SLKD – Volume 1 Chapter 8

Previous Chapter | Project Page | Next Chapter

---

Volume 1 Chapter 8 – Ijima Meiko, Takahashi’s Hostility, and the Earth Dog

After class had ended, Meiko-sensei smiled at me, picked up her books and left the classroom.

I have to say, ice queen beauty Meiko-sensei, it’s fine if you don’t smile, but once you smile, that’s going to cause a lot of trouble.

The looks the guys shot at me made me uncomfortable; and I’m also not sure why Satsuki was upset as well, so I’ve decided buy some snacks to coax her.

After buying a bottle of orange juice and a bottle of Satsuki’s favourite yogurt, I returned back to the classroom.

“Where did you go? Went to look for Meiko-sensei?” Satsuki unhappily asked.

“What’s this?”

I placed the bottle of yogurt in front of her and she immediately smiled: “Ah~~~ my favorite. Lin Xiang, how did you know that this is my favorite drink?”

“I know everything about what Risa-chan likes.”

“Idiot.” Satsuki face reddened as she raised her voice and snatched the yogurt and orange juice from my hand.

“Hey hey, that orange juice is mine.”

“Idiots don’t get to drink.” As she said this, she opened the bottle of orange juice. Her mouth latched onto the bottle, gulped it down in a few seconds and then followed up with a *hmph~*.

“You…. I’m thirsty.”

“I’ve already drank from it before, you still dare to drink it?” Satsuki placed the bottle in front of me.

Come on, why wouldn’t I dare? You might not know but in the previous world, you often drink drinks that I’ve drank before, and I often drink yours as well okay?

I picked up the bottle and drank a mouthful. Afterwards, I held the bottle in my hand: “Ku~~~ even though I haven’t drink it for some time now, it still tastes so good.”

It’s been about a month since I drank this sort of orange juice. Now that I’ve drank it, it still tastes as good.

“Stupid.” Satsuki face became very red, and came rushing over, wanting to snatch the bottle from my hand: “Stupid, stupid, stupid. Stupid Lin Xiang. You….”

“Hey hey hey, what is it?” I was baffled.

Satsuki snatched the orange juice from my hand: “I told you to drink it, and you actually drank it.”

“What’s wrong with that?”

“But…. but…. isn’t that an indirect kiss? This’s common sense.” Satsuki, with her reddish face, said in a low voice.

Indirect kiss ! ? I never thought of that before. In the previous world, you didn’t care about it at all. Could it be that the you from the previous world lacked common sense?

“S…. sorry.”

“Humph~~~” Satsuki snorted; looked at the bottle in my hand, and then back at me: “Forget it, since we’re kind of like sisters.” Afterwards, her small mouth once again latched onto the bottle opening, and drank a few sips.

After she finish drinking, her face became even redder, but she seemed happy.

She secretly peeked at me, and said: “Idiot, next time…. don’t do this again.”

“I definitely won’t.” How will there be a next time? Satsuki-san. What happened just now was seen by Takahashi. Even though the teacher isn’t here yet, the classroom is slightly noisy, slightly chaotic, and we are sitting quite far back, but did you know that you’re one of the most popular and prettiest girls in our year? How many lessons are there when guys wouldn’t look at you? Don’t you realize that what you did just now was seen by some of the guys? Did you now know that there’s a high chance that those guys will come and kill me?

“Why are you so serious….. actually you can…..”

“What’d you just said?” I couldn’t hear what Satsuki was saying earlier.

“Nothing.” While speaking, Satsuki gave me her favourite yogurt and continued to drink that orange juice.

——————————Lunch Break

“Class 1-C’s Lin Xiang-san, please come to the staff room.” The announcement rang throughout the school.

Just as I took out my lunchbox, the announcement came. I helplessly stood up: “Hey, the croquettes are inside, help yourself. Remember to leave some side dishes for me.”

After informing her, I left the classroom.

What did they call for me for?

Two months since the start of school, not once have I been called to the staff room before.

— Staff Room

Pillar Nofu Academy’s staff room was pretty impressive. The teachers’ staff room was pretty much like a big companies’, where the employees have their own office.

Who was it that called for me?

“Little Xiang~~~” At this moment, Meiko-sensei’s very attractive voice rang.

The white blouse that she was wearing completely revealed her seductive figure. Together with that short black skirt and black stockings, it was practically an undisguised temptation.

