Owari followed Noel as she led him into her home while doing her best to dispel her embarrassment. Morgana waited outside as they went in bowing respectfully as always. Owari looked around a bit as he entered, unlike his own place which was more like a hotel room, this place was more like an apartment. There was an open living room right after entering the door with a couch and chair as well as a coffee table. The furniture was all rather ordinary, not being overly showy or too cheap. It reminded Owari of Lance's office a bit. There was also an open kitchen at the back of the apartment, you could see into it from the living room and it was stocked with modern appliances that were all in good shape. There were a couple of doors on the right side of the room which probably led to the bathroom and Noel's room.

Overall it’s small but livable, however the entire place felt too clean. In order to be this clean it would have had to be cleaned within the day otherwise dust would have been allowed to settle. He knew because he often cleaned around his own house and he was a bit of a perfectionist so he got used to telling the signs of when the job was done as best as possible. After all you couldn't keep that first layer of dust from settling at some point, it was all about making it as unnoticeable as possible. However to people with senses as sharp as his of course he would notice the incongruity. However he didn't say anything about it, he figured they had gone in to clean a bit before so this didn't surprise him.

"Come take a seat." Noel sat on the couch and motioned for Owari to do the same. Of course he sat down slightly off to the side of her in his usual meditative posture. Before he got the chance to say anything himself though she spoke up. "Now that we have a bit of privacy I would like to ask, is something the matter? You don't appear to be your usual self today." Noel asked uncertainly, while she was worried about the odd mood he seemed to be in, she wasn't sure if it was appropriate to pry.

Owari was a bit surprised she noticed honestly, he wasn't a master at reading others but he was sure it couldn't be easy even for Noel to read such a slight change in his mood just from their small interaction. Before he responded he thought for a bit about what to do. Owari wasn't used to letting himself be emotionally vulnerable, he was the first to admit his own weakness as he knew only by doing so would he be able to improve. However emotional weakness wasn't something he often experienced, and when he did he would find ways to get better.

For instance when his father had died he had coped by clinging to his haori and taking it with him everywhere, without it he may have broken down like any normal child. It wasn't that he didn't get upset or sad, just that he found ways to cope and handle the situation as time went on. He was inherently a problem solver and so when he had a problem he would solve it. This really wasn't much different, he had come here to do just that after all. However he hadn't expected Noel to pick up on his mood change so easily. But as he thought about it he decided this wasn't a bad thing. He wasn't perfect and he honestly just wanted to talk about it. Although being able to solve everything on your own given time might seem great, it also meant he was lonely and had never had someone to lean on when he was down. He always relied on himself, but seeing Noel's worried expression he figured he'd give this whole thing a shot. After all, what did he have to lose?

"To be honest I've been having some trouble adjusting to my new life." He finally said this with a sigh. It was harder than he thought to open up about this.

"Is that so? What specifically has been troubling you?" Noel was a bit surprised by the troubled tone he used. She hadn't known him for a long period of time, however so far he had always seemed to be quite unshakable and fearless. It shouldn't be forgotten that he had saved her life once so she still had some lingering traces of tinted lenses when she looked at him. Hearing him now though she was forced to look at him more closely and remember that like anyone else he was human.

"It's very different from my old life, there's a lot more complicated and annoying stuff for one. Really though it's just a bit difficult to really accept how things changed so suddenly. A few months ago I was safe in my house eating dinner with my mother and I still had my childhood friends and was hopeful for my coming future. Now I have entirely new friends and I've nearly died enough times that you can't even count them on your hands." As he opened up it started to pour a bit and he shared more than he had really intended. He smiled a bit bitterly as he realized just how much this bothered him. It had to be noted he was little more than a country boy from a small town before this, as smart and calm as he was he still had some difficulty adapting to everything. He had sent his whole life one way and within a week he was forced into an entirely different life.

Hearing what he said Noel was taken off guard to say the least. She carefully observed him for a bit as she thought of what to say. "So you're homesick?" She asked after a short silence.

Owari thought for a bit before answering. "Not really, I don't miss my old life and in fact I prefer how things are now. But I'm just feeling drained having to adapt to everything." He sighed as he recalled the feeling of lethargy he experienced this morning.

"Well it's good if you are happy about your new life. It sounds like you just need some time to get used to things." Noel wasn't sure what to say really, she wasn't exactly used to comforting people so she just tried to say what she thought.

"Yeah, that's what I figured. But until then I feel so unproductive that it makes me uncomfortable. That was a bit of why I came out here today. I wanted to relax and just take in everything, it wasn't like I was getting anything done otherwise anyway." Owari sighed.

"Well as long as I am free from work I'll always be happy to talk with you. I know things would have been much harder for me had I not been able to talk to you about all my troubles. I may not be the best person to help you through things, but if you wish then the least I can do is listen to your troubles as you did for me." She wasn't sure exactly what to say at this point to reassure him so she just did her best to smile and encourage him to talk.

