What Is This Feeling...?
What is this emotion...? Whoosh! Clack! The sound of wooden swords clashing echoed across the training ground.
“Hah—!”
“Don't charge in recklessly!”
A few days after the first-years' beginner dungeon practical.
Chris had completely shed the panicked state she'd been in back then, returning to her usual self as she taught Emil swordsmanship.
“......”
“Hup!”
Emil let out a shout of exertion, desperately trying to strike at her openings. As she parried his sword, Chris watched his face intently.
“......”
A face slick with sweat, focused solely on landing a single hit. In this moment, his attention was entirely on her alone.
Chris stared blankly at that expression.
During their spar.
Clack!
“Kyak!”
“H-Huh? You okay?”
“......”
Because of it, her reaction was a beat too slow to the wooden sword coming from her blind spot. Chris took the hit right to her forehead.
Fortunately, Emil had pulled back the force at the last second, so she wasn't seriously hurt.
“Does it hurt a lot? Hope it doesn't bruise...”
“......”
Was it because she'd been hit by his wooden sword? Emil approached her with a worried look, gently stroking her head.
Gently, gently.
His careful touch, as if handling a child. At that gesture from Emil...
“U-Ugh...! I'm fine! This is nothing!”
“Oh, r-really?”
Smack! Chris swatted his hand away, her cheeks flushing as she jumped to her feet.
“......”
Why was this happening?
Her heart wouldn't calm down. Just a few days ago, she wouldn't have been this flustered at such a close distance.
Whoosh—!!
It's because of stray thoughts... Shake off those weird ideas...!
With that, Chris focused even harder on the spar, immersing herself in facing Emil unlike before.
“Kuh...!”
“I told you not to stop when our swords lock—deflect it!”
She avoided focusing on his face as much as possible. This was the battlefield. Even if it was wooden swords, it was still a duel where they could kill each other.
“Hah—!!”
To shake off the stray thoughts in her head, Chris poured even more concentration into her duel with Emil.
And then.
Thud—!
“Gahk!”
“Kyaa?!”
Forgetting to hold back as she usually did, Chris went all out and targeted Emil's vital spot. By the time she realized it, her wooden sword had already stabbed into his chest.
“Guhhhh...”
Emil dropped his wooden sword from his hand and collapsed to the ground, groaning in pain.
“Uh, wh-what...?”
She panicked. She'd struck Emil countless times in their spars up to now. Of course, she'd never hit him this hard before.
But still.
Seeing Emil in more pain than usual made her chest tighten unbearably.
“A-Ah... Y-You're okay, right?”
Swoosh.
Her own legs gave out, and she knelt in front of Emil.
“Ughhh...”
In front of Emil groaning in agony, she floundered with her hands, her face a picture of despair.
Her heart churned.
For some reason, one side of her chest ached even more than when he'd hit her head moments ago.
“Sorry...”
The apology slipped naturally from Chris's lips. Something she never would have said just a few days ago.
“Sorry, d-does it hurt a lot...?”
She gazed at the injured Emil with worry. Her fierce eyes softened, tears welling up in them.
But unaware of Chris's state, Emil forced himself to lift his head and smile.
“Ha, haha... Got me good. Payback for hitting your head just now, right?”
“Huh?”
Emil thought the stab was retaliation for when he'd hit her head.
Chris stared blankly at his smile, then puffed out her cheeks in indignation, frowning.
“N-No! That was a mistake!”
“Huh? A mistake?”
“Urgh...!”
At Emil's puzzled look, Chris was at a loss for words, ducking her flushed face.
She shot to her feet.
Turned her back to him.
And after placing her wooden sword back, she left the training ground.
“W-Wait! Chris! Where are you going?”
“Dorm! Training's over for today!”
With her churning heart, Chris hurriedly put distance between herself and Emil, returning to the dormitory.
After showering, Chris sat on her bed, hugging a pillow and staring blankly at the wall.
“......”
Her head still throbbed where Emil had hit her.
“......”
But more than that.
The moment her thrust had landed on his chest kept replaying in her mind.
And with that memory came an inexplicable pain in her chest.
“...Ugh.”
Chris blushed faintly and buried her face in the pillow.
Why did she feel this way? She'd killed monsters before, even taken part in wars and killed people.
Yet.
A mere wooden sword thrust to the chest gnawed at her so much.
Why?
With her face buried in the pillow, Chris pondered the reason deeply.
And what flashed through her mind was...
“......”
A short time ago, the hand he'd offered when she'd collapsed in the cave. It hovered before her eyes.
“...Kuh.”
Chris blushed again and buried her face deeper into the pillow.
These emotions were all new to her.
She didn't know what was happening or what to do about it.
“...Guess I'll sleep.”
In the end, after agonizing over it, she surrendered to the bed and slowly closed her eyes.
And the next morning.
“...This is insane.”
Chris opened her eyes, covering her face with both hands as it burned red.
The reason for her embarrassment was simple.
She'd fallen asleep last night after those stray thoughts.
