Dixy's mom was shocked when she was glomped by her overly enthusiastic daughter as soon as she entered the mansion.
"Oh look! If it isn't my beautiful mom! Emily, Koko! Look, this is the genius behind almost all of the sweets and chocolates under the Brown's name!"
The lady in the business suit almost had her brain fried as she tried to comprehend her usually tsundere daughter's sudden shower of compliments.
She could only wonder… just how many felonies did her daughter commit to try to flatter her like that?
----------
A few minutes later, a very embarrassed Dixy was left grumbling next to her mother while her friends talked and laughed along on the opposite sofa while munching on the delicious snacks on the coffee table.
Even as a princess who had eaten all kinds of confectionery from chefs who desperately wanted to please her in her last life, Emilia had to admit that the Brown family's sweets were of a superior quality.
Of course, she didn't know if they were just that good, or if the raw materials in this world were just better.
Dixy jabbed her mother on the shoulder while pouting.
"Why would you even think I committed a murder?!"
The lady in the business suit smiled. "Fufu… I just assumed the worst when my tsun-tsun daughter suddenly started acting all dere-dere, but I'm happy it didn't turn out to be like that after all."
Dixy's face twisted at her mother's words. "Ugh, the way you talk is so disgusting, mom!"
"Ahh, that's the daughter I remember. Petulant as always. Very cute."
And poor Dixy had to not only endure the teasing of her own mother, but also field the complaints from Koko.
"Aunty! You don't know, this meanie really tried to kill me before!"
Dixy's mother smiled. "Hoh, did she now?"
"Yea! When I was trying to ki—mph!"
Dixy hurriedly lunged across the coffee table and shut Koko's mouth forcefully while trying to keep a smile on her face.
"By the way mom, you remember I talked to you about taking me to the dojo yesterday?"
Her mother blinked in surprise. "Ah yes, I remember. But didn't you chicken out right away when I told you that your grandfather is back?"
Thinking that it was a matter of life and death, Dixy grit her teeth. "I didn't chicken out! I wanna go!"
"Fufu… better late than never. I'll take you there myself. Do you girls also want to come and see?"
----------
And so, waving away the driver who had driven them back from school, Dixy's mother drove them by herself to a private property not far from the city. The young mother seemed quite familiar with both Koko's and Emilia's family backgrounds, and threw offhand compliments with little effort.
Emilia had to admit she was a little impressed. Perhaps she had already checked on her daughter's friends in such a short time, or maybe she was just overthinking things.
"Here we are."
The wooden dojo looked quite humble and quaint compared to some of the training establishments Emilia had seen in her past life, but the old man who greeted them inside gave off the aura of a master.
If judging by looks alone, he looked like a harmless elderly man.
Barely coming up to the shoulders of even the three high school girls, and without any buff muscles, when combined with his wrinkled face and long white beard, it really made people doubt if he could even fight off a child.
Dixy's mom left shortly after exchanging greetings with the old man, and the three girls were left staring at him in silence.
"G-Grandpa."
"Un."
"Uhm, I-I wanted to learn how to defend myself, can you teach me?"
----------
In the end, the old man did not speak another word to his granddaughter, and only signalled his disciple to 'teach' her.
And Emilia realized why Dixy got scared upon knowing her grandfather was back at the dojo. It was because once someone was inside his dojo, they had to follow the old man's will.
Aside from the old man and the three high schoolers, there was only a six year old boy he called 'kiddo' and a buff looking girl whom he called 'disciple'.
No matter how much Koko whined about not wanting to learn how to fight at all, the 'kiddo' came punching and kicking at her, forcing her to defend herself. In contrast, at least Dixy knew her fate when she came here, and willingly went along with the 'disciple' to 'learn'.
Despite being almost two feet taller, and her biceps being thicker than Dixy's thighs, the disciple was quite 'gentle' with the short haired girl. Even if Dixy's screams made it sound otherwise, there was no sound of broken bones or dislocated joints yet.
And as Emilia barely avoided the old man's lightning fast jabs and kicks, she realized.
'No wonder this place is so empty… this old guy is a maniac!'
"Fight Emilia! Fight! My villainess can't lose! Kick his wrinkly ass!"
----------
After almost two hours of not being able to get a single hit in, Emilia collapsed on the mat, covered in sweat. Her only consolation was that the old man hadn't landed a hit either.
