She had been planning on sleeping in before the alarm rang, but she was so drenched in sweat that she gave up. The biggest problem was her hunger right now.
Shuraina headed over to her tent and zipped open the entrance. The tent was filled with food. The reason why she slept out in the open air even when she had a tent was to provide a space for all of the food. Shuraina grabbed some packaged sausages and threw them on top of the dying fire. She also took out ten eggs from an open egg carton and ten thick slices of baguette bread. She grabbed a large bowl and went down to the stream and got some water. She was thirstier than she was hungry, so she just gulped down the water she had gotten earlier.
She threw some more firewood into the dying fire and made it burn before placing a frying pan over it. She tossed all the sausages and the ten eggs and scrambled them together. She put her scrambled mix on the baguette and made breakfast. She finished eating all of the food in an instant.
"I wonder when Hylli's coming….."
Shuraina pulled up her shirt and muttered, staring at her defined ab muscles. Her stomach stayed flat no matter how much she ate. She rubbed her abs, satisfied, and stood up from her seat.
Maybe she should exercise a bit. Shuraina put both of her hands flat on the ground and lifted her feet off the ground. She stood on her arms and began to do some push-ups in that position.
Shuraina dashed through the push-ups, as if showing how easy it all was. Up and down, up, down. She finished 500 push-ups in just a few short minutes.
The amount of aura she possessed had increased recently, so she poured some more into her arms as she walked around mid-push-ups.
She spent a few hours exercising before she flopped back down on the ground.
"It's about time…."
Shuraina said, looking around for Hylli after finishing some light warm-ups. Hylli's coronation was coming up soon, so he couldn't stay and watch over her training. So he hurried back to the royal palace to work on his duties while Shuraina slept and returned around morning to help with her swordsmanship.
Shuraina thought that Hylli was pushing himself too much, so she had asked him to come around lunch time after taking a bit of a break. He refused.
He said that coming here felt more like a break than staying in the palace, and tried to stay next to her as much as he could. There were times when he couldn't come all day because of meetings or conferences, but he always made it a point to see Shuraina no matter how late it was.
It felt like he was coming to check if she had died or not from the training, Shuraina thought as she bit into a susage.
No matter how difficult the training was, she was basically numb to pain now. It didn't hurt. She was extremely satisfied with her swift movements after her training from hell. She had leftover energy even after exercising, so she felt like she could fly even without magic. Her muscles were more defined than before, and she had more power in them as well. The amount of aura she had also increased.
Because of her increase in aura, her magic had diminished just a bit–but she didn't care too much for it. She was able to use pure power to replace the tiny bit of magic that had gone now.
She had been slightly overwhelmed by her sword before. But now, her body was at the level she had wanted–her strength and stamina was the same. She was able to become more confident in her skills, and her body moved just the way she wanted it to. She was able to enjoy swordsmanship much more than before. She still liked magic more, but wielding the sword first and foremost wasn't bad, either. Her swordsmanship skills were so high that she could pass the test by just applying as a swordsman.
She was absolutely ecstatic to overcome the limits of swordsmanship that her body had brought over. She hummed in joy.
"Whoa."
She had been quietly humming when she found Hylli slumped over on the floor as he slept. She had thought that he should be coming soon, but he had been sleeping nearby the whole time. He was so skilled that he was able to hide his presence as he slept. No. He was so good that it was annoying, so let's just say that he just didn't have any kind of presence.
Shuraina tiptoed closer to Hylli, worried that she might wake up. He seemed to be coming from the royal palace–he was hugging a meal from the palace.
Hylli's sleeping form was surprising. Excluding the one time that she had accidentally barged into his dorm room a few years back, she had never seen him sleeping before. She stared for a few moments at his sleeping form before focusing on the meal that he was holding.
"He kept his promise."
Hylli had pinky-promised that he would bring her a royal meal if she was able to go up and down the cliff 5 times in 10 minutes. Hylli had taunted Shuraina once, explaining all of the different types of food that he ate in the palace. He had promised to bring her the food that he thought was the most delicious.
Her mouth began to water as her hand began to creep towards the meal in his arms. The baguette and eggs were all digested at this point. She inhaled deeply and slowly began to count. She wanted to wake him up right then and there to eat, but she didn't want to wake him from his much-needed sleep.
Grrrrrrrrrr.
There must've been a hole in her stomach. She was so hungry that she felt like she was going to die as she tried to pull out the meal in his arms.
"Hey, let go. Please. Your close friend is about to die."
Shuraina muttered, voice desperate. She tried to be as careful as possible to not wake up, but he was hugging the meal so preciously that it might as well have been a safe. She tried to yank the meal away. Sorry. Please understand if I wake you.
