「THAT B*STARD!」
Shiga, the assistant instructor of the Heineman-style dojo, angrily kicked up
the wooden chair in his room.
Three of the disciples he had taught had gotten eliminated in the first
preliminary round. The trio had surrounded Kai Heineman to give him a
beating, but their target left the arena as soon as the trio surrounded him.
Normally, Kai Heineman should've been scared shitless of the trio and
received a beating.
Unexpectedly, not only did Kai Heineman qualify the round, but three of
Shiga's disciples even got eliminated.
While this had happened, Shiga had been watching Riku, the disciple he
had placed his hopes in and whose match schedule had overlapped with
Kai's. Thus, he didn't get to see what had happened in Kai's match.
「THAT F*CKING INCOMPETENT! Just what kind of shady means he
used to pass the first preliminary?」
Kai Heineman was well known in Lamour as the weakest incompetent. No
matter how much Shiga pondered this question, he just couldn't picture the
scene of Kai passing the first preliminary round. Thus, it left only one
possibility in his mind. Kai Heineman had cheated using an item. Shiga
knew that Kai's mother was an elite hunter. Thus, he assumed that she, who
doted on her son, must've left something for Kai Heineman that would
protect him when she was away. However, a victory in this tournament was
worth the value of the item she had left for her son considering the bleak
future of her son, who was granted a trash gift.
Naturally, Shiga had raised a complaint to the referee immediately after
hearing the result of the match. But, the other side was unwilling to listen to
him.
「Shiga-sensei, we were defeated by underhanded means!」
Shiga's female disciple who got eliminated said so while loudly crying.
「THAT INCOMPETENT APOSTATE! He dared to sully our efforts!」
「UNFORGIVABLE! Let's beat him to death!」
One of Shiga's disciples clasped his wooden sword and walked toward the
entrance of the room with bulging blue veins on his forehead; the other two
disciples followed suit. Just when they were about to cross the entrance,
「Stop right there.」
Riku, the handsome, blond disciple of Shiga, stopped them.
「Don't try to stop us, Riku! This is the problem of distinction of our
Heineman-style!」
One of the disciples squeezed his voice and shouted at Riku with bloodshot
eyes.
「That's right! This is our problem, not yours!」
""
The female disciple added with a shrill voice. Although this female disciple
always acted affectionately toward Riku, her current temperament was the
exact opposite today. That showed just how much they felt humiliated after
finding out that they had been beaten by the one they called incompetent.
「―」
Shiga opened his mouth to reprimand his disciples, but…
「Then, I'll beat that apostate in the second preliminary round. I'll
thoroughly beat him in front of the crowd. And after I win, I'll reveal the
fact that he is cheating to completely crush him. As long as we show to
everyone watching the tournament that he is, in fact, a weak incompetent,
even the management won't have any choice other than to acknowledge the
fact that the incompetent is cheating, right?」
Shiga couldn't help but agree. His disciple was right. As long as Riku beat
up the incompetent apostate called Kai Heineman in front of the spectators,
the public would have no choice but to agree with them. With the audience
on the side of Shiga's group, the tournament's management would have no
choice but to acknowledge that Kai Heineman was cheating during the first
preliminary round.
At least, beating Kai till he was half-dead was much better than leaving him
to become a bigger threat later in the future.
「You're right. I agree with Riku.」
「SENSEI!」
One of Shiga's disciples tried to appeal in a loud voice to change Shiga's
mind, but…
「If you guys rampage outside of the tournament, your actions will only
besmirch the Heineman-style's reputation. You might even get punished for
that. And I don't want to impose such danger on talented youths like you
just for that incompetent.」
Shiga stopped them with such insincere words unbefitting of a teacher.
Even Riku, the disciple he favored the most, was nothing more than a way
for him to raise his position in the Heineman-style dojo. This was especially
true for the trio, whose talent in swords was far below that of Riku.
Although he could use them as his handpieces, Shiga absolutely couldn't let
them become a hindrance for his future. And he planned to make them
understand that.
「Sensei…」
However, his performance managed to bring out the sympathy of his
students.
「Well then, Riku, can I leave this matter of the second preliminary round
to you?」
「Leave it to me. I'll definitely pay back everyone's humiliation to him,
double. I'm gonna beat him no matter how much he cries and apologizes.」
The sadistic smile on Riku's face convinced everyone that he was going to
beat Kai until the latter couldn't recover as a swordsman anymore.
Although they couldn't do that before, thanks to the influence of Kai's
grandfather, Elm, there was nothing to stop them in this city.
Currently, an intense competition was happening in the Heineman-style
dojo for the position of the next grandmaster. The competition was between
the branch family faction, who endorsed the spear king's gift holder,
Roman, and the main family faction, where Elm and Kai came from.
The branch family faction was in the lead since no one had a better gift than
Roman's spear king. As long as Shiga, who also belonged to the branch
family faction, could uncover the foul means Kai Heineman, who was
renowned as the stain of the main family, used in this tournament in front of
so many people, he would inflict a decisive blow to the main family. On the
other hand, he could also preserve the honor of the Heineman-style since
the one who was going to beat Kai was Riku, who came from the same
style. Yes, it was just like killing two birds with one stone.
If everything went smoothly, a position would be prepared for Shiga when
he would bring back the news of their victory to the branch family.
「I'm looking forward to your performance then!」
When Shiga came closer and tapped Riku's shoulder, his expression was
filled with worldly desire.