The Fire-Chasing Herrscher Who Destroyed the World

Mei stood in front of her house and waited silently for a while. Seeing that there was still no response, she quickly walked around the front of the car and stood by the window of the driver's seat.

She leaned down slightly and looked into the car through the glass.

Although the original driver had informed her of the job transfer early this morning, Mei still felt a little disappointed when she saw that the man sitting in the car was a completely unfamiliar man.

No matter from which angle, her original driver was very much to her liking. Not to mention the superb driving skills that a driver must have, he often chatted with her on the way home. At first she was not quite used to it, but later she got used to it and felt that this feeling of being truly cared for was really good...

Of course, another thing that satisfied her was that no matter what the occasion, he was very polite, respectful to her as a young lady, and generous and steady.

Perhaps, it was because he was too outstanding that his father felt that letting him be a driver was a waste of talent, and finally promoted him to another position.

Unlike this newcomer - what is he doing? He actually blocked the car at the school gate, then leaned back on the seat, closed his eyes and listened to music?

"Ahem!"

Mei coughed twice, but it was not known whether it was because the sound insulation of the windshield was too good, the new driver did not seem to hear it, or at least did not react to it.

"Da Da Da!"

Mei knocked on the window three times, and the violent vibration finally woke up the new driver. He opened his eyes blankly, rubbed his silver-gray hair, and then slowly took off his headphones and turned his head to look out the window.

But what made Mei speechless was that even though he had seen her, this guy had no intention of getting off the car. He just gave her a thumbs up and pointed to the back seat.

"You..."

As a driver who was paid to do things, this attitude was really against the sky. It was as if this was not Mei's car, and he was not employed by Mei's driver... This style was like a taxi driver.

No, even if he was a taxi driver, he had to be polite to customers, right?

"Really, where did my father find such a new driver!"

Mei was a little crazy. She had never encountered such a situation in all these years. She did not go to the back seat as usual. As the person being served, she should sit in the back seat, but if she did so now, it would seem like she was following the instructions of the new driver!

She bit her lower lip, walked back to the other side of the car quickly, opened the passenger door, and sat in directly.

"Bang!"

The door closed heavily, and the whole car body was shaken. The schoolbag carried Mei's resentment and flew from the gap of the front seat to the back seat.

"Let's go, what are you waiting for?"

She ordered unhappily, but the driver did not respond, and did not even start the ignition.

"What's wrong?"

She turned her head and saw that the new driver was also looking at her.

"Look at me... why are you looking at me? Can't I sit in the front passenger seat?"

Without the barrier of the car window, the new driver's face became clear. Meiyi was surprised to find that in terms of appearance, this guy didn't look much older than her. Looking at that particularly young face, she even had an urge to ask him to show his driver's license, and correspondingly, her tone was weaker.

"That guy" didn't say anything, but just drooped his sleepy eyes, pointed at Meiyi with his index finger, and then pointed behind Meiyi.

"Oh!"

As Meiyi fastened her seat belt, the car started.

"Let me introduce myself, Miss Raiden Meiyi, my name is Mikael, from today on, I will be responsible for picking you up and dropping you off at school."

The corners of Meiyi's mouth twitched, and she didn't know what to say.

If you say he is not sensible, he does call her "Miss Raiden Meiyi", if you say he is sensible, he doesn't even bother to use "you".

She glanced at the new driver named Mikael with her peripheral vision. Seeing that she didn't respond and didn't care, the latter pulled the handbrake on his own.

"Wait!"

Mei quickly pressed the handbrake back. Her face flushed and she shouted:

"You guy! Are you really the driver hired by your father?"

"Yeah! What's wrong?"

As if he had expected Meiyi to not believe it, Mikael took out a complete labor employment contract from the storage slot next to the car door. Meiyi flipped through it, and both the name and the photo were consistent with the guy in front of her.

"How about it, do you believe it now? If you still don't believe it, I can also show you the text messages in my mobile phone with your father."

Mei sighed, looking like she wanted to say something but stopped.

Finally, she raised her hand, and her movements and expressions were exactly the same as Mikael's previous movements when he pointed at her.

"I'm not talking about this. I'm talking about... As a driver, don't you wear your seat belt?"

"..."

Mikael was silent. The only sound in the car was the weak sound of the engine, which made people feel unreasonably hot in the cold early winter.

"Ahem!"

Mikael coughed heavily and pulled the seat belt into place in a snap.

"It was just an accident."

