This is my Reaper. There are many like it, but this one is mine

Ulv's confession of experience had Keiko reeling. Four years? For everything that she knows? That... That's pretty good! If that was the case, then in theory, Keiko could learn at least a fourth of that in a year! And a 52nd of that fourth in a week! So on and so forth--and Ulv said it wasn't the best bench mark. For a moment, Keiko had to reason with her own thoughts and force some humility on herself. Ulv, after all, was one of the strongest people in the realm, and surely talented to have gone that far, so let's just say Keiko wasn't as proficient in the learning process as her. So what? That was still good pacing, and Keiko was never one to not be consistent. And, just if, what if, Keiko was even faster than Ulv? Then maybe she'd be able to learn all that in an even shorter period of time!

Keiko ate politely, in a manner befit a noblewoman such as she was trained, but the quicker her thoughts became, the quicker food was going down her mouth. It felt like no time at all had passed before the plate was clean. She didn't even have time to taste any of it!

"A lot could be done in a month though, right Auber-sama? How much would you say I could do in that time?"

And, though it wasn't something she said, Keiko thought to herself, What if I can do even more than what Auber-sama predicts? It was in the spirit of her ambition and pride, that whatever Ulv said, she'd take it as a challenge to herself to complete in an even more expedient process.

As usual, the promise of building a foundation and taking things slow never was something to deter the girl, especially since the promise itself rooted as a guarantee of progress. Now, all Keiko needed to do was build that foundation more quickly, maybe two weeks in? And then, they could move on from that and get into the other techniques. Worst come to worst? Keiko really does go through a string of death matches and narrowly survives. All or nothing, right? Clearly, the girl had a great amount of confidence in herself, for better or worse.

"Eh? To bed? Oh... okay."

Alas, one of the things she dreaded--going to sleep. But, it was hard to put up any protest given Ulv's tone of voice. There were a few things she wanted to say, and do, but in the end she could only ruminate on them, telling herself that the faster she slept and woke up, the faster she could get to learning the next day.