Ch.118117. Empty Seat (2)

# 117. Empty Seat (2)

Amelia looked at her who was grinning at her mobile phone and asked.

“Who is it?”

The one who answered first wasn’t her but Riel.

Riel spoke as if wondering why such an obvious question was being asked.

“Who else would it be…”

“It’s Albert.”

“What did he say?”

She answered the question with a smile that was like a full moon shining in the pitch-black night sky.

“That’s a secret.”

“You two seem to be growing more alike. I always felt there was something similar between you, but it seems to have gotten more pronounced lately.”

Indeed, as Riel said, the two were becoming more and more alike.

And it wasn’t just Riel who noticed this; the parties involved were aware of it too.

“That’s not necessarily a bad thing.”

“But about withdrawing from the close combat match… are you serious?”

“Yes, of course.”

Amelia, who had been listening to their conversation, asked with a puzzled expression.

“Withdrawing? Why?”

“Well… anyway, Albert and I are on different survival teams this time, right?”

The overwhelming power they showed when they were placed on the same team during the last survival match.

And the incredible teamwork they displayed during the last battle. Because of this, the academy had no choice but to separate them for the sake of balance.

“This time? Were you originally on the same team?”

“Yes, we were on the same team during the midterms.”

“Really… those people have no sense.”

“So I think it’ll be harder this time than during the midterms, which is why I’m giving up on the close combat match. Besides, I’ve already won all the other competitions.”

It must have been an unavoidable choice to maintain her pace in such a tight schedule.

“And we do one-on-one matches almost all the time anyway.”

“You must really want to win, huh?”

“Of course. And there’s something… satisfying about beating Albert. He makes such a frustrated face when he loses, and it’s kind of addictive.”

“That sounded really perverted just now.”

“You know what I mean, Riel.”

Riel averted her gaze as if denying those words.

Then she muttered in a small voice.

“I wouldn’t know, but if you want to see that expression, couldn’t you just fight and win both matches? I think the Princess is more than capable of doing that.”

“If I were to do it, I could probably win the close combat match, but what comes after is the problem.”

While she had the upper hand in terms of skill, the issue was stamina.

She was relatively slow to recover, whereas Albert had such incredible recovery ability thanks to his [Regeneration] skill that it seemed almost inhuman.

Therefore, depleting her stamina first would be disadvantageous no matter how you looked at it.

“And it’s much better to win on the big stage. In terms of grades, the survival match is far more important than one close combat match.”

“Do as you please…”

“I always do. And I’ve already told the teacher in charge, so please let Albert know.”

Riel couldn’t help but tilt her head at those words.

If she had told the teacher about withdrawing, the teacher would have relayed that information.

“What should I tell him?”

“To do his best tomorrow, and that I’m going to win, so he shouldn’t even dream of getting first place.”

“Really… you do whatever you want.”

“You just told me to do as I please.”

“Why don’t you tell him yourself, Princess?”

“Somehow, my conscience won’t let me tell him directly, since I’m suddenly withdrawing after what I said yesterday.”

Riel looked at her troubled expression and gave a faint smile.

“He’ll definitely be upset. Alright, I’ll tell him.”

“Thank you…”

“You don’t need to say that. Well, I’ll be going now.”

They had arrived at the academy, and she headed straight to the dormitory while Riel went toward the dueling grounds.

***

The final exam period, which felt both long and short.

Less than an hour remained until the start of the survival match that would mark the end of this period.

Perhaps because she had withdrawn yesterday, I was in peak condition with energy to spare as I greeted my team members.

“How’s everyone else’s condition? You all look fine just by appearance.”

“Our team is just five people after all.”

It seemed they had learned something from the last survival match, as the teams were assigned differently this time.

Instead of putting me and her on the same team, the number of team members was increased to five.

Of course, even with that, they couldn’t fill the void she left, but each member’s individual skills weren’t bad.

‘But of all the possible combinations…’

Looking at the members, it was a composition better suited for solo play.

‘Reina, Raicle, Leo, Eve, and me… what kind of combination is this?’

It was a composition where synergy effects were nowhere to be found.

