Did I hear that correctly? Nah, I definitely heard it correctly as she said pretty please when my response seemed like a rejection. Still though, the reason I cannot believe the words that came out of her mouth was by her appearance and attitude. I have every reason to doubt my ears.

Although I was beyond perplexed by her words, I didn’t let it show on my face. Instead opting to stare at her strangely. Seemingly startled by my gaze, she faked a cough.

“It seems you have misunderstood my actions,” she said, placing her fist downward on her palm.

“Have we?” I asked, not showing any aggression.

“Yes, you said I came here to mock you, but that’s not the case. Quite the opposite, in fact,” she nodded to herself.

“What do you mean,” Mitsugi questioned, lessening his grip on the sword.

“Nice to meet you two, I'm Louise Remendis van Riel,” she elegantly said.

“You’re from…Riel?” I carefully asked.

“…?” Mitsugi looked a bit confused.

“Oh, you are quite informed about the country. Yes, I’m from a very small town called Riel. Since you look like you’re familiar with such a small village, care to tell me how?” Louise innocently asked, genuinely curious and not trying to be malicious.

Indeed, there’s a rumor that apparently, I repeat allegations that there was a killing spree in the town a few years ago. Supposedly all the murdered victims were wealthy people and all their belongings were stolen. This included their houses if they were unguarded. They weren’t influential or even important people for that matter leading many people to believe the murders were done for money. The culprit has not been identified so far.

There may be more details, but since rumors can only give so much information I can’t really come to a clear conclusion. Plus rumors aren’t always a hundred percent true. In fact most turn out to be false.

The only reason I know about all this is because some of my father’s relatives informed him about it. The town is pretty far away from here so it’s natural if no one has heard about this. Which might explain why she’s curious about why I know such things.

I stood quietly for a tiny bit, hesitating, before responding to ultimately not look suspicious. “It’s just that I’ve heard some unsavory rumors about that specific town,” I explained, raising my hand to emphasize my point.

“Ugh…” Louise groaned.

“Huh? What rumor?” Mitsugi asked, being the only one who didn’t know.

“It’s nothing worth mentioning,” she replied, looking away.

“Is that so…?”

Surprisingly Mitsugi didn’t press further and dropped the topic. I might as well do the same since I have already soured the mood. I don’t want it to get worse by me telling him. So I'll keep it to myself for now unless Louise wants to talk about it.

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“So what was what you asked me to do?” I said, changing the topic.

“Ah, that,” she responded, thankfully for my action.

“Well, you see I got embarrassingly beaten by my opponent… It only took a single hit to knock me out!” she cried, hiding her face in shame and embarrassment.

“Wow,” I muttered.

“Wow!?” Louise exclaimed, eyes wide in shock.

“I mean, I have never seen a person get one-shotted. I always thought that only happened in fiction,” I shrugged, not knowing what else to say.

“I k-know… That’s why I wanted to meet other people who lost to see how they lost.”

“Then what about the ‘teach me your ways?’”

“After seeing you get beaten in a similar fashion I thought you would’ve been like me, and we would’ve comforted each other, licking each other’s wounds. But no! You somehow have the confidence to act as if nothing happened. I want that kind of confidence!”

As she said, all of this Mitsugi somehow had disappeared. When I saw him again, he gave me a thumbs up and left. I just stared at him with a deadpan expression. He had to leave like that, huh?

“There isn’t a secret to a sudden boost in confidence,” I began, placing my hand on her shoulder.

“There isn’t…?” she whispered, saddened by it and looking down.

“Of course not. But like all things in life there’s always a starting point. We all start from somewhere, after all,” I tilted her chin upwards to face me.

“Look into my eyes when we talk,” I said, trying my hardest to not sound aggressive as the sentence itself sounds so wrong out of context.

Please don’t take it out of context—

“What are you doing?” A random student suddenly appeared beside me.

“Just helping her. Why do you ask?” I replied, not panicking at all.

“Doesn’t look like that to me.”

“Well, everyone sees things from their perspective.”

“Do you really think that’ll convince me?”

“I don’t know. You tell me,” I said, leaving Louise alone to look at this student.

A student who resembled Louise a lot, one could infer from that they’re related. “I guess, you’re her brother,” I said, pointing out the obvious.

“Yeah, I was wondering where she went,” he responded, dismissing my actions.

“I see. Then I’ll be leaving you two alone.”

“You’re leaving?” Louise’s brother questioned.

“Yeah, I’m going to train.”

With that I waved goodbye and left them alone, I went where Mitsugi was. He was currently laying down on the grass.

“You’re back,” he said, acting as he didn’t suddenly disappear.

“Why did you suddenly disappear?”

“So you had a chance to bond with her.”

“You—never mind.”

I sat down next to him, watching the other ongoing battles. We talked about some random things waiting until class ended. In the middle of our conversations, I would grab a wooden sword and swing it. I use most of our free time to practice with the sword.

After a while, class had ended. The instructors dismissed us saying that tomorrow they would conduct the second evaluation. As such, the both of us got up and headed inside the room again.