Chapter 87 :

Episode 87 - Edan

Edan picked up an apple placed on one side of the fruit shop.

He did not particularly enjoy mingling with the villagers, but today’s outing was purely for his younger sister.

He intended to make a pie with her favorite fruit for the child, who seemed dispirited lately.

When the time of the tournament came around, she became restless.

She was a soft-hearted girl, so Edan knew that if he showed signs of worrying about her like this, she would try even harder to hide that side of herself in front of him.

For her sake, he was willing to endure a little inconvenience.

“Edan, are you going to make Lia a pie again?”

Edan gave a brief nod to the fruit shop owner, who spoke to him familiarly on his own.

Unconcerned by that unfriendly attitude, the fruit shop owner came closer to him.

Edan decided to quickly pay for the apples and leave the shop before the man made him more annoyed.

If only the man’s lowered voice had not grabbed Edan by the ankle.

“I heard Lia was loitering around in front of the temple yesterday. Looks like Lia still hasn’t come to her senses, has she?”

* * *

The morning of the tournament dawned.

In front of the largest building in the village, in other words, in front of the village temple, the emotions shown on the faces of the people gathered there were all similar.

Expectation, tension, and a little fear.

Jing, Ratel, and I were roughly the same.

Though it was hard to find expectation or fear, there was at least a slight tension in the air.

The difference from the others was that the cause of that tension lay somewhere other than the tournament.

“All Lucha participants, receive your numbers over here!”

When a person who appeared to be the temple’s manager loudly called the people, the participants gathered in familiar teams.

But we could not join their line.

“Lord Ran, Miss Lia seems much too late.”

Jing muttered while looking in the direction of the lodging we had left.

The tournament was just about to begin, but Lia had not arrived yet.

She had left the shop early at dawn to avoid Edan’s suspicion.

If anything, she should have arrived first. There was no reason for her to be late.

The distance from the temple to the lodging was not that far, and the route here was not so complicated that she, a village native, would get confused.

It was one of two things.

Either her mind had changed about helping us, or something had happened that prevented her from coming.

The strong feeling that this circumstance was related to Edan was probably not just needless worry.

* * *

Lia looked up with a frightened face at the person blocking her path, someone a full head taller than her.

“B-brother.......”

“You seem to have somewhere urgent to go.”

At the sunken voice, Lia squeezed both eyes shut.

It was clear he had already noticed about the Lucha tournament.

Unable even to think of straightening her shoulders, which naturally curled inward, Lia lowered her head deeply.

She wanted to run away immediately, but as she had been cornered inside the narrow bookstore, the only path she could take to leave was the passage Edan was blocking.

Lia did not have the courage to force her way past Edan, who looked utterly furious.

Jing and Ran had said she was fairly strong, but Lia knew what it meant to be truly strong.

Unlike herself, who merely had a little more strength than other people, she knew very well what it meant to have real talent.

She had no choice but to know.

Because she knew all too well what kind of person Edan, who had been by her side since birth, was.

“I-I only agreed to lend my name. Those people said they came all the way here to participate in the tournament, but they were short on people, and the application deadline was yesterday, so.......”

Lia, who had been earnestly making excuses, gradually trailed off under the heavy gaze silently looking down at her.

“So you’re going to enter the tournament? Why? Do you want to embarrass yourself again?”

At Edan’s merciless words, Lia’s shoulders shrank a little more.

But this time, Lia could not easily back down either.

She had already firmly promised Ran that she would help.

He was someone who had almost lost the chance to participate in the tournament because he helped her.

And most of all, they were people who had believed in her.

She did not want to disappoint them.

“......They said I don’t have to do anything. They said I just have to stand there. The rest will be handled by those people.......”

Seeing that Lia did not seem inclined to give up as obediently as he had expected despite his pressure, Edan felt his patience run out.

He still did not know that the cause of it was anxiety.

“What do you think the villagers will say if you just stand there? You’ll be on everyone’s lips again. Lia, who embarrassed herself three years ago, came out to the tournament again. Lia, who held her brother back, is getting greedy again. Are you going to listen to things like that? People are finally starting to forget, and you’re going to repeat something like that again?”

