Chapter 68: A Peaceful Morning

When I opened my eyes, I was alone in the room.

Morning light filtered through the curtains and fell across the bed. The laptop we had used last night was closed on the desk, while a few empty snack bags and a pillow Eris had left beside the bed were all that remained.

I stared at the ceiling for several seconds, trying to remember what had happened last night.

Eris had pulled me up from the floor and made me sit beside her before excitedly starting the anime she had found. It was supposedly a new isekai series everyone was talking about, but throughout the first three episodes, the protagonist did nothing except meet different girls and explain his powers.

Eris occasionally got annoyed at the characters’ ridiculous decisions while I waited for the actual story to begin.

By the middle of the fourth episode, my eyelids had started to grow heavy.

The last thing I remembered was Eris complaining about why one of the characters was explaining all his abilities to the enemy while I tried to answer her in a half-asleep voice.

I must have fallen asleep after that.

Rubbing my eyes, I sat up and picked up my new phone from the nightstand.

[07:24]

It was earlier than I had expected. Despite that, there wasn’t the slightest trace of fatigue in my body from yesterday’s shopping or the battle inside the Overlap.

Upgrading White Serpent to three stars had truly made a huge difference. A few hours of sleep had been enough for my muscles to recover completely.

Among my notifications was a message from Eris.

[Eris: Heyy, sleepyhead. I’m going to train with my mentor. If you tell my mom anything weird about last night, I’ll throw your computer into the toilet.]

A sticker of a red-haired girl sticking out her tongue followed the message.

I frowned and read it several times.

"What could I even tell her about last night?"

I had been the first one to fall asleep while we were watching anime. I had no idea what Eris had done afterward, so there was nothing strange I could tell Miranda.

Maybe she had covered me with the blanket or taken over half the bed and continued watching anime for a while. I couldn’t understand why either of those things would warrant throwing my computer into the toilet.

I closed the message without replying. Eris was far too determined when it came to following through on her threats, so there was no point in provoking her.

After getting out of bed and using my hands to straighten my hair a little, I left the room.

The moment I stepped into the hallway, a sweet and familiar scent reached my nose.

I stopped and breathed it in again.

Butter, vanilla, and warm batter...

I knew that smell.

"Crepes!"

Childhood memories appeared in my mind one after another. Whenever Eris and I stayed at the mansion, Miranda would prepare a large plate of crepes in the morning, and Eris would always try to steal a few before we even sat down at the table.

Once, she had taken all the crepes to her room and blamed me for it. Miranda hadn’t believed either of us and had refused to make more until we shared the plate.

I followed the smell through the hallway and headed downstairs. Even though the mansion was enormous, I didn’t need to think about where the kitchen was. Noctis’s memories guided my body in the right direction almost instinctively.

When I reached the spacious kitchen, I found Miranda standing at the stove.

Her crimson hair was tied at the back of her neck, and she wore a light-colored apron. She held the pan in one hand while checking the edge of the crepe with the other, then flipped it into the air with a single flick of her wrist.

A large stack of crepes had already formed on the table in the breakfast area connected to the kitchen. Beside them were strawberries, bananas, honey, chocolate spread, and several kinds of jam.

Alaric sat at the other end of the table.

He was dressed in a dark suit. He held a folded newspaper in one hand and occasionally took a sip of the plain coffee in front of him.

The whole scene looked as though it had come from an old family movie.

I couldn’t understand why anyone still read printed newspapers these days. He could access news from anywhere in the world within seconds on his phone. Besides, the sound the paper made every time he turned a page seemed unusually loud in the quiet kitchen.

When Miranda noticed me, a warm smile appeared on her face.

"Good morning, Noc."

"Good morning."

Alaric looked at me over his newspaper.

"Did you sleep well?"

"Yes. I don’t even remember when I fell asleep."

Miranda placed the crepe from the pan on top of the stack.

"Eris said you were still asleep when she checked on you this morning."

So she had come to check on me after waking up.

