Eleanor woke up feeling refreshed the next morning, stretching and yawning as she headed to the bathroom to wash her face and brush her teeth.
After that, he grabbed her magic pouch and opened it to check the items inside.
Besides her weapons, it held essentials like camping gear and a change of clothes, in case she needed to spend nights inside a rift.
She pulled out some spare underwear, put it on, and quickly slipped into a jersey shirt and shorts just as she sensed movement in the adjacent room.
'Looks like Helga's awake…'
At that thought, a sudden idea struck her, and she walked over to the door, turning the handle and opening it with a surprised expression.
"Oh…you didn't lock it…"
Helga, seated on her bed and tying her shoelaces, raised her gaze, eyes narrowing as she said, "Don't give me a reason to."
Eleanor raised her hands in mock surrender at the warning. If Helga started locking her doors, half her plans to ensnare the heroine would be tossed right into the bin.
She couldn't have that.
'Can't let it even become a topic of conversation.'
Eleanor quickly lowered her hands, crossing them behind her back as she stepped forward.
"Morning exercise?" she asked, nodding toward Helga's attire.
The vampire was wearing a fitted tank top and leggings that traced the contours of her body, paired with sneakers from a brand Eleanor recognised as popular for sports shoes.
"Training," Helga corrected.
With that, Helga finished tying her laces and stood up.
"Is that so? Then let me join you."
Without waiting for a response, Eleanor dashed back into her room, moving at superhuman speed to grab her mask and slip on her canvas shoes, returning to Helga's room in the time it took Helga to walk to her table and reach for her phone.
Seeing Eleanor reappear with a small gust of wind while adjusting her mask, Helga watched silently.
'I noticed this yesterday, but she's faster than her current stats should allow. A skill, perhaps?'
Indeed, Eleanor's speed just now was the result of her using her 'Mach Step' skill.
As the name suggested, it allowed her to burst into hyper-sprints at speeds up to Mach 1 (and potentially beyond), but years of training with the skill since awakening it at age 10 had taught her to control both acceleration and top speed, preventing her from constantly crashing into walls.
Tying her hair into a ponytail, she asked, "Shall we?"
Helga silently tossed her phone into her storage ring and stepped out of her room, where the servants stationed outside bowed and greeted her.
Most nobles relied on servants for nearly everything, even bathing and dressing, but Helga found such help more troublesome than efficient, preferring to handle things herself.
The maids outside gave Eleanor curious glances as she emerged from their lady's room, but she simply waved before jogging to take a diagonal position alongside Helga.
Helga moved through the mansion halls with ease, while Eleanor formed mental maps to avoid getting lost, following her down to the training annex.
Some knights and squires were already training when they arrived, and upon seeing them, Eleanor asked,
"I expected you to have a private training area."
"I do. But one can learn by observing others, so I come here more often," Helga replied.
Eleanor nodded in agreement, remembering how she had improved simply by watching the Crafiel knights train and imitating their movements.
As they walked, the knights and squires immediately dropped to one knee to greet Helga, who acknowledged them with a wave.
For Eleanor, the knights were uncertain how to address her since she was masked. Seeing her speak casually with Helga, they assumed she was a high-ranking noble, but had no idea of exactly how high.
Eleanor paid little attention to them, instead focusing on the weapon racks at the end of the hall. She picked up a training sword, tossed it in the air, and caught it, muttering,
"Feels a bit heavy for a training sword…"
"Did you forget your current condition?" Helga asked, picking up another sword, once again reminding Eleanor that her stats were a whole Rank below where they should be.
Naturally, a sword of standard weight that had felt just right in her hands before now felt heavier.
'My other swords have weight adjustment features, but some bear the Crafiel insignia, so I'll need replacements.'
Adding that to her growing to-do list, Eleanor activated her Body Strengthening skill to boost her physical strength.
She tossed the sword up, caught it, and then swung it toward Helga on her right, stopping mere inches from brushing her ear.
The shockwave from the swing tousled Helga's blonde hair, but the vampire was unfazed. Calmly picking up her weapons, she warned.