As if she had been struck by Edan’s merciless words, Lia’s face twisted.

But Edan did not stop.

“Those people are travelers anyway. Whether they win or lose, they only have to leave the village. Only we, who remain, will suffer. You’re a smart girl, so why don’t you understand that?”

At Edan’s warning, which ultimately became a shout, Lia could not say anything.

Even so, she did not say that she would give up on the tournament.

That made Edan’s head grow even colder.

And one assumption brushed through his mind.

His eyes grew even sharper.

“Or have you really decided to leave with those people?”

“That’s not it!”

Lia answered hurriedly, but Edan’s patience had already hit bottom.

“Do nothing. If you feel even a little sorry toward me, then just live the way you have until now, Lia.”

His large hand reached toward Lia.

Like a person who had fallen into the deep sea, Lia stared blankly at it, even forgetting to breathe.

Until his strong grip pressed painfully against her wrist.

Bang!

At the sound of something collapsing, Lia came to her senses.

A cloud of dust rose along with the roar.

Lia and Edan turned their heads to find the source of the noise.

The bookshelf that the bookstore owner had worked so hard to dust had fallen over.

The problem was that the collapsed bookshelf had knocked down the bookshelf beside it as well.

The bookshelves lined up narrowly in the cramped space began to collapse like dominoes.

Fortunately, the one who reacted first between the two was Lia.

She did not miss the opportunity.

Lia shook off Edan’s distracted hand, then pushed his upper body away with all her strength.

And she ran.

Without looking back.

* * *

It did not feel as if she had run that fast, but her breath rose all the way to her throat.

Lia did not know whether the choice she had made now was right or wrong.

This was the first time she had resisted Edan’s words this strongly.

What if the preliminaries ended right away?

Would Edan kick her out?

Maybe this time, he would really abandon her.

All kinds of worries covered her mind. But she did not want to stop her running legs.

Even when Edan pressured her, strangely enough, the words that she would give up did not come out of her mouth.

The thought that this might be the last chance in her life would not leave her mind.

When Lia, who had squeezed out all her strength and run, arrived at the tournament grounds, Jing was earnestly explaining the situation to the tournament manager and buying time.

“She only went to the restroom for a moment. One cannot help a natural bodily function. She will come soon, so please give us just a little more time.”

“I-I’m here! I’m sorry! My stomach hurt so much that I......!”

Lia hurriedly ran over and matched her words to Jing’s excuse.

The man checking the list of participants scanned Lia up and down with a displeased face.

“I-I’m huff......! I’m the participant Lia!”

Lia worked hard to exhale the breath that had risen to her chin and insisted that she was the participant Lia.

“I already know that you are Lia.”

The man answered Lia as if she were pathetic, then turned his arrow back to Jing.

“You are still one person short. If even one person is missing, you are disqualified from participating.”

Only then did Lia realize that among the four of them, one person was still missing.

She also vaguely realized that the reason was because she herself had been too late.

‘He went to look for me, and we must have missed each other.’

Just as the blood was about to drain from Lia’s face at the despair that had not yet ended.

“Participant Ran has arrived.”

At the leisurely voice heard from behind, Lia turned around while holding back the cheer about to burst out.

It was the moment Ran, who was approaching while pushing through the participants, looked like a savior.

Though it did not seem that way in the list manager’s eyes.

“Hey, for a team that barely arrived in time, why are you acting so confident?”

As if he disliked Ran’s relaxed attitude, he spoke while waving his pen at him.

Even under the rebuke of someone working at the temple, Ran’s expression did not change much.

“As long as we’re not late, it’s fine, isn’t it? Victory isn’t decided by order of arrival anyway.”

“What? You......!”

“You seem to have plenty of time. Enough to waste it here.”

The man, who had been about to become furious at Ran’s casual speech, snapped back to his senses at Ratel’s words from beside him and checked the time.

Watching the back of the man as he disappeared while grinding his teeth and promising to remember this, Jing and Lia let out sighs of relief.