“This way, Little Xiang.” Meiko stood in front of her office door, signalling me to go in.

——————————

“Excuse me, is there something wrong?”

“You still have the nerve to ask, didn’t I ask you to come and find me after class?” Meiko poured two cups of tea, and gestured for me to sit.

After I sat down on the sofa, she came and sat beside me and stuck her body close to me: “Hey, Little Xiang….”

“Sensei, you’re too close.” I immediately stood up.

Today’s Meiko-sensei is so strange, did something happened?

She stood up, and charmingly said: “The day before yesterday, after school, I happened to go to that Mountain Spring Bookstore.”

Mountain Spring Bookstore? Wasn’t that where Satsuki and I went to buy our books? We were attacked by Yamada on the way there. Don’t tell me….

“So? Why are you looking so surprised? Did you feel like something was exposed?” Meiko’s expression became serious.

“I don’t understand what you’re talking about.”

“The Lin Xiang I know, is someone who’s very timid, and has no fighting skills.” The corner of Meiko-sensei’s mouth slightly moved, into a strange smile.

“Tell me, who are you? Where did the real Lin Xiang go?”

Meiko’s cold words were like needles as they pricked my heart with every word. Did she discover something?

‘Freed, Freed’ I tried to call for Freed, however, there wasn’t any reply.

‘Yalide?’ Yalide also didn’t answer.

Dammit, did we talk too much during the spirit explanation class and exceeded the time limit?

“Sensei? What are you talking about? I’m really Lin Xiang.” I tried to play the fool.

“Perhaps you’re able to deceive others, but you won’t be able to deceive me. I can clearly detect the small change in the spiritual power in your body

“I really don’t understand what you’re….” Before I can finish, Meiko’s hand conjured up spiritual power. I knew this was called spiritual knife — it’s melee attack power was not small.

Her speed was fast, as her right hand swiftly did a cut diagonally. Shocked, I immediately dodged her attack, and pulled away from her.

“Sensei, I’m really Lin Xiang.” There truly is a reason why I can’t talk about it. Oh Meiko, don’t tell me, you want me to say that I came from another world? Yalide has repeatedly stressed that I must keep this and the fact that they are currently living in my body, a secret from others; even from my uncle.

“If you’re really Lin Xiang, then you shouldn’t be able to dodge that attack just now.” Meiko’s word may not meant much to her, but it meant a lot to me. Her words, severely hurt my pride, no, nerdy Lin Xiang’s pride.

I can’t believe, that in her eyes, nerdy Lin Xiang was a person with the weakest of the weakest ability. What a pity~~~ and here I thought that she was an amiable sensei.

Meiko initiated another attack at me. This time, I noticed her attack was faster than before. It seemed like her attack style appears to be Sanda?
(TL: Sanda is a freestyle martial art)

Her legs came kicking towards me and I immediately blocked her kick. During the time that she attacked me, her hands were not idle. Her left hand came punching towards my head, and her right, aimed for my chest. How was I supposed to block that?

I lightly kicked her legs, and she immediately lost her balance, and fell backwards. Well~~~ after all, her center of gravity was focused on her upper body.

I swiftly held onto her waist. At this moment, her original white face, blushed and became red. This was my first time seeing her face redden; her cheeks became very red, like a girl who had just put on makeup, which became even more charming.

She repeatedly slapped against me: “Let go, let go, quickly let go.”

I quickly helped her up.

At that moment, a deep and powerful voice came out from the storage closet in Meiko’s office: “Good.”

“Worthy to be Grandmaster Battle Technician Lin Fan’s son.” From the storage closet, an elder with white hair and a youthful complexion emerged. The elder wore an ancient kimono, and the kimono was draped with a gray cloak; the feeling was quite like some great elder from some anime called “Bleach”, that I watched in the past.

“Grandfather.” When Meiko saw the elder come out, she went to walk behind the elder.

“Hoho, Little Xiang, I didn’t scare you, right?” The elder kindly asked.

“No, no.” Was he the headmaster, Ijima Michita?

“Hoho, that’s good. First off, I must apologize to you. Come and sit down, I’ll tell you what happened.” The headmaster sat on the sofa.

The headmaster’s body did not let out any spiritual energy, as if he was just like an ordinary old man.

