"Hey there cutey. Kris, right?"
Kris stopped terrorizing the training dummies with her lance to turn and face her interruption. She found herself staring at a pink-haired girl wearing a black and white gambeson, a short white skirt over black tights, and knee-high white boots.
Kris recognized her from earlier that day in the dining hall during breakfast. She had noticed the girl staring at her from across the room. It had kind of creeped her out while she was trying to eat.
"What's your name?", Kris asked, annoyed at being interrupted but too polite to not at least exchange basic pleasantries.
"Soleil, but you can call me whatever you'd like", she said in a tone far too seductive for a complete stranger.
"I'm in the middle of training. Do you have need of me?". Kris took her training seriously and didn't appreciate stopping without good reason.
"Need of you? Yes, I suppose you could say I do need you...desperately", the girl stepped in closer, smiling. Kris leaned away in retaliation.
'Uuuh, right. Well, I'm just going to go back to training now if you don't mind", Kris replied bluntly, turning back to face the training dummy.
"No, wait!", Soleil cried out. "Ahahaha", she laughed awkwardly. "That...wasn't my best pick up line, sorry". Her face turned red and she ran a hand through her hair. Then, standing up straight as if to reaffirm her confidence, she offered an outstretched hand towards Kris. "Right, let's try this again. Hey there! My name's Soleil, I was hoping you'd join me for tea", she winked.
At this point, Kris just felt confused. "You're asking me out on a date?", she asked, tilting her head.
"Yeah! It'll be a lot of fun! I'd love to get to know you better", Soleil replied with enthusiasm, her previous blunder seemingly wiped clean from her mind.
Kris wasn't necessarily against going out on a date with this girl, she was cute at least, but dating wasn't exactly high on her priority list right now. Not when she could be using that time honing her skills with the lance. That's when a brilliant idea popped into her mind.
"Tell you what, Soleil. If you spar with me and win, I'll go on that date with you. If I win…", Kris hadn't thought about the conditions for if she were to win. "If I win then...you have to help me repair all of the training weapons! It'd be hours of hard work".
"Help you?", Soleil responded, confused. "Wouldn't it make more sense if I had to do all the work as punishment for losing?"
"Um, well, sure, I guess", Kris spoke hesitantly. "Buuuut, I'd really rather be there to make sure it gets done properly. I'm kind of particular about things like that".
Soleil assessed the deal in her mind. If she won, she gets to take Kris out on a date, excellent! If she lost, she'd spend hours all alone with Kris repairing weapons? To her, there was no losing outcome here, though she didn't want to let Kris know that.
"Sure, I suppose I can agree to those conditions", she said, eyes wandering around the room. Then they darted directly to Kris, staring her down. "Alright, so when do you want to spar?"
"Are you free right now?", Kris asked. "I'm ready to go".
"Oh!", Soleil exclaimed, surprised at how sudden this was. "Uh, yeah sure, I'm always warmed up. Had to be back where I came from".
That last part intrigued Kris, but she decided not to pry for now. She made her way to the rack of training weapons. She picked up a fresh wooden training lance for herself. "Hey Soleil, what kind of weapon do you want?"
"Grab me a sword! Any will do!"
Kris scanned the wide array of worn wooden weaponry for a moment before she found a training sword in good condition. 'Swords sure are popular around here', she thought to herself. Those repairs really did need to happen soon. She tossed the sword to Soleil, who caught it with ease. Kris raised her eyebrows in surprise but decided not to hype up her opponent right before they fought.
Soleil stood across from her, looking oddly carefree. Not wasting a moment, Kris rushed the pink-haired mercenary with a flurry of consecutive attacks. With blinding speed, Soleil parried and deflected every blow.
"Woah", Kris said quietly to herself.
Soleil wasn't quite sure, but she could swear that Kris was actually blushing. She didn't waste a moment to retaliate, however, and came at Kris with her own attacks. Kris barely managed to deflect her sword in time. Then, she used the length of her weapon to create some distance between the two of them.
"Okay, so you really are a skilled fighter", Kris asked, catching her breath. "Where'd you learn?"
Soleil lifted up her sword and rested it on her shoulder. "Keehee, that's nice of you to say! My dad taught me when I was little. Then, I got a lot of practice in running my own mercenary company".
Kris understood now. Soleil wasn't just the carefree flirt she seemed to be at first glance. She should have known better than to pre-judge her opponent like that, a mistake she'd make sure not to repeat in the future.
"And how about you, cutey? You sure look beautiful swinging that lance around like that, you've definitely practiced a lot", Soleil said.
"My grandfather trained me rigorously. With all due respect to your father, I'm not going to shame my grandfather by losing this bout to you", Kris responded with conviction. She charged once more, tightening her grip on her weapon.
Soleil sidestepped Kris's first thrust then parried her second. Kris reeled back and then swung her lance at Soleil's feet.
With a thud, Soleil found herself on the floor, looking up at the blue-haired knight who was holding out a hand to her. Soleil turned bright red while accepting the hand and being helped back to her feet.
"I suppose you win. What a shame. Guess we'll be working on those weapons for a loooong time", Soleil said, followed by an exaggerated sigh.
"I...did you lose on purpose!?", Kris shouted. "That's not fair! How are we supposed to know who's the better fighter if you throw the match!"
"Kris! I can't believe you'd accuse me of something like that!", she put her hands to her face in feigned shock. "Now, I'm gonna go clean up. Then we can start repairing these weapons". She smiled at Kris, and with a wink said, "I think you'll find I'm quite good at that". Then she ran off before Kris could get the chance to respond.
Kris sighed. She couldn't help but smile though. "She's a tricky one. Guess I better keep an eye on her".