The Adventurer’s Academy

{Elisa}

As Maria watched from the sideline, Elisa moved forward with her two swords. Rin, waited for Elisa to attack, focused and ready, and then dodged around her. The noblewoman was surprised at the sudden agility Rin displayed. The hand-to-hand fighter kicked her lightly in the back, and Elisa was pushed forward.

Looking back with a bit of a smirk, she saw Rin getting into position again.

[She's gotten faster,] Elisa acknowledged. She'd seen hints of this progression in their earlier training sessions after class, but right now, with the two of them being mostly alone in this room, she was feeling that improvement herself.

She ran toward Rin again and made a couple of stabbing motions, making sure to never aim for the girl's head, as she didn't want to accidentally poke an eye out or something. Rin leaned back and forth, flexibly dodging one thrust after another, before she stepped in and landed a palm strike on Elisa's gut.

The larger woman tanked it, however, and put a foot behind Rin's legs. With the back of one of her swords, she tripped Rin back and with a yelp, the other adventurer fell on her butt.

Smiling, Elisa briefly let go of one of her swords to help Rin up.

"When did you learn to move like that?" Elisa asked.

"Ehm, well, I do have one of the best adventurers out there on my side," Rin replied, looking a little embarrassed.

"As flattering as that is to hear," Maria said from the side, with a bit of a smile, "let's get back to the training."

"Right," Elisa replied, getting her other sword.

All in all, the session went by pretty quickly. As the sun descended past the horizon outside, both girls said their goodbyes to their teacher before walking to the cafeteria, together.

"I don't know," Rin said to Elisa, as the two were talking about their missions. "I just hope next time I get something that's not undead. I'm getting pretty tired of those things."

"Maybe we'll get to fight those giant rats Cara talked about last class."

"And here, I thought there wasn't a worse option. Glad to know I was wrong," Rin replied to her, as Elisa chuckled a little.

Thanks to this moment, however, Elisa felt good enough to where she was considering if now was the best time to let Rin know about her encounter with Xhez. She doubted any moment in the near future was going to have any amount of better energy between them. So, the two of them entered the cafeteria as Elisa decided it would be best to speak to her about that soon.

[Hopefully, this really hammers home the point I'm trying to make to her,] Elisa thought. [I get that there's probably some weird stuff I've learned over the course of my life, but, if I can unlearn just a little of it, maybe that would be nice. And, with those two, that process might be a little easier than I thought.]

For now, however, they simply walked over to where Eve, Lisa, and Dylan were all gathered at one of the tables, as Elisa smiled to herself.

---

{Rin}

There was a lot that Rin currently had her mind on.

Her training, showing Xhez around the city, her studies as she figured things were about to get harder, and, of course, the Arena that she and Cara had gone to before.

Every time she closed her eyes, she almost felt like she was back in that building, with the crowd's cheers surrounding her as she watched those buff guys punch each other in the face.

[Even though they were fighting hand-to-hand, it was so different from how Maria does it. It looked a little mindless,] Rin thought, [but... is it?]

"Hello," Lisa greeted both her, and Elisa and Rin put that thought away.

"Greetings," Dylan did a little bow, seated as he was. Knowing what she'd learned about him, Rin's eyes remained on him for just a little while, before she waved back at everyone.

"Hey!" Eve waved at Rin, before holding up a bowl full of noodles. "This is literally the best thing I've tasted in this place, go get some!"

"Really? Alright, be right back," Rin replied with a smile before she and Elisa went over to Jessie and took some bowls for themselves.

As she turned to walk back to the table, though, she saw someone in the back. Sara was eating by her lonesome, at the corner of the room.

[... Hm.]

Putting that aside for a second, she sat in front of Eve before taking a bite out of the food she'd received.

"Holy crap," she said, with her mouth full, "this is delicious!"

"Mhm, mhm," Eve nodded. "I asked and, apparently, this is some sort of old Cardana recipe, from before their isolation started. I have to say, if the food over there is this good, it might be worth adding a new road to the train tracks."

She was inclined to agree, as she chewed down more of it. Before long, though, her eyes moved toward the black-haired girl at the back. Emotionless as she was, she saw Sara absent-mindedly poking at her noodles and lifting some up into her mouth. A little curious, Rin asked:

"So, is Sara alright?"

"Hm?" Eve tilted her head. "I assume so. Did anything happen?"

"I mean, I'm just asking cause she's all alone over there."

"Oh. Well, I normally just assume she wants to have her space," Eve shrugged. "She doesn't really talk much. Even in our room, all we do is say 'goodbye' and 'good morning' to each other."

"Hm..." Rin paused. "Be right back."

And, just like that, with everyone at the table looking at her as she left, she walked over to where Sara was. Putting her bowl down in front of her classmate, Sara's eyes slowly dragged up to meet her own.

"Hi," Rin smiled.

"... Hello."

As always, Sara's voice was low and almost sounded tired.

[Right, that's just how she is,] she had to remind herself.

"Is everything alright?" Rin asked.

"Yes," Sara quickly replied. "I am fine."

"... Cool," Rin nodded. "Well, we haven't gotten to talk much lately. So, what's your day been like?"

At that, Sara narrowed her eyes, looking away, as though trying to remember what she'd done today. The look on her face was, in a weird way, kind of cute.

"I woke up. I ate. I saw some birds. I trained. I ate again. I trained again. I'm eating again now," she stated, before promptly putting some of those noodles in her mouth as if to illustrate her point. Once she finished, she gulped down her bite and said, "that has been all."

"Oh... What kinda birds did you see?"

"... I do not know," she replied. "But they were colorful."

"Ohhh, awesome," Rin replied.

For a brief moment, as Rin smiled at the girl, a slightly uncomfortable look appeared on Sara's face. She hoped she wasn't coming on too strongly.

[I just wanna get her to open up a little,] Rin thought. [Maybe I should actually give her space, though.]

"..." Sara continued to watch her, and Rin struggled to come up with anything to say. However, before she could give up, Sara spoke up on her own. "... you?"

"U-Uh, sorry, what?" Rin asked. She hadn't heard her well.

"I..." Sara looked down, at her noodles. "I asked, 'and you?'" She stated.

"Oh!" Rin's eyes widened, and when she heard that, a wide grin appeared on her face, before she told Sara all about what she'd done so far.

---

Sometime later, she was coming back to her room, with Elisa by her side. In her mind, Rin could still see Sara patiently listening to her.

[I'll try to talk to her again tomorrow!] Rin thought, nodding to herself. [I'll get you outta that shell in no time!]

"Rin," Elisa suddenly said. The amber-eyed girl paused.

"Yeah?"

"... Can we talk for a second?"

"Oh, uh, sure," Rin replied, as she walked in with her. "Is everything alright?"

"Yeah, yeah," Elisa replied. "I just wanted to tell you something."

"Oh. What's up?"

Elisa walked halfway through the room, and then stopped short next to Xhez's bag.

"... I should probably just get it over with," Elisa muttered to herself. "I wanted to let you know, I ran into Xhez, while you were gone. A while back."

Before Rin could reply, Elisa added:

"The actual Xhez," she stated, and Rin's eyes widened. "Blue skin and all, I mean."