The last night, I slept like a rock and missed what the two boys were doing. But I was intrigued by their sleepiness over the day and didn’t want to miss it a second time. Thus, I fought the tiredness for several minutes and kept listening to every sound there was while pretending to be asleep in the tent.
Several minutes later, I heard how Lucy stirred at the right side of the tent and opened the entrance up. She fought with her shoes a little but managed to get them on after some time.
Meanwhile, I still kept completely silent, hoping to trick her into believing I was already asleep. I heard her standing up and I could still feel the colder air from the outside for a little while but I didn’t hear anything else. She wouldn’t let the entrance open after she left, would she?
“Are you coming or what?” She whispered and touched my covered feet. Instantly, I opened my eyes and noticed her smiling awkwardly. “You might want to wear something that can get dirty though.”
Well, she definitely had my attention with that. I quickly crawled out while making sure to leave Luna asleep and changed into my leather armour in the cover of the night. Lucy still had her nightgown on and a blanket around her shoulders as we met again in front of the boys tents.
She didn’t wait long to shake the whole tent, waking both of them up. I could hear a little cursing as both of them fought to get out earlier than the other. Both of them were fully clothed in a similar style than I had on.
“What is she doing here?” Schwarz grumbled, but I could see that Louis was equally surprised about my presence.
“She is considering joining you.” Lucy explained and began to stroll down the hill we were camping on.
“As long as she doesn’t get in my way.” Schwarz said unhappily, making me want to tell him that nobody, really nobody liked him when he was like that … which was basically all the time.
“What are you even doing at night? And why is none of the teachers stopping you?” I asked a bit confused. There were several teachers awake, a few on lookout while others enjoyed warm booze, but none of them stopped us.
“The answer to all of your question lies five minutes away.” Lucy explained and left me with no further choice but to wait a little while. A few minutes later, we were at the bottom of the slope where Miss Dove stood with a black sword in hand.
I had seen her fight before in the magical combat class, but never did she use a sword so far. She always used normal spells to demonstrate how to act on the battlefield. What I didn’t know though – and apparently the boys were no exception – was what she presented us was just a fraction of what she could do.
With a single sidewards sweep, she flung out enough air pressure to create a strong gust of wind, reaching even us who were still far away. My whole hair was blown backwards and Lucy had troubles gripping onto her blanket as it was rising in the air like some superhero cape.
“Hey!” Hannah was just getting ready for a second strike as Lucy shouted out and stopped her from doing so. Puffing her cheeks, she approached her sister with us in tow.
“Hey … sorry for that. There is a nice place over there for you.” She said and pointed towards a nearby tree which had grown roots tall enough to sit on comfortably.
“Thanks!” Lucy said and strolled over there, leaving us behind with Miss Dove.
“What is she doing?” Louis asked a bit confused as Lucy sat down cross legged, closed her eyes and placed her palms on her knees.
“She is trying to meditate. So keep it quiet today. I presume you also want a kiss from Lucy, Ellie?” Miss Dove asked completely serious.
“What?” I asked perplexed. I still didn’t get what was happening.
“It doesn’t seem so … what about one from Louis?” She didn’t even wait long to smirk at me as I seriously considered her words. “Perfect. We play tag. Once you touch me, Louis will kiss you.”
“Eh … I.” Didn’t know what to say. Accept? Did I want my first kiss to be like that? On the other hand, I finally understood the boys were so hyped because they were promised a kiss by Lucy if they won … which was something I couldn’t accept. As much as it hurt me to admit it, either Schwarz or I had to win this.
“Now then …” Without much trouble, she threw her sword over to Lucy where it embedded itself into the ground a few metres away from the completely unfazed girl.
“This time I’ll get you.” Schwarz said while trying to use the moment to touch her. A mere second before he could touch her though, she stepped away from him and laughed loudly.
“It’s always the same with you.” She said, now apparently focusing on Louis who gave himself more speed through a spell. But even with this buff, he didn’t get close to touching her at all. Whenever it looked like either of them would manage to touch her, she evaded faster than before.
I knew I couldn’t match Louis in speed. He was way faster than me with his spells, but that didn’t even come close to what Schwarz could achieve without any support. And he also had his dark magic on his side, which should allow him to conceal himself fairly well.
But none of them could match her. Not even close. They already had done this far longer than me, so I chose to stay back and watch them fail one attempt after another.
But even with all my observations, I couldn’t find a feasible way to catch her. And thus, I didn’t even try, but rather chose to ask the person who should know Miss Doves weaknesses.
