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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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The excitement from the first day of the competition didn’t subside even after the games had ended.
Even though the moon had risen, the fully booked hotel guests were all still talking about today’s battle soccer match.
The more May heard it, the more her lips curled up in secret satisfaction.
“Aren’t you enjoying this a bit too much?”
Rin, standing next to her, gave her a sidelong glance.
May cleared her throat but replied proudly,
“It feels good to hear my husband being praised.”
“I’ve been thinking about this for a while now – why do you keep calling Daniel your husband? It makes him uncomfortable.”
It wasn’t wrong.
Daniel had become very conservative regarding romantic matters due to the elf Eris.
Especially in Rin’s case, even though she had been partly forcibly possessed by the Goddess of Death, she had essentially pounced on Daniel.
She didn’t want to stress Daniel out too much with these kinds of things.
But May denied this, popping a candy into her mouth.
“On the contrary, now’s our chance, you idiot.”
“I-Idiot?”
Rin was momentarily taken aback.
Even just considering academics, she was far superior to May.
For May to call her an idiot?
“Hey, what kind of decision do you think Daniel will end up making?” May asked.
“……”
“I’ll bet you anything. That bastard will definitely say he likes the elf again.”
It wasn’t wrong.
Rin had been feeling this too, and the real reason Daniel McLean was struggling was because he couldn’t forget the Eris from his previous life.
He was having a hard time seeing the current Eris and the past Eris as different people.
“That guy’s heart is like a fortress wall. No matter how much we cling to him or throw ourselves at him, he thoroughly ignores us. You’ve seen it,” May continued.
“Hmm.”
The more Rin thought about it, the more regretful she felt.
If only she had been a little braver when they were living in the village together.
‘Then we could have been dating.’
Wasn’t she the one inside that fortress wall?
After all, Daniel had told her that he had a crush on her when they were in the village.
“But right now, that fortress wall is under renovation.”
“……”
“Hey, I’ll be honest with you.”
May took the candy out of her mouth, stopped walking, and declared with a serious expression.
“I can’t live without Daniel. That bastard has wormed his way too deep inside me.”
It could have been an embarrassing love confession, but Rin felt she couldn’t back down here.
“It’s been since we lived together in the village. I’ve been in love with him for a full 10 years. I probably love him more than you do, not less.”
“Are you trying to compete based on time? In the end, you lost him to the elf, so what’s the point?”
“T-That’s…”
It wasn’t wrong, so Rin couldn’t refute it.
“Anyway, I’m not trying to fight with you. I’m saying we should cooperate for now. This is our chance to tear down the fortress wall that big-breasted elf built.”
“Sigh, you’re right.”
If they left Daniel alone to sort out his feelings now, that stubbornly earnest man would never open his heart to them.
May slowly extended her hand.
“Let’s give it a try. We’ll cooperate for now, and after that, I’ll be the one to win.”
“Don’t talk nonsense. I agree to cooperate, but if Daniel starts struggling too much, I’ll take his side.”
“I have enough sense for that.”
And so, an alliance was formed.
Rin never would have imagined she’d end up in this kind of relationship with May.
At the beginning of the semester, May had just been a delinquent drifting through school.
‘I definitely need to pull myself together a bit.’
Thinking she was being considerate of Daniel, Rin hadn’t approached him more than necessary.
Knowing he felt burdened, she didn’t want to make him uncomfortable.
But the result of that was this.
Daniel liked the elf, and he was surrounded by women.
Back in the village, all the girls had only liked Ares, so she thought she could approach him slowly, but…
The charm of Daniel McLean, who had come out into the world after living in the countryside, was attracting people.
‘I should have caught him back in the village.’
What was the point of regretting it now?
Rin internally berated herself for her foolishness as she continued to open doors and enter the building.
“Was it room 606?” she asked.
“Yeah, that’s right,” May confirmed.
Since the hotel was full of only students anyway, the staff and other guests didn’t find it strange that Rin and May were entering.
They smoothly arrived at the door of room 606, where May knocked.
“Open up, you bastard,” she called out.
“…Do you think he’ll open the door if you say it like that?” Rin asked skeptically.
“Just wait and see.”
Bang!
Gone was the image of the loving girl from just moments ago, replaced by a thuggish demeanor.
After May kicked the door a few times with her foot, male students from Pales on the same floor poked their heads out of their rooms.
The occupant of room 606, the source of the commotion, also opened the door.
“What are you doing?”
The boy who came out was Hendrick, wearing glasses.
He was already prepared for bed, dressed in pajamas.
“This bastard came out quite easily!”
May’s fist immediately connected with his face.
“Sigh, I told you we should go inside the room first,” Rin said, rubbing her forehead with a sigh.
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Looking at my right hand moving freely, I couldn’t help but smile.
The sense of liberation and refreshment after removing the heavy bandage that had been wrapping it… if my right hand had its own consciousness, it would have been jumping for joy at the fresh air after so long.
