Dear guest who doesn't think Grimoire is being animated, I find your lack of faith disturbing. I know they delayed its production for a long time, but they really are finally doing it. Of course, I think it's just a few OVAs and not a complete anime series, but hey, better than nothing right? Have faith that our niche is finally getting some new material!

"So I've got to ask; what exactly were you doing out here? Isn't a contingent of Vance troops in the Queen's territory an act of war or something?"

Posing this question as they trekked through the ravine they had fallen into, Church glanced back at Elina, who refused to walk alongside him. Yet she also refused to walk in front of him, since she was slightly paranoid considering what he might do if he were out of her sight.

That being the case, Elina was hanging back quite a bit, boring mental holes into Church's back with the icy daggers that were her eyes. Church was not at all surprised that Elina refused to answer him, so he simply dropped it. Whatever was going on between the two powers of this continent was none of his business anyway.

"You're going to get wrinkles if you keep glaring at me like that you know."

Church's jest only caused Elina's glare to intensify. "That's a risk I'm willing to take."

"In hopes that you'll somehow set me alight with your fury?"

"Oh, I can certainly dream..."

Church sighed in frustration as he turned to look in front of him again. He was looking for a place in the ravine's steep walls that was not completely impossible to climb. This was made even harder considering Elina's condition, as several places Church spotted were unable to be used. He could have climbed many of them himself, but he never would have managed to get Elina out as well. Not that she appreciated his consideration, of course.

"Elina, are you still mad about what I said regarding a kiss?"

"Absolutely livid."

"Figures. Was I that bad at it? I always thought I was a pretty good kisser..."

"Completely, totally awful. Worst experience of my life."

Not really taking her words to heart, Church decided that there was little point in talking to Elina at the moment. She was clearly not in the mood for conversation, at least not with him. That being the case, Church decided to ignore her for the moment in favor of other thoughts. He wondered how long it would take for Nanael and Hachiel to return to earth, or if they would at all. According to Hachiel, now that their investigation was over, they could be assigned to a completely different task, and Church would be unlikely to ever see them again...

But he preferred to believe otherwise. After all, even if they were assigned to something or someone else, they could still come visit him right? It was at least plausible.

Glancing back again to check on Elina, Church found that she was still glaring at him just as ferociously as she was before. In fact, the murder in her eyes was quite worrisome, but Church felt somewhat safe knowing that she needed him to get out of this ravine alive.

Even so, he didn't like thinking about what she might have been imagining. So instead, he tried to think of who he would rather have as a companion in this situation. With all of the girls he had met, it was hard to settle on one in particular, but in the end he decided on Shizuka. He would have readily welcomed her charming smile right now, not to mention that lascivious body that she had little problem pressing against him when they flirted with one another. Naturally, thinking of her also reminded Church of the situations in which he had seen her naked, and he concluded that without a doubt, he would have much preferred Shizuka's company to the blonde menace behind him.

I wonder if they've reached Gainos yet? If they have, then Shizuka's technically already waiting for me... now that I think about it, is she seriously into me? I hadn't really considered it before, considering that we've only know each other for a day, but she did seem pretty fond of me...

As he brought Shizuka's feelings for him into question, Church couldn't help but create some very exaggerated scenarios of his reunion with her, most of which involved the beautiful kunoichi losing her clothes or at least making out with him.

Yeah, that's probably taking it a little far. But a man can dream, can't he?

Unfortunately for him, that dream was interrupted by Elina's voice behind him. At first he thought she was actually talking to him, but it turned out she was just cursing a sudden turn of events.

"Damn it... why is this happening to me?"

Church looked back at the wounded blonde, then followed her gaze to the skies above, where dark thunderclouds were quickly advancing over the sea of blue. "Ah, damn... that won't be good."

"Your powers of perception are frightening."

Ignoring her scathing words, Church looked around the ravine for any form of shelter. Unfortunately there was nothing. Not even an outcropping of stone to take some cover under.

"This is bad... there's no way we'll be able to climb out of here in the rain..."

"Let's just keep going. We haven't found a place to climb out yet anyway."

"If we walk in the rain we're going to get sick. Let's just hunker down somewhere and wait it out."

Elina motioned at the practically empty area around them with her good arm."Where exactly? Are you blind as well as stupid?"

"My jacket is waterproof."

"And what, you want us to huddle under it?"

"Actually, that was the plan."

The look of disgust on Elina's face was actually kind of debilitating. Church had never been hated by someone so completely before. It was more than a little unnerving.

"If you think I'm doing something like that, you're even more of a pathetic simpleton than I thought."

