I 6

Not a lot of students who studied with me and Regina in the Basic school go on to study in the Advanced school. Even when they do, they may not share the same school or a class with me or her. Some do however.

“Have you heard, teacher Claude got expelled from the Basic School.” “Really?” “Yeah.” “What did he do?” “I don’t know.” “Must be because he never bothered to manage the classes he taught. There’s even a saying that ‘If we heard loud noises from a class, that class belongs to Claude’ anyway.” “I guess.”

Ackie hasn’t come to the class yet. “Say, have you heard about Regina?” The name of my unofficial family member catches my attention. It comes from the clique of Paul and his friends. Paul answers, “Yes yes, she sure is cute.” “Not just cute, Paul! She’s beautiful! She has got the attention of the entire school now. I wonder where she comes from?” Paul responds, “Who knows? Chances are from some aristocratic or elite family.” “Just like you, huh, Paul? We don’t see you acting all mannered and polite to everybody around you.” “Sheesh. I can do it if I wanted to. Besides, nobody here is worth being polite to.” “Yet you never use a single negative word about Miss Regina, woo hoo.” “Shut it! The teacher comes at any time now. And it’s not like I’m trying to be nice to her.” “Why not just approach her and…” the guy makes some lewd gestures, “You do that with girls all the time.”

“Huff, huff, huff, huff.” The familiar figure slams his head into a wall, then falls back on the ground. He tries to stand up and finds his way to the seat behind me. “Hello there, buddy.” To which I respond, “Nice to see you too.”

Lunch break comes. “You know,” Ackie tells me, “I do have a life objective of establishing a harem of the most beautiful and exotic girls in this world. Once graduated I’m gonna go on an adventure and search for them in every single kingdom and continent that I will reach.” I do notice that he says ‘will’, not ‘can’. “…that’s an ambitious aim. Good for you.” “That’s a bland response. I miss people who love acting outrageous over every single thing of what I say. Be judgy.” Well, if you want me to do that. “First off, I don’t think having a harem is anything that is desirable." “That’s the second blandest thing you have said in a single day.” “In the first place, why do you think having a harem is a good idea. You are gonna have to take care of a lot of wives, and well, children.” Well maybe it’s easier to do that here with the abundant amount of resources. “…but in any case, you do see that nobody in this entire kingdom has a harem, no? Which suggests it’s not something people would love to do at all.” Speaking of which I have yet to look into the laws concerning this sort of stuff in this world or this kingdom. Allowed by laws or not, I think I can still rest my case. “…maybe because of the regulations.” “Hmm?” “Oh, never mind…” Was he talking about the laws here?

“Ahaha nothing nothing I’m just…” I glance my eyes toward the door, which seems to be crowded with my classmates, and a familiar girl in the center. “Isn’t that your girlfriend?” “…I think I must have told you she’s my family member.” Did I though? “Are you coming with me for lunch?” “No. I’m not having lunch today.”

…

Anyway, I was gonna call out to Regina. But… Isn’t there a chance that people may spread bad rumors about her due to my relationship with her? And besides, I could get bullied even. It would be very tiresome to handle all that. I go through the crowd and blink at her… well… if she even understands what I’m trying to convey. She does notice me, judging by the gasping mouth. I then proceed to go to the cafeteria.

“Ahem.”

“What do you want to have for lunch?”

The cafeteria has fewer people than even yesterday. “What are you going to do this evening?” Regina asks, before she proceeds to munch her food. “Go somewhere in the capital, maybe.” “Alone?” “You want to go with me?” She stops short. “What if I say ‘yes’?” “Of course you can. Although I’m not sure why you want to come with me though. I don’t even have any plan of where to go.” Regina ponders a bit as she hears that, but then stays silent. “Say… I may have discovered some places…” “Oh hey! It’s Regina! Are we bothering you?” A crowd of girls surround her. “Ah… erm…” “We want you to help us practice our magic after class this evening. Can you please help us? Please? Please? Please?” “Well, maybe…” She nods. One or two back and forth later, the crowd of girls leave. She looks at me. “Just so you know, I didn’t promise anything to them.” “But you like them don’t you?” “Huh? Well, a bit, but…” “Then just go with them this evening. Much more fun than going through the capital with me.” “…we haven’t spent much time together recently, you know.”

Come to think of which, yes. I kind of forget the last time we ran somewhere and had some fun together. “We always have all the time in the world.” Her frown slightly disappears. “I guess.” “Family is always the most important after all.” As she hears that, her eyes seem to widen, and her face slowly forms a grin. I look at her fingers, “Cheek pinching?” “You are lucky there are people around us.” I dodged a bullet huh?

As far as I remember, Regina used to live in the Western region, huh? Her parents passed away, her house destroyed, she had nowhere to go and my parents were kind enough to take her in. I wonder where that was in the Western region. As I pass through some familiar paths, I notice the field I have been to.

It’s completely destroyed now. Even that old man’s house.

“Way to protect the people.”

