Ch.1110. Rank Determination Match (2)

# 10. Ranking Match (2)

Their match ended much faster than expected.

It was a one-sided victory.

The boy named Albert Veros’s extraordinary performance was enough to surprise the audience.

“Who is that guy anyway?”

“He’s winning without using a single skill.”

“Veros? Isn’t that the kid from the middle school division?”

“Ah, that girl who always gets first place?”

“Did she have a brother?”

“I don’t know either.”

Their interest in Albert grew, and the same was true for a girl who was silently watching him.

When she kept staring at him, he sensed her gaze and looked back at her.

‘He can detect a stare like this, but why does he look like that?’

However, his expression as he looked at her was strange somehow.

Unlike her expressionless face, he looked as if he might burst into tears at any moment.

She found this peculiar.

“Why is he looking at me like that?”

“How would I know? But don’t you think this situation is kind of romantic?”

“Do you think we’ve met before?”

“…”

Of course, she had never met him before.

She didn’t even know someone like him existed in this world, but she felt an inexplicable familiarity with him.

And that inexplicable familiarity made her interested in him.

She was curious about who he was and why he had such an expression.

She wondered if she had met him before and why she felt this familiarity with him.

“Riel, please find some basic information about that boy.”

“Background check? Come on, that’s a bit…”

“It’s not like I can ask him directly.”

***

“You… how?…”

I spoke to him as he lay on the floor declaring his surrender.

“I told you, didn’t I? I’d win with just this.”

Just as I finished speaking and was about to return to the waiting room, I felt someone’s intense gaze.

That gaze was familiar and longed for.

My body turned automatically at the appearance of a gaze so familiar to me.

As I turned, I could see the audience seats at once, and at the end of those seats was the owner of that gaze—the person I had been waiting for so desperately.

Though she was far away, I could still tell.

That this person was exactly who I had been looking for.

Elizabeth Michael.

The entirety of my life and the driving force of my existence was looking at me from afar.

She who had departed this world before my eyes was once again…

Looking at me.

She was looking at me with the same warm, sun-like smile as before.

That fact gave me an indescribable feeling of emotion.

Tears of joy came unbidden at seeing her again—the person I had missed so desperately.

The boy collapsed beside me questioned my tears, but that didn’t matter.

Right now, the joy these tears represented far outweighed any embarrassment I might feel.

That joy relieved me of my shame.

Thanks to that, I stared at her, losing track of time, and only ended our eye contact after receiving a warning from an official.

I returned to the waiting room, still feeling the lingering emotion.

As soon as I entered the waiting room, she asked me.

“What’s wrong with you?”

“Wow…”

“Seriously, what’s wrong?”

“I saw the hope of this world.”

I clearly saw with my own eyes the hope that drives my life even in this second lifetime.

Though she was disguised as an ordinary girl to hide her identity, she still shone like the moon in the night sky.

“What are you talking about?”

“You don’t need to know.”

She continued to look at me as if I were some strange person.

“I don’t know what’s going on, but calm down.”

“I should.”

I tried to calm my excited heart due to her appearance and focus again on the ranking match.

I definitely tried to.

However, because of the person who just entered the waiting room, my composure and concentration shattered.

I stared blankly at her who had just entered the waiting room.

And simultaneously, my status window reacted.

‘Huh?’

[Skill, Absolute Loyalty has been activated.]

[All stats increase by 10% when you are with your lord (Elizabeth Michael).]

[Your lord (Elizabeth Michael) feels favorably toward her faithful knight (Albert Veros).]

‘Ah… this?’

It’s that status window I used to see so much before.

Actually, right now, Aelin’s reaction was more surprising than this status window.

“Oh! Sisters!”

Aelin ran to Diana and Riel who had just entered the waiting room.

“Hello? Aelin. It’s been a while.”

“We saw each other yesterday, didn’t we?”

“Did we?”

Riel was having various conversations with Aelin.

They seemed quite close.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t listen to their conversation.

“Hello?”

She had been staring at me intently since earlier.

Because of that, my heart was racing wildly right now.

