*Eryk's POV*

  I woke up the day to Hephaestus calling me. As soon as I opened my eyes, she climbed onto the bed and kissed my lips.

  "Good m. Tsubaki is already waiting for you."

  "Huh? Good m." I kept lying down, staring at the ceiling, and Hephaestus smiled. Then, she pyfully tapped my forehead.

  "e o up."

  "Do I have to start training now? I wae something before training."

  "You'll only be training for about two hours at most. After that, you head to the fe. Speaking of which, Tsubaki mentioned a new sword you've been using."

  "It's stored iraining room's iory. It's nothing special. It's the highest-level sword I've fed, but I made it using iron, not mithril. Its abilities are det."

  I got up to go to the bathroom, and Hephaestus followed me. As I washed my face, she stood behind me, watg.

  "What is it?" I asked.

  "Nothing. I just wao look at your face before heading to work. Alright, I'm off now. Have fun with your training."

  "Not sure if it'll be fun. Tsubaki be annoying when she wants to be."

  "Don't get mad at her. She ikes to tease people."

  "I'm not mad."

  "Of course, sure you're not." Hephaestus kissed me again before leaving the bathroom.

  I pced my hands on the sink, staring at the mirror for a few seds, trying to gather the motivation to head out.

  Training will help me a lot, but I'm feeling so zy.

  "Alright, let's do this."

  I left the bathroom and ged clothes. Then, I went to the training room to grab my sword. While I was ing it, Tsubaki ehe room.

  "Ready? Let's head to the training grounds. Today, I'm going to teach you properly. Of course, ar again if you want. Yesterday was fun."

  "No, thanks. I'd rather save some energy for ter. I still o train my f skills."

  "You're overdoing it. You don't have te ons and armor every single day. Anyway, let's go. You haveen anythi, right? I'll get something for you."

  "That would be great. I'm starving."

  I followed Tsubaki to the training grounds. When we arrived, someone was already there, waiting for us with bags full of food.

  "I haven't had breakfast either," Tsubaki said as she devoured a meat sandwich.

  ####

  After more than an hour of training, I was already feeling exhausted, but Tsubaki still wasn't satisfied. All I had done during this time was swing my sword acc to her instrus.

  I have to admit, it's helping a lot, but it's also pretty tiring.

  "What's wrong? Already tired?"

  "Yeah. I take a short break? At least to drink some water?"

  "Sure, but we o get back to training soon. How long has it been? An hour? I said we should train for at least two hours, so we still have time."

  I grabbed some water and took a drink, taking the opportunity to rest. Luckily, there was a faucet right o the training grounds.

  'This pce is really nice. I didn't even know it existed.'

  The training grounds were he house where I lived with Hephaestus and some other Familia members.

  It en field filled with the same training dummies I used to test my swords.

  I think the field is about the size of a volleyball court. I'm irely sure since I've only been to a volleyball court on my life.

  After finishing my drink, I returo the training grounds. Tsubaki was standing in the ter, surrounded by a few training dummies.

  I stood at a distance, watg her.

  Tsubaki closed her eyes and then spun her body at high speed. It all happened in a single sed. I couldn't follow her movements at all. She returo her inal stan just a sed, but every single dummy had been cut.

  Their heads had been sliced off.

  It was simir to what I did when I tested my new sword.

  But her movements were fwless, unlike mine.

  "What are you looking at? Jealous?"

  "Of course not. I do that too, it's easy."

  "You're right, it is pretty easy. I was just bored while waiting for you."

  "And just because you were bored, you wasted a bunch of training dummies. Great." I teased, but Tsubaki didn't seem to care.

  "Alright, since you're so fident, let's have another match." Tsubaki began moving the dummies aside.

  "What? We're sparring again?"

  "We o put what I taught you into practice. I showed you plenty of moves, didn't I? Use them."

  "Your trainihod doesn't seem quite right."

  "Why not? I teach you, and now you o apply what I taught you. That's literally how training works. After that, you just o refine your skills."

  "Fine, fine. But I'm using my sword."

  "I don't mind. Use whatever sword you want. Alright, we start whenever you're ready."

  Tsubaki stood in the ter of the training grounds, holding her sword in one hand aiher hand on her hip. She was pletely calm and posed, as if none of this was a big deal.

  Well, and she was right in the end.

  I attacked just like I did ihe dungeon, but this time, I noticed a signifit improvement in my fighting style.

  Even so, it still wasn't enough to make Tsubaki unfortable.

  After an hour, I wasn't satisfied a attag.

  We fought until I was pletely exhausted.

  When I finally stopped, I sat on the ground, sweating profusely and struggling to catch my breath.

  "That was great. You're already much better thaerday. Just like the goddess said, you learn really fast."

  "..."

  ParodyGirl