(Amina Moria POV)
After chatting with Violet some more, I returned to my room. We exchanged passwords for our dorms, so we could visit each other anytime.
I had decided I would try to confess tomorrow. Although there was a low chance, doesn't mean I was going to give up.
After entering my dorm, I changed into my battlesuit and went down to the general courts. near our rooms.
I saw a couple of students training as well, though Jules wasn't here. Even he must have off days.
On one of the courts, I saw Lisa Rosario training against dummies. If I recall correctly she also liked Julius as well. I guess she could be called my love rival.
As I watched her, I saw that she had some bruises and cuts across her exposed arms. Though with our healing factor, they had become barely noticeable.
'She must've gotten injured recently.'
But that was impossible because of the barriers that protect us and I know that she sustain injuries at school.
She must've gotten injured elsewhere. If it was just one bruise or cut, I would've ignored it, but so many injuries in a short space of time was suspicious.
I also heard from Violet that Lisa hasn't been talking to her friends at school and always leaves school right after classes were over.
The situation reminded me of whenever Jules had a mission from SUITE. He would leave school earlier and also sometimes return with some injuries.
Anyway, it didn't really matter. We weren't friends and she was capable of taking care of herself. Even though she was suspicious, we had nothing to do with each other. But I would keep a closer eye on her.
I entered a court and set it up so that I would have to face 20 dummies simultaneously. Of course, my strength would have to be limited as dummies were only as strong as E ranks.
My eyes started glowing blue as my surroundings started darkening and I focused on the first dummy. I had to overcome the weakness of my {Hawk Eyes} if I wanted to defeat Jules.
***
The next day.
(Julius Argenti POV)
Yesterday's fight was exhausting, yet also very educational. I felt I caught a glimpse of the peak of the continent. It wasn't a farfetched dream, but a possible reality.
But I couldn't get cocky. The glimpse I saw was only a tiny fraction of the sword saint's power.
That's the reason I didn't train yesterday because I wanted to internalise what I just felt before.
During the lunch break, Amina asked me to train with her today. Though it was totally normal request, I sensed that there was something more behind it.
I didn't ask because if she had something to tell me, she would tell me during training.
***
After school, in a private training room.
Amina had already booked the private court the day before, and I immediately arrived after school.
Amina messaged me that she would arrive in 5 minutes, so enter the room with the room's password she had given me.
This training facility we were at was the best facility in the entire area, only second to the ones used by the school.
Unless you had special permission, using the school's courts was banned outside of classes.
So many of the students who attended Central High went to this facility. You had several options if you wanted to train here.
Firstly, there were general courts that were open to everyone and had near-indestructible dummies that people could train on. It was reinforced by mana that was provided by Dengen Trees that were planted nearby.
To access them, you needed a membership that you could buy. There were several different membership levels, ranging from basic to the black-gold star.
The better the membership, the better the general courts you could access. Everyone at Central High was automatically given a basic membership and class 1A was given a gold star membership.
Though if you had the money you could just buy a black-gold membership. Of course, all the 'young masters' had this. This also included Amina, Violet and James. Umbra also bought me a black-gold membership as well.
However, you could also book a private training room where only you and whoever you wanted could enter. It cost a lot of money and you were only given a couple of hours to use it.
But the benefits of it were immense as the dummies that were in the room were comparable to the ones at Central High.
You could also mess with the settings of the room, such as altering the gravity, and the strength of the barrier and directly programming the dummies attacks.
We were given 3hrs to mess around however we wanted here.
I did some warm-up exercises while waiting for Amina to arrive. Though I didn't have time to do anything as she arrived in only 3 minutes. I was still programming the training routine.
I wanted to immediately start, but she motioned me to stop.
"So...uhh how do I tell you this?"
I leaned against the wall as I listened to Amina struggling to speak.
"Uhhh... I want to tell you... what I am doing? Let's just get it over with."
Amina's face turned bright red.
"I love you, Julius."
"That's it I've said it!"
She turned away in embarrassment.
"Yeah, I know. I like you too."
I replied back half-heartedly.
'Wait am I missing something? She has to mean something by saying that. Wait it can't be...'
"You're not getting it! God, I worked up all courage and this is how you respond. Kill me. Okay, I will say this only once. I want to go out with you."
