Misunderstanding

"By the way, if I'm not being rude… Do you have anything to eat? I've been starving since morning?" I asked Maria with an innocent smile on my face.

"I'm sorry?.." the girl made a confused face.

Meanwhile in her mind…

'The f*ck? Do I look like your maid, you bastards?'

"If it won't bother you, of course," I said while forcing an awkward smile on my face.

"No, of course not!" Maria shook her head.

"Let me check in the fridge. I think we should have something…" said the girl with a smile and then started walking toward the shrine.

I was looking at her back and thinking…

So.

Seems like I was right.

She was so set on playing the role of 'polite and kind girl' that I could use it to my advantage.

I could annoy her to no end.

Slowly, a real smile crept on my lips.

After a few minutes, Maria has returned with a sandwich in her hands. I took it from her and started eating. I was doing it slowly to annoy her.

[-6!

+3P!]

And it was working.

After I had done with the dish, which was quite tasty, by the way, I again raised the sword. Maria prepared to pour the leaves from the bucket on me, when suddenly…

"I don't want to sound rude," I said. "But now, after eating, I feel thirsty… Oh, that doesn't mean that I'm asking you to bring me a drink, of course not, don't bother with it…"

I looked right into the eyes of this girl.

They went slightly wide. Then, however, Maria smiled and said:

"It doesn't bother me at all… I will bring you a glass of water…" said the girl and slowly started walking toward the shrine.

+5P!

And so it began...

"Maria-san, don't you think that the leaves in the bucket are a bit crumpled? I think I should replace them, give me a moment… What? Do you want to do it by yourself? Sure…"

"Maria-san, don't you feel tired? Maybe you should take a rest? No? Okay then."

"Wait, is that a caterpillar among the leaves? That's bad. I think we should take them back to the trees and place them on the leaves. What? You are gonna do it yourself? Well, if you want to…"

"I hope I don't bother you, Maria-san…"

"Maria-san…"

"Maria-san…"

"Maria-san…"

'Die, die, DIE!'

+3P! +4P! +5P!

That was quite fun…

…

…

…

Making fun of Maria was amusing, but a little bit dangerous. At some points, she started having violent thoughts:

'Next time this bastard will ask to bring him water, I will f*cking poison it…'

Therefore, I had to restrain myself.

Either way, I had to concentrate on my training.

I started trying to pierce the leaf, but I had little success.

After about half an hour, Rokosuke and Takeshi came back. The guy was looking tired and sweaty, while the old man had a mild smile on his face.

"Are you still at it, Kiryu? So, did you manage to gain any progress?"

"Not really," I said.

It was hard to concentrate on the right leaf with my eyes. Piercing the sword through the almost invisible crack on it was almost impossible.

In my previous world that would have been a fantastical feat.

In this one?

Well, maybe with a high level of kendo mastery you could do something like that, but I wasn't quite there yet…

"Well, it would have been very surprising if you could accomplish something is such short timespan," nodded Rokosuke.

"Teacher, I think it's time for us to rest," said Takeshi.

"That's true. Maria, could you please…"

"Right away, grandfather," smiled the girl.

Meanwhile in her head…

'*******'

Shirogane has also come back from his corner where he was beating the wooden doll. After that, for some reason, he looked at Maria and me with a strange gaze…

Then we all went into the shrine and had a meal.

That market the end of today's training.

Takeshi had some stuff to do, something about his family. He said goodbye and started descending the stairs leading down this side of the mountain.

Shirogane and I, on the other hand, entered the forest and went toward the school.

The first half of the road we spent in silence.

Then, suddenly, Shirogane put his hands in his pockets and said:

"You have been flirting with her."

"What?"

Now that's a strange way to start a talk.

"I mean that girl, Mari."

"Maria, it's a western name."

"What if your girlfriend knew about that?"

"My… What?"

What is he talking about?

"That one, in the red."

"You mean Murakami?"

Shirogane nodded with a serious look on his face.

Ah, I see.

So there was a deep misunderstanding there.

Troublesome stuff.