The Protagonist's Party is Too Diligent – 140
EP.140 Rival (2)
Everyone has a plan—
Until they’re rolling on the ground, battered and bruised like a rag.
Throughout the training, I turned back time multiple times. The training ground was inside the Imperial Palace, a place I had used several times before and was quite familiar with. Unlike the mountainous terrain, the ground here was much more level, making it theoretically easier to move around. Theoretically. That theory didn’t account for the Sword Saint wielding a wooden sword.
Dodging each individual strike was manageable. Once I got hit, I could at least recognize the sword’s trajectory—similar to how Lucas used to swing his blade. Of course, the Sword Saint wasn’t swinging at full strength, just as Lucas hadn’t either.
But avoiding a few strikes was one thing—dodging endlessly, beyond the limits of my stamina, was impossible. No matter how well I distributed my energy or how efficiently I evaded, endlessly escaping the relentless swings of that wooden sword was simply out of reach for someone without Sword Saint-level skills.
I even tried blocking with my mock firearm, but that was a joke. The moment I attempted to defend, the Sword Saint would simply strike harder, making it painfully clear just how weak I was.
Still, not everything about this training was bad.
It had been a long time since Lucas had randomly swung a sword at me. I had begun to forget the sensation, but now, it was slowly returning. If Lucas were to seriously attack me now…
…Hmm, honestly, I still wasn’t confident. If he truly came at me intending to behead me in a single stroke, I wasn’t sure I could dodge in time.
But—
"You have no talent, no matter how I look at it."
The Sword Saint said, looking down at me. However, there was no dissatisfaction in his voice.
"But it seems you have no intention of giving up either."
I hadn’t stuck around out of some admirable determination—I had just considered how pathetic it would look to run away at this point.
Still, the Sword Saint seemed somewhat impressed by my persistence.
"I don’t dislike that kind of grit."
It sounded like a line straight out of a shounen manga. Considering the original game was made by a Japanese company, I supposed it wasn’t that strange.
"Alright! That’s enough for today!"
At those words, Alice and Leo let out long exhales. But at least they were still standing by the end. As for me… Well, lying on the ground seemed a bit much, so I was sitting in a chair instead.
Sitting up straight felt impossible, so I rested my elbows on my knees and leaned forward. Perhaps worried about my state, Alice and Leo quickly rushed over to me.
"Sylvia, are you okay?"
Not really.
The thought of enduring this for at least two more weeks filled me with regret.
Did I really need to find Lucas right now?
Couldn’t I just rewind time and erase this whole ordeal? Spend the next two weeks resting instead?
The thought tempted me—
But then, I accidentally lifted my head and met the Sword Saint’s gaze.
He was standing a little distance away, between Alice and Leo.
He was smiling.
I had no idea what he found so amusing. Was it a satisfied smile?
But seeing that expression somehow made me feel like rewinding time would be conceding defeat.
…Fine.
I’d hold off on using my power until these two weeks were over.
At the very least, I should properly take responsibility for what I committed to before deciding to undo it.
After all, with my ability to rewind time, the concept of "too late" didn’t really exist for me.
"I’m fine."
I answered.
But my eyes weren’t on Alice or Leo.
They were locked on the Sword Saint.
I saw his lips move—Hooh.
It was an expression I had seen a few times before, back when I had spent 300 days in meditation training.
If anything, the fact that I was seeing that look more frequently now meant my training hadn’t been entirely in vain.
*
…So, I had been thinking rather leisurely. Even if I used "older brother" or "older sister" in my speech, rewinding time would erase it. Hmm. Still, calling Alice “big sister” … I should probably pay her back for that someday. Maybe at the very end—when my entire persona has completely crumbled. That would be fitting.
I wasn’t thinking about searching for relic this time. Though it was somewhere in the capital, it wasn’t something I needed to clear a dungeon to find.
So… that meant—
There was no way that masked woman in the black robe, who was probably me, would suddenly appear.
—Or so I had thought.
"……"
"……You."
