It feels strange!
St. Freya, as a private aristocratic girls' school—let me emphasize once more, as a private aristocratic girls' school—had to be different from ordinary public schools or even ordinary private girls' schools.
This difference did not merely lie simply in the venues, the school's architectural style, and things of that sort.
There was also the establishment of the school's curriculum.
Some courses that other schools definitely would not offer were right here!
For instance...
Kendo!
Or rather, swordsmanship courses.
St. Freya's kendo course was just what Mei called it; its accurate name was the "Comprehensive Swordsmanship Training Course." This course encompassed various categories and cultures from different regions, including Japanese styles, Chinese sword techniques, European sword skills, and others. The standard forms of swords correspondingly included different kinds of swords such as Japanese katanas, Chinese longswords, European-American rapiers, and broadswords.
As Raiden Mei from the Raiden family of Area 11, although her Hokushin Itto-ryu swordsmanship was very strong, it was not necessarily the strongest.
In St. Freya, Mei also had a platform to communicate with more swordsmanship masters from all over the world.
Today, the teacher asked Mei to prepare for a duel.
She did not know who the opponent was yet, but Mei still attached great importance to it. This was not only to avoid underestimating the enemy, but also out of respect for the opponent. Although she knew she was very powerful and it was already hard to find rivals in the school.
Purely in terms of swordsmanship, she was completely a campus overlord.
However, she still did not dare to relax during every single duel.
"Come on, Mei! Mei is the strongest! Mei will never lose!"
Before Mei could even speak, an energetic voice was cheering her on over there. And this cheering—although it was said to be cheering—always seemed to carry all kinds of pride within those words.
"Kiana." Mei glanced at the person cheering her on and said, "Don't be like this."
"This is a dojo!"
This was a dojo, and the students who came to watch this duel were not many. Aside from Kiana, there were just two or three people from the class who had a relatively good relationship with her.
Other than them, there was nothing else.
At first, everyone might have been a bit interested, but they quickly discovered that Mei fighting others belonged to the category of a newbie-slaughtering match.
It had no viewing value either, so the people who came dwindled.
Except for Kiana, who showed up for every match, no one else would come anymore.
"Well~ anyway, Mei will definitely win." Kiana said with her arms crossed, "What's wrong with celebrating in advance?"
"Don't say that." Mei said modestly, "There are heavens beyond the heavens, and mountains beyond the mountains."
"Modesty is not just a virtue, Kiana."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah~ I got it." Kiana said with slight impatience, "By the way, who is it this time?"
"Haven't all the opponents in the school already been fought once?"
What kind of opponent will it be? Mei looked forward to this opponent with a bit of anticipation. From enrollment until now, she had basically fought all the opponents in the school once.
Today, the teacher said it was a new opponent, which really made people look forward to it.
"This test really makes people feel strange."
At this moment, a young boy wearing work clothes and carrying a wooden longsword pushed open the door of the dojo, muttered, and walked in complaining. He seemed not to have noticed Mei yet as he said, "So who is my opponent anyway?"
"It's her."
The female teacher beside that young boy pointed with a pen and said, "Raiden Mei, classmate Raiden will be your opponent this time."
Silence...
The atmosphere plummeted drastically.
Four eyes... no, six eyes locked in a stare! It seemed as though no one had anticipated today's situation.
"No! This can't be!" The young boy could not care about anything else, and grabbed the female teacher's upper arms quite rudely as he said, "Is this your test?"
"Are you sure this is a swordsmanship test? Instead of a one-sided massacre?"
"You guys can't be playing it like this, right?"
Chapter 21: It Feels Like I'm Going to Die
Just this? Was something wrong?
"Teacher, you must have gotten something wrong! Just him?!"
"He'll lose miserably!"
Li Pu and Kiana said in unison.
"Kiana!" Mei shouted sternly, "Your behavior is too rude!"
Mei also frowned slightly, feeling that it was all too bizarre. No matter how she thought about it, she never expected that her opponent would actually be the young boy named "Li Pu."
Wasn't this a bit too absurd?
No matter how one looked at it, this young boy did not look like the kind of person who knew swordsmanship!
Even if she didn't say it out of her mouth, she knew she should respect her opponent. Yet Mei always felt like the teacher had gotten something wrong.
"Mr. Li Pu, you're hurting me!!!"
Li Yiyi finally revealed a somewhat delicate appearance; she was truly hurt by Li Pu's grip. She completely didn't expect that this young boy, who didn't look very strong, actually had quite a strong grip.
"Oh... sorry..."
Li Pu only came back to his senses slightly then.
His grip indeed seemed a bit too much. He let go of his hand, but he couldn't set his mind at ease!
"No... is this the kind of opponent you found for me?" Li Pu said, so anxious he was about to go crazy, "Are you sure nothing's wrong? Do you think I can win?"
"In this life, and my past life, I've never wielded a sword!"
"Are you sure this isn't making fun of me?"
"You call this a test?"
"We are very sure." Li Yiyi pushed up her glasses and said, "It's classmate Mei. Only classmate Mei is capable of handling this test."
"And not just this time, until the test officially ends."
"Your opponent will always be Mei."
