Ethan
Ethan picked up an apple from the corner of the fruit stall. He wasn't one to mingle with the villagers, but today's outing was purely for his sister's sake. He planned to bake a pie with her favorite fruit to cheer her up, as she had seemed rather down lately. Whenever the tournament season rolled around, she always grew restless. She was soft-hearted, so Ethan knew that if he showed he was looking out for her, she would try even harder to hide her gloom around him. For her sake, he was more than willing to put up with a little trouble.
"Ethan, baking another pie for Lia?"
Ethan gave a curt nod to the shopkeeper, who had taken it upon himself to speak so familiarly. Undeterred by his aloofness, the vendor stepped closer. Ethan decided to quickly pay for the apples and leave before the man could make a nuisance of himself.
"I heard Lia was loitering around the temple yesterday. Has she still not learned her lesson?"
If only those whispered words hadn't stopped Ethan dead in his tracks.
The morning of the tournament dawned. The emotions on the faces of the crowd gathered before the largest building in town—the temple—were all remarkably similar. Anticipation, tension, and a sliver of fear. Jing, Ratel, and I felt roughly the same. Though anticipation and fear were hard to find in us, a slight tension certainly hung in the air. The only difference between us and the others was that the source of our tension lay elsewhere, not in the tournament itself.
"All Lucha participants, gather over here to receive your numbers!"
A man who appeared to be a temple administrator bellowed, and the participants naturally formed groups and swarmed toward him. However, we couldn't join their ranks just yet.
"Lord Ran, Miss Lia is taking too long," Jing murmured, looking back toward the inn we had departed from.
The tournament was about to begin, but Lia was nowhere to be seen. She had slipped out of her shop at the crack of dawn to avoid Ethan's suspicion. If anything, she should have arrived before us; there was no reason for her to be late. The distance from the inn to the temple wasn't that far, nor was the path so complicated that a lifelong resident like her would get lost.
It was one of two things: either she had changed her mind about helping us, or something was preventing her from coming. And I had a strong, nagging feeling that whatever was holding her back had everything to do with Ethan.
Lia looked up with a frightened face at the man blocking her path, who stood a full head taller than her.
"B-Brother..."
"You seem to be in quite a hurry to go somewhere."
At his low, heavy voice, Lia squeezed her eyes shut. He had clearly figured out about the Lucha Tournament. Unable to even think of squaring her trembling shoulders, she hung her head low. She wanted to flee right then and there, but cornered in the back of the cramped bookstore, the only way out was blocked by Ethan's imposing figure. She lacked the courage to force her way past her furious brother.
Jing and Ran had told her she was quite strong, but Lia knew what true strength looked like. Unlike herself, who merely possessed a bit more physical power than the average person, she knew what it meant to have real, terrifying talent. She couldn't help but know. She had grown up beside Ethan her entire life, after all.
"I-I only agreed to lend them my name. They came all this way to enter the tournament, but they were short on people. And since the registration deadline was yesterday, I..."
Lia rambled on, desperately trying to explain, but her voice trailed off under the heavy, silent gaze boring down on her.
"So you're entering the tournament? Why? Do you want to humiliate yourself again?"
Ethan's merciless words made Lia shrink back even further. But this time, she couldn't back down so easily. She had already given Ran her solemn promise to help. He was someone who had almost lost his chance to enter the tournament just to help her. And above all, they were people who had believed in her. She didn't want to disappoint them.
"...They said I don't have to do anything. Just stand there. They said they'd handle the rest..."
Seeing that Lia had no intention of giving up easily despite his pressure, Ethan felt his patience wearing thin. He didn't yet realize that the root of his anger was sheer anxiety.
"And what do you think the villagers will say if you just stand there? Your name will be on everyone's lips again. 'Lia, who made a fool of herself three years ago, is back.' 'Lia, who dragged her brother down, is getting greedy again.' Is that what you want to hear? People are finally starting to forget, and you want to repeat the same mistake?"
Lia's face contorted as if she had been physically struck by his harsh words. But Ethan didn't stop.
"Those people are just travelers anyway! Whether they win or lose, they'll just pack up and leave this town. We're the ones who have to stay behind and suffer the consequences! You're a smart girl, why can't you see that?!"
Silenced by Ethan's shouting, Lia couldn't find her voice. Yet, even so, she did not say she would give up on the tournament. This only made Ethan's mind grow colder. A sudden realization flashed through his head, and his eyes grew sharper.
"Or... are you actually planning to leave with them?"
"It's not like that!"
Lia answered frantically, but Ethan's patience had already run dry.
"Do nothing. If you feel even a shred of guilt toward me, just live the way you have been. Lia."
His large hand reached out toward her. Lia stared at it blankly, forgetting to breathe, like someone drowning in the deep ocean. She remained frozen until his iron grip clamped down painfully around her wrist.
Crash!
The sound of something collapsing snapped Lia back to reality. A loud rumble was followed by a cloud of rising dust. Both Lia and Ethan turned toward the source of the noise. The bookshelf that the bookstore owner had so meticulously dusted had fallen over. Worse, the falling shelf had taken the neighboring one down with it. In the cramped space, the tightly packed bookshelves began to collapse like dominoes.
Fortunately, Lia was the first to react. She didn't miss her chance. Wrenching her wrist from Ethan's distracted grip, she shoved his chest with all her might. Then she ran. She didn't look back.
She didn't feel like she was running that fast, yet her breath caught in her throat. Lia didn't know if she was making the right choice. This was the first time she had ever rebelled so fiercely against Ethan. What will happen when the preliminaries are over? Will Ethan kick me out? Maybe he'll truly abandon me this time. All sorts of worries flooded her mind. Yet, she didn't want to stop. Even when Ethan had cornered her, she had found herself strangely unable to utter the words of surrender. The thought that this might be the absolute last chance in her life refused to leave her head.
