- Viscount Hogomori’s Residence, Inclira Kingdom –

- around 1915hrs –

“Train with you?” the Viscount has some sceptical tone in his words, though, he’s not showing it in his expression. “Surely that made sense that she won’t break my rule if she came with someone to the Endless Forest but what will happen if there’s an ambush from a powerful monster? Are you even strong enough for that situation?”

“Sir Viscount, our summoned hero here is far more powerful than it seems, surely he has some frail looking body for a man and childish behaviour, but he’s the one who defeated a demon general that happened to ambush us a couple of hours ago with a single strike”. The Court Mage said in a prideful manner as if he was the best spell she ever made. The Viscount chuckled, reassured by her words.

“Well then… if the Prodigy Rose said it herself then I’ll trust your words then. Do tell me when will you start your journey there, I’ll tell my daughter the news.” He looks at a maid who was waiting for him with a small stack of paper in her hands and back to the three. “I shall take my leave; my work isn’t done yet. Enjoy your stay here dear guests”.

The viscount left while waving at them from his back, and as he turn around the corner of the hallway, Kurogane has this look of “what the heck you said about me?”. Florentina on the other hand smirked in reply. “You’re quite frail in our world in terms of body proportion you know? Plus, your voice is way too young for your age”.

“Yeah right, ironic that came from someone who has a smaller body than the average girl in her age”.

“Tch, you really know how to retort huh…”

“I am quite logical as you can see” The two chuckle at it as it does make them slightly closer. Though, the princess also giggles at their funny conversation. “You know what? Let’s get some rest, I bet you’re going to go full Sparta towards me in the morning, am I right Miss Florentina?”

“Huh? Sparta?”

“Uh… I meant your training will be intense.”

“Ah, yeah, of course, I would, we do need you to be combat ready in under 2 months after all”

“Under two months?!! That’s too short for me to train to fight against the demon army!”

The Archmage, having a slight contempt in her eyes as if she saw her own whining younger brother in front of her sighed. “two months is the longest we can take to train you, usually, it’ll go under half a year but due to our lack of time and also the planned counter-attack is near. We decided that two months is enough, furthermore, having you train in the Endless Forest will decrease the time for you to level up. Hence why we’re here. Good grief… why must explain this to you again…”

“I tend to forget certain stuff hehe~”

“don’t just ‘hehe’ on me!”

Little do they know; the Viscount's daughter was planning to sneak onto their carriage in secret. Her plan was simple, hang onto the metal chassis until they arrived at the border of the forest She knew that the guests from the Holy Kingdom were planning to have a journey inside the Endless Forest, but regardless of her plans, she didn’t know what are they going to do as they arrive there and assumed they were only surveying or probably trying to go to the centre of the forest.

The next day in the morning, she was surprised that the hero’s party isn’t heading out to the forest but went to the courtyard instead. “My Lady, please do in mind that you should not commit any misconduct today as Her Highness is still in presa-“

“I know that! For goodness heavens… you don’t need to remind me every 30 minutes for goddess sake Bel!”, The head maid, whose named Maribel, still has her solemn working expression sighed. She has been serving the Hogomori family since two generations ago, starting her work as a maid at around 7 years old. she was there during the first-ever participation of Sicily’s Grandfather’s first battle against the demon army when he was in his mid-twenties. The maid is slightly shorter than Sicily, who was as tall as an average man, with long waist-length brown hair with a french braid tied behind her head, wearing the typical maid dress with a long sleeve that slightly didn’t cover the upper part of the chest area as she has a size that’s slightly large than average.

“what I am doing is mandatory as per the order of his Lord, I am afraid that I could not comply with your request, my Lady” the noble daughter clicked her tongue and left the entrance hall, heading towards the back of the mansion. As she left, the Head Maid sighed again and walked back to the other side of the mansion to check on the other maids that were working. “good grief, she’s a handful as usual…” she muttered, still in her elegant proper manner as a maid as she walks. Not long as she finished inspecting the work of every maid, she saw Sicily standing on the window that was facing towards the yard, staring in awe at the Hero’s training that is to be seen as intense even from a knight's perspective, even though Maribel is far more trained than the knights in the Inclira Kingdom.

