Jisoo watched Jennie fencing with Solar. As always, it was a pleasure to watch Jennie fence - she moved so gracefully through the fight, it was really almost unearthly.

"Jisoo!" Madame Park called out. "Solar's getting tired. Get in there and replace her."

Jisoo quickly put on her mask and stepped down to the line. After the next point, Solar stepped out and Jisoo lined up opposite Jennie. At first it seemed that Jisoo couldn't get past Jennie guard, but after a time she was scoring as many hits as she was taking. 

Jisoo could see by the look of concentration on her face that Jennie was thinking of something. She tried to be ready for whatever Jennie could throw at her. As Jisoo lunged forward, Jennie withdrew her blade and targeted a gwonbeop spinning kick to Jisoo's arm. Jisoo's sword was knocked out of her hand, clattering to the floor some distance away. As soon as Jennie put her foot down from the kick, she lunged, catching Jisoo in the center of the chest.

There was silence throughout the salle. Everyone was looking at Madame Park to see what she would say about Jennie's unorthodox technique. After allowing the silence to extend a moment longer, Madame Park said "Jennie, such a move is completely out of place on the field of honor."

Jennie nodded. 'Yes ma'am, but as ladies, we wouldn't be allowed on the field of honor anyway. In the event of a duel, it would be our husband or some other man fighting for us. I figured if we were fighting, it was a matter of survival, not of honor, and therefore I should use every technique at my disposal."

Madame Park began to clap. "Very good, Jennie!" She called out. "I was waiting for one of you to figure out the advantage of combining your martial arts. I should have expected that you would be the first to do so." Madame Park looked around the room, taking them all into her gaze. "You are entering a new phase of your training. Henceforth, there will be no scientific boxing class and no fencing class. There will be only 'combat' class."

Madame Park gestured for them all to come closer. "Here is how combat class will work. The entire class will be sparring. You'll pick a slip of paper out of a jar - this will contain what equipment you have available - maybe a sword, maybe a knife, maybe a parasol or a pair of knitting needles, maybe nothing - you will then face off against someone who has also chosen their equipment from a jar. You will wear fencing coats to prevent you from getting injured, and fencing masks to prevent your face from being damaged. From here on out you must be particularly mindful to not injure each other during training. At this point, you've undergone enough training to be a valuable asset, and you've also had enough training that you're capable of doing serious damage to each other - and you must avoid doing that." Madame Park swept her gaze around the good, catching them each with a cold stare to stress the importance of what she was saying.

Just then, the day porter came into the salle holding a visiting card on a little silver tray, which he presented to Madame Park. After she read the card, she gave some quiet instructions to the porter, then turned back to them with one of her rare smiles. "Great news, ladies!" she announced. "Madame Young is here. I hope I can convince her to remain her for a few days so that you can end your visit properly, but at any case, you'll definitely have the rest of today. You are now free until lunchtime."

Jennie and Jisoo took Irene for a walk in the hedge maze. Once they were around a couple of corners, Jisoo grabbed Irene and embraced her fiercely.

"Thank you so much for all that you've taught us," she said, tears welling up in her eyes.

Once Jisoo released Irene, Jennie stepped forward for a more reserved hug and to say thanks.

"Hey now, no crying," Irene said as she dabbed at her eyes with a handkerchief. "It's not like this is good-bye forever. Plus, now that we know each other, we can write to keep in touch."

"That's true," Jennie said. "Of course, we'll have to write as if Madame Park and Madame Young were going to read our letters, because you know they probably are."

Jisoo nodded. "I wonder if it would be safer to use a cipher on our letters, or if that would cause problems for us specifically because the madames couldn't read what we were writing."

Irene looked thoughtful for a moment. "Maybe we could use one of the ciphers were the genuine message is concealed within a longer text.'

Jisoo and Jennie agreed that this was a good idea, and the three of them huddled up on a bench to plan exactly what their cipher would be. When they heard footsteps approaching, Irene quietly closed the memorandum book she had been taking notes in and slipped it into her reticule. Fortunately, it was just Seulgi and Moonbyul. Irene called them over, told them about