Ch.4443. Party Members (7)

# 43. Party Member (7)

Leo Michael.

Ever since he was young, he had always envied others.

At first, it was his parents.

Leo admired and envied them, who seemed as vast as the sky.

He wanted to become as strong as his father and as gentle as his mother.

But he couldn’t.

He was neither as strong as his father nor as kind as his mother.

He couldn’t even properly hunt a single monster, which became a significant complex for him.

Before Leo, there was always someone who was so close to him yet so different.

‘Elizabeth Michael.’

She was his half-sister.

Unlike him, she was incredibly strong and also kind.

Many people were amazed by her overwhelming abilities and admired her excellent character.

Up to that point, it didn’t matter much.

Even if he was inferior to her, he still had above-average skills.

He thought of his sister as an exceptional person and focused on himself.

Of course, he couldn’t completely ignore her, but until then, Leo only paid “moderate” attention to her.

And that moderate attention brought him a good result in the form of motivation.

‘If I work hard, I can become like my sister, right?’

That’s what he thought.

However, when he and she, who had grown like flowers in a greenhouse, stepped out into the world, things changed.

The world was full of geniuses more skilled than him.

But even those people couldn’t match her.

While he became just a mediocre person upon entering the world, she firmly maintained her position at the top.

That fact alone was hard enough for him, but there was something even more difficult.

It was that others began comparing him to her.

The imperial family, his friends, and even people online did so.

“The princess is truly on another level, but the prince is quite lacking, especially the second prince.”

“I heard the second prince is the least skilled among the princes?”

“Is he really the emperor’s son?”

Such words planted an ugly inferiority complex in him.

That inferiority complex made him constantly compare himself to her, and it was enough to turn his admiration for her into jealousy.

Perhaps it was from then on that he began to think:

‘No matter how hard I try, I can’t catch up.’

That thought eroded his passion and made him lethargic.

So he stopped trying, lamenting his situation as he grew older.

At the age of 14, he entered the Imperial Academy.

Since he had some background, admission itself wasn’t difficult, and he was lucky enough to get into Class A.

And at that academy, he met a girl named Aelin.

Aelin was just the child of a baronial family and younger than him, but she had better skills than Leo, the emperor’s son, and was also kind.

He disliked Aelin, who, like his sister, always ranked first.

Of course, there wasn’t much connection between them.

Even though they were in the same Class A, they were different ages to begin with.

However, there was one incident that would connect the two.

***

After class, Leo came to the training ground for the first time in a while.

He missed the training he used to do and also felt self-loathing about his current low training volume.

So he was swinging his weapon at the training ground after a long time.

-Crackle!-

Every time his spear cut through the air, strong sparks occurred.

He continued swinging his spear into the air, losing track of time, while Aelin, who was already at the training ground, kept watching the scene.

After observing him intently for a while, Aelin approached him when he was resting from exhaustion.

“Hello.”

“Oh… hi.”

He seemed quite surprised to find that there was someone else at the training ground besides himself.

“[Lightning Salvation] with [Electric Magic]? You use it really well.”

“Really? Thanks…”

He was a bit pleased to hear such words from Aelin, who always maintained first place with just one electric-type skill.

However, that feeling completely disappeared with Aelin’s next words.

“But it’s better to use only half of your mana circuit for [Electric Magic], and you’re using too much mana, which makes it inefficient and tires you quickly.”

Aelin shared useful information she knew with him.

However, Leo frowned upon hearing those words.

He had always disliked it when someone tried to teach him.

That’s why he usually improved his skills solely by his own efforts, without anyone’s help.

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll handle it myself.”

When he spoke in an aggressive tone, Aelin was taken aback.

Still, since it was their first meeting and there was quite a difference in status, she responded kindly for now.

“I still think it would be good for you to try it once.”

They say kind words beget kind words, but that’s not always the case, and the response Aelin received couldn’t be called kind even as a formality.

“Shut up. I said I’ll handle it myself.”

Hearing this, Aelin responded with disbelief.

“Did you just tell me to shut up?”

“Yeah, I told you to shut up. You’re being noisy with your chattering.”

“I was just giving you advice. Advice.”

Leo responded irritably.

“I don’t need that kind of advice, okay?”

“You’re saying you don’t need it without even trying?”

He wore an expression full of discontent as he spoke.

“Do I need to try it to know? Anyone can see it’s useless.”

It might actually be effective if he tried it, but that wasn’t important right now.

Right now, protecting his thin pride came first.

“Then would you like to spar with me? Then you’ll know whether it’s useful or not.”

“Why should I do that?”

Hearing this, Aelin smiled and said:

“Are you perhaps scared?”

“What did you say?”

“I’m asking if you’re backing out because you’re scared to face someone a year younger than you.”

He accepted the challenge to protect what little pride he had left.

“Fine, let’s spar. If I win, you shut up and get out of here.”

“If I win, kneel down and apologize right here.”

Aelin continued with a confident expression.

“And if I win, I’ll speak informally to you from now on.”

His bad relationship with Aelin began with that duel.

***

-Crackle!-

Aelin struck first, but Leo blocked the attack with his spear imbued with [Lightning Salvation].

“Oh, not bad? You’re quite different from before.”

“Shut up.”

He considered it a matter of wounded pride, but that duel had a positive influence on Leo.

After being soundly defeated in that duel, Leo honed his skills to get revenge on Aelin, and as a result, he achieved the feat of maintaining Class A status until high school.

“This time, I’ll win.”

He had worked hard to surpass Aelin and was unconsciously thinking of her as his rival.

He swung his spear toward his rival.

-Whoosh!-

Aelin avoided the attack using [Leap] and simultaneously used her unique skill against him.

-Crackle!!-

Aelin’s unique skill, [A Streak of Brilliant Light], engulfed him at a terrifying speed.

He hurried to avoid the light, but his agility wasn’t high enough to dodge that attack.

Still, thanks to moving his body as much as possible, he didn’t take a direct hit, but he still suffered enormous damage.

“Ugh…”

After taking that attack, he sat on the ground, breathing heavily.

Aelin asked him:

“Does it hurt?”

“Shut up…”

“I told you, you’re no match for me.”

In fact, at the academy, except for special cases like Albert, no one had agility high enough to see and dodge Aelin’s skill.

However, regardless of that fact, he was simply angry at the fact that he was weaker than Aelin.

“Still can’t beat you…”

“But you’re definitely much better than before.”

Leo felt mixed emotions upon hearing those words.

His pride was hurt, but he didn’t feel bad overall.

“By the way, are you really going to join our party?”

“What? I passed?”

When Aelin nodded at those words, Leo asked with an incredulous expression.

“Why? What’s the passing criteria?”

“Just being willing to fight is enough to pass.”

“Wouldn’t that mean too many people would pass?”

Aelin shook her head and said:

“Including you four, there have only been five so far.”

“That’s ridiculous.”

“But honestly, it makes sense.”

Leo wore a somewhat arrogant expression as he spoke.

“What makes sense? Those guys probably just ran away like cowards and failed.”

“You only fought me one-on-one; if you had to fight the princess, you would have run away without looking back.”

That statement touched Leo’s pride, but it wasn’t wrong, so he didn’t deny it.

Aelin asked Leo, who was wearing a disgruntled expression without saying anything:

“So, are you going to join? Or not?”

“I’m not joining. Do you think I’d join such a third-rate party?”

“Third-rate party!?”

Aelin and Leo began another meaningless argument.