"You know, Sir Jenkins, I can't think of a reason as to why you'd be called a cockroach. Care to enlighten me?"
Pietro, having very clearly heard what was happening, had walked back the few steps needed to stand next to Delphina once again.
It's a term of endearment, apparently, young master.
Nodding his head slowly, Pietro turned to glance at Delphina before looking out to the Knights nearby.
"Really? I had thought it was a term used to degrade the Soldier units, but I'm glad to hear that's not the case, Sir."
In no time at all, the training field next to them looked like it had been filled with cotton-headed dandelions. That was how many faces had turned deathly pale.
"Tut tut tut, looks like even this world isn't free from discrimination."
"Brother, let's just go meet the Hunters that were free today, we shouldn't keep them waiting any longer…"
"Although, maybe an interdepartmental sparring session is in order?"
Throwing a wolfish grin in the Knights' direction as she said this, Delphina winked at Pietro. Who quickly picked up that she was just trying to tease the eavesdroppers.
"Haha, yes, we should do a joint training lesson later on. I'm sure everyone will learn something valuable."
"(You agreed to it, don't blame me later)."
Furrowing his brow, Pietro glanced around, muttering something about people letting the hunting dogs off their leads.
Shaking his head in finality, he gestured to Delphina to follow him again, and so they finally made their way into the building itself.
Once inside, Delphina quickly realised that there were multiple training fields. The Hunters were on the left-hand side, the Soldiers were most likely on the far right of the building, and the Knights occupied the largest middle section. Which they had just passed.
The building itself just divided the areas and provided easy access to medical care or shelter from the elements.
Shaking her head, Delphina was somewhat glad that Pietro took the initiative to guide them. She had originally assumed that the Hunters were just waiting somewhere else inside the training grounds.
But having made their way through the building's wide brick corridor and out onto the other side. The Delphina of now looked towards the different Hunter groups that stood in attendance before her, and simply felt quite sad.
It was diabolically obvious which group the old Delphina had worked with.
A group of Elves here, a gaggle of beast men there. A smattering of Dwarves and a few very pale beautiful people lingered in the trees' shade, at the very edges of the sandy sparring arena. She guessed those were Vampires.
And slap bang, in the middle, where everyone's eyes were drawn, there was a brawl going on. Or to be more precise, a one-sided beating was occurring while two people in hooded robes stood a ~little too close~ to not be involved.
One of them had an eye patch and was occasionally kicking back whoever spilled out of the tussle.
"A chūnibyō?"
Rolling her eyes to the side, Delphina quickly gauged Pietro's reaction. But the glazed dead behind the eyes look only told her this was a regular occurrence and nothing more.
Covering her mouth with a fist, she thought about how best to break these nutjobs up. Clearly, violence was the answer.
Reaching her other hand back, she gestured to Jenkins, who still stood behind.
Here you are, my Lady.
As he presented the sword out to her with both hands, Delphina turned to grasp the hilt of the simple Estoc. A perfect choice for fighting Knights, as it could easily penetrate through armour gaps and even mail if the handler was skilled enough.
However, right now it wasn't going to be used as intended.
By this point, the different Hunter groups (save for the ones scrapping) had already noticed the twins' arrival and seemed to be watching on in amusement.
Sliding her right leg back and gently flexing her knees, Delphina slightly twisted her waist away to the side and elegantly extended her arm back, parallel to the ground. The Estoc now held in a reverse grip.
Stretching her left hand out in front, she used it to roughly centre her throwing direction.
Nodding to Pietro, who had noticed her intentions, she waited till he took a step back before snapping her arm forward in a javelin throw. Twisting her waist back to the front as she did so, the Estoc whistled as it pierced through the air.
"Whoops, I have got to get used to this body's natural strength. I deliberately didn't put my legs into it or anything."
Arcing masterfully through the air, the Estoc dug deep into the group between the pair who had fortunately rolled away from each other just in time.
"Hey! Who the fuc…"
"Ah, ahaha, hello Captain."
Despite becoming two separate dust heaps, the robed individuals rushed forward to pull them up, sand greatly staining the front of them as they dragged them forward towards Delphina.
This elicited uproarious laughter from the other Hunters who now lingered closer than before. Though the Vampires were staying back in the shade, they too were politely giggling.
"Jenkins, do me a favour and retrieve my sword, would you?"
Of course, my-
"No, no!! I've got it, Captain, just a second!"
The largest dust ball untangled itself in front of her to form a beard-sporting, red-haired barbarian. Streaks of blood running down his tattooed arms as he stumbled back towards the embedded Estoc.
Rushing up the few steps in front of Delphina to bend the knee, he presented the sword with two hands, as Jenkins had once done. Only for her to just snatch it off of him.
"Line up you sacks of shit, how much longer do you want to embarrass me?"
Reluctantly, they formed a line in front of her and Pietro, looking like small children who were about to receive a scolding. The other Hunters slowly lining up in their groups after them.
Taking a deep breath in, Delphina clearly enunciated her words whilst she waited for everyone to finish preparing. The poor Vampires were still putting on hooded robes and slowly moving over.
"Formally introduce yourselves! My brother doesn't work with the Hunters, and as I am going to be introduced to the Knights today. It's only fair to reciprocate!"
"Let's start with my favourites, shall we?"
Placing her hands behind her back as she said this, Delphina replicated the image of an Army instructor looking at badly performing recruits.
Her acerbic cynicism wasn't lost on them. That group knew exactly who they were.
Bowing his head, the red barbarian stepped forward once again, braided hair swinging comically as he did so.
"I'm Rhael, I was uh, formally with the Knights…"
Shuffling his feet backwards till he was once again in line, he then kicked the pale sandy beast man next to him forward.
"You fucki… Uh, Axel. That's my name, I'm a maned wolf beast man."
Dusting his ears and tail off quickly as he got back into line, Delphina could see he did indeed have black hair that was tipped in ginger that matched them.
The robed chūnibyō then stepped forward and loudly announced his name was Ferelax d'ebonywai. But as soon as Delphina raised her fist, he pulled his robe's hood down to reveal brown curly hair and squeaked out that his name was, in fact, Eric.
But the eyepatch was real, please believe him.
Finally, the last of her 'Nightmare Crew' stepped forward.
"Um, I can't take my hood off, I apologise. I'm a Vampire, but I promise I only eat Beefsteak fungus and Chicken of the Woods! I'm vegan!"