Chapter 88 :

Episode 88 - Sinner

The louder the murmuring grew, the redder Lia’s face became.

As time passed, Lia’s shoulders curled further and further inward.

Perhaps displeased by the sight of many people ganging up on one person, Jing frowned.

“Have you participated in Lucha before?”

When Ratel, who had not even a fingernail’s worth of delicacy, asked her outright, Lia pressed her lips together and nodded.

“Yes, just once three years ago. I was eliminated in the preliminaries, though.”

“If you were eliminated in the preliminaries, that makes it even stranger. Isn’t that the section where half the participants are eliminated? What reason would they have to remember you just because you participated in one match?”

He spoke with a frown, as if he could not understand.

“That is......back then, I lost by foul.”

Lia lowered her bright red face and whispered.

She probably did not want to say it, but seemed to judge that saying it with her own mouth would be better.

“A loss by foul?”

Jing raised his eyebrows at the dishonorable phrase, one that must never have been allowed in his life.

Hesitating under that intensity, Lia slowly opened her mouth.

“......I participated while carrying a piece of metal....... I-it wasn’t on purpose. But during the match, it fell out......so.......”

I could not keep listening to her disorganized explanation.

Because the whistle announcing the start of the match rang out, and a dogfight immediately began.

It did not take long for it to become clear just how much of a ragtag group Team 34 was.

Unlike the opposing team, who split into four directions as if accustomed to it, we stood still in place.

No, to be precise, not everyone was part of the ragtag group.

The moment the opponents moved, Jing immediately threw himself to the left and protected our team’s pride.

It was just as Lia had said.

The preliminaries were decided before long.

Because among those who moved from their spots, no one was faster than Jing.

In the blink of an eye, the man whose neck was caught in Jing’s hand rolled across the ground with a vital point pressed.

The whistle rang, and the referee announced our victory.

The silence of the spectators, who could not accept a victory and defeat decided so quickly that it was almost too quick, lasted only briefly before exclamations and cheers burst out here and there.

When someone who remembered Jing’s name began shouting it, people infected by the contagious disease called excitement shouted his name along with them.

We had passed the preliminaries.

But it was not as simple as I had expected.

Because if things had gone as they should, Jing’s name was not the only name the people should have shouted.

I turned around and glared at someone whose name should have been called.

At Ratel, who had not moved a single step since the match began.

Unlike Lia and me, he had voluntarily become a ragtag member, and he looked at me as if asking what the problem was.

So this is how you’re going to play it?

“It’s a fighting tournament, at least in name. Why don’t you show a little sincerity?”

“I didn’t lie down on the ground. Isn’t this enough sincerity?”

Ratel said calmly.

His will to show exactly that much sincerity in the matches going forward was revealed.

After the preliminaries, it would be one-on-one fights.

If he stood still and forfeited, then unless Lia or I won, we would not be able to advance.

If our matchup luck was bad and I was called first, we would not make it to the finals.

No, failing to reach the finals was not the problem. The problem was.......

“No weapons, no attacks on the genitals, no attacks on the eyes.”

I glared at the guy as he expressionlessly muttered the tournament rules.

The stiffer my expression became, the more the corner of his mouth crooked upward.

“They said any method is fine as long as you keep these, right? As long as you don’t kill your opponent.”

The guy, who kindly recited even the final rule carefully, moved the feet he had not even moved during the match and approached me.

“Try hiding it until the end. I will watch your secret be revealed.”

I had no choice but to realize once again.

The protagonist of [Dark Header] really had a filthy personality.

* * *

At the appearance of an unexpected powerhouse, people’s excitement and interest boiled over.

When we entered the large restaurant in the center of the village instead of Edan’s shop, which had closed its doors, people surrounded us in an instant.

The problem was that not a single one of the four of us was the kind of person who would welcome that.

“Where did you people come from?”

“Old man, were you hired by that black-haired man over there? How much are you being paid?”

“Do you happen to plan to stop by this village next year as well?”

“We are merely travelers. Once the tournament ends, we will leave immediately.”

At the questions pouring in without pause, Jing answered the people with a fed-up expression.

Of course, because I had no desire to be swept up in that attention, I took a seat at a table quite far from him.

He looked at me briefly with a face full of betrayal, but I pretended not to know and turned my head.

Despite his attitude, which clearly showed he was annoyed and tired, the people paid no mind.

The appearance of such a strong outsider was rare, and everyone was curious about Jing.

“That sly Lia has gone so far as to bring in outsiders now to try to win.”

Of course, not everyone was favorable toward us.

Because the appearance of a powerhouse also meant the appearance of a powerful rival.

I turned my head toward the people at the table on the left, who were petty enough to sip their beer.

I did not remember exactly which team they were, but in any case, they were people who had passed the preliminaries.

As if highly wary of the appearance of an unexpected strong opponent, their eyes were diligently scanning Jing.

