interlude?

*Roar!!*

The ogre let out a final battle cry as it fell to ground defeated, the leader of Blue Rose, promptly cut off its head ensuring the death of the creature, however despite how she had just slain the creature, her mind was elsewhere completely occupied with other matters.

"That was the last of them"

Her teammate and their Trusted Arcane mage, Evileye informed. Currently, they were within the great forest of Tob, and the quest they were given was one that required them to eliminate a type of monster alliance that threatened the livelihood of the nearby villages.

"Hey Lakyus."

"Yeah, what is it, Evileye?"

"Are you OK?"

"Yeah of course I am"

Lakyus gave a smile as she said, reassuring her friend that she was alright. Of course, Evileye was not convinced however she decided not to pry and chose to wait until Lakyus was ready to tell.

"If standing there looking like a zombie means you're OK, then OK."

Lakyus could sigh and shake her head towards her friend. She was correct that something was wrong however Lakyus was unwilling to share at the moment.

"Hey Lakyus, can you tell these two to stop thinking I'm some type of monster, I think they might actually be convinced of that"

Gagaran beckoned to Lakyus, and she looked at the twins who had amused smiles on their faces.

"Are you sure you aren't? We've never seen you bleed before"

Evileye stated teasingly, obviously that was a lie, but she was not above messing around, plus they've just finished a job, so they had time to relax.

"What are you talking about? You seen me bleeding plenty of times"

"Name one"

Tina stated, and Evileye nodded her head.

"You can't be serious"

Gagaran said in exasperation, it seemed that her teammates were determined to keep playing this game.

"I mean, if you want to prove to us, you're human, then yes"

"we still love you regardless, so you don't have to prove anything"

The twins stated with amusement on their faces.

"ugh!"

Gagaran groaned at her friends. They really liked playing around, which contrasts with the image most people have of Blue Rose, although she herself wouldn't say that's a bad thing.

"How about that one time where…."

Gagaran began listing off the Various times she's bled in battle, but the twins and Evileye kept denying that they ever saw such a thing, causing Gagaran to have to continue listing off the times she's bled.

While her friends were having a bit of fun, Lakyus could not help but think about Arthur.

She hadn't thought that she liked him, I mean she liked him as a friend and she thought he was quite interesting with interesting stories to tell, he was strong and made her want to get stronger, not to mention he seemed to play along with her antics even if just teasing he didn't do it in a way that made her feel bad about it.

Yeah, sure, she definitely thought he was handsome, but you can acknowledge that and still be friends with someone, right?

she figured that her friendship was just that a friendship.

It seemed that she was wrong or perhaps she wasn't wrong, it's just that hearing that Renner liked Arthur made her feel some type of way, she could properly see what that feeling was, jealousy or envy but what she knew was that she did not feel as happy as she portrayed.

At the time she thought nothing of it, Renner was her friend if she found someone she likes then that was good however one cannot help how they feel about things

'ugh this sucks'

She thought as she mentally sighed, it's not like she was looking for someone to like in fact she has never actively thought about the idea of getting a partner, mostly because she's a holy maiden and because of that such things were never in the forefront of her mind

Did she like Arthur? That was a bit unclear, or rather she didn't want to because that would mean their relationship as friends would change, and that would be a betrayal to Renner, her friend.

The young woman could not help but run her glove hand through her hair as she thought more about the situation.

"Lakyus!"

"huh?!"

"Are you coming?"

"what?!"

"There's a village nearby, so we're going to visit. Are you just going to stand there?"

"oh no, I'm coming"

She took hurried steps to catch up to Evileye eye. It seemed as though the other three members of their group were already ahead of them.

"Are you sure you're alright?"

"yeah I'm fine"

Evileye was once again not convinced but decided to let her be, as stated before, she believed that Lakyus would share when she was willing.

...

Sweat Trickled down his face, From the top of his head down to his cheeks like a waterfall before dripping onto the ground like heavy rain. His body was hot like a furnace, and his muscles demanded a break from such arduous training.

Gazeff determination drove him to the absolute pinnacle of tiredness and fatigue, yet the image of the blonde Knight brought a fierce feeling of Rivalry in his heart and one that refused to let him rest.

Tomorrow would be one of his designated day offs and Gazeff planned to train until the sun came up, the time of day was night time hence the empty training ground, it was the perfect time for him to practise his swordsmanship without care and focus solely on developing his Skills as a warrior.

Unlike Mages who rely on spell books and the like to acquire new spells to get stronger, for warriors there was no such, one mastered a martial art through rigorous repetitive Training, if you wish to a speed related martial art, it was necessary to run. It was hard, but Gazeff would have it no other way.

"You know, it unhealthy to train so hard, Gazeff"

Gazeff halted his swings and turned to his left and looked at the individual that spoke. Shock registered on his face as he saw the blue haired swordsman.

"....Brain huff…. huff… Unglaus"

Gazeff spoke between his breaths, he hadn't seen the man in a long while but he does remember one of the kings retainer mentioned something about Arthur seemingly entering the castle with him, did Arthur recruit him?

"The one and only, I see you're hard at work, mind if I join you?"

"Of… huff… course"

The chief warriors stated, he could not help but notice a slight sadness in the man's eyes, like he had lost something and had no idea how to get it back.

"Thank you, although you did get a head start on me"

"I suppose I did, how are you, Brain? I haven't seen you since the tournament, never had someone give me a rum for my money like you have"

"Thanks for the compliment, I've been doing alright, mastered a whole new technique to best you with it"

Brain answered, and at his words about a new technique, Gazeff's eyes held a glint of interest.

"Oh really. what do you call such a technique?"

"honestly I'm no longer proud of it anymore. It was my finisher, the pinnacle of my swordsmanship and hard work, but now it's just a failure of a sword technique"

He stated before he let himself fall on to his buttocks and looked up at the Sky, although the training grounds were considered within the Castle they were actually outside it's just that in order to get to them you had to enter the castle and In order to exit them you had to do the same thing.

"What happened?"

"Oh nothing much, I just met Arthur, and he stopped my technique with his bare hand"

"What?!!"

"Yeah, couldn't even make him draw his sword, I was so out matched that I couldn't even be a threat to him"

Gazeff could not help but remain silent. He knew Arthur was strong, however he did not know that a person like Brain would be just child's play. Has he been holding back this entire time?

"Honestly Gazeff what even is the point of all this training if it will never amount to much in the face of those actually powerful?"

A puzzling question that Gazeff felt Unqualified to answer but still answered regardless.

"One thing and one thing only,Brain"

"And what is that?"

"Grab some food and try again"

"Huh?"

"I'm saying you simply need to work harder, rest, eat, and work even harder. Every loss is a lesson on our shortcomings and if we let a loss discourage us we'll never improve and better and besides Arthur is still human, that means the strength he has can be achieved by human hands"

Gazeff explained, and Brain looked at him with a neutral expression. His heart could not feel inspired at all.

"so let's do just that, Brain, let's reach that level of strength with our own human hands like he did"

"I guess we can do that"

Brain answered, Although Gazeff could tell it would take some time before the man had his confidence back, he must have had a great deal of confidence in that technique of his.

"not guess, we will"

The knight stated firmly, assuring both himself and Brain.

....

A/N: This was supposed to come out on Thursday, but I got lazy and procrastinated. Plus, I got hooked on the Anime Dungeon meshi on Friday

Ignore that Authors notes it's not relevant as this was written weeks ago .

But dungeon meshi is peak actually peak.