For a brief moment, Church contemplated trying to change her mind, but in the end, he decided it wasn't worth it. If that was the way she wanted it, who was he to say otherwise? Besides, as he looked up at the black clouds again, Church was fairly certain it was going to be a downpour soon enough. He refused to leave Elina down here to die, but if she passed away from a terrible flu, that was hardly his fault...

"Suit yourself. Stand out there and freeze for all I care."

With that, Church headed for a small rock jutting out from the ground, hoping it would at least provide some support for his back as he waited out the storm. Doing this, he completely missed the expression on Elina's face as he disregarded her well-being. It wasn't hurt, not by a long shot, but so far Church had at least cared for her health: for him to suddenly turn so callous was a little disconcerting for the blonde.

Still, she had no intention of joining Church as he slipped off his red jacket and did his best to umbrella it over him. It was not a moment too soon for him either, as the skies above unleashed their fury. As he had predicted, it was quite the deluge, and the torrential rain soaked everything in moments, including the only person still standing outside.

As usual, she was directing a fiery glare in Church's direction, but with her long hair slicked against her face and the bouts of shivering she couldn't control, the look was reduced from ferocious to miserable. Despite his best efforts to the contrary, Church felt guilty about leaving her out there, but he managed to ignore her for the moment.

You've got nothing to feel bad about. You made an offer, and she refused. This is no one's fault but hers.

Church repeated this to himself multiple times, doing his best to subdue his natural altruistic tendencies. He preferred to help people, but when they were people like Elina, they hardly deserved it...

Nevertheless, watching her just stand there in the pouring rain was difficult, even more so when she started to sneeze every minute or so.

This is so stupid. Why is she doing this? Does she really hate me so much that she'd rather stand out there and freeze to death?

Slightly bitter about Elina's hatred of him, which Church considered completely unwarranted, he managed to ignore the blonde's plight for a few more minutes. But as he continued to do so, Church had this nagging feeling that he was somehow in the wrong here. Yeah, maybe she had refused his offer to help her, but the bigger person would try to convince her anyway, instead of leaving her to get sick out in the rain.

Furthermore, Church couldn't help but think of all the people who would be disappointed with his petty attitude right now. Foremost among these people was his sister, but she was accompanied by others who lived by the creed of kindness. Nowa, Hachiel, Rachel, Cattleya... they'd all definitely be horrified with him right now. They would never accept 'but she's a bitch' as an excuse.

With an exasperated sigh, Church rose to his feet, attempting to maintain his paltry shield as best he could, and walked over to the most stubborn companion he had dealt with since coming to this world.

She simply glared at him as he came closer, so Church decided to hold off on covering her for the moment. "Look, if you stay out here you are literally going to die."

Elina tried her best to sound defiant and vicious, but the chattering of her teeth greatly impeded her efforts. "F-f-f-fuck off..."

Church rolled his eyes so hard he felt like they would pop out of his head. Why am I doing this? She doesn't even deserve it, yet here I am...

Unable to explain to himself why he was making an effort to care for such a horrible person, Church came to stand next to Elina regardless, doing his best to shield both of them with his jacket. Needless to say, this was not wholly successful. The piece of fabric was not nearly large enough to cover them both horizontally.

Even so, Elina looked genuinely surprised that he was going to push this further even after she had rejected his help twice. "W-what are you d-doing?"

"I'm standing here, what does it look like? By the way, our legs are getting soaked like this. So are our arms. This would be much more effective if we went back to the rock."

"I-I won't stop you from standing there, but I'm not going anywhere with y-you."

Church was seriously contemplating just leaving her, but he was already there as it was. That being said, he wasn't going to stand around and get wet more than he needed to. She was going to come back with him, whether she liked it or not. All that was left to do was contemplate the danger. After all, even though he had her gauntlet attached to Grendel's straps, Elina had refused to relinquish her spear, which she held even now in her uninjured hand.

If anything was going to convince her to try and kill me, it would be what I'm about to do... but she's weak, tired, and cold, so even if she tried I could probably get away... besides, she deserves some sort of punishment for putting me through so much shit and showing literally zero gratitude...

With that in mind, Church glanced down at Elina's rather sexy rear end, which was protected by little more than a strip of tiger patterned cloth: even less so since that item was torn. While it was certainly uncouth of him, Church decided that, with all of the trouble she was putting him through, he deserved to indulge himself a little bit, and she obviously needed a reminder of who was in charge at this exact moment in time.

Without a second thought on the matter and certainly without regret, Church swatted Elina on her well-toned ass, causing the blonde to both yelp and flinch forward as she turned to stare at the offender with indignant fury and embarrassment. "Y-y-you... h-how dare you! What do you think you're-?!"

"Better get moving to that rock Elina. Unless you enjoyed that of course."

Her face going beet-red with both rage and humiliation, Elina seriously considered gutting this unbelievable man before her. If she didn't need him to get out of this ravine alive...