"You just escaped death yesterday. Don't walk into it willingly today."
At that, Eleanor glanced to the side, at the knight who, at the exact moment she had swung her sword, had closed the distance and pressed his blade to her neck.
She calmly pushed his sword aside, ignoring his obvious hostility, and addressed Helga.
"I wasn't actually going to hit you, anyway."
"Your Highness, this—"
"Stand down," Helga interrupted, and though the knight had his misgivings, he silently sheathed his blade, bowed, and stepped back, still keeping a wary eye on Eleanor.
Helga, unbothered, turned to Eleanor, gripping a sword in each hand.
"Let's spar."
"Us?" Eleanor asked, raising her eyebrows behind the mask. "Isn't that…bullying?"
Helga was currently Level 396 with A+ stats across the board, while Eleanor was 239, her highest stat being a B. A fight between them would be unfair to Eleanor, hence her question.
"I mean a weapon spar," Helga clarified. "I'll limit my strength."
"Weapons only?" Eleanor asked, glancing at Helga's twin swords.
"We've been compared a lot, but we've never actually tested our skills against each other before," Helga explained.
Considering the enmity between the Laurents and Crafiels, comparisons were inevitable. Still, as Helga had pointed out, they had never truly faced each other to determine who was more skilled.
Now that chance had come, and Helga intended to find out.
"If you want to compare skills, I'm afraid this isn't the place," Eleanor said, earning a frown from Helga.
"What do you mean?"
"Well…" Eleanor leaned in slightly, shifting her mask to the side so Helga could see her confident smile.
"I'm not sure you'd want to lose with all these eyes on us."
"…"
Helga said nothing, silently narrowing her eyes as she met Eleanor's gaze. Seeing the mischief in those grey eyes, she realised;
'She's taunting me.'
That much was obvious. But beneath the taunt was absolute confidence in her skills.
Helga reached out, adjusting Eleanor's mask before saying,
"I hope your skills can live up to that confidence."
With that, she moved toward the centre of the hall, leaving behind Eleanor, who laughed and picked up a second sword.
'Let's use a second blade… and I'll have to avoid Crafiel-style swordplay so I don't get recognised.'
She cast a wary glance at the knight observing her, a Vice Captain of the Laurent Knight Orders.
'I also have to avoid reflexively switching weapons.'
Eleanor's 'Arsenal Shift' skill provided different buffs depending on the weapon she wielded, so she had developed the habit of switching to maximise the skill's effect and confuse opponents who wouldn't know her next move.
However, 'Eleanor Crafiel' was already known for wielding multiple weapons, so while it wouldn't immediately reveal her identity, it could prompt overly perceptive observers to start drawing comparisons.
With those thoughts in mind, she stepped toward the centre of the hall, standing a few metres away from Helga.
She placed her right foot forward, bending her knees slightly, angling one sword outward to cover distance while keeping the other close to her body for defence.
Helga mirrored her stance, left foot forward, twin swords raised in an almost perfect reflection of Eleanor's posture.
Seeing this, Eleanor's eyes narrowed slightly behind her mask, and she adjusted her posture, shifting her right foot back, replacing it with her left, and lowering the tip of the sword in her right hand.
Helga frowned lightly upon seeing this change, but before she could speak about it, Eleanor's voice reached her ears.
"Since I'm the one at a disadvantage, I'd get the first move, okay?"
Without waiting for a response, Eleanor launched herself forward with a burst of speed, twin blades slicing through the air.
Her charge met Helga's defence almost immediately, their swords clashing with a metallic clang as sparks flew from the impact.
Eleanor quickly pulled back her left sword and swung again toward Helga's upper body, but Helga parried both blades effortlessly.
The force of the impact sent a tremor up Eleanor's arms, but she didn't back away and simply shuffled her feet to regain her balance, just in time to swing her right sword downward, slapping away Helga's blade aimed at her torso.
Her left-hand sword came up high in a diagonal cut, but Helga dodged back just in time, the whoosh of the blade missing her face by inches.