Talk with Iris

I woke up before the alarm rang that day, probably because I had gotten enough sleep the last couple days. I laid in bed and didn't want to move so I wouldn't wake up Emilia who was still right beside me. She had a grin on her face and slept soundly.

"Why can't every day for the rest of my life be this peaceful? I could really get used to living like this but once we have our next test, we will have to go on missions which will be the end for our peaceful life here. The missions shouldn't be too dangerous at first but there still seem to be some causalities every year. From the gossip I heard, roughly 10% of first years don't make it out of those alive. And the causality rate only goes up with the later school years. The military doesn't bat an eye on this however because they only want the strongest hybrids anyway. Truly a survival of the strongest", I thought and in the meantime the alarm started ringing.

We both got ready for school and went to breakfast soon later. Nothing too eventful happened in the morning but after lunch, Iris approached me and said: "I wish to have a small chat with you and Lisa. You know, about all of what happened a couple days ago. Also by the way, I'm glad you are up and running again."

"Sure, I will ask Lisa if we can use her training room for this. I also wanted to ask you something", I said and went on my way to look for Lisa. I had gotten interested in the reason why Iris was already so well trained compared to the rest of us. As far as I knew, it was her parents doing. But I wanted to find out more, I was just as curious as always.

I entered the training room and right there Lisa was standing. She saw me and said: "Oh, hello Yoru. I want to talk with you about the things that happened the last couple days. I decided against it yesterday as the lack of sleep was getting to me a bit."

"Is it okay if Iris joins us? She wants to have a talk with the both of us as well. If I may guess, she probably tell us her demand from me", I answered.

"Yes it's fine. Bring her to our usual training room, I will be waiting there", Lisa said and went on her way to the room. She looked like she wanted to prepare something, although I couldn't guess what that will be.

Iris arrived at the training hall after another five minutes and we both headed to Lisa's room. We didn't talk on the way, it was some kind of weird silence between us. The door was already open and we stepped in. Lisa was sitting in one of the chair at the side of the room and stood up as we came closer.

"Iris, you will start with what you want to tell us", said Lisa.

Iris started to talk nervously: "Well, first of all, I want to apologize to the both of you. I doubted your ability as a teacher for taking in Yoru as your disciple and I feel sorry for that, I shouldn't have assumed you take any favourites among us students. And I also want to apologize to you, Yoru. I forced you into this fight because of my own stubbornness and you didn't come out of it unharmed. I was able to see some of your potential and if you keep going down this path, you might even turn out to be a better swordswomen than I am."

"Nothing to be sorry about, you are just a student after all. In this kind of competitive environment like this school things like these tend to happen. You two made quite the show for other students and even the headmaster was watching it. If I had to guess, soon another teacher will give you the offer to become disciple, Iris. You showed your potential and your grasp of it. There only rarely were students amongst the first class students with such a fighting potential already. Where did you even learn all this from? You said something about your parents, right?" Lisa asked her and I could only wait for my turn to speak up.

"Yes it's true, my parents taught me. Unlike most demons, my father comes to visit us from time to time. He always makes sure his fellow demon brethren don't notice that however. He trained me a lot in swordsmanship, so I could one day be strong enough to come with him to the demon nation. After all the stories he told me from there I really want to visit it one day. But that can only happen, if I get strong enough to go up against most ordinary demons. He also gave me the sword I used and when he wasn't there, my mother trained me in his stead. She is also a great swordswomen and isn't lacking behind in technique by a bit compared to father. Oh, can you please keep this a secret? I already said too much and my family would get into trouble if either humans or demons find out…" told us Iris, as she had clearing gone over the line of what she should tell us.

"Wow, amazing. That explains why you are so strong. I hope I can be on par with you one day. Also I do forgive you, Iris. I can see why you did what you did and I may not have done different, if I would be in your position. And I didn't really get harmed. I just had to sleep for some time but I don't feel any pain anymore nor felt any before" I said, being happy knowing the secret behind Iris strength.

"Yeah, you just slept three days, nothing serious… Things like that shouldn't happen in a duel between two students, Yoru. I don't think you are aware of that. But I'm also thankful you accepted my apology and see it that way. Maybe we can do a couple more peaceful spares in the future", Iris stated seemingly angry.

"I will make sure that nothing said here will get out of this room, no worries Iris. Yoru and I will have our lips sealed about this topic", Lisa said and went to leave the room.

"Oh, I nearly forgot. What do you want me to do for you, Iris? You won the battle after all", I remembered and asked her.

"Just join my team if you want. I don't force you to do this and if you want, Emilia can join with you. But give it a thought and tell me later", Iris said, she clearly forgot about it.

"Yes sure. I look forward to it and will talk with Emi in the evening", I answered.