An Englishman in Castle Aincrad

Floor 10 - Chapter 4 - ...With the Sword of a Thousand Men

With their new mission in hand, the group headed back in the direction that they'd just spent a few hours heading away from, and back into the Bamboo Forest. Keeping their guards up, none of the group were particularly talkative, but even to Klein, he could feel a small amount of anger coming off Strea. At exactly what, he wasn't sure, but now probably wasn't the time to discuss it... mainly, as she'd just charged into battle against one of the centipede mobs, and was proving exactly why Klein felt her to be a force of nature at times, as the mob was torn to pieces by a fully charged sword skill.

He'd known she had an advantage over all of them in levels, simply due to how she'd even found herself in the death game in the first place, but was it seriously that much of a difference, he wondered? Somehow, he suspected he already knew the answer...

''Well, they're dealt with.'' Strea stated, placing her sword onto her back. Considering the sheer size of the thing, he had to wonder just how high her strength stat was to not only carry it, but swing it around as if it were any old sword, before he realised she was staring at him... ''Uhh, we gonna go now? They've already gone ahead...'' she asked, a slightly bewildered tone to her voice as she did so.

''Oh, right! Sorry, just, uhh, lost in thought a little...'' Klein admitted, as they started walking after Thinker and Yulier.

A few seconds of silence passed by, before Strea chose to break the building tension... ''Anything interesting, or...''

''Huh? Oh, what I was thinking? Nah, not really. You?'' Klein, probably wisely, chose not to reveal that he was thinking about her. Their friendship was often tenuous enough, without revealing anything like that, and especially with how easily that could be misinterpreted, he wasn't willing to pull the pin on that grenade.

''Just... something Yulier told me earlier, that's all. New Years, I... you're not a bad guy, just... that whole Casanova shtick, I guess I just feel like I'd just be another woman who happened to catch your eye. Nothing special, just one more notch on your bedpost.'' Strea admitted without any prompting, catching Klein completely off guard and causing him to miss a big rock on front of him, and fall almost flat on his face...

''Huh, and here's me thinking you just didn't like me...'' Klein joked as he picked himself up from the dirt, earning a sullen look from Strea as he did.

''Sorry if I gave off that impression...''

''Strea, I was joking. You wouldn't still be in the guild if you didn't like me, I know that much for sure. You'd have told me where to go by now, and carved out some path on your own.''

''Yeah, probably'' The tone she said that with made it obvious that she didn't think that was the case, and that she'd probably still be with them, even if she absolutely despised them... not that she did. The guys in Fuurinkazen were, well, they were close knit, something that Strea, a newcomer, would've struggled to be, but they'd always offered to help her. She'd admit, she often assumed that was just because she was a pretty woman wearing a low cut top, and that if she were a bloke, they'd have just shrugged her off, but she knew that, somewhere, deep down, that was just her being ridiculous... even if it probably did help, admittedly.

''So, what do you think of those two, I mean...''

''They're down bad for each other, just won't admit it.'' Strea stated, without a moment's hesitation. In response, Klein just laughed...

''You can see it too then! I didn't think it was just me, but...''

''Oh, nah, they just won't admit it. It's obvious to everyone but them, really.'' Both of them looked towards each other, and realised the irony in that statement. Both knew that they liked each other, that much was obvious to both of them... as inept with romance as they were.