Seeing that she wasn't moving, Church wiggled his eyebrows at her suggestively. "Oh, so you do want another one? Never would have figured you as the submissive type."

Elina had half a mind to scream at him and accuse him of being a beast and a pervert, but if she were completely honest with herself, she knew that she had actually enjoyed it a little. She had always been split between sadism and masochism: both turned her on in different ways. Not that she'd ever admit it of course, so instead of saying anything, she simply turned on her heel and stormed towards the place Church had been using for cover earlier.

Unable to keep a mildly perverse but entirely satisfied smile from his face, Church followed her there, noting with satisfaction that her face wasn't the only thing that had turned red.

Man, even if she had killed me, it might have still been worth it. Maybe.

Waiting for her worst enemy to arrive, Elina simply glared at Church with unbridled anger, though it did nothing to remove the smile from his face, which angered her even further.

As for Church, he soon returned to his usual self, contemplating the actual weather situation instead of how mad Elina was at him. After all, as he had seen earlier, his jacket was not nearly wide enough to cover both of them side by side.

"Alright, you want to be on top I guess?"

In hindsight that probably wasn't the best way to word it, but it was too late. As expected, Elina had already misinterpreted the question. "W-what on earth are you talking about now you animal?!"

"I mean as in us actually getting protected from the rain. If we sit side-by-side we're both going to get soaked regardless. The only way I'll be able to cover both of us is if you sit in my lap. Seriously, I'm not trying to take advantage of anything here, it's just the only way to at least get the most out of the coverage we have."

As he had expected, Elina immediately rejected this idea. "There is absolutely no way that's going to happen! Never!"

"Well, seeing as how you're too weak to really resist me, I could easily bend you over my knee instead. Technically you'll still be in my lap. We'll both stay dry and you'll even be able to warm up a little bit, if you catch my drift."

Strangely enough, Church found that his perverted threats were monumentally more successful than his attempts at logic. Elina clenched her fists, but didn't say anything to refuse him further. Of course, he completely mistook the red on her face for one hundred percent rage, even though a fair deal of it was embarrassment in the joking idea he had put forward, which, in all honesty, didn't sound like a completely terrible experience to the youngest Vance sister. She was a far cry from a pure girl herself, after all.

"F-fine... anything to make you shut up."

Church smiled at her as he sat against the rock he had chosen. "I knew you'd see reason."

Regretting every step she took, Elina slowly walked over to him. "I wish I was seeing your corpse..."

Even so, she followed Church's suggestion and sat sideways in his lap, though she had to fight the urge to recoil as she did so.

"Tuck your knees in if you can. It's the only way I can cover your legs."

With an irritable grumble, Elina did as she was told, at which point Church did his best to orient his crimson jacket over them both. Needless to say it wasn't a completely adequate umbrella, but thanks to their location at the bottom of the ravine, whatever wind there was did not affect the rain's angle all that much, and the unlikely duo did not have to worry about getting hit from their relatively exposed sides.

Unfortunately for Church, who had stayed at least a little dry throughout the storm, Elina came into this arrangement soaking wet, and soon enough he was as well. Even so, he definitely enjoyed the way her slender body was sticking to him in the growing warmth of their little shelter. Heat and wet bodies tended to do that, even though it was obvious that Elina was trying to touch him as little as possible.

To his surprise, Elina actually had something to say after getting situated. He thought she would be unwilling to speak to him in their current state. "I must admit, I am quite impressed..."

That was definitely not something he had expected to hear. "Oh really?"

"Yes, you see, I never thought it possible that I could hate someone this much. It really is astounding."

Yep, that sounds more like her.

"Aw c'mon, I don't deserve that much credit. I've hardly done anything."

"Besides sexually harass me every single time we encounter one another?!"

"For the record, you harassed me the very first time. You threatened to castrate me!"

"And I see now that I should have, so that you wouldn't have the urge to molest me at every turn!"

Church wondered how truly safe he was in this situation, but he felt like living dangerously at the moment. "Well come on, can you blame me? An alluring blonde in such enticing attire; I'm just a normal man, I don't have the willpower to resist that."

Despite her best efforts, Elina blushed a little, though it was thankfully hidden in the relative darkness of their makeshift tent. "So I have to suffer for your lack of inhibition? How crude."

"Hm... you seem awfully bitter."

"Maybe because, thanks to a certain someone, it hurts to sit down? That might be a part of it."

Church couldn't help but smile at the mention of it. He had seriously scored, no doubt about it. Besides, the reminder of his risque antics also served to remind Church that Elina's practically naked butt was pressed against his thigh. Despite everything that had gone wrong, somehow it had still turned into a really great day.

