The Seventh Prince Runs Away from Awkward Situations Chapter 91

The temple guys knew how to enjoy entertainment more than I thought.

"Group 21's Jinger! Group 34's Ria! Step forward!"

Seeing how they set up the match bracket so trashily like that.

"Goddamn it........"

Jing, who was just as flustered as Ria who had to compete immediately after coming out, muttered a curse without realizing it.

I took in the sight of the temple priests sitting haughtily in the seats of honor in the spectator stand.

It probably wasn't because they were conscious of Ria.

Rather, it must have been an order conscious of Jing, a strong candidate for the championship.

If the match ended too quickly, the villagers' excitement would cool down.

They probably wanted to check the skills of the other members besides Jing too.

"I-I'll be back."

Ria, bound by the tension that had barely loosened, walked up to the stadium stiffly like a toy doll.

Gazes of worry and ridicule followed behind her.

***

"Look who it is. Seems you still have the nerve to show up at the competition."

Ria bit her lip as she confirmed the face full of ridicule.

It was Jinger, the first son of the leather shop mister.

He was a man who occasionally came to the shop to ask Idan to enter the competition with him, but turned back grinding his teeth at Idan's firm refusal every time.

"How about withdrawing even now? Don't get caught later using dirty tricks."

She wanted to close her eyes and lower her head at the unbearable insult, but she couldn't do that this time.

It wasn't that she particularly gained courage.

-Do not take your eyes off the opponent! Straighten your stance!

It was because due to the side effects of the training she endured for the past two days, she felt like Jing's thunderous scolding would fall immediately if she closed her eyes now.

The strenuous training came to mind along with his nagging.

Feeling strength naturally entering her body, Ria straightened her stance.

She fixed her legs and raised her tightly clenched fists above her temples.

As soon as she adjusted her stance, the referee's whistle sounded as if it had been waiting.

The opponent, who had experience participating in the Lucha Competition several times, rushed toward Ria without hesitation.

Trying hard to ignore her thumping heart, Ria repeated Jing's advice inside.

'Just as I trained, just as I trained, just as I trained.'

However, things like his advice weren't very helpful.

To be precise, there was no need to bother recalling the advice.

Ria realized that as she simply dodged Jinger's fist.

'......Why is he so slow?'

With the question, Ria dodged Jinger's next attack.

However, Jinger was a seasoned fighter through and through, and Ria was just a beginner.

And a beginner swinging her fists for the first time in 3 years at that.

Thwack!

Jinger's foot squarely hit Ria's shin.

"Ugh!"

As Ria's stance wavered, unable to endure the pain, a fist flew toward her face immediately.

Ria quickly twisted her body, but she couldn't dodge it completely.

Feeling the fist grazing the tip of her nose, Ria quickly retreated backward.

Boos erupted from the spectator stand at the match that was lasting longer than expected.

Everyone was expecting Ria's miserable defeat.

Fortunately, their boos didn't really enter Ria's ears.

Because she was out of breath, and her struck leg felt like it was screaming.

"You rat-like brat! Are you! Just going to keep dodging!"

Jinger, extremely agitated because he couldn't land a critical hit, screamed.

Ria clenched her fists tightly.

It was strange.

She was driven into a defensive position, her struck leg and nose throbbed, and she was out of breath, but she wasn't anxious in the slightest.

All of Jinger's attacks were too slow and too light compared to Jing.

Since when was Jinger this weak?

While she was thinking blankly, Jinger aimed for Ria's knee and threw a kick.

Thwack!

Jinger's attack hit Ria's calf instead of her knee.

It was a half-failed attack, but Jinger, excited that a hit finally landed anyway, unleashed indiscriminate punches at Ria whose stance was disordered.

Even amidst the pain that snapped her to her senses, Ria didn't take her eyes off Jinger, seen beyond her guard.

It felt like Jing's voice was ringing in her ears.

-Good, Miss Ria. There are two things you need to remember. First, don't get hit. Second, stand up immediately even if you get hit.

-Uh, is there nothing like hitting well?

Jing definitely laughed at Ria's question.

-You don't have to worry about that. An opportunity will definitely come. You just have to hit well then.

-Just have to hit well.......

-It's fine. Because one blow will be enough.

He had said while raising his fist with a face more confident than Ria herself.

-Just a single blow is enough.

One blow.

She felt like she vaguely understood now what the one blow Jing spoke of was.

Like he said, there were very many opportunities.

Because the opponent was slower than she thought and clumsier than she thought.

The moment Jinger pulled his arm back to swing his fist, Ria took one step forward for the first time since the match started.

Without taking her eyes off the striking point.

The target was Jinger's philtrum.

Whack!!!

The brutal sound of Jinger's front teeth and knuckle bones colliding rang out, and Jinger falling to the floor unconscious happened almost simultaneously.

And the boos of the spectators filling the stadium turned into silence too.

"W-Winner, Ria!"

The referee's trembling judgment rang out as he looked alternately at the fallen Jinger and Ria.

However, no one cheered or sent applause.

