CH extra 36

“……what are you?!

Hylli was taken aback as she just tossed her sword away.

Shuraina’s sword looked like it was flung towards no particular direction, but it was shooting towards a specific area. The sword soon cut a thin piece of magic thread up above. There was a slight vibration coming from the ground as the string cut in half.

The spears that Hylli had thrown away began to move as they tightly wound around his ankles. He saw it now–the ends of the spears were tied with a magic thread.

When he tried to avoid tripping on the spears and moved, Shuraina’s attacks began to pour down on him. He used his sword to throw them off. But the more he did so, the more the threads disconnected, and the more spears wound up by his feet.

When he began to walk backwards to avoid the spears, Shuraina had somehow found her sword again and was running towards him.

Whoosh, whoosh. Left, right, with not even a single sound. Shuraina moved swiftly past the clattering spears. She held her sword with both hands and stretched out her arms. Shuuraina used the spears to guide Hylli towards the small hole in the back.

Hylli took a few more steps back, and was just about to avoid the hole when!

Whoosh!

Shuraina threw herself into her final attack. She poured every bit of strength in her body into it. Hylli purposely tilted his body towards the hole to avoid Shuraina’s attack, preparing his fall. Then, Shuraina used the remaining bit of magic in her body to direct one of the spears elsewhere. The spear passed Hylli’s face, and while he was still in shock Shuraina threw her sword towards Hylli. Shuraina also threw herself into the hole.

Thump, thump!

The two of them rolled towards the hole. In that short moment, Hylli stretched his arms out to cover Shuraina’s body, and Shuraina held his body to protect his. The two of them held each other as they fell.

Dirt clouds billowed and covered their surroundings. They closed their eyes tight, not wanting dirt to get into them. When the rocks fell in slower time, Hylli’s hands embracing Shuraina and Shuraina’s hand embracing Hylli’s tightened. In the end, they rolled a few times with Hylli landing on top of Shuraina. He blocked the falling rocks from above, but Shuraina bore the brunt of the bumpy ground.

Hylli sincerely worried for Shuraina’s body as he rushed to sit up.

“…….”

“…….”

The two of them, now covered in dirt, stared blankly at each others’ faces.

Shuraina looked taken aback. She stretched out her hands and held Hylli’s face. Hylli’s red eyes grew round as he felt her hot hands on his face. Hylli could have pushed her hands away, but he just stayed still. He could hear his heart thumping loudly in his ears.

“….hold on. Why are you pinching my face like this?”

“Stay still.”

He soon stopped feeling nervous about her touch and narrowed his eyes at her as she pinched at his face.

“It’s two wins, now.”

Shuraina smiled brightly, removing her hand from his face and showing him the bit of blood on her hand. When Shuraina swiped her hand across his cheek, he could feel a sting. There was a small scratch on Hylli’s cheek.

Hylli stared blankly at his blood before clamping his mouth shut and shaking slightly. His head was lowered, so it was hard to see his face. When he pinched his cheeks to see a few more drops of his blood, Shuraina was shocked and immediately apologetic. She looked uncomfortable about how she had scratched his face of all places.

He was completely silent and was just shaking, so she dimly wondered if he was angry. But he raised his head and immediately held her up in a carry, so she erased that idea immediately.

“You did it! You really did it! Good job! Hahaha! I didn’t even imagine that one coming. Was the reason behind your string of attacks before you tossed the sword to direct me to the hole? When did you calculate all that? You’re incredible!”

Hylli was so excited that he held her in his arms and tossed her into the air slightly. He tossed her and then caught her. Shuraina was confused for a moment before slowly getting more excited after seeing Hylli’s reaction.

“Hahaha!”

Shuraina laughed out loud too. Being thrown up and down was pretty fun, so she yelled “Higher!” and ended up hanging from a tree branch.

Then, for the next victory ceremony, Hylli sat Shuraina on his shoulders and ran around. The two of them cheered and yelled loudly, so it was pretty noisy.

“2 wins and 90 losses, Shuraina! That’s pretty sad. But it’s 100 losses if you round it up!”

“Haha, shut up!”

Hylli pumped his shoulders up and down to make it more exciting. Yay, yay, yay, yay! It was over. Shuraina grabbed one of the spears that Hylli had thrown away and bounced her shoulders. The two of them were cheering even before they took the actual exam.

“Should we try running like this?”

“Let’s do it!”

Hahaha. Hahaha. They ran, laughing gleefully. Let’s go left! Let’s go right! Let’s go straight! Let’s go ba…ack!

They always made some kind of blunder when they had a bit too fun. Hylli, who had been running with Shuraina on his shoulders, didn’t check the ground. There was a puddle of mud under his feet, and there was a slippery sort of liquid on the floor, as if a slime had just passed by it. They tripped on the liquid and fell forward.

Dark mud covered Hylli and Shuraina. Shuraina had fallen from a higher place, so she fell directly into the puddle of mud. Plop. She fell quietly into the mud, unlike her loud actions just moments ago.

“…..”

She slowly, slowly sat back up. Drip, drip. Mud dripped down from her body. Shuraina, who was muddy from head to toe, briefly spat out some dust. Unlike Shuraina, Hylli only fell towards the end of the puddle and was clean.

