically had entire harems of girls chasing after them by virtue of them being the male leads or protagonist of a wish fulfilment, self-insert story. In any other story, they would be the main characters, but unfortunately for them this was reality, so they didn't get the focus their creators would otherwise crave. Well, not as much for Xu Wu Cheng, because he was more of the typical sexy male antagonist in a shoujo manga than a male lead.

”Ah! There you are!”

At that moment, I heard a familiar voice, and turnin around, I spotted Miura stomping toward me, followed by Kufa.

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