Hearing what Shale said earlier, Anna couldn't help but make a playful smirk as she turned to Noel and asked, "Should we go on a date then? I mean, training."
If this was the normal Noel, he would certainly correct her again, implying that they were just going to train.
However, Noel actually answered her with a calm tone. "Sure."
"Huh?" Anna wasn't prepared for this kind of answer. She subconsciously took a step back, looking at Noel dumbfoundedly.
"Why are you so surprised when you are inviting me?" Noel frowned.
"No…yes!" Anna's mind went blank.
Even though he accepted it, Noel's sole purpose was to confirm whether what Anna said was true or not. If they walked around together for a while, Anna should slip out sooner or later. Hence, he could confirm that everything was a facade.
'I'm not going to let you lead me by the nose anymore.' Noel was determined to prove her words.
"What's wrong? Since you're the one asking me out, you should be leading. Where should we go?"
"That's… That's…" Anna looked left and right, trying to get some help or some time to think.
But Noel pressed her harder by walking away. "If you don't want then, you shouldn't say something like that."
"Wh-what?" Anna bit her lips and hurriedly caught up to him. Even though, she didn't know what to do, she should accompany him right now. She could come up with something on the way.
'What should I do? Even in my past life, I never experienced something like this.' Anna panicked.
But a scene in the past flashed in her mind.
Back then, she was exhausted. She stabbed her sword to the ground just to support her body.
While panting, she looked at Noel who was standing on top of the cliff.
Noel had a sad smile, but it wasn't due to his body covered in wounds.
With his body darkening due to the orange sun being the backlighting, his appearance looked even sadder. Noel's gaze felt like he had lost something important.
That appearance of his couldn't be forgotten because he also said, "Anna. You don't know anything."
"Just give up, Noel. Your body is already wounded. Even I'm exhausted right now, my current condition is enough to kill you. Surrender!"
Noel shook his head. "Surrender, huh. Living is worse than death, so why do I want to surrender? Instead, I prefer dying… After all, dying in your hands might not be that bad."
"Huh?" Anna was taken aback by that last statement. She was supposed to be Noel's nemesis, yet, the latter said otherwise.
As if Noel tried to annoy her again, he stuck his tongue out and said, "Just kidding."
"You—" Anna wanted to get angry, but she was too late, Noel had jumped off the cliff.
"I'll see you many more times in the future." Noel smiled as he fell.
"What?" Anna tried to grab him, but he was already far away. However, she also found a river underneath the cliff and Noel fell onto the water.
Noel was an extraordinary Spirit User, so it was clear that he wouldn't be dying by falling into the water. But Noel's wounds would make him bedridden for a long time.
"Kh. I want to jump, but my Spiritual Energy is not enough to protect my whole body. Am I going to kill him even if it means a part of my body is crushed?" Anna gritted her teeth and stomped the ground in frustration, giving up on the pursuit.
However, that image of Noel's sad smile always lingered in her mind.
…
Remembering that scene, Anna couldn't help but think, 'Now that I think about it, despite Noel showing such an extreme hatred, he truly had changed her life. And that last sentence of his… what does it truly mean?'
Unfortunately, her thought was broken because Noel asked her, "So, where are we going?"
"A-ah!" Anna was startled, but she immediately said, "The Demon Forest!"
"Huh? Why would we go to that place?"
"There's something I want to show you… though, around the sunset."
"Then, what will we do to pass the time?" Noel squinted his eyes, judging her.
"That's…" Anna was thinking hard before eventually a good idea flashed in her mind. "We just strolled around the forest. I mean, we've been to the forest a few times, but each time, we're fighting against time, making us rush many things.
"This time, how about we slowly walk around and just enjoy the scenery? Even though it's a forest filled with demons, it's still a forest. Not like the demon can do any harm to us as long as it's not an Advanced Level Demon."
Noel furrowed his eyebrows. "Are you sure you want to waste my time of training with this idea?"
"!!!" Anna's body trembled for a moment. Noel was a training maniac. Although he wasn't a muscle brain, he truly trained whenever he had the chance.
Still, Anna could come up with an excuse. "Resting itself is also a form of training. You need to properly rest your muscle and allow them to heal themselves so that they can grow stronger."
"…" Noel paused for a moment. "Fine."
"Great." She smiled.
With Noel's agreement, they proceeded to walk to the gate.
But as expected of Noel, he grabbed Anna's shoulder and stopped her from leaving the gate.
"What are you doing?" Anna wanted to complain, but Noel had already left her. "Huh?"
She soon found him standing in front of a stall selling bread and returned with a bag of them.
Because of her inexperience, Anna forgot the fact that they were still early in the morning and they hadn't had any breakfast. Even if they could skip the meal, Noel wanted to make sure that they had enough energy to move around and kill demons if they tried to attack them.
Noel gave her some and said, "Here you go. This should be good for breakfast. You should cook for lunch."
Anna received the bread with a dumbfounded expression and saw Noel starting to eat the bread as if she didn't care about her expression.
Little did he know, inside that nonchalant expression, Noel was thinking, 'Hehe. In addition to your unpreparedness, this action will make you feel challenged because you haven't done anything even though you're the one asking me out. You'll surely show your true nature.'
However, what Anna did was completely the exact opposite what Noel expected.
She lowered her head, looked at the bread for a while, before taking a small bite. The bread wasn't particularly delicious, so Noel couldn't understand why she would blush.
'Huh?!'
