Adrian Stuart waved at me while I gaped at him. Close by, the sentries verified his ident.i.ty, and finally waved him in. He skipped into the territory of Saint Teresa Academy and approached me. The crowd dispersed, now that there was no longer much of a commotion.

Apparently they were expecting some drama, where the guards would kick Adrian out of the school and perhaps even call the cops. Their expectation of such stupid entertainment (at the expense of others) was crushed once the guards confirmed that Adrian's visit pa.s.s was legitimate, and they were disappointed not to see any sort of drama. Good. They deserved to be disappointed. People did not exist to entertain them with their troubles.

"What are you doing here?" I repeated my question, mostly because Adrian hadn't replied. He grinned and gestured toward the main campus building.

"From today onward I am transferring into Saint Teresa Academy!"

"Huh? You are?!"

Originally Adrian was a student of the middle school section of Crowley's Grand Arcane Academy – the same school that his cousin, Cecilia, attended. Speaking of which, we might as well forget about Cecilia at this point. She was meant to be the joke version of Carolyn from Battle Frenzy, but she ended up merging with another of my characters from an earlier version of this constellation summoner story (d.a.m.n, I must have written over 20 versions of this story by now). Whatever the case, he was supposed to attend the same school as Cecilia, but obviously he decided to switch loyalties for no reason other than because I happened to be enrolling in Saint Teresa Academy for an exchange program at this time. It was too much of a coincidence.

"Yeah, I am!"

"Why?" I demanded, trying to suppress a twinge of irritation. I knew Adrian wasn't stalking me, or he would have transferred to the middle school section of Jing Tian Academy long ago, but I was pretty sure he didn't choose this moment to move to Saint Teresa Academy by accident. "Wouldn't it be better for you to stay in Crowley's Grand Arcane Academy?"

"No," he replied with a shrug. "There's not really much difference…and besides, Crowley's Grand Arcane Academy lost to Saint Teresa Academy in the round of 16, so it's actually better to transfer here anyway."

"That was the high school tournament, not the middle school tournament, and I doubt you chose to transfer here because of that." Otherwise all the students of Crowley's Grand Arcane Academy would have moved here as well…and I doubted the director of Saint Teresa Academy, Teresa Taylor, would have flippantly allowed people to transfer here based on such superficial reasons. She would have put a stop on it, I was sure.

"Oh, no. That's not the reason why I transferred here. I did so because of a couple of reasons. Firstly, it was to help Melina."

"…say what?" Oh, right. Weren't they together when I first found them during the tournament? At that time, I thought for some reason they were in the same school – that Melina was also in Crowley's Grand Arcane Academy – but I was evidently mistaken. However, they seemed pretty close for students from different schools, which piqued my interest somewhat. "Okay…that's interesting. How will you transferring here help Melina?"

"She needs teammates." Well, that was true, and we were literally discussing that problem last chapter, but…how the h.e.l.l did Adrian know that!? He must have read the question on my face, for he quickly offered an explanation. "We have connections, and are under the same education system. It's pretty easy to speculate what will happen if Melina decides to be a swordswoman like her father. I'm guessing she got ejected from her team?"

"You are placing a lot of faith on something that just happened today."

"Let's just say it's easy to predict the future once you're familiar enough with the system. People ar predictable…they tend to behave the way you expect them to if you push them toward a particular direction. Well, I don't mean that literally, of course…and I mean the school pus.h.i.+ng them toward specific choices."

"Yeah." I was almost going to ask if he was the one behind Melina's decision to become a swordswoman, or if he manipulated her teammates somehow, but obviously that would be too farfetched. No matter how scheming Adrian was, he couldn't possibly predict everything to such an accurate extent.

"The second and…well, this is actually the main reason, so it should be the first, but you know what I mean." He cleared his throat and grinned at me. "I want you to tutor me as well!"

"…huh?"

For a moment, I wasn't sure if I had heard him right. I stared at him blankly for a moment, his words still ringing in my ears.

"It's not fair that you're Melina's exclusive private tutor! I met you first! Come on, you should teach me as well! I mean, you already mastered a high level of wood magic! That's my element! You should be teaching me wood magic as well!"

