Chapter 90 :

Episode 90 - First Appearance

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

“What?!”

Lia, unable to keep up with Jing’s overflowing enthusiasm, asked back in surprise.

“Use whatever means you like. Just try hitting me once. Fists are fine, and you may use your feet too.”

After answering like that, Jing even spread both arms and deliberately revealed openings so Lia could attack comfortably.

“So suddenly? You haven’t taught me anything yet.”

Lia, awkwardly gathering her clenched fists in front of herself, spoke as if wronged.

“I need to know your ability before I can decide how to teach you, do I not? So straighten your posture and try coming at me once.”

Jing shouted heartily.

But Lia still stood there stupidly, unable to bring herself to attack Jing.

“If you are going to stand still, then I will come first.”

It was the moment Jing, who had grown bored of standing still, took one step forward.

In that instant, Lia’s body visibly flinched.

There was no way Jing failed to notice what I had noticed.

Jing immediately stopped his step.

Before an awkward air could circulate between the two, I opened my mouth.

“Lia, there is nothing to worry about. Even if Lia had ten arms, you would not be able to touch even one of Jing’s fingertips anyway. It would be better to just charge quickly and end it quickly.”

“T-ten arms?”

It seemed my provocation had touched her pride.

After hesitating for a moment, Lia assumed a stance, awkward though it was.

Clenching her fists and fixing both feet to the ground in a posture roughly similar to boxing, she thought for a moment, then extended a fist toward Jing.

Naturally, Jing easily dodged it.

And before Lia even had time to raise her guard, Jing’s fist lightly struck Lia’s forehead.

“Ow!”

“How can you lower your hand right after attacking once?”

Jing scolded Lia.

Lia, who had allowed an attack in an instant, stared blankly at him, then soon came to her senses.

Her brow slowly furrowed.

Lia charged in again.

This time, she was a little faster and a little more accurate.

Though he was pretending to speak sternly, he looked quite delighted.

He was having the time of his life.

Whatever else may be true, Jing was someone who had lived his entire life using his body and sword.

Training knights as the knight commander must have been part of his work too.

It seemed he had regained his vitality while doing something familiar after a long time.

“Your center of gravity must not collapse! Ahem! When you thrust your fist, use the recoil of your waist, properly! Do not let your feet rest!”

And in other words, that meant his training was meant for knights.

“Huff......! Huff......!”

After receiving several of Jing’s light yet heavy attacks, Lia collapsed onto the ground with rough breathing.

Seeing Lia like that, I quietly pulled my back away from the tree trunk.

If I stayed here stupidly, it was obvious that I would become part of that heat.

I had no intention of doing that whatsoever.

My effort to quietly disappear did not work.

“Jing!!! Ran is running away!!!”

It was thanks to Lia, who, while lying on the ground and unable to manage the breath rising to her chin, still worked hard to tattle on me.

When I glared at Lia, she pretended not to know, avoided my eyes, and enjoyed the blessed rest time while Jing was distracted by me.

At Lia’s tattling, Jing looked at me with disbelieving eyes.

“Lord Ran......were you truly trying to run away?”

“Yes.”

At my firm answer, Jing seemed shocked and inhaled.

“Lord Ran, I thought you would do your best to accomplish your goal!”

This time, I was shocked by his overestimation of me.

What part of me had he seen to think that?

“There is no way I can raise my ability by that much in two days, is there? Besides, there is only one teacher who can teach us. Rather than dividing effort in two, focusing on one side will give us a higher chance of success.”

Most of all, I did not want to receive Jing’s Spartan education, but I buried those words in my heart for his sake, since he would be shocked.

“What are you talking about? Originally, education is most ideal when there are two students. Because they can improve while competing with each other!”

Jing said confidently.

That only applies when both sides have competitive instincts.

At my lukewarm reaction, Jing seemed to realize that the premise of competition was not being fulfilled.

After thinking for a moment, he soon opened his mouth.

“Good. Then I will set one condition. Until the Lucha tournament ends, between Lord Ran and Miss Lia, I will grant a wish to the person who succeeds in attacking me.”

“Really?”

“No need.”

The expectant question came from Lia, and the answer that poured cold water on it came from me.

As if he had expected my cold reaction, Jing pretended not to hear my refusal and nodded at Lia.

“If it is something I can grant, I will grant anything. It does not matter even if it costs money.”

At his confirmation, Lia’s eyes sparkled.

As if she had never been exhausted and collapsed, she sprang to her feet.

Seeing that, Jing smiled with satisfaction and looked at me.

“Lord Ran, one of you must win one round, must you not? Please help a little.”

At the gentle pressure telling me to stay put, even if only for Lia, who would win one round in my place, I eventually had no choice but to stand beside Lia.

Her sweat-soaked body screamed that it could not move even one step, but Lia could hardly calm her excitement.

Her chest was pounding wildly, but it did not feel unpleasant.

Jing’s education was exhausting, but at the same time, useful.

Fitting his self-introduction as a traveler with much mercenary experience, every one of his corrections was accurate and easy to understand.

More than anything else, it was enjoyable.