Quietly, I sneaked over to Lucy who still sat in the exact same position, breathing very rarely. She didn’t even notice me as I was one metre in front of her, or she feigned to.
“Hey, Lucy.” She didn’t answer at all. “Lucy?” I asked once again and touched her right shoulder. Finally, she opened her green eyes wide, reached to her thighs immediately only to blink a few times afterwards.
“Oh, you really startled me there. “ She said and smiled a bit.
“I’m sorry. Eh … this meditation thing … why are you doing that?” I asked nicely. It would be rude to wake her up and ask my question right away after all.
“There is a place in each of every one of us. Deeply rooted in our soul, it contains memories of old, long forgotten and fresh ones alike. It’s my dream to reach that place, to remember a forgotten, but vital memory. You may laugh now.” She said and giggled happily. I joined in a little because it sounded so laughable. The brain was responsible for storing memories, and nobody had actually confirmed the presence of a soul yet. It was only theorised to exist.
“That sound like a great adventure! If you need any help, I am more than willing to do so.” It was a hollow offer, we both knew that. But she still smiled happily as if she was glad about the offer itself.
“That’s nice to hear. So, what’s up? Do you want your kiss now?” She asked and placed her hand in front of her mouth, feigning to be shocked.
“No … I am only here because I don’t want Louis to win.” I explained. I wanted to be the first person Louis kissed, but I also didn’t want to force him. The boys probably thought they would get closer to Lucy if they won, but I didn’t think so. The kiss, whoever would win, would be without any feelings.
“That is a far more honourable goal than they have … but don’t you want to win yourself?” She asked and tilted her head to the side a little.
“I only care about Louis losing, no matter how I accomplish that.” I said adamantly.
“I see…” She muttered quietly.
“So?”
“Hmm?”
“How do I do that?” I asked while Lucy gripped her blanket as a strong gust of wind threatened to blow it away.
“Who said you need to?”
“What?”
“Hmm … my sister had slain demons before the word demon was wildly spread. The vast majority of her life, she lived on the battlefield in one way or another. Do you seriously believe a few teenagers are capable of touching her?” Well, if they were normal teenagers, then surely not. But two of us were reincarnators and had been gifted by the gods, even though mine wouldn’t help much in catching her. I couldn’t tell her that though.
Only Sofie, Louis and I knew each other’s real identity more by chance than anything else, and I couldn’t reveal that to anyone.
“Well then, what do I get when we proof you wrong?” I asked, even though I knew she wouldn’t offer me much, if anything at all.
“Oh? But you are aware tha-“ And she switched topics immediately. Maybe I shouldn’t have asked in the first place.
“That your sister picked out the two most promising students and intended to train them thoroughly using your help? Yeah, that much is obvious.” I completed her sentence which did make her smile a little bit more.
“Hmm … it’s her three most promising students.” She revealed and winked happily.
“Really? I was never that good though…” The most I could do was to set up some pretty strong barriers. In everything else, I was kind of average, except there was some ranking I completely missed.
“But you are here, thinking about a plan rather than simply acting.” That’s right … the boys threw themselves into a he fight without thinking much about it, which was probably also the reason they didn’t progress much.
“I cannot come up with anything though … can you help me out a little?” I asked helplessly. The more I had observed, the more Miss Dove looked unbeatable.
“You are asking your rival for help?” Lucy asked, her eyes widening a bit before she looked at me intensely. It was as if I did something that didn’t fit with my usual behaviour … which was probably right a few days ago.
“It’s only logical. You know most about your sister after all.” I explained my reasoning swiftly. I would use every bit of information she gave me, even though I disliked asking Lucy for help, to prove her wrong.
“Hmm …” She kept looking into my eyes intensely for a little while, until she made up her mind and patted the root right next to her. “Have a seat. I hope you don’t mind observing your comrade-in-arms for a little while. What’s stopping them the most right now?”
That would obviously be their lack of speed, wouldn’t it? Sitting down right beside her, I looked at the game of tag intensely for a little while longer. Miss Dove basically danced around the two and kept tempting them with letting them close.
“It’s their teamwork!” I exclaimed after a far too long time in which Lucy had her eyes closed once more. I was so dumb for not realising this earlier, but they were both standing in the others way. They fought against each other as much as they tried to win, which was definitely the best way to lose. Miss Doves’ tempting also played right into that as well.
Looking over to Lucy, I could see that she had opened her left eye a little and looked at the three of them.
