New Deal

Felix was taking his time slowly walking out of the Fairy Garden when a flower suddenly fell down in front of him. Gwen didn't know why but she felt a little sick as she sneezed, making Felix wonder what happened.

"Are you alright?" Felix didn't understand why Gwen suddenly sneezed out of nowhere, there was no reason for her to do so. Even if she was severely exhausted, her natural aptitude should prevent her from getting sick. Recalling the flower that fell in front of him, he observed it even more carefully and realized what the problem was.

Gwen sneezed one more time, similar to how a small critter would act. Her small figure didn't help her case as she adorably continued sneezing.

"Ugh… what's happening…"

"Haha, it's the flower. It's called the Imposter's Flaw. People who are in its presence under a certain talent threshold will get sick. That's why you're struggling right now."

Gwen looked up with difficulty, "That's a thing? Get rid of it!" She tried to slap away the flower in Felix's hand yet she barely muster up any strength from her exhausted body.

"I don't know. I kind of like it." If Gwen could see Felix's expression right now then she wouldn't hesitate to smack him in the face. Only she could act this way and get away with it.

"Grr…" As threatening as Gwen wanted to sound like, her pitched voice made it seem as if a cat was hissing at Felix, completely harmless. Although Felix knew just how capable Gwen was of taking revenge, for some reason, he didn't feel in danger at all, a mistake that he would try to make less in the future.

"You know… there's another way to not get affected by it anymore." Felix tried to lean the conversation into something more important.

Regrettably, Gwen immediately cut off the conversation as soon as it started, "Maybe once you're older."

"We're the same age!"

~~~

After Gwen recovered enough to be able to walk on her own, they made their way to Jiana Kingdom's academy, White Hope Academy. They each had their own thoughts on what they wanted to do here.

Gwen's plan for going here was to recruit some promising people to help her in world domination, considering that she already had already gotten two people under her belt, she was feeling confident in getting more people. Felix, on the other hand, was slowly trying to change Gwen's mind so that they could go there one day. Although she wouldn't need to learn any of the lessons as he was confident that she could breeze through the entire school by herself, the relationships that she'd develop would help her in the future. Gwen had grown up learning nothing but magic and violence, a small change of pace wouldn't hurt.

As they were making their way, they were casually talking about how the fight went.

"Gwen, when did you learn the Third Sword?" Felix was baffled at how fast Gwen was learning her family's sword technique. He was even leagues behind her, making him even question if he was even the genius here.

"A while ago, remember when I snuck out a few weeks back? Yeah, I was practicing it for a while. Tch, back then I had my Death Artifact so I could just get rid of the fatigue immediately."

Felix suddenly realized something, "Oh… wait, don't tell you kept doing it until learned it by force."

"Teehee. Busted." Gwen casually exposed her secret as to why she was able to grow so fast.

In hindsight, Felix should've realized this earlier. When going down the route of being a Swordsman, talent was nearly irrelevant as what replaced it was hard work. Although their understanding of the Way of the Blade was important, one could slowly develop it over time so the one singular barrier differentiating one person from another was how much they practiced.

As much as they wanted to work day in and day out, fatigue was an inescapable clog that stopped them from continuing on. Even practicing high-level techniques would cause extreme strain on a Swordsman, forcing them to stop moving forward, recalling their movements, and pondering on how they should be able to improve.

As for Gwen, it was essentially cheating. She was forcefully using the same high-level technique back-to-back, skipping the entire process of pondering for perfection. If another person did it in the same way that Gwen did then they would undeniably die from the stress that their body was experiencing.

"Ahem. What was that spell that you learned again?" Felix also wanted to exponentially grow as well, forcing him to lower his pride and ask the devilish young girl behind her.

"It's a Tier 9 spell, I don't think you can use it, both the mana it needs and the requirements for it are too much for you. Hehe." And as always, Gwen's joyful mocking tone made Felix regret asking her.

"Tier 9… it wouldn't hurt to try?" Felix still hoped to also do the same as Gwen, cheating her entire way through the power system.

Gwen tilted her head side to side, thinking of something fun, "You know, there's no need to learn the spell."

"What do you mean?" Felix saw Gwen's signature mischievous smile and felt in danger, there was trouble brewing and with how tempting the bait was, he couldn't help but jump straight into the pit.

Gwen pointed at herself, haughtily announcing, "I already mastered it, hehe! I can just help you out a little bit. Alas, I don't have my Death Artifact. So, what say you, dear knight? Would you be willing to fight against a tyrant to reclaim what's mine?" Gwen arrogantly reached out her hand in front of Felix.

'Goddammit! I should've realized this sooner!' Felix was blaming his own curiosity.

Gwen was smugly waiting for Felix to agree. She was so confident, extremely so that she was already planning for the fun things that she would do once she gets her Death Artifact back.

Felix was in internal agony, "Fine… I'll get your stupid Death Artifact back. Even though he knew that No. 12 had her own motives, he wasn't just about to let this opportunity pass.

"Ohoho! As expected, I'll be waiting for the great news! Come on now, let's go to White Hope Academy! Hurry, hurry!" Gwen's body seemed to have regained its vigor as she grabbed hold of Felix's hand and dragged him along.

Felix just went along with the flow, getting dragged by the purple-haired girl in front of him. Her vigorous movements slowed down as soon as Felix heard a loud grumbling coming from Gwen's stomach.

She immediately blushed and slowly stopped to a halt, looking down at her feet, "Uh…"

"Hahaha!" Felix rubbed her head, trying to comfort her yet all it did was aggravate her.

"Shut it!"