Chapter 69: I Want You to Train Me

"Your girlfriend is here."

The moment Eris heard the word "girlfriend" leave Talia’s mouth, she raised her head and turned in the direction Talia was looking.

As soon as our eyes met, the exhausted expression on her face completely changed. Only a few seconds ago, she had been lying on the stone floor trying to catch her breath. Now she quickly pushed herself up and dusted off her knees as though I hadn’t seen her like that. As she tried to fix the crimson hair stuck to her forehead with sweat, her cheeks steadily grew redder.

There was no way I could have missed it.

For the last several minutes, Talia had been throwing her from one end of the training grounds to the other, punishing a different mistake every time Eris got back up. The only other time I had seen her look this helpless was when she had been caught secretly eating the sweets her mother had prepared when we were children.

Eris immediately turned toward Talia.

"How long has he been there?"

Talia rested one hand on her hip and glanced at me.

"Since he came through the entrance on the left."

"So he’s been watching us for a while!"

"You didn’t notice him because your awareness still isn’t good enough."

"Why didn’t you warn me?"

The embarrassment in Eris’s voice slowly turned into anger, but Talia showed no sign of guilt. Instead, the corners of her lips lifted slightly as though she found her student’s reaction amusing.

"You need to notice threats from outside the field on your own while you’re training."

"You refuse to warn me, but you have no problem calling him my girlfriend!"

"You noticed that right away."

While Eris glared at her mentor through gritted teeth, I continued waiting at the entrance to the training grounds. The faintly glowing barrier between the black pillars covered the entire area like a translucent dome. Since I didn’t know how to enter, I had no choice but to wait for their argument to end.

Eventually, I raised my hand and called out to them.

"Oiii, can I come in?"

When Eris turned toward me, she tried to hide her embarrassment behind an angry expression.

"Come in!"

As I passed between the stones at the entrance to the barrier, a brief warmth moved across my skin. The air inside was several degrees warmer than outside, and the smell of burning rose from the blackened marks Eris had left on the ground during her training.

I put an innocent smile on my face as I walked toward her.

"Good morning. Your training looks pretty—"

Without any warning, Eris drove her fist into my stomach.

"Ugh!"

She hadn’t used her Nexus, but even an ordinary punch from her was enough to knock all the air from my body. As I bent forward and held my stomach with both hands, I could feel the crepes I had eaten that morning rebelling inside me.

"What was that for?!" I demanded.

Instead of looking at me, Eris turned her head aside. She tucked a sweat-soaked strand of crimson hair behind her ear, but the redness in her cheeks still hadn’t faded.

"That’s your punishment for seeing me like that."

"It’s not my fault you lost!"

"I didn’t lose. I was training."

"You were lying on the ground."

"I was resting."

"Your mentor had literally knocked you flat."

The moment I saw the murderous intent rising in Eris’s eyes, I swallowed the rest of my sentence. If I kept making her angry, there was no guarantee she wouldn’t use fire with her next punch.

I wanted to ask why she had beaten me after inviting me inside, but arguing with her logic would only earn me a second stomachache.

So I straightened up, took a deep breath, and turned my attention to the green-haired woman heading toward the bench at the side of the field.

Talia acted as though she were watching a show that had nothing to do with her. She wiped the sweat from her neck with a towel, opened her water bottle, and took a long drink.

I stepped toward her and raised my index finger.

"Oiii, woman! Just so you know, I am the Great Noctis Evernight, and I’m a man. I’m not a woman!"

Talia lowered the bottle from her mouth without showing the slightest surprise.

"I know who you are."

After wiping the water from the corner of her mouth with the back of her hand, she looked me over from head to toe.

I didn’t like the knowing expression on her face.

"If you know that, may I ask why you called me her girlfriend?"

"I wanted to see how Eris would react when she looked at you."

I immediately turned toward Eris.

"Is your mentor always this smug?"

Eris folded her arms beneath her chest and answered reluctantly.

"She’s in a good mood today."

"So she can be worse."

"You’re both speaking loudly enough for me to hear you," Talia said, though she didn’t seem bothered by our conversation. "Eris, rest for fifteen minutes. If you make the same mistakes when I return, I won’t wait for you to get back up the next time you fall."

Eris frowned.

"Where are you going?"

"To smoke."

"In the middle of training?"

"We can hardly call what we were doing training when you were lying on the ground gasping for breath."

Eris opened her mouth to respond, but Talia had already turned away. She picked up the dark jacket lying on the bench, threw it over her shoulder, and walked toward the exit at the edge of the stone field.

As she passed us, she gave me a brief glance.

"Don’t distract her too much, girlfriend."

"I’m a man!"

She merely shrugged and walked away, leaving the training grounds as casually as she had entered. A few seconds later, she disappeared among the trees.

My eye twitched as I watched her leave.

"I really don’t like that woman."