“Right … and that’s why my sister asked me to keep you with me.” She revealed and looked at me with both of her eyes open.
“What do you mean? I can’t join? Someone needs to tell them that they will never win like this.” I was quite eager to help them at this point, which was also why my cat tail swung sideways from time to time. It was rare for me not to be in control of it, but each time it happened it was quite embarrassing. Lucy didn’t seem to mind though as it hit her back, which was kind of relieving.
“They need to learn some lessons on their own, including this one. I don’t know when they learn it though … it might need a few more days.” She said and looked towards them as Louis fell down because Schwarz shoved him out of the way at the last second.
“But everything is set up so that they will try to hamper the other’s progress.” None of them wanted the other to win, that was for sure. But they needed teamwork to be victorious … it was a contra productive setup from the very beginning.
“It’s not our fault they think only one person can win …” She muttered, knowing full well I wouldn’t reveal that to anyone else. My goal was still to make Louis lose after all.
“Okay … I don’t know why your sister went to such lengths to teach them a bit of teamwork, nor why she wants it to be as difficult as possible for them … but I won’t interfere with that plan. It might change both of them to be a better person. But I don’t want to sit around doing nothing either. I’ll ask her to teach me something that can help in catching her.” I said and wanted to stand up as I felt Lucy’s hand grab my shirt.
“She asked me to help you a little.” She explained, still with two closed eyes.
“Sorry if that sounds a little mean … but I doubt you can teach me anything.” I said carefully. She never joined in any combat exercise after all.
“Just because I am not joining any fighting lesson?” That and …
“You yourself and your sister said you cannot fight at all.” I told her while frowning, just as Louis and Schwarz made a shouting contest.
“And I still stand by my words. I can’t fight at all. I’m way too weak no matter how much I level, and my mana is basically nonexistent as well. But I did have the benefit of watching the best of the best for years.” She revealed which did make some sense.
“I see? What are we going to do then?” I asked, still not entirely sure about her help.
“I think it’s best if you watch them for now. Get to know their weaknesses and strengths and make sure you know your own as well.” Okay? That didn’t prove she knew anything about fighting at all, but I didn’t mind her request at all. If Miss Dove didn’t want to have me around anyway, that was the best I could do.
The last night, I slept like a rock and missed what the two boys were doing. But I was intrigued by their sleepiness over the day and didn’t want to miss it a second time. Thus, I fought the tiredness for several minutes and kept listening to every sound there was while pretending to be asleep in the tent.
Several minutes later, I heard how Lucy stirred at the right side of the tent and opened the entrance up. She fought with her shoes a little but managed to get them on after some time.
Meanwhile, I still kept completely silent, hoping to trick her into believing I was already asleep. I heard her standing up and I could still feel the colder air from the outside for a little while but I didn’t hear anything else. She wouldn’t let the entrance open after she left, would she?
“Are you coming or what?” She whispered and touched my covered feet. Instantly, I opened my eyes and noticed her smiling awkwardly. “You might want to wear something that can get dirty though.”
Well, she definitely had my attention with that. I quickly crawled out while making sure to leave Luna asleep and changed into my leather armour in the cover of the night. Lucy still had her nightgown on and a blanket around her shoulders as we met again in front of the boys tents.
She didn’t wait long to shake the whole tent, waking both of them up. I could hear a little cursing as both of them fought to get out earlier than the other. Both of them were fully clothed in a similar style than I had on.
“What is she doing here?” Schwarz grumbled, but I could see that Louis was equally surprised about my presence.
“She is considering joining you.” Lucy explained and began to stroll down the hill we were camping on.
“As long as she doesn’t get in my way.” Schwarz said unhappily, making me want to tell him that nobody, really nobody liked him when he was like that … which was basically all the time.
“What are you even doing at night? And why is none of the teachers stopping you?” I asked a bit confused. There were several teachers awake, a few on lookout while others enjoyed warm booze, but none of them stopped us.
“The answer to all of your question lies five minutes away.” Lucy explained and left me with no further choice but to wait a little while. A few minutes later, we were at the bottom of the slope where Miss Dove stood with a black sword in hand.
I had seen her fight before in the magical combat class, but never did she use a sword so far. She always used normal spells to demonstrate how to act on the battlefield. What I didn’t know though – and apparently the boys were no exception – was what she presented us was just a fraction of what she could do.
