With all the duels finally finished, Elaina now had a good grasp of what every person needed.
"I have decided we won't have the massive duel as I am not confident that everyone is quite ready and I would like to spend some time refining some skills before then."
"First I will personally train Elanor and get her up to scratch. It is clear she has little experience and is my biggest worry. As for Shaman, Elysia and, when she wakes up, Clara. I will assign you to one of my prominent combat experts… that are still alive. As for Silver, I will leave you in the hands of my intelligence sector. They don't participate in combat, but their stealth skills will be invaluable for you to learn." Elaina assigned different parts of the party to cater to the kind of things they needed to learn.
The main trio and Silver had a good amount of experience, but they lacked the finer details that would allow them to excel in their styles. As for Elanor, who only recently joined, she lacked the battle count and needed to build a proper foundation.
"So what now?" Shaman nodded, having no objections, but she was wondering what Elaina planned for them to do now.
"I will give you the rest of the day to yourselves as I make preparations for your new instructors. Also, make sure you all speak to Jane about getting new weapons and confirming what you want." Elaina would have liked to have kept going, but with the skill disparity being quite big she needed to prepare a crash course for Elanor as well as contact their new instructors.
Everyone nodded and, with their confirmation, Elaina disappeared. Jane waved them over, signalling for them to come get their weapons sorted.
"Alright, let me see all your weapons." Jane could easily use their current weapons as a template depending on the kind of material she ends up going with. Hence, she wanted to see what they have before making anything brand new. Surprisingly, almost every one of their weapons except Clara's whips and Elysia's bow was made of demon metal.
"Wow okay, well I made Clara's whip blades and your original bow, but as for everyone else, how did you get your hands on such rare weapons?" Jane was intrigued by how they came into possession of demonic weapons since those are meant to be exclusively forged in the demon lands.
"Found them in a dungeon, we actually have a few pieces of demon metal as well." Elysia shrugged it off while pulling out a piece of metal they had picked up way back in the Ebonscale dungeon. By this point it was just collecting dust so Elysia figured Jane might have a use for it.
"Mhm, just sort of fell into our hands when we were dungeon clearing." Shaman was not sure if it would be a good idea to explain how they got it, especially since these demon weapons are supposedly part of the demon land's ancient history.
She was even surprised by the fact that Elaina didn't recognise Silver's scythe or Elanor's fans, but that may be due to the dormant state the weapons are in.
"Hmm, I can work with this. I might be able to upgrade all your weapons. I will make Clara a new pair of whip blades. As for you Elysia I might be able to make it so that your spear can change form into a bow and vice versa. Everyone else, I will see what I can do to upgrade your weapons so hand them over." Jane smiled, already feeling excited to begin tinkering with everyone's weapons. She proceeded to open up a dimensional space from her ring and everyone put their weapons inside.
Giving up their weapons left them almost feeling naked, but seeing as they were close friends with Himeko, they could not help but put their trust in Jane.
"Thank you, I shall get to work right away." Jane was quick to leave and was almost running back to her forge.
ραndαsΝοvεl.cοm "Seeing as you are free, what did you want to talk about Shaman? May as well do it now instead of waiting until tonight." Himeko had nothing else to do and wanted to know what could Shaman possibly want.
Shaman didn't expect Himeko to request the conversation right here and now, but she wasn't wrong that there was nothing stopping them. She took a glance over to where Jane ran off, but the latter was already out of sight and back in the castle.
"Well… How do you see Jane? Just as a friend or as someone… special." Shaman didn't want to be too obvious yet and wanted to get Himeko's view before being blunt.
"Hmm she has been a good friend for many years and she is someone I hold dear." Himeko spoke very casually about it and everyone could tell that Jane was indeed friend-zoned
"Have you ever considered Jane as a… potential partner?" Elysia was the one to take the aggressive approach which made Shaman freak out a little since she wasn't planning to bring that up yet.
"A partner? No, not really. I didn't think Jane had those kinds of feelings." Himeko's response made the group collectively facepalm. Even Elanor who was rather oblivious when it came to relationships was able to clearly see what was going on.
"What?! You're not telling me she actually does?" HImeko's face began to get red. It seemed absurd to her for someone like Jane to have these kinds of feelings.