He pretended to be nothing and held the steering wheel, tapping his fingers rhythmically.

"Where are we going next? I heard from my senior that Miss Mei usually doesn't go home directly, but goes to a... uh, Homu Kendo Gym to practice first?"

Seeing that the guy in front of her finally looked a bit reliable, Mei Yi breathed a sigh of relief, even though she was already thinking about how to advise her father on how to fire this guy - maybe he was still a well-connected person...and so was her dad. , why don't you check it carefully...

Meiyi looked at the setting sun diagonally falling between the tall buildings. Although the sunset came earlier in winter, it was already almost five o'clock. It takes ten minutes to go to the kendo gym. I practice there for more than half an hour. Then I go home during the rush hour after get off work. I don’t know if I can get home at seven o’clock...

"How about... just being lazy today?"

As soon as this idea popped into her mind, Mei Yi quickly shook her head.

"No, in the practice of swordsmanship, if you don't practice for one day, you will waste ten days of hard work. You can't slack off. And..."

She glanced at the driver named Mikael again, and the corners of her mouth turned up slightly.

But she didn't expect that this guy would strike first:

"Hey, my eldest lady, have you decided? Where are you going?"

"You...go to the Homu Sword Hall!"

Mikael glanced disdainfully:

"How can there be a serious swordsmanship hall in this world that uses Homu as its brand name? I'm afraid it's not for kendo enlightenment for children..."

Mei Yi's face suddenly became extremely rosy, and she slapped the armrest of the car door:

"Stop talking nonsense! Drive!"

Seeing that Mei Yi had a tendency to become irritable, Mikael's teasing expression also softened a bit.

However, what he said after correcting his attitude left Mei Yi even more speechless:

"So, how to get to Homu Sword Hall?"

"Ahhhhh!! I'm going to make dad fire you!!!"

…………

"And... there really is a Homu Sword Hall... Does this game have such a large audience..."

Mikael parked the car firmly on the side of the road, looked at the four shining golden characters on the signboard beside him - Homu Sword Hall, and fell into deep thought.

Not only that, there is also a huge Homu sculpture placed at the entrance of the kendo hall. It does not look as chilling as a kendo hall should have. If the word "kendo hall" were covered up, everyone would just think it is a children's paradise. .

Mikael turned around and looked around the car again. There were few pedestrians on the road, and they were all old people going home shopping for groceries. After all, the sword hall is located on the dividing line between the urban and suburban areas of Changkong City. The location is extremely remote, and this area used to be the old urban area. Most of the people living here are old people who are reluctant to move, but the old people also have to take care of their grandchildren. , it’s not surprising that this sword hall is opened here.

He loosened his seat belt and was about to get out of the car, but Mei Yi patted him on the shoulder and stopped him.

"What's wrong, Miss?"

Mikael's voice was weak, and Mei's cheeks twitched twice:

"First, if you don't want to call me Miss, you don't have to. Second... put this on."

She opened the drawer in front of the passenger seat and handed a mask to Mikael. While the latter was still looking confused, Mei had already covered the lower half of her face with the mask and simply tied her hair up. For a moment, put on a peaked cap.

"What kind of trouble is this..."

Mei Yi turned around and glared at him: "You don't have to wear it, as long as you don't feel embarrassed."

Now it was Mikael's turn to be speechless again:

"No, my eldest lady, you think you are childish..."

Before he could finish complaining, Mei Yi jumped out of the car and slammed the door shut.

Mikael couldn't help it anymore, he shrugged his shoulders and laughed twice, then put the mask Mei Yi gave him back into the drawer in front of the passenger seat, and walked out of the car gracefully.

After locking the car door, he quickly walked to Mei, who was looking for the key to the gym door. Seeing that Mikael was not wearing a mask, she didn't bother to say anything more.

Half a minute later, the door of the gym slowly opened. Different from Mikael's imagination, the gymnasium was unexpectedly simple, almost just a room and a courtyard.

As the two of them entered the gym, no one came out to greet them. Only the crows in the courtyard were frightened by the sound of people. They flew up and circled repeatedly in the sky above the courtyard. They neither dared to fall down nor knew how to get rid of them. Where else to go.

"Isn't there even anyone here?"

Mikael heard clearly that in the entire gym, the only heartbeats of Mei Yi and him were.

"Is there no one again? Alas..."

Mei Yi sighed softly, turned on the light to illuminate the somewhat dim room, and began to put on protective gear.