"Well you know, if it really hurts that much, I'm more than willing to rub it out for y-"

As expected, Church was cut off by a scathing glare. "If you keep talking, I will be perfectly fine with dying in this ravine because I impaled my only avenue of escape. Got it?"

Unlike her previous threats, Church noted a very serious tone of lethal intent in this one. It was pretty obvious that he had pushed Elina a little too far. "Alright, alright, I'm sorry. I admit, I got way out of line with you out there, and just now. It won't happen again."

"Somehow I doubt you truly regret anything. According to you, what man wouldn't want to indulge himself with such an... 'alluring' blonde?"

And now I'm confused. I could interpret that in a lot of ways... is she going to kill me, does she want me to reaffirm that she's good looking, or what?

"Well, t-that's true, but I definitely should have shown some more self-restraint... I'm... not quite sure what got into me back there. Usually I would never-"

Despite herself, Elina smirked. Somehow she had gotten the upper hand again. "Must have just been your natural beast nature. Don't worry though, it's not just you. All men are equally brutish and uncouth."

Knowing full well that she was trying to goad him, perhaps to take her mind off of the intimate nature of their current position, Church quickly found a way to refute her. "What about your father, the Count? Is he as brutish and uncouth as I am?"

Her point defeated almost instantly, Elina scowled at her sitting partner. "Well he certainly isn't as perverse and crude as you! Never before have I met a man with the audacity to... to, you know, do what you did!"

"Oh? What did I do?"

"Don't mess around with me, you know exactly what I'm talking about!"

Church was unable to hold back a smile. Despite the fact that Elina probably despised him more than anyone else Church had ever met, he was honestly enjoying this. Patronizing her was fun. Earning a blush out of her was even more so. "Sorry Elina, but I have no idea what you're talking about. Pulling you down the mountain? Getting away from you at Alabaster?"

A mix of both rage and humiliation overcoming her face, Elina glowered at Church as she tried to force a sentence out. "N-n-no other man would have the audacity to... to s-spank me like you did, you filthy animal!"

Church found it funny that Elina could unleash such complete tones of embarrassment and fury in the same sentence. Moreover, he got the feeling that Elina was not just angry with him. Something about her demeanor led him to think that maybe she wasn't feeling entirely negative about the experience she had just described.

"Oh come on, a little boldness now and then never hurt anyone. Besides, I think you might have actually liked my 'audacity' a little bit."

While the blonde in his lap glared very fiercely at him, Church also noted that she didn't stop blushing. In fact, it might have even intensified. "I'm going to kill you. The moment we get out of this ravine, you're dead. I was actually considering letting you live, but now, I'm going to murder you."

Church tried his best to ignore her threats, but he couldn't really, mostly because he kind of believed her. Church prided himself on being able to read people pretty well, but Elina was being difficult at the moment. He couldn't tell if she wanted to gut him or make out with him, or even both. She was looking incredibly flustered, but at the same time she appeared murderous.

"Alright, alright, I'm sorry. No more jokes at your expense, I promise. I'll stay quiet for the rest of the storm if you want."

Somewhat appeased by that, Elina directed her icy stare outside, much to Church's relief. "Good. About time you stopped talking..."

Falling into silence for well over ten minutes, Church considered falling asleep, but he was afraid of what Elina might do to him if he did so. Besides, he had to hold up his jacket to offer what little protection they had available...

As for Elina, she was currently lost in thought. She was confused, because she had encountered something she couldn't explain. She hated not being able to understand something; it drove her absolutely mad when something important just didn't make sense. In fact, that was half the reason she was so irritated. Because the most important thing at this exact moment didn't make sense to her, and that was her current coincidental companion.

Elina knew how to dissect people. She knew how to figure out their personal weaknesses, to exploit them with scorn and lies even in the middle of battle. It was more than just a battle strategy: it was a passion. Elina loved to get inside people's heads and tear them down, loved to reduce them to shambles without ever raising a finger. It was by far the most malicious aspect of her character, one she didn't care to change, and one that required her to be able to analyze everything about an individual. So far, no one she had encountered had been able to confuse her for more than a few minutes. Even Claudette, with all of her stoic and somber existence that barely revealed a thing about her, had been laid bare in Elina' mind.

That was why the current situation bothered her so. For the first time in her life, someone's nature was eluding her. Every time she thought she had figured out the man she was with, he did something completely unexpected that threw her off completely. When she had pegged him as a useless coward with little independence at Vance castle, he came back and attacked her of his own accord at Alabaster Town. When she had labeled him as a heroic fool who would only fight for others and not for himself, he abandoned the woman he had been helping and fled the field of battle.