Although his body didn’t emit any spiritual energy, I could still feel that he was actually a very formidable person, whose spiritual energy achieved the rank of Battle Elder and is at its fifth or so level. No, as long as he continues to train, he should be able to reach Battle Saint in a short time.

I couldn’t help but sigh in regret; at how frightening this person was, and how fearful his lineage was. The headmaster was at most 70, but yet, his spiritual power was this high; this was truly incredible. No wonder Meiko, only at the age of 20, was able able to reach the magus class; it was all inherited from her grandfather’s spiritual power.

He patted my shoulder as I sat beside him, and he kindly smiled: “I’m really sorry that I could never find the time to visit you.”

“…..” I didn’t say anything as I listened to him while Meiko was at the side pouring tea.

“Your father, Lin Fan, was my apprentice and my best friend.” Headmaster drank a sip of tea, and sighed: “He was my one and only apprentice, as well as the only one who can be counted as my most intimate friend.”

“As you know, your parents passed away when you were very young. They fought against the demons and died an honorable death; all of it was to protect you, and protect the Human World that’s full of life.”

I already knew of this; nerdy Lin Xiang’s parents were incredible people with very strong abilities. The only thing is, regarding the son they gave birth to — nerdy Lin Xiang, his ability was so bad that it was a complete mess.

“Just now, the reason why Meiko attacked you, was because she said that you had changed a lot and even saw you defeating 5 Junior Magicians and 2 Battle Masters by yourself. Due to this, she had a hunch that you might not be a real person, that you might be a demon in disguise, so she called me over to check whether or not you have demon magic in you while she fought against you.

“So it was like this.” I finally understood why Meiko attacked me. It’s because she suspected that I was a demon in disguise. However, it’s not surprise that she suspected me. After all, my change was really significant, furthermore, I even became bolder.

“Sorry Little Xiang.” Meiko smiled at me: “Truthfully speaking, when I saw you get beaten by those two Battle Master bullies, I wanted to step in immediately. However, I didn’t expect that not only were you not knocked out by their fists filled with spiritual power, you even turned the tables that quickly, which really shocked me.”

“Is that so.”

“Yes. Furthermore, during class, the things I did and said to you, were to test you. I wanted to see, when in front of so many people, what would your reaction be like. Who knew that you would be unexpectedly calm. At that point, I increasingly became more suspicious of you.” Meiko thought for a moment before asking: “Hey, can you tell me, where did you learn those boxing skills?”

“Even if you ask me, I also….” Don’t tell me you want me to say, I learned them when I was in the boxing club in Junior High? This world didn’t have any boxing clubs, and at most, boxing was only used in competitive sports. Let me ask you, where would you be able to find an idiot who uses their fists when fighting demons?

Eh?….. Seems like there was an idiot who did that, and that’s me. Lin Xiang.

“Meiko.” Headmaster glanced at Meiko and said: “There are things that shouldn’t be asked.”

“Okay.” Meiko pouted her lips like a small child, in an awfully adorable manner.

Ah, if only I managed to take a photo of it, develop it into a picture and sell it; I would most likely be a millionaire by now.

“Thing is, Little Xiang, I really admire your reaction speed; to able to instantly determine that Meiko’s center of gravity was focused on her upper body at that time. Please forgive me, but I’m really curious, how’d you managed to do that?”

Yo Headmaster. You need to understand that in this world, people with strong spiritual power may be the strongest, but in my previous world, people with strong fighting abilities, are at the top.

In my previous world, there weren’t any psychic-like powers, like spiritual power. What we relied on, were our fists and weapons. The most impressive of them, are guns. Unlike your world, like just a simple magic spell, it’ll be able to cause a cannon-like damage.

However, you guys have a much quicker and more convenient ability, hence, didn’t discover those simple fighting techniques.

“I don’t know either, I was simply scared so I randomly kicked and Meiko-sensei fell.”

“Really? Since you don’t feel like telling us, then I won’t force you.” Headmaster saw through my lies in this short time, and happily smiled afterwards: “But, I saw a shadow of Lin Fan on your body. Looks like this is the birth of another Grandmaster Battle Technician.”

Grandmaster Battle Technician? Headmaster, don’t joke around. I’m just a person who can’t even use simple magic. How would I even be able to apply spiritual power onto my weapons?

“Okay, it’s lunch time now. Meiko, since you called Little Xiang over, I doubt that he had eaten anything yet. What are you going to do about it?”

