I Understand You, Because I Was Also Your Age Once Upon a Time

Looks like Giles and Annie aren't ordinary friends…

As she looked at Annie's shy expression, which seemed to suggest that she was a girl in love, realisation dawned on Hash.

Annie clearly liked Giles, and perhaps Giles had chosen to turn down this ability evaluation because he had some feelings for Annie.

If that was the case, then the violation that Giles had made previously and his calm and indifferent attitude when he heard about the punishment issued by the Beast Tamer Association's Headquarters made sense!

As Giles had only accepted challenges from Beast Tamers a few times previously, after watching the recording of the matches that Giles had participated in for the Beast-taming Gym Tournament, Hash conveniently finished watching the recording of Giles' matches with the challengers.