But Lia’s heart was still beating quickly.

This time, it was not because of intense exercise or fear.

Expectation, tension, and a little fear.

Feeling the three emotions she had not been able to feel before because she had been so out of her mind belatedly overwhelm her, Lia followed the people and moved toward the participants’ waiting room.

* * *

In terms of teams, there were thirty-four teams, and in terms of people, one hundred forty-six people gathered in a large participants’ waiting room made from a single tent.

It meant that most of the village’s young people were participants, and it also meant that humans were packed together.

No wonder they would reduce the number of people by half in the preliminaries.

I thought that while rubbing my slightly aching shoulder.

Perhaps because we had applied for participation last, Team 34 was the number given to us.

Maybe because the preliminaries were merely a procedure to remove the extras anyway, five matches were held at once in the temple courtyard.

In other words, ten teams went out at once and held a dogfight.

It was a simple structure that revealed their determination to reduce the number of people by half as quickly as possible within the space allowed.

It meant that there was still some time before we, the last team, went outside.

Wouldn’t it be faster to have Ratel and Jing sweep away all the participants instead?

At the thought that made me simultaneously recall a certain animated film about fighting with pet monsters at the forefront, I shook my head.

Let’s stop.

If that guy found out I had been thinking this, he might try to make my head drop cleanly again.

Even now, the gaze glaring at me as if to kill me every time was stinging.

I did not want to clash with him unnecessarily until I parted ways with him.

“Where did you go?”

As soon as I made up my mind like that, I looked at Ratel, startled by his amazing timing as he spoke to me as if it were a lie.

But I could not find any particular emotion on his expressionless face.

“I looked around the village a little. Searching for Lia.”

At my answer, his eyes narrowed slightly.

“That woman said she was a little late because she spent time at the bookstore.”

It seemed she had not mentioned what happened with Edan.

Well, she was not the type to tell every detail of her family circumstances to people she had not even met for long.

“I didn’t think to go there.”

“That is a lie.”

At my answer, his judgment fell.

And with absolute certainty.

I silently looked into his calm eyes.

He also did not avoid my gaze.

“You reek of dust and old ink.”

I did not make the sloppy mistake of hurriedly checking my own smell.

Because he was the one lying.

I had flapped my wings desperately in order to follow Lia without being noticed. There was no way enough odor molecules remained for him to smell.

“The smell must have stuck to me when I went there yesterday. More importantly, I have no reason to lie about something like this.”

“Exactly. What are you trying to hide by lying?”

Ratel turned his head and gestured with his eyes toward Lia, who stood with a face stiff from tension.

“I need to know why you keep bringing along that woman, who is not particularly helpful.”

I had no answer to give.

I could not say I was following the flow of the original work, nor could I answer that I actually had an ability and was hiding it.

“Next, Teams 31 to 34! Come outside!”

What saved me was the booming voice calling us from the tournament grounds.

That guy, who had briefly turned his gaze outside, looked at me again.

“I did not think you would obediently tell me. Then I have no choice but to do things my way.”

Leaving behind a warning that sounded like a threat, he brushed past me and stepped outside the tent.

Through that uncomfortable moment just now, I was able to realize one thing clearly.

It was obvious all over again, but that guy really had a filthy personality.

* * *

Lia, who had been following me from behind, spoke in a voice as small as an ant.

“...Sorry.”

Lia’s breathing was trembling.

“What do you mean?”

“It might be a little unpleasant. But it’s not directed at you, Ran, so just ignore it. All right?”

When I asked back at her sudden apology, Lia spoke in a voice that seemed ready to bite.

When Lia and I stepped outside, Lia’s anxious breathing grew even louder.

It did not take long for her anxiety to become reality.

“What? She really came out?”

“It’s Lia, Lia who made a complete fool of herself back then!”

Because the jeers and mockery toward her, as she appeared in the tournament grounds, began.

Following Jing and Ratel, who had already entered the tournament grounds, Lia also moved her steps.

“Um, Ran, I’ll apologize in advance. I’m sorry.”