“Don’t worry, grandfather, I was prepared for this.” As Meiko said this, she turned around and took the two bentos from her desk and passed one to me: “This is great, it’s a good thing that you aren’t a demon. But Little Xiang, you’re pretty impressive to lie to us for such a long time. We didn’t expect your combat skills to be this impressive.”

“I’m not that impressive, I got lucky. You know that too, I hardly have any spiritual power.”

“Sorry.” Meiko thought that she had hit a sore spot, and apologize to me.

“It’s fine.” While speaking, I opened the bento, picked up a piece of meatball and ate it: “Oh~~~ This, so good.”

“Really?” Meiko’s cloudy expression suddenly disappeared. I knew it, for people who cook, what makes them truly happy, was hearing the sound of praise from the people they cook for.

“That’s right, Meiko-sensei, it’s really good. Not only are you beautiful, even the food you cook is delicious as well, you’re simply just omnipotent in every aspect.” I exclaimed.

Truthfully speaking, girls like Meiko, whoever manages marry them, would definitely have the blessings of a good fortune.

“Jeez, what are you saying, you’re obviously still a child.” Meiko’s face reddened. She buried her face into the bento and started eating.

“My good granddaughter, where’s mine?” Ijima Michita helplessly looked at us as we ate our bentos.

“Grandfather has no need to eat.”

————————————

After finishing the bento, I chatted with headmaster for awhile before heading back to class. I saw that Takahashi was currently talking to Satsuki. On one side, Satsuki was answering and the other, she kept looking at the bento box and the door.

“Why didn’t you eat?” I said when I saw the bento that I opened when I left, was now closed again. Even Satsuki’s bento hadn’t been touched.

“Yo~~ Lin Xiang.” Takahashi stared at me, then stood up.

His body was emitting a frightening aura. This sensation, it felt like a demon….

“You’re back.” The bored expression that Satsuki initially had, suddenly became cheerful.

“Yeah.”

“Nobuhiko, have you eaten?” That aura just now was probably just an illusion.

“Yeah.” Takahashi replied, and then went back to his seat.

The aura that his body was emitting, didn’t disappear.

What’s going on?

“Why didn’t you eat?” I didn’t bother with Takahashi anymore but rather, asked Satsuki why didn’t she eat the bento.

“Waiting for you.” Just as Satsuki finished her sentence, in the next moment, her face became red and said: “No, no, what I meant was, I was waiting for you to come back before eating. If not, you will complain that I ate finish your side dishes.

“Oh~~ this girl.” While speaking, I patted Satsuki’s head which she took the initiative to stretch out. Afterwards, I said: “I’ve eaten, you should quickly eat.”

At this moment, Satsuki’s initial happy face, quickly became gloomy: “Is that so? So that’s what happened, eating lunch with that beautiful sensei. So that’s what happened….”

“Satsuki?” Satsuki’s expression was very scary, I’ve never seen Satsuki this angry before.

“I’m really an idiot.” While speaking, Satsuki opened the lunchbox, and started eating as if her life depended on it.

“Hey, eat slower.”

Satsuki ignored me, and only focused on eating her bento. Furthermore, she didn’t take her favorite croquettes from my bento.

—————————————— After school

Satsuki was very strange; she didn’t talk to me for the whole day. Whenever I try to talk to her, she just ignores me. After school had ended, she quickly left by herself.

Did I do something wrong?

On my way back home, I kept thinking about what exactly did I do wrong.

Suddenly at this moment, I saw a few kids throwing stones at a gray dog.

That dog was cornered by them and it looked very frightened. However, it didn’t dodge the stone that was thrown at it.

After being hit by the stones, it cried *Uu~~~~* a few times.

I ran over, raised my voice and said: “Hey, you guys, what are you doing?”

Maybe they thought that I was the owner of this dog, so they quickly ran away, and left this grey dog behind as it licked its own wounds.

I went over and that dog looked at me with its moist eyes. It looked extremely pitiful.

From my bag, I took out the bento that I didn’t eat today, opened it, and placed it in front of the dog.

He looked at me a few times, sniffed it, and then started to nibble.

At this moment, I slightly sensed its magic power. This dog was a spirit, an earth attribute spirit.

I carefully inspected it. It’s breed was closer to a wolf, had gray fur, and was of medium size. Its body was basically covered with wounds. I couldn’t help but curse those bastards. Was it because it was just a common earth spirit? Did they have to treat it like that? Aren’t earth spirits, spirits as well?