"That's exactly what we are saying." Shaman shook her head, finding it unbelievable how dense Himeko was. For someone who had been actively seeking some romance not too long ago, Shaman thought the dots would of connected for Himeko much sooner.
"Ehhh!?!? There is no way….. I guess she has been rather down lately." Himeko took a second to think about Jane's behaviour lately. If what everyone is saying is true… then perhaps it would make sense for Jane to have been distressed.
"Do you see it now?" Shaman didn't know how aggressive Jane had been, but surely there had been some signs that Himeko completely ignored.
"I-I think so… but why me?" Himeko all of a sudden was feeling a wave of embarrassment as now everything became obvious.
"That's for you to find out. We don't actually know Jane all that well, so you need to figure out yourself how you feel." Shaman could easily give a list of the good qualities of Himeko, but it would be less impactful coming from Shaman.
"Wait so how do I know she really has feelings for me and this isn't some trick?" Himeko suddenly saw a glaring hole in the group's logic. After all, if they have hardly spoken to Jane then how would they know if she has feelings towards her?
"Okay, did you not see how glued to you she was during the duels? And when you said you were just friends, the look of sadness that washed over her made it pretty clear." Elanor was surprisingly frustrated at Himeko's denseness. Being the member who was the least close to Himeko, Elanor came off really harsh.
However, it seemed to work as Himeko had nothing to say in response.
*Sigh* "Do you understand now?" Shaman hoped that things would turn out well as ultimately Himeko was the deciding factor.
"Y-yes." Himeko's mind was filled with hundreds of thoughts that almost overwhelmed her. She felt incredibly stupid and guilty for not realising sooner, especially after how obvious it was in hindsight.
"That's all we needed to say, so now it's up to you on what you want to do. Personally, it seems to me like having lost her place and nearly losing you as well left Jane all the more desperate now." Shaman didn't want to push too hard and make Himeko feel like she has to, but Jane's situation seems mentally taxing even if she doesn't show it.
Shaman imagined it was similar to how she felt when first arriving in this world. She had no one to rely on and had to survive all by herself. Although it wasn't long before she rescued Elysia, the loneliness and desperation to have someone to support her caused the two of them to get together way quicker than anyone should.
Thinking back on it, it was a very toxic relationship as it caused many jealousy issues down the road, but with it all being resolved now their relationship has never been stronger than what it is now.
"I-I see, I need some time to think, plus I do not want to hold up her work, so I'll wait until she finishes." Himeko gave herself a deadline in hopes that she will have an answer by then.
"I would say it would make her more motivated, but again, who knows what will happen if you say yes." Elysia got a lot of her motivation from Shaman, so it wasn't a bad idea to go to Jane right away as it can push her to do her best. However, Elysia could imagine an explosion of feelings and work being put to the side.
"Ahh don't say that!" Himeko's mind instantly thought of doing something lewd. Trying to avoid any further teasing she quickly covered her ears.
"Haha oops." Elysia giggled and hid behind Shaman, using her as a shield.
"Don't use me as a shield! You're the one that put the thought in her head." Shaman though did not appreciate that and used Stardust to teleport behind, Elysia reversing their roles.
"I-I'm not angry, but do you girls always have to make everything so sexual?" Himeko shyly spoke while facing away from them which was rather cute.
"Blame this one for having a brain that I swear is filled with 80% about sex and 20% about how to make the biggest explosion." Shaman pulled on the side of Elysia's cheek taking a jab at her thought process.
"Ow, ow it isn't all that full!" Elysia couldn't deny it, but she didn't feel like it was true all the time.
Silver wanted to confirm what Shaman was saying, but he felt awkward bringing up the fact he was present during such times in wolf form.
"Haha, well thank you, girls, I feel much better now and I see what I've been… missing." Himeko calmed down seeing their usual light-hearted atmosphere back and couldn't help but thank them.
"You can thank us after the deed is done, now go and get your thoughts in order." Shaman didn't want to hold up Himeko, so she tried to shoo her away nicely.
"I sure do, I'll see you all later." Himeko felt exhausted even though she had barely done anything.
"Bye~" Everyone waved as Himeko clicked her fingers disappearing into a ball of flames.
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