Ria bowed her head once awkwardly amidst the cold gazes, then ran to the waiting room as if escaping.

The gazes of the crowd followed behind her.

There was one person looking down coldly at Ria amidst them.

Idan glared at his younger sister, dyed with joy and excitement, then turned his body soon after.

My eyes, observing the calmed Idan, also quietly followed behind him.

***

The second round of Lucha, held early in the morning, ended earlier than last year, that is, before evening time.

Jing and Ria, who contributed greatly to that, fled to the bookstore avoiding people's cheers and interest.

Some tactless people tried to follow us in, but they were chased out after being baptized by the bookstore owner's furious feather duster.

"Miss Ria, you did very well today."

Jing said while catching his breath at the peace that finally came.

"Is it true that I really knocked down Jinger?"

Even though a good 3 hours had passed since the match ended, Ria muttered, unable to feel the reality.

If three front teeth flying out and even fainting wasn't considered knocking him down, then that in itself was too harsh a standard.

"How horribly do you have to finish him to admit you knocked him down?"

Ratel gave Ria a scolding as if he had a similar thought to me.

"No, it's because I won so much more easily than I thought that it doesn't feel real."

Flustered, Ria spoke as if making an excuse.

"Compared to Jing, he was too slow......, and his fists didn't look like much of a threat either."

Jing smiled broadly at Ria who added an evaluation that killed Jinger twice.

"Thank you for the compliment. You were also a good student."

"That's great. Please take care of me for the remaining 3rd and 4th rounds, and until the finals."

When I spoke indirectly saying I would only forfeit like today, Ratel's sharp gaze landed on me immediately.

"You're not very surprised."

I shrugged my shoulders at his nitpicking.

"What about me?"

"You seem like a person who knew it would turn out like this from the beginning, you."

Of course I knew.

Half of it.

Although we arrived half a year early, there was no way Ria's talent would run away anywhere.

Even in the original work, she was the strongest fighter in the village without professional training.

However, there was a word right now that touched my nerves more strongly than that.

'You'.

This bastard had been speaking informally naturally since last time.

No matter that I'm currently in the body of a kid not even twenty years old, I'm almost thirty.

However, if I said something like that, I would have to bring up the story about the world inside the book.

I glared at the guy filled with complaints that couldn't become words.

"How would I know the future? If I knew beforehand, I wouldn't have taken Jing's training so hard either."

A sneer hung on Ratel's face at my answer.

"For that, you were slacking off on training quite a bit."

"Did you see me training?"

"......."

The guy shut his mouth as if he had nothing to say.

Why does he act with strange stubbornness every once in a while.

Looking at him sometimes, he wasn't much different from Cellos.

No, still, the protagonist bastard had a corner that was at least a little cuter than that guy.

When I looked at Ratel with a slightly generous heart, the guy returned an answer to my goodwill.

"Why are you staring so unpleasantly?"

Right, what is there to say about who is better or worse between the two.

It doesn't change the fact that both have trashy personalities.

Ria, who was observing Ratel and me, opened her mouth smiling.

"The 3rd round is in 3 days. The rules are the same as the 2nd round."

It means we can grasp the championship without big surprises if it's just like today.

It was a good thing that things were working out without difficulty, but there was one thing that bothered me.

It was the gap created as the timeline was advanced compared to the original work.

I had to decide whether to fill that empty spot, dig into it more, or just ignore it and go before leaving Lucha Village.

"I hope luck follows us that day too...... thou...gh......."

Ria's voice became smaller and smaller, and her face mixed with laughter stiffened.

I confirmed the face of the man standing at the bookstore entrance where her gaze wouldn't detach from.

"You were all here."

Ria, who came to her senses at the voice that spoke calmly first, approached Idan awkwardly.

"Did you come to the stadium today?"

Idan, who looked down for a moment at Ria's face that contained a bit of expectation, passed Ria without a word and stood in front of Jing and Ratel.

It seemed his purpose was not with Ria but with the other people.

Before Ria, who was suddenly ignored, could even be flustered, he opened his mouth.

"I came to make a proposal."

"I refuse."

"......."

When Idan stiffened his expression upon being hit by Ratel's conversation method that made one lose words, this time a partner capable of conversation stepped forward.

"What is there that you could propose to us?"

"I am saying I will promise you a more certain victory."

"Idan, what does that mean?"

Ria, flustered by the opening that could be called somewhat arrogant, asked, but this time too Idan continued speaking without giving a single glance to Ria.

"I will enter the competition with you all instead of Ria."

***

In Lucha Village, which wasn't affected by the Manis disorder because of me, there are two figures different from the original work.

The first is naturally Ria.

The Ria in the original work was more active than now, more confident than now, and also more desperate than now.

To meet Idan who left the village after winning in Lucha.

It is difficult to imagine the current appearance of Ria from the Ria in the original work who was looking for outsiders to enter the competition with her.

That's how precious her one and only older brother must have been to Ria in the original work.

The problem is the human called that older brother.

The second figure who didn't even appear in the original work, Idan.

The insurmountable wall that Ria has never beaten even once.