“Ahhh, but I really want to eat chocolate! I’ve been worn out all day—if I don’t have something sweet, I can’t get my HP back! And speaking of which, why hasn’t the food come yet? This is so slow.” Fennia sprawled on the table like she only had half a breath left.

“Also, everyone in class was busy making chocolate today. I saw a lot of classmates go make chocolate this afternoon too. Ahhh... I want to receive chocolate too. I want to eat chocolate too...”

“Little Fennia, you’re talking nonsense again. You’re a girl—how are you supposed to receive chocolate?” Amisha Merif sighed softly.

“Ahhh, so why is it that girls can’t receive chocolate?” Fennia muttered with her cheek still pressed to the tabletop.

“Then a girl would have to like Little Fennia,” Amisha said seriously, obediently hugging her staff across the table. “Ainolin chocolate has a completely different meaning from the chocolate I usually make for Little Fennia.”

“Huh? What’s different? As long as chocolate tastes good, that’s enough.”

“Little Fennia, you don’t understand the festival meaning of Ainolin Festival?”

“Of course I understand, but so what? I don’t know how to make chocolate. I only know how to eat it, and nobody’s giving me any.” Fennia grumbled under her breath, then seemed to think of something and turned a gossipy grin on Amisha Merif.

“Hehehe... Little Amisha, are you hiding something from me?”

“Hiding something? What is Little Fennia talking about?” Amisha tilted her little head, clearly not understanding what Fennia meant.

“Hmph-hmph. You tell me.” Fennia gave a wicked little grin. “What about you, Little Amisha? Did you make chocolate to give to someone??”

“What are you saying, Little Fennia? Of course not.”

“Then what were you doing earlier? I only ran into you after I finished training today. Confess honestly—where did you go earlier, and what were you doing?” Fennia immediately put on an exaggeratedly stern face. “Did you sneak off to make chocolate for someone you like??”

“Little Fennia, if you keep talking nonsense, then don’t even think about eating any more sweets I make in the future.”

“Huh—huhh?! I-I was joking! Little Amisha, don’t take it seriously! I really was joking!” The moment Amisha pouted her cute little mouth, Fennia panicked and immediately stopped daring to tease.

After all, in Fennia’s eyes, her childhood friend might be tiny and delicate like a doll, but sometimes she still had plenty of authority—like right now.

“You still have energy to joke. Looks like Little Fennia isn’t as exhausted as you’re acting.” Amisha hugged her staff and swung her legs in white over-the-knee socks. Because of her height, even sitting on the chair, her feet couldn’t reach the floor.

“Then... should I have Lady Luna add some extra training for you later?” Amisha said softly.

“No, no. Today’s training load is already way past the standard.” Fennia lay sideways on the table, unable to move, like she could spit out something shaped like a soul at any moment.

“Good evening, you two. Have you ordered yet?” At that moment, a honey-haired girl walked out from the restroom with elegant steps and returned to the table, asking.

“Lady Luna, we already ordered. I didn’t know what you liked, so I ordered a few of the more popular dishes for you,” Amisha replied.

“Mm. You don’t need to worry about my preferences. I’m the one treating you—just order what you like.” Luna said. “Order a few more portions of dessert too.”

“Thank you, Lady Luna!”

“Also—today is Ainolin Festival. Thank you for making time in your busy schedule to train me, and for teaching me so many techniques. I benefited a lot,” Fennia said gratefully.

“Ah, ‘busy schedule’ and all that... it’s not that serious.” Luna sat down and lightly stirred the tea in her cup with the back of a spoon, then let out a deliberately dramatic sigh, propping her cheek with one hand. “I’m just a humble, devout subordinate under Lady Vanessa. What I’m busy with is naturally connected to her. And that naturally includes making the usable fighting strength under her grow stronger.”

The restaurant was quiet, with no other customers. Their voices were kept low, so they could speak like this directly.

“Huh-huh... yeah. But speaking of which...” Fennia looked at Luna, like she wanted to say something, but didn’t.

