Especially with Eric getting busier, there was no personal time to spare for Edward’s training. Fortunately, Eric had found a good instructor to replace the knight training.

“By the way, sister-in-law, what brings you here?”

Seeing Alicia in casual clothes with a wooden sword, Allen asked, “Are you here for personal training?”

“I haven’t moved my body recently.”

“Well, practice is the shortcut to improving your skills. That way, you can continue to catch monsters and deal with emergencies.”

“······Allen.”

“Yes?”

It was a joke, but when Alicia suddenly became serious, Allen, taken aback, nervously asked, “Are you serious?”

“I’m thinking of learning dagger skills or self-defense techniques. What do you think?”

“······What? Why are you suddenly saying that?”

“I’m not a knight, so I can’t carry a sword everywhere. A dagger would be easier to carry, and recently, with many incidents, it wouldn’t hurt to be prepared.”

“Ah.”

“With all that’s been happening, I thought it might be good to be prepared.”

“I see. Hmm.”

After pondering for a moment, Allen smiled brightly.

“Shall I teach you?”

“What?”

Considering the image Allen had built up until now, Alicia wondered if learning from him would be a good idea. Of course, with the recent busyness of the knights, Allen didn’t have the leisure to personally oversee Edward’s training.

“But, Allen. You must be quite busy these days.”

“I can teach you by splitting the training sessions when I train. I plan to train here for a while.”

Allen chuckled.

It was a three-in-one deal that he liked—scoring points with his sister-in-law, practicing a bit, and making Eric feel uneasy.

“There are official curriculum subjects related to this at the military academy. I’ll teach you according to that.”

“Thank you, Allen.”

Although she was a bit worried, Alicia accepted Allen’s offer with gratitude.

“I was just about to start anyway. Shall we loosen up first?”

“Sure.”

Alicia started running along with Allen.

When they actually began training a while later, Alicia was quite surprised.

“Your swordsmanship fundamentals are excellent, so it would be good to apply them here. Considering your strength, it might be difficult to overpower others, so it’s better to practice short and fast strokes and thrusts. Oh, and for dagger skills, defense is more critical than offense, so you might want to focus on that too.”

“······.”

Allen explained professionally, and it seemed to make sense. When Alicia looked at him, he seemed to have been caught red-handed.

After Allen stopped explaining and looked puzzled, he asked, “Why are you looking at me like that?”
“No, it’s nothing.”

Alicia quickly hid her expression and took the dagger Allen offered.

“It’s better to get used to the length quickly. Since you’re familiar with longsword techniques, you might struggle at first.”

“Yes.”

“Shall we start with some basic drills? It will be a light sparring.”

“With you, Allen?”

“Yes, with me.”

Smiling, Allen handed the dagger back to Alicia and exchanged it for a longsword.

“You can go all out.”

Although Allen’s smirk and words were somewhat unpleasant, Alicia nodded, thinking it would be fine since he was the deputy commander.

After about 15 minutes of sparring, Alicia realized that she needed to completely revise her perception of Allen.

Due to her previous experiences, Alicia had underestimated Allen.

Although not as sturdy as Eric’s sword, Allen’s was light and fast, better suited to Alicia’s style.

‘As Eric said, it seems I haven’t been cutting because his skills are excellent.’

She had thought that giving Allen the position of deputy commander wasn’t just because he was Eric’s junior, but with this level of skill, Alicia felt reassured to learn from him.

After receiving training from Allen today, Alicia returned to Russell Viscount’s residence, washed up, and headed straight to her study.

Lately, she had been postponing various tasks, but now she really had to attend to them.

She needed to review the initial status reports sent by the person in charge, whom she had sent to the Orange Sylight project to manage.

Knocking sounds could be heard, but Alicia, completely absorbed in her work, didn’t notice. At that moment, someone gently lifted her chin.

It was Eric.

“Huh?”

“What are you doing that you can’t even tell when someone’s close? Is it urgent?”

“…Work is piling up.”

“Well, we’ve been a bit lazy lately.”

“Ugh.”

Alicia blushed as she removed Eric’s hand, which was lightly holding her chin.

“Why is your face turning red?”

“No, it’s nothing.”

Looking at Alicia and smiling, Eric went ahead and sat on the sofa.

“Come on, quickly. Let’s have some tea.”

“Can we drink it quickly and finish? I really have a lot of work.”

“Alright, I’m busy too.”

Only then did Alicia get up from her desk and walk towards the sofa.

When she tried to go to the other side, Eric caught her arm and seated her right beside him.

“Why, why are you doing this?”

“It’s a question I wanted to ask. Why are you trying to sit apart?”

“I’m sitting as usual.”

“When did we ever sit like this? Answer me.”

“…”

In the end, Alicia silently straightened her back, corrected her posture, and sat properly.

However, it didn’t take long for that posture to collapse.