“Are you inspired by them my Lady?” Sicily was slightly startled at the Head Maid’s sudden appearance. “Goodness… you surprised me, since when you were here?”

“I was just here a moment ago, my Lady”

“I still can’t get used to your [Presence erase] skill till this day”

“Apologies for troubling you with my actions, but I could assure you that I am using it to not cause any disturbances with my footsteps and keeping the aura of serenity”

“I know that, you’ve said it a lot of times. And for your knowledge, I am not inspired by them okay!! It’s not like I wanted to join them to train or anything…” Bel just stared at Sicily’s statement, making Sicily uncomfortable at the pressure Bel’s giving as she knows the young Lady is being dishonest with her feelings since she was a child. In the end, Bel didn’t need to say a single thing or move an inch to have her master speak truthfully.

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“Alright! Fine! I do feel interested to train with them, especially of how adamant the Hero is. I was seeing how he was training and to be fair, it isn’t the typical sword training, which is the one I needed to get stronger.”

“You are completely easy to read my Lady. Although… as you said, his training is quite an interesting sight to see”. She said as she also look out the window, looking at the trio train in the yard that’s… quite full of craters from most of the offensive magic that Florentina cast. The hero is currently sitting down, exhausted due to the pressure that the training giving him while the princess, on the other hand, cheers for him and provides medical recovery using her [High Heal] spell that she mastered.

Bel had a small smile, the sight of them training made her reminisce back when she was still with her team back when she was still part of the special assassination team of the kingdom, and that small smile made Sicily pleasantly surprised since she never saw the Head Maid smile that genuine. “I never knew you can smile like that”

“my lady, I’m also a human. By your statement, you’re implying that I don’t have any emotions whatsoever and I could also be displeased by so, you know?”

“ah- I’m sorry…”

She chuckles, “no worries, It’s quite reasonable since I always maintain my balance of emotions during my work and in front of you, my Lady. And that said…” she looked at her master for a moment and walked to the door leading towards the balcony. “wait… you’re not doing what I’m thinking you’re doing right?”

The Head Maid chuckled whilst she opens the light wooden door, and the cool breeze of the wind from the outside rushes in. “My… what harm if I would help with your inner heart’s request? I’m sure that they will gladly train with you”, with that said, Sicily tried to stop Bel while in her embarrassment but to no avail, the head maid is committed to giving a slight push for her as this is quite an opportunity for her master and walked to the balcony. Maribel asked the trio who were on a break from their training to have her shy master join them, making the three look at each other for a moment.

“See? I told you they wouldn’t like the idea of-“ and even before Sicily finished her sentence as she was standing behind Bel with her arms clinging onto Bel’s while slightly blushing, the young man swings his head back towards the balcony with a smile.

“Sure! We don’t mind!” the noble lady was in disbelief as his response wasn’t as she thought it would be and was escorted by the head maid downstairs to the yard whilst still slightly hiding behind her. As they’re finally at the yard, Maribel bowed to the three as per the protocol of her work as a maid. “good morning your majesty and her companions, let me introduce to you the daughter of the right honourable Sir Viscount Suzukaze of Hogomori, Sicily Hogomori. Our young Lady here is quite…” she stopped her sentence for a moment and looked back to her shoulder, looking at the aforementioned girl that’s bashful.”… shy with others. I hope you could get along with her” she continued while presenting the young lady whose still trying to hide behind her back.

“uhm… Greetings, your highness…” she said as she bowed, bashful yet stiffness still painted on her expression. the princess, on the other hand, held Sicily’s hand and gave a warm smile. “you do not need to be so uneasy with us, Lady Sicily! Having another person accompany the hero training is a great thing for us too.”