With a single sidewards sweep, she flung out enough air pressure to create a strong gust of wind, reaching even us who were still far away. My whole hair was blown backwards and Lucy had troubles gripping onto her blanket as it was rising in the air like some superhero cape.
“Hey!” Hannah was just getting ready for a second strike as Lucy shouted out and stopped her from doing so. Puffing her cheeks, she approached her sister with us in tow.
“Hey … sorry for that. There is a nice place over there for you.” She said and pointed towards a nearby tree which had grown roots tall enough to sit on comfortably.
“Thanks!” Lucy said and strolled over there, leaving us behind with Miss Dove.
“What is she doing?” Louis asked a bit confused as Lucy sat down cross legged, closed her eyes and placed her palms on her knees.
“She is trying to meditate. So keep it quiet today. I presume you also want a kiss from Lucy, Ellie?” Miss Dove asked completely serious.
“What?” I asked perplexed. I still didn’t get what was happening.
“It doesn’t seem so … what about one from Louis?” She didn’t even wait long to smirk at me as I seriously considered her words. “Perfect. We play tag. Once you touch me, Louis will kiss you.”
“Eh … I.” Didn’t know what to say. Accept? Did I want my first kiss to be like that? On the other hand, I finally understood the boys were so hyped because they were promised a kiss by Lucy if they won … which was something I couldn’t accept. As much as it hurt me to admit it, either Schwarz or I had to win this.
“Now then …” Without much trouble, she threw her sword over to Lucy where it embedded itself into the ground a few metres away from the completely unfazed girl.
“This time I’ll get you.” Schwarz said while trying to use the moment to touch her. A mere second before he could touch her though, she stepped away from him and laughed loudly.
“It’s always the same with you.” She said, now apparently focusing on Louis who gave himself more speed through a spell. But even with this buff, he didn’t get close to touching her at all. Whenever it looked like either of them would manage to touch her, she evaded faster than before.
I knew I couldn’t match Louis in speed. He was way faster than me with his spells, but that didn’t even come close to what Schwarz could achieve without any support. And he also had his dark magic on his side, which should allow him to conceal himself fairly well.
But none of them could match her. Not even close. They already had done this far longer than me, so I chose to stay back and watch them fail one attempt after another.
But even with all my observations, I couldn’t find a feasible way to catch her. And thus, I didn’t even try, but rather chose to ask the person who should know Miss Doves weaknesses.
Quietly, I sneaked over to Lucy who still sat in the exact same position, breathing very rarely. She didn’t even notice me as I was one metre in front of her, or she feigned to.
“Hey, Lucy.” She didn’t answer at all. “Lucy?” I asked once again and touched her right shoulder. Finally, she opened her green eyes wide, reached to her thighs immediately only to blink a few times afterwards.
“Oh, you really startled me there. “ She said and smiled a bit.
“I’m sorry. Eh … this meditation thing … why are you doing that?” I asked nicely. It would be rude to wake her up and ask my question right away after all.
“There is a place in each of every one of us. Deeply rooted in our soul, it contains memories of old, long forgotten and fresh ones alike. It’s my dream to reach that place, to remember a forgotten, but vital memory. You may laugh now.” She said and giggled happily. I joined in a little because it sounded so laughable. The brain was responsible for storing memories, and nobody had actually confirmed the presence of a soul yet. It was only theorised to exist.
“That sound like a great adventure! If you need any help, I am more than willing to do so.” It was a hollow offer, we both knew that. But she still smiled happily as if she was glad about the offer itself.
“That’s nice to hear. So, what’s up? Do you want your kiss now?” She asked and placed her hand in front of her mouth, feigning to be shocked.
“No … I am only here because I don’t want Louis to win.” I explained. I wanted to be the first person Louis kissed, but I also didn’t want to force him. The boys probably thought they would get closer to Lucy if they won, but I didn’t think so. The kiss, whoever would win, would be without any feelings.
“That is a far more honourable goal than they have … but don’t you want to win yourself?” She asked and tilted her head to the side a little.
“I only care about Louis losing, no matter how I accomplish that.” I said adamantly.
“I see…” She muttered quietly.
“So?”
“Hmm?”
“How do I do that?” I asked while Lucy gripped her blanket as a strong gust of wind threatened to blow it away.
“Who said you need to?”
“What?”
“Hmm … my sister had slain demons before the word demon was wildly spread. The vast majority of her life, she lived on the battlefield in one way or another. Do you seriously believe a few teenagers are capable of touching her?” Well, if they were normal teenagers, then surely not. But two of us were reincarnators and had been gifted by the gods, even though mine wouldn’t help much in catching her. I couldn’t tell her that though.
