It's been almost a week since that big reveal. I chose to not talk about it and Archie respected that so no one but us knows about it. He also apologized for hiding that secret away from me. Apparently it was Elena's request to hide it from me. I don't know why but I know that she has every right to do so.
But even so, I'm very frustrated that I can't do anything. I just don't have the right as I am now. We're not on the same level. She's an Angel born of Nobility and I'm a Demon without any form of peerage. It doesn't even take a genius to understand the distance between our status.
Currently, I am doing a handstand push-up as Red while balancing on one leg as Rose on my own legs while also balancing weights made of frozen flames.
I'm trying to exercise my frustrations and anger away.
"You told me to not touch you for a while so I don't know what you are feeling right now or what's in your mind. But as a friend, at least let me hear what troubles you."
While resting and reading a book under the pavilion, Ofelia finally spoke her mind and broke the silence.
"There's no need for you to be concerned about me. It's my own problem."
"That in itself is a problem for me. I cannot feel at ease when a friend of mine is being troubled by something."
"I appreciate the concern, I mean that. But at the same time, the problem I have right now is too personal."
I look at her from Rose. Obviously, she felt peeved from my reply.
"At least let me touch you. I want to know."
"No."
While she continued to pry, the house door slides open and Carla comes out with an ice cream cones on her hands.
She was out buying them as per Ofelia's request.
As she hands the ice cream to Ofelia, she sits down next to her casually. She's really comfortable with Ofelia now huh.
"Don't let it get to you, your highness. Red's always tends to brood annoyingly when something is bothering him. It'll fix itself after a while."
"Who's annoying?!"
Immediately, I create a ball of ice in front of Rose's face. After that, I fire it at Carla who saw it coming and shattered it with her own water magic.
"Let's see, you've been sighing all week, not eat right and worry mom, being absentminded in class according to Archie, and worst of all, you reek of sweat all the time from stress workout! What happened back in the hospital that made you like this?"
"Leave me alone!"
Carla lets out a sigh and continued to eat her ice cream.
"As you can see, your highness. When my brother gets like this, the only way to make him open up is to beat him up to make him crack."
"Hey! Don't give her any weird ideas!"
While we were yelling at each other, Ofelia suddenly lets out a chuckle while covering her mouth.
"What's so funny?"
"Nothing. It's just that it's nice to see you two get along this much."
I can't help but feel embarrassed from the princess' words. And it seems to be the same with Carla.
"If you don't really want to discuss it, I won't inquire you further anymore. However, I don't want you this to get in the way of your duty as a participant in the upcoming competition. There's only two days left before it starts after all."
She's right. Staying gloomy will just trip me in the upcoming competition. I'll go back to that once I'm actually ready to face it!
And speaking of which, Archie enters the yard from the house with our teammates following him.
"Yo, I'm done picking up everyone."
Behind him, everyone of our teammates are wearing casual clothes with bags that contain extra sets of clothing just in case we ended up ripping them apart during training.
Charles came up with the idea to do the training in my place. Though I can tell he has ulterior motives, his reason was that it was a pain to have nobles from different households compete in the name of favour. With me as the only commoner, my existence is an intermediary between their houses. So today, all the rooms except mom's will be occupied by my classmates for a night.
"Is this how you usually train, Sir Red?"
Even though I was still doing handstand push up, Delcie decided to crouch and talk to me as Red instead of Rose. I can see her underwear from the slight opening on her shorts...
"Not really, but ever since I awakened my Demon Blood, I got stronger and found my previous workout didn't cut out for me anymore."
"So this is your way to increase difficulty?"
"Yeah."
She looks like she had an idea. She then look at Rose and stands while letting out a childish chuckle. After that, she puts her bag on the fence and does a bit of stretching.
"Want me to add to the difficulty?"
"What do you mean?"
Without answering, she jumps real high and her shadow was suddenly over Rose.
By the time I realized what she was about to do, I only had so little time to react. Immediately, I adjusted Rose's feet to have some open space. And after that, I prepared Red's feet and legs to catch the momentum of Delcie's fall and weight.
When she landed in on my leg, she faced Rose and immediately wrapped her arms around her while laughing real hard. Though I nearly lost a bit of my balance on my hands, Delcie uses her wind magic to tip back the balance.
The difficulty did increase, but only slightly because her weight barely shaved off my strength. If anything. Controlling the balance is the one that's more difficult now.
"What the hell?!"
"Sorry about that! I thought it'd be funny."
She continued to laugh even though I was annoyed by it.
"As expected of Garaval. Did you know that her family is worried that she might not get married because of her tomboyish demeanour?"
"Unlike my sisters, I don't want to get married off to some wimpy man. If anything, a man stronger than me would be the ideal husband. After all, I am also a knight."
"There are several men stronger than you but I doubt that they'll be attractive to a woman who's quick on her temper and doesn't think before she acts."
"Do you want me to kick you, Rigmun?"
"Feel free to do so, if you can that is."
"You're really asking for another duel huh."
