Accompanying Melina to school, I watched worriedly as she gripped the straps of a huge bag, looking as if she was being weighed down by it.

"Melina, that looks heavy. Want me to carry that for you?"

"No…no need!"

The blond girl shook her head hastily and clutched the big bag to tightly her chest, looking a little fl.u.s.tered. Lady, I'm not going to steal your bag from you, you know? There's no need to be on your guard.

We neared the school, and I glanced up at half-gaped at the ma.s.sive entrance that made up the gates, a colossal archway with what looked like gigantic gleaming gemstones set within their tips. Already there were many students milling about at the gate, pa.s.sing through the entrance to get to school. One of them waved at us when she caught sight of Melina.

"You've finally showed up!"

It was another girl, who was of similar age as Melina. Just like her, she clearly seemed to be from a n.o.ble family, with her graceful air and stylishly permed hair. Placing a hand on her hip, she gazed at my poor charge arrogantly.

"Took you long enough, Melina!"

The girl in question flinched and took a step back. There was no way I wouldn't notice that, and I stepped forward instinctively, almost as if to s.h.i.+eld her.

"Eh? You've a new manservant? Why is he accompanying you to school?"

The n.o.ble lady frowned and bent forward, both hands on her hips this time.

"I'm not her servant." Actually, I was her private tutor, but I didn't plan on sharing that information with her. "And what business might you have with Melina?"

"It is all right, Sensei." My disciple tugged at my sleeve nervously. "Nirvana doesn't mean any harm."

She then forced a smile and bowed politely, greeting her "friends."

"Good morning, everyone!"

"Morning," Nirvana replied with a grin, and then thrust her hand forward. Whoa, what a rude and self-ent.i.tled person. "Do you have it?"

"..."

Melina fell silent for a few moment before she obliged, digging through her bag and plucking out a few volumes of novels. Without even a word of thanks, Nirvana s.n.a.t.c.hed the books out of Melina's hands and cheered.

"This is it! Bean Ding Ding's The b.u.mpy Road of Marriage: Divorce Now, Daddy! What a relief! My family is strict, so they don't allow me to buy romance novels like these."

Because they are the same trashy CEO novels with a toxic male lead who raped and abused the female main character, who still somehow fell for him because he happened to be rich and handsome? Not to mention having a super-a.s.s long t.i.tle that made no sense? Of course they would ban you from reading such nonsense – they promoted rape and encouraged the idea that it's all right for a man to rape and abuse you (both physically and mentally) as long as he was rich and handsome!

However, I couldn't say that to the girls, obviously. From a glance, I could tell that they were the toxic sort of fangirls who would screech and find a way to utterly destroy me socially if I so much as breathe a word of criticism of their beloved CEO romance story.

"Lady Nirvana! Please let me borrow it next!"

"Me next!"

"Hey," I snarled as I stepped forward, feeling fury rise within me. n.o.ble or not (and I honestly couldn't give a c.r.a.p about social standings), they were p.i.s.sing me off and I wasn't going to let Melina take this lying down. "Where are your manners? Do you just take things from others like that, without a single word of thanks? And these books belong to Melina, don't they? Why are you acting like they belong to you, and you girls over there, shouldn't you be asking Melina instead?"

The girls all stared at me as if I was some kind of unusual specimen caged in a zoo. It was a very uncomfortable feeling, especially since their gazes were extremely condescending.

"Oh, and who might this person be, Melina?"

The f.u.c.k? Was she ignoring me? Were all the girls ignoring me!?

"Ah…this is my private tutor," Melina replied nervously. "He will be accompanying me from now on."

"Oh?! Lady Melina has a private tutor!?"

The rest of the girls reacted in surprise, gasping as they brought their hands up to their faces dramatically. Unfazed, Nirvana casually handed her bag off to one of her entourage, approached me and gripped the hem of her skirt before doing a curtsy.

"How do you do?" she greeted me formally. "I am Nirvana of the Mallory family."

