Two days passed and Tibaut heard a knock at her door.
He opened it to see Tina, standing outside. Now that she was in some proper clothes, he could see she lost a few pounds compared to when he first saw her. Elizabeth's shirt went from tight fitting to comfortably snug on her.
“Let's go.”
He sighed before turning back. He quickly felt a hand grab his shoulder.
“I said-” She continued.
“I fucking heard you screw off, I'm taking a break from training and anything else that raises my blood pressure.”
He felt arms around his waist and realised a moment too late it wasn't a hug. He was German suplexed into the floor and remained spiked as if struck in the floor like a nail.
She pushed him over, causing him to land flat on his back and opened up his shirt.
“Tibaut, sitting around in the mansion all day isn't something a real man would do.” She took a good look at his stomach and sighed. “You talked a whole lot about me earlier but what about you?”
His stomach was a bit flabby. He wasn't fat by any means but his torso was far less refined than it had been… ever. Even when he lived with his family back in his home nation of Akumia, he was always more on the skinny side.
She pinched the bottom of his stomach and he instinctively kicked at her stomach, which landed flush.
“Ow, you lazy son of bitch, that hurts!”
Tibaut got back to his feet and guarded himself, looking ready for combat.
“Calm down, you tubby bastard, I'm mainly gonna train with Elizabeth from now on.”
“O-oh.” He slowly put his hands down. “Then why'd you come to my door?”
“To gather some meat.”
He quickly put his hands back up.
“Calm down, I'm not interested in a high-fat diet.”
“Stop saying I'm fa-”
“You remember that village you got the rabbit meat from?”
A vein formed on his forehead but he kept all the bad words he had for her to himself.
“Yeah, what about them?”
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“Well, considering we're low on meat thanks to a certain someone.” She walked over and patted his stomach. He quickly slapped her hand away. “I was considering bringing you along since the villagers heard about how you get roughed up.”
Tibaut calmed down, taking a moment to think about what he should do.
“Sorry but… just tell them I'm fine now. I'm not in the mood.”
“Stop being such a bitch, I even asked Elizabeth if I could take you along.” She grabbed his hand and pulled him back towards her.
“(Is she my guardian now?) Listen, Elizabeth said I could take a break from this stuff and I'm taking a break. I'm sure you'd be drained too if you fought two people just as strong as you in one night.”
“The strong don't take breaks Tibaut, that's how a mediocre knife can turn into a dull one.”
“Who are you calling mediocre?” He quickly snapped. He clicked his tongue before releasing himself from her grip.
“Fine then, be like that, I'll just tell all those village people that you broke into my room to see me in my underwear, how about that, fatty!”
“Alright, I'll go for fuck’s sake.” He bitterly answered.
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The pair headed down to the first floor and ran into Agnes and Ruby.
Ruby quickly walked over to Tina and whispered, “We have to talk when you get back.” Before moving back.
Tina nodded and the reaction caught Ruby off guard.
(“No backtalk or even a groan?”)
“What is it?” She asked. The normally bitter Tina was now quite mellow around her aunt.
“N-nothing dear. Ah right, Agnes, why don't you hang out with them? You could use the exercise.”
“Wha- Why would I, they seem bus-”
She whispered again, this time in her ears. (“I thought you came because you missed him. I guess we'll have to come here some other time, then, who knows my niece might finally-”)
Agnes walked up to the pair with a middle finger behind herself aimed at Ruby. She watched on with a smirk as they went their way.
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The pair reached the outskirts of the village and Tibaut quickly remembered that Agnes hadn't been there before.
“Ugh, Agnes, how much do you like rabbits?”
“W-well the ones in this nation seem really well behaved and I can catch them pretty easily. They let me play around with them and don't squeal the way other rabbits do if I pick them up the wrong way. Wh-whhy? Are we going to a rabbit farm?” She said excitedly.
Tibaut felt he had a chain wrapped around his heart when he heard those words.
“(We shouldn't have brought her…) Agnes maybe you should-”
“You know what they do on rabbit farms, Agnes?” Tina interjected.
“R-raise rabbits?” She timidly asked.
“Sure they can also do that. But they also kill them. And the farm we’re going to raise a lot of rabbits which means just as many dead rabbits.”
Tibaut had noticed this on their journey but Tina was quite aggressive towards Agnes on their journey here. Was it because of her friendship with Ruby?
Agnes quieted down and held onto Tibaut’s arm.
“Don't you think that's a bit much?” he asked.
“She's gonna have to see some dead rabbits, might as well get the idea in her head.”
Even with the idea in her head, the moment she saw the dead rabbits littered at the entrance of the village, she gagged before passing out.
Tibaut demanded her to carry Agnes and she begrudgingly accepted.