I Thought Your Friend's Sibling Wasn't a Girl? - Chapter 41

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 41
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What was it she’d told Aiden back then? That Hell was worth visiting?
Olivia was brutally aware of how foolish her former self had sounded.
That version of herself had known nothing. She should have realized far sooner that the place she’d visited before was little more than the threshold of Hell itself!
“Come on. Your arm’s slack.”
“I’m working on it.”
“No, you’re not. You’re definitely slacking. I can see your hand dropping, see?”
It was a monotonous routine. Training from dawn, then Knight Order duties once training ended.
The work they were given consisted mostly of trivial chores—organizing the Knight Order Warehouse, checking inventory—nothing difficult at all.
Or rather, it would have been simple. If Aiden hadn’t been glued to her side constantly, watching her every move.
‘Is he completely insane?’
She’d known it before, but she hadn’t realized he was insane to this degree. Olivia moved her arms faster, fueled by seething anger.
“That’s it. Now we’re talking. Finally doing the job properly.”
“…Thank you.”
“Back in my day, when seniors told us to tidy the Training Ground, we’d clean it so thoroughly you wouldn’t find a single pebble or blade of grass out of place!”
Aiden had somehow evolved into a world-class pedant.
Despite their ages being nowhere near that different, he’d made it his habit to begin sentences with “Back in my day,” and always ended them with something like “I’m telling you this for your own good.”
Being subjected to that drivel for two weeks straight was enough to drive anyone to a nervous breakdown.
“Olivia. What the instructor said was…”
“Should I have settled this back then? My heart was too soft.”
“U-um. Never mind.”
Panya, who’d been sweating through her own share of Training Ground cleanup work, quietly took a step back from Olivia.
“How can you lot become knights, let alone take on missions, when you can’t even endure this much training?”
“Um, Aiden. We didn’t actually train like this—” *cough*
“Three hundred laps around the Training Ground. Get going. If even one person falls behind, we don’t finish training today. I’m serious. Got it?”
That day, he truly didn’t stop training until all three of them had completed their three hundred laps. When Olivia returned to her room, she was greeted by the sight of her feet, covered in fresh blisters.
And then another day came.
“There we go. Timing’s perfect.”
“Pardon?”
“Got a minute to spare? Let’s spar.”
That day, Aiden targeted Olivia’s vital points roughly ten times. Even though none of the strikes resulted in actual wounds, Olivia returned to her quarters feeling as though she’d stepped across death’s threshold more than once, and collapsed into sleep.
What angered her more was that each time, Aiden stopped his blade near her vital point, then withdrew the attack as if granting her mercy.
Despite engaging in Real Combat-level sparring, not a single bruise marred her body. To Olivia, that was a blow to her very pride.
“So you think I can’t handle this.”
A sinister sound escaped through Olivia’s gritted teeth. Bennett and Panya flinched at the noise, then bolted away as fast as their legs could carry them.
Olivia yanked at the grass with renewed force. The weeds came free with a satisfying crackle, roots tearing in places as they were torn from the earth.
“Gently! Gently, I said!”
“If I go gently, they won’t come out.”
“Have you tried? I mean really, properly tried? It’s all a matter of effort. If you coax them gently, you can pull them out root and all, clean and smooth!”
So the grass cooperates if you sweet-talk it? If that’s the case, couldn’t she sweet-talk Aiden into burying himself in the ground?
Olivia’s smile widened as dark thoughts played across her mind.
This was her workplace. Olivia was conducting herself professionally, and she even had a bet going with Aiden. So she’d have to bear it.
And she thought:
‘I’ll absolutely beat him.’
Seeing how fiercely Aiden had set his teeth in determination to win their wager, Olivia realized she needed to be equally sincere about it.
Olivia laughed boldly and seized another weed in her field of vision—this one thicker and sturdier than the rest, almost like a small shrub.
Crack, crack-crack.
“Olivia. Are you being insubordinate right now?”
“Of course not, senior. I’m doing my best to coax it—it’s just being remarkably uncooperative.”
“That’s all a matter of—”
Rip!
This time, a fairly thick root came free with a sinister sound. Olivia folded the sturdy weed she’d pulled in half, then in half again, then in half once more.
Snap, crack, snap.
“E-effort.”
“Yes?”
“…Effort doesn’t always work. There are days like that in life, and… hmm.”