"Uh, well…that's…"

"I know you didn't exactly learn my family's Stuart swordsmans.h.i.+p, but still the foundation for wood magic is, as you said, very similar. The ten great families were the ones who established the basics for all the elemental magic and techniques, after all. But the reverse is also true – if you've mastered wood magic, you should also be able to teach me wood techniques, even if I'm from the Stuart clan, since all the elemental spells share the same origin!"

"That's true," I conceded with a sigh. The wood spells I learned to execute with Green Dragon were incredibly similar to the Stuart swordsmans.h.i.+p that his cousin and uncle practiced. To the point where both Cecilia and Lionel Stuart actually thought I somehow secretly learned their family's techniques when I actually didn't. However, something wasn't right about this whole scenario. "If you wanted me to teach you wood magic, all you needed to do was ask. You didn't have to purposely take the trouble to transfer here."

"It will be easier for the both of us," Adrian explained cheerfully. "I was hoping that you can teach both Melina and me at the same time." He then sulked. "It's unfair that she got to monopolize you in the first place!"

"No one is monopolizing me," I told him, sounding a little exasperated. "Anyway, like I said, all you needed to do was ask."

"That's the thing. Right now, you're being employed by the Franklin family, and you're essentially a live-in tutor. So I figured I might as well move into the estate and learn with Melina. It will be more convenient for you, anyway. You can teach us both at the same time, without needing to commute from place to place, or city to city."

Oh, right. That was definitely a major obstacle for Adrian. He lived in Southampton City, which was quite some distance away from Flandor City. If either of us had to make the journey daily, it would be difficult on whoever. About an hour and a half journey by train, and that wasn't even including the return journey. Basically a three hours round trip, and that was harsh no matter who had to do it, especially if it was done daily.

"But I also guessed Melina's situation, so I thought I would give her a hand. So it's killing two birds with one stone, really."

For some reason, Adrian sounded very proud of himself. I scratched my head and sighed. Well, it did solve a lot of the potential problems that he brought up, so…

Then I suddenly remembered something.

"Wait a minute…did you just say you're going to move into the estate? Huh?"

"Oh, yeah…I've yet to tell you. I'm moving into Melina's manor. I received permission from Uncle Fergus, and he allowed me to stay in."

"Eh?! EH?!"

I was still wrapping my mind around that revelation, but Adrian continued as if I wasn't throwing my hands up in the air and yelling incoherently.

"Oh, and my dad has promised to pay you. Obviously we can't have you teaching me for free. So if you can submit the details of your bank account, Dad will deposit your pay every month." He held up his smartphone and showed me an impressive figure, but I was still too distraught over the earlier revelation to swoon over the huge sum of money that the Stuart family was promising me in return for teaching their son. "Let me know if it's not enough."

"h.e.l.l, no! It's more than enough!" I was still trying to digest everything that Adrian was telling me, and in any case I wasn't a greedy fellow, so I wasn't going to demand a king's ransom or whatever. "But seriously? You're staying in Melina's manor?"

"Yeah, I already said that, didn't I? You can ask her later if you don't believe me. Or at least the maids…what were their name?"

"Amelia," I replied without thinking.

"Yeah, that's right! Amelia! You can call her and confirm with her right now if you don't believe me." Adrian was turning away. "For now, I need to go to the office to complete my registration. Do you know where it is?"

I sighed, still unable to make sense of what was happening. "I'll take you there myself."

*

That night, when we returned to Melina's home, the maids were throwing a party. They had prepared a huge buffet of food, laid across several tables. There were soups, pasta, chicken wings, and even Asian food such as dumplings (pot stickers), fried noodles and rice. They were bustling about the dining table in delight, bringing newly washed plates and utensils.

"Everyone! Cheers!" Melina was raising her gla.s.s of orange juice. "Let us officially kick off the start of the welcoming party for both Sensei and Adrian!"

"Cheers!" the servants shouted, raising their gla.s.ses of whatever drinks they had. Depending on individual preferences, it ranged from wine to juice to tea. I had settled for green tea because I couldn't find any mango juice, and I wasn't very fond of orange juice. It was too sour for me. I had a sweet tooth, and I had an obsession for mango. It was my favorite.

"Thank you!" Adrian was delighted as he drank soda. Like me, he wanted mango juice, but was denied his favorite beverage. It was one of the several things we had in common. However, unlike me, Adrian wasn't fond of tea and preferred soda. Those drinks were too ga.s.sy for me, so I usually refrained from drinking those.

