Chapter 103: No Holding Back

Julius didn’t know what to say. He wasn’t a person who was good at comforting others. And at the moment, he didn’t want to say the wrong thing and make things worse. He understood where Aubrey was coming from though. How couldn’t he?

Personal strength has a big influence in this world. Power is everything. Julius got annoyed and frustrated every time he lost against someone else. It didn’t matter if they were one or even two tiers above him. He didn’t like losing.

So for a person like Aubrey who is touted as a genius to lose to a person many years her junior, it must sting. He knew that. He knew that from the second they had their first match together. Yet, he never knew how much it was truly bothering her until now.

It was dead silence after Aubrey’s words. Julius could only hear the slight humming of the still-active barrier surrounding the room.

Finally Lily was the one who broke the silence. “You know that’s not fair Aubrey,” she said gently.

Aubrey gave a little self-deprecating chuckle. “I know very well that it isn’t fair.” She turned to look at Julius again. “I wasn’t saying that I don’t like you. I do, I can speak for everyone when I say that we all enjoy your company and are glad you are our friend.”

“But…?” Julius asked softly.

“But, you make me feel inferior like what I do isn’t enough,” she finished.

“I’m sorry,” Julius apologized. He didn’t know what else he could say. He certainly didn’t mean to make her feel that way.

She shook her head at him. “Don’t you dare say that. You have nothing to be sorry for. I’m feeling this way because of my own insecurities and need to find a way to get over them myself. It’s not your fault and you should never be sorry for being better than someone else. You worked hard for your strength.” She waved her hand at Edgar and Lily. “We all know it.”

“You work just as hard too,” Julius said.

Aubrey laughed, a real laugh this time. “No, I don’t.”

“Yes, you do. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have been able to improve your skills so much in such a short amount of time,” Julius reminded her.

She gave a short laugh again. “You don’t think I know what you do every night?”

“What do you mean?” He feigned ignorance. Though, Julius had a suspicion he knew exactly where she was going with it.

“Don’t think that I don’t know what you do every night. I spar with you the most out of all of us, so I have a good idea of what you are capable of. And there is no way someone makes that many improvements overnight in their sleep. Every day when we pick up where we left off you are already two steps ahead from the day before. That doesn’t happen unless you train in the meantime,” she said while looking at him in the eyes.

“You train afterward too, I know you do,” Julius pointed out.

“Of course I do!” Aubrey exclaimed. “There is no other way to keep up with you. But no matter how long I stay up and train in the middle of the night, I can barely keep you within sight. I can tell when you are holding back when we fight.”

She paused and sighed defeatedly. “I know how hard you train. Gods know I do, but how am I supposed to keep up with someone who barely sleeps and spends all of their time in a training room,” she half-laughed.

Julius was about to oppose that when she cut him off. “Don’t even try to deny it. I went looking for your roommate the other week and talked to him. He said that he hasn’t even seen you sleep in your bed at night.”

“Why did you go and talk with him?” Julius was shocked to hear that Aubrey went out of her way to look for Henry. Julius hadn’t even talked to the guy other than the first day they met. He had been doing his best to avoid the noble brat since then.

“I was worried, we all were, and I remembered you said your roommate’s name was Henry. It wasn’t hard to find him after that. There are only so many first-years named Henry after all,” she explained. “Tell me I’m wrong. Tell me that you don’t go off to god knows where at night and train. I know Edgar has the same suspicions, he was the first one who mentioned to me how much training you must be doing at night.”

Julius didn’t say anything in response to that for a moment. He looked over at Edgar who was looking right back at him with an awkward expression and shrugged his shoulders at Julius.

He groaned inwardly. He hadn’t told any of them about his nightly routine because he thought that it would just needlessly worry them and he didn’t think it was a big deal. However, it seemed he was wrong because Aubrey was making it sound like it was.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

“Where do you go at night?” Aubrey asked him directly.

“To the training facilities,” he admitted.

She nodded as if she expected that answer. “What about sleep? Do you just sleep on the floor?”

Julius just shrugged, “You know I have a skill that helps fatigue.”