Blackpink's 'The Album' came out today. Just saying go listen 'cuz it's bop.

"It wasn't illegal, right? You yelling from the sides like that?" Eren asked. "I mean, I already lost, so it's not that big of a deal...but you, Evy."

It was her turn to do the cooking, but seeing how she was a little inexperienced in that department, I had to help her with the preparations. We were cutting up the ingredients for a vegetable stir-fry. Mistress Kora had gone out for a moment to bring back a pot he promised we would be using for tonight's meal.

I gazed at Erenol's worried face, then glanced to my side to catch Maun pawing at the ingredients secretly and munching on them.

"Hey!" I slapped his hand. "You keep eating that, we'll have none left before we can even start to cook!" I exclaimed.

He gazed at me, tears rimming his eyes.

"Daw. Don't give me that look. You think you can survive this by acting cute—it ain't happening!" I said.

Erenol giggled.

"Anyway...what were you asking about?"

"The competition and you...you know, what happened a while ago?"

"Oh. I looked over the rulebook. They never said anything about coaching," I said. "And if I violated any rules, they'd have already persecuted me right then and there. But they didn't. In fact, I tried to interpret several passages such as so, but I also looked over and made sure I can counter with some other part that can contradict the claim should it happen. No worries, I got it covered."

Erenol pouted, but she nodded anyway. "Okay. If you say so," she muttered. "How did you know about that, by the way? I mean...about what will happen? Even I can't predict it...probably not even Mistress Veronika."

"Mm..." I trailed off. "Actually...his family style—which sounds like some sort of fried chicken recipe..." I trailed off, "ah, no. Don't mind that. Whatever his family style is, it's kind of...I don't know. Superfluous."

"Super..." Erenol took out an on-hand notebook. "Sorry. I don't think that's in my vocabulary yet. What does that mean?"

"Excessive. Unnecessary."

"Uh...I don't know what excessive means too, but I get the...uh...contact."

"Context."

"Yeah. Context," she whispered. "Hehe. Lovardi is so hard."

"You're doing pretty well, though," I told her. "And you've gotten really good."

"Well, I had time to practice," she said. "Sorry. Continue please."

I sighed. "The main idea was to create an opening for you to dive in and land a punch," I said. "Kicks are proficient in mid-ranged close-combat. Once that distance is crossed, they're not as powerful. And that style of footwork's best defense is its offense...which means keeping the enemy away by attacks secures them too."

"Very good analysis, Evyionne." I looked up and found Mistress Veronika coming over. "Keep it up."

"Thank you, mistress," I said with a smile.

"I've always thought that you had excellent insight, but you somehow always keep yourself quiet," she said.

I turned my gaze to the ground and paused, biting my lip. "I didn't think it was worth hearing..." I trailed off.

"Nonsense," Mistress Veronika said. "You were always like this, ever since you were a child. Speak out your mind more. You've got very bright ideas."

I would suppose being not confident of myself was among the list of why I tried not to be vocal about my opinions. However, there were more than one occasion in the past wherein me speaking out my mind made people doubt me—and my age. The less I spoke, the less the tendency for people to find me weird. I think a part of me wanted to be cute for the mistresses too...and I wouldn't be able to do that if I acted way beyond my age.

"Thank you, mistress," I simply said.

"Be very careful though, Evy..." she told me. "I think you've gained some attention with what you did last time."

"I don't understand how it can, though," I replied, but then remembered Black Flame staring at me from the arena much, much earlier. "Most of what I said were common sense. It's nothing really special...if they look enough, they'll come to the same conclusion."

"The precision you displayed is not common sense, Evy. Not everyone has that kind of foresight, especially at that age," she explained. "You'll be a tricky opponent if you can easily see through your opponent's moves. If you're seen as a tough variable, you may be unnecessarily targeted. If you are prepared to handle that, then there is no issue. But if not..."

I pursed my lips. "I guess I shouldn't have spoken, then."

"I'm just saying, Evy..." she said. "This is something you should expect to see and tide through. Anything brilliant is both envied and coveted. But you need that brilliance to win this competition. Remember that."

I nodded. "I understand."

"Just be very careful." She then looked over to Maun. "You were very brilliant as well."

I looked at Mistress Veronika searchingly, waiting for her to say something about what Maun exhibited back then. However, I did not find her intending to say anything after that. She did not comment on anything else.

Well...we were all curious about Maun's past. But, unless he took the initiative to tell us about it, we didn't have the guts to ask him. Even the overly curious and talkative Erenol was silent.

"Erenol, you were very reckless back then, but you were very imaginative and decisive too—you performed well," Mistress Veronika said.

"Whoooo. Thank you, mistress," she said, delighted. "Can I please get some strawberries? When can we eat them?"

"I'm sorry! Did someone just say strawberries?!"

We all looked up to see Mistress Kora coming over with the pot we were going to be use for dinner. Inside it were heaps of fresh strawberries.

Eren's eyes brightened. "Strawberries! Strawberries!"

"I'm sorry if I took a while. As you can see, I had trouble getting myself something..." he told us. "Now, don't ruin your appetite. But you can snack on these while we cook the food, alright? Don't worry. I've washed them already."

