The learning(Stella/Solomon)

Solomon arrived at the appointed destination as promised. His clothing was relatively simple today, a long white shirt and form-fitting black jeans. Nothing to catch the eyes, clearly, but then his intentions were wholly focused on checking up on Stella. She was a pleasant student, all things considered, and there was nothing he so solemnly wished for than to see her succeed. Seating himself beside the woman, he turned to her with a warm smile.

"Good to see you again, Stella. How have you been?"

"Someone sounds like they've been having fun since we last spoke. I hope your friends have treated you well."

Solomon returned the small embrace before patting his hand against her head. The bright aura she exuded was a welcome sight, and he found his mood elevated by the happiness in Stella's tone and posture. As it were, he genuinely cared for her as though she were one of his younger siblings. Reclining against the bench, he maintained the redhead's gaze as he posed another question, one squarely focused on how she felt during her time away from the City of Lights.

"How has life been outside the city? Part of me has been contemplating taking a vacation one day. Got any good suggestions?"

A playful jest, to be sure, but not entirely untruthful.

"The hotsprings, eh? To be honest, I've heard so much about those over the years, but I've never quite found the time to see what makes them so popular here."

Solomon wouldn't entirely call himself uncultured, but he wasn't really familiar with many cultures outside the places he had visited so far. His extended period in Africa allowed him to learn much about the country, even in its dire time of need, but that proved to be the extent of his cultural experiences so far. His mind contemplates the locations where he could reasonably spend his time and enjoy himself, but his focus remains squarely on the subject at hand.

"Anyway, have you made any friends here? Met anyone of note that caught your eye?"

Like an older brother, he continued to explore what was currently going on in her life. To him, that was simply natural. He cared about most of his peers to a significant degree, and Stella was no exception. Far from it, in fact.

"What's that? Has my pupil been training on the side in my absence with others?"

Solomon playfully ruffled her hair with a grin, expressing a degree of pride at her finding other avenues to train, even more so that such training take place with friends. He wasn't so curious to explore who she trained with, though, allowing her to shift subjects if she so desired. Instead, his curiosity simply explored what their training was like.

"What did your friend teach you about?"

"Intuition and intelligence in battle are crucial. Oftentimes, it can be the deciding factor between a win and a loss. Whoever this woman is knows her stuff. Heh, I'm impressed!"

Solomon was pleased to hear about her improvements during her trip. To him, they were certainly worthwhile skills to improve upon. Steigen was energy-efficient by nature, a movement technique that would only benefit her and allow her to pressure her enemy with her spirit weapon. He didn't quite imagine the benefit of concealment in Stella's case, though. That was perhaps the only facet of the training he would've disagreed with, but that was likely rooted in his personal philosophy as a member of the Sternritter. In addition, Stella hardly struck him as the covert type. Then again, he didn't strike himself as the type who could excel at covert operations and presence concealment, either...

"Don't worry about concealing your presence too much. Being a member of the Sternritter means you're pretty much guaranteed to be fighting on the frontlines nine times out of ten. Now, then, let's go sightseeing shall we? We can continue our conversation observing the beautiful gardens here while we walk. I'm sure you probably have some questions for me as well, no?"