“So, sorry.”

Hylli said, cold sweat pouring down his face as he grabbed some more dirt in his hands. Then, he slathered Shuraina’s face with the mud in his hands. He made sure not to leave a single spot clean. The only clean part of Shuraina were her eyes. Her eyes narrowed as they glared at Hylli.

“I said I was….sorry?”

Shuraina’s neck made cracking sounds as she rolled her neck and grabbed Hylli’s arms, yanking him towards her. Wham! She held him like a sack of potatoes. Even though she was almost completely out of magic and her aura, she still had enough power to hold up Hylli. Shuraina took out a magic stone from her pocket dimension and held him down.

“Ack! Sorry! Agh, aaaaaack! I said I’m sorry!”

She began to walk towards a short cliff near the lake, Hylli still in her arms.

“Hey, aaaaaaack!”

Water splashed wide and loud. Shuraina tossed Hylli into the water. She scratched off the mud on her body and threw it down too. Even if it didn’t reach him.

Hylli ended up paddling in the water. He gagged as water went into his nose. He only knew how to doggy paddle, so he paddled as hard as he could. A loud laugh came from above. He barely got his head above water and glared daggers at Shuraina as she rolled on the floor, laughing.

“……”

“Aghahaha! Puhaha!”

“…..you’re dead.”

Hylli made his way out of the lake and shook the water off his body before climbing a tree. Then, he poured some strength into his legs and jumped towards the cliff, hanging onto the edge. He climbed up, eyes blazing as he tried to catch Shuraina. He soon reached the top of the cliff, and he could finally see Shuraina, still laughing on the floor.

He stretched out his hand to catch her, but,

“Goodbye.”

“……damn it!”

She struck down his hand before he could come up. Shuraina stared at Hylli as he threw her a betrayed look before she snickered and muttered “Dummy.” to herself.

Splash! The crown prince found himself in the water for the second time in a row.

Hylli, who was actually furious now, got out of the lake and approached her again. Shuraina was still laughing as she walked backwards and tried to escape, but soon tripped and landed on her butt.

“Ah, sorry. I’m sorry. Sorry, sorry! Hahaha!”

Shuraina, who was still covered in dust and was able to camouflage herself, tossed a few leaves on her to try and hide. It obviously didn’t work, and Shuraina found herself being carried by Hylli as she tried to escape. Ack, sorry! Sorry! She said, laughing. He didn’t hear her out though.

Hylli held Shuraina in his arms and jumped off the cliff.

A loud splash rang out once again. Most of the dirt on her washed off, leaving the water murky.

Then it all descended into chaos. The two young adults acted like they were back in the academy as they splashed water onto each other, laughing loudly as they played around. Shuraina took some magic out of a stone and used magic to shape the water into a circle as she threw it at him, and Hylli used his aura to send large waves of water at her. And then, as they continued to bicker, the two of them decided to see who could jump off the cliff with a funnier pose.

“Tornado Blast!”

“What kind of weird name is that? The Shout of the Wave!”

They continued to play in the water until late at night. The two of them realized that they had been totally engrossed in a childish game until so late at night as shame and regret set in.

Hylli, let’s become more mature.

Yeah, sure.

On the last night of the training from hell, Hylli didn’t return to the palace and decided to stay with Shuraina. The two of them went through all of the food Shuraina had saved in her tent and stared at the burning fire.

“Shuraina, don’t ever lose your pride when you get in there. You beat me three times, so you’re basically invincible. Even if someone tries to put you down, all you have to do it stand up straight with your head up high. The knights are said to be chosen by strength, but most knights are chosen through status. The second you get discouraged, you’re going to be dragged down. People who are stuck up and are prideful are going to try and look down on your skills.:”

The two of them each had a dry towel on their wet hair as they sat in front of the open fire. They each had a fish on a wooden branch above the fire.

Shuraina felt lazy. It felt like she was enjoying a warm campfire after a retreat. She nodded as Hylli grabbed her and listed out the things she needed to beware of in the palace. The crackling of the fire accompanied his voice.

Hylli knew that Shuraina pretended that others’ voices didn’t get to her, but she unconsciously accepted the bad things others said as fact and used it to hurt her own feelings. It looked like she had gotten better about it through the years, but he was worried. There were a lot of people within the knights who acted like decent people but were cruel.

“You’re pretty nice these days?”

“I really want you to join the knights, that’s why. Don’t go anywhere else, just stay in the palace.”

“But if I go into the palace now, we’re not going to be student to student but boss to employee, right? Lord and liege. Emperor and citizen. That’s kind of sad.”

Shuraina looked uncomfortable as she bit into her fish. Hylli burst into laughter.

“No matter how precious we are now, if we go up through the history of the royal family, we all just started from a wandering knight. What does it matter when all this power was from a selfish man stomping on others? We’re all just humans in the end. So even when we’re in the palace, we’re just going to be Shuraina and Hylli.”

The two of them felt shivers run down their spine at that.

“It’s a bit cringey, but I’ll let it slide.”

“…….”

The campfire crackled and illuminated the night sky as they continued to chat.