Chapter 93 :

Episode 93 — Entertainment

The inside of the building, which rose high in a way that did not suit the scenery of Lucha Village, where small houses were clustered together, had a splendor as extraordinary as its height.

An angry roar that did not suit that elegance echoed through the temple’s prayer room.

“How much money did you take, and you couldn’t even deal with that one thing!”

“W-We are sorry, priest.”

The apologies of the two men, who bowed their heads as if deeply ashamed, did not calm the priest’s anger.

“You’re telling me that you, who call yourselves Lucha participants, came back without even touching one person with a fingertip? Or are you saying that bastard was also a monster the two of you couldn’t handle?”

At his question, the two hurriedly shook their heads.

“N-No, sir. We didn’t even see a single hair of that black-haired brat.”

“Then what the hell happened!”

“It was the yellow-eyed guy. He appeared all of a sudden, so we were too busy running away.”

At their answer, the priest frowned.

It was the young guy whose build seemed similar to the old man called Jing.

He was a guy who lost by forfeit every time, but even at a glance, he did not look like an easy opponent.

Escaping had been an excellent choice.

If they had been caught by him, the mastermind behind them might have been exposed without any way out.

If that had happened, there would have been no point in sending people to handle things quietly.

Even so, the fact that their appropriate response had failed to achieve the objective did not soothe the priest’s anger.

“Useless things…!”

Knock, knock.

What stopped him just as he was about to start venting his irritation was a quiet yet forceful knock.

Since the people who would come to his room at this hour were already limited, the priest obediently stopped what he had been doing.

“Get out.”

At his command, the two men let out sighs of relief, quickly opened the door, and stepped outside the room.

After they left, the priest saw the huge figure entering after them, and a crooked smile appeared on his face.

“Well, look who it is. Isn’t this Edan, the most pitiful and most wooden-headed man in the village?”

At his mocking welcome, Edan bowed his head deeply.

“It seems giving me an order was not enough for you.”

Edan said that while glancing at the door the men had left through.

“Don’t act beyond your station. Just do what you were told properly.”

At his arrogant answer, Edan nodded.

“I can do better than them.”

“What can you do better?”

At the priest’s question, Edan nodded.

At Edan’s answer, a strange light appeared in the priest’s eyes.

Under his gaze, which seemed to tell him to continue, Edan bit his lip once, then slowly opened his mouth.

“I can also do dirty work. So….please do not touch Lia.”

* * *

“Let us stop here for today.”

Jing said cheerfully as he looked down at us, who had collapsed from exhaustion.

The sun that had dyed the dawn sky had, before we knew it, gone beyond the horizon.

The final training before the match had ended.

The miserable result was that neither Lia nor I had managed to touch even a single hair on Jing’s head during that time.

“Just once. Let’s do it one more time, just one last time, Jing.”

It seemed Lia could not simply end it as something regrettable, because she sprang to her feet and said that.

But Jing firmly shook his head.

“We have done everything we can during this time. Now, it is more important to let your body rest fully.”

“But…”

Lia trailed off, as if her unease had not faded.

If someone asked what the training over the past two days had been like, the answer could be replaced by Lia’s and my gloves, which had become completely tattered in just two days.

However, she herself seemed to think that was still far from enough.

“C-Can’t we do just a little more? You said no matter how much training you do, it is never enough.”

Seeing her unable to back down easily, Jing looked troubled and sent me a rescue request with his eyes as I lay sprawled on the floor.

Normally, I would have ignored it and pretended not to know, but right now, I wanted to rest too.

“Lia, do you not need to buy new gloves?”

“Gloves?”

At my powerless advice, Lia looked down at her own gloves.

Her gloves, which had protected her fists while she had diligently hammered the sandbag for two days, were torn around the knuckles.

“Yes, you will not have time to buy gloves tomorrow morning. Why not go out now and buy a new pair?”

As if this was perfect timing, Jing urged Lia.