"If that's the case then maybe I should talk a bit. Honestly I've noticed that being quiet and trying to stay to myself isn't working all that well here." Owari really wished he could just live a quiet peaceful life full of simple and easy troubles but this new life was far from being any of those things.

"The world of hunters is surprisingly full of talkers and politicians huh? Personally I was surprised at how much desk work needs to be done even by a mere representative like me." Noel definitely understood Owari's feelings on this. She herself thought she would come out to the city and hunt in the wilderness, coming back to arrange the occasional meeting or show her face. But reality was far more disappointing.

"I'm lucky in that regard, as an independent hunter I don't need to worry about maintaining my image as much or thinking about how my actions will be viewed by other factions." Owari was definitely aware that Noel had it harder than him in this regard. "Maybe I should just give up on being a hermit and actually learn some people skills." He sighed with some disappointment. His lack of social skills was more from a lack of interest than anything, like any skill it could be practiced. He just didn't want to since it wasn't something he cared about. He was only now realizing how much he had to interact with other people and was suffering from his lack of forethought.

"It would be quite the shame. It's quite nice to have someone so honest and open in these circles. The more I deal with people the more I realize how unique you are. Everyone is so fake and they feel the need to hide even the slightest and most unimportant of things. Even I can't say I'm immune to such things." She smiled with some embarrassment as she recalled how she had locked him out to clean her home not moments ago.

"Even I have things I don't share. But not admitting your weaknesses and faults doesn't make them go away. Plus it's easier not to hide stuff, the more you lie the more you feel compelled to lie to hide the lie. It's a vicious circle and it only ends with your whole life being a lie." Owari had realized this lesson when he was young and confirmed it after everything that happened with his two childhood 'friends'. Lying and burying the truth only cause complications in the long run. Though things such as what happened to those three hunters back in the forest are better left buried and ignored. He could see the importance of withholding some information, but lying about who you are and how you feel? It's an entirely different story.

"I suppose that makes sense, though knowing that and acting on it are two different things. Everyone knows drinking alcohol is bad for your health and causes you to do dumb things, yet people still do it. What I respect about you is your ability to act so decisively about such things." Noel truly admired this aspect of Owari, even she wasn't truly open or honest about her feelings, and despite knowing what Owari said was the truth she still wouldn't be able to do it. That was just how people were.

"Like I said, even I have secrets." Owari shrugged off the compliment. "But even if I do start to learn some things I won't really change who I am, so you don't need to worry about that."

"Well if you could be so easily swayed then I suppose you weren't as uncompromising as I had thought. I wasn't actually too worried. I just felt it was a shame that you wouldn't be as easy to tease once you were more well-read on social topics." She chuckled a bit as she spoke.

"Who teases who? If I recall it was only a short while ago that you had to turn away to hide your beat red face." Owari raised an eyebrow as he pointed this out. Although he was a bit clueless in some ways he had still grown up around Lucas. Not only did they often joke around in their youth, but he had seen Lucas doing his thing and could think of a million ways to really get under Noel's skin. However he wasn't like that and he preferred joking around and causing a bit of fluster since he preferred her cute reactions over how she would react to some of the other stuff he could think up.

Hearing what he said caused Noel to go a bit red again as she recalled it, however she wasn't willing to lose so she reigned in her embarrassment. "You seem quite confident in your skills." She chuckled as her mind churned to think of a way to turn this around. "But if I recall you don't have much experience with girls. So I wonder just how skilled you really are." She decided to take a page out of Rebecca's book and tried to play herself as being very bold and confident. She smiled slyly as if she had caught Owari, she knew that he wouldn't be so quick to reject her as with Rebecca so she wondered what he would do.

Owari looked at her challenging smile as he wondered what to say. Honestly although Noel was better at talking, Owari was better at this specific subject. Thinking about whether he should just give her the win, he immediately rejected the thought. "You should probably think about the surroundings before you make that kind of challenge." Owari laughed a bit as he looked around, they were currently alone in her living room, even Morgana had retreated to the hall as soon as she realized the subject was turning towards something personal. "Though if I remember correctly you did something similar when we first met." He smirked as he recalled how she had offered him a ride to the city way back when.

"Maybe I'm the one who needs lessons." Noel couldn't help but feel defeated as she said this. She had thought she would have the upper hand in this type of thing.

"Well you didn't spend your whole life watching someone seduce half a town worth of people. I'd be quite skeptical if you were better at this stuff." Owari just laughed when he heard her response. "You know you could have turned that around against me still right?"

"Huh? How could I have done that?" Although she was a bit off-put by his statement about seducing a town, she still recalled his story about his friend Lucas so she wasn't too surprised. However she was distracted by the other part of his statement.

