"Are you okay ? Mariel," Mania asked curiously when she saw that her friend looked tired after waking up.
"You should rest more. From the battle last night, it was quite tough, and your body got damaged too much." Beatrix advised.
"it is fine with me, I slept enough last night. Just a little tired, that's all." Mariel said as she prepared her bags to go shopping together in the city as promised to her friends.
Knock* knock* knock* A knocking on the door of the room.
"Please wait a moment." Mania, who was closest to the door of the room, hurriedly answered and ran to open the door.
"Is Mariel here?" Elizabeth shouted, anxiously.
"Yes, I am." Mariel said, leaning forward to look from the corner of the room inside.
"Don't go anywhere today. You must go and check your physical condition immediately." Elizabeth commanded.
"I'm fine now. Just a little tired, that's all." Mariel replied but Elizabeth didn't listen to her answer and hurried over, holding her wrist tightly and concentrating on something.
"You hurt really badly inside. Don't be stubborn again and immediately follow me to the school infirmary now!" Elizabeth said loudly.
"I told you, I'm fine!" Mariel tried to argue back but suddenly it was as if the world was spinning around her quickly. Her consciousness began to fade until she could no longer stand it anymore.
"Mariel!" Her friends' voices shouted before she lost consciousness.
At the school infirmary, Mariel slept so deeply after undergoing medical treatment and taking various medicines until she recovered. At this moment, she's sleeping on the bed, and it will take more than half a day before she regains consciousness again.
"Beatrix and Mania, you can go buy something. Someone will take care of Mariel here." said Elizabeth.
"Who are they?" Beatrix and Mania said together but Elizabeth couldn't answer, she turned her head to the other side.
"We will take care of Mariel." the two young men, Jerrick and Senior Jack, said together with sincere expressions on their faces.
"Can we trust you guys?" Beatrix asked with concern.
"We can trust them, if something happens to Mariel, I will punish them by myself." Elizabeth said, turning to look at them solemnly.
"We'll not let you down, Assistant Elizabeth." Senior Jack assured her.
"Then we go to the market now and we'll come visit again in the evening." Beatrix and Mania said goodbye and went shopping in the market in the center of the city.
"Don't cause any trouble, I'm warning you." Elizabeth said again before leaving the room, leaving the two men watching over Mariel, who was fast asleep on the bed.
"You can trust us." the two men assuredly promised.
A few hours had passed since they had been talking to each other about many things. It began to change into an argument because both men were determined to win Mariel's heart alone. According to them, two tigers can't live in the same cave. Therefore, eliminating or intimidating their heart's rivals must be dealt with quickly.
"I only have to be Mariel's boyfriend!" Jerrick shouted.
"My lovely Mariel belongs to me!" Senior Jack retorted angrily.
Because of the fear that if there was an argument in the recovery room, there would be loud noises and the nurses might get chased back. So, they used the way of a man to make a decisive decision, that is, Wrestling. Then they took a dining table and placed it in the middle of them and fought fiercely with the condition that whoever lost first 3 times was considered to have accepted defeat. If someone loses to another, he'll go back to his room immediately and the other will stay here to look after Mariel.
Neither of the two young men gave in until each side won one round before, they had to be the winner in the third round, which was a very long battle because both used their physical and mental strength to the utmost. Muscles and blood vessels visibly bulged out.
"No matter what, I will never give up on you!" Senior Jack said with confidence.
"Let's go over my corpse first!" Jerrick shot back.
The two young men flexed their muscles and wrestled with each other until a long time had passed and there was no end in sight. An arm that was red and swollen with blood vessels almost piercing the skin but still unable to judge.
The sound of teeth grinding in pain was so loud that they didn't know that these annoying sounds made Mariel begin to regain consciousness again.
"What is that noise?" Mariel said as she woke up and rubbed her eyes sleepily. The scene in front of her was two men did wrestle each other so intensely that she didn't notice until she had woken up because of this noise.
"What are you guys doing?" Mariel asked angrily and was very upset at being disturbed until she woke up.
"Oh, Mariel, hey!" The two young men turned to look in utter shock as well as the sound of the table breaking in two pieces because they couldn't resist the force of their hand-wrestling any longer.
*Crash*
The sound of the table being broken into pieces and the sound of the nursing assistant's harsh reprimands made them with guilty expression, sit and listen in silence.
"Making troubles and break the table. It might be better to send both of you back to the dormitory." the nursing assistant complained.
"It's ok, let them stay here." Mariel begged, still angry with them.
"Is it good?" The assistant nurse turned around and asked in surprise.
"I can handle it. Besides, I got enough rest now." Mariel said.
"Thank you very much. As for the table, I'll order a new table for this." Jerrick thanked her with an apologetic expression and expressed responsibility for the damaged item.
"I'll clean up this mess for you." Senior Jack immediately offered to clean up the table pieces that were scattered all over the floor.
Once everything was arranged, they came and sat on the left and right sides of Mariel's bed with sad expressions.
"Don't do this again. What kind of foolish judgment is this?" Mariel scolded them until they both looked dull.
"We just want to find the number 1st person who to be close to Mariel." Senior Jack tried to explain.
"It's the dignity of a man." Jerrick said.
(By the way, it's really true. In the past world, I have seen friends and seniors judge each other in strange ways like this when competing to flirt with women. Sometimes they compete to buy gifts. Expensive things are given to women or asking them for a date. For example: Visit an amusement park, watch movie movies, travel together to a foreign country or to a place that helps women relax, such as the sea or mountain. I ended up in a woman's body too. It's not unusual to encounter a situation like this as well.) (Chai thinking)
"Don't cause any more trouble. I warned you!" Mariel said, looking at them with scary eyes.