"Yeah." Li Pu took a step back and said, "I think I can quit."
"I was wondering why this test was so weird."
"Weird?" Li Yiyi found it a bit hard to understand why Li Pu was so resistant as she said, "I think this is very normal. If it were ordinary kendo teachers or students, nothing would really be tested out anyway."
"If we went to find people who don't know swordsmanship for the test, there would be even less of a result."
"You don't think our swordsmanship test is meant to watch newbies peck at each other, do you?"
"This..."
Li Pu always felt what she said made a lot of sense, leaving him unable to refute it. If they were testing, they would definitely look for experts in this field, and Mei was definitely qualified enough to be an expert in this field.
"But I always feel like I'm going to get a vicious beating!" Li Pu still took a step back and said, "It feels malicious."
Not to mention Mei, Kiana was already eager to try!
The matter from last time had already formed a grudge, and if there was a chance, Kiana would definitely give him a vicious beating fair and square. It was hard to say for Mei, but she might do it too.
"I want extra pay! Otherwise, I'm not doing it!"
"So it was just about extra pay." Li Yiyi said as if she saw through something, "I can't make the decision on this matter, but I can help you ask."
Li Yiyi took out her phone and called that school leader, whoever it was.
After a while.
"Alright, the higher-ups agreed." Li Yiyi said, "They agreed to double it for you, but!"
Before her voice even faded, someone was seen pushing open the heavy doors of the practice room. A large pile of weapons was carried in.
"Then it can't be that wooden thing in your hands right now." Taking advantage of Li Pu's daze, Li Yiyi effortlessly snatched the wooden sword from Li Pu's hands and said, "Time for the real deal."
"Of course, if you choose to quit now, we will hold you accountable."
Li Yiyi said, "Paying twenty times the penalty for breach of contract!"
"This... I'm not doing it for that bit of money." Li Pu said, feeling his throat go a bit dry, "So, we..."
"There's no help for it." Li Yiyi spread her hands and said, "Mr. Li Pu, spilled water cannot be gathered back~"
Spilled water cannot be gathered back... Spilled water cannot be gathered back...
Li Pu swore to heaven that he was definitely not doing it for that bit of money, absolutely not! He just felt that this test match was a bit strange, and wasn't trying to ask for more money! He only wanted to make the school cancel this test match through the extra pay.
"Hurry up and get on the stage." Li Yiyi gave Li Pu a shove, pushing him onto the sparring stage.
"Mr. Li Pu, Mei is only a student after all." Li Yiyi called out from the side, "So stop when you reach the limit is fine."
"Classmate Mei, hurry up and get on stage too."
Li Yiyi walked over to Mei's side and said, "Don't ever underestimate this Mr. Li Pu. Swords have no eyes; you just go ahead and beat him to death."
"Right! Mei, beat him to death!" Kiana egged them on from the side.
Although she wasn't entering the ring herself, wasn't Mei entering the ring even more satisfying than entering it herself?
After all, the person who was pounced on and taken advantage of last time was Mei herself!
"Um..." Mei felt somewhat subtle and said, "This, I..."
"It doesn't matter." Li Yiyi said, "This Mr. Li Pu is much more powerful than you imagine. If you don't deal with him seriously,"
"You're going to suffer a huge loss."
"Is... is that so?" Mei felt that this duel exuded an air of weirdness inside and out.
Including this Li Pu; from his appearance until now, everything seemed to exude a strange vibe that ought to be normal yet was far too smooth.
"Slack eyes, powerless hands, loose footwork, cowardly personality." Mei observed carefully for a long time and said, "Teacher, are you sure you didn't bring the wrong person?"
"Mr. Li Pu is just an ordinary person, right?"
No matter how she looked at it, he didn't look like a swordsmanship master who had undergone swordsmanship training.
"All of this is disguise." Li Yiyi held a clipboard with a scheming, successful smile on her face and said, "This is the very reason why we have to use the real deal."
"Never underestimate him," Li Yiyi said, "Otherwise, you'll suffer a huge loss!"
"I understand." Mei still felt it was somewhat weird, but her fighting spirit had already been somewhat ignited.
What this teacher said shouldn't be wrong.
Moreover, she remembered that among the Chinese swordsmanship schools, there seemed to be one that preached defending by not defending, and attacking by not attacking. It seemingly looked full of openings all over, but actually had no openings at all.
Man and sword as one! Heart and sword as one!
Although she was rather reluctant to believe it, perhaps this Li Pu had already reached this level.
Sure enough, coming to China was the right choice!
Masters were as numerous as clouds, and he had reached this level at such a young age.
"Please enlighten me." Mei stepped forward and bowed slightly, "Hokushin Itto-ryu, Raiden Mei."
"Enlightenment or whatever." Li Pu took a step back and said, "Big Sister Mei! You must never take what was just said seriously."
"What swords having no eyes, and greeting him to death."
"Show mercy! Show mercy!"
"This little fellow pays his respects here."
Li Pu frantically cupped his fists in salute. The more he cupped his fists, the more he felt...
It was as if he were setting up some kind of...
Flag.
It really felt terrible!
Before you continue