And of course, in this situation, things were even more confusing. He had seemed as hateful of her as she was of him before they fell into the ravine. But then he did the most illogical thing possible, and offered aid to someone who had just tried to kill him. Elina had then decided that he was simply a naive idiot with a pathetically 'pure' heart. But then he seemingly stopped caring about her health and ditched her in the rain, at which point Elina was forced to again question what she knew about him, only for him to come back and help her again, but not without perversely harassing her in a way that was far from pure.

And now he was constantly shifting from teasing her about it without remorse to declaring regret at having done so. Needless to say, even after all this time, Elina was no closer to knowing anything about Church as a person as she was the day she first encountered him, and she absolutely hated it.

Under normal circumstances, Elina would have never relied on anyone but herself to figure something like this out, but in this situation where she was completely lost, she just had to interrogate him. It was the only way.

As for Church, despite his efforts to the contrary, he was about to doze off. However, he was roused to full wakefulness when the unexpected voice of his blonde companion made itself known.

"I have a question for you."

Having completely expected the silence to continue for hours, Church was surprised that Elina was actually talking to him first. "Uh, of course. Why not?"

"What is your creed? What set of values do you live by that dictate the way you act?"

Calling this an unexpected question would have been a drastic understatement, but even so Church did his best to answer it. "Well, you know... typical naive hero stuff. Help the innocent, fight evil, that sort of thing..."

Turning her gaze away from the pouring rain, Elina glared at him. She apparently was not satisfied with his answer. "That's far too vague. No one truly lives by such a black and white set or morals."

"What do you mean?"

"You say you'd protect the innocent, but the soldiers in Alabaster Town had not been guilty of anything when you and your allies went on a killing spree. Explain that."

Church frowned at this question, mostly because it was the kind he used to ask himself as a soldier. It was the kind of question he hated. "I didn't kill anyone during that fiasco."

"You also didn't try to stop your companions, who killed dozens. Doing nothing to stop it is the same as condoning it, is it not?"

"Those soldiers were a threat to my safety and that of someone I wished to help. They had to be defeated."

Elina resisted the urge to fold her arms, since one of them was very vulnerable at the moment. "And yet, you deserved to be arrested, as did your friends. All of you were criminals, guilty of raids and fights and murder. In every sense, your group were the antagonists of that situation. And here you are saying that you would protect innocents and fight evil. Don't make me laugh."

His frown transforming into a full-on scowl, Church decided to put his true creed into better words. After all, Elina had a completely fair point. "Fine. You're right, that first answer was too idealistic. I... shit, I don't know. The line between good and evil blurred for me a long time ago. I was just a soldier who followed orders, and sometimes those orders were for me to do terrible things. It stopped being about right and wrong, and more about me versus them. The things I cared about against the things the enemy cared about. For all I know, maybe I was the bad guy throughout my career. Maybe the people I killed were actually the good guys. But killing them protected my sister and my friends, so I honestly didn't care. There was no good or evil, just the power to protect what was valuable to me... shit, that makes me sound like an awful person."

To his surprise, Elina actually smiled, ever so slightly. "No, it make you sound like an actual person, unlike that idealistic hero garbage you tried to pull off. What you've said is secretly the true face of all people, after all. Most villains think themselves heroes, most heroes fail to see that their idea of justice is not necessarily right. Haven't you ever heard that everyone is the protagonist of their own story?"

Church cocked an eyebrow at the blonde, finding it strange that they were, for the moment, actually getting along. "Is that the creed you live by?"

"Like I said, it's the creed everyone lives by, whether they know it or not. But if you're asking whether or not I acknowledge it, then yes. I don't care for abstract concepts of good and evil. I do what is best for me or for the few people I care about as much as myself. Whether it is immoral or not doesn't matter."

Shaking his head, Church couldn't hold back a rueful smile. "Well look at that, the two of us have more in common than I thought."

To his dismay, Elina literally shivered at this. "Ugh, don't say that. I don't even want to think about sharing a similarity with you. Although... now that we have established how you make your decisions, I must admit that I'm still confused. If you take the course of action that best serves to protect yourself or your friends, then there is no reason you should have helped me. You still don't make any sense. It's infuriating."

"You could just ask specifically why I helped you."

"Well that's hardly a challenge, now is it?"

"Good luck finding out then."

Elina actually smirked at this, and for a moment Church wondered if the two of them were now playing a game of sorts.

"Oh I'll find out. Whatever your ulterior motive is, I will find it. I refuse to accept that you could somehow confound me forever."

"Go ahead and try, I won't stop you."

"Alright then, you said you were a soldier, and that you killed people. How does killing make you feel?"

Church did his best to stay light-hearted even though this question was dark. "If you want me say that I revel in it or something, you're going to be disappointed. I didn't feel anything for the people I killed. No joy or enthusiasm."

"But also no regret or guilt?"

Scowling at this, Church wondered if all of Elina's questions would be so pointed. "Yeah, none of that either. They were a threat that had to be dealt with, that's all."