"Un. Not bad, not bad. I felt you could fight when you came in. The body is very weak, but your talent is very good."
Emilia felt a little surprised that he could notice such a thing with just a look.
In her last life, the number of knights who could perhaps best her in a fight could be counted on one hand. And in her first life the number would be even lower, given that body had been trained with the singular purpose to fight, from birth.
But the fact remained that this body had not been trained to fight at all. It was created by using the void formula, and was just a newborn baby even if its original image was based on 'Emilia' in her second life.
Even if she shape-shifted into a ten feet tall buff monster, her actual strength would remain the same, even if having sharper claws and such would increase the lethality of her form.
So the fact that the old man could feel that she had a talent for fighting meant that he based it off either intuition or the way she carried herself.
Either way, Emilia felt flattered. It felt very different from when someone complimented her looks.
"O-Oh… thank you?"
The old man chuckled as he saw her cheeks turn red. He was thinking, heh, this old man still had some game. No wonder grandma used to love him so much. His son is stupid to call him a narcissistic old fart.
Too bad grandma passed away, and he had to move back to the boring dojo all alone. Now he could only hope to train a good disciple to carry on his legacy.
He gave the pink haired girl a nod, thinking this girl is also worth training alongside the others. Good attitude and good talent are rarely found together, after all.
"Hoho, don't be a stranger. I guess my granddaughter finally came here because of you, somehow, so I'm grateful."
He gazed lovingly at his granddaughter as she got her ass kicked by the buff looking girl left and right.
"Un, how adorable."
'Maniac!'
Thankfully, the old man couldn't read her thoughts.
"I always thought my lineage would really end without inheriting the style we honed for so many generations."
"My moron son's talent is abysmal in anything but business, and even my adorable granddaughter refused to come to my side no matter how many times I asked."
"I even promised her that if she trained with me I could make her as tall as two men, with arms thicker than tree trunks and legs that can crush boulders with a single stomp, but even that wasn't good enough!"
"With the few years left in my body, how could I wait for my great grandchild?"
Emilia felt awkward and didn't know what to say to that at all. Isn't it because you promised to make her look like a weirdo that she didn't go? Thankfully the old man seemed comfortable simply talking by himself.
"My disciple is good at learning, but she cannot teach for the life of her. Even if she spent her entire life training someone, I doubt the next generation would learn anything but how to mend broken bones faster."
Emilia's lips twitched. 'Doesn't that mean Dixy is getting beaten up for no reason at all?'
At least Koko was having fun, using her long legs to keep the six year old little kid at bay. Her monkey brain seems to have mastered the art of kicking haphazardly to the level of an expert in just two hours.
The old man was still talking, by the way.
"So I'm grateful to you, who made her realize the importance of inheriting my art of fighting. Therefore, I shall teach you personally from now on."
That's… good, right? That's good, right?!
"I just have to make sure not to accidentally touch you, or something might break!"
Emilia's mind blanked. So it turns out that when the old man hadn't managed to touch her either, it was because he thought her body was too weak to take a hit from him?!
----------
The sun was already down by the time the old man called it a day.
Both Dixy and Emilia looked equally miserable, the only difference being it was Dixy's body that hurt, while for Emilia it was her ego that was damaged.
From their group, only Koko managed to come out on top today.
The freckled girl pushed up her glasses smugly, ignoring the crack on the lens from a punch that the 'kiddo' had managed to get in.
"Hehe, don't cry. You came to big sister punching and kicking, but you don't know big sister is a great fighter, kicking the asses of villains and saving damsels in distress!"
"Hem hem, I shall let you be my sidekick. How about it? Great warrior Koko and sidekick kiddo, it sounds good!"
"No, from now on you will be Keke! Great warrior Koko and sidekick Keke! Too cool!"
The little boy 'kiddo' wiped the tears in his eyes with his white sleeves, but didn't complain or retort at all. It was like losing to a button masher in a fighting game, it would just look more pathetic if he complained about losing to a girl who only knew how to kick randomly!
When the Brown family's car finally came to pick them up, the two girls were too exhausted to respond to Koko's monkey brain antics.
'Kiddo' grit his teeth in anger as he watched the villainous 'button masher' walk away with a beauty in each hand.
And as Dixy looked back at the youngest disciple of her grandfather, she had a strange thought.
'Huh, he's probably also thinking if this is how it feels to be cuckolded, right? I'm glad to share the feeling with someone so soon.'
