"Ah, the weather's nice again today."
A brisk autumn morning greeted Ares as he stepped outside Rigbarth Outpost. Ares held a salmon onigiri in hand; earlier, he had made two and eaten one for breakfast. Turning toward his field, he found Scarlett, once again in her morning training.
Ares waved and called out to Scarlett, "Hi Honey!"
"Good morning, Dearest." Scarlett smiled and returned the wave. "This is good timing, actually. I want to show you something."
"Oh? What is it?"
Scarlett stood about 10 meters away from the training dummy and began charging her spell seal in her right hand. Ares could tell that she was intending to curve the seal's trajectory. Scarlett wound up to her right this time, and instead of throwing the seal sideways, she suddenly jumped and spun her body parallel to the ground. She threw the spell seal up and forward, and as if affected by gravity, the spell seal curved back downward, hitting and ensnaring the training dummy. Scarlett landed on her feet and confirmed that she had hit her target.
"Whoa, that's amazing!" Ares applauded Scarlett's new technique.
"I was able to figure this out thanks to what you showed me earlier. Now it's possible to throw the spell seal over hills and walls."
"Yeah, that'll be really useful. Can I try it now?"
"Of course." Scarlett stepped to the side and let Ares take her place. He charged his spell seal, and after spinning his rune power to make it curve, he copied Scarlett's form in winding up. He then spun his body the same way she did and let go of his spell seal. The seal was thrown at a much higher angle than Scarlett's throw, and even as it slowly curved downward, it flew a good distance into the air, attracting the attention of some townspeople, before dissipating.
"Oops, heh, that was too early." Ares nervously scratched the back of his head.
"I know you can do it, Dearest." Scarlett's gaze at Ares was encouraging, without a hint of doubt.
"Alright, I'll try again." Ares's second attempt resulted in him throwing she spell seal too late. The seal hit the ground, albeit only a meter away from the dummy. On his third attempt, he managed to get both the timing and the curvature correct, and the spell seal followed a similar arc to Scarlett's, striking the dummy true.
"Wonderful work, Dearest." Now it was Scarlett's turn to applaud Ares. "It only took you three tries to get the technique right."
"Aw, that's only because you showed me how." Ares blushed ever so slightly. "When I first taught you the curved throw, you learned it much faster than I did."
"It's much easier to follow someone's instruction than it is to invent a new technique." Scarlett smiled with understanding.
"Yeah, I guess you're right. Oh, I brought this for you." Ares finally remembered the salmon onigiri he was holding, and he handed it to Scarlett.
"Thank you very much! I quite like your onigiri."
Scarlett enthusiastically began consuming the rice ball, and as Ares looked at Scarlett smiling and eating, he seemed to notice something. "You've changed a little, Honey."
"Oh, how so?"
"When we first met, it seemed like you were always trying to compete with me. You took every little shortcoming personally."
"Oh, I guess you're right…" Scarlett looked at the ground sheepishly.
"But just now, when you were praising me, you seemed really happy. It made me happy too."
"Now that you mention it, when I finally finished practicing this technique, all I could think about was teaching it to you." Scarlett looked upward in thought. "When did I stop caring about our rivalry?" Was it perhaps a week or two after the rangers had started dating? "Now I guess… I'm more concerned about us growing together." She blushed almost immediately after the words had left her mouth.
"Yeah, I like that a lot." Ares stepped toward Scarlett, an endearing smile on his face. "Let's support each other, both as rangers and… as partners."
"Agreed, Dearest." Ares and Scarlett gingerly embraced each other. A cool breeze blew by the two, gently reminding them that they were still outdoors, and they quickly separated, their faces bright red. Eventually, they composed themselves again.
"Say, Honey, can you accompany me on my farmwork?" Ares asked. "I wanted to ask about something."
"Sure, I have time today. Shall we talk as we go?" Scarlett ate the last bite of her onigiri and followed Ares, watching him plant seeds and water his crops.
"Do you know how skill stones work?" Ares asked.
"I know that when we attune ourselves to one, we can use the skill inside it." Scarlett personally used only skill stones for dual blades, whereas Ares practiced with those from all different weapons. "I don't know much beyond that, though."
"Is it possible for us to make our own skill stones?" Ares thought back on all of his crafting experience. "I don't know how to make them, but they must have come from somewhere."
"If it's at all possible, I believe either Darroch or Captain Livia would know about it. Why?"
"Well, we've created some new spell seal techniques that would be useful to other rangers, right? If we made skill stones with these, they could be useful for others."
"Hm…" Scarlett pondered this for a while. "I've never heard of skill stones for spell seals, but I've also never heard of unique skills for spell seals. I think it's worth a try."
"Great, then after today's patrols, do you want to go talk to Darroch and Livia together?"
"Yes, I'm curious as well. This could be a major boon for current and future rangers."
"Yeah. We're helping each other grow, but we're also helping others as well. It's nice."
Scarlett nodded as Ares finished with his farmwork.
"Alright, I'm done. Should we head back to town?"
"Yes, let's begin our patrols."
"Okay! Oh, is there any place you want to go to for our next date?"
Scarlett giggled softly. "Let's see, how about…"