"So, the amiable rescuer can kill people arrayed against his interests without remorse. Sounds like you might really be a villain after all."

"I killed them to protect innocent civilians; they would have killed me just to harm them."

"Yet in their eyes they must have been doing the right thing."

"I don't care what they thought they were doing."

Church took particular notice that Elina's smirk was growing more malicious as she continued on. "A one-sided view of the world where your way is the right way, and anyone who opposes it has to die. I must admit, I didn't expect you to be so ruthless. It might actually be the only thing I like about you at the moment."

Completely unwilling to carry this conversation any further, Church derailed it completely. "That and my 'audacity,' right? How's that hand-print feeling anyway?"

Needless to say, this succeeded in changing the subject. "W-would you stop bringing that up?!"

"What if I combine my ruthlessness and my audacity? Would you be super into that, even if you couldn't sit for a week? Are you a masochist Elina? Does your sister know?"

Going red all the way up to her ears, Elina mentally answered all of those questions though she would never dare utter their answers out loud. After all, only one of those answers was no. "Shut your insufferable whore mouth before I castrate you for real! I'll make sure you never think such perversion about me again!"

"But according to you, such perversion is just a matter of perspective. Only you think it's perverted, I think it'd be kinda kinky."

She leaned in dangerously close to him. "That last threat was not just for show, you imbecile!"

Taking her word for it, Church shrugged and brought his antics to a close, once again plunging the duo into silence. It didn't last for long though, as Church started to chuckle to himself.

"What the hell is so funny?"

"It's just that this has been such a weird conversation... I've had a lot of strange talks with strange people, but this is something else. And despite it all, I'm actually enjoying it."

Appalled to find herself mildly pleased at this notion, Elina tried her best to subdue it. "You won't be enjoying it for long if you don't cut it out with all of this 'audacity' nonsense. Besides, have you forgotten what kind of relationship this is?"

"We have a relationship now?"

"Why yes, you're the insufferable moron and I'm the victim of your stupidity. It's quite tragic."

Church sighed in defeat. "I find it more tragic that you hate me so much. Now that's a shame."

"What, can't stand the thought of one girl disliking you? I get that you're pathetic, but don't you have any standards at all?"

"Of course I do, but you're certainly above that standard, so your point is moot."

And just like that, Elina was confused all over again. She couldn't believe that this idiot was trying to flirt with her even after the three times she had tried to kill him. Now she was back to thinking he was just stupid again.

"Maybe you're the masochist here, trying to seduce someone who mostly thinks of you in very violent ways. Besides, for an ape like you, I get the feeling that just about any girl is above your 'standards,' so I don't feel all that gratified. Don't think you can con me out of hurting you once this is all over."

"I have full confidence that you'd hurt me even if you liked me, so that's hardly the point..."

"Then why bother with all of these petty lies then?"

"What lies?"

Elina directed a rather sarcastic look in Church's direction. "Oh yes, I'm positive the girl who threatened to castrate you is just downright beautiful in your eyes. I know how it works; the nobles who come to the castle for our balls do it all the time. 'You look so gorgeous, Lady Elina,' 'you're so beautiful today Lady Elina.' It's all just a bunch of garbage that people say because they're scared of me or my father."

"Well you can't try to attribute the same to me, because I'm not scared of you."

This statement caught Elina completely off-guard, as it was not a defiant declaration of resistance or an attempt to belittle her. As far as she could tell, Church was simply stating that he wasn't lying to her in an attempt to protect himself.

"...then you're a fool. You should be."

"Well it might be easier to be scared if you weren't as pretty as you are-"

"Would you stop saying things like that?!"

"-and honestly I don't think you're quite as bad as you make yourself out to be."

Beyond reproach at this point, Elina turned herself around in Church's lap so that she was straddling him, though not in any attempt to be risque. She just wanted to be able to look him in the eye at this point. She had been told that she was worse than she made herself out to be, but never better. Moreover, no one except her family and that bandit ape had ever claimed to not be fearful of her at all.

"Then do tell, what does a low-born inbred like you think of me? If you lack the logic to be afraid, tell me what your irrational mind has conjured up."

Church dwelt on his answer for a moment, during which Elina inwardly questioned what he would say. Would he finally be honest and admit that he thought of her as a horrible person? Or would be be so stupid as to say something romantic even though she was contemplating snapping his neck at this very moment?

As for Church, he too wondered what he was going to say. He knew that the way this conversation had started, it was all about baring the true nature of the individual, though Elina had only cared about discovering his truths. She didn't know, nor did she probably even think, that Church had been doing the same. He had learned quite a few things about Elina that the blonde had never hinted at during this conversation. She was not the only one who knew how to analyze people.