“This bastard’s hand was already healed, and he was just pretending it was broken?”
Jesant chuckled as he put a cigarette in his mouth.
The pirate next to him, quick on the uptake, struck a match to light it for him.
Jesant exhaled, blowing out smoke.
He was right.
I actually thought Eve had caught on once before.
The last time she asked me to clear her tray, she had said.
‘I should check your bandage later. Are you lying about it still being broken?’
I had panicked a bit then and quickly followed May to the hospital.
“I felt like a magician,” I admitted.
It was like the thrill a magician feels when revealing the twist in their trick, or a playwright at the climax of their story.
I had tasted a bit of that exhilaration.
A broken arm?
I had actually felt it heal on the carriage ride to Bairn.
After having my bones broken multiple times in the Demon Realm Forest, how could I not notice this much?
But I thought if I said my hand had healed, I’d be dragged into participating in this event and that event, so I lied about my hand still being broken.
In reality, I had sat in the stands sipping lemonade while everyone else was practicing.
Personally, it had been the most fulfilling time of my academy life.
“But kid, did you think we’d all just fall over because your right arm is healed?” Jesant asked.
“You’ve been reading too many novels, brat,” another pirate sneered.
“We’re going to break that right hand again, so why did you take off the bandage?”
Of course, I didn’t think the pirates would feel anything special just because I removed it.
But from my perspective, this was the perfect timing.
“Shall we start the final rehabilitation?” I said.
Shing.
The sword at my waist was drawn.
Though it had been a while since my right hand had gripped a sword, there was no sense of awkwardness.
“Hah, disrespectful little shit,” Jesant spat.
Bang!
Pretending to reach for his cigarette, Jesant quickly pulled the trigger with his other hand.
However, my sword had already deflected the mana bullet.
‘Is that the pistol Sen mentioned?’
Even if she hadn’t told me, I could have reacted fast enough, but thanks to the prior information, I was able to deflect it more easily.
To think they could make weapons like that.
‘Maybe I should visit the dwarves sometime.’
I happened to know a Maester, so I thought I might be able to get weapons made more cheaply if I went there.
The sword my sister bought me was plenty excellent, but I had been using it so roughly that it was starting to show signs of strain.
“Heh, seems kids these days can easily block or dodge bullets,” Jesant scoffed.
His pride seemed hurt as he fired a few more shots, but I smoothly deflected them.
‘The speed is slow, and it’s not hard to deflect if you just watch the direction of the muzzle. It might be suitable for surprise attacks, but shooting openly like this from the front is rather…’
I couldn’t help but view the weapon skeptically.
I was getting bored enough to yawn.
“Boss, let’s just deal with him quickly. If we waste more time here, the Bairn guards will come,” one of the pirates urged.
“Sigh, these disrespectful brats,” Jesant muttered, touching the wound on his nose that Sen had made.
He spat out his cigarette, crushed it under his foot, and declared.
“Go cut off a few limbs and bring him to me.”
“Aye! Captain!”
Maybe it was because they were pirates, but watching them charge at me while shouting what seemed like a slogan reminded me of our cheer squad today.
Honestly, in terms of coordination, the pirates were far superior.
But in terms of visuals, Eve alone could outdo them all.
I wondered if the pirate charging at the front realized he was dead.
Anyway, the battle began with me slicing through his neck.
“Surround him!”
“One at a time! You bastard!”
“He’s slippery as an eel! Form proper ranks and face him!”
Their coordination was indeed good.
It wasn’t for nothing that they were called men of the sea, their formation was as tightly knit as a net.
But unfortunately, it was still just a net.
It could be torn apart with a sword.
“Ugh!”
As I thrust and tore through their net-like encirclement, they maintained their formation even in this situation, a testament to their training, and charged at me.
Pirates’ swords flew at me from all directions.
Perhaps because it had been a while since my fight with the Priestess of Time, I felt myself unconsciously focusing.
“Uh!”
“W-What’s this?”
The pirates began to hesitate and back away.
“What are you doing, you idiots?” Jesant, who had put a second cigarette in his mouth, approached, drawing the huge cutlass at his waist, displeased with his subordinates’ hesitation.
Several had already died, and quite some time had passed.
Jesant, intending to end it quickly by stepping in himself, also unconsciously took a step back the moment he joined the battlefield.
“Whew, yes. This is the feeling,” I said.
I didn’t know what they were thinking, but a twisted satisfaction was blooming on my face.
When I faced the Priestess of Time, I had realized I had lost my edge.
This was not only rehabilitation for moving my broken right hand but also a step towards regaining that edge.
It was far from comparable to the me who roamed the Demon Realm Forest, but I felt like the sherpa I once was was slowly waking up from a long slumber.
Within Daniel McLean the student, pickled in the peaceful life of the academy, the sherpa who had been slumbering for a long time was slowly rubbing his eyes.
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[Ngl im happy may is calling him her husband im gonna captain the may ship from now on and your’e all welcome to sail with me]
