Chapter 193: Two Girls Competing for the Same Master
"Yotsuba-sensei, are you alright?"
After class, Mahiro walked out of the classroom into the corridor.
But suddenly someone called out to him from behind.
It wasn't Claire as expected, nor Princess Rose—neither of them had followed him out. Instead, it was the slightly airheaded and clumsy pink-haired girl he had met this morning—
"Sherry, was there something you needed?" Mahiro asked with a gentle smile.
"Ah... no, I just wanted to ask Yotsuba-sensei... are you... alright?"
Sherry's face immediately showed the expected flustered expression, but she seemed to have noticed the fatigue Mahiro was hiding.
The truth was, he wasn't fine at all.
Princess Rose and Claire meeting, and in the same classroom no less, had created a collision as intense as planets crashing together first thing in the morning, nearly escalating into a physical confrontation.
He anticipated there would be no shortage of trouble ahead.
But to sum it up in one sentence—
"I'm fine."
"That's great..."
For some reason, Sherry seemed to breathe a sigh of relief, as if a weight had been lifted from her shoulders.
She was quite an emotional girl.
"And what about you, Sherry? This was my first teaching session—was there anything in today's lesson you didn't understand?"
Sherry shook her head, her falling pink hair swaying gently.
"Yotsuba-sensei explained everything very clearly. There was nothing I didn't understand. In fact, many of the theories... Dad?!"
Mahiro had no idea how this strange sentence structure came together.
But when he followed Sherry's gaze and turned around, he saw a tall, kindly middle-aged man with a slicked-back hairstyle mixed with strands of white hair approaching them.
Oh, that was indeed a dad.
Though not his dad.
"Principal Lutheran."
"Hehe, it seems Yotsuba-sensei and my daughter Sherry are having a pleasant conversation."
Lutheran's first words weren't a greeting but a gentle tease, causing Sherry to immediately blush and stomp her foot lightly in protest:
"Dad...!"
"Hehe."
Lutheran chuckled unconcernedly, placing his large hand on Sherry's head while asking Mahiro:
"Yotsuba-sensei, has Sherry caused any trouble as an auditor?"
"Not at all. If anything, your daughter is quite brilliant."
So she was an auditor.
No wonder he had noticed Sherry's seating position seemed odd, as if separated from the rest of the class.
Moreover, in the original story, he remembered Sherry was only a second-year student, so by timeline she shouldn't have been enrolled yet.
But upon second thought, the auditor setting made sense.
After all, Sherry was known as The Capital's Top Mind, a genuine genius. Skipping grades and auditing classes was probably normal for her.
"Haha, is that so? This child has many shortcomings. Because she's always buried in books researching ancient artifacts, she lacks in many other areas. If she's offended you in any way, please forgive her, Yotsuba-sensei."
"Not at all, Principal Lutheran. Your daughter is very well-behaved. I quite like her."
He wasn't saying this as flattery—it was the truth.
In class, Sherry was always diligent, constantly focusing on the notes written on the blackboard and meticulously recording them.
One might ask, which teacher wouldn't appreciate such a hardworking, earnest, and intelligent child?
However, Sherry seemed to have misunderstood something, as her face flushed bright red in an instant.
"That's good, that's good…"
Principal Lutheran nodded with a smile and then asked, "So, Yotsuba-sensei, did you encounter any trouble on your first day of teaching?"
The reason Principal Lutheran asked this was because first-year students at the academy were notoriously difficult to manage.
They arrived with the pride of their families, and many of them were arrogant, refusing to accept the authority of their teachers.
But Mahiro smiled slightly and replied, "No, the children in the class are all very well-behaved."
Mahiro did not mention the conflict between Claire and Rose, even though the principal was likely already aware of it.
After all, that friction had arisen because of him. If the two of them were to face punishment as a result, it would truly be a sin—making him nothing short of a genuine scumbag.
Once this topic concluded, Principal Lutheran looked down at Sherry, as if he had something to say.
Thus, Mahiro took the initiative and said, "Well, Principal Lutheran, I have another class to teach, so I'll take my leave now."
"Very well, very well. Go ahead."
Principal Lutheran waved his hand gently at him.
Mahiro tactfully avoided staying behind as a third wheel.
However, after he left, Principal Lutheran watched his retreating figure and suddenly asked,
"Sherry, what do you think of Yotsuba-sensei?"
"Yotsuba-sensei is amazing! Many of the theories he teaches are ones I've never encountered before, yet they are incredibly advanced and have given me many new perspectives…"
Once the conversation turned to academics, Sherry grew excited and began speaking incessantly.
It wasn't until she noticed her adoptive father, Lutheran, staring at her with a meaningful smile that she realized his question wasn't about academic research but something else entirely…
Her face instantly flushed with an alluring shade of red, as if it could drip blood.