"There's no one. You mean, there's often no one here? But, I've wanted to ask before, Raiden Mei, since you also think this place is childish and there's no one there, why don't you consider changing to a dojo? Even if it's to go to school. Bullying classmates in the kendo club is better than practicing alone here, right?"

Meiyi slowly put on her protective gear. She didn't want to worry about the issue of addressing her at all. Anyway, as soon as she got home today, she was going to ask her father to explain this. Not only was it rude, she was not even familiar with the roads in Changkong City. She turned on the navigation system and turned the original ten The driver who drove for 20 minutes was fired! However, he had to suffer a little before being expelled.

Well, that's right. In fact, when she entered the kendo gym to practice, the driver only had to wait in the car. But it was just to make Mikael suffer, so when he foolishly followed, Mei didn't do anything to stop him.

"Is it incredible? This is the sword hall I often visited when I was a child. Although my father was also a master of kendo, he was always busy with chores and could not come home for dinner once a month, let alone teach me the way of kendo. So, he entrusted me to this dojo.

"Looking back now, this dojo is indeed quite strange. Even if the space here is small, it is not that there is only one swordsman besides me all the years. But I was just a child at that time, how could I think so much? At that age, I really thought that there was a sword in the world, and naturally I thought I was learning swordsmanship from the sword. As I learned, I practiced the North Star One Sword Style of the Raiden family to perfection. Thinking about it now, it's quite funny. "

"Huh? So this swordsman is your long-lost family member?"

"...Have you always been so humorous?"

Mei threw a set of protective gear in front of Mikael.

"This is..."

"Since I grew up and became sensible, the number of swordsman appearances of the swordsman has become less and less. Even if I can't find an equal opponent, I don't want to compete with a group of people who don't even have a kendo rank, which will only lower my level. Of course, today is different. Isn't there a second person here? I know that the driver my father found for me also has to shoulder the responsibility of a bodyguard. You have just proved that your business ability as a driver is not proficient. If you don't want to be fired, let me see how good your business ability as a bodyguard is! "

Mikael tilted his head, kicked the heavy protective gear aside, and pulled out a bamboo sword from the wooden rack.

"Please, I just have to sell my body to survive because of the pressure of life, and I have no choice but to sell my body to survive..."

Mei thought he was lying, and asked jokingly:

"Oh? What kind of life is forced? What kind of desperate?"

"Actually, it's okay now. My wife is dead, my daughter is dead, and I only have to support myself now. "

Mikael smiled and shrugged, then looked up at the ceiling.

No matter his expression, tone or language, Meiyi could not see any sadness in him. Besides...

"How old are you? You are my wife and my daughter? Remember to draft before you lie next time!"

Mikael smiled again, but did not argue.

Meiyi was too lazy to ask any more questions. She looked at the protective gear that was kicked away by Mikael and kindly reminded:

"You don't wear protective gear? Don't look at it as a bamboo sword. It hurts to be hit, and you may bleed. "

"I know this much better than you, but protective gear is troublesome to put on and even more troublesome to take off. Anyway, I am not used to it. "

Mei had a bad impression of Mikael to begin with. Seeing that he was stubborn, she thought she had done her duty to remind him, so she said no more. After all, she would not be the one to suffer.

She put on a helmet called "Face". The iron mesh on her face affected her vision to some extent. As she said before, since someone disguised as "Hum Swordsman" had not appeared for a long time, she felt a little uncomfortable with her body flexibility and vision after putting on the protective gear.

But it didn't matter. It was not a big problem. She believed that she was in the north. The strength of Chen Itoryu Menkyo Kaiden was enough to deal with a young man who was only a few years older than him.

The two of them chose to start from the middle. Meiyi was not careless. She carefully used the head of the knife to gently test, but Mikael was like a person who didn't know kendo at all, and even his feet stopped in place.

Seeing this, Meiyi finally got the confidence. She moved her body slightly to the right, and then chopped left diagonally.

"First use this attack to induce him to move the knife to the left to block, and then seize his right body defense to end the battle with one move! ”

Although the feint to the east and attack in the west is old-fashioned, it works well.

Unexpectedly, Mikael had no intention of blocking at all. Instead, he quickly stepped forward, thrust his arms forward, and his bamboo sword lightly touched the iron net on Mei's face, and then kept the remnant heart away.

Until Mikael put down the bamboo sword, Mei still kept the diagonal chopping action, as if she had not recovered.