"Yes sir!" the two men promised with fear.
"Good boys." Mariel replied with a smile.
(It's like this to make men interested in this much but I still secretly feel strange as well.) (Chai thinking)
"There are many questions that I really want to ask my lovely Mariel." Senior Jack immediately asked first.
"You can ask me. If the questions are ok, I'll answer for you then." Mariel responded.
"Do you have a type of man in your mind?" Senior Jack asked.
(That's the most important question for men. How should I answer without hurting their feelings?) (Chai thinking)
"Um...not yet. I am very sorry to answer this question." Mariel answered truthfully.
"Do both me and Senior Jack have any hope for this?" Jerrick continued to ask.
"I don't know. I'm not going to promise anything." Mariel replied.
"Do you have any goals in your life? Do you want to have a perfect married life, do you want to be rich, or do you want to be surrounded by many children and grandchildren?" Senior Jack immediately changed the question and asked for more.
"If I answered all of these, promised me that you won't laugh at all." Mariel said, staring at them with a serious expression.
"We promised!" The two men promised in unison. Mariel then took a deep breath and said in a serious tone.
"I want to be the greatest female swordsman. I prefer has a reputation that everyone must know and is determined to eliminate all demons because there are still many lives that must be killed to demons and evil monsters which I can't accept this, even though it seems impossible, but I promised to myself that I would do my best to achieve this goal." Mariel said with confidence.
When Mariel finished speaking, the expressions of the two men were stunned and there were no more words to argue because they did not expect that Mariel's ideology was even higher than theirs.
"Mariel has higher goals than me." Senior Jack said with admiration.
"That's right, mine isn't even this big yet. I just want to be happy in life. Inheriting my parents' business is enough but Mariel's...is even more." Jerrick said in surprise.
"Me too, just taking care of the stationery shop from my parents and finding a wife will be enough but not to this extent." Senior Jack said.
"Each person has different goals in life. No one is inferior to anyone else. Just don't think about something bad or take advantage of others, that's enough for me. Just like this, everyone will be happy." Mariel further clarified.
"And Mariel, have you ever thought about that? If the goals you set aren't fulfilled, what will you do next?" Jerrick asked, deeply touching her mind.
Mariel was silent for a moment, not expecting to be asked questions like this. It was unexpected to be able to answer.
"Are you asking too serious? Jerrick!" Senior Jack asked.
(If you ask this, I'm not prepared to answer this in time. Wait a minute, I must tease you guys.) (Chai thinking)
"Maybe I'm getting the idea of having a family then." Mariel answered a little shyly.
"It must definitely be me!" The two men answered at the same time.
"Hey, I answered first!" Senior Jack shouted.
"No, it's me!" Jerrick shouted back.
Mariel watched them argue with each other, she smiled and laughed. At least today is another day to relax a bit after fighting hard last night.
After that, the three of them had many more miscellaneous conversations with Senior Jack telling stories of his own mischievous deeds from childhood. Including Jerrick who often does things that go against what his parents have taught him so often that it gives them headaches. As for Mariel, she talked about her own experience when she was in school, when she was camping outside and encountered strange events.
Many hours passed by and the three were so entertained they forgot to look at the time that had passed. Beatrix and Mania returned from buying more supplies from the market.
"Are these two bothering you? Mariel." Beatrix asked curiously.
"Or rather compete to please you?" Mania asked.
"No, it was just a good conversation, they are good here." Mariel said.
"Let's just say that's enough for today. It was very fun to talk to my lovely Mariel, you aren't like other girls at all. It's like talking among men, I guess." Senior Jack said.
"That's it, when we talked openly. It was so smoothly that we forget the time." Jerrick said.
"It's ok." Mariel said.
(Yes, I'm a guy in this body. Talking to each other is like men talking to each other but it was fun in another way because I got to see the perspective and way of life of people in this world. It's opened my mind in this new world as well.) (Chai thinking)
"See you soon, my lovely Mariel." Senior Jack said goodbye.
"See you in class, my angel." Jerrick said, waving his hand.
"See you later, guys." Mariel replied.
After the two men left the room, the doctor entered the room to check on Mariel's condition again. When he saw that her body was fine, she was allowed to return to the girl's dormitory. As for Beatrix, she showed many supplies they had bought to Mariel.
"Good, let's make beef stew and baked potatoes this evening. I'm getting hungry." Mariel immediately offered a delicious menu.
"Okay!" The two friends immediately agreed.
Knock! There was a sound of knocking on the room door.
"Come in." the doctor said. After that, Elizabeth came to check on Mariel's condition once again.
"Okay, you're fine now." Elizabeth said, feeling relieved.
"Thank you very much for doing this for me, I feel better." Mariel said, thanking Elizabeth.
"It doesn't matter, I did it because Principal Hector did it arbitrarily." Elizabeth said in a displeased tone.
"What about Principal Hector?" Beatrix asked.
"He has already been punished." said Elizabeth in a cold voice.
"Please let him eat dinner." Mania said with concern.
"Don't worry. I came here to tell Mariel to prepare for more sword training." Elizabeth said, turning to look into Mariel's eyes with a serious look on her face.
"Uh...why?" Mariel asked with a strange feeling.
"Mission 2nd will begin next month. Prepare yourself mentally and physically because I'm joining the team. This time it's for real, Mariel, and don't be careless at all!" Elizabeth said before everyone dispersed and returned to their own rooms.