The Seventh Prince Runs Away from Awkward Situations Chapter 88

As the murmuring grew louder, Ria's face flushed even redder.

With each passing moment, Ria's shoulders curled further inward.

Displeased by the sight of the majority bullying one person, Jing frowned.

“Have you participated in Lucha before?”

When Ratel, who lacked even a fingernail's worth of delicacy, asked bluntly, Ria pressed her lips together tightly and nodded.

“Yes, just once 3 years ago. Though I was eliminated in the preliminaries.”

“If you were eliminated in the preliminaries, that's even stranger. Isn't that the stage where half of the participants get knocked out? Why would they remember you for participating in just one game?”

He frowned and spoke as if he couldn't understand.

“That is……, it was a disqualification back then.”

Ria whispered, lowering her bright red face.

She probably didn't want to say it, but she must have judged that saying it with her own mouth was better.

“Disqualification?”

Jing raised his eyebrows at the disgraceful word that would not have been permitted in his life.

At his intense aura, Ria, who hesitated to answer, slowly opened her mouth.

“……Because I participated carrying a piece of metal……. I-I didn't do it on purpose. But during the match it fell……, so…….”

We couldn't listen to her rambling words any longer.

Because the whistle signaling the start of the match blew and the dogfight began immediately.

It didn't take long for it to be revealed how much of a ragtag group Group 34 was.

Unlike the opposing team, who split into four as if accustomed to it, we stood still holding our ground.

No, to be precise, not everyone was ragtag.

Jing, who threw his body to the left as soon as the opponent moved, protected our group's pride.

It was as Ria said.

The preliminaries didn't take long to conclude.

Because no one who moved from their spot was faster than Jing.

In the blink of an eye, a man whose neck was caught in Jing's hand rolled on the floor with his vital point pressed.

The whistle blew, and the referee announced our victory.

The silence of the spectators, unable to accept the outcome decided far too quickly, was brief, and soon exclamations and cheers burst out from here and there.

When someone who remembered Jing's name started shouting it, people infected with the contagion called excitement shouted his name along with them.

We passed the preliminaries.

But it wasn't as simple as I thought.

Because normally, Jing wasn't the only name people should have been shouting.

I turned around and glared at someone whose name should have been called.

Ratel, who hadn't moved a single step since the match started.

Unlike Ria or me, he, who voluntarily became a useless member, looked at me as if asking what the problem was.

So you're going to play it like this?

“It's nominally a fighting competition, shouldn't you show a little sincerity?”

“I didn't lie down on the floor, isn't this enough sincerity?”

Ratel said nonchalantly.

His will to show exactly that much sincerity in future matches as well was evident.

After the preliminaries, it's a one-on-one fighting match.

If the guy just stands still and forfeits, we can't go up unless I or Ria win.

If I'm unlucky with the match-up and get called first, we won't be able to reach the finals.

No, not reaching the finals wasn't the problem. The problem was…….

“No weapons, no attacks on genitals, no attacks on eyes.”

I glared at the guy muttering the competition rules with an expressionless face.

The stiffer my expression became, the higher the corners of the guy's mouth rose in a smirk.

“You said any method is fine as long as we keep these, right? As long as we don't kill the opponent.”

The guy, who displayed the kindness of reciting even the last rule meticulously, moved his steps, which he hadn't even lifted during the match, and approached me.

“Try hiding it until the end. I will watch your secret being revealed.”

I was forced to realize it once again.

The protagonist of [Dark Header] really had a foul personality.

***

The excitement and interest of the people boiled over at the appearance of an unexpected powerhouse.

Instead of Idan's shop which had closed its doors, we entered a large restaurant in the center of the village, and people surrounded us in an instant.

If there was a problem, it was that not a single one of the four of us welcomed that.

“Where are you folks from?”

“Old sir, were you hired by that black-haired man over there? How much are you getting paid?”

“Do you happen to have thoughts of stopping by this village next year too?”

“We are just travelers. We will leave right after the competition ends.”

Jing responded to the people with a fed-up expression at the ceaselessly flooding questions.

Of course, since I didn't want to get swept up in such people's interest, I took a seat at a table quite far from him.

He looked at me for a moment with a face full of betrayal, but I turned my head feigning ignorance.

Despite his attitude clearly showing annoyance and fatigue, the people didn't care.

The appearance of such a strong outsider was uncommon, and everyone was curious about Jing.

“That sly Ria is now trying to win by dragging in an outsider after everything else faild.”

Of course, not everyone was favorable towards us.

Because the appearance of a powerhouse also meant the appearance of a strong rival.

I turned my head to those sipping beer pettily at the left table.

I don't remember exactly which team number they were, but they were ones who passed the preliminaries anyway.

Their eyes were diligently scanning Jing as if heavily guarding against the appearance of an unexpected strongman.

