Theia
Theia’s forte was marksmanship, but she was no slouch in hand-to-hand combat either. She was Koutarou’s equal whenever they found themselves grappling with each other. Her skill more than made up for her size.
“Hyaaaaah!” She let out a shout as she lithely leaped forward to unleash a flying kick at Koutarou. Flashy moves like this were her favorite.
“Don’t think you’ll get me so easily!” Koutarou cried, evading her and retaliating with a low kick aimed where he expected her to land.
“This is how you treat your future bride?!” Theia, however, didn’t stop moving when she hit the ground. She instantly flipped forward, up and over Koutarou’s kick.
“What are you talking about?! You dodged that like it was nothing!”
“Your future bride is just that amazing!”
“Who said anything about marrying you?!”
Koutarou and Theia continued to trade quips as they traded blows. They’d been in the middle of taking a breather at the park during their morning jog when the fight had first broken out. Shizuka and Ruth, who’d tagged along, now stood on the sidelines watching. The four of them would often go out to exercise together. Koutarou, Theia, and Shizuka were the most active of the bunch, and Ruth made a conscientious effort to participate in order to further her knight training.
“Theia-chan really does fight like a wild beast,” Shizuka remarked.
“Her Highness was trained in the basics of martial arts, but she’s largely self-taught,” Ruth explained.
“So that’s why she moves like that. She really is a natural.”
“Her Highness’s limbs are short, so using a proper fighting style would put her at a disadvantage.”
“Did you hear that, Princess?! They’re saying your arms and legs are short!” Koutarou taunted.
“Shut up! I don’t need long limbs!” Theia roared. In part, she preferred big, flashy maneuvers because they gave her the edge she was lacking in combat—and that was precisely the motivation behind the momentous chop she unleashed at Koutarou.
“Whoa!” he shouted, leaning backward to avoid the blow.
“You’re wide open!”
Theia continued her trajectory forward. With Koutarou off-balance from leaning back, he found himself unable to dodge her next move. He took the brunt of her tackle dead-on.
“Agh!”
Koutarou tumbled backward, bowled over by the princess. Fortunately, the grassy ground absorbed most of the impact.
“Hahaha, I win!” Theia declared. She was thoroughly assured of her victory, and she had every right to be. She was now straddling Koutarou as he lay on the ground.
“All right, you win today...” He readily admitted his defeat. To continue the fight from here would go beyond “a little light exercise,” and that was normally where they drew the line.
“Take that!” Theia crowed. “How does it feel to lose to a woman with short arms and legs?”
“It was fun, so good enough.”
“But how do you really feel?”
“...I’ll win tomorrow.”
“Heh, you sore loser.”
Theia swiftly stood up and held her hand out to Koutarou, who gratefully took it and rose to his feet as well.
“Satomi-kun sure is kind. If he’d used his psychic powers, he could’ve easily won.”
“When I asked Master about that once, he replied, ‘You don’t blow the summit off a mountain to make it more climbable.’”
“If he sees Theia-chan as a peak, then he must really love her.”
“I thought so as well, but I didn’t say it.”
“That was probably for the better. Hahaha.”
Ruth and Shizuka knew well that these sparring matches between Theia and Koutarou were special.
“You should drink plenty of milk,” Koutarou suggested to the blonde princess.
“I already do, but it doesn’t make me grow. What more do you want from me?” Theia countered.
“Well, I guess shorties do make good pilots.”
“Mm, yes... That’s more like it. Heh.”
Indeed, the other girls all knew that Koutarou and Theia’s back-and-forth was just their way of showing affection for one another.
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