Unfortunately, the Demi-human Girls Completion Manual lacked Spiritual Wisdom, otherwise Fisher would probably have scolded it.
Fisher shook his head and temporarily focused on his own Record in hand, leaving all training matters to Xiayat.
Miss Moli swam several laps underwater before slowly surfacing. She seemed tireless, as if the exercise had invigorated her body too. Her tail, which usually swayed only when she was shy, was now playfully swishing under the water, creating a vortex in the current.
"Okay, Moli, since you’re almost warmed up now, I’m going to officially start teaching you how to fight... but before that, you need to tell me the specific problems you’re facing, so I can figure out how to solve them for you."
Moli straightened up in the water and then told Xiayat about her fear of fighting,
"Every time I encounter something scary... like an enemy or something, I get really scared, scared enough to want to hide, and I don’t want to fight at all... and once I think about fleeing, the Whale-man Species body suffers severe consequences... I’m really troubled by this."
Xiayat rubbed her chin with a troubled look, then suddenly brightened up and said to Moli,
"Right, actually we can take a different approach. Fisher has probably been making you face combat and confront your fears, but since that method doesn’t work well for you, we can try something else... Moli, I want you to generate your own emotions, so you won’t want to flee, and you’ll want to solve the problem yourself."
"My own... emotions?"
Moli tilted her head, looking innocently puzzled, while Xiayat stood up with hands on her hips, sneaking peeks at Fisher, who was sitting nearby writing something. The smile on her lips grew wider, sliding towards something more "sinister."
She led the confused Moli away to a different direction, until they were far enough away from Fisher. Then she sat down again by the riverbank and whispered to Moli,
"So, let’s set aside the fight for now. I want to ask Moli, what are your feelings towards Mr. Fischer?"
Caught off guard by the sudden shift in conversation, Moli’s face turned crimson and her ears flapped rapidly upon hearing that simple question,
"Feelings and such... Mr. Fischer is only my... teacher, he’s very kind to me, and... and looks at demi-humans with a gentle gaze, a Human Lord Ramasitia has mentioned who holds a great respect for life... I mean, I mean, Fisher really is a good person... and I, I do have... a bit... a little bit of, a little bit of a liking for Mr. Fischer."
"Oh? Just a little bit?"
Xiayat held her chin, her aunt-like chuckle unceasing, eagerness written all over her face as her ponytail rose slightly in anticipation of the next answer.
Moli’s blue eyes began to swirl as chaotically as a whirlpool, as if losing focus and becoming confused, her hands gesticulating to explain her recent admission,
"Not... not just a little, by a little bit, actually, it should be, probably, quite a lot."
Moli, with her chin in her hands, was teased by Xiayat’s few words into a mixture of embarrassment and annoyance. Her mouth trembled as she tried to speak but couldn’t articulate anything, obviously still processing Xiayat’s earlier probing questions,
"Don’t... don’t tease me anymore, Miss Xiayat..."
In any event, all Miss Moli could do was to plead with pitiful eyes using gentle, non-threatening words to make Xiayat stop, but Xiayat had no intention of actually teasing her, so she quickly changed the subject, her head tilting curiously,
"But if it were Mr. Fischer, wouldn’t he be quite popular with Human girls?"
"Just think about it, although I don’t know much about Humans, I should still know more than Moli. A gentleman whose looks even a demi-human can appreciate, and a scholar with principles and knowledge—many a Nali Lady or higher-status young lady would love such a man, right?"
Moli was still gaping, but this time her tail and long ears had stopped moving altogether. The water beside her flowed quietly, but the current in her gaze seemed like the prelude to a storm, devoid of any dark curse spreading, but that familiar sense of danger had appeared on Moli at this moment.
The reason was nothing else but the trail of Xiayat’s words, making Moli suddenly think of her friend Milica, the once-met "Kado Saintess" Renie, and the Princess Elizabeth, who lingered like a nightmare...
What if, what if Mr. Fischer chose another Lady? What if Mr. Fischer’s intention was merely to study her, and his expressed admiration for her beauty was just basic politeness towards a female? In that case, she could only knock Mr. Fischer out and take him back to the sea...
But Moli would never resort to that until the last moment, because she wasn’t a fool; she knew that wasn’t the right way.