I noticed that the carriage had stopped and looked out the window--I had decided to sleep, since I got bored from the long-seeming travel.

“Are we there?”

“No. Not yet…”

Hmm?

The one who answered me wasn’t Nainiae, it was Reitri. He was sitting near the window.

“Okay. So, why are we stopped?”

“That is…It will be difficult to explain.” Reitri mumbled, scratching the side of his head.

I looked around, finding Nainiae and Basilisk standing face to face in the distance.

Nainiae had a heavy atmosphere, while Basilisk looked like an infuriated bull--scratching at the ground with the tips of his feet, probably to relax his legs.

It was very easy to figure out what was going on.

I leaned my arm on the carriage window frame, looking at Nainiae.

“She said that she couldn’t stand someone badmouthing her master.”

“What about Basilisk?”

It was pretty obvious why Nainiae would fight, since she was protective of my reputation; but I was curious what the other party had done.

“You know about that Ogre , right?”

“Yes.”

“Mr. Basilisk was telling a story about how Lightning Boulder had killed it in 30 minutes--and Ms. Nainiae asked if it was pretty fast--that’s how it came to this.”

“Trying to fight just because someone asked something so simple…does that Basilisk kid have mental issues?” I asked Reitri.

“No--it hurt his pride.”

“It’s that simple to hurt his pride? He needs to grow up.”

Ahh, pride.

Pride is inverse to intelligence--the more pride, the dumber the person is.

“Then again, he may have a muscular body, but his face looks young; how old is he?”

“He is about--15?” Reitri partially answered me, and asked one of the Lightning Boulder mercenaries nearby.

“Yes. He is 15 this year.” The mercenary nodded.

“So, he is 15, yet he is running a mercenary group as its commander?”

It seemed that the mercenary expected me to ask that question, “That is--it was the last will of the previous commander…who passed away. Commander Nara is the son of the late Garf Basilisk--who was the original creator and leader of Lighting Boulder.”

“About the name, Basilisk. It’s obviously a family name. Were they nobles in the past?”

“Ah, yes--but they are now fallen nobles.” The mercenary looked upset when he answered.

I nodded to him and looked back towards Nainiae and Basilisk.

“Are you ready? Ms. Nainiae, Mr. Basilisk?” Horai was acting as the judge, standing between the two.

“Anytime.”

“Yes.”

Nainiae and Basilisk answered at the same time.

“In that case, I’ll count down.”

It was the normal 5 second countdown, the point of the match was to incapacitate your opponent. To stop any major injuries, they both had wooden weapons.

Nainiae had a wooden sword, and Basilisk a wooden spear.

Is Nainiae planning on using a sword?

It hadn’t been long since she had started learning, and Basilisk had obviously using a spear since his childhood. Just looking at his stance, and the Mana the was naturally circling his body--I knew that Nainiae would lose if she was just going to use a sword.

“...Start!” Horai shouted, promptly turning around and running back towards us. Nainiae and Basilisk had instructed him to do this.

It was Nainiae who furrowed their brows as soon as the match began--as soon as Horai’s hand fell, Basilisk turned his body and attempted to attack at a long range, using the advantage of his spear’s length.

Nainiae was in trouble from the start.

I knew that this was going to happen.

Using her wooden sword, Nainiae swept away the spear by a very narrow margin. With her sword running along the shaft of Basilisk’s spear, she charged at him.

Her form was clean, with nothing to fault, however…There was hesitation in her first movements, probably because this was her first time fighting with a sword.

She should have charged in sooner. So, before she could get close to Basilisk, he stepped back; swinging his spear around, twisting his body.

“What’s this? Your moves are full of awkwardness.” He spoke with a smirk, swinging his spear in a large motion.

It was a confident movement, he seemed to be trying to demonstrate that spears aren’t only used for stabbing.

“By any chance, is this your first fight?”

Nainiae quickly moved her arm and blocked the wooden spear coming at her; she didn’t reply to Basilisk’s taunting questions, she just grits her teeth.

“Oh? It seems I was right? Judging from your expression!” Basilisk took another step back, widening the distance between them. Turning his wrist, he fixed his grip and attempted to stab Nainiae again.

I found myself furrowing my brows.

That stab’s power and speed was different than the first attack Basilisk used, which had been used to keep Nainiae in check.

Although she managed to block the first stab by a narrow margin, her problems started with that second stab.

“I’m sorry, but I am not the type that goes easy on someone because it is their first fight!”

Basilisk at least had some intelligence, since going easy on someone is a good way to get killed.

Nainiae’s wooden sword, which was held in her left hand, moved diligently; every time she blocked Basilisk’s attacks, not just her palm, but her fingers--even her arm, was aching.

Even when Nainiae was dueling against Sera, who had a serious look on her face, Nainiae hadn’t ever received a serious strike, so her face was gradually getting darker.

She wasn’t able to block every strike and eventually, she was hit on the shoulder. This time, it was Nainiae who retreated to gain some distance, she couldn’t help but look at her shoulder.

“That’s one strike! You are a girl, but you seem able to withstand pain.”

It seemed that Basilisk’s attack had a spin to it; the tip of the spear was blunt. Being stabbed by it, the shoulder of her maid uniform was wrinkled like there was a tornado there.

“If it was an ordinary person, he would be screaming and yelling about how much it hurts.” Basilisk drew his spear back.

He rested the length of wood on his shoulder and looked at one of the watching mercenaries.

The mercenary said, “Why are you looking at me?”

“I just remembered how you cried for a whole day about a bruise because you got hit by this once.”

Basilisk joked around.

Unlike Nainiae, he looked rather relaxed, with margin to spare.

With that level of skill he could go up against most of the mansion. Sera…isn’t even close. Ian, of course, could still easily beat him. Lloyd may be on par with him.

“I’m used to pain. This much is--well…” Nainiae straightened the wrinkle in her dress and spoke in an emotionless tone.

“Oh, used to pain?” Basilisk raised his eyebrow, as if he was surprised.

Nainiae didn’t answer his question.

It seems to be about time she used Magic.

I watched Nainiae fixing her clothes and narrowing her eye. It was definitely worthy of praise that she had managed to block up to this point just by using her sword.

She hadn’t ever used a sword until recently--I don’t know if it had even been a month since she started learning; she also wasn’t taught in an official capacity, she was being taught casually by Sera.

Having seen the look in her eye, I knew that she had decided she couldn’t win with just her sword--she made the smart choice.