However, Lia shook her head as if it was nothing important.

“These are fine.”

“What are you saying? If you keep using equipment like that, you will injure your hands.”

“They really are fine! They have been torn since this morning.”

At Lia’s carefree answer, Jing stared at her silently for a moment.

It was not what I wanted for our precious rest time to end while the two of them stubbornly argued with each other.

Tonight, there was something I wanted to test while avoiding both of their eyes.

I slowly raised myself up.

“If you do not need them, then it cannot be helped. Jing, I will go down and buy some new gloves.”

“Lord Ran, you are going to buy gloves too?”

Jing’s gaze rested on my gloves, which were still perfectly fine.

They had signs of use, but there was not a single torn part.

“Is something strange?”

“No. Not at all. You will need another pair as a spare.”

Leaving him behind as he hurriedly shook his head and answered, I turned my head toward Lia.

“Lia said she is not going, so I suppose I have no choice but to go alone.”

“The only place in the village that sells leather gloves is the shop run by Jinger’s father.”

Lia muttered worriedly.

She stopped asking for training and looked at Jing.

“Wouldn’t it be better if Jing went with you? Ran is in the same group as me, so even if he is a customer, he might take his anger out on him.”

It was not that he might do that.

He definitely would.

Judging by our last meeting, his love for his son seemed quite extreme, so I doubted he would quietly sell gloves to the companion of Lia, who had knocked out three of his son’s front teeth.

Lia’s gaze, which saw me as someone in need of a guardian’s protection, was not entirely comfortable, but well, what mattered was that she had given up on training.

While I pushed aside that uncomfortable feeling, Jing shook off all the dust that had stuck to his clothes during training and put on his robe.

“Miss Lia, do not say that and come with us. It would be best for you to get a pair of gloves as well.”

At his words, Lia hurriedly shook her head.

“No, I’m fine.”

“I am buying them. Thanks to you, I was able to participate in the Lucha tournament, but I do not think I have properly expressed my gratitude until now.”

When Jing went this far, Lia’s eyes wavered, as if she was conflicted.

However, as if he had not considered refusal from the start, Jing did not listen to her answer and took the lead.

I lightly tapped Lia’s shoulder, as she could not easily take a step.

“Let’s go. Jing lacks any sense of money, so if we leave him like that, he will just buy the most expensive thing in the shop and get ripped off badly.”

At my urging, Lia finally moved her feet slowly.

Confirming that she was following, I followed behind Jing.

While swallowing the words that we might be able to watch something interesting if we went now.

When we appeared after spending all this time going only between the lodging’s backyard and the second floor, the gazes of the people walking along the street turned toward us.

The main subjects of interest were mostly Jing and Lia.

And there was one person who occasionally received gazes of fear.

“Do you know we are going to buy gloves?”

At my question, Ratel’s eyes turned toward me.

“Would it be troublesome if I found out?”

What trouble would I have just from going to buy a pair of gloves?

I only asked because it was unlike him to follow along to buy leather gloves when the skin of his hands would not get even a scratch even if he fought barehanded.

Well, if it was for surveillance, I had nothing in particular to say either.

“Fine. Wasting time is your freedom.”

At my answer, the corners of his eyes rose.

“Do you not think that fearless attitude of yours is increasing my suspicion?”

“Say it properly. What is increasing your suspicion is not my attitude, but your fear.”

Perhaps I had truly touched a nerve this time, because a cold flame burned in his eyes.

“You seem quite certain that I cannot kill you.”

He glared at me with the force of someone who would teach me immediately that this was my misconception.

But right now, I was not particularly afraid.

Because, just as Ratel had said, I had certainty right now.

Certainty that he could not kill me.

“It’s troublesome if you act like this. If you do not stop threatening me, I have an idea too.”

At my reply, the corner of his mouth twisted.

“I am curious. What is this idea of yours?”

I looked straight at the guy provoking me as if telling me to try it.

“I will tell Jing on you.”

