Chapter 89 :

Episode 89 - Training

“Lia!”

Edan, who closed the distance in an instant with a fierce momentum, roughly grabbed Lia’s arm.

“Why did you ignore my words? I told you not to enter the tournament!”

Edan harshly pressed Lia.

“How could I do that? Those people prepared hard and came all this way too.”

“If they had prepared hard, they would have matched the number of people properly from the start and participated.”

Edan sharply retorted.

“Forfeit right now. A priest is at the shop.”

“What?”

At Edan’s words that even a priest was waiting for her, Lia’s face turned white.

“Edan, please......!”

Even while pleading desperately, Lia could not shake Edan off and was dragged along.

She was already hated by the temple as it was.

If rumors spread here that she had made a priest come for nothing, it was obvious no one would visit Edan’s shop.

Feeling like tears would come out, Lia walked with her head buried toward the ground.

The one who resolved Lia’s despair as she was being dragged roughly by Edan was a familiar voice.

“Miss Lia!”

Lia lifted her face.

It was Jing.

He came striding over, gray hair fluttering, and removed Edan’s arm, which had been holding Lia’s arm, as if chasing away a fly.

“Miss Lia, we have to begin training from today, so what are you doing here? Hurry and follow me.”

“Training?”

So suddenly?

As Jing was about to take Lia away while she looked puzzled at the sudden talk of training, this time Edan blocked his path.

“What are you doing?”

Even under Edan’s fierce gaze, Jing did not blink an eye.

“You know that Lia is participating in Lucha, at least. Since she must not have prepared anything for three years, of course she has to train.”

“Lia will forfeit. She will not enter the tournament.”

At Edan’s firmness, Jing narrowed his eyes.

“You speak as if you are Miss Lia herself.”

“I am no different from her parent.”

When Edan spoke with force again, Jing’s eyes curved as if amused.

“Even if you were her real parent, you would not have the right to decide something like this. Miss Lia, are you really going to forfeit?”

When Jing ignored his words and asked Lia, Edan’s expression grew fierce.

“A priest is already at the shop. Lia, is it all right to send the priest away like this?”

At the word priest, Lia, who had been hiding behind Jing, flinched and looked at Jing’s expression.

It was the moment Edan’s mouth rose, certain of his victory.

“Ah, if it is that, you do not need to worry, Lia.”

Jing’s calm voice interfered with him once more.

Jing smiled brightly at Lia.

“There is someone who specializes in persuasion.”

* * *

“What? Where did Edan and Lia go, and why are you the one greeting me?”

A man wearing priestly robes asked while scanning me up and down.

Well, if this had been inside the imperial castle, at the very least, such an irreverent gaze could have been punished.

Seeing that I was being treated like this by a priest as soon as I came outside the capital, status truly was a meaningless thing.

Was this why the Abiran people were so obsessed with absolute faith?

Since I was currently a wandering traveler with no backing, I obediently lowered my head to him.

“Edan and Lia cannot come in today, Priest.”

“What? What nonsense is this fool spouting? Are you saying Edan broke his promise?”

At the priest’s irritable reaction, the face of the knight protecting him from behind gradually grew fierce as well.

I could feel the will that if I offended his mood any further, he would make me pay the price immediately.

I shook my head to show that I had no intention of making him displeased.

“Rather than breaking a promise, unavoidable circumstances arose.”

When cancelling an appointment, one needs a plausible excuse.

A sudden worsening of one’s parents’ health, family discord, an accident, and so on.

Of course, the best thing is for the other person to simply accept my refusal before I have to explain such circumstances.

“Could you not return for today?”

For that sake, I asked him as politely as I could.

“There is no longer any value in listening. A promise with a priest must be kept even at the risk of one’s life! Move aside, you half-witted fool!”

As if he had heard all kinds of nonsense, the priest pushed me aside and tried to enter the shop.

“Aaagh!!”

Before long, a clattering noise rang out from inside the shop.

Soon after, the priest had to jump back out of the shop with a scream.

“What on earth is that?!”

Without even calming his startled heart, he questioned me, who had been waiting outside.

I glanced toward the inside of the shop from which he had jumped out.

—Gruooong.

Three large bears proudly displaying their massive bodies were diligently smashing Edan’s shop tables.

“Yes, the truth is, because bears attacked the shop, we can no longer let people inside.”

At my answer, absurdity and anger mixed on the priest’s face.

“You madman!! Then you should have said that first!!”

“Did I not tell you unavoidable circumstances had arisen?”

To cancel an appointment, one needs a plausible excuse.

Personally, I think the most suitable one is family circumstances.

A bear attacking the house also counts as family circumstances, in its own way.

I made the most pitiful expression I could.

“But you said a promise with a priest must be kept at the risk of one’s life.......”

“Who told you to risk my life?!”

Enraged, he grabbed me by the collar.

Crash!

—Gruooong!!!

With excellent timing, the guys who had been rummaging through the shop broke down Edan’s shop door and jumped outside.

“Aaaaaagh!!! Catch those things!!!”

Terrified, the priest threw my clothes aside and hid behind the knight.

The knight bravely drew his sword and tried to protect the priest, but perhaps he did not have the confidence to face three bears alone, because he hesitated.

Perhaps that offended the bears’ mood, as the largest among them raised its front paw.

“Aaaaaagh!!!”

At that terrifying sight, the priest eventually turned around and ran away.

Soon after, the knight also followed behind him.

Oh dear. In the wild, that would have been a choice that would have gotten him chased by a bear and split in half on the spot.

—Gruooong.

“Thank you. Now go back and sleep to your hearts’ content.”