"At least I won't be alone in training now!" Melina seemed cheerful, not at all put off by the fact that she had an unexpected guest who would be staying with her over the next couple of years. It helped that they were similar in age. "Prepare for some intense sparring!"

"Ha ha, I look forward to that!" Adrian then turned to me. "We look forward to your guidance, Sensei!"

"Uh…right." It felt weird, hearing Adrian call me that. I was used to being addressed like an older brother, rather than a teacher. "I'll do my best."

"Lady Melina has been looking forward to this welcome party for the entire week," Amelia informed me as she sidled over, a bunch of seafood and pasta on her plate. She stuck a fork into the strands of pasta, twirled it, and then put it into her mouth. After chewing and swallowing, she smiled, half in satisfaction from the delicious food. "She helped out in the preparations, you know?"

She then gestured toward one of the tables, which was a plastic table hidden underneath a velvet cloth.

"Our lady personally chose that tablecloth, you know? For the welcome party. Even though you weren't due for a week or so."

"I see. I appreciate it." The design of the tablecloth honestly made no difference to me, but it was the thought that counted. I was happy with Melina's sentiment – that was more than enough. Chuckling, I glanced at the blond princess. "I'm glad she's here and in a good mood, though. I was half expecting her to just send her greetings at the start of the party before returning to her room and locking herself inside."

"Huh?!" Melina gaped at me in astonishment. "Why would I do that?!"

"Well, I mean…I thought you would be all depressed, after being made a fool of during practical training and being mocked by your friends…uh, cla.s.smates. Because they obviously can't be considered your friends."

"Sensei, are you perhaps mixing me up with a character from a light novel series that has an anime adaptation? You're not an a.s.sa.s.sin who's trying to ensure that I'm the legitimate daughter of my father, the Duke of the Franklin family, and a.s.signed to terminate me if you conclude that I'm not! You're not that edgy! You're more Deadpool than Kufa Vampir!"

"He does that a lot," Adrian informed Melina before stuffing half of a chicken wing into his mouth. He brightened up as he chewed. "Oh! This is good!"

"Of course. Amelia made it herself." Melina puffed her chest out proudly. I didn't know why she was so smug about something that someone else cooked. Then she turned to me. "And I promise I won't run out of the house in the middle of the night, go cry in some park, and then get attacked by a bunch of lycanthrope."

"Okay, you've lost me there," I admitted. Adrian leaned over and whispered into my ear.

"That's what happened in the anime…and the original light novel. After the welcome party."

Yeah, that was right. I completely forgot about that. With Melina behaving so differently from the story we were supposed to be parodying, I couldn't remember what exactly happened in the original light novel, even though I had just watched the anime a couple of months ago. And to those who were asking, yeah, the anime was worth watching. Give it a shot. You might like it. I certainly did.

More importantly, I dragged myself back to the present and cleared my mind.

"You both have talent, so you don't have to worry. As long as you work hard, you should be able to do well."

"Yeah! Let's aim for a high rank in this semester's practical exam!" Adrian cheered, raising a hand and punching the air.

"That's right! And I'm going to prove to everyone that I can wield a sword!" Melina waved her plastic knife about, almost as if she was playing make-believe wiith a disposable sword. "I'll be a proper swordswoman of the Franklin family, and silence all those naysayers!"

"Young Miss, you can do it!" Amelia and the other servants applauded her enthusiastically. They truly believed in her, I could tell from the sincerity in their gazes and tone.

"Well…I'll do my best to whip you into shape." Taking a deep breath, I took a sip from my gla.s.s and savored the sweet taste of the honeyed green tea. Even though I didn't feel very confident, I had no intention of letting my charges down. "Our goal…the practical exam at the end of the semester. Let's aim to take revenge on all those cla.s.smates who were laughing at you for trying to be a swordswoman!"

The list of people to spite was long. Nirvana and her flunkies. Iris and her teammates for turning their backs on Melina. I was going to make sure they regretted ever scorning my student…

…and the best way to do that was to have Melina beat them in a sword fight. Easier said than done, of course. I honestly still had no idea how I was going to transform her from a talented mage into a respectable swordswoman. But I was sure as h.e.l.l going to do my best to achieve that goal, no matter the odds. After all, I had faced worse odds before and prevailed.

This time wasn't going to be much different…I hope.