"Don’t worry. She doesn’t like most people either."

"How reassuring."

With Talia gone, Eris and I were alone inside the training grounds. The only sounds were the fountains running in the distance and the wind moving through the surrounding trees.

Eris wiped the sweat from her face with her arm and took a deep breath. After tucking a loose strand of crimson hair behind her ear, she started to approach me, but stopped when she noticed how sweaty she was and left a few steps between us.

Eris normally had no problem ignoring my personal space and climbing all over me, so seeing her keep her distance just because she was sweaty felt rather strange.

As she looked me over, the embarrassment on her face slowly faded and was replaced by mild irritation.

"Why are you here?"

Judging by her tone, she wasn’t particularly happy to see me.

I shrugged.

"I was bored. There was nothing else to do at the mansion, and I was curious about how you trained."

"Good. Now that your curiosity has been satisfied, you can go back."

Eris placed her palms against my back and began pushing me toward the exit.

"Hey, I just got here!"

"You’ve seen enough."

"I’ve only been here for five minutes."

"Five minutes was already too long."

I dug my heels into the stone floor and tried to slow us down, but Eris was still much stronger than me despite being exhausted. As she pushed me toward the exit, my feet occasionally slipped, forcing me to spread my arms to keep my balance.

"Come on, I just want to watch you."

Eris’s hands suddenly stopped against my back.

"You want to watch me, you pervert?!"

She leaned over my shoulder and narrowed her eyes at me.

"I want to watch you train!"

"What’s the difference?"

"There’s a huge difference! I didn’t come here to secretly watch sweaty women."

"You sound more suspicious every time you speak."

"What’s suspicious about being curious about my childhood friend?"

"A normal person would announce that he was here instead of silently watching from a distance."

"Your mentor saw me and didn’t say anything. Stop blaming everything on me."

Eris removed her hands from my back, but stood in front of the exit to prevent me from going inside again. With both arms spread wide, she looked completely determined.

"Noctis, I can’t train properly while you’re here."

"Why?"

"Because I can’t."

"That isn’t an explanation."

"How am I supposed to concentrate when you’re watching my every move and looking at me with that stupid smile whenever I fall?"

I raised a hand to my face.

"I’m not smiling."

"You’re smiling even now."

When I checked the corners of my lips, I realized I really was smiling without meaning to. After watching Eris act as though she were stronger than everyone else, seeing her mentor knock her to the ground was a little amusing. But if I admitted that, I was certain I would receive another punch.

I tried to make my expression serious.

"Fine. I won’t smile anymore."

"No. You’re going straight back."

"What do you expect me to do alone in the mansion?"

"Talk to my mother."

"No way! I’m sure she’ll ask me strange questions if I’m alone with her!"

"Then go to your room and sleep."

"I just woke up."

"Watch anime."

"There isn’t any interesting anime!"

Realizing that I had found a new excuse for every answer she gave me, Eris let out a long breath. Then she grabbed my shoulders and pushed me outside the barrier.

"I don’t have the energy to deal with you. You’re about to use up my entire fifteen-minute break too."

When she removed her hands, I took a few steps forward and stopped. Before turning around, I seriously considered going back.

Talia would return soon and continue training Eris, while I would sit in the guest room and wait for my old number to be reactivated. With nothing else to do, I would grow bored after a few hours. Then, once I returned home, I would wait for another System mission without knowing when it might appear.

But watching Eris get beaten wasn’t the only thing I had seen since arriving here.

Every one of Talia’s movements had been perfectly controlled. She never took a single unnecessary step while avoiding Eris’s punches, never revealed where she intended to attack, and could bring Eris down with simple movements even though her opponent was a Nexus user.

What I had done inside the Overlap was the exact opposite.

I had swung Umbrella as hard as possible, tried to crush every monster that came at me by relying on my strength, and suffered another injury each time one of my plans failed. If I hadn’t had Cecilia’s potions with me, I might have died the moment I encountered the first powerful creature.

The increase in my stats and White Serpent growing stronger didn’t change that.

No matter how quickly I healed, I didn’t know how to avoid getting hurt. No matter how strong I became, I didn’t know how to use that strength properly. Umbrella gave me dozens of weapons, yet I couldn’t use a single one of them properly.

There might not be a little girl beside me to hand me a potion in the next Overlap.

Eris called out from behind me.

"If you’ve forgotten the way, I can ask one of the staff to take you to your room."

I took a deep breath and let my shoulders fall.

Saying this wounded my pride a little. Besides, I had rejected Eris’s offer to work out together only a few days ago. Asking for her help now would mean handing her a new weapon she could use against me for months.

Even so, I had to admit that she wasn’t the only one who had reason to be embarrassed about being knocked down on a stone floor.

After lowering my head slightly and letting out a sigh, I turned toward Eris.

"I want you to train me."