"Am I allowed to ask a few questions first?"

"If you think it will somehow improve your attempt, be my guest."

"I know you have sisters. Oldest to youngest, which are you?"

"The youngest."

"If you had to name one person outside of your family that you love, who would it be?"

Elina was genuinely intrigued with this line of questioning, but she didn't honestly think it would yield results. "I can't think of anyone."

"What do you think of your father?"

"He's a capable, competent leader who keeps things in line and is dedicated to his goals. What else is there to say?"

Church nodded to himself, mostly getting the answers he had expected. "And if you had to describe your sisters?"

"I'd say pretty much the same thing about Claudette, and Leina... she's kind to strangers and cares for the weak. She's hopelessly naive... but also very brave, in a foolish sort of way. She's desperate to change the world on a large scale, but fails to see the importance of the more immediate matters..."

Church listened very carefully to both Elina's words and the tone in which she used them. "Alright. I think I'm ready to make an analysis now."

"Fine. Try not to be too disappointing."

Nodding his assent, Church took a deep breath before starting, wondering how many of his deductions would be true. Even if he was fairly sure of himself this was still all guesswork. "You're cruel, vindictive, and obsessive. You probably value your clothes more than human life, with the exception of those within your family. You're bitter and hateful..."

Despite all of the terrible things Church was saying about her, Elina did not feel offended by any of it. She was actually content to see that Church was finally getting rid of the blatant lies and being honest about what he thought of her.

"However, you're also dedicated and loyal to the few people you genuinely care about. Your affection extends to a very select group, but it's fierce and true and you would never betray it. That's admirable... but probably also the source of your cruelty."

For the umpteenth time today, Elina found herself confused, and not just by the sudden shift of analysis, but by the fact that he wasn't wrong in this new line of thought. "You love those few people so completely that you expect the same in return... but you never get it, do you? Your family is either too cold, in the case of your father and Claudette; or even worse, they reject your affection, belittle it, demean it, or simply ignore it, like Leina. It frustrates and hurts you, and you take that pain and turn it against strangers in the form of vitriol and disdain."

Elina wanted to stop him there, but found herself at a loss for words. Mostly because she couldn't believe someone was putting the very nature of her personality into words. No one had ever actually understood her on such a level.

"You desire reciprocation of your feelings at the same level that you give them. And even though you could possibly receive that from a new bond, you're scared, or perhaps just unwilling, to look outside of your family for that feeling. Maybe you think that, if you never got it from your own family, that it'd be impossible for anyone else to provide it. Not to say that you're needy for attention, I don't mean that. Just that you want a relationship that isn't one-sided, like it's always been. I think-"

At this point Elina finally managed to form words. "That's enough, stop..."

Seeing that she was intensely uncomfortable now, Church felt the need to apologize. "I'm sorry Elina. I see I went too far."

"How... how did you... how did you figure all of that?"

"Just some deduction... I took what I knew about you second-hand, from some things I've learned while traveling in Vance territory and your castle... took your answers to my questions, and then refused to think you were so shallow as to have no reason for your behavior."

"R-refused to...?"

"Yeah. I didn't and don't think that you're some hopelessly awful person. If I did that analysis would have been much shorter."

Despite her newfound sense of discomfort around this man who had seen through her so easily, Elina managed to smile. "Then you didn't do as well as you think. I assure you I don't have too many redeeming qualities."

"I still don't believe that."

"Of course you don't. You're hopelessly naive like that, kinda similar to Leina... very similar actually..."

Elina wanted to put some distance between herself and Church at the moment; she was feeling very, very vulnerable. With hardly any effort at all Church had laid bare several of Elina's most deeply buried feelings. Never before had she felt so exposed. Unfortunately for her, it was still raining very heavily, and by now she was too warm to go back out there.

Church on the other hand was eager to discover more. He had been hypothesizing mostly, with assumptions that could have been entirely wrong. But now that he saw that he had hit the mark to some extent, he wanted to learn more about his current company. He was a firm believer that understanding someone was the most important part of establishing a valuable bond with them; or in this case, trying to ensure that Elina didn't really try to kill him after they escaped the ravine.

"You said that your sister Leina didn't pay much attention to immediate matters, and I know she left your castle... are you angry about that or just hurt?"

Having not expected anything else of this nature to come up, Elina glared at Church. "The game is over. I don't want to hear more silly assumptions about how I'm secretly 'hurting.' It was utterly ridiculous in the first place."

"A little of both maybe? Hurt and angry? Angry enough to want to hurt Leina to some extent?"

Elina's face contorted into a prominent scowl as Church once again identified something she tried to keep buried. The worst part was that he seemed to do it effortlessly. "I'm done with this psychoanalysis garbage. Stop. Talking."

