Ellen focused on her own training, hitting training dummies and practicing her moves diligently after I was completely knocked out by her endless nagging and our extreme sparring. 0

Cliffman had probably returned to his family, since he wasn’t present at the training ground.0

To me, Cliffman was like the long-time stranger you see at the gym. The guy you greet with an awkward “Ah, hello” internally, but never actually exchange words with. The moment we actually started to talk—like if I were to say, “Ah, I didn’t see you here yesterday”—I was sure the conversation would take off, but we hadn’t reached that point yet.2

“Heup!”0

Ellen was busy even when training alone, hitting dummies and refining her movements. If you thought about it, there was no real good reason why she even bothered teaching me. One had to be at a certain skill level to be considered a practice partner. In her eyes, I was still learning to walk. 0

While I did make us meals to eat every evening, that was not such a big deal—all I had to do was make a bit more food when I cooked for myself. She did get annoyed with my unsolicited cooking advice and comments on how she cut vegetables. Regardless, she continued to tolerate me even after my duel.0

It was really kind of a strange situation.0

The term “extreme indifference” was meant to be metaphorical, but now that I’d seen such indifference in real life, it made me wonder what was really going on in her mind. 0

I did once write a love letter to her for the sake of earning achievement points and got rejected. That somehow led to us having meals together, and then getting into swordsmanship training and sharing meals again. But Ellen didn’t behave in a particularly friendly manner towards me, and vice ver...0