“thank you for your grace, your highness, I will try to keep up with the Court Mage’s training”

“Also, you don’t need to be so formal with me, treat me as one of your friends”

“eh? But-“ Lunamaria shushed the young noble with her index finger, with a look that insisted Sicily do her request. and Sicily didn’t say another disagreeing word and complied, “Okay then, Lunamaria”

“Luna is enough actually, hehe~”

Behind them, both Kurogane and Florentina looked at the new bond the Princess made and that made them both smile at the wholesome view they were seeing. “could this be…a Yuri route?”

The court mage was confused by his statement, raising an eyebrow. “a what now??”.

“eh- uhhh… nevermind that”

As Sicily joined them in their conversation, Mariabel silently left the yard, heading inside the mansion. Though, as she was inside, she was greeted by someone she knew a long time ago, hiding in one of the dark corners of the mansion that was not being lit by the sunlight. “you doted for the young lady for a long time but I question why you let her join them? isn’t the Red Prodigy’s training a tad bit extreme for her? Looking at the otherworlder, he barely could even keep up” the person in the shadow commented, having her stop her tracks slightly after that dark corner.

“It’s my promise to Lady Helene in her last breath, I can’t let Lady Sicily indulge in her sadness for far too long so her having new friends might change her view of the world. She is too young when that incident happen…”

The two went silent as they recall the nearby elf village incident that occurred 10 years ago, where a flock of monsters led by a demon knight were rampaging. Causing half of the village population died during the rampage, including Sicily’s mother, Helene. Bel could never forget how her dearest master blew her last breath on her arms and the regret of her that failed to save her with healing magic still lingers till this day. “again, sorry for stepping onto this topic…”

“It’s fine, Grey. we’re mortals, nothing is perfect about us. Even if I tried, Lady Helene would’ve stopped me midway and ordered me to protect her only daughter. Maybe… it’s also her fate…” the man in the shadow so called “Grey” could only grieve in silence, even though he was also there at the moment Lady Helene passed away. Even with him being in the shadows, Bel could notice the distinguishable feature on his neck, a scar that was inflicted on him on a mission that wasn’t disclosed by the higherups even with him being hooded. “that aside, what did the Belkant Wyvern Knight say after he recovered? I heard that he was emotionally scarred as he returned”

“He… well, you might not believe his story…” Grey cleared his throat and continues explaining what the wyvern knight encountered. The more he explained, the more Mariabel got confused, especially the part where Grey gave the Knight’s drawing on the object that shot his wyvern down with ease.

“dear goodness… what in the heavens is this? It looks so… out of this world”

“the knight stated that it has a rider inside the layer he assumed to be glass, he also described that the object has invisibility though it is quite weird since we didn’t detect such high-level magic in our skies. Oh, I forgot to mention that it shoots metal projectiles with an unparalleled speed on how fast it could fire such high-speed projectiles.”

“it seems it doesn’t belong to the demon army either, from how it was described, it might’ve been man-made… Grey, can you investigate further? I’ll inform this matter to the lord right away.” The man nodded and took the paper of the drawing back from Bel.

“with pleasure” with that, He vanished in the shadows and Bel continued her steps, this time, to the Lord’s quarters. “I hope the Young Lady will be in joy with her new comrade…” she muttered.

Back in the yard, Florentina explained once more about the training which is “pretty simple” according to her. “the goal is simple, the two of you just needed to evade my spells without getting hit. But there’s one rule, that is to not use any kind of magic that involves agility or even skills with the same type.”

“Isn't that practically impossible??” the teen boy agreed with Sicily’s argument, though their trainer smirked, “does your opponent will give you time to recover in the first place? No, am I right? Well then, shall we start??”

“wait what?”

Florentina summoned a magic circle that hovers right in front of her palm, glowing red with some cyphers inside it. The two had their eyes struck in fear and quickly made a distance quite far from her.

“ah, forgot to mention, this is just 1st grade magic, it won’t hurt much”

“OI! Even though it’s just a low-grade one, doesn’t mean it’ll not hurt at all!!” shouted Kurogane as he was in his stance, preparing what was going to come at him.

“pish posh, just get ready! Here’s the first wave of [Fireballs]!”