Chapter 304: Every Gossip While She was Sick

Chapter 303: Every Gossip While She Was Sick

Sophia stared in shock.

"Every gossip?" she asked Nia with a frown on her face.

"Yes," Nia told her. "Every gossip you missed for the past week."

"And let me tell you, there are some very interesting things in here, but we’ll start with the one that happened at the training grounds," Nia told her.

"Yes," Laia said, eating a nut. "That’s the best place to start, truly."

Sophia leaned forward, her ears at attention for what Nia was about to tell her.

"Finally," Micah said, "these three," he said, pointing at Joren, Nia, and Laia, "have been hounding this story. Anytime the rest of us asked about what happened, they’ll tell us to wait until you woke up."

"True," Dren said with a nod.

"I’ve been dying to know what really happened, and no matter who I asked, no one gives me the full information," Cat said too.

Sophia was even more intrigued now. "What happened? It must be something big with the way you guys are talking," she told them.

Joren snorted as he took a block of cheese paired with the bread. "It’s less about what happened and more about who happened."

Laia gave a dramatic sound. "My goddess! Joren, when did you get so smart?"

"I’ve been smart for a while. You forget I knew Sophia and Alpha Orion were together before you guys found out," he told her.

Laia rolled her eyes and flicked a nut at his head. Joren evaded it smoothly, then stuck out his tongue at her.

"Guys, can we just get to what happened? You guys are playing, and while I’m all for it, I’m all ears for this gossip about whoever or whatever you plan on telling me," Sophia told them.

"You are very impatient," Nia said with a laugh.

"We are all very impatient about this," Cat spoke up from her chair.

Nia chuckled, then picked up the leather-bound book. She rubbed her hands on it slowly, then with all the finesse of a brilliant scholar, she opened it and cleared her throat.

"Let’s refresh my memory a bit. That’s why I write everything down after all," she said.

She scanned the book for a few minutes before turning to Sophia.

"So, while you were sick, Holly thought it would be best if she moved from the longsword group to the shortswords group," Nia told Sophia.

Sophia frowned in shock. "Surely you are kidding. She is so good with a longsword—what would she want to do with a shortsword?"

"That’s the same question we asked ourselves when she approached our group. It was confusing. She’s one of the best trainees right now, and I even thought that, during the test, she may likely graduate from being a trainee," Laia told her.

Nia frowned at her sister. "In the one telling her what happened, you’ll get your turn to speak."

Laia chuckled and did a mock salute. "Yes, ma. I’m sorry about that."

Nia rolled her eyes but continued. "Like my big-mouthed sister just said, we were all surprised, and Alpha Orion didn’t even want her to join us at first—that much was obvious from how he looked when he saw her. But he was the one who said if we didn’t feel comfortable with our weapons, then we were free to change."

"She used that on him, didn’t she?" Sophia asked them.

Nia nodded. "Exactly. And that’s not even the worst part. Alpha Orion let her join us, but because she wasn’t used to the swords, he told me to teach her while he concentrated on Joren and Laia. But she just wouldn’t let him. She didn’t even let me teach her. When she noticed Alpha Orion was avoiding her, she started getting obnoxious."

"Every moment she’d go ’Orion, is my stance okay?’ ’Orion, did I do well?’ ’Orion, do you think I’m holding the weapons well? Should I change it?’ ’Orion, did you see my anchor steps?’" Joren said, mimicking Holly’s voice perfectly. "It was absolutely disgusting and insufferable," he said with an eye-roll. "Alpha Orion wasn’t even able to teach me what he had planned to because she was always interrupting him."

Sophia was irritated with Holly’s behavior because Orion wasn’t Holly’s. They were not together. They had dated a long time ago, and sure, they were each other’s firsts, but she just couldn’t understand what was going through her head.

Orion didn’t want her anymore. She should move on, but while she still had the thought, after what Joren just did, she chuckled. She couldn’t even feel irritated at Holly.

"How did you get her mannerisms and her voice so perfectly?" Laia asked in awe.

"I observed her and I was very irritated with her behavior that day," Joren told her.

"But you were the one who stopped the fight—you looked so calm," Laia noted.

"Fight?" Sophia asked them.

"We’ll get there," Nia told her.

"I learned from Alpha Orion how to keep calm in situations," Joren told them with pride.

Nia rolled her eyes. "I should have known that would be your answer."

"Anyways," she continued. "Alpha Orion was annoyed, and I’m sure it was also because of the fact that you were sick, and he was training us, trying so hard to stay focused, but then Holly was making it hard on him, and he was just about to snap when Rita called him. I’m sure he thanked the goddess at that point."

"And this is where the main story starts," Laia told Sophia.

Nia nodded. "After Alpha Orion left, Instructor Garron told us to continue training, and just because Alpha Orion wasn’t there didn’t mean we could slack off, right? So I was like, ’Holly, let’s go back to training.’ But no, she was staring at his shadow like she could merge with it."

Sophia frowned. "She wanted to go with him," she noted.

"I think so too. Finally, I got her to train, and I was coming close to correcting her when she said with all venom—’Joren will demonstrate.’" Nia said.

Joren quickly swallowed the fruit he was eating, then cleared his throat and, in that perfect mimicry, said, "Don’t you dare touch me."