She was redder than a tomato at this point.
'Wait! Is this a romantic confession?'
I just realised what she meant. Hey... don't look at me like that. Emotions are hard to understand. It's not my fault I didn't get it.
As I cursed myself on the inside, my face turned serious. This was no laughing matter. The outcome of this would define our relationship.
After realising my true nature and my willingness to survive, I wanted to distance myself from my friends.
I hated that I was like this, but I couldn't change it. My life would always come first. No matter what I'd sacrifice. So I didn't want to put myself in a position where I would have to sacrifice my friends to survive.
I thought of this as my own type of kindness, though if I was truly kind, I wouldn't let my friends die so I could live. But alas, I wasn't a shounen protagonist.
So my first thought was to immediately reject and say no. But I couldn't. She was still my friend. I didn't want to hurt feelings.
But I knew leading her on was even worse. I had no feelings of romantic love towards her. And even if I did, it wouldn't make a difference. Love was a weakness.
As edgy as it sounds, I had seen firsthand how love could kill someone. And I was who abused it. I wasn't particularly proud of my actions, but my life was my first priority.
"Well... I like you too. But I have to think about it..."
I wanted to avoid this topic so I didn't have to deal with her feelings, but the look on Amina's face told me that she wasn't leaving here without an answer.
"Haaa... you already know my answer then."
"But I want you to say out loud."
She was being serious.
"Then no. I'm sorry Amina but do not want to go out with you. I am not interested in you romantically."
After I said those words, Amina started shaking. I wanted to comfort her, but it would probably make her feel worse. I may have been harsh, but I wanted to make my stance clear.
However, soon she stopped and a big smile appeared on her face.
"Well okay then. I already knew that's what you would say, so let's start training. I want to show you my new technique."
"Can I not?"
Her mana was becoming slightly unstable and could tell her emotions were all over the place. I felt like I might be in danger.
"You just rejected me, you idiot. You better help me."
"Okay then."
I resigned myself to being her punching bag for 3 hours.
I had the joy of experiencing her new technique, {Myriad Burst}, which allowed her arrows to explode when she said so, making it much harder to avoid.
It was extremely impressive and probably required a lot of computational power to achieve such a feat.
***
Couple hours, outside Amina's dorm room
(Violet Storm POV)
I saw Amina as she was walking back to her room. Though she had a big smile on her face, I could tell she was hiding her true feelings.
I decided to drop everything so I could visit her dorm room.
*Sob* Sob*
I opened the door and was immediately greeted by the noise of Amina weeping on her bed. I immediately rushed to her side.
Her tears stained the mattress and her hair was dishevelled. I picked her up and gave her a shoulder to cry on.
"I already knew his answer, but why does it hurt so much!"
This was the first time I had seen Amina show any signs of weakness. Usually, she was arrogant, strong and self-assured.
I didn't know how to comfort her. Only empty sounds could leave my mouth. I wanted to tell her she would be okay, but I couldn't.
All I could do was let Amina cry her heart out and be there when she needed it.
I really wanted to punch Jules for bringing her to this state, though him accepting the confession when he didn't like her would make me angrier.
'So that's how he felt. I remember the look of shock on his face when he discovered me and James' relationship in our previous lives.'
After a while, she stopped crying and only the occasional sniffle came out of her nose.
"So what now?"
She seemed to be able to hold a conversation, so I started asking questions.
"I'm not going to give up. I will make him fall for me."
Despite the rejection, she hadn't given up and the spark of fire still existed within her.
"Are you sure? We are reincarnates who've lived twice as long as you. Are sure want to love him when he is 16 years older."
I hated to be the devil's advocate, but I wanted my friend to make sure she was serious about him.
"So you'd be 32. But mentally, you're nowhere near that. You have only lived till you were 16 and now you're 16 again."
"If we were younger, that would be a problem but this is your first time being older than 16. This is the same as me. All being reincarnated means you have more life experiences and more knowledge. That's it."
Amina was determined. I could tell it from her manner of speaking. I wouldn't be able to convince her to stop chasing after Julius.
"Then do your best."
I didn't know what other advice to give but to cheer on silently from the background.
I must say, I have grown very attached to her. I could probably consider her my closest female friend.
She may have had a slight moment of weakness, but she was back to being the strong girl that I knew.