For Anna, joining hands with Noel meant she had more time to persuade him and settle the hatred between them. On the other hand, Noel wanted to spar with Anna simply for killing her as well as finishing the mission.
Still, no matter how they looked at it, Anna looked like she wanted to use this chance to beat Noel up. Even those who bullied Noel in the past week hesitated to do the same because of Anna.
In fact, Lezlev had been spreading the words about Anna not wanting to give anyone a chance to bully Noel because she wanted to do it herself. Although she looked like a horrible person, this was the way she protected him.
In thirty minutes, all people finally found their own pair. Alfred seemed to have gotten used to Lezlev’s style, so he chose to go with him. Meanwhile, Kirika had a different person as her group died because they left her behind.
“Alright. Since you’ve got your own pair, I will inform you about your schedule.” Shale stepped up again after the time limit was up. “The schedule in the morning won’t change. You will focus on your individual strength.
“However, you need to train with your partner after lunch. There will be three sessions. The first session is Free Training. You’re free to do anything you want with your partner, whether it’s sparring, training alone, and so on.
“The second session is compatibility training. In this session, you will find some training where you need a pair to complete. You will understand what kind of training this is after experiencing it later.
“The third session is survival training. I’m sure you’ve known this, but traps and working together are effective against demons. So, we’ll make sure that in a group, both of you know what to do if the pair somehow gets separated. This shall be your schedule from now on. Without further ado, we’ll start our training. First, running!”
“Yes, Sir!” The trainees hurriedly ran like they used to do.
When running, Anna approached Noel and asked, “It seems that we can’t really fight three times a day. You won’t be able to fight another battle after our spar.”
“One before the individual training starts, one during the free time, and one before the training ends,” said Noel with a calm expression.
Anna widened her eyes, not believing Noel’s change. If it were the Noel in the forest, he would rage at her. However, Noel somehow became calm and saw the bigger picture.
‘Did my strategy work? It seems planting a doubt in his heart is working. This way, the hatred can be solved easier.’ Anna smirked. ｎｏｖ𝚕．𝚌ｏｍ
Still, Noel added, “I simply consider the best time for me to kill you.”
“Fine then.” Anna accepted the terms. However, she was smiling inwardly as if looking something cute, ‘He’s probably too embarrassed to admit his raging incident and don’t want to apologize to me because of the hatred. Well, he’s simply someone playing hard to get… Somehow, he looks cute.’
After conveying the message, Noel went away from her and clicked his tongue. His thought was the same as Anna, they both completely misunderstood each other’s reaction.
‘Her face was too calm. She must have realized I’m planning something because of this abrupt change. Should I explode my rage once in a while to make her believe me? I need to consider another plan to fool her.’
Either Noel or Anna knew each other’s secret. As someone with a system that allowed him to progress rapidly, Noel had already started looking at the future, not only about killing her, but also the full revenge against the royal family. Hence, he was planning to use her to gain more information from observing her reaction and expression.
But Anna was a regressor. Her soul was much older than her actual age. And she had the memory of Noel’s future. Someone who could help hundreds of thousands of people shouldn’t be that bad. Solving the hatred was enough. That was why she looked at Noel like looking an edgy kid.
In the individual training, she noticed that Noel’s physical ability wasn’t that bad at all. With the addition of his fighting style, Noel turned out to be better than most people here. If he started using his Spiritual Energy efficiently, he would be the top among these trainees.
‘No, wait. It’s a basic knowledge that Spiritual Energy can strengthen your body. Even without the connection with spirit, as long as one can feel Spiritual Energy, they can use it. This army is supposed to teach the trainees about this after they’re acknowledged as a real soldier, which is delayed due to the outbreak. But the way he acts… He doesn’t seem to be someone knowledgeable of Spiritual Energy. Is he ignorant or something?
‘Now that I think about it, Noel was someone uninterested with anything. According to what I know, he never participated in social gatherings and simply relied on the wealth of his family to live alone. I see, so that’s how it is… Noel lacks common sense and knowledge because he’s been spoiled. The difference between him and those arrogant young nobles is Noel is stuck in his home while those people are aggressively showing their power. I can finally understand him now.
‘If that’s the case, Noel must have found his Spirit. And he does it without all the basic knowledge? Is this his talent?’ Anna shivered by the thought alone. Even she needed an extensive knowledge and time to find her Spirit for the first time.
‘Let’s check my theory.’ Anna approached Noel again and said, “So, you’ve met your Spirit… If you haven’t found your Spirit, you would have used the Spiritual Energy to strengthen your muscle to make you stronger.”
“…” Noel remained silent but the slight twitch on his eyebrow didn’t escape Anna’s eyes. Noel snorted, “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I agreed to make a pair with you, but I didn’t agree to answer any of your questions.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Anna smiled as she had gotten what she wanted to know. Then, she gave a tempting offer. “How about I teach you about Spirit and Spiritual Energy?”
Even Noel paused for a moment, considering the offer carefully.
‘Did she seriously say that? What does she want? What if she provided a wrong information that might cause me harm in the future? I can’t trust her. It’s better to ask my Spirits or Sir Shale instead…’ Noel didn’t answer her as he simply moved away from her as if running from devil’s temptation.