Now fairly obvious that she was serious, Church did as he was told. He had to admit, Elina was much more complex than he had initially given her credit for. And unfortunately for him, he liked puzzles. He also liked challenges. He especially liked both of these things when they pertained to people, and even though he could hardly say that he liked Elina at all, Church could now say that she intrigued him, for better or worse, much in the same way Nanael had.

"I'm sorry. I really do talk too much."

For some reason Elina couldn't find it in her to be as angry as she wanted to be. "You really do. Christ, when is this damn rain going to let up? You don't deserve to be this close to me."

"Fate did me a solid, what can I say?"

"There you go again, trying to flirt with the girl who wants to kill you. You're truly dense..."

Church smiled to himself as he rearranged his aching arms. "Agreed. And speaking of things I probably shouldn't ask..."

"Is this going to be a stupid question?"

"Depends. Holding up my jacket like this is making my arms sore. If it's alright with you, can I at least rest my arms on your shoulders? Since you're facing me and all..."

Elina very nearly scoffed. But the moment she considered the fact that Church was the one keeping her dry at his own expense, she gave it a moment of thought. "If you abstain from deriving any sort of perverted pleasure from it, I will allow it."

"Thank you. I just need a few minutes. The water is pooling in my jacket so it's getting pretty heavy." With that, Church lightly rested his arms on Elina's bare shoulders, taking particular note of her expression of mixed distaste and slight acceptance.

Elina herself mentally sighed. This was turning out to be a very long and confusing day.

"Was I seriously that drunk?"

Leina, walking alongside Risty as the two of them traveled down a well-worn road towards the capital, gave her redheaded companion a deadpan look. "Yes Risty, you really were."

"I got into a fight with a kid?"

"Yep."

"We had a bar fight...?"

"Yup."

"Man, I don't remember any of this..."

Risty, her typically wild hair even more disheveled than normal, looked partly wasted even still. Then again, maybe she was just tired.

Leina really thought that getting so wasted was a terrible habit, but nothing she could ever say was capable of convincing the redhead to change her ways. So she simply sighed as she returned her eyes to the road. However, that didn't last long, as Risty soon spoke up once again.

"Leina, look! There's someone in the ditch over there..."

At first assuming that her comrade was simply seeing things thanks to the residual alcohol in her system, Leina nevertheless looked in the direction Risty indicated. To her astonishment, there was indeed someone laying face down in the road's rainwater ditch. "Well come on, we have to see if they're alright!"

Not one to neglect those in need, Risty followed Leina over to the unconscious individual, which they soon identified as a young woman with long silver hair. She was face down and clad in strange clothing that looked unfamiliar to both Leina and Risty.

Together, they rolled the woman onto her back, ignoring their own questions about her blue pants and navy blue top with the hood. Such things weren't as important as how she got here and whether or not she was OK.

Risty moved to give the girl a few slaps to wake her up, but thankfully Leina intercepted her. "Risty please, we could show a little class... we have some water don't we?"

Being conservative with supplies, Risty looked unwilling to use such methods, but she relented after Leina gave her a pleading look. "Alright, alright, here..."

Following Leina's wishes, Risty took their canteen and poured some of it on the face of the girl below them, which quickly caused her to sputter as she was brought into wakefulness.

"Ugh! W-what... what on earth? W-where...?"

The mysterious girl raised her viridian green eyes to look at her rescuers. The sight of them brought many questions to her mind, but she asked the most important first. "Where... where am I?"

Leina looked down at the stranger with a smile. "Just a few miles outside of Liere, a small trade town. Miss, what happened to you?"

The girl rubbed her face. "I... I don't know... but Liere doesn't sound familiar." She then glanced around at the immediate area. She honestly looked surprised to see trees and a blue sky. "Is this the surface...?"

Leina and Risty exchanged confused glances. "Uh... the surface of what?"

The girl looked down at her clothes. "Why am I dressed like this...?" She then turned to face her rescuers. "And you two! Where is this exactly? Where is this 'Liere' in reference to New Eden?"

"And what might that be...?"

"Seriously? New Eden? The flagship capital of the world?"

Risty looked frustrated with these weird questions. "The only 'flagship capital of the world' around here is Gainos. Look lady, before you go asking all these questions that don't even make sense, are you at least going to give us your name?"

The silver-haired girl sighed as she looked around the landscape in confusion. "My name is Misson; and I have no idea what's going on."

#plottwist

Well I dare say this chapter is, so far, the only one where Church has been so openly perverted. But hey, he was getting frustrated and Elina needed a minor attitude adjustment.

Anyway, this is a little shorter than I hoped and it's only focusing on Elina and Church mostly, but oh well. Hope to hear from you guys, though hopefully without the unnecessary flame from particular individuals...