I spoke to the masked figure standing in the middle of the training ground in the Imperial Palace.
There was no reason to keep lights on in this area, especially not in the center of the training grounds. It wasn’t a space that needed illumination.
Unless someone scaled the outer walls and slipped in through the roof, there shouldn’t be any way to enter this place undetected. Even if someone did manage to descend through the open ceiling, the guards stationed in the corridors would inevitably catch them.
…Well, there should have been guards inside as well, but I had dismissed them myself. I wanted to familiarize myself with the training ground more thoroughly.
And in that brief window—
That masked woman had entered.
"How did you get in here?"
This wasn’t a coincidence.
If that person was me, she would remember what I had done and when I had done it. Even if she didn’t recall every single day, she would certainly remember the key moments—
The day I first arrived in the capital and met the Sword Saint.
…Or this very moment.
Maybe asking how she got in was the wrong question to begin with.
After all, this was someone who had been standing in the deepest part of that ruin as if it were her rightful place. Ordinary methods and procedures simply didn’t apply to her.
Besides, she had been able to block my power.
Whether it was because she existed in the same timeline as me, causing some sort of temporal interference, or because she was actively choosing to resist my ability—
A shiver ran down my spine as the realization sank in.
"……Why now?"
Yes. Why now, of all times?
If she could appear at any moment, there were plenty of other, more opportune moments. Unless…
Unless she was here to kill me.
But if she really was me, then wouldn’t it be wrong of her to act so mercilessly toward herself?
Even as I spoke, my voice filled with shock, the masked woman gave no reply.
Or rather, there was a response—just not a verbal one.
At the sound of my voice, she flinched.
But it wasn’t out of fear or tension. If she had been afraid of me, she wouldn’t have appeared in a situation where we were alone together.
No, that movement was more like—
It was the movement of someone holding back laughter.
Even though her shoulders were wrapped in that long robe, I could tell she was slightly hunched forward, trembling as if she were suppressing her amusement.
"……."
I tensed for a moment—then lunged forward.
And all too easily, I grabbed hold of the hem of her robe.
Even up close, she was still laughing. Now that I was near, I could hear the telltale sound of someone trying to stifle their laughter.
"You… just who the hell—!"
But before I could finish my sentence, she abruptly leaned in.
As if she was about to tell me something important, she spoke from behind her mask.
"Sylvia."
"……."
She didn’t seem like she was trying to attack or flee. Her voice, though tinged with amusement, lacked any trace of hostility.
But—
"■■, ■■■ ■■■ ■."
Her words didn’t come through properly.
It was like trying to hear someone speaking from deep underwater—muffled, distorted, blocked by something unseen.
"……What did you say?"
I instinctively asked, unable to comprehend what she had just said.
At that, her shoulders slumped.
For a brief moment, she looked… disappointed.
"……."
"……."
We simply stared at each other in silence.
Through the mask’s eye holes, her eyes glimmered. But I still couldn’t make out their color. The only light between us was the faint glow of the moon.
Slowly, I let go with one hand.
Then, I reached for her mask.
Even as I moved to remove it, she offered no resistance.
But—
"……Ah."
At that precise moment, she vanished.
As if she had never been there in the first place.
…Had someone taken her away?
"……No, more importantly."
The momentary trance I had been under faded, and my mind snapped back to reality.
Another shiver ran down my spine.
No way. No way. No way…
"Ah, no, that can’t be it."
I muttered to myself—trying to reassure myself.
There was no way that just encountering her had blocked my ability, right?
It wasn’t like we had even fought or anything.
I took a deep breath.
"Alright."
I steeled my resolve.
"Again!"
I shouted with determination—
—And immediately slammed into something hard, knocking myself unconscious.
When I woke up, I was back in the training ground.
It must have been the same time I had first arrived here—at least, the moon was still in the same position.
The masked woman was gone.
Lying sprawled out in the middle of the training ground, I blankly stared up at the sky and muttered—
"…I’m screwed."
Was that why she had been laughing?
…Whether she was my future self or not, I was definitely going to kill her.