And upon waking to the morning.
The instant her eyes opened, she'd thought of Emil.
That fact embarrassed her.
“...Get it together.”
Chris rose from the bed, face still flushed.
She changed clothes and stepped out of the dormitory.
Her own way of shaking off stray thoughts: get some fresh air.
But.
“Hup, hup...!”
“Ten... ten more. You got this.”
“Haaah...! No...! No more...”
“Come on, up! You can do it!”
“Huuuugh...!”
The attempt to clear her head with a walk only brought more stray thoughts, courtesy of the scene before her.
She'd exited the dorm and strolled a bit to a grassy field.
Two figures sat there: a man holding a woman's legs as she did sit-ups, leaning on his arm.
She didn't know the woman.
But.
She knew that familiar male silhouette well.
“......”
It was Emil.
“Haaaah—!”
“Good! Ten! Amazing, Sierra! That's one more than yesterday!”
“Haa, haa... Heh, hehehe... Yeah, when I set my mind to it, I'm that kind of woman...”
“Then on to push-ups next?”
“Ugh, ah, no... Let me rest a bit first...”
“Where'd that 'when I set my mind to it' woman go?”
At a glance, the two seemed incredibly close. No hesitation in how they treated each other, teasing and laughing easily.
“......”
That expression on Emil's face.
She'd never seen it during their training sessions.
...Why.
A sharp pang.
Emil making an expression she'd never seen before, in front of another woman—not her.
Watching from afar.
The pain in her chest hurt even more than when she'd stabbed him with the wooden sword.
When he's with me... he's always scared.
Now, it didn't matter what this emotion, this pain, was.
The only thing that mattered was...
Watching those two hurt. Bothered her.
So.
“Ahem!”
“Hm?”
“Huh?”
Chris approached the pair and deliberately cleared her throat.
Emil and Sierra, engrossed in their workout, noticed her and looked up.
“...H-Huh?”
Emil's eyes widened in surprise upon recognizing her.
“Ch-Chris...”
“Chris? A friend?”
“Uh? Friend, I guess...”
“......”
Emil's hesitation at the word “friend” irked her for some reason.
...Not friends?
“......”
But somehow, even if he said they were friends, it would still irk her.
“...Just an acquaintance.”
So Chris cut in before Emil could respond.
“Oh, got it. Same year? I'm Sierra.”
“......”
Sierra, the woman with Emil, greeted Chris with a bright smile.
A woman utterly different from her sharp, violent self. And stunningly beautiful, too.
...So this is the type men like, huh.
As she thought that, Sierra, who'd been looking at her, spoke up.
“Huh? Chris, caught a cold?”
Only then did Chris realize her cheeks were burning hot.
“N-No! More importantly!”
She hurriedly changed the subject.
“Emil!”
“Y-Yes!”
“...You've been training in the mornings too, on top of afternoon sessions?”
“Huh? Afternoon training too?”
“Y-Yeah. Kinda.”
“......”
Impressive.
Chris barely swallowed the words that nearly escaped her throat.
The reason she held back was simple: embarrassment.
So she fought her urge to speak, unwittingly glaring sharply at Emil.
“Starting tomorrow, I'll join morning training too.”
“......Huh? ...H-Huh?!”
Emil jolted in shock, while Sierra beside him looked puzzled.
“Suddenly...? Why...?”
“Urgh, th-that's because if you burn out your stamina in the morning, it'll mess up afternoon training!”
“Ah...”
“I'll be right there watching closely from tomorrow, so get that straight!”
“Yeah... Got it.”
Having said her piece, Chris hesitated with a dissatisfied look.
Then spun on her heel.
And left the grassy field.
“......Urgh.”
Feeling the burning heat on her face, she headed straight back to the dorm.
Why did I suddenly suggest that...?
The proposal to join morning training from tomorrow.
Chris had blurted it out on pure impulse. Without any proper reasoning.
But if there was a reason for that impulsive act, she vaguely knew it.
Sierra.
Even to her, the woman was breathtakingly beautiful, and she didn't like the idea of her training alone with Emil every morning.
“......”
And so.
Chris was starting to realize what this frustrating feeling in her heart was.
“......Huh, what the hell?”
Edric had woken early and was heading to school earlier than usual when he spotted something unexpected.
A training scene with three people.
The male student he'd seen recently, Emil, and the girl he himself had feelings for, Sierra.
And.
“Good, Emil, one more.”
“Huuuugh...!”
“Good, one more.”
“Huuugh...!”
“Hm, one more...”
“Huk...! N-No, I can't...!”
His fiancée, Chris, helping Emil with his sit-ups.
She makes that face...?
Chris held Emil's legs in place as he struggled with his abs, wearing a strange expression.
Her shoulders twitching every time he arduously lifted his torso.
Her eyes quivering faintly.
Her cheeks oddly flushed.
“......”
Edric stared blankly at this new side of Chris he'd never seen before.
Even with the girl he liked, Sierra, right there nearby.