Chapter 166 - War (10)
Three months passed in the blink of an eye, even though nothing had happened. While Billy was working with his stuff, the girls were reuniting every day to train together. However, things weren't the same without Billy and Alexander.
"It has been pretty quiet without those two," Sarah said to break the silence.
"They aren't exactly two chatterboxes, but I get what you mean," Kate nodded.
"Despite that, all this calmness is making time pass really fast," Lily added.
"You look the same, Lily," Kate frowned. "You still didn't understand what Alexander meant by saying that?"
"He just wants to be my rival, right?" Lily asked. "In any case, I won't lose."
Kate facepalmed. She was just too dense… to the point that light might bend around her. Kate wanted to spill the facts on her face, but she thought that it wouldn't be fair to Alexander. Billy now and then was helping him, but nothing too drastic, so Kate assumed that she shouldn't be the same.
"You sure are interested in the subject… even though you aren't making any progress with your matters," Natalie said, which made Kate frown.
"So, you realized that…" Kate said. "But what about you? I saw you asking Billy to sleep on his lap as well."
"Wait… you were pretending to be asleep?" Natalie asked, visibly shocked. "I get it now… you were putting off an action. How sly of you…"
"I could say the same thing about you… always trying to look so straight-faced," Kate frowned.
"I don't know what you are talking about, but you shouldn't fight," Lily said.
"Yeah… sorry," Natalie said.
"My apologies… this doesn't suit us," Kate said. "Anyway, has anyone received a letter from Alexander?"
"Nope," Natalie replied.
"Me neither," Lily added.
"Maybe Billy received some, have you guys talked with him lately?" Kate asked.
"I went to ask him about an idea that I had regarding magic, but his father said that he has been leaving home early and returns late in the night," Sarah replied. "When his father asked what he was doing, Billy replied while laughing creepily: it is a secret. He seems a bit bothered by it."
"He is up to something…" Kate frowned.
"He always is…" Natalie frowned as well.
"Apparently, his father tried to tail him once just to check that he was fine, but Billy outrun him and he eventually lost him," Sarah explained.
That seemed quite suspicious, the girls know that boys want some time alone at their age, but not the entire day. Then again, Billy wasn't much of a normal boy. Nevertheless, the girls kept training daily even without him and while they were making progress, It wasn't the same thing. They have been trying to come up with new ideas to improve their fighting style, but that was something slow. They felt like Billy was always quick to find which points they could improve. Still, that kind of thought was a bit troublesome, so they quickly corrected themselves.
"In any case, we really aren't suited to sparring against each other, huh," Kate said after she looked around and saw that everyone's fighting styles were too different. "I feel like some of my skills are going rusty like that."
"If you feel like that, then you aren't training properly," Natalie said. "Even without a proper partner, you can train your fighting skills while you imagine an opponent. It is important to have a clear image of them in your head, though."
Kate began to think about that, it was basically the same image training that she did to learn magic, but it seemed a bit weird when people like her fight from a distance.
"By the way, have you spent any of the money that you obtained?" Sarah asked. "I bought a few things, but I am honestly at loss at how to spend all that sum."
"How about a house, you are already seventeen, after all," Kate said.
"While I left for a while when we were in the dungeon, my family has some small kids to look after," Sarah said. "I would feel bad about leaving them."
The girls recently went to visit Sarah and they thought that her house was like a base for children. Aside from her siblings, many orphans stayed there… it made them feel troubled since Natalie and Lily might have taken the lives of their parents, but Sarah couldn't say anything since she knew that the other tribes had many orphans and all that conflict was started by them.
"I will buy the best bow that I can find once we go to the next dungeon," Lily said. "I heard that the place is very hot, so we should buy suitable gear."
"I wonder if we will go… with the same members as before," Sarah said.
"What do you mean by that?" Lily frowned.
Kate opened her eyes widely when she realized that… and then she felt a bit sad that Sarah realized it first. If Alexander doesn't achieve his goal, their party would never be the same and he probably would leave. With that in mind, it made sense as to why Billy was keeping his distance. Now she had another reason not to tell her about that… Eventually, Natalie also noticed and felt a bit troubled. Since she didn't know if she should be angry at Alexander for risking the stability of the party, but then she thought that she couldn't judge him. He decided to pursue his happiness and he was ready to face the consequences… While it took her a while, she also began to make her moves and she didn't consider any of that.
Lily frowned since everyone fell silent, but soon she forgot about it because she wasn't the type of person who let small things bother her.. Thanks to that, she was as dense and oblivious as she could be, given that she was in the center of an important issue of the group.