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The interior of the towering building possessed a grandeur that matched its height, completely out of place with the humble landscape of Lucha Village, where small houses huddled close together. A furious roar, entirely discordant with such opulent surroundings, echoed through the temple's prayer room.
"With all the money we paid you, how could you fail at such a simple task?!"
"W-We are terribly sorry, Priest."
The apologies of the two men, who bowed their heads in deep contrition, did nothing to appease the priest's wrath.
"Are you telling me that you, supposedly Lucha competitors, came back without even laying a finger on a single target? Or was that brat also some kind of monster that the two of you couldn't handle?"
At his question, the two of them hurriedly shook their heads.
"N-No, that's not it. We didn't even catch a glimpse of that black-haired brat."
"Then what the hell happened?!"
"It was a guy with yellow eyes. He suddenly showed up, and we were too busy running for our lives."
The priest scowled at their reply. It was the young lad who seemed to have a similar build to the old man named Jing. He was a guy who forfeited every match, but even at a glance, he was clearly no pushover. Fleeing had been the right choice. If they had been caught by him, they would have inevitably revealed who was pulling the strings. If that happened, sending people to handle things quietly would have been completely pointless. Even so, knowing that their retreat was the logical choice did nothing to soothe the priest's anger over their failure.
"Useless fools...!"
Knock, knock. A quiet but firm knock on the door stopped him just as he was about to unleash another torrent of abuse. Since the list of people who would visit his room at this hour was short, the priest readily held his tongue.
"Get out."
Breathing sighs of relief at his command, the two men quickly opened the door and slipped out of the room. As they left, a massive shadow stepped inside, and a smirk spread across the priest's face.
"Well, look who it is. If it isn't the most pitiful, most wooden Ethan."
Ethan bowed his head slightly at the mocking welcome.
"It seems giving me orders wasn't enough for you," Ethan said, gesturing with his chin toward the door the men had just exited.
"Don't overstep your bounds and just do what you're told."
At the priest's blunt reply, Ethan nodded.
"I can do it better than them."
"What exactly can you do better?"
A strange gleam flickered in the priest's eyes at Ethan's response. Under his gaze, which urged him to go on, Ethan bit his lip once and slowly spoke.
"I can do the dirty work too. So... please, do not touch Lia."
"Let's call it a day," Jing said cheerfully, looking down at us where we lay exhausted.
The sun, which had colored the dawn sky, was already sinking below the horizon. The final training session before the tournament was over. It was a pity that neither Lia nor I had managed to touch a single hair on Jing's head during all this time, but...
"Just once. Just one last time, Jing."
Apparently, "a pity" wasn't enough to satisfy Lia, who sprang to her feet and pleaded. But Jing firmly shook his head.
"We've done everything we can. Right now, letting your body rest is far more important."
"But..."
Lia's voice trailed off, her anxiety clearly unresolved. If anyone were to ask how the past two days of training had been, the answer could be found in Lia's and my gloves, which had been completely shredded in just forty-eight hours. Yet, she seemed to think it was still far from enough.
"J-Just a little more? You said yourself that one can never train too much."
Seeing her refuse to back down, Jing looked troubled and shot a silent plea for help to me, still splayed out on the ground. Normally, I would have ignored him, but right now, I desperately wanted to rest too.
"Lia, shouldn't you buy new gloves?"
"Gloves?"
At my lethargic suggestion, Lia looked down at her hands. The gloves that had protected her fists as she furiously pounded sandbags for the past two days were torn open at the knuckles.
"Indeed, you won't have time to buy gloves tomorrow morning. Why don't you head out now and get a new pair?"
Seizing the opportunity, Jing quickly urged her. But Lia shook her head as if it were no big deal.
"They're fine like this."
"What are you talking about? If you keep using gear in that state, you'll hurt your hands."
"I'm really fine! They've been torn since this morning anyway."
At Lia's carefree response, Jing stared at her in silence for a moment. I didn't want our precious rest time to be wasted on them bickering back and forth. Tonight, I had something of my own to test out, away from their watchful eyes.
I slowly pushed myself up.
"If you don't need them, so be it. Jing, I'm going to head down and buy some new gloves."
"You're buying gloves too, Ran?"
Jing's gaze drifted to my perfectly intact gloves. Though they showed signs of wear, there wasn't a single tear on them.
"Is there a problem?"
"No, not at all. It's always good to have a spare pair."
Leaving him to hurriedly shake his head, I turned to Lia.
"Since Lia said she isn't going, I suppose I'll have to go alone."
"The only place in the village that sells leather gloves is run by Jinger's father," Lia murmured worriedly. She stopped pestering about training and looked at Jing. "Maybe you should go with him, Jing. Ran is in the same group as me, so even if he's a customer, Jinger's father might take his anger out on him."
It wasn't a matter of "might"—he absolutely would. Recalling our last encounter, Jinger's father seemed excessively doting. There was no way he would quietly sell gloves to the companion of the girl who had knocked out three of his son's front teeth. While Lia's perception of me as someone needing a guardian wasn't exactly comfortable, well, the important thing was that she had given up on training.
While I brushed off my lingering discomfort, Jing dusted the dirt off his clothes from training and threw on his robe.
"Miss Lia, why don't you come along? It really would be best to get you a new pair of gloves as well."
At his words, Lia quickly shook her head.
"No, I'm fine."
"My treat. Thanks to you, we were able to enter the Lucha Tournament, and I feel I haven't properly expressed my gratitude yet."
Since Jing put it that way, Lia's eyes wavered in conflict. But Jing, as if he had never intended to take no for an answer, didn't even wait for her reply before leading the way.