But Hylli didn't wake, and Shuraina tried to pull out the meal in a bunch of different angles. It seemed like no matter how hard Shuraina trained, she couldn't beat a swordmaster. He didn't even budge.
"….he's not dead, right?"
Maybe that was why his body was stiff? Shuraina suddenly felt nervous as she put a finger under his nose. His face wasn't pale and he was breathing, so he was fine.
Shuraina, who had worried that Hylli had been dead for a moment, began to smile evilly. She had the perfect plan to wake him up.
"Hylli! Hylli! Hylli!"
She yelled his name loudly as she punched his shoulders. She tried to wake him up with the saddest expression she could muster.
"Hurry, wake up!"
She made sure to look as close to tears as she could as she shook him. Hylli blearily opened his eyes. Scarlet eyes, even more red than Shuraina's, stared blankly into nothing as they opened. Hylli turned to see who had woken him up.
"Why...."
Hylli said, voice cracking as he relaxed his grip on the royal meal.
"You were sleeping like the dead, so I thought you were dead. What if you were poisoned and lying here, you know….. It's good to see that you're alive, though."
Shuraina laid him back down and snatched the meal away while his grip was still loose.
She couldn't dare tell him that she had woken up a sleeping crown prince to steal a single meal. But anyway, the meal was in her hands now.
"Alive...."
Hylli raised a single brow at the nonsensical lie that Shuraina had spewed before he closed his eyes again. He felt like he was missing something, now that he had nothing to hug as he slept. He flailed his arms around before falling back asleep.
Hylli had been low-energy ever since he had graduated from the academy.
The road to becoming the emperor was a hard one. It was already hard for him to prove his skills and gain a foothold, but it was always hard to check what the current empress was up to all the time and worry.
When he was at the academy with his friends, he could be himself without any problems. But when he was in the palace, he always had to look cold and polished and perfect. Especially because he wasn't the first candidate.
He had messed around a lot in the academy, so he made it a point to look better in the palace. He felt like he could breathe in the academy, but he didn't have any sort of relief in the palace. He felt like he was going to go crazy. He didn't know why, but he felt like he had lost a home. Like he was stuck on a deserted island now that he had to live in the palace.
He missed the times after swordsmanship class when Shuraina and he would run to the cafeteria to eat first. He missed the times they threw wet towels at their faces on hot days. He missed ruining dates for couples in the academy. He missed when they would taunt each other about their weaknesses and laugh about it. He missed the pure relationship they had shared–something that could never happen with relationships in the palace.
He missed Cory and the other swordsmanship students, but, for some strange reason, the memories of the times he had shared with Shuraina seemed clearer than the others. Hylli realized that he was missing Shuraina. He stared at the calendar to check again and again when the knight exams were taking place. He didn't need to be anxious–Shuraina had talked again and again about how she was planning on joining the knights, but…..
"Can I just push the date forward? No, but that'd be an inconvenience to quite a lot of people. Sigh. Why does time pass so slowly...."
Hylli was sick of the boring mountain of documents and tedious swordsmanship practice. He decided to visit Shuraina himself.
It had been perfect timing–Shuraina was practicing swordsmanship all by herself, and Hylli was willing to be her training partner.
He was finally able to breathe, after being stifled in the palace for so long. He made excuses about training with her and always went to her to relax.
He didn't want anything to come between the fun times he had with Shuraina and himself, so Hylli pushed himself a bit too hard. There were times when he skipped sleeping altogether, and the longest he slept was three hours. And when he was finally done for the day, he left to go see Shuraina.
His attendant always complained about his disappearing as soon as he was done with work, but he couldn't say anything because Hylli made sure to complete his work. He didn't seem to care too much, too.
Today was a sleepier day than usual. Like usual, he didn't sleep at all and worked all night. He came to visit Shuraina as soon as he put down his pen, like habit.
Shuraina was training hard as usual. She was hopping around and swinging her sword with such cuteness that his stupid heart melted. He dazedly stared at her before flopping onto the ground.
He fell into a deep sleep, just like that, and he thought Shuraina had woken him up in the middle. He couldn't remember it too well.
Hylli fell asleep again and, after rustling about as he slept, slowly began to wake up. He was dazed as he bleary eyes slowly focused on what was in front of him when he spied a single person.
Rustle. Rustle. Chomp. Rustle.
Through his bleary eyes, he could see Shuraina quietly munching on her meal while she was stuck in her arms. It was obvious that she was trying to be as quiet as she could.
Hylli had tightly hugged Shuraina while he was half-asleep, and Shuraina couldn't move an inch because of his strength. She was barely able to get the meal between him and herself, opened up the top, and was now eating the food.
Chomp, chomp. Munch munch. She frowned as she chewed on her food as quietly as possible and focused on the meal in front of her. Hylli narrowed his eyes and pretended to still be asleep as he carefully observed her.