Ch.117116. Empty Seat (1)

# 116. Empty Seat (1)

From the moment Albert activated [Mortal’s End], the already tilted balance tilted even further, and the match ended in less than 10 minutes.

The match became so one-sided that it made spectators cringe.

Ironically though, the participants themselves seemed fine, maintaining bright smiles throughout the match and even after it ended.

Naturally, the audience found their smiles puzzling, and finally, one bewildered spectator directly asked them.

“Why are you two smiling?”

Hearing the question, Albert let out a bemused chuckle.

“Yeah, why are we smiling? Do you know?”

“How would I know? Besides, what’s with your ridiculously overwhelming strength?”

“Have you considered that you might just be weak? That seems more likely.”

“You crazy bastards…”

The two conversed so naturally that one would doubt they were people who normally didn’t exchange a single word.

“Leo, you need to practice your fundamentals more intensely.”

“I know…”

“Want me to help? Despite appearances, I ranked first in fundamentals at the academy.”

“No need.”

“I was just offering.”

Albert, firmly rejected, blurted out an embarrassingly lame excuse.

He seemed quite flustered, as if he hadn’t expected such a resolute refusal.

And Leo, who had flatly rejected Albert’s offer, made an unexpected request before leaving.

“Still, say hello when you see me later. It gets lonely being alone.”

“Uh, what…? Huh!?”

Albert blinked as he watched Leo’s retreating figure, heading somewhere away from this place.

Finding Albert’s expression amusing, Aelin burst into laughter.

“What are you laughing at?”

“Ah… this is hilarious. His words were funny, but your reaction is fucking hilarious. ‘Uh, what…? Huh!?’ That’s exactly what you looked like.”

“Was he always capable of saying things like that?”

Honestly, it was surprising.

The kid who was always alone suddenly saying such things.

He seemed to be the type who gets quite lonely.

“Why are you asking me?”

“You’re friends with him.”

“We’re not friends!?”

“Someone once said that strong denial is affirmation.”

“Who says that? That’s the kind of statement that makes me want to beat someone to death.”

“Can’t you speak more nicely…? There are a lot of people around…”

Aelin certainly treated others like they were invisible.

Of course, not caring about others isn’t necessarily bad, but it couldn’t be called good either.

‘Usually it depends on the situation…’

But in the current situation, with people everywhere, it seemed bad.

Not just a little bad, but very bad.

“Does image put food on the table?”

“No, but it can take food away. Especially in times like these.”

“…I’m going. Unlike you, I still have one match left.”

After saying that to me, Aelin headed to another arena where her final melee combat would take place.

I quietly muttered while watching her retreating figure, which gave off a different feeling from before.

“I still have one match left too… But wait… Isn’t that the direction Leo went? Or am I imagining things…?”

But what’s important now isn’t ‘whether Aelin went in the same direction as Leo’ but ‘what I’m going to do next.’

My final melee combat was scheduled for 7 PM, leaving me with too much time to spare.

‘Four hours left, enough time to clear at least three dungeons…’

While I’d like to clear dungeons, the grades for this melee combat test aren’t determined by results alone.

Results are important, but so is the process—fighting well and giving your all, even if you lose.

Depleting my stamina before the melee combat would be a clear disadvantage.

So instead of clearing dungeons or swinging my sword at the training grounds, I chose to watch other people’s melee combats.

“Where is everyone… They’re probably all busy with their own matches…”

I set out to find our party members who were likely somewhere earnestly sweating, striving, and defeating opponents—or becoming sacrifices to others’ efforts.

***

While Albert was searching for his party members, Aelin was looking for someone else.

She was looking for Leo, who had headed in a completely different direction from his assigned arena despite having a final melee combat with her.

“Ah… where did he go…”

Just as Aelin said this while opening the door of the dueling hall to step outside, someone’s voice reached her.

“Aren’t you going? It’s about to start.”

Leo was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, speaking with shameless audacity.

Aelin scolded Leo, who was striking a pose even in this absurd situation.

“Hey, are you crazy?”

“Why can’t you understand what I’m saying? I’m forfeiting.”