“Isn’t that the truth?”
Olivia let out a long, sympathetic sigh, then flicked away the weed—now reduced to scraps—which tumbled across the ground toward Aiden’s feet.
“I’ll keep trying. It’s advice from a senior I respect, after all.”
“Y-yes. That’s good.”
“Thank you, senior!”
Olivia bowed with genuine cheer, then settled back down serenely to pluck more weeds. The sound of them being ripped out was loud and satisfying, yet this time no one dared protest.
Perhaps it was mere imagination, but her hands seemed to move with a bit more spring.
Nick and Kunta, who’d been watching, huddled their heads together and whispered in the tiniest voices.
“By all the gods. She actually beat Aiden.”
“Aiden lost!”
Both pairs of eyes fixed on Olivia, who was rapidly pulling up weeds. In their gazes, something other than caution began to bloom, faint but unmistakable.
“She’s kind of… respectable.”
“Yeah.”
“I want to be friends with her.”
“If we become friends, can we learn how to beat Aiden like that?”
Unintentionally, this was the moment Aiden was actually helping Olivia adapt to the Knight Order.
* * *
The sun was sinking low. The sky was awash in pink, and clouds drifted peacefully overhead.
“Hah…”
How long had it been since she’d clocked out while the sun was still up?
Except for the first day, every other moment had meant clocking out under the night dew. Aiden, who’d volunteered to be their grief counselor, had never let them go.
Training, duties, then training again.
A schedule so brutal that even the Academy had never subjected them to it—Olivia collapsed the moment she reached the Dormitory each night and slept like the dead.
“Thanks to Olivia, we’re getting off early…”
“It’s not because of me. The instructor—I mean, the senior had something else to attend to.”
“No. I’m pretty sure he ran away.”
Panya countered firmly. From the other side came the sound of stifled laughter—Bennett, using his sword like a cane as he hobbled along, couldn’t help but let it out.
“Olivia, you’re the best.”
“I didn’t do anything.”
“Right, right. You did nothing whatsoever, but you’re still the best!”
From a day spent pulling weeds, Olivia’s hands still bore the faint green stain of grass, and a subtle earthy scent lingered on them.
Olivia stared at the two with an expression that suggested she had no idea what they were talking about, but soon enough she broke and laughed with them.
The three of them’s laughter rang out bright and clear across the Academy plaza.
“Hahahaha, did you see his face? Honestly, he looked just like someone who got bitten by a dog he’d been raising!”
“We’re not exactly dogs though. More like rats he’d been keeping?”
“Either way! Getting bitten by a rat—he must have been so startled! Oh, that was satisfying!”
Hahahaha!
Though the three were suffering from chronic exhaustion due to their relentless schedule, in this moment they laughed freely, as though they’d forgotten all such concerns entirely.
In truth, Olivia found it satisfying too—that vacant expression of his, the way he’d scrambled to change the subject.
By tomorrow, he’d probably act as though nothing had happened and work them just as hard, but the fact remained that today she’d landed a blow on Aiden.
Olivia happily claimed victory for the day as her own.
“I’m really glad we got assigned together.”
“Right? Though sharing hardship doesn’t really make it… easier.”
“That’s true. Suffering together is still suffering. It’s just that there are three of us suffering now instead of one.”
“But at least we can complain about the boss together. Like right now! Right?”
The three figures, worn and grass-stained, wore smiles as bright as the sun.
“Gods, how long has it been since we got to clock out before sunset?”
“I’m going straight in to shower and… actually, I’m just going to sleep. I’m dead on my feet.”
“Me too! I’m taking a long soak first.”
All three of them contemplated how best to make the most of the hours remaining to them, their faces radiant with joy. Olivia’s face lit up with happiness as well.
“Olivia, what about you?”
“Hmm?”
“What are you going to do when you get inside?”
Panya, having done some light stretching, fixed Olivia with an inquiring look.
Of course, Olivia had grand plans of her own. As for what they were…
“Have a serious conversation.”
“What? With who?”
“Someone special.”
“…There she goes again. Leave her be. She’s going to wrestle with her sword.”
“Seriously? You never get tired of that?”
Whatever anyone said, for Olivia it was both rest and joy. She answered with nothing but laughter and a wave of her hand.
That was her way of shooing them off. Her friends jeered as they departed.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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