"You could have doubled down. Even I would be flustered if you were more confident with yourself." Owari didn't really mind sharing some tips, after all it would be boring to always win.

Noel stared him down for a bit as she tried to read him. "So you're saying I should have tried to bait you?"

"Pretty much. After all, do I look like the type who would know what to do if you did? You're stronger than me, we're in your home, and your bodyguard is outside. What would I even say if you suddenly tried to tempt me? I'd have been stuck trying to figure out what to say or do. But now that you missed the chance I've already calmed down and would have no trouble working it out. The most important thing in those situations is to seize the initiative and keep up the pressure, in a way it isn't any different from a fight." It was this way of thinking about it that allowed Owari to be so confident and sharp in this specific subject. It wasn't just because of his knowledge about this type of thing from his time with Lucas, after all just watching someone do something couldn't let you learn the skill. Your attitude was important too.

"I never thought of it like that. Wouldn't that make pretty much all social interactions just another type of fighting?" Noel voiced her thoughts before really thinking, but when she said them she suddenly grew excited. "If I think about it like that it would make talking with all of those long-winded representatives easier."

Owari was also surprised by what she said and thought about it for a bit. Social interactions were really just another type of fighting, but instead of swords and the body you used your words and your mind. Although he was simple in many ways, Owari was not stupid. He was confident in his sharp wit, so why was he having so much trouble with this? The answer was his time with Lucas and Milly where the very act of interacting with them was an exercise in patience and required a lot of his attention and effort to keep going. He was placed in a bad position and had been doing the fighting from a position of weakness as the only one who cared about their relationship. Now that he knew the problem he could fix it, he just had to make sure he was never the one in the weaker position, and when he was he would just need to learn how to get out of it. "Who would have thought that I would learn such a valuable lesson from this topic." Owari laughed a refreshing laugh.

"Surprisingly lessons can come from anywhere huh?" Noel also couldn't help but laugh a bit at the situation. After all if she had been told that their flirting, not that she would call it that even that was what it was, would lead to such an important change in perspective she would have never believed it.

"I guess so. Well I've given you a few tips, I wonder if I can look forward to a real challenge in the future." Owari had a hint of provocation in his tone.

"A challenge implies you stand a chance. I do not intend to lose so easily in the future." Noel wasn't one to shy away from such a challenge so she responded with the same tone and gave a fearless smile.

"I hope not." Owari smiled back, he was feeling quite a lot better and a lot of his worries from the morning disappeared just like that without him even really noticing.

"By the way how did you get so injured?" Noel suddenly asked this out of curiosity. Although the change in tone and topic might seem odd, she was naturally a bit scatterbrained and tended to move on to new subjects quickly, something Owari was used to after listening to her talk so much.

"I fought a swarm of knifehead beetles." Owari didn't try to hide it, however he noticed that Noel didn't seem to recognize the name. "It's a swarm type magical beast of the metal element. The swarm I fought was about high copper low silver rank. There was a lot and so they snuck some shots in when I was trying to practice my new technique to counter them. In the end though they were too limited by their attack option and so I was able to take them down." Owari didn't think it was necessary to explain all the various aspects of this specific species of magical beast so he just gave an overview.

"You've improved then. Have you started making or practicing a mystic art?" Although she asked this her tone seemed sure of the answer.

"I have improved, but no I haven't found a mystic art I like not to mention I have no affinity." His answer however was the opposite of what she expected. Outside of the iron rank being able to kill magical beasts without a mystic art was very difficult, and the silver rank was considered impossible. The idea that you could use your physical body and an ordinary weapon to overcome the raw power of mana in any capacity was difficult to accept. Even Noel could only kill high iron to low copper rank magical beasts without using mana.

"I see. You must have quite the skill to be able to do that." Noel wasn't sure what to say exactly. Neither she nor anyone else would expect Owari to take his physical martial arts to such extremes, one part of being a perfectionist meant he didn't skip steps often. To him a mystic art was just a fancily enhanced physical martial art. If the martial art being used was trash wouldn't the mystic art be trash too? However most people didn't put much stock into physical martial arts since there was a recognizable limit to them. On the other hand mystic arts used mana and seemed to be capable of anything, even cutting the top off a mountain was possible with enough mastery.

"I just put some effort into mastering my techniques. I don't like sloppily made things and I don't exactly have much choice." Of course this was the main reason he improved his martial arts, because he had few alternatives.

"I can understand that feeling. Maybe I should work on my basics again." Noel started to wonder herself whether her mystic arts suffered from the lack of polish on her basic techniques.

"The basics are the foundation for everything else. The stronger the foundation the more stable the building and the higher it can go." Owari threw out a bit of wisdom he once read in a book on martial arts somewhere. He wasn't sure what the author's intentions were but he had his own interpretation of these words.

