Tiana narrowed her eyes as she looked at the door to see who it was, and as it opened, she was surprised to see Sayana come inside, who in turn was also surprised to see Tiana here.
The two exchanged surprised looks at each other before Viktor cleared his throat and said, "Saya, you can come in."
"Ah! Okay," Sayana closed the door gently as she entered inside while Tiana began to send signals with her eyes, asking her indirectly what she was doing here.
Sayana shook her head, telling Tiana that she had no idea why she was here and was feeling a bit intimidated by standing near her PE teacher, who seemed to be looking at her with a focused gaze. Since she knew he was quite strict, she was afraid if he called her here to scold her, though she was sure she didn't cut his classes or slack off on any activities during PE classes.
"Sayana, come closer. If you stand so far away, I would have to raise my voice. Don't worry. I won't bite you or anything," Viktor softly chuckled, making Sayana awkwardly smile as she nodded and stood near him.
This made Tiana glare behind Lucien's back, feeling indignant that he had never talked to her so gently and softly like that. Wait…don't tell me he is interested in Sayana? No way! Why am I even thinking about these things??
Tiana then noticed that Sayana wasn't wearing her spectacles and didn't realize that she actually looked quite beautiful and graceful without even any makeup or even changing her boring hairstyle or clothes.
For the first time, Tiana felt her stomach hardening, wondering whether Sayana didn't wear spectacles because she knew she was going to stand before Lucien.
"Sir…did I do something wrong?" Sayana asked nervously as she meekly looked at Lucien.
But for some reason, when he saw her looking at her with those gentle dark brown eyes, she began to feel more comfortable. It felt eerily familiar to her, though she couldn't understand why.
Viktor smiled as he shook his head and said, "Of course, not. In fact, you are the best student in my class. I have never seen anyone more diligent and hardworking as you."
'I am diligent too! If I want to…' Tiana pursed her lips seeing how Lucien was praising Sayana like this, and it made her feel inferior in a certain way.
Sayana felt at ease and flattered, not expecting someone like Lucien to praise her like this since she had never heard him praise anyone during his classes.
"And that's exactly why I called you here as I have a proposal for you. I want you to participate in the upcoming martial arts tournament that is going to be held during the Ashua College Talent Fest, where all colleges in this country will be participating. But of course, first, you would have to defeat all the other candidates from our college to qualify for the next stage," Viktor stated as he maintained his gaze.
Sayana's lips parted in surprise as she didn't expect him to call her here for this. How did he know that she was good at martial arts?
Tiana furrowed her brows, feeling that Lucien was showing favoritism here. Why did he never nominate her for any such competitions? It need not be only martial arts. She was good at certain other things.
Viktor could see that Sayana was taken aback a bit and said, "No need to be surprised. I had a chat with your mother, and that is how I came to know that you were pretty good at martial arts. I don't mean to brag, but I am pretty confident of my skills as well and even more confident that I can train you well enough to make sure that you can bag the finals trophy."
'Expert my foot. I bet you can't even defeat me, hmph,' Tiana thought of Vanessa and the moves she had been teaching her for the past two months. Because of that, she was now feeling more confident in her fighting skills. Never had she thought that such ruthless moves existed that could deal critical damage. Even she was extremely cautious about not ending up in the hospital when Vanessa taught her these moves. She had to make Vanessa promise to go easy on her.
Still, she didn't doubt Sayana's skills as well, though she hadn't seen her in action much due to her nature.
Sayana had a glassy look, feeling overwhelmed by all this as she scratched her fingers together. She had never participated in any such tournaments and wasn't confident about how well she might do against other experts.
"Sir, I-I am not sure if I am the person you are looking for. Maybe there are others who are better than me in this college. I am not confident of winning the cup, and I don't want to let you down or the college because of picking me," Sayana spoke out whatever she was feeling since she was afraid of not meeting Lucien's or the college's expectations.
"Hey…look at me," Viktor said as he looked into her eyes, "Nobody is expecting you to win or lose, including me. You also don't have to care what the college thinks. But think of this as a chance to discover yourself, including what your limits are…how much you are capable of. You say that you are not sure if you are the best, but if you don't even participate, how will you be sure of that? Anyway, we are not picking you directly. As I said, you still have to compete against your peers in this college. And despite all that, I believe you have the greatest potential to succeed. All you have to do is put in your best efforts."
Sayana took a deep breath as she thought about it and since this was the first time someone was insisting her to take part in such a tournament, she had mixed feelings about it.
Still, Lucien's words of confidence in her strangely made her feel reassured about herself and that things might not be as intimidating as they seemed. And most of all, she felt a spark inside her that made her want to know how well she could do out there.
"So…sir…you will be the one training me?" Sayana asked in a low voice as she slowly looked up at Lucien, who answered with a smile, "Of course. I can hold your hand till you reach the arena. After that, it will be all up to you," Viktor wanted to help Sayana improve her martial art skills this way and had a feeling that this could be very helpful to her.
Since he had centuries of fighting experience, he was sure Sayana could learn a lot from him.
Sayana felt at ease knowing that Lucien would be training her, and she had no doubt that he probably was a good expert in martial arts based on the air of confidence she could feel around him. She was already feeling happy that she could improve herself by learning from him, and after seeing what happened to Dorian when those seniors came to bully him and her, she wanted to improve herself so that people she cared about won't get hurt.
"Okay, sir. I…I will do my best. Thank you for giving me such a great opportunity," Sayana bowed in gratitude.
"You may rise," Viktor said with an approving smile which made Tiana stare at him with a scowl, thinking, 'Saya, why are you bowing before this pervert? I am sure he must be trying to take advantage of you as well!'
She made a mental note to herself to warn Sayana about getting involved with this dangerous man. As her childhood friend…wasn't it her duty to keep her away from dangerous men?
However, she was still feeling aggrieved that Viktor was offering Sayana such a great opportunity while ignoring her. How could she be any lesser than Sayana?
"Meet me at the indoor PE hall at 4 PM. We will do our training there. You may go back to your class now," Lucien said as Sayana again bowed with a smile before glancing at Tiana, who had a complicated look on her face before leaving the office.
"Teach! I want to join this Ashua College Talent Fest too!" Tiana said in a determined tone as she stared at Lucien with an exasperated expression.