“What?”

Perhaps this was something he had not expected, because he let out a deflated sound, unlike himself.

“I said I will tell Jing on you.”

After confirming that he had not misheard me, Ratel burst into a hollow laugh this time.

“Do you seriously think that will work?”

He asked as if he had heard the most pathetic thing in the world.

“I think it will. Judging by how you cannot tell me you will kill me when Jing is beside us.”

At my answer, his face stiffened visibly.

For someone whose emotional changes were usually difficult to find, it was quite a large change.

I took that rare sight in as much as I wanted, then turned my head forward.

This was both a confirmation and a bit of payback.

It was a confirmation of the relationship between Jing and him, who had met differently from the original work, and payback for bothering me.

When we caught up with Jing and Lia, the two had already arrived in front of the leather shop.

Jinger’s father recognized Lia from outside the shop and rushed out while grinding his teeth.

“Lia!!!”

He roared and pointed his finger at Lia.

I felt the gazes of people turn toward the commotion.

“I-I’m sorry, sir!”

Lia, who had instantly become a spectacle, apologized reflexively.

At that sight, Jing frowned.

“No, Miss Lia, there is no need to apologize. It was merely a fair match.”

“What did you say? As if that thing could have won fairly! She must have used some dirty trick again!”

“What dirty trick?”

The one who asked the last question was me.

“W-What dirty trick, you ask…”

He stammered, as if he had obviously not thought that far.

“The temple priests already concluded it, did they not? That Jinger lost to Lia. If you are saying that is wrong, then surely you have a reason worthy of that claim.”

At my question, Jinger’s father flinched.

However, after confirming the people gathered around, he soon regained his confidence, probably thinking everyone around him was on his side.

“She has a filthy record of being caught trying to deceive the temple before. This time, she was just lucky.”

“The temple’s judgment was wrong?”

When I summarized his argument, the man’s face turned pale.

“Wh-Who said it was wrong! I’m just saying that this time, that thing deceived them more thoroughly!”

I did not know what difference there was, but he urgently corrected my words while looking around in fear.

Watching him struggle, I tilted my head to the side.

Because that guy kept forfeiting, I had ended up going through fighting training that had nothing to do with my fate.

Leaving behind the guy who still could not relax his stiff expression, I walked ahead.

Let him agonize over it as much as he wanted.

Even in the original work, that guy took quite a long time to accept the fact that he had grown attached to Jing.

That was the kind of thing he had to worry about right now.

“Then we do not know whether the temple was deceived this year or three years ago.”

“What the hell are you saying? She failed three years ago, and this year, she succeeded.”

“Then you are saying all the temple people are idiots.”

“Wh-What?”

This time, the man jumped up as if he was having a fit.

“L-Look at this irreverent bastard! Did everyone hear that?! What this bastard just said…!”

He raised his voice again to drag other people into it.

But my win rate was also quite high in this kind of dogfight.

Looking around at the people slowly gathering, I put a little more strength into my voice.

Then I spoke loudly enough for all the people surrounding us to hear clearly.

“You said it just now. That all the priests are idiots.”

It seemed he did not know, but in this kind of fight, the side that gets scared loses.

“Look at this crazy bastard! When did I ever say that!”

“You said all the temple people were deceived by Lia. Then does that not mean it is one of two things? Either Lia is clever enough to deceive everyone, or the temple people are stupid enough to be deceived by Lia.”

“Of course, it means Lia is clever…”

“Then that means you, who noticed Lia’s trick, are wiser than the temple priests.”

Perhaps he could not bring himself to say yes, because he shut his mouth.

His eyes, full of dissatisfaction, were filled with a will to admit neither side.

As the man who had been causing a commotion quieted down, the murmuring of the people gathered inside the shop gradually died down as well.

I lifted my head and looked around at the faces of the villagers, then slowly opened my mouth.

“If neither is true, then maybe the entire village just enjoyed tormenting one person far too much.”