"Hehe, it seems Sherry has a very favorable impression of Yotsuba-sensei. In that case, why not interact with him more often?"
"Huh? Dad!"
Sherry felt shy, her cheeks burning with warmth.
Could someone like her really be worthy of interacting with someone as remarkable as Yotsuba-sensei?
But Principal Lutheran spoke earnestly:
"Sherry, you're always so focused on your research that you hardly have any friends. Don't you want to become friends with someone as extraordinary as Yotsuba-sensei?"
"But… but Dad… he's a teacher, and I'm a student…"
"It's fine, that's not a problem. Look, Griffey-sensei is also pursuing Princess Iris's younger sister, isn't he?"
"Sherry, be bold and go for it. Dad will support you wholeheartedly."
After saying this, Principal Lutheran patted Sherry gently on the shoulder and then left.
Sherry was left alone in the hallway, standing there in a daze, unsure of what to do.
...
Time passed, and it was now noon.
The school cafeteria was bustling with people.
It was not only a dining area for students but for teachers as well.
The dining prices here varied greatly, ranging from a meager 980 zenny set meal—typically purchased by second sons of baronial families—to extravagant set meals luxurious enough to cost several gold coins, equivalent to hundreds of thousands of zenny! The wealth disparity was glaringly obvious.
Mahiro had no interest in playing an extra like Cid did in the original story, nor was he willing to shortchange his own palate. Thus, he spent one gold coin—worth 100,000 zenny—on a high-end set meal and took a seat at an empty table. Of course, he wasn't dining alone; he was seated with that blond-haired guy who always wore a hypocritical smile, Zenon Griffey.
It couldn't be helped—having only been at the school for a day, aside from this fellow, he only knew one other person: Lutheran. Zenon was holding an identical set in his hands. The freshly cut steak still steamed faintly, sizzling on the iron plate.
"Copycat?"
Mahiro wanted to complain with dead-fish eyes, but considering other students were around, he decided to spare Zenon some face. Indeed, not only was Teacher Zenon present, but many students had gathered nearby. They were all chattering, asking how many groups he would be teaching in the afternoon's Royal Capital Bushin-ryu class. Even Rose was among them! Only Claire was nowhere to be seen.
Royal Capital Bushin-ryu was the most popular course in the academy, bar none. Even as an elective, many signed up to learn it, with the first-year classes divided into nine groups of fifty students each. As the new teacher, he was naturally assigned to the last group—Group Nine. Upon hearing "Group Nine," many showed disappointment, while others hesitated. Groups were roughly divided by skill level, with Group One being the strongest and Group Nine the weakest. Although students could transfer between groups, few were willing to join the underdog squad just to get a closer look at their teacher.
"My, I didn't expect Yotsuba-sensei to be so popular on his very first day," Zenon teased him after the students dispersed, sipping his red wine.
"Not at all, I think I'm far behind you, Zenon-sensei. You teach Group One, and I heard you rank high in the school teacher popularity ranking."
"Heh, but I suspect that ranking might change in a few days~"
And so, they bantered back and forth, bringing the brief meal to an end.
"This place is... a bit too spacious..."
That was Mahiro's first thought upon entering the martial arts teaching building. As a classroom for teaching sword techniques, it was indeed massive—the visible area alone was the size of a full gymnasium, not to mention it was equipped with separate changing rooms for men and women, showers, and a small dining facility. The entrance even had a manually operated automatic door opened by maids.
Rumor had it that Group Nine originally had no assigned classroom and had to hold classes outdoors regardless of weather, but the school seemed to have used some privilege to allocate him a vacant classroom. Was this some form of special flattery and wooing?
He thought of that guy, Lutheran.
Although Lutheran was also a member of the cult, the issue was that he didn't seem to have exposed his identity. What exactly did this old guy see in him to go out of his way to set this up...
Mahiro couldn't figure it out and couldn't be bothered to think about it.
Since someone was offering benefits, he would accept them all. As for the rest, he'd deal with it when the time came.
This was his principle of conduct—unapologetically rogue and unreasonable.
"Hey, look! Why are they here?"
"Is it for real? Isn't this Group Nine? Why would honor students come here?"
"Could they be here for Yotsuba-sensei?"
At that moment, the crowd suddenly grew noisy, with almost all the students in Group Nine buzzing with discussion.
Because they saw two girls who shouldn't have been there entering the training ground.
One was an elegant girl with golden drill-like hair tied high, while the other was a valiant girl with long, pitch-black hair that nearly reached her waist.
They were none other than Rose Oriana and Claire Kagenou.
The two, gripping the weapons at their waists, glared at each other as they entered the classroom.
They had already changed into black martial arts uniforms for training—a high-slit dress similar in style to a plain cheongsam but in black.
Among the students wearing white martial arts uniforms, they stood out like cranes among chickens, incredibly conspicuous!
The students around them looked at them with a mix of seventy percent awe and thirty percent curiosity.