She then smiled brightly and giggled, though I detected something sinister about that supposedly bright expression.

"As members of the same squad, Melina and I are very close friends."

"From an outsider's perspective, you don't seem like friends." I shut my eyes briefly and sighed. "You seem more like a bully taking advantage of my lady."

"Excuse me?!" Nirvana thundered. I shrugged.

"Ah, I apologize for being blunt. Since I am not a n.o.ble myself, I have no idea how I'm supposed to speak in this sort of situation."

"Well, first you can begin by introducing yourself." Nirvana's eyes glinted maliciously as she regained her composure. I immediately understood why she was asking for my ident.i.ty. If she knew who I was, she could immediately begin investigations and carry out her plans of revenge. Being a n.o.ble, it wasn't as if she would directly beat me up, but she could secretly hire people to do so. Or perhaps dig out the skeletons in my closest and destroy me socially. What, did you think this was some kind of urban cultivation novel where every rich person would just hire a.s.sa.s.sins to kill a random n.o.body? As rich as they were, they weren't stupid enough to waste that sort of money and risk commiting such crimes. They would just want to intimidate the poor guy, not actually kill him.

"I am an exchange student from Jing Tian Academy," I began, and then Nirvana cut me off with a high-pitched peal of laughter.

"Jing Tian Academy?! Did you say Jing Tian Academy?! That low-ranked, third-rate school from the middle of nowhere?"

"Well, it is on the edge of the Federation," I admitted good-naturedly, relieved that I was able to omit my name somehow.

"Ha ha ha! And you presume to lecture me on manners? A lowborn commoner sc.u.m such as yourself?" Nirvana held her stomach as she tried to stop laughing. Wiping the tears from her eyes, she then studied me. "Wait a minute…in the first place, how does one such as yourself even begin to teach a student of Saint Teresa Academy?"

Then she struck her palm with her fist and turned to stare at Melina, wide-eyed, as if realization had just dawned on her.

"Of course! Given that the lady in question is our beloved Melina Franklin, it is only fitting that a low-cla.s.s tutor from a no-name school would be the sole person willing to teach her! No other private tutors worth their salt would want to be seen with a failure such as the talentless incompetent girl!"

Her entourage broke out into cruel laughter. Behind me, Melina's shoulders sagged, and she struggled to hold her tears back.

"Ha ha ha!"

I also laughed along with them. It took them a few moments to realize that I was laughing as well, and they stopped to gaze at me in shock. Gradually calming down, I shook my head in amus.e.m.e.nt and snorted.

"I didn't think there would be dogs here at Saint Teresa Academy. I heard many good things about it, but the first thing I encounter when I actually visit it is the unpleasant experience of listening to a pack of dogs howling and barking at the entrance. The school could really use some better security."

"Did…did you just call us dogs?" Nirvana flared up in outrage. I cupped my ear and looked around in mock confusion.

"What's that? Oh, sorry. I don't speak dog language. All I hear is more barking."

"You…! How dare you, you insolent…! Retract your sentence immediately!"

"Oh, I might be mistaken, after all. You're not dogs." I paused dramatically, before grinning. "You're nothing more than b.i.t.c.hes."

"!!!"

There was a few moments of disbelieving silence as everyone at the school gate stared at me in astonishment. Perhaps i had gone too far, but at this point, I didn't care. The so-called n.o.ble ladies started this farce, and I was more than happy to finish it. What, was it fair that they could insult other people, but they couldn't take one back?

What hypocritical bulls.h.i.+t.

"Sensei…that's enough." Melina tugged at my hand. "I'm happy that you're standing up for me, but let's stop here before it gets any worse."

"Sure." If Melina wanted to leave it at that, then I was more than happy to oblige. However, the matter was far from settled.

"How dare you…"

Nirvana was shaking violently, glaring at me with so much hatred and fury that I almost thought she would literally blow up.

"I won't stand for this insult. This isn't over!"