By the time Lia arrived at the tournament grounds, having squeezed out every last drop of her strength, Jing was desperately trying to buy time by explaining their situation to the administrator.
"She just went to the restroom. You can't control nature's call, can you? She'll be here any second, so please, just give us a moment."
"I-I'm here! I'm so sorry! My stomach was hurting so badly..." Lia gasped out, running up to play along with Jing's excuse. The man checking the roster gave her a displeased look, scanning her from head to toe.
"I-I... *gasp*... I'm Lia, the participant!" Lia wheezed, trying to catch her breath while proving her identity.
"I already know you're Lia," the man replied dryly before turning his glare back to Jing. "But you're still short one person. If even one member is missing, your team is disqualified."
Only then did Lia realize that one of their four members was missing. She also vaguely understood that it was because of her delay. He must have gone out to look for me, and we crossed paths. Just as the blood was about to drain from her face at this lingering despair—
"Participant Ran has arrived."
At the leisurely voice from behind, Lia spun around, barely suppressing a cheer. Ran, weaving his way through the crowd of participants, looked like a savior in that moment. Though it seemed the roster manager didn't share her sentiment.
"Hey, you barely made it. What's with the attitude?" the man barked, waving his pen as if Ran's relaxed demeanor rubbed him the wrong way. Despite the scolding from the temple worker, Ran's expression remained unchanged.
"As long as I'm not late, it shouldn't matter. It's not like the winner is decided by who gets here first."
"What? Why you—!"
"You must have a lot of free time if you can afford to waste it here." The man, who had been about to explode at Ran's informal speech, snapped back to reality at Ratel's cold interjection and checked the time. Gritting his teeth with a silent vow of vengeance, the administrator hurried off. Jing and Lia let out a collective sigh of relief. Yet, Lia's heart was still hammering against her ribs. This time, it wasn't from the frantic run or sheer terror. Anticipation, tension, and a sliver of fear. Feeling the three emotions she had been too distracted to notice finally wash over her, Lia followed the crowd toward the participants' waiting room.
We were Group 34. A total of 146 participants had gathered in the massive waiting room made of a single, sprawling tent. It meant that almost every young person in the village was participating, and that the place was absolutely crawling with humans. No wonder they're cutting the numbers in half during the preliminaries, I thought, massaging my slightly aching shoulder. Perhaps because we had registered at the very last minute, Group 34 was the number assigned to us.
Since the preliminaries were merely a process to weed out the weak, five matches were held simultaneously in the temple courtyard. This meant ten teams were out there at once, engaging in a chaotic free-for-all. It was a simple, brutal setup designed to slash the numbers in half as quickly as space allowed. This also meant we, being the very last group, still had some time before we had to step out.
Wouldn't it be faster if Ratel and Jing just swept through all the participants themselves? I shook my head at the thought, which suddenly reminded me of a certain cartoon where people fought using pet monsters. Let's not. If Ratel ever found out I was thinking of him like that, he might actually try to snap my neck. His glare was already prickly enough, always looking at me like he wanted to murder me. I didn't want to clash with him unnecessarily before we parted ways.
"Where did you go?" As if on cue, he spoke up, his uncanny timing startling me. I looked at Ratel, but his expressionless face betrayed no emotion.
"Just took a walk around the village. Looking for Lia." At my reply, his eyes narrowed slightly. "That woman said she was just delayed because she spent some time at the bookstore."
It seemed she hadn't mentioned her encounter with Ethan. Well, that made sense. She wasn't the type to spill her family drama to people she had only just met.
"I didn't think to look there."
"Liar." His verdict fell instantly, dripping with absolute certainty. I silently stared into his calm eyes. He didn't look away either. "You reek of dust and stale ink."
I didn't make the amateur mistake of frantically sniffing myself. He was the one bluffing. I had flapped my wings like mad to tail her without being spotted; there was no way enough scent molecules remained for him to actually smell it.
"I must have picked up the scent when I went there yesterday. Besides, I have no reason to lie about something like this."
"Exactly. Which makes me wonder what you're trying to hide." Ratel turned his head, gesturing with his chin toward Lia, who stood stiff with tension. "I need to know why you keep dragging along that useless woman."
I had no answer to give. I couldn't exactly tell him I was following the plot of the original novel, nor could I admit that I actually had powers of my own and was using her to hide them.
"Next! Groups 31 through 34! Step outside!"
Saved by the bell. The booming voice calling us from the arena rescued me from the interrogation. Ratel, who had briefly glanced outside, turned his gaze back to me.
"I didn't expect you to spill it easily anyway. In that case, I'll just have to do things my way."
Leaving behind a warning that sounded suspiciously like a threat, he brushed past me and walked out of the tent. If that uncomfortable exchange had proved anything, it was one undeniable fact: he really had a rotten personality.
Following Jing and Ratel, who had already stepped out onto the tournament grounds, Lia and I began to walk.
"Um, Ran... I want to apologize in advance. I'm sorry," Lia whispered from behind me, her voice barely audible. Her breathing was shallow and trembling.
"For what?"
"It might get a bit unpleasant. But it's not directed at you, Ran, so please just ignore it. Okay?" When I questioned her sudden apology, she answered in a voice that sounded on the verge of tears. As we stepped outside, her anxious breathing grew even heavier. It didn't take long for her fears to materialize.
"What? She actually showed up?"
"It's Lia! The same Lia who made an absolute fool of herself back then!"
The jeers and mockery began the moment she showed her face in the arena.