Erenol nodded enthusiastically. Maun's eyes were drawn to the red fruits as they were rested over Erenol's lap.

"C-can I have some?" Maun signed.

"You're asking if you can have some?" Erenol asked. "I guessed right, didn't I?" She gazed at me confidently.

I nodded.

"Ha! Well, you can have two. I'm being generous already." She took three strawberries and popped them straight into her mouth.

Maun pouted, gazing at her pleadingly.

"Fine. Three."

Maun persistently pleaded.

"Three and half. No more." She picked three really small ones and handed them over. The last one was hardly the size of a fingernail...and she even divided it.

I could not help but laugh. "Why don't we..." I took the pot and the strawberries from Eren's hands. "Why don't I make some dessert with this while the meal cooks? That way, there's more for everyone," I suggested. I then transferred the strawberries to a different container so that Mistress Kora could get started with cooking.

"Well, that's a great idea!" Mistress Kora exclaimed. "What do you plan to do with it?"

"Nothing fancy...but I remembered we had some milk and sugar," I said. "Let's make strawberry milk."

"That sounds wonderful." Eren instantaneously salivated.

Dinner proceeded in such a manner—peaceful, quiet, and warm. We huddled around the bonfire as Mistress Kora cooked and I struggled to make strawberry milk. It would be my first time to attempt this, so I was not sure if it would turn out alright.

"Maybe a food processor would be nice..." I muttered mindlessly under my breath. But it was not much of a problem in the end since I had some mortar to grind the fruits in. I proceeded to make mush of one half and cut up the other half so that there would be nice chunks to bite on.

Thankfully enough, it was impossible to fail at making strawberry milk. And though my first try was not stellar, it was still not bad—I knew I would be able to improve on it later on.

"This'd be much better with condensed milk..." I thought.

"What's condensed milk?" Eren asked, hearing my nonsense blabber.

I thought for a moment, realizing there was none of that here—I hadn't seen any so far. This side of the world, probably. Maybe not this world at all.

"Nothing. Just passing thoughts," I said, then shook my head.

Tomorrow, I would be fighting Defiant Soul. It would be the first fight of the day, which meant it would be in the cool morning—a very good time of the day for exercise. I had a feeling I would be very energized and in good condition to fight.

After dinner, I set aside some strawberry milk and brought it with me to the praying grounds where I usually met up with my sparring partner. I was hoping to exchange some pointers with him today, as well as have him act on the mannerisms and style that I caught on Defiant Soul after observing his last fight.

"You...you are very..." Not knowing the word for it in Lovardi, he switched to his mother tongue. "Studious."

I smiled. "Well, I'm not as good as my friend," I told him. I then switched to his language as well, wanting to acclimatize myself with it a little more. Though I understood and could use it, it was a little foreign and hard to use. "I need to learn. And to improve."

"Why?" he asked.

I recalled the Ovanolish word that Mistress Veronika left. "Iatelgung."

Elion looked confused. "Iatel..."

"Iatelgung," I repeated, then proceeded to translate it to his tongue. "Redemption."

The questioning look in his eyes did not fade.

"It's something like..." I looked for a word he could understand, then translated it again. "Revenge. But different. Claim blood for blood, drop for drop, but not more. Revenge breeds unnecessary hate." I switched between Lovardi and Simar, his language, frequently.

Being bilingual was quite tough and confusing.

"But that..." Elion was somewhat speechless. "Is it not...useless? No matter, whatever you do, when take revenge...or redemption, you always have to pay a price for it. No matter what glorious and righteous way you put it, revenge is revenge. And you must pay the price when you claim it."

"In the code of warriors," I began, "Ovanol is the warrior country. They honor sin for sin—as long as it is paid in the same degree and no other innocent lives are taken. I think it's a matter of mindset and perspective. Justice is interpreted differently. This is the kind I was asked to take," I said. "I just think my mistresses are worried I'll go astray. They do not want for me a life that they had. And I promised, so I will follow through."

Elion still could not get it in the end, but I think he understood where I was coming from at least. I didn't know much about the code of warrior from Ovanol either.

"Strawberry milk?" I offered.

"Oh. For me?" he asked.

"Dun," I replied in Simar with a nod.

"Thank you," he said, accepting the wooden bottle gratefully. "Evyionne...I need your help."

My brows shot high. "With what?" I asked.

He opened his mouth, then hesitated. "It's okay. Never mind," he said.

I did not pry. "Then you should tell me if you change your mind. I'm willing to help with whatever it is. You've been giving me great pointers so far, so I need a way to pay you back, somehow," I told him.

He nodded, smiling. "Shall we spar?" he asked.

"Yup! Think you can perform according to my next opponent's style?"

"Tell me how I should act?" He opened the wooden bottle and downed the strawberry milk, but was quite surprised at the tangy sweetness that greeted his tongue. "Serpent's tail!" he exclaimed, amazed. "Evyionne, this is wonderful!"

I smiled. "I'll make some more. This is my first time making that, so it's a little rough. It'll be better next time."

"Better? I can't imagine! This is already very good..." he trailed off.

I could just imagine Erenol's face once she realized I gave some strawberry milk away to somebody else other than her.