No, there was actually one other thing. The desire to recover Alice who was taken away by the Axiom Church. Even while swinging this wooden sword at this moment, the vestige of his blonde-haired childhood friend alone would not disappear from his mind. He believed it must have been the same back when he was chopping down the Gigas Cedar in his hometown's forest. It would be eight years soon, since that day in the summer. When the integrity knight who had given his name as Deusolbert Synthesis Seven took away Alice, all Eugeo had done was to look on. Although he held onto the «Dragon Bone Axe» that could even sever iron at that time, he wasn't able to even brandish it. Despite how someone right beside him... a boy around the same age was screaming in desperation. Asking if he could really accept that. That's right... who exactly was that? There shouldn't have been any other friends of his that had called his name in that manner aside from Alice. Even so, he could still recall those youthful shouts reverberating faintly, deep within his ears. Automatically counting the number of strikes in a corner of his mind, Eugeo dived deep, deep into his memory; then it happened. "Oh my, Eugeo-dono's practice is as mysterious as always, is it not?" That amused voice echoed behind him and threw Eugeo's concentration into disarray. The sword's trajectory deviated slightly and an unpleasant recoil numbed his hands akin to when he had made a blunder swinging the axe during his woodcutting days. Despite how there should have been quite a distance between Eugeo in the corner of the vast practice arena and Raios' group in the exact middle, the fact that the sound was that clear would be because they were intentionally raising their voices to make him hear. He should have been fed up of listening to their sarcasm by now, but he could only consider it shameful of himself for his emotions to be swayed, even now. Ignore them, ignore them; Eugeo tried to convince himself and was about to continue swinging his sword— "Are you not curious about what meaning there is for Eugeo-dono to do that night after night, swinging that stick without style or finesse, Humbert?" "I concur, Raios-dono." Their exchange reached his ears again as they had intended and they went so far as to start snickering; even though he couldn't resort to physical means, he still gave a reply within his mind. —And you're as spirited as always, though only when Kirito isn't around, Raios-kun. Since the month before last, they have stopped the direct provocations whenever Eugeo and Kirito were together for some reason. In exchange, the scorn Eugeo received when he was alone accordingly increased, but it didn't seem to be because they found Eugeo easy to deal with, but because they were spooked by Kirito. Apparently, something occurred between Kirito and them around the end of their novice trainee period, but his partner would only claim that it was merely "a slight quarrel" when he asked and of course, he couldn't ask Raios directly either. What seemed related though, was how Raios and Humbert had strangely pale faces on when they saw Kirito give an unusual potted blue flower to Sortiliena-senpai after the graduation ceremony last month, but he had absolutely no idea about the significance behind it.