I remember Regina said that ‘it wouldn’t change anything even if you joined the army and fought in the West’. Well, I wasn’t saying I wanted to conquer the West.

As they said, ultimately, the issues lay more on the East. What kind of fancy politics led to the current state though?

And speaking of which, Regina isn’t vengeful. Usually people would love to take revenge on the Demon realm for what the monsters have done to their own families. That’s saintly of her. But isn’t she a bit indifferent?

Some troops are going back to the capital, “You know, it’s fortunate for us that we didn’t have to get rid of that old man, since the dragons just got rid of him for us! Who would have expected this amulet to be that wonderful. To the point that the woman's house never gets hit by any of the dragon’s attacks at all! I don’t even know how it works, but with this kind of Artifact, we are basically immortal now.”

“You say that, but it doesn’t seem to be able to apply to a huge group though. Roark and Tom just got killed over there.”

“Yet it still manages to protect the house of that woman just by being buried in the ground. Maybe we really need to do a lot of experiments to learn how it works.”

“Or just ask some academician, or maybe a magician.”

“You sure they wouldn’t take away our Artifact? Even if they don’t, I’m afraid that could lead to the Security Ministry investigating that woman’s house.”

“And they would know that I stabbed her? Even that old man didn’t know that. What kind of stupid woman is she though? This is the sort of Artifact that once you get it you would never want to take it off.”

“I’m not sure about that,” this time, the voice comes from a man who doesn't belong to the troops, he looks at them from afar, “and if I may say, you gentlemen are making some mistakes about that amulet.”

“Who are you? Why are you holding a sword? Isn’t there a law that says subjects aren’t allowed to wield a weapon without permission from the authority? Where’s your authorization?”

“I personally think the laws on the banning of weapons isn’t fair to fighters, or swordsmen, who by nature aren’t exactly much different from the magicians who also use magic as a murderous means of killing. Sure, it is said that magicians have an intrinsic ability to control or restrain themselves. However, I’m afraid, despite the few exceptions, which you may not have heard of for fascinating reasons, they still do exist.”

“That’s a lot of talking. Show your authorization, or else we will execute you right here right now!”

“Wow… this is not the first time my words have fallen on deaf ears. Although something to be said about my former students, I no longer teach them anymore, is that they have adorable charm. You are all adults, nobody would bat an eye even if you die on the battlefield, given the very nature of your job.”

“That’s it!” One of the troops let out a scream, then proceeded to slash the man who was wearing eyeglasses.

Splurt. I have never seen in my life, in this world, a sight of something as fresh as the liquid pouring out from the severed part of that soldier’s arm.

As for the past world, I don’t remember having seen it directly myself, even by the end of my life in that world. My dad in the past world may have seen such accidents in his factory. I have seen some blurry images on TV of some criminal cases. I have directly seen a co-worker of mine falling to the ground from a high building floor.

None of those resembles the freshness of this.

“Careful! That bastard is quite skillful!”

“That’s a small vocabulary range. Of course, otherwise none of you would be low-tier soldiers. This is why people like myself have always extolled the values of education, even though it doesn’t always lead to definite happy outcomes.”

“Captain!”

The man who got called sweats, “Let me take care of this.” He grabs his amulet hanging from his neck momentarily. Then turns to the other man. “You may happen to be a skilled fighter… But I’m afraid what I got on my hand can still take you down.” Saying that, he still looks hesitant judging on his grip of sword.

“I have been teaching for 15 years. I truly do not want to make an example out of somebody who refused to pay attention to the lecture.” The other man raises his sword up, the blade leans toward his right shoulder.

“AAAAAAAA,” the captain charges ahead.

I repeat what the other man mumbles in his mouth.

“One.” He swings his sword down, diagonally.

“Hnng!” The captain suddenly makes a jump backward in a swift moment, feet make light and easy steps to the left of the other man, ready to slash the blade horizontally through the opponent’s hip.

“Two.”

The other man swings his sword upward, at a shorter range than it should be.

A horizontal cut slashes through the captain’s body. The amulet flies into the air, then drops onto the palm of the other man.

Two slashes, one step of foot.

“Please forgive us!!!” The remaining troops suddenly let out cries.

“Hmm… What shall I do with the rest of you? To be honest, I didn’t come here just for some silly chit-chats. I just wanted to test out my sword, and the bunch of you happen to be the ones who managed to irritate me enough.”

“That’s enough, teacher Claude,” I stand in between them and the other man.

“Long time no see, Ryle. How are your studies?”

“I’m not sure what's at stake right now. Besides, I don’t even know how to answer that to you.”

“Usually my students tend to overinflate their own academic capacity. Some act too humble for their own good. You are the only one who has actual doubts about yourself, despite having the second highest score of the graduation exam on the ranking. Weird or typical that I don’t see you being around with your fans, if you even bother to talk to them.”

“I don’t think I have any fans.”

“Or so you think. Well, that’s something you should know better than I do, so I have nothing further to say.”

“Anyway, can you just leave them alone?” I look at the remaining troops who are still freezed up at their own spot.

“What if I say no?”

