“Oh my……”
“Lady Aleshia, what are you saying?!”
Rosalind’s followers turned pale with fright at her words…… while Reiya repeated with a completely unconcerned expression:
“Want to hear it again? I said this woman is the bitch. And not just her—her whole family is——”
“Aleshia Arne…… I’ll kill you!”
Before Reiya’s words even faded, Rosalind screamed and swung her whip once more.
“That makes it the second time—how wonderful. Even your bastard father should have nothing to say now.”
Instead of simply taking the hit like before, Reiya nimbly sidestepped the whip strike while closing in like lightning, grabbing hold of Rosalind’s wrist and forcing her to loosen her grip on the taut bowstring.
“You bi——”
“You’re so noisy it’s irritating. Shut up, will you?!”
Without a moment’s hesitation, Reiya drove a knee strike into Rosalind’s abdomen.
Because Reiya’s hand was still tightly clamped around Rosalind’s wrist when she drove her knee forward, the latter had no way to dodge the attack…… She could only raise her other free hand to block her stomach and absorb the impact.
Even though every trainee’s palm was calloused from years of archery practice, a soft palm overall couldn’t possibly block the hard impact of a kneecap.
Rosalind managed to disperse part of the force, but Reiya’s knee still drove deep into her lower abdomen.
“Gwah……!”
“Disgusting. Don’t you dare vomit on me.”
At the very moment the bullying bitch took the hit, Reiya released her arm, letting her stumble backward and avoiding the flying spittle.
“Lady Aleshia, you’ve really gone and done it now! Rosalind’s father…… Duke Ellend will never let this slide!”
Rosalind lay on the ground with her eyes rolled back, clearly unconscious…… Her followers rushed over and hoisted her up.
“Don’t call me Lady. Aren’t we all good sisters training together? Besides, when my old man sees this red mark on my face, he’ll probably charge off to fight that bitch’s old man first.”
Iyue couldn’t help but laugh softly at her nonchalant words…… The reason she remained at the Ranger Training Grounds despite her arrows constantly missing the target was plain to see from what had just happened—
Those children gave her the same respect they gave Rosalind, who hailed from the Duke family of the Northern Forest Region…… Because she was the only daughter of Duke Arne, who commanded the Eastern Silent Wind Forest Region.
Her family’s influence was stronger, not weaker, than Rosalind’s father Duke Ellend; and secondly, her talents leaned entirely toward the combat side…… Even Iyue had nearly capsized her boat when sparring with her.
“And you sisters all saw it, right? That bitch struck first. I was just defending myself. Ah, you absolutely have to keep this secret from the Instructor.”
Reiya raised a finger and flashed a menacing grin at the trainees, who all wore fearful expressions in return—
“Hmm hmm, that’s good then. Sera, are you okay……”
Reiya turned around, just about to check on Sera’s condition, when she ran headfirst into Iyue’s “benevolent” smile.
“Inst-Instructor?!”
“What exactly do you need to keep secret from me? The fact that you assaulted a fellow trainee, and then tried to threaten them into silence?”
“It’s nothing like that…… Sera, we were just messing around, right?”
Reiya intimately draped her arm around Sera’s shoulder—who had remained silent the whole time—and kept shooting her glances while twisting her mouth sideways.
“……Yes, Instructor. We were only messing around.”
Sera ignored Reiya’s little gestures, but she didn’t avoid the trainee trying to get close to her like she usually did every other time…… She just awkwardly shifted her face a little farther away from Reiya.
From those ever-cold eyes, Iyue clearly saw a flicker of emotion…… This child who always kept everyone at arm’s length—for the first time, her eyes showed surprise at receiving unexpected help.
This girl…… never once thought someone would help her. Just like I was back then.
Iyue thought to herself.
“Never mind Reiya, but even you’ve learned to lie, Sera? I saw the whole thing you two pulled from start to finish. You girls over there—take Rosalind to the physician. As for you two…… you can’t escape punishment for assaulting a fellow trainee.”
“Wh-What?!”
“……Yes, Instructor.”
Iyue gave her orders to Rosalind’s followers, then gave a subtle wink at the two before her…… But it seemed only Sera understood her meaning. Just as Reiya was about to shout and plead her innocence, Sera clamped a hand over her mouth.
“That’s right. Come along quietly now.”
“Mmph mmph!”
Sera dragged the reluctant Reiya along behind Iyue…… While the trainees carrying Rosalind chattered among themselves:
“This is bad…… If Rosalind’s father asks, what do we say? Do we really tell him the truth that Aleshia hit her?”
“Idiot…… Aleshia’s father is no pushover either! You should’ve seen him! Last time she lost just two pounds at the weigh-in, he hired eight cooks to work in the training grounds’ mess hall! This could turn into a political conflict!”
“……So we absolutely can’t let them know we were just standing there watching while they fought…… Otherwise we’ll definitely catch the fallout. Besides, didn’t Aleshia already say it? This was just [messing around].”
“Messing around, huh…… I think Rosalind’s going to blow her top when she wakes up. And Aleshia said those things too.”
“Who cares. Even if she’s an idiot, she should understand she clearly crossed the line today. She whipped Aleshia just because she was angry about some forest bastard—she deserved to be taught a lesson.”
“Besides, she should count herself lucky for avoiding the Instructor’s punishment…… Knowing how the Instructor usually operates, Aleshia and that bastard girl would’ve come out black and blue. She’ll thank her lucky stars later that she gets to lie in her dorm bed and laugh at them.”
“Judging by how the Instructor handled it, she doesn’t want this blowing up to the point where both their fathers find out either. Duke Arne already had complaints last time she punished Aleshia—if Duke Ellend gets added to that……”
“Actually, even if he was added, it probably wouldn’t matter much to the Instructor. Because I heard she’s apparently a direct line of the Nelf Family…… and she was directly placed here by that Lady Lai Wei An Se, who’s about to become the Patrol Commander……”
……
……
Iyue’s thoughts were indeed much the same as these calculating girls…… but with one exception.
“Ow, easy…… that hurts hurts hurts! Instructor…… weren’t you supposed to be punishing us?”
“……This is our punishment.”
Inside Iyue’s dormitory, Sera was applying medicine to Reiya, who sat on the bed—the blows she’d taken were no joke, leaving streaks of bloody red marks across her face, chest, and stomach.
“Stop talking. Be quiet…… so the medicine can soak in properly.”
Iyue sat on a chair nearby with her arms crossed, speaking sternly.
The healing ointment Sera used was made by Iyue from materials harvested from a high-rank demon beast she had hunted in the past.
That beast possessed astonishing regenerative abilities.
Back then, Iyue had pursued it for an entire week, emptying twelve arrows before finally killing it…… So after it died, she used its blood to create this extremely precious healing ointment.
Just by applying it, even wounds deep enough to show bone would heal quickly.
“Instructor…… this thing is priceless, isn’t it? This effect is almost comparable to those miracles of the humans in the Holy Nation.”
A dozen or so minutes later, Reiya stood before the mirror, dazedly touching her fair, supple, newborn-like skin.
“Put some clothes on before you start marveling!”
Sera leapt up from the bed, blushing, and threw a shirt over this airheaded girl who was standing there completely naked.
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