Tina was lying on her bed staring at the ceiling. After doing some strenuous training the day before she decided she could use the rest and had no intentions of leaving her bed anytime soon. As she looked at the ceiling she had one thing on her mind.

Tibaut.

While the training did help to take her mind off of it, it wasn't long before she started thinking about it again. Tibaut was odd to her. He magically appeared to Elizabeth one day and she decided to make him work for her. Which seemed strange to Tina. The members of Elizabeth's guild all had noticeable quirks that were counteracted by their usefulness. Except Tibaut. He was just your run-of-the-mill adventurer, so she had no idea why Elizabeth added him to her group. That was until she saw what he was capable of a few days ago. The strangest thing about it was the fact that Elizabeth seemed to have expected that result.

She tried to stop thinking about it but her mind would always circle back. She would close her eyes but certain thoughts would always fill her head.

"Why him?"

It was a simple thought but that made it so hard to get rid.

"I thought he was like me… some talent but a lot of grit. Was he simply working for her unaware of his talents? Pft some people have all the fucking luck. If it was me I'd probably be able to use it in combat by now. Maybe it would have been enough to…" She paused and entered a different train of thought "Also not just that, he can use ki and the bastard acts like it's not a big deal. Does he know how long Lily has been trying to use it and has to grit her teeth because she doesn't have the talent? I fucking swear some people have all the fucking luck in the world and never decide to use it. What was that lazy bum doing this entire huh? I think I heard he travelled, tch must have some money behind him if he can do stuff like that whenever he wants."

She felt herself getting angrier but she just couldn't stop it.

"Imagine if he had just put some effort in, into learning ki or defensive magic." Her teeth gritted. "If he had just decided to be more proactive we wouldn't have been in this mess." She got up and was now walking towards the door.

"Imagine what I could have done with that talent. I could have brought us out of this backwater parish and helped repay that bastard for helping me out all those years yet a bastard like him gets it." She was outside his door and loudly knocked on it.

"Yea-"

Without even for him to say she could come in she slammed open the door and walked over to him, still on his bed.

"Something up, Tina?" Tibaut asked, no longer even trying to complain about his privacy.

She looked at him like a piece of garbage.

"(How nice must it be to be in bed after a day out with that dumb maid.) Yeah, why the hell are you still in bed?"

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

"If you wanted to train you could just ask me."

She clenched her fist at this comment and pulled him off the bed.

"What the hell was that for?" He asked, quite used to her by now.

"(You fucking bastard do you not realise the potential you have? Why the fuck are you in bed waiting on me to get you out?) We're training."

Tibaut got up and followed her outside, at the front of the building.

"(Is it her time of the month or something?) The maids have a nice-looking training facility so let's go there. They even have mock weapons so you don't have t- Woah!"

Tibaut narrowly dodged her sneak attack this time, but his ear was nicked.

("I'll show him. I'll show him if he doesn't start taking his training seriously I'll end up killing him.")

She held no emotion in her eyes and thrust the spear at him again. Tibaut knew this wasn't time for talking and took this as seriously as he could. He countered the spear thrust by stomping on the tip to ground it and launched himself towards her. She let go of the spear and dodged his incoming knee.

Before he landed she grabbed his leg and caused him to land on all fours. As she stabbed her spear into him she hit nothing but the ground as he rolled away.

"Sigh This shirt is going to be a bitch to clean." Said Tibaut remembering he only had three shirts. She stabbed at him again but he parried it to the side this time and ran alongside its shaft. She hit him with the now electrified spear expecting him to dodge but he took it which momentarily confused her.

"Why did you?!"

She quickly realized his momentum had not slowed down in the slightest and she was too slow to dodge his punch which sent her flying back several dozen feet.

"Ugh, sorry about that," Tibaut remarked to the now bruised Tina. He was also injured but hitting a woman would never feel write to him.

The fight continued but it was entirely one-sided after this.

She lay on the floor trying to hold back tears as she looked at the sky. ("Why? Why couldn't I have been as talented as him.")

She slowly got up while clenching dirt in her hand.

As she got up a hand reached out to her.

"You were pretty aggressive today. Huff I almost couldn't keep up."

"(Don't patronize me you bastard!?) Tell me that, when I've won." She brushed aside his hand and got up.

"Yeah I guess, say I've been thinking recently."

The next few minutes shocked Tina to the point of silence.

"Y-you bastard! Think about your own magic!"

"So you can't?"

"Why the hell does it matter if I can or can't? Think about how to improve your own magic."

"I do, they just don't turn out practical sometimes. Besides, aren't we doing this to improve each other? Why wouldn't I think about how you can get stronger."

"What?"

"Did you forget you're going to be helping us get revenge? Don't tell me you're moping again?"

"N-no."

Tibaut didn't look convinced. He sighed.

"If you're getting so antsy about it, we can train more than we usually do."

"Are you sure? Aren't I just wasting your time? What about your ki training?"

"You're acting like I can't do both. And besides, I feel training with you is just as helpful as Elizabeth. Honestly seeing the stuff you do sometimes makes me reevaluate how I fight. With Elizabeth, I can't take in any subtle movements and I'm just forced to move."

Her face softened when she heard this.

"I see. I guess I can't just throw you away to Elizabeth."

("I'm an idiot. Why'd I let it bother me so much? Of course, he's better than me. Of course, he can do things I can't. Why the hell was I beating myself over this? So what? It isn't the time for petty shit like this. I can complain all I want after we kill that bastard. Besides it's not I will stay like this forever. What I have to do is obvious. I just have to catch up to him.")

She said it as if it was a simple matter but after talking to him, she felt it was more and more possible.

Tibaut looked oblivious to her newfound resolve and was in for a bitter session of training.