I sighed, and afterwards, watched it finish eating the bento.

Soon enough, it finished eating. After eating, it kept looking at me as I packed my bento box.

I stretched out my hand and patted its head. It seemed pretty tame since it didn’t showed any signs of reluctance.

“Are you alone?” So I asked.

“Woof~~ woof” It laid down on the ground, and softly cried out.

What to do? If I just leave like this, even if it doesn’t die of hunger, it’ll still get stoned to death by those mischievous children.

“Do you want to come over to my place?” Was what I’m doing right now, considered to be a kidnapping?

I only saw it wag its tail as it barked: *Woof woof*.

It seems that its leg was injured. No wonder it didn’t run away when it was cornered by those kids from before.

After I put the bento in my bag, I lifted the dog into my arms. During the exact moment I lifted it, that similar feeling of the transferring of power appeared again. From the looks of it, I was replenishing its magical power. However, that feeling disappeared almost instantly.

The injury on it leg started to heal and after 5 seconds, all the injuries on its body had disappeared.

Wasn’t this too miraculous? The healing ability of spirits was just too alarming.

Now that I think about it, this was quite strange. It was an earth attribute spirit but earth attribute spirits have very strong defenses. How did it get injured just from the few stones thrown by those kids? It turned out that it’s because it ran out of magic power. What did it go through? I didn’t know, but what I did know was that if it’s willing to follow me, then I’ll take good care of it until it finds a master who would cherish it.

Since its injury was healed, I should put it back down.

It seems to be in joy after seeing its injury healed in seconds, and started to skip in front of me.

Just like that, it followed me home.

On the way back home, nobody noticed this extremely ordinary, lowest ranked spirit of the earth attribute. It walked beside me, but not once had it separated from me for more than half a step.

Soon enough, we reached home.

Upon opening the door, Silent Water came out to welcome me, and sweetly smiled at me: “Welcome back.”

“Ah, I’m back. Oh right, let me introduce to you.” While speaking, I pointed towards the earth dog as it came in.

“Little Water, I met it on the way home. It doesn’t have a home, or master so I decided to keep it here instead, until it finds a home. Can I?”

The earth dog, walked in, sat beside me, wagged its tail, and looked at Silent Water.

Silent Water gently said: “Master, this is your home, is there a need to have my consent? Besides, I can understand the feeling of not having a home and not having a family, so of course I’m very willing to have it stay here.”

Silent Water really was extremely kind and gentle.

“Ah, that’s really great Dusty; from now on, this will be your new home.” Dusty, that was the name I’ve decided to call it.

Dusty was very happy. It wagged its tail, turned in circles, brushed against my leg, and barked *woof woof* a few times towards Silent Water, to thank her.

———————————— Bathroom

“Come, sit properly, stop moving.” I made Dusty sit in the bathtub.

To be honest, Dusty was pretty swollen and in addition, its body was rather smelly. My body also contracted its smell, which was why I’m taking a bath together with it.

Dusty looked at me and then obediently sat inside the bathtub.

I picked up the showerhead and faced it towards its body to spray. It appeared to be a bit unadapted and slightly afraid. Yet, it still listened to me very well and actually didn’t move an inch. I squeezed shower gel onto its body and cleaned its fur. It seemed to understand the benefits of showering, as it ecstatically licking my face.

……….

After the shower, I took a towel to wipe its fur and then used a hair dryer to blow dry it.

After being cleaned up, Dusty was no different than a regular house dog. As I sat on the sofa to watch TV, it curled up on my lap, and appeared to have fallen asleep.

At that moment, my cellphone rang. The incoming caller was Takahashi.

I answered the call and from the cellphone’s speaker came Satsuki’s urgent shouting: “Lin Xiang, no matter what, don’t come, don’t come no matter what, ah…” After that, Takahashi’s ice-cold voice rang out from the cellphone’s speaker: “Lin Xiang, 8 o’clock, the big ancient tree at Dark Forest Central.”

“Hey, Takahashi, what going on?” I yelled at the phone.

Dammit, what happened to Satsuki?

“Come and you’ll understand. If you don’t, then you can think for yourself about what will happen.” After that was said, the call was dropped.

I looked at the time on the clock. It was 7:50…

---

Previous Chapter | Project Page | Next Chapter