Only Sofie, Louis and I knew each other’s real identity more by chance than anything else, and I couldn’t reveal that to anyone.
“Well then, what do I get when we proof you wrong?” I asked, even though I knew she wouldn’t offer me much, if anything at all.
“Oh? But you are aware tha-“ And she switched topics immediately. Maybe I shouldn’t have asked in the first place.
“That your sister picked out the two most promising students and intended to train them thoroughly using your help? Yeah, that much is obvious.” I completed her sentence which did make her smile a little bit more.
“Hmm … it’s her three most promising students.” She revealed and winked happily.
“Really? I was never that good though…” The most I could do was to set up some pretty strong barriers. In everything else, I was kind of average, except there was some ranking I completely missed.
“But you are here, thinking about a plan rather than simply acting.” That’s right … the boys threw themselves into a he fight without thinking much about it, which was probably also the reason they didn’t progress much.
“I cannot come up with anything though … can you help me out a little?” I asked helplessly. The more I had observed, the more Miss Dove looked unbeatable.
“You are asking your rival for help?” Lucy asked, her eyes widening a bit before she looked at me intensely. It was as if I did something that didn’t fit with my usual behaviour … which was probably right a few days ago.
“It’s only logical. You know most about your sister after all.” I explained my reasoning swiftly. I would use every bit of information she gave me, even though I disliked asking Lucy for help, to prove her wrong.
“Hmm …” She kept looking into my eyes intensely for a little while, until she made up her mind and patted the root right next to her. “Have a seat. I hope you don’t mind observing your comrade-in-arms for a little while. What’s stopping them the most right now?”
That would obviously be their lack of speed, wouldn’t it? Sitting down right beside her, I looked at the game of tag intensely for a little while longer. Miss Dove basically danced around the two and kept tempting them with letting them close.
“It’s their teamwork!” I exclaimed after a far too long time in which Lucy had her eyes closed once more. I was so dumb for not realising this earlier, but they were both standing in the others way. They fought against each other as much as they tried to win, which was definitely the best way to lose. Miss Doves’ tempting also played right into that as well.
Looking over to Lucy, I could see that she had opened her left eye a little and looked at the three of them.
“Right … and that’s why my sister asked me to keep you with me.” She revealed and looked at me with both of her eyes open.
“What do you mean? I can’t join? Someone needs to tell them that they will never win like this.” I was quite eager to help them at this point, which was also why my cat tail swung sideways from time to time. It was rare for me not to be in control of it, but each time it happened it was quite embarrassing. Lucy didn’t seem to mind though as it hit her back, which was kind of relieving.
“They need to learn some lessons on their own, including this one. I don’t know when they learn it though … it might need a few more days.” She said and looked towards them as Louis fell down because Schwarz shoved him out of the way at the last second.
“But everything is set up so that they will try to hamper the other’s progress.” None of them wanted the other to win, that was for sure. But they needed teamwork to be victorious … it was a contra productive setup from the very beginning.
“It’s not our fault they think only one person can win …” She muttered, knowing full well I wouldn’t reveal that to anyone else. My goal was still to make Louis lose after all.
“Okay … I don’t know why your sister went to such lengths to teach them a bit of teamwork, nor why she wants it to be as difficult as possible for them … but I won’t interfere with that plan. It might change both of them to be a better person. But I don’t want to sit around doing nothing either. I’ll ask her to teach me something that can help in catching her.” I said and wanted to stand up as I felt Lucy’s hand grab my shirt.
“She asked me to help you a little.” She explained, still with two closed eyes.
“Sorry if that sounds a little mean … but I doubt you can teach me anything.” I said carefully. She never joined in any combat exercise after all.
“Just because I am not joining any fighting lesson?” That and …
“You yourself and your sister said you cannot fight at all.” I told her while frowning, just as Louis and Schwarz made a shouting contest.
“And I still stand by my words. I can’t fight at all. I’m way too weak no matter how much I level, and my mana is basically nonexistent as well. But I did have the benefit of watching the best of the best for years.” She revealed which did make some sense.
“I see? What are we going to do then?” I asked, still not entirely sure about her help.
“I think it’s best if you watch them for now. Get to know their weaknesses and strengths and make sure you know your own as well.” Okay? That didn’t prove she knew anything about fighting at all, but I didn’t mind her request at all. If Miss Dove didn’t want to have me around anyway, that was the best I could do.