“If Miss Fennia has something to say to me, go ahead,” Luna said, still resting her head on her hand.

“Ah, it’s nothing. It’s just... I wanted to ask whether I delayed Lady Luna today.” Fennia said a little embarrassed.

“Oh? So Miss Fennia is curious whether I have someone to give chocolate to today?” Luna laughed softly.

“Ah—if that’s too private, it’s fine if you don’t want to answer!” Fennia hurriedly said.

“I do.”

“Huh—HUH?!” Both Fennia and Amisha Merif looked completely shaken.

“Someone who can make Lady Luna like them... I’m really curious what kind of person it is,” Fennia sighed in amazement.

Amisha didn’t speak, but her face was full of curiosity too.

And honestly, it made sense. With Luna’s looks, aura, and family background, her popularity in the academy was extremely high. In second year alone, who knew how many upperclassmen were pursuing Senior Luna.

In fact, even on Ainolin Festival today, they’d heard that some second-year upperclassman had used blue roses to form a huge heart, and the few pink roses inserted at the center had even been arranged to spell out Luna’s name.

They hadn’t gone to look, so they didn’t know if it was true. But it was probably not fake—after all, it happened every year. They’d heard plenty of people say the same thing happened last year too.

Yet looking at Luna’s casual expression, it was like she had no idea about any of it.

“Senior Luna, can I ask—was it that upperclassman who set up the ‘blue-rose magic array’?” Fennia couldn’t help asking.

“Blue-rose magic array? Who?” Luna tilted her head, seeming to think for a moment, then asked because she couldn’t recall such a person at all.

“Huh? You didn’t know? It’s that upperclassman who sets up a huge blue-rose heart every year to pursue you.” Amisha Merif found it strange. Even the two of them as first-years had heard about it—how had Luna not?

“Oh... seems like there is a student like that,” Luna said, only remembering after a few seconds of thinking.

“Uh...” Seeing Luna’s reaction, the two of them knew it couldn’t be him. Every year he did something so loud and so expensive, and the person involved didn’t even remember him—there was no chance.

“Pfft. I was teasing you. Actually, there isn’t.” Luna said with a smiling face.

“Huh? What—so you lied to us.” With no gossip to watch anymore, Fennia instantly put on that look again like she was so tired she might stick her tongue out.

“It’s not exactly a lie. It’s just that my feelings are... relatively complicated. I don’t know whether that counts. And compared to those lovey-dovey things, I think the work we’re doing now is more important.”

“Mm.” Amisha Merif nodded in agreement.

“Ah—mm, right, exactly!” Fennia suddenly got awkward. Everyone was putting work first, and she alone had been gossiping about this and that. That made her seem... very steady as a person, so she hurriedly echoed along.

“Miss Fennia has been working very hard lately. Hard work is good, but you can’t forget to balance work and rest,” Luna said. As the one who had been helping Fennia set training plans these days and giving her many suggestions for the path she should take, Luna had naturally seen Fennia’s effort clearly.

Ever since last time—after they returned from Kamov Mountain—Fennia had been completely possessed. Like she’d been provoked by Foreno, she started training like crazy. In the end, she even asked Luna to draft a plan for her, and a direction to strive toward.

Luna was extremely professional about it. She guided Fennia the whole way. In her view, Fennia’s foundation was very good, and her talent was extraordinary—extraordinary in every sense.

As a user of [Saint’s Envoy], Fennia might not be especially qualified. But as a knight, Fennia’s aptitude was, frankly, outstanding.

As the eldest young lady of the Haukekai Family, Luna had seen many knights—including ascetic knights in her own family, guardian knights whose main duty was watching over churches and protecting archbishops, and quite a few Radiant Cross Knights.

Among all the knights she’d seen, she had never seen such a terrifying physique.

In fact, she’d already caught a glimpse of it on the day they fell out of the cube space at Kamov Mountain.