In the Bujin style, the color of the martial arts uniform indicated one's skill level: white for the lowest and black for the highest.
This was why the students were so surprised.
"Alright, quiet! Class begins now!"
Mahiro didn't show any particular expression or reaction to the appearance of these two girls; in fact, he had expected it.
Not the slightest bit surprised.
And the two of them behaved obediently, causing no conflicts or disturbances.
It seemed they had really just come to learn sword techniques.
But soon, Mahiro realized he had overthought it...
The sword technique class was actually quite simple, nowhere near as complex as when he taught Claire.
It started with meditation to control magical power, followed by a series of sword-swinging exercises. Most of the time, the students practiced on their own, with the teacher merely guiding from the side.
It was a very humane training method—so humane it felt like an assembly line in a factory.
While this kind of training could slowly build a foundation, the progress was so slow that it was hard to imagine it producing any outstanding students.
Even their sparring matches were like children who had just picked up swords clumsily hitting each other.
Utterly boring.
So, Mahiro came up with a brilliant idea: to have the students spar with him one by one, allowing him to provide individual guidance.
And then the trouble began.
"I'll go first!"
Claire was the first to step forward, walking up to him and bowing slightly. "Mahiro-sensei, please spar with me as you did before and guide me in my sword technique training!"
Her voice wasn't loud, but it was clear enough for everyone to hear.
The students immediately began to murmur.
No one expected that Claire had such a relationship with Yotsuba-sensei!
But where there was a first like Claire, there would inevitably be a second.
The second person was naturally Princess Rose, who stepped forward with her head held high and chest out, elegantly bowing to Mahiro as she said:
"Please guide my swordsmanship, Lord Yotsuba."
"Don't you understand the concept of first come, first served?" Claire glared at her slightly.
"I simply thought Claire-san was too rude and has lost the elegant demeanor befitting nobility. She needs to cool off for a while."
Princess Rose declared with proud dignity.
When her honey-colored eyes met those crimson ones, sparks seemed to fly between their locked gazes.
Sigh.
He knew it—when these two met, it was like lightning striking a fire, once ignited, there was no containing it.
And so, at the moment when both simultaneously drew their swords, ready to determine superiority through combat, Mahiro raised both hands and lightly tapped each of them on the head.
"Ouch!"
They cried out in pain almost simultaneously, both squatting down in a defensive crouch while holding their heads, even with glistening tears welling in their eyes.
But Mahiro remained merciless as he said:
"You two, go to the back of the line and cool off!"
"..."
The scolded pair immediately wilted like frostbitten eggplants, obediently lining up at the very end of the queue.
The students of Class Nine were stunned.
No one expected him to be so unforgiving.
After all, honor students enjoyed privileges at school—unless the situation was particularly serious, even teachers wouldn't easily reprimand them.
Let alone something as minor as sparring during swordsmanship class; the school might even actively encourage such competition.
"Enough! Settle down! Starting with you, we'll proceed with practice in order!"
Mahiro randomly pointed to a girl standing at the side of the line, beginning individual instruction one by one.
The girl nervously stepped forward, appearing somewhat timid, her hands trembling slightly even as she held her sword.
"Alright, attack me using whatever method you're comfortable with."
"Y-yes! Hiya—"
While loudly responding, the girl wildly swung her sword and charged toward Mahiro.
Originally, she hadn't wanted to attend the afternoon elective swordsmanship class, but she'd heard the new teacher was quite handsome and came specifically to see for herself.
It turned out he was indeed good-looking—unlike anyone she'd ever seen before, with an inexplicably transcendent aura.
But he was equally strict...
"Don't lose focus during combat!"
The sudden reprimand snapped the girl's thoughts back to reality.
Mahiro blocked her attack single-handedly with his sword, but at the moment their blades clashed, he paused briefly.
Ultimately, he twisted his blade slightly and sent the girl's sword flying from her grasp.
"Your force application is incorrect. You need to coordinate power from your wrist, arm, waist, and hips. Go practice properly. Next!"
While pointing out the girl's flaws, Mahiro glanced down at the mark on the back of his hand.
He wasn't sure if it was his imagination, but for a brief moment just now, he'd felt a stinging pain on the back of his hand, as if someone had lightly pricked him with a sword tip.
How strange...
By then, the second student had already stepped forward.
"Your speed is too slow, your stamina is too poor. Go back and run fifty laps every day to build up your endurance!"
"You call that a thrust? Even the old lady selling fruit on the royal capital's main street could stab more accurately than you. Next!"
"What kind of stance is this? The 'feeble and powerless' stance? For this lesson, you don't need to do anything else—just stand there and hold that stance properly! You'll stop when I say you can stop!"
"Next!"
As the number of instructions increased, the stinging sensation on the back of his hand became more and more pronounced.
His mood grew increasingly irritable as well.
What in the world is going on?!