The white hair naturally mixed into his silver hair felt like proof of the countless adventures he had overcome.

If one looked around the world and learned for such a long time, would one be able to become that strong?

How had he become companions with Ran and Ratel?

As imagination followed imagination, a smile naturally drew itself on her face.

Though this was a relationship that would end once the tournament was over, Lia thought she wanted to ask Jing a little more about his adventure stories before then as she climbed the stairs to the second floor.

And she ended up encountering a large, black figure standing by the second-floor window.

“Kyaaaaaaaah!!!!!”

At the shock that blew away the exhaustion from her body, Lia screamed.

“You are noisy.”

The somehow familiar irritation returned her leaping heart to its proper place.

“R-Ratel. What are you doing there?”

Lia, who had nearly had a fit at the sight of Ratel looking as if he had become one with the shadows, asked in fright.

“I was getting some air.”

“Air?”

Lia’s gaze naturally turned toward the tightly shut window.

On such a cold day, at such a late hour, there was no way the owner had forgotten to lock the window.

“Yes, air.”

But the other party was shameless.

There was no way Lia possessed the force to overcome Ratel’s gaze, which seemed to ask if there was a problem.

“I-I see. Come to think of it, it does seem like the gap in the window is open a little. On a cold day like this, that amount of weak breeze is just right.”

Ratel’s gaze as he looked at her speaking servilely was still crooked.

Compared to Jing or Ran, Ratel had many uncomfortable aspects.

Unable to find anything more to say, Lia tried to pass him and enter her room.

“Why did you participate in the tournament three years ago?”

At the unexpected question, Lia stopped walking and looked at Ratel.

“That is......because the temple’s blessing was at stake.”

It was an answer that was natural if anything, but Lia quickly realized that the other party did not like her answer very much.

“To the point that even after being laughed at by the entire village because of it, you still cannot give up?”

Because a sneer returned together with a cold gaze.

It was not wrong, but that did not mean the shame was reduced.

Feeling her face heat up, Lia lowered her head.

“......Because with that, I could set off on an adventure as much as I wanted. With the prize money and the blessing, freely like all of you.”

She knew now that it had been a childish dream from when she was young.

Because she was not someone as strong as the heroes in books, but merely an idiot who could do nothing without other people’s help.

“Is that all?”

At the mocking question this time as well, she raised her head because she felt a little upset.

But what waited for her was neither mockery nor contempt.

Because the clouds that covered the moon at just the right time cast a shadow over Ratel’s expressionless face.

As if his question had not been one he wanted an answer to, Ratel turned away.

Lia followed his back as he left without lingering, then looked at the scenery outside the window from the place where he had been standing.

Thinking that it did not seem to be a coincidence that the backyard where Jing and Ran had been sparring until just a little while ago could be seen at a glance.

* * *

It was clear that those who had lost in the preliminaries were pouring the passion they had not yet been able to release into cheering and jeering.

I let the sound of people’s cheers, which pierced through the tent and struck my eardrums, flow out through my other ear and waited for my turn.

“Lord Ran, if you think you will be caught, just forfeit. Ratel will have no choice but to move in order for us to find ‘that’.”

It would have been nice if I could let this flow out through one ear too.

But through the suffering of the past few days, I had realized that Jing’s worried voice did not end simply by letting it pass through one ear, so I could not ignore his words.

“Yes, I am thinking the same thing. If I feel like I’ll be hurt even a little, I’ll immediately shout that I forfeit. Didn’t I answer exactly the same thing earlier, without leaving out a single word?”

At my irritated answer, Jing took a step back, but perhaps still not reassured, this time he turned his steps toward another victim of his nagging.

“Miss Lia, you only need to do as you trained. Understood?”

“Jing, do you know that if you say it one more time, it will make ten times? I didn’t know I would ever say this to someone else, but......please calm down.”

It seemed Jing’s nagging had still produced some effect.

Compared to her first answer, where she had said she would do her best, this answer, heavily mixed with annoyance, had much less tension in it.

Seeing that she had found quite a bit of confidence, Jing quietly raised the corner of his mouth.

“Miss Lia, if you think you might get hurt, you may shout forfeit as much as you like.”

“What?”

Perhaps it was unexpected, because Lia asked back blankly.

“Did you not end up entering the tournament after being dragged into our stubbornness in the first place? The cause of our defeat would not be you, but someone else.”

Jing said, glancing at that someone else, but that someone else was only looking ahead as if he had no interest.

“If you feel even a little danger, shout that you forfeit. No, if it seems like you will be hurt, I will shout that you forfeit. So you do not need to be too frightened.”

At Jing’s words meant to reassure her, Lia looked down at the new leather gloves wrapped around her fists.

Then, as if deciding something, she lifted her head.

“No, please don’t do that.”

At her answer, Jing raised an eyebrow.

“Are you sincere?”

“Yes. Even if it seems like I will lose, even if it seems like I will be badly hurt, still, please never shout that I forfeit. Jing.”

This time, the answer came back with a little more certainty.

Boooooo—

The whistle rang at just the right time.

It was the sound announcing the start of Lia’s true first appearance.