“You are a teacher. You know the laws of the kingdom more than I do.”

“And what does that even change anything, given that I have already sent off these two people?” Claude points his sword toward the two corpses. “The Security Ministry would still go after me. Not that I mind, however.”

“…”

I pick up the sword lying by one of the corpses. 

“I guess your decision is final huh? What a pity you were my favorite student. I definitely do not want to kill you now. Yes. Please listen to your teacher. Move away so I can get rid of these guys.”

“I’m a subject of this kingdom, I have the obligation and responsibility to uphold the laws.”

“That’s upstanding. Too upstanding for somebody as young as you. Not that you are somebody native to this place, as far as I can gauge you, but still upstanding. To bring up your age isn’t to bring you down. But surely you could fend off better if you were older to have more experience and physical capabilities.” He licks his sword. “Let’s play a game, since otherwise it would be unfair to you. I shall try to hold back 5 times. If you can survive all of my attacks, I shall not kill anybody here.”

I gulp, and raise up my sword.

“This is gonna be repetitive. 3..2..1..”

A straightforward attack lands upon me. I deflect it with my sword.

“Very well, that’s my tutorial for you.”

I still had to let out a grunt. The sheer force of his blade was already hard enough to deflect.

“3..2..1..”

He swings his sword upward, I definitely have to fend myself with some magical power! I try to channel Defender magic throughout my body and even the sword.

I deflected his swung-down attack.

But not the next one, which slashes through my own chest.

“Argggh!!!”

I fell down to the ground.

“Judging by your focused face when you tried to channel those power throughout your body, I guess you haven’t known that Defender and Enhancer are just two states of the power you were trying to use. They are one at the same time, to put in another way. It’s hard to see what I’m trying to say if you haven’t already grasped that. These are just words after all. There are countless ways to describe it. But if you have to think about it, then you are not fighting at all.” He sighs. “Although to be fair, this is a problem of education in general, not something unique to you. If I could reform the system, I would separate the schools for students who aspire to become a Swordsman, and the schools for students who aspire to become an Academician or Magician.”

Blood seems to be pouring out of my own chest, but I still try to stand up. And raise my sword up. Breathe in, breathe out.

His face forms a smile.

“I like you, you are the best student of mine after all.”

“Aaaargh!!!” I charge forward.

“3..2..1..”

He makes a surprised noise as he notices something, and switches from the originally intended move to plunge down his sword. My blade clashes with his. He swings his sword upward, my backward jump is too weak to avoid his attack – I receive a vertical slash that leaves another cut on my chest. He seems prepared to unleash the third attack, but stops altogether.

“I just violated my own rules. So I guess you won this game. You caught me by surprise.”

“…”

“It would be fallacious to say as if this is a truth, but you truly are not something of this kingdom, or even this world, and yet you do fit better than anybody else this kingdom’s favorite ideal of what it loves to push people toward. If they knew you, they wouldn’t want you, even though they always claim to.”

“…”

“So well… goodbye… I have to go home now. Any remaining questions?”

“…why did they expel you?”

“No special reason for that. I guess they finally heard news of how badly I handle your classmates and other brats. Even if that was true, and if something like today happened earlier… I would have done my job seriously, and given up my own thoughts on how life should be.”

“…”

“Now, a question from teacher to you. Was that the true you? Or just the you you had to renunciate for the fight?”

This kind of question again.

I can’t believe I have to handle both pain, and anxiety, at the same time now.

But then, I try to give the same answer, like the one I had given him for his question some years ago.

“I don’t know.”

“Truly you, isn’t it? For better or worse.”

He silently leaves the scene. Come to think of it, I haven’t seen the other soldiers. Which I can’t even do… right now…

I fall down, the sky turns black.

It has been a fleeting life.

I have never asked myself if I have any regret, in any of the world I have lived. It’s easy to say I don’t, speaking for regret. But I can’t quell away the sadness that never fails to leave me. It’s not like something I can analyze, it has always been with me since young. I tell myself it’s a part of life. It doesn’t go away when I get to middle school, and when I get to middle school I know it doesn’t go away when I get to university, when I get married, when I retire, when I pass away. It’s the last thing I shall talk to people, not because I don’t want to talk about it, but it’s because I can’t talk about it. I have read a lot of books, and still can’t find words to describe it. In any case, what lingers behind is my sadness, something that makes me want to return to my past world to resolve it somehow, want to resolve in this world as well.

I wake up, sensing a familiar feeling. This is my bedroom, and Regina by my bedside.

“Finally woke up?”

Not a morning greeting, it seems.

“Yeah.”

“Healthy enough to listen to what I have to say?”

“Yeah”.

Slap. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine. The left hand takes turn after the right hand, and vice versa. My cheeks feel hot. Unlike the cheek-pinching, this truly means violence.

“You are the stupidest guy I have ever lived together with, in my entire life.”

I can feel her body on top of me. Her hands wrapped around me too.

And something wet, hot.

Are those her tears?

I don’t want to look at it.

But right now, perhaps, some pats on her back should be fine.