“Why on earth?”

“In the current situation, what percentage chance do you think I have of beating you?”

Aelin answered with a serious and cold tone.

“That’s not my problem.”

“It would be good for you to win without fighting… Cut me some slack. You know how embarrassing it is to lose in front of all those people.”

“Forfeiting is more embarrassing, you idiot. You’re a prince, don’t you have any pride?”

Leo sighed deeply before answering.

“That’s exactly why I’m doing this…”

“Your parents would prefer you to give your best and lose, right? No, they’d definitely prefer that.”

“Yeah… I know. But can’t you just let it go? I was planning to forfeit all my matches, but I came out because I said I’d fight him.”

Aelin had felt for a while that Leo seemed to care a lot about Albert.

Of course, it was problematic that he felt reverence for him as a fellow warrior rather than friendship.

‘He wasn’t like this before…’

He definitely wasn’t like this at the beginning of the semester, but seemed to have changed recently.

Seeing this, she could tell that Leo had definitely changed a lot.

As Leo just said, someone who would have forfeited all matches originally had now shown up for all four of his matches.

“Good. That’s why you should do one more. If you’re going to do it, do it all the way.”

“…”

“Didn’t you hear what my brother said earlier? That you’re losing to me? It’s the same now. You’re always following behind me because you live so half-heartedly.”

Hearing this, Leo let out an incredulous laugh and asked Aelin.

“Ha… This is ridiculous. I’m following behind you? How so?”

“In every way. Anyone can see it. Originally, the only thing you had over me was your face. But lately… I’m not even sure about that?”

“Seriously…”

Leo, seemingly furious from the continued provocation, approached its source.

Then he grabbed Aelin’s arm firmly.

“Fine, let’s do this.”

“Uh… what…?”

“But why is your face so red? Are you sick?”

“Uh… no, that’s not it…”

“Then let’s go quickly, we’ll be late.”

“Wait, before that, let go of…”

Leo seemed not to have heard her words and returned to the dueling hall, still holding her arm.

“Ah…”

And Aelin was dragged into the dueling hall by Leo.

Numerous gazes fell upon the two as they appeared in the dueling hall in such a state, and Aelin found those stares burdensome.

However, Leo ignored those gazes and continued on his way.

“Hey…! Let go of this!?”

“What? Oh…”

He seemed to realize what he was doing only when Aelin raised her voice, and only then did he release her hand.

Then he apologized to Aelin, who was still glaring at him with a face as red as a ripe persimmon.

“Uh… sorry, really.”

“You’re… dead. If you can’t participate in tomorrow’s survival, it’s not my fault.”

“Hey… we’re on the same team, you know?”

“Oh? So you were planning to participate? Well, too bad… you won’t be able to.”

“You two, stop the nonsense and get up here quickly.”

From the supervising teacher’s perspective, the two bickering below without coming up to the arena must have been quite annoying.

However, there were also people who viewed them with positive gazes contrary to those negative ones.

“They look really good together, don’t they?”

“They sure do.”

Albert and Aelin’s friends were watching them from a distance with pleased expressions.

Albert, in particular, looked like an avid viewer watching a drama.

“So this is what it feels like to watch secretly?”

“Watching other people’s romance is always fun.”

“I know… I never knew it was this entertaining.”

Albert could understand why Aelin always followed him around and watched whenever he went on dates.

And as he watched the scene, there was one person who kept coming to mind.

‘My girlfriend must have finished her exams by now. I wonder when she’ll come… Should I text her?’

***

The written exam period, which felt long to some and short to others, came to an end.

And the princess, who probably felt the allotted time of one hour per subject longer than anyone else, exited the exam hall with Amelia and Riel when all the exams were over.

“Your Highness, did you do well?”

“Of course.”

Judging by Riel’s bright face, she seemed to have done well too.

As the three were returning to the academy.

-Ding!-

Her phone rang.

Upon immediately checking the notification, the corners of her mouth rose involuntarily, and she had no choice but to quicken her pace.

-Um… when are you coming? Nothing’s wrong… I just miss you.-

-I’m on my way~!-