"What are you doing in the Cerulean Guardians, Sylvia Masett Volksnon?"
"What? What do you mean by that?" Sylvia raised a confused brow.
Liana, Cedric and Alexander exchanged looks, before focusing on the two.
"You know very well what I am talking about," Nolan replied, crossing one leg over the other. "So, I'd like to ask again. What are you doing in the Cerulean Guardians?"
"What's that supposed to mean?" Liana cut in. "We're all here to fight the demons and—"
"I'm not," Nolan gave her a flat response without letting her finish. He stared at her for a brief moment and tilted his head.
Liana realized she was stepping out of her boundaries and decided to keep shut.
Cedric saw the exchange between Liana and Nolan, knowing something was definitely happening between them, right from yesterday.
Nolan then turned to Sylvia with a proud smile. "So? You remained silent."
Sylvia scoffed, looking around before focusing on him again, this time avoiding eye contact. "I'm here to protect the weak. I—"
"For your own sake, I suggest we move this matter aside and focus on what brought us here?" Nolan interrupted, standing up.
Walking past her whispered something that she alone could hear. "We'll talk about this soon. Very soon."
Leaving everyone in a confused or shocked state, Nolan went to the center of the segment, followed by Alexander.
"What was that all about?" Liana said as she stared him down.
"Let's just train. He's being stupid. What else would I be here for?" Sylvia said with a smile as she dropped a hand over Liana's shoulder, taking her to the side.
Cedric remained there, trying to understand what he had just witnessed. For all he knew, Nolan was stronger than he shows, Liana is hiding something and same with Sylvia.
Before he could over think it, Nolan waved a hand at him, telling him to come over.
With that, the trainings started.
They were told the deployments were going to happen a weak from now and that leaders would be picked among the Sentinel-ranks who would be in charge of the Clover City defense teams.
Soon, the rumors started to flood Clover City. The outer villages of Cloveland were being attacked, but luckily, the Phoenix and Clover guilds were there to protect the villagers.
Five days had now passed and the preparations were more than done for almost everyone.
During this period, Nolan often went around to find skills, abilities or talents he could copy from those training. Since the guild had very few ability users, Nolan could only get one E-Tier light ability that he could only use to shoot light balls.
He knew almost all the sword skills, so they were useless to copy since he could perform them even more efficiently with increased stats.
However, he couldn't get stronger. No matter how he exercised, his stats remained stagnant. He had to kill demons to get stat points when leveling up and that annoyed him even more.
The suspicion grew silent as the team spent more time together and had camaraderie, though it was still subtly there.
… …
"Five more," said Nolan with tone that gave away his disinterest.
Alexander who was doing pushups with shaking hands gritted his teeth. "It's 100, I swear."
"You did five wrong along the way. Or would you prefer starting again?"
"No no no."
He went down and pushed himself up. "96," he huffed. "97...98...99...100."
Alexander collapsed to the ground, breathing ragged. "I… I did it."
By his side, Cedric was still doing the pushups, counting out his five hundredth before stopping and standing up.
His body was drenched in sweat, though he was shirtless. He had miraculously transformed in just five days—better physique, more defined abs and biceps, and faster recovery time, even if a little—all thanks to Nolan's instructing.
He stretched out his hands and cracked his neck. "Ah, that was refreshing. By the way, I never asked how you knew just the right training for something like this, in such a short time," he said to Nolan, gesturing to his body in disbelief.
Nolan sat on the bench with legs crossed, face resting his fist. His deadpan expression never faltered as he replied. "Done it a couple hundred lives."
Cedric remained silent for a moment, watching Nolan. Nolan has been saying things like this every now and then he just couldn't make sense out of it. "Uhhh, what?" Cedric raised an eyebrow.
"Nevermind. I learnt it from someone."
"Hmm. You do say a lot of strange things though," Cedric said nodding. He looked down at Alexander who seemed like he just escaped death. "You good?"
"Yes sir," the boy replied standing up. Everywhere was spinning for him and he couldn't stand straight. "Maybe I'll stay down a little longer," he voiced before falling to the ground.
Liana and Sylvia on the other hand were in a heated clash of swords on the other side of the segment.
Liana swiped at Sylvia, but she bent back, the sword flying harmlessly past. Sylvia put a hand on the ground and twisted, kicking Liana's sword out of her hand.
Before Liana could move, a sword was at her throat. "I give up," she surrendered, raising her hands.
Sylvia laughed, pulling back her sword and helping Liana retrieve hers. "You've improved quite a lot," Sylvia remarked, picking up the fallen sword.
"Thank you," Liana replied, collecting her sword.
Both girls walked to the boys who were now watching them. "Impressed?" Liana bragged.
"You did very well," Cedric smiled as he put on his shirt and washed his hands with some water, while Alexander gave a thumbs up from the floor.
"No."
Nolan gave a short answer. "Not with any of you even."
Liana gritted her teeth and extended her hands like she would scratch his face, then drew it back and breathed out. "I wasn't asking you anyways."
Nolan didn't even flinch, but Sylvia's response however, earned her a raised brow from him.
"You speak as if you can do better than us? Can you?"
Nolan scoffed, "Who knows?"
Sylvia pointed her sword at him. "Put me in my place, Nolan, or I'll put you in yours," she proudly voiced.
Before Nolan could reply, a sword hilt suddenly poked into his vision slowly. He turned to see Liana offering her sword with an evil grin.
"Are you scared, Nolly?" she mocked.
Yeah, that was literally what she called him whenever she wanted to mock him.
"Are you, Nolan?" Sylvia added.
"Master's going to win," Alexander mumbled on the floor. "Male Supremacy!"
"You little… shut up." Liana kicked his arm with a frown.
"Oww. I can't even feel my hands… but oww."
Nolan collected the sword and stood up. "Let's be quick," he said, walking past her to the space where she and Liana finished.
"Ooh, interesting," Liana squealed, rushing to sit on the bench. "I've always wondered who was a better swordsman."
Cedric sat beside her, picking up his side bag. "You've seen Nolan fight with a sword?"
"Terrifying!" Alexander shouted.
Liana stood up and kicked his hand again, "Keep it down you idiot."
As she sat back down, Cedric brought out some bread from the back and split it in two, handing her one half. "Care for some?"
Liana smiled sheepishly. "You're the best," she replied collecting it.
Ah, one thing Liana and Cedric had in common was: they were both foodies. Liana specifically had a stupidly large appetite for her size.
"I'm here you know," Alexander spoke again. "I care for some too."
… …
While they got ready to watch, the duelers prepared.
Nolan stood normally like he wasn't even prepared for a fight, while Sylvia readied her stance.
"Don't beg for mercy," she mocked.
Nolan tilted his head and gave a cold smile.