The Author's POV

Clank—!

The door closed, and silence enshrouded the room.

Leaning back on my bed, I looked towards the ceiling of the room.

"How troublesome…"

I muttered to myself. It wasn't long before I heard Angelica's voice inside of my head.

[Are you really going to drop out of the tournament, you know you could've just told her to wait after the tournament, right?]

"…about that."

Turning my attention back toward Angelica, a bitter smile flashed across my face. Before I could say anything, Angelica spoke up once again.

[If you had participated till the end, you would've most likely won the whole thing. That Kevin friend of yours, he's weaker than you.]

Closing my eyes and taking a deep breath, I couldn't really deny her words.

Even though we had not fought each other yet, I could tell that the current Kevin was weaker than me. Not only did I know the ins and outs of how he fought, but I also had plenty of experience when it came to fighting.

I didn't waste my time in Henlour after all.

Just the knowledge of how Kevin fought was enough for me to be able to beat him, let alone all the experience that I had accumulated.

[If you know that he's weaker than you, why are you just quitting the tournament?]

"…It's cause I'm tired."

[Tired?]

Angelica replied, her voice sounding surprised.

Brushing my hair back, my hand soon paused on a certain part of my head before I started to scratch it.

"Yeah, I'm tired of all the constant problems that keep popping out of nowhere. I just want to relax for once. Have a breather."

I had already exposed myself, and I had proven my strength. The opponents, I could probably beat the all.

There was no need for me to continue the tournament anymore.

Most importantly, and the real reason why I no longer cared about continuing the tournament, was that I no longer cared about the top prize.

The only incentive the tournament had was the top prize. It was the only reason why I ever joined the tournament in the first place.

However, this no longer applied anymore. After hearing from Amanda just how much the elven queen cared about her mother, I figured that my gesture might end up earning her favor.

If that happened, what was the point of winning the tournament? Might as well get this event over fast.

Just to clarify, the reason why I gave Amanda the Xurin fruit wasn't because I wanted to earn the queen's favor. The possibility of earning her favor only occurred to me after I handed her the fruit and hence why I no longer held the tournament with as much importance as before.

Stroking the bottom of my chin, my mind shifted toward a different topic.

"…Right, I should also breakthrough right about soon."

The higher ranked I was, the greater the possibility of me surviving. The only hope I had when this happened was for me to not suddenly lose a rank.

Though the chances weren't exactly high, it was still possible. In hindsight, even if I did end up losing a rank, I'd just go back to where I was now.

Also, that was only applicable if I truly did lose a rank.

There might be a slim chance that I might just have to suffer an inhuman amount of pain, and I was fine with that. Nothing could be worse than what happened to me at the Monolith, right?

…I hope so.

from my left side.

are you looking at me

you tell the truth

know

didn't think that Amanda would say anything, I really couldn't afford to lose Angelica. This

didn't think

my head upon hearing my words.

can't really afford to say

I extended my arms

me start making

mind to prepare

of sixteen.' I thought

TRIIIING— TRIIIING—

staring at the message written in it,

"…errr."

[What is it?]

ears. Turning to look in her direction, a

turning my wrist, the

next opponent is a

[Round of sixteen]

Dover vs

much for the speech about being tired and all. Sigh,

truly, I

Seriously.

***

Late night.

a beautiful girl

rhythmical breathing echoed throughout

Twitch.

twitched. It was very subtle and almost unnoticeable. As the room was currently empty, no one was unable to

Twitch. Twitch.

and after the first twitch

knew it, Emma opened her eyes, and then the first thing that she saw was a

'…What happened to me?'

were blurry, and she barely had any recollections of what had happened. That didn't last for long as memories soon started to flood her mind, reminding

'Ah…I lost.'

Emma's head as the memories started crashing down on

he suddenly appeared

not been for the referee's intervention,

'…I was careless.'

fist when she thought about

that her chances of beating him were low. Because of everything that had happened with her uncle, a lot of her resources were

had been eating away at her. Watching her friends and people close to her slowly surpass

it hard for her to keep up with Kevin and

rank, almost .

have not been outstanding compared to Kevin and others, but it was still amongst the top

fought Aaron was that she wanted to prove

the others that she wasn't some dead

she thought that it would've been a great experience for her. It would help her identify

had

her during the tournament. She had joined the tournament with the wrong mindset, and she ended up paying a heavy price for this

looking around the room, Emma wondered

"...Where are the others?"

that was dark outside, she understood that they

head with her hand, Emma leaned her body to the side and

"Huh?"

Moving her arm down,