“Hello…”

She and I exchanged awkward greetings in an awkward atmosphere.

“This is my brother.”

Aelin introduced me to them.

“Ah, the one you mentioned before?”

“Yes.”

It seems she had talked about me at some point.

“Wow, he really is handsome.”

“Not really that much.”

She took the words right out of my mouth.

I was going to deny being handsome anyway, but hearing her say it really irritated me.

“But what brings you here? Coming all the way to the waiting room.”

“I have something to say.”

“To me?”

“No.”

Her eyes were directed at me, not Aelin.

‘To me? Something to say?’

I was insanely curious about what she wanted to say, so I listened carefully to her words.

“Would you like to join my party?”

***

“No way! You rejected that?”

“Do you even know who that sister is?”

I know a million times better than you do.

“What? You mean the top student in school?”

“Oh… you do know… but why? That sister is famous for rarely taking party members…”

For reference, Aelin was also a member of her party.

“You got in just fine.”

“That’s because we’re close.”

“It doesn’t really matter.”

I never intended to join a party in the first place.

Even if she was the one offering.

“Why are you really doing this?”

“I’m just not interested.”

She was dumbfounded by my response.

“Just because of that?”

“Yeah, that’s all there is to it.”

“You’re impossible.”

The truth is, I rejected it because she doesn’t have [Michael’s Blessing] yet, but I couldn’t say that.

She learns [Michael’s Blessing] during her second awakening in the latter half of her third year, and if I wait until then, we wouldn’t have much time to work together.

I wonder if it could be accelerated somehow…

That’s really unfortunate.

“Hey.”

It was the voice of the girl glaring at me from the side.

“Huh?”

“That person you were talking about… it’s not Diana, is it?”

“No, it’s not.”

‘Her intuition is really something else.’

I wondered if she had some kind of related skill.

Just as I was getting up to head to the arena as the match time approached, she spoke.

“Get out.”

“I know that already.”

I headed to the arena for my second match.

“She’s not here.”

Unlike before, I came out first this time.

However, she soon appeared in the arena.

“Who are you?”

Quite naturally, she didn’t recognize me.

“That’s not really important, is it?”

“Right, I’ll be advancing anyway.”

An admirable confidence.

But excessive confidence can become poison.

“You’d better not be overconfident, or you’ll be embarrassed.”

“Embarrassed? What are you trying to say?”

“That I’m going to win.”

Annoyed by my words, she drew her weapon, a gun, and right on cue, the match began.

Her main weapon was a gun, and not only was her weapon powerful, but her skills were also excellent.

If given even a little time, she could be quite lethal.

That’s why I needed to end the match as quickly as possible.

‘I’ll have to use it this time.’

If I try to save my skills again, I might actually lose.

She raised her gun almost simultaneously with the start of the match, but I was a bit faster.

I activated [Swift] and ran at full speed.

***

At that moment.

There were people in the audience seats watching the psychological warfare with interest.

But the match ended in just a few seconds.

“Wow… that was like a one-second knockout?”

“He’s really fast.”

Diana was astonished by his agility.

Riel was also surprised and asked her.

“That was [Swift] just now, right?”

“I suppose so? It wouldn’t make sense otherwise.”

“But to think it was [Swift]…”

[Swift] was one of the rarest skills among standard skills, boasting one of the highest acquisition difficulties.

And a mere 16-year-old had learned such a skill.

“What was I doing at that age?”

“We’re still only 18.”

“I wish I had [Swift] too.”

Her muttering sounded a bit melancholic.

“I wish Riel would just awaken already.”

“But why did he reject the offer?”

“I know, it’s such a shame. I don’t want to lose talent like that to another party…”

She greatly regretted not being able to scout him.

“I’m looking forward to seeing his unique skill though.”

However, separate from that, she was looking forward to his upcoming match with Raycle.

She was anticipating the unique skill he would reveal in that match.

‘But he’ll probably lose to Raycle.’

His stats didn’t seem particularly high.

Even in the first match, he seemed to rely on swordsmanship, grappling techniques, and rich experience rather than stats.

‘Low stats but rich experience.’

How ironic.