Remembering her threat to throw my computer into the toilet, I decided not to comment on that.

As I sat down at the table, my eyes returned to the newspaper in Alaric’s hands. I couldn’t resist asking.

"Why do you still read newspapers when the internet exists?"

Alaric lowered his gaze to the page in his hands.

"Habit."

"Wouldn’t the internet be faster?"

"It would, but I’ve never seen a newspaper send me notifications early in the morning, play videos, or show me the same story under ten different headlines."

I couldn’t think of anything to say to that.

As he returned to his newspaper, Miranda placed an empty plate in front of me.

"I’ve been asking him that for years. The real answer is that he likes looking serious while drinking coffee."

Alaric turned the page without changing his expression.

Miranda placed several crepes on my plate. Just as I was about to tell her that was enough, she added three more.

"I can’t eat this much."

"What do you mean, you can’t? A growing young man should eat at least ten times this much!"

"And since Eris isn’t here, you can eat her share too."

After pouring some honey over the crepes, I cut off the first piece. When I put it in my mouth while it was still warm, the sweet and familiar flavor spread across my tongue.

For a few seconds, my childhood memories and my own emotions blended together. This taste was connected to mornings spent running through the garden with Eris, plates we had stolen from the kitchen while hiding from Miranda, and breakfasts where we kicked each other beneath the table.

I hadn’t truly lived through any of those moments, but the longing that filled me wasn’t fake.

Miranda watched my face carefully.

"How is it?"

"It tastes exactly the same..."

Her smile widened at my answer.

We ate breakfast in silence for a while. After Miranda sat down, she took only two crepes for herself, but every time my plate began to empty, she added more without asking.

When Alaric turned to the business section, my eyes caught a small article in the corner of the front page.

[Investigation into the Mysterious Guardian Orochimaru Continues]

The article included a dark photograph of me covered in Umbrella.

I immediately lowered my gaze to my plate.

Seeing Alaric holding an article about my secret identity while I ate breakfast in his home was not a healthy way to start the day.

As Miranda placed a slice of banana on top of her crepe, she asked, "What are your plans for today?"

"I was thinking of going home first. Then maybe I’ll do some training."

"Eris is at the training grounds behind the mansion. You can watch her first if you’d like."

I raised my head.

"Is she training with her mentor?"

"They started at six this morning," Alaric said. "Her mentor doesn’t tolerate lateness."

Eris had sent her message sometime around seven. That meant she had gotten up much earlier than me to go train.

"What is her mentor like?"

Alaric lowered his newspaper slightly.

"Talented, disciplined, and talks far too much."

Watching Eris train sounded interesting. I had seen her use her powers a few times, but none of those occasions had involved real combat training.

Besides, after everything I had experienced inside the Overlap, I understood just how lacking I was when it came to fighting. I had survived by relying on Umbrella’s power and temporary potions, taking countless unnecessary hits because I had no proper training.

Even watching how skilled people fought could be useful.

"Can I go to the training grounds?"

"As long as you remain in the viewing area, there won’t be a problem," Alaric said. "Do not enter the active barrier without permission."

"I won’t."

After being thrown through a wall by the goat-headed monster, I had no intention of wandering into the middle of a training session between powerful Nexus users.

Miranda placed another crepe on my plate.

"Finish your breakfast first."

I looked at the stack on my plate.

At this rate, Eris’s training would be over before I managed to leave the table.

---

After finishing the last crepe Miranda had forced on me, I returned to my room, changed my clothes, and left through the door at the back of the mansion.

The morning sun had fully risen over the garden. The dew on the grass had yet to disappear, and the irrigation system working between the neat rows of flowers scattered fine droplets of water into the air.

The stone path leading to the training grounds branched away from the main garden and continued between tall hedges. Along the way, I passed several running tracks, outdoor exercise areas, and targets of different sizes.

The centers of some targets had melted away, while others had been reduced to black metal frames.

It wasn’t difficult to guess that Eris had used them.