Back then, to protect Amisha Merif and Lady Vanessa, Fennia had been badly injured—yet she was the first to wake up. After receiving simple treatment, she became full of energy again, carrying the injured, unconscious, and exhausted Lady Vanessa everywhere. There was not the slightest sign of fatigue.

That recovery speed couldn’t even be described as astonishing. It was terrifying—nothing like a human’s recovery ability.

Luna had noticed that powerful talent in Fennia from that moment. After returning, and after repeated verification, she confirmed it. Fennia’s physique was extremely special. Her recovery speed was frightening. More precious still—her willpower was also absurdly strong, like anything that couldn’t crush her would only make her stronger.

After Fennia persisted through a series of training projects Luna personally designed, she’d be exhausted all over and even rack up a few trivial injuries. But those injuries—Fennia would sleep one night, and the next day they’d all be healed. Like nothing had happened. Yesterday she’d been trained until she looked like a dead salted fish, sprawled on the ground, unable to get home without someone helping her. One night of sleep, and the next day she was instantly full of energy again.

That terrifying recovery speed was enough to make even Luna feel genuinely surprised.

To put it crudely—she’d never seen someone so unbreakable. Incredible.

“Miss Fennia, do you know just how terrifying your talent is?” The next day, seeing the red-haired girl in training clothes arrive at the training field completely unharmed and stand in front of her, Luna said meaningfully.

“Huh?” Fennia looked surprised. “Lady Luna, you don’t need to say things like that to motivate me. What my talent is like—I know, more or less.”

“Then tell me. What is your talent like?” Luna asked.

“Me? I’m pretty mediocre. Pretty average.” Fennia scratched at her hair. “Because I think I still don’t understand [Saint’s Envoy] well enough. My family always says my aptitude isn’t good, that my ‘link’ with [Saint’s Envoy] is weak, that I’m far from the goddess.”

“Maybe that part isn’t especially good. But in other areas, you have a unique advantage—and you might not even realize you have this talent.” Luna said.

“Huh? Really?” Fennia was stunned.

“Yes. Miss Fennia, based on the powerful recovery and self-healing ability your physique gives you, I tailored a training plan specifically for you. It can maximize the excavation of your potential and raise your strength and realm.”

“Really?!” Fennia’s face lit up with delighted shock.

“Of course. But you must train strictly according to my plan. Let me say this first—this is about maximizing your potential and talent. That means pushing your powerful self-healing ability and stamina to the extreme. So it will be very, very exhausting. Very, very bitter. It might even get you injured. Yesterday’s training didn’t even count as an appetizer.”

“Are you sure you can endure it?” Luna asked, staring straight into Fennia’s eyes.

“I can!” Fennia answered without thinking, without hesitation, firm and ringing. “I’ve always known my talent in magic isn’t as good as those Church geniuses. The only thing I can do is work hard—grind—work a hundred times harder than them, even a thousand times!”

Fennia had already been diligent before, but the plan Luna drafted now was nothing like her previous training intensity.

“I know that if I don’t risk my life to become stronger, then one day in the future, I’ll definitely regret it.” Fennia said with a heavy voice. “The old me never understood that as deeply as I do right now.”

She remembered what happened before. Under Foreno, her resistance had been laughable and useless. All she could do was watch helplessly as Lady Saintess was taken away.

That weakness—the fact that she could do nothing even after giving everything, and that she couldn’t take it back—she never wanted to experience it a second time. And now, the bad people coveting the Saintess were far more than just Foreno. He was nothing more than a negligible lackey. The one standing behind him—that was the enemy she truly had to face.

They were going to defeat the most terrifying, most evil villain under the Saintess’s leadership. But compared to them, Fennia was far too weak. She didn’t even have a direction to strive toward. Even if she smashed her head open, she still wouldn’t be able to shake them in the slightest.

To be able to maximize her improvement through nothing but suffering and effort—and to help Lady Saintess—was something Fennia couldn’t obtain even in her dreams.

She didn’t have any special strengths.

She was just especially hardworking.

Especially able to sweat and bleed.

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