"Next time before using the diagonal chopping feint, remember to slide forward first. You stand still in the same place. At that distance, even if I stand here and let you chop, you can't chop, right? Didn't the Sword Saint Houm teach you this? Or is Beichen's sword style just like this? "

"Huh..."

Mei let out a long breath and started again from the middle section.

"I admit that I underestimated the enemy. I will take the next competition seriously. "

"One to zero, oh, by the way, since it's a competition, how many rounds will determine the winner?"

"Of course, it will be decided by three rounds! "

Mei let out a light roar and took a step forward unexpectedly - there was no other way. She had misjudged the opponent's strength before. Now, in order to recover the one point behind, she could only use some unfair tricks.

But almost at the same time as she took a step forward, Mikael also slid back. She had just raised her bamboo sword and had not had time to chop it down when she felt a pain on the back of her right hand. Mikael's bamboo sword made an extremely small horizontal cut, accurately hitting the back of her hand and taking another book.

"How about it, I took the second book first, is it over now?"

"Within the hand..."

Mei held the bamboo sword tightly and slowly took two steps back.

If she could use the excuse of underestimating the enemy in the first confrontation, then Mikael's performance this time undoubtedly broke all her illusions - even if Mikael really doesn't understand swordsmanship, it doesn't mean that he doesn't Can use a sword. Judging from the skills just now, he is definitely a master with the sword.

While the iron net affected her sight, it also obscured her expression, despite the fact that the angry and troubled look on her face now could not be hidden from Mikael.

"It doesn't count!"

She suddenly shouted.

"ha?"

Meiyi held the knife in one hand and put her hand on her hip, and she acted openly and openly:

"The first time was just a warm-up. The outcome of the three books was decided after that, wasn't it?"

"You are a primary school student!"

Mikael pursed his lips and tried his best to swallow these words.

Meiyi started from the middle again. Mikael, uncharacteristically, stepped forward with his left foot, followed his right foot behind, and raised his bamboo knife diagonally upward, assuming an eight-phase pose.

Seeing this gesture, Mei Yi's eyes narrowed.

"Have you ever mastered swordsmanship?"

The reason why I ask this question is because the eight-phase structure was the posture that warriors used to prepare for battle on the battlefield. Today, it is rarely used in kendo. If you only have a superficial understanding of kendo, you may not even know this posture. .

Mikael smiled and shook his head:

"No. It's just an old friend who is deeply involved in the art of swordsmanship. I watch her practice swordsmanship every morning, and I learn a little bit about it."

"Hey! Are you insulting people?"

fur? Are you trying to say that just watching and learning something secretly is better than Beichen Itto-ryu's Fu Xu Jie Chuan?

Mei Yi controlled the rhythm of her breathing, and her heart beat rapidly and powerfully, but she deliberately suppressed it. Of course she was angry, but she didn't get carried away by it. Instead, she moved carefully, trying to find a flaw in Mikael.

"Oh? Not bad. It's good that you can still control your emotions stably at this time."

Perhaps this was Mikael's sincere praise, but to Mei Yi's ears, it naturally had a different meaning.

And her attempt to find Mikael's flaws also ended in failure - the reason why the eight-phase structure is rarely used is because the center is too exposed and vulnerable to attack. In other words, Mikael's flaw is obvious and there is no need to look for it.

Of course, it can also be understood in another way - Mikael is tempting her to attack.

"No matter! Just fight this once!"

She shouted loudly, and while rushing forward, she also nodded the bamboo knife in her hand forward.

Her speed was unprecedentedly fast, so fast that Mikael seemed to have no time to counterattack, so he could only retreat his left foot and hold his bamboo sword horizontally to block.

But this played into Mei's plan. She did not try to wrestle with Mikael, nor did she try to win by trying to win in the east and west. Instead, she continued to move forward until she was close to Mikael.

In fact, when faced with an opponent who has an absolute advantage in age, gender, height, and weight, close combat is really the last resort. But this is the only chance of victory in Mei Yi's eyes - to retreat!

But unfortunately, she was not the only one who thought of this.

Almost as soon as their arms touched each other, Mikael exerted force on his wrist and drew his bamboo sword to the right, easily blocking Mei's weapon.

Then, taking advantage of the stunned moment when the opponent's weapon was released, he hit Mei Yi's collarbone hard with both fists holding the handle of the knife. Under the reaction force, his body naturally slid backwards. On the contrary, the bamboo knife in his hand moved forward——

"Snapped!"