I tapped the shoulder of the hesitant Lia.
"Let's go. Jing has no sense of money. If we leave him to his own devices, he'll just buy the most expensive thing in the shop and get ripped off."
At my urging, Lia finally began to move. Confirming she was following, I trailed behind Jing, swallowing the thought that we might get to see something quite entertaining if we went now.
As we, who had previously only moved between the backyard and the second floor of our lodgings, appeared on the street, the eyes of the passersby locked onto us. The main targets of attention were Jing and Lia. And occasionally, there was one who received looks of sheer terror.
"Do you even know we're going to buy gloves?"
At my question, Ratel's eyes turned toward me.
"Is there something you're hiding that makes you uncomfortable?"
What would I have to be uncomfortable about just going to buy gloves? I had only asked because it was so unlike him to tag along to buy leather gloves when his own skin wouldn't even get a scratch if he fought bare-handed. Well, if it was for surveillance, I didn't really have anything to say.
"Sure, wasting time is a personal choice."
At my reply, the corners of his eyes twitched upward.
"Don't you think that fearless attitude of yours only feeds my suspicion?"
"Let's be precise. What feeds your suspicion isn't my attitude, but your fear."
I must have truly struck a nerve this time, as a cold fire ignited in his eyes.
"You seem awfully confident that I can't kill you."
He glared at me as if ready to prove right then and there that I was sorely mistaken. But I wasn't particularly afraid. Just as Ratel said, I was confident now. Confident that he wouldn't be able to kill me.
"You're making this difficult. If you won't stop threatening me, I have a plan of my own."
At my retort, the corner of his mouth twisted.
"I'm curious. What exactly is this plan of yours?"
I looked straight at him as he provoked me to try.
"I'm going to tell Jing."
"What?"
Perhaps this was entirely unexpected, as he let out an uncharacteristically deflated sound.
"I said, I'm going to tell Jing."
Confirming he hadn't misheard, Ratel let out a hollow laugh.
"Do you seriously think that's going to work?" he asked, as if he had just heard the most pathetic thing in the world.
"I think it will. Considering you can't even threaten to kill me when Jing is around."
At my response, his face visibly stiffened. For someone who rarely showed any emotional fluctuation, it was quite a significant reaction. I savored this rare sight to my heart's content before turning my head forward. This was both a confirmation and a small act of petty revenge. A confirmation of the relationship between Jing and him—which had begun differently from the original novel—and revenge for him annoying me. Because he kept forfeiting, I had ended up doing martial arts training that I was never destined for.
I walked ahead, leaving him behind with his face still frozen. Let him ponder it all he wanted. Even in the original novel, he had struggled for a long time to accept the fact that he was growing attached to Jing. That was the kind of problem he should be worrying about right now. Not agonizing over the Seventh Prince who had suddenly intruded into his life.
By the time I caught up with Jing and Lia, they had already arrived in front of the leather shop. Jinger's father recognized Lia from outside the shop and came storming out, gnashing his teeth.
"Lia!!!"
He roared, pointing a finger at her. I could feel the eyes of the crowd shifting toward the commotion.
"I-I'm sorry, mister!"
Having instantly become a public spectacle, Lia apologized reflexively. Jing frowned at her reaction.
"No, Miss Lia, there is no need to apologize. It was a fair and square match."
"What did you say?! There's no way that girl won fairly! She must have used some dirty trick again!"
"What dirty trick?"
I was the one who asked the last question.
"W-What dirty trick, you ask..."
Clearly not having thought that far ahead, he stammered.
"The priests of the temple have already concluded that Jinger lost to Lia. If you're saying they're wrong, surely you must have some evidence to back it up."
Jinger's father flinched at my question. However, after scanning the gathering crowd and convincing himself that everyone around was on his side, he quickly regained his confidence.
"She has a dirty history of getting caught trying to deceive the temple before! This time, she just got lucky."
"So the temple's judgment was wrong?"
As I summarized his claim, the man's face turned pale.
"W-Who said they were wrong?! I'm just saying she deceived them more thoroughly this time!"
I had no idea what distinction he was trying to make, but he hurriedly corrected my words, looking around in sheer panic. Watching his struggle, I tilted my head.
"Then we can't know which time the temple was deceived—this year, or three years ago."
"What is this bastard talking about? She failed three years ago, and she succeeded this year!"
"So you're saying the temple people are all idiots."
"W-What?!"
This time, the man practically jumped out of his skin.
"W-What an impious bastard! Did you all hear that?! Did you hear what this guy just said...?!"
He raised his voice once more, trying to drag the bystanders into it. But when it came to this kind of mudslinging, I had a pretty high win rate. Looking around at the crowd that was slowly gathering, I projected my voice. I spoke loudly so that everyone surrounding us could hear clearly.
"You just said it yourself. That the priests are all idiots."
He probably didn't know, but in this kind of fight, the one who flinches first loses.
"Look at this crazy bastard! When did I ever say that?!"
"You said the temple people were all fooled by Lia. Doesn't that mean it's one of two things? Either Lia is smart enough to fool everyone, or the temple people are stupid enough to be fooled by Lia."
"That's obviously because Lia is clever..."
"Then, since you're the one who saw through Lia's trick, you must be wiser than the priests of the temple."
"..."
He shut his mouth, unable to bring himself to agree. Though his resentful eyes were filled with the stubborn determination to admit neither.
As the rowdy man fell silent, the murmurs of the crowd gathered around the shop also began to die down. I raised my head, looking around at the faces of the villagers, and spoke slowly.
"Or, if it's neither of those, maybe the entire village just found it incredibly entertaining to torment a single person."