It was morning again, which meant another battle with human utensils.
Fiona glared at the fork in her hand. She really felt that It mocked her.
Lily, sitting across from her, happily ate her breakfast without caring about everything neaby. She ate with a fork effortlessly while looking at her beloved sister who still did not eat yet.
Fiona hated it.
Fine. She would master this infernal device today.
She slowly speared a piece of egg, raising it carefully to her mouth—
And she missed.
The egg fell right off the fork.
Fiona stared at it.
Lily blinked. "Uh… Jeannie? You okay?"
"Oh crap! Why this little brat is still here? Go away!", She screamed internally.
Fiona cleared her throat. "I… dropped it on purpose."
"…Huh? What?"
"Training," Fiona said with the straightest face imaginable. "A knight must always be prepared for unexpected situations."
"Great! How clever i am! As expected from me!", Said Fiona in her thought, deeply proud and admire her smart idea.
Lily nodded in admiration. "Wow! You really do think about training all the time!"
Fiona felt the sweet taste of victory.
But before she started to felt relief, Fiona accidentally stabbed a sausage so hard that it flew across the room.
It hit Marianne.
Fiona immediately dropped the fork,clearly in shock about what have just happened a moment ago.
Lily was unable to held her laugh.
"Ah—My bad!" Fiona said it with awkward tone,felt a bit guilty and shy. She did not know what to say.
"Great…Incredible." Marianne wiped the sausage off her face, nodding.
"That throw had impeccable form. Were you training projectile precision to challenge that demon again or what?", Said her with darkened expression.
Fiona blinked and started to smile.
"…Yes."
Marianne could not say any words, speechless about this situation.
Another win.
"Let's finish our breakfast right now. We should go to the barracks this morning", Said Marianne while quickly finished her breakfast.
"...Okay!" Fiona replied awkwardly, while Still struggling with the fork.
Later that day, Fiona found herself trapped.
Not in battle or in the dungeon.
this was worse.
She was stuck in a group conversation.
The female knights in the barracks loved talking. They usually talked about training, food, and of course, romantic story and gossips.
They also secretly started to chat about who was secretly in love with who.
Fiona had never engaged in idle chatter. In the demon world. In her domain, conversations had always been about strategies, alliances, or threats of murder.
This time ?
It was terrifying.
"Jeannie, what do you think?" one knight named Lia asked.
Fiona had not been listening.
Her mind raced.
"What the hell they had been discussing about? Who am i? Where am i? Why did i always trapped in this situation!!?",. She screamed again internally, again.
"…I agree," she said confidently,like she cared about what they were discussing before.
The knights were surprised.
"You do?!"
"…Yes, i guess?"
Another knight blushed. "Then… you also think Miss Marianne and Sir Aldric should just admit their feelings already?!"
Fiona froze.
"Oh no!"
She had made a mistake.
She had accidentally contributed to knight gossip.
But there was no turning back now.
"…Of course," she said with as much dignity as possible,trying to hide her awkward face.
The knights cheered in any instant.
Marianne, who had just walked by, stared at her after hearing what she had just said.
Fiona slowly sipped her tea, pretending nothing was wrong.
Not long after that, the training continued by practices a sparring match with the sword..
Fiona should have been flawless at swordplay. Always had been… if it was in her original body.
But this time, he was Jeannie Leonhartt.
As a knight, Jeannie's body had habits. It was her muscle memory, where her movements were too controlled, too precise and elegant.
Fiona really hated it.
She wanted to swing the sword in her own way—reckless, brutal, with the weight of raw destruction and pure strength.
Instead, her body kept adjusting its stance automatically.
Fiona's eye twitched. 'Just stop that already!'
But her body did not stop.
And so, because she lost her focus,she ended up losing to a junior knight in a sparring match.
The training ground was full of silence.
Fiona stood there, shell-shocked.
"Crap! I felt that i just wanted to leave this world forever rathen than being looked by everyone!!"
The knights around her panicked.
"M-Miss Jeannie… did you lose on purpose?!"
Fiona snapped back to reality.
She had two options: Admit she had been struggling ,or lie.
And she decided to lied.
"…Yes," she said gravely. "It was… a lesson."
The knights nodded in understanding.
"What a great leader!"
"Captain Jeannie is teaching us humility… by making herself look weak on purpose!"
The knights around her gave applause with shining eyes full of admiration and respect.
Fiona internally screamed.
"It is not supposed to be like this!!!"
Marianne stood there, watching Fiona with intense expression.
She was not an idiot.
She had known Jeannie for years.
"Something's off about her.."
Jeannie had been acting unusual after her awakened.
Weirdly bad at eating, surprisingly good at dodging, suddenly calm about rumors
And most Importantly, she was weirdly okay with losing.
Something wasn't right.
Marianne decided that she needed a proof.
And so, she approach Fiona in the evening
.
"Jeannie," she said with a serious tone "I challenge you to a one-on-one sparring match."
Fiona felt a chill run down her spine.
"…Why so suddenly?"
Marianne smiled. "Just to test something."
Fiona's instincts screamed danger.
She was being watched, and Made a fatal mistakes all this day.
"…Of course," she said, forcing a smile.
The next day, the match began.
Marianne started to attack first.
She suddenly appeared in front of Fiona and swing her sword precisely.
"She's fast! As expected from a senior level knight . Besides, she was Jeannie's closest friend afterall."
Fiona managed to dodged that attack, and started to retaliate. They clashed their sword each other.
However, right now Fiona had two problems. She could not fight like herself. She also could not afford to be too weak and had to find balance.
So she did the only thing she could,copying Jeannie's old habits and moves… badly, unable to fully adapt to this body.
Marianne's eyes narrowed.
'She's holding back,' Marianne was deep in thought. 'But… why? Is she injured?'
Misunderstanding happened.
The fight finally ended in a draw.
Marianne was now certain.
Jeannie was hiding something that she did not know.
And Fiona realized that she was running out of time. If she could not gain Marianne's trust, she will be in a big trouble someday.