At the end of the path, a large oval structure appeared between the trees.

The training grounds were closer in size to a small arena than an ordinary gym. The floor was covered with dark gray, heat-resistant stone slabs, with red and gold lines engraved between them.

Black pillars stood at regular intervals around the field. When activated, they formed a protective barrier that completely covered the area. Although some of the pillars still bore old scorch marks, the stone floor looked as though it had recently been repaired.

Long racks holding various weapons stood on one side, while moving targets and human-shaped training dummies filled the other. Outside the field, a raised section held several rows of seats, a water cooler, and first-aid equipment.

I heard the sound of colliding flames before I even reached it.

Eris was fighting her mentor in the center of the field.

She wore a sleeveless black training top and dark athletic pants that fit closely around her body. Her crimson hair was tied into a ponytail, while several strands stuck to her forehead, darkened with sweat.

The woman standing across from her appeared to be in her late twenties.

Her green hair reached the middle of her back and was tied in a loose ponytail. The dark gray training clothes she wore were simple enough not to restrict her movements.

The ease in her stance was enough to reveal the difference in strength between them.

Eris was completely focused on her and continued attacking despite being out of breath. She sent the orange flames around her hands forward in short bursts before trying to close the distance between them.

The green-haired woman, however, hardly looked tired at all.

She evaded the flames with small movements as if she already knew where they were coming from. Even when Eris got close, she responded with short counterattacks aimed at her wrists or shoulders. Her strikes didn’t look heavy, but each one disrupted Eris’s balance and broke the rhythm of her attacks.

"You left your left side open again," the woman said.

Eris gritted her teeth as she pulled back.

"I noticed."

"Noticing after you’ve been hit isn’t very useful."

The flames around Eris’s hands grew larger. She sent a wide wave of fire forward with her next attack, but before the flames could fully spread, the woman rushed in and entered Eris’s range.

She tapped Eris’s elbow with her palm, then placed her foot behind Eris’s ankle.

Eris managed to regain her balance at the last moment and avoided falling, but she was forced to turn her back on her opponent.

Instead of striking her, the woman allowed her to retreat.

"Your power increases when you get angry, but you stop thinking."

"I’m not angry."

"If you keep frowning that hard, it’ll become permanent."

Eris attacked again without saying anything.

I didn’t know how long they had been training, but it was obvious that she was beginning to tire. Her first steps were still fast, but her follow-up movements were slowing down, and the larger her flames became, the weaker her control grew.

She came close to cornering her mentor several times, but every small mistake she made was immediately punished. After one attack, she extended her arm too far. During another, she placed her foot in the wrong position or lowered her guard too early because she expected her opponent to retreat.

Unlike Eris, the green-haired woman remained equally calm through every movement.

When Eris charged forward one last time, the flames gathering around her right fist distorted the air. Instead of blocking the attack, the woman stepped aside, grabbed Eris’s wrist, and used the force of her movement against her.

Eris’s body spun halfway around.

The woman’s foot moved behind her supporting leg.

A moment later, Eris fell flat on her back.

Although the reinforced stone floor absorbed some of the impact, the sound still reached the viewing area where I sat. As Eris tried to rise, the woman placed one foot lightly against her chest and pressed her back down.

"It’s over."

Eris let her head fall back and stared up at the ceiling, breathing heavily.

"One more time."

"You’ve said the same thing for the last three rounds."

"This time I can win..."

The woman lifted her foot from Eris. When she raised her head and looked toward the viewing area, her eyes immediately found me.

I hadn’t even noticed when she became aware of my presence.

Her gaze lingered briefly on my blue hair and face before a playful smile appeared on her lips.

While Eris was still lying on the ground, the woman tilted her chin in my direction.

"If you’re going to keep resting, you should at least greet your guest."

Eris frowned and turned her head. The moment she saw me, her eyes widened slightly.

Her mentor smiled as her gaze moved between the two of us.

"Your girlfriend is here."