When Jing looked at him silently, the malice stuck on his face grew even larger.

“You should be ashamed too. Do you have nothing better to do than help such a sly thing?”

It was fortunate Ria wasn't here.

She probably knew something like this would happen and avoided the place in advance.

“Actually, didn't Ria already lose her qualification once? To covet the blessing again after already committing the sin of deceiving the temple once, she is truly brazen beyond measure.”

The man's sneering didn't stop, and tension settled in the noisy restaurant instead of the commotion before we knew it.

Jing stood up from his seat.

It wasn't the tired expression he wore amidst the barrage of people's questions, but a face hardened stiffly.

The man, seemingly a bit flustered by Jing's changed atmosphere, unknowingly set his beer mug down on the table quietly.

“Are you certain Ria cheated?”

Jing, who approached right in front of the man, asked quietly.

The opponent deliberately straightened his shoulders and puffed up his body to not reveal that he was pushed back by Jing's aura.

“O-Of course!”

His voice cracked as he answered, making him look even more ridiculous, and he shut his mouth for a moment and ground his teeth.

It must have been that even he thought he looked ridiculous.

“All the villagers saw that she came out hiding a piece of metal in her glove!”

“And Ria admitted to that?”

“Yeah!”

The man yelled louder than necessary.

“She admitted that she was the one who put the sharp object inside her clothes! We let it slide until now out of consideration for Idan's face, but if she says she's going to win, the story changes! Forfeit even now! It doesn't make sense for a thing like that to win in the first place!”

So the last words were his true feelings eventually.

Jing looked down at the man making a fuss while sitting with an unreadable face, then turned his body and approached the table where Ratel and I were sitting.

The excited man shouted something behind Jing's back, but this time the villagers gathered in the restaurant stopped him.

I took my eyes off the man shouting behind him and looked at Jing, who sat his body on the chair across from me.

“How does it feel to become a popular person in an instant?”

At my question, Jing's brow furrowed.

“I resent someone very much.”

Jing, who answered like that, glared at Ratel who was sitting next to him stuffing cornbread and parsnips into his mouth in one go.

There was no way Jing wouldn't have noticed the fact that Ratel deliberately didn't move in the match.

“This time is fine, but move properly from the next match.”

At Jing's admonition, Ratel's eyes, which were tearing bread, turned to me for a moment.

The guy opened his mouth without taking his eyes off me.

“I will move at the moment I think is necessary.”

“Why are you suddenly being stubborn? We have to win the competition to arrive safely at the next destination.”

“I still don't quite understand why I have to win this competition.”

At Ratel's firm answer, Jing seemed to realize only then that Ratel's immobility today wasn't simply his whim.

“From the next match, if you don't move, Lord Ran or Miss Ria will have to fight.”

“That is what Ratel is hoping for, Jing.”

I answered instead to save Jing's time from starting a meaningless persuasion.

“Just why…….”

While Jing mumbled, unable to understand the situation, Ratel tossed all the remaining food into his mouth and stood up from his seat.

“I'm tired so I'll go in first.”

“What did you do to be tired!”

Despite Jing's shout of disbelief, Ratel just left the restaurant.

In fact, even if he had remained here, there would have been nothing Jing could do.

He couldn't break his stubbornness, nor was there a way to forcibly control Ratel who wouldn't move in the match.

Jing chased Ratel's back in vain and then turned his arrow to me.

He had a fretful expression as if asking what to do now.

But there was no way I would have a brilliant solution.

“The only way is for me to win one win, or for Ria to win one win.”

At my unremarkable answer, Jing sighed.

“So one of the two has to win…….”

Jing, who was mumbling, stood up from his seat clenching his fist as if he had decided something.

It seemed he finished calculating which of the two had better odds of winning.

He turned his body toward the exit.

“Where would Ria be?”

Fortunately, this time Jing and my opinions matched.

***

Ria, who ran away avoiding people's eyes, walked aimlessly on the outskirts of the village.

It couldn't be helped.

In the cramped village, the only place where she could avoid people's eyes was the bookstore run by the eccentric owner.

She had experienced just this morning that even that wasn't a place where she could avoid Idan's eyes.

With home, the bookstore, and all places she could run away to gone, Ria had no choice but to walk without a destination.

She didn't have money to fill her hungry stomach, nor did she have a place to lay her body.

Yet, she was too scared of Idan to return to the restaurant like this.

It was the moment Ria was about to sink down, feeling pathetic about herself for being unable to do anything without Idan.

“Ria!”

Startled by the voice calling her name, Ria turned around.

And upon discovering the person approaching her with a scary momentum, her body stiffened just like that.

It was Idan, who she thought would be at the shop.

Ria stared at the approaching Idan as if nailed to the ground, forgetting the fact that she had two legs to run away with.