I thanked the bears, who had come outside at some point and surrounded me.

* * *

Around the time I finished seeing off the guys as they lumbered back into the forest, Jing returned with Edan and Lia.

“Good heavens, Lord Ran! Are you all right?”

Jing was a little horrified after hearing the circumstances, but the important thing was that the priest had gone back, and Lia did not need to forfeit.

“Let’s leave this place. Bears might come again.”

“Yes, I will go up and pack the luggage.”

Before Jing could keep making a fuss, I quickly changed the subject, and Jing agreed with my words before going up the stairs.

Leaving Edan behind as he stared emptily around his broken shop interior, I approached Lia.

“Lia should come with us too. You’ll need a place to stay while the house is being repaired, won’t you?”

“No, I’ll help Edan.......”

“Wouldn’t it be better to add to the repair costs with the prize money from winning the tournament rather than hammering a few nails?”

Lia, whose refusal had been refused, left the shop while leaving Edan behind.

Even if she stayed any longer, it was obvious Edan would urge her to forfeit again.

* * *

The newly moved lodging was still a quiet shop with few customers and a correspondingly small size.

Thanks to Jing showing the extravagance of buying out all the rooms on the second floor, we were able to sit around a table on the first floor quite quietly.

Lia sat facing Jing, who was staring at her with a highly tense face.

Breaking the silence that must have felt suffocating to Lia, Jing finally opened his mouth.

“Before you enter the tournament, there is one thing I must confirm.”

In Jing’s voice, there was not a trace of warmth or even a little playfulness.

Lia gulped and met his upright eyes.

“Three years ago, did you truly hide a blade in your glove and enter the match?”

At Jing’s question, Lia’s eyes shook.

She opened and closed her mouth a few times, then finally nodded with difficulty.

“......Yes.”

At the honest answer, Jing’s eyes narrowed.

“Why did you do such a thing?”

“......It was a mistake.”

“A mistake?”

Perhaps thinking it sounded like a shabby excuse even to herself, Lia’s face turned red.

“As you can see, my skills are terrible. I’m timid, and I hate being hit too. I thought I might feel more at ease if I had something like a weapon with me.......”

“So you entered the match with a weapon in your clothes?”

Unable to keep looking into Jing’s eyes as he asked in confirmation, Lia turned her gaze away.

What followed was Lia’s shameful and honest confession.

“......I really had no intention of using it. I only wanted to feel more at ease. I thought I had taken it out before the match, but......I’m sorry.”

After ending her words with an apology whose recipient was unclear, Lia lowered her head deeply like someone waiting for a sentence.

It was the moment her actions of avoiding the villagers like a sinner were explained.

I could understand.

How many people would truly believe such an unbelievable excuse?

Since Lucha was a tournament held by the temple, the villagers’ passion for it must have been tremendous, and for that reason, her actions could not have been forgiven.

Jing silently looked down at her, whose shoulders were bent as much as they could be.

“......If I had known you were this strong, I would not have lent you my name......I’m sorry. Even if you win, perhaps you will not receive the same glory or welcome as others. Because you are in the same team as me. Still, do not worry. If I give up the blessing like Edan did, no one will say anything.”

“Miss Lia.”

Jing, who had quietly listened to the things she spilled out because she could not bear the silence, stopped her words.

“You seem to be carrying something far too heavy for guilt over a mistake.”

“What?”

Jing patted Lia’s shoulder as she stupidly asked back.

“I do not think you cheated on purpose. So you do not need to feel sorry to us anymore because of that matter.”

“You believe me?”

Lia looked back and forth between Jing and me as if she could not believe it.

“There is no reason not to believe you.”

My answer, having already read the truth in the original work, seemed to hold more meaning for Lia than I had expected.

Lia bit her lip tightly as if she would burst into tears at any moment.

But there was no time for her tears to flow down her cheeks.

Jing, who had been patting her shoulder, made her stand up abruptly.

“Now that you have shaken everything off, there is something we must begin.”

“Wh-what could that be?”

To Lia, who asked in confusion at the sudden change in atmosphere, Jing grinned.

“What else but training?”

* * *

I used the tree planted behind the shop as a backrest and looked at Jing, who showed burning enthusiasm, and at his disciple.

It was not by my will.

At the very least, in order to avoid being hit, I had simply been unable to shake off Jing’s earnest insistence that I watch from the side.

“Now, Miss Lia. Stretch your hand straight forward.”

At Jing’s instruction, Lia obediently stretched her right arm forward.

Jing grabbed Lia’s right arm and pressed it downward.

With a puzzled expression, Lia lowered her arm exactly as Jing pushed it.

Flustered by her obedient reaction, Jing looked at Lia.

“......I will do it again. This time, do not lower it as it is. Try to withstand my strength.”

“Ah......!”

As if she understood, Lia quickly raised her arm.

Jing gently pressed down on her arm again.

How much time passed?

“Urgh......!”

From between the two, who had been so still it was as if time had stopped, a groan burst out.

No longer able to withstand Jing’s strength, Lia’s arm slowly descended.

Lia tried to endure as best as she could in her own way, but when it reached the point where she could not raise Jing’s arm no matter how much strength she used, she finally stopped resisting.

“I-it hurts too much......!”

When Jing let go of Lia’s arm, Lia grabbed her right arm and made a tearful face.

On the other hand, Jing’s face as he looked down at his own hand, which had been holding Lia’s arm, was nothing but bright.

He raised his head, and his eyes sparkled as they turned toward Lia.

“Good! Miss Lia, this time, try hitting me once.”