Before the spark between them escalated into an explosion, Archie hits Charles on the back of his head lightly with an empty scabbard.
"You provoked her this time, you lost. Quit it."
Since it became two against one, Charles decided to yield by raising his hands while backing off.
After that, the rest of the group settled in. Aside from Charles, Archie, Delcie, and the Me's, the rest of the group looks like they are not used to my place.
Muller, Prat, Vivian, Greta, and Auen have been quiet this whole time.
Aside from being in an unfamiliar environment, the sight of Ofelia, a Royalty being comfortable in such a place made them very confused.
"Ah, right."
Since Delcie had made herself comfortable balancing on me, I decided to just use the chance to train further while walking with my hands and approached our classmates. Although I'm looking at them in upside down position, I try my best to be hospitable.
"Though I didn't greet you in the entrance, I welcome you guys to my humble home."
"Thank you..."
Though most of them are quiet, Auen was kind enough to respond to my greeting.
"I'm sorry that I can't give you a proper accommodation, but I hope you'll find it comfortable here."
"Ah, you don't have to worry about that, Red. Since I was the one who suggested to gather here, I took it upon myself to provide for our overnight stay here. Besides, it's good training for us to get accustomed to changes in atmosphere. A Magic Knight's job isn't just for loafing around after all."
"I see, thanks."
He could've just told me that earlier. Charles sure enjoys surprising me huh.
Now that I'm inverted, I can actually see places that I couldn't see from the normal one. Like how how pale Auen is, how cute her face is under her bangs, and for some reason, she has a pair of sharp fangs.
"Auen, are you a demon folk as well?"
When I asked her that, she got startled and covered her mouth. Is she self-conscious about being a demon? Was I being insensitive?
"A-ah, um..."
Looks like I caught her off guard on that. She's stuttering a lot.
"You don't have to answer that. Sorry if I was being rude."
Before I continued, I look at Delcie from Rose's perspective and tapped her shoulder.
"I'm done with my warm-up now."
As little revenge for earlier, I immediately jumped off and threw Delcie off balance. As Rose, I spun slowly in the air and aimed at falling towards Charles who was watching me the whole time. And as expected, he catches me with his arms.
On the other hand, as Red, I kicked up Delcie which surprised her even more. After one deep breath, I pushed myself off the ground and using my demon blood powered core strength, I spun one time and became upright. And with the right timing, I caught myself a spooked Delcie with both arms.
When she recovered, she immediately realized what had happened. Though she was doing it unconsciously, she noticed that she had her arms around my neck and immediately turned red. Seeing that, I couldn't help but laugh.
"I didn't know you can be cute."
She was at a loss for words. She couldn't take it anymore and overheated then passed out.
"Oops, I teased her a bit too much."
"I can't tell if you're smooth or you're just cheating with your Incubus powers."
Archie lets out a sigh.
"How did Elena even fall for this obvious playboy?"
"Maybe because he's like that?"
I can hear Carla and Ofelia talking about me.
"By the way, Charles, you can let me go now."
"You're the one who landed on me."
"I trusted you to catch me, not embrace me."
Since Charles looks like he didn't want to let go of me, I decided to just jump off from his arms.
While I wiped my sweat off my bodies, everyone gathered around Charles as he is the leader.
"So, we finally got confirmation as to what the competition would be like. It's a Team Battle Royale between seven teams of ten students in the Huga Forest outside the City Walls."
"Why didn't they let us know about it beforehand that we're going outside?"
Prat asked while raising his hand.
"Apparently it's part of our training. To learn how to quickly adapt to sudden changes. It's an important skill to learn as Knights. Since Delcie and I were raised as knights, we can teach you guys the basics of camping outside. But the ability to adapt would be something you cultivate though actual experience. That's why I asked everyone to gather here and spend the night outside in tents."
"Why do we have to do this? After we graduate, we're just going to be stationed inside forts anyway."
Though everyone else was groaning in annoyance, Vivian complained while taking out her tent materials from inside her magic bag. This annoyed Charles.
"Miss Faelan, that kind of thinking is unbecoming of a Knight. You may be right that we are mostly stationed in fortified places, but there's no telling when we will be needed in the frontlines. And in the frontlines, you are expected to adapt to a lifestyle that equivalent of living as a dog."
"Leave me alone! I'll work hard enough to get myself be put in an office. I don't need to learn camping skills. If you want to live as a dog, be my guest. I'm not going down your level."
When she said that, Charles freezes and looks down.
"D-due, Charles. Don't take her seriously."
He looks like he was about to erupt in anger. So as a friend, I approached him to calm him down. However, it seems I was mistaken.
Out of nowhere, he lets out a laugh which got everyone especially Vivian's attention.
"Then, don't go crying to me to erect a tent for you."
"What do you mean?"
"Since you interrupted me earlier, you haven't heard the full briefing yet."
"Just say it!"
"The competition will last for 3 days and 3 nights. That means, we will camp outside for the duration or until we are the last team that will be left!"
""WHAT?!""
-End of Chapter-