Still, these guys seemed to think this combination wasn’t all that bad.

Reina urged us with a confident face.

“When we meet a team, each of us just needs to kill 50 people. Then we’ll be first.”

“Haha… There are five of us, right? Is 200 divided by 5 equal to 50?”

“We don’t necessarily need to kill 50 each. If he kills 100, the rest of us can split the remaining hundred.”

Despite Raicle’s absurd statement, these ridiculous teammates responded positively.

“Oh~ That could work.”

“Are we really aiming for first place?”

Hearing such words made me miss her even more, and her absence felt painfully noticeable.

I stared blankly at her watching me from a distance.

‘If only I were on that team… that would have been nice.’

She was waving at me, and I waved back.

However, our teammates seemed to find our behavior distasteful.

“Hey, she’s the enemy now.”

“Haha… right, it’s really absurd.”

“Don’t tell me you think we’re inferior to the Princess?”

I answered Reina’s question with a deadly serious voice.

“Isn’t that obvious? What are you even comparing… you guys don’t stand a chance.”

“I knew it, but hearing you say it makes me feel bad…”

“I’m joking. Let’s do our best. If we do well, we might win.”

“You say whatever you want and then claim it’s a joke?”

“Just take it as it is.”

Reina seemed hurt by my words, but the other two weren’t.

Instead, they paid more attention to what I said next.

“If we really do well, I think we can win. We have the advantage in individual skills.”

“For that team, we just need to handle one person each. One of us will have to take on two people, but… well, someone will do it. Looking at it that way, it might actually be easier than facing other teams.”

Of course, those statements weren’t technically wrong, but they sounded wrong to me.

‘In the end, I’m the one who has to win the one-on-one…’

The truth is, setting everything else aside, if I win against her in the one-on-one, we win; if I lose, we lose.

That’s why my shoulders felt so heavy.

“Hey, do you believe in us?”

“I do too.”

“This is why I say you guys are nervous.”

“What can we do…”

“We are nervous, that’s true.”

I was more annoyed by their cool acceptance than by Reina’s hurt feelings.

“I’ll do as much as I can, so you all do your best too. If you win quickly and come help me, our chances of winning will increase dramatically.”

Her defensive abilities are unparalleled, that’s a fact, but she’s not invincible.

Especially when facing me, where the skill gap isn’t that significant in my opinion, her defense sometimes breaks.

In such a situation, if teammates who excel in offense, like Reina and Raicle, join after finishing their battles early, we could win relatively easily.

However, creating that situation was extremely difficult.

‘First, everyone needs to fight one-on-one… and in that situation, the others need to win and finish quickly, and I need to hold out during that time…’

Thinking about it this way, it was practically impossible.

“Well, we’ll figure something out?”

“It might be better to abandon that kind of thinking.”

“Anyway, if we do well, we can win.”

“What if they do well too?”

“They’re going to do well anyway, and they have six people.”

Even excluding her, their team members were on a different level compared to ordinary students.

Rachel, Chris, Briton, Allin, and Riel.

“But how are we supposedly stronger?”

While individual skills might be comparable, the issue was the team composition.

They had two mages, one tank, essentially a warrior-healer, and a sniper.

In a prolonged fight, we had no chance with this composition.

“In a short, decisive battle, we have the advantage.”

“…”

I wanted to ask if that was easy, but I held back.

Team morale was just as important as member composition.

Reina spoke to me with a bright expression as I was holding back my words.

“And we specialize in that kind of thing.”

“That’s true, but…”

By that logic, the opponents specialized in preventing that kind of thing.

It was a battle between spear and shield, but the shield was too solid compared to the spear.

And getting hit by a shield hurts in its own way.

The current situation was not good.

But that didn’t mean I was going to give up.

“Right, we’ve only practiced breaking through.”

Just as our spear can’t pierce everything, their shield can’t block everything.

“Let’s give it a try.”

By the time I made up my mind, the current time was approaching 12 o’clock.

And the start time for the survival test was exactly 12 o’clock.

Looking at my wristwatch pointing to exactly 12 o’clock, I thought:

‘We will win no matter what.’