"My humble apologies, Swordsman-in-training Zizek." At that moment, the man immediately lost his temper and shouted after a step forward. "And you dare repeat that insolence! When addressing me, you must add in the «second-ranked» as well! Or do you have no regard for the history and traditions of this honorable swordsmanship academy..." "Come now, no need to speak any further, Humbert." His shoulder was then patted from behind, making him quickly close his mouth and back off. As indicated by those words earlier, this grey-haired Humbert Zizek was the second-ranked elite swordsman-in-training among the twelve students living in this dormitory. And the blonde male, Raios Antinous, was the head elite swordsman-in-training, ranked first. In other words, the month before last, Raios took over the position of the previous head who fought a fierce battle with Kirito, Uolo Levanteinn. Despite how unalike Uolo; who had the air of a stoic military man, Raios was, who was a man who could not be said to be any closer to the very image of one from the higher ranks of nobility with the vanity that he exhibited, their command over swords were remarkably similar. That might only be natural, considering how they used the same, «High Norkia Style»; though it wasn't pleasant knowing that the sophisticated, if speaking in a positive light, or devious, in a negative, Raios was trained in the Mighty Sword designed to down in one hit, just like Uolo. Kirito had mentioned this previously during a discussion over the matter. That half of that might behind the swords of students born in the higher ranks of nobility were from the huge pride they had nurtured since childhood. Raios' dedication towards swordsmanship and his intensity of training could not even reach Uolo's heels, but his pride surpassed the latter's by far. Thus, there was that abominable and almost viscous weight behind Raios' sword. —However, could the word, pride, be interpreted to mean self-esteem? If they have that much self- esteem, why would they persist in such shallow harassment? When Eugeo had rebutted him so, unconvinced, Kirito had then replied after pondering for a short moment. —Self-esteem is the continuous judgement of oneself. But pride is not limited to merely that. Raios and the rest must have cultivated that pride through comparing themselves with others. Hence, they show contempt to us who weren't born as nobles or even born in the central capital. Or approaching it from the opposite angle, they are unable to maintain that precious pride of theirs without doing so. Those words from Kirito were rather complex to Eugeo, but he interpreted it as the more he fed Raios' and Humbert's pride by being meek, the stronger their swords would get. The thought that he might as well answer in a provocative and arrogant manner did come to mind, but unlike his partner, Eugeo had neither the knack of determining where the limits for violating the academy's regulations lie, nor the inclination to pick unnecessary fights in the first place. Thus, although Eugeo was slightly ashamed of his obedient nature, he still gave a quick bow to show gratitude before heading towards the corner of the practice arena once again. Upon stepping across the plain wooden floorboards which were newly cut from the forest near the central capital with plenty of Life remaining, those nasty feelings gradually faded away. In the central capital where nearly all buildings were made from stone, a place to enjoy the aroma of fresh wood was precious.