"In other words, you can dish it but can't take it." I sighed. "You know what they say. Those who live in gla.s.s houses should not throw stones."

"You will not get away with this!" Nirvana was pulling out her smartphone and dialing a number. "You better not go anywhere!"

Oh, what was this? The cliché call for help scene? Let me guess, she was going to call her brother or her father or uncle and get him to gather a gang, come to school and then beat me up? Nah, that sort of stupid thing never happened in reality. No, seriously…in what universe (other than unrealistic urban cultivation stories) do you have a whole gang showing up in a public school to beat up a single person? You think the police or authorities are going to sit by idly and allow such illegal gatherings to happen?

Even if the father was some rich bigshot with political clout, that was all the more reason for him to avoid getting involved in such scandals, because they would destroy their public image with such blatant abuse of power. But of course, these urban cultivation web novelists didn't have the slightest notion of how reality worked and they needed a way for their protagonists to "get into trouble", only for him to beat the gang up and slap the faces of everyone. Also, if such things happened – if a secret society or violent gang showed up in school, wouldn't the natural response to call the police and hide somewhere for safety, not…you know, stand around and trash-talking the main character as if the whole thing had nothing to do with them?

Sometimes the sheer lack of logic of these urban cultivation stories never ceased to amaze me.

Unfortunately, that seemed to be Nirvana's plan of action.

"Brother," she said sweetly into the phone. "Some lowborn commoner just had the audacity to insult me. Could you please come over to the middle school sction and help me teach him a lesson? Show him his place."

There was some response, and then a click. Nirvana lowered her smartphone and smiled triumphantly at me.

"There is nowhere for you to run, commoner. My brother is a high-ranking Paladin in the high school section. He will teach you your place."

Ignoring her, I stared up at the sky and straight past the fourth wall. Please, creator…don't resort to these sort of clichés. Don't you dare resort to this stupid cliché of evil rich villains and their gangs or hired hitmen, and then face-slapping…

"What happened, Nirvana?"

At the gruff voice, I turned around and caught sight of a handsome guy with slick, gelled hair leading a small group of high school students, all of whom were emanating masculinity and aggression, their powerful mana pouring off their bodies.

"I rushed over as soon as you called me. I heard some rumors along the way, but…"

"That commoner over there insulted me. Called me and my friends dogs…no, b.i.t.c.hes."

"Hey, you started it," I retorted. "Where do you get off, insulting my lady, and then acting like the victim here? So it's fair if you insult Melina, but others can't call you out on it? Like I said, you can dish it but can't take it. What sort of logic is that?"

"Silence, you tras.h.!.+" Nirvana snarled, and then turned to her brother. "See? This idiot refuses to repent…brother?"

Nirvana's brother was staring at me for a few seconds now, and then his jaw dropped. Whirling around, he slapped his sister.

Everyone watched in shock as a loud crack echoed throughout the school courtyard. Even the proud Nirvana froze, her hand coming up to her stinging cheek in reflex. She stared at her brother in disbelief, her mouth trying to form words but her voice refusing to come out.

For a few moments, n.o.body said anything. Nirvana was still clutching at her reddened cheek, tears almost leaking from her red eyes as she continued to gape at her brother, not comprehending what had just transpired.

"W…why?" she finally managed.

"Are you an idiot?!" Her brother growled angrily. "Do you know who you've just offended!? You're lucky I was here, or you will embarra.s.s our Mallory family even more!"

"Huh? But this person…isn't he just a n.o.body from the obscure and third-rate Jing Tian Academy? Why should we care about offending him?"

"You still don't recognize who this person is?!" Her brother roared in exasperation, throwing his hands up. He gestured wildly to me. "This is Richard Huang – the person who single-handedly eliminated our entire team from the national high school tournament a few weeks ago…by wiping out five of our core members during the individual matches. All by himself!"

I must admit, the incredulous expression of Nirvana that materialized as a response to that revelation actually made me burst out laughing.