"That sounds like something my grandfather would say." Noel laughed as she recalled the few times she spoke to her grandfather and how he would lecture her and her cousins.

"I'm not sure if that's a compliment or not." Owari wasn't sure how to feel about being compared to an old man.

Noel didn't clarify and instead she decided to laugh more, leaving Owari unsure of what to say. She marked this down as her win as she prepared to jump into a new topic. As she did so she thought for a bit before turning and throwing her legs up onto the couch and placing her feet between her and Owari while placing her hands behind her head. When she saw Owari giving her a curious look she smiled calmly and answered the unasked question. "I'm just getting comfortable, after all you're sitting so comfortably there so I was a bit envious." As she said that she tapped her foot against his leg gently to indicate how he was sitting.

"No need to explain yourself to me. It's your home." Owari chuckled as he saw her like this. Clearly she wasn't as well mannered and ladylike as she acted, this should be her real self. "Can't say I'm surprised though given how you sleep." He chuckled as he recalled the trip to the city.

"Huh? What are you referring to?" Her smile froze up a bit, it wasn't like she could watch herself sleep and nobody else had ever remarked on it.

"Well in comparison to how you lay down while sleeping you look like the picture of grace right now." Owari chuckled as he watched Noel grow a bit nervous.

"Was I that improper?" She felt a bit embarrassed hearing this.

"At least you don't kick off your blankets." As he said this she noticeably relaxed, at least she didn't move around too much in her sleep. "Also you snore." However before she could get all of her confidence back he struck the final blow.

"I... I what?" She couldn't help but stutter at this.

"You snore." Owari smiled as she sat there in stunned silence.

"Why didn't you say anything?" She did her best not to act embarrassed and spoke in a slightly annoyed tone, though it came out a bit meaner than she expected.

"You'd have been a lot less nice if I told you back then." Owari just smiled calmly and didn't seem upset by her reaction at all. He expected it after all.

"I would have just been embarrassed." She tried to argue back.

"Yeah but if I told you the day after I found out we still had two more days of travel not to mention how you might act when you started to get tired and need sleep. Also we didn't know each other well." Owari gave out a reasonable explanation and Noel couldn't help but feel defeated.

"I want to crawl in a hole. How bad was it?" She finally asked after closing her eyes and leaning her head back in defeat.

"You were quite loud actually." Owari ruthlessly told the truth, making her flinch.

"You really aren't that good at giving bad news. Well I suppose it could be worse, at least I found out before I went out on any expeditions and embarrassed myself unknowingly. How do I even go about researching how to stop snoring?" She wanted to fix this poor habit both because it was embarrassing and because it could be an issue in a dangerous environment.

"I can help you with that. If you have some paper and something to write with I can write down some breathing exercises and throat massages that should help you figure out what's causing it and fix it." Owari himself used to snore when he was young, but his stillness while he slept and how quiet he was were acquired due to his training.

"That would be a great help, though I still wish you had brought this up sooner." She sighed as she finally threw off the last of her discomfort.

"Like I said it probably wouldn't have gone well. Even I'm not so socially inept that I don't realize how much people care about their image. Especially considering how you always tried to act so proper. I only told you because you seemed to be willing to open up a bit in that regard."

"Well I guess it's pointless to hide it at all anymore given that you've seen me at my worst." She couldn't help but sigh. "Though in a way it is quite freeing knowing I do not have to worry so much about my image." As she said that she smiled as she folded her legs and stretched out. When she got comfortable she was leaning back like a delinquent with her arms behind her head and her legs stretched across the couch. She didn't even bother keeping them folded and she even sat them on his leg.

He looked down at her feet which were resting on his leg and then looked up at her, she was sitting there with a smug grin and a defiant aura. It felt like she was challenging him to do something about it. "I thought you didn't like touching people?" He didn't directly do anything to stop her.

"I only mentioned that I am not used to touching other people and that my condition complicated things a bit. However it wasn't too long ago that I recall you grabbed my hands quite presumptuously. In comparison this is quite tame actually." Her grin became even more defiant as she said this. It seemed she was already taking his advice into practice as she exuded confidence.

Owari just smiled a bit as he now recalled what she was talking about. At the time he hadn't thought about it much but it really was quite forward. He also recalled how her hand felt, it was quite soft and fragile. Not at all like he expected given how strong she was. Recalling that feeling he realized he was getting embarrassed and he sighed in defeat. "You win this one." He barely spoke this out as he closed his eyes and tried to reign in his thoughts.

"I was hoping to see you blush a bit, but I guess this is good too." Noel leaned back triumphantly. Although she had been interested in what he would look like when he got embarrassed, she hadn't expected him to still be so calm. However having him admit defeat so openly was refreshing and it didn't feel too bad.