When Jing silently looked at him, the spite stuck to the man’s face grew even larger.

“You should be ashamed too. Of all things, you’re helping that sly thing?”

It was fortunate Lia was not here.

She had probably avoided this place in advance, knowing something like this would happen.

“Actually, shouldn’t Lia have already lost her qualifications once? Even after committing the sin of deceiving the temple once, she is greedy for the blessing again. How shameless.”

The man’s jeering did not stop, and inside the once noisy shop, tension had settled in place of the commotion.

Jing rose from his seat.

It was not the tired expression he had worn amid the barrage of questions, but a stiff, hardened face.

The man, somewhat flustered by the changed atmosphere around Jing, unknowingly and quietly set his beer mug down on the table.

“Is it certain that Lia cheated?”

Jing, who had come right in front of the man, asked quietly.

In order not to reveal that he was being overwhelmed by Jing’s presence, the man deliberately straightened his shoulders and puffed up his body.

“O-of course!”

His voice cracked as he answered, making the end even more ridiculous, and he closed his mouth for a moment and ground his teeth.

It was clear that even he thought his ending had sounded ridiculous.

“All the villagers saw that thing come out with metal hidden in her glove!”

“And Lia admitted to it?”

“Yes!”

The man shouted more loudly than necessary.

“She admitted she was the one who put a blade inside her clothes! Until now, we overlooked it because of Edan’s face, but if she says she will win, that is a different story! Forfeit even now! It makes no sense for something like that to win!”

So the last words were ultimately his true feelings.

Jing looked down at the man making a fuss while seated, his face unreadable, then turned his body and approached the table where Ratel and I were sitting.

Behind Jing, the excited man shouted something, but this time the villagers gathered in the restaurant stopped him.

I took my eyes off the man shouting behind him and looked at Jing, who sat down in the chair across from me.

“How does it feel to become popular in an instant?”

At my question, Jing’s expression crumpled.

“I feel very resentful toward someone.”

After answering that, Jing glanced at Ratel, who was sitting beside him and putting cornbread and sugar carrots into his mouth in one bite.

There was no way Jing had failed to notice that Ratel had intentionally not moved in the match.

“This time was fine, but from the next match onward, move properly.”

At Jing’s admonishment, Ratel’s eyes, which had been tearing bread, turned toward me for a moment.

Keeping his eyes fixed on me, he opened his mouth.

“I will move at the moment I judge that I am needed.”

“Why are you suddenly being stubborn? In order to reach our next destination safely, we must win this tournament.”

“I still do not know why I need to win this tournament.”

At Ratel’s firm answer, Jing seemed to finally realize that Ratel’s lack of movement today was not simply a whim.

“From the next match onward, if you do not move, Lord Ran or Miss Lia will have to fight.”

“That is what Ratel wants, Jing.”

To save Jing the time of starting a meaningless persuasion, I answered instead.

“Why on earth.......”

While Jing, unable to understand the situation, muttered, Ratel poured all the remaining food into his mouth and stood from his seat.

“I am tired, so I will go in first.”

“What did you even do to be tired?”

Despite Jing’s dumbfounded shout, Ratel left the shop just like that.

In truth, even if he had stayed here, there was probably nothing Jing could have done.

He could not break Ratel’s stubbornness, nor did he have a way to forcibly control Ratel if he did not move during the match.

Jing hollowly chased Ratel’s back with his eyes, then turned the arrow toward me.

His expression was restless, as if asking what we were going to do now.

But there was no way I had any brilliant solution either.

“Either I win one round, or Lia wins one round. That is our only option.”

At my unremarkable answer, Jing let out a sigh.

“So one of the two of you must win.......”

Jing, who had been muttering, stood from his seat as if he had made up his mind and clenched his fist.

It seemed he had finished calculating which of the two had a better chance of victory.

He turned his body toward the exit.

“Where might Lia be?”

Fortunately, this time, Jing and I agreed.

Lia, who had fled to avoid people’s eyes, wandered aimlessly around the outskirts of the village.

It could not be helped.

In this narrow village, the only place where one could avoid people’s eyes was the bookstore run by the eccentric owner.

Even that was not a place where she could avoid Edan’s eyes, as she had experienced just this morning.

With every place she could flee to, home and the bookstore alike, gone, Lia had no choice but to walk without a destination.

She had no money to fill her hungry stomach and no place to lay down her body.

Even so, she was too afraid of Edan to return to the restaurant like this.

It was the moment Lia was about to sit down, finding herself pathetic for being unable to do anything without Edan.

“Lia!”

Startled by the sound of someone calling her name, Lia turned around.

And when she discovered the person approaching her with a frightening intensity, her body stiffened just like that.

It was Edan, whom she had thought would be at the shop.

Forgetting even the fact that she had two legs with which she could run away, Lia stared at Edan as he approached, as if nails had been driven into the ground.