The next day after he meet Alice near the forest, Eric woke up in the morning as usual. He got to the kitchen, made some sandwiches, and packed them. He made many more this time because he thought that he needs energy since he planned to practice magic today, and left the house shortly after.
Yesterday he was at a loss about what to do because he didn't know any other spell but after thinking a little there were many ways to overcome this problem. He could train in combat with that spell or he could throw an unlimited number of swords, even developing new spells by himself was a good idea. He also wanted to experiment how many swords he can summon before he run out of mana. There were many things he wanted to try today so he come prepared.
Eric was heading towards the forest but halfway he stopped and looked back. There were just some fruit trees that were scattered on the way to the forest. He narrowed his eyes then raised his voice and spoke in a confident tone.
"I know that you are here, don't hide anymore and come out!"
He looked at a near tree but no one answered so he continued.
"Alice, I know that you are hiding behind that tree so come out already and don't me come to you!"
It was quiet for a moment and Eric was ready to leave but right then Alice come out with an annoyed expression.
"How did you know that I was here?"
Eric looked at her with a serious face for a moment and started to laugh.
"Ha, ha, ha! Oh, God... I was kidding just now but I can't believe that you were really here!"
He really didn't know that Alice was here but he thought that it was a possibility so he wanted to make sure. Because he was randomly guessing he now couldn't stop laughing and because of this, a vein almost exploded on Alice's forehead. She looked at Eric with an angry expression, summoned a dagger, and threw it near his feet. He stopped laughing and shallowed his saliva while looking at the dagger that almost cut off his finger.
"Oh, seems like I missed... I promise that you won't be as lucky this time!"
After the end of those words Alice summoned another dagger and was ready to throw it, and Eric tried desperately to stop her.
"Wait, wait, wait! Let go of the dagger, is not my bad because you let yourself be fooled by something like that!"
Alice was ready to throw the second dagger, but somehow contained her anger, and made it disappear. Eric breathed a sigh of relief after the dagger disappeared and wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. Now, they were looking at each other with an awkward silence between them. Eric tried to say something to break the silence but Alice stopped him.
"I'm sorry for... what happened... yesterday!
Eric was surprised that she was apologizing but smiled and answered in a carefree mood.
"Oh, don't worry about it, I don't mind! Since you are here now I guess you feel better and that's all that matters!"
Alice's face was a little red from embarrassment but she was still staying there and didn't show any intention to leave. Eric looked at the bag full of sandwiches and sighed.
"Come with me!"
He then started walking towards the forest and Alice reluctantly followed him. She was still suspicious of him so she had her guard raised and followed him.
"Where are we going?"
"Just come with me and shut up! You will see when we arrive."
Eric entered the forest and Alice followed him. He walked until he found a glade, let the bag down, put on the ground a blanket and took out from the bag the sandwiches and a thermos. He poured in a cup coffee and handed it to Alice.
"I'm sure you didn't had breakfast yet, come and sit down!"
Alice looked at him with a suspicious look and said that she isn't hungry but the stomach growls betrayed her. She finally sat down and took the cup.
("Irra said that he should be alright so I guess I don't need to worry that much...")
"And why the heck is this thing so good!?"
Alice was so surprised that she said it out loud and Eric laughed proudly.
"Ha, ha, I'm glad that you like them! Since I'm cooking by myself for some years already my cooking skills developed quite well."
Alice started to quickly eat the sandwiches and Eric was amused by that.
"Eat slowly, no one is gonna take them from you!"
Alice was a little embarrassed but cleared her throat and explained herself.
"Ahem! Sorry about that... it's been a while since I ate something so good. Since most of us are from noble families no one from the camp knows how to cook."
"Then how did you survived so long?"
"Since we are always on the run, we mostly live on dry food and so on..."
"Oh, that's horrible..."
"Yah, but you get used to it at some point."
"Well, if is helpful to you I can cook for you when I have time..."
Alice noded and didn't said anything about that. They continued to eat their breakfast in silence with Eric occasionally asking some random questions and after they finished eating Alice took her leave.
After being sure that she wasn't there anymore Eric finally started his training. He tried everything he wanted to try and the day quickly ended.
Eric thought that it was the last day when he would see Alice but the next day they took breakfast together again and so the other day until many weeks later.
***Two months later***
Eric was currently taking his breakfast together with Alice in the forest. Since that day Alice would come sometimes to take her breakfast with him and since he said that he could cook for her when he has time, he couldn't complain about it.
They eat their breakfast in silence this morning and were almost finishing when Eric couldn't bear the silence anymore and tried to find a subject to discuss.
"So... how is Yuki's training going?"
In the past two months, he didn't asked anything about his sister's training but now he was curious how far she arrived but Alice sighed when she thought about it.
"Not too good... Although she clearly has a lot of mana, her learning time of the spells is just too long..."
"How so?"
Eric was surprised to hear that and wanted to know more but Alice just raised her shoulders.
"I don't know. We just guessed that she didn't awaken her true powers yet. Although her learning speed is slow, we have enough time until Kratos will be free so we try to not worry too much about it."
Eric find it weird but didn't say anything more.
Shortly after, Alice finished eating and left for Yuki's morning training and Eric was left alone. As always he started his training too and several hours later he took a break, laid down on a blanket, and fall asleep.
When Eric woke up was already dark outside. He looked around and took him some time to fully awake and process where he was.
("Seems like I slept a little bit too much...")
He wanted to raise his body but he caught something with the corner of his eye and rolled on the ground a little further from where he stood and in the next second purple thorns filled that place.
("I was wondering why they didn't make a move in the past two months but it seems like they were just waiting for their friends...")
Eric looked at the purple thorns and thought so, then changed his position again and another wave of thorns filled that place. He continued to do that until he figured out the direction from where the thorns come, and then summoned two daggers and threw them into the dark in two different places. The sound of iron clashing with iron filled the forest and Eric knew that his dagger didn't hit the target. Although he missed, he now knew where his enemies were and summoned another 30 daggers that started to float behind him and in the next second, they flew in the dark.
The past two months spent with Alice weren't for nothing. In their daily conversation, Eric would sometimes ask things about magic and she would answer thinking that he was just curious. Like that he learned how to make his swords fly to a specific location and also how to use magic to enhance his physical abilities. Thanks to this he was able to fight against Kratos's underlings even in that situation.
The fight continued for some time and meanwhile, Yuki and Alice come back from the training ground and entered the leaving room.
"Good work today! Remember to read the book I gave you when you have time. We will take a break tomorrow since we trained every day in the past week so take care to rest properly."
"Finally a break!"
Yuki happily exclaimed and laid down on the sofa because of the tiredness she accumulated. Alice looked at her with pitying eyes and then decided to leave but before she could do that she saw through the window a pillar of light that shined strongly above the forest.
Alice had a bad feeling about it and run towards Eric's room just to find it empty.
"Hey, Alice, what happened?"
"No time to explain! Call the girls with the magic device that I gave you and tell them to come here fast! I'm going out now!"
"Hey, wait! Where are you going?"
"Just do what I told you to do!"
Alice quickly left the house and ran towards the forest letting Yuki in a confused state.
She used magic to boost her physical abilities and quickly arrived at the place where she left Eric this morning just to find it in a horrible state. There were many people lying down in pools of blood and many swords filled the place. Some trees were cut down and from place to place some holes that looked like they were left by bombs could be seen.
"What the hell happened here!?"
Alice looked around and she could recognize the clothes of Kratos's followers but she couldn't see Eric anywhere.
("Just what happened here... with who were they fighting with?)