“Look, guys, I’m sorry about earlier.”
“……”
During Team 2’s evaluation meeting, the first one to apologize was Amira, prompting Leleia to turn to the former with a look of suspicion. Irritated by how different Amira was now compared to the selfish and foul-mouthed leader of her old Clan, Leleia scratched the scales on the back of her neck.
“What is wrong with you? Your behavior is creeping me out.”
“…What?”
“You’re acting like a Dragon without fangs. Are you really a Dragonewt Deity?”
“You pickin’ a fight or what!? ‘Cause I will fight if you wanna!”
“W-whoa, you two! Calm down, please!”
“Hey, lemme go, you stinky dog! She’s asking for it!”
Held down by Daryl, Amira struggled to break free, her red scales glowing faintly as she kept on shouting.
“I know you’ve been wanting to fight me — randomly giving me nasty looks the whole time! C’mon, come at me! I’mma deal with you right here and now!”
“<<Contract — Salamander>>.”
“Miss Leleia!?”
“Now we’re talkin’! Bring it on!”
“Whoa whoa whoa, you serious!? You better not be! Someone might get hurt!”
With how she summoned the Salamander, Hannah was in a panic to stop her, seeing that Leleia was quite ready to kill. As the commotion went on, Ollie came over from the kitchen to check on the group, still wearing her apron.
“Is something the matter?”
“Miss Ollie! Please call Sir Tsutomu here! They’re… they’re fighting!”
“…Miss Amira,” Ollie said in a harsh tone, putting her hands on her hips, “If you do not control yourself, you will not be having dinner tonight. You will also have to do your laundry and clean your room by yourself, and I will report your behavior to Mister Tsutomu.”
Amira clenched her teeth. Considering that Amira was as sloppy at taking care of herself as Diniel, she needed Ollie’s assistance — and as such could not act too far out of line. It was clear to her that she would get into even more trouble if she were to go against Ollie.
Seeing that Amira had settled down, Ollie sighed again and turned to Leleia, who still had the Salamander sitting on her shoulder.
“And Miss Leleia, you should control yourself as well. Surely you are tired today — if you still plan on fighting, you should rest up and challenge her at a later date, when you are at full strength.”
“Byah!”
Ollie smiled softly in the face of Leleia’s hostile aura, while the Salamander turned to Leleia as if to express that it agreed with Ollie’s statement. Leleia, convinced by the two, fizzled out her rage, her expression turning blank and eerily cold.
“…Tch. Okay, later.”
“……”
In the past, Amira likely would have not listened and initiated a fight immediately. But now, even Ollie — who had no real power over Amira except for the fact that she was the Clan House’s manager — was enough to keep the latter in check. Leleia clicked her tongue in the heat of the moment and got surprised looks from Hannah, Daryl, and Korinna.
Then, after the two settled their argument — albeit with their hostile auras in full force the whole time — the frightened Daryl resumed the evaluation meeting. The Salamander shook its head as if to express its exasperation.
After the meeting and dinner, Tsutomu received a report from Daryl about the pair’s clash.
“Leleia and Amira, we need to talk.”
“…Yes, sir.”
“Yeah, yeah, I know.”
And so they were called over to Tsutomu’s room. With the two entering with quite a bitter atmosphere between them, Tsutomu rubbed the tip of his nose, feeling somewhat awkward.
“So, Leleia, I take it that ‘talking it out’ didn’t work for you?”
“……”
“But hey, that’s fine too. Anyway… I heard you’ll settle this with a duel tomorrow? Will you be using real weapons?”
“Hell yeah.”
“…And why the HELL do you sound like you’re having fun?” Tsutomu said, narrowing his eyes, “Remember, you did cause a lot of trouble for a lot of people. You’ve gotten much better now, so try to keep it that way.”
Amira turned the other way, seemingly grumpy.
“Shaddup. You got nothin’ to do with this.”
“I’m still your Clan Leader, you know.”
“Yeah, whatever. I’mma fight her once, and then we move on. I mean, you ain’t gonna let this end with just talking, right?”
“…Yes, I do agree with you on that.”
Tsutomu’s gaze turned cold as Leleia took the bait that was Amira’s provocation.
“…Hmm. Okay, Amira, mind stepping outside for a moment? I need to discuss something with Leleia.”
“What? But I’m not done talkin–“
“Yeah, yeah, we’ll save that for later.”
Tsutomu pushed Amira outside, and even brought her all the way down to the living room and ordered Daryl to keep an eye on her, all so that she would not eavesdrop on the conversation.
Then, back in his room, he crossed his arms and gave Leleia a stern look.
“Listen, Leleia, if you insist on having a duel with real weapons, I’ll have you expel you before the duel takes place. Surely you understand — you are quite obviously planning to kill her, so…”
“I have no intention of killing her.”
Leleia replied, her expression dreadfully blank. Tsutomu was not intimidated, however, and his face looked just about as emotionless.
“I HAVE seen how Amira was back then, so I can understand why you can’t get over it, Leleia. I have no problem with your original plan — achieving results superior to hers as an act of spite. But if you’re going to dirty your hands with a fight, you’re out of here.”
“……”
“Amira… she’s an Attacker I have been training personally for some time, and I’m also doing this to repay a debt of gratitude I have to Camille, her mother. I’ll be in trouble if she ends up being killed, even if that’s an unlikely outcome.”
“…Hmm,” Leleia uttered, not seeming particularly interested.
Tsutomu narrowed his eyes, turning grumpy himself.
“Besides, if you actually wanted to fight her head-on, you wouldn’t have joined this Clan in the first place, right? …You know, you did have me fooled at first, but I have been aware of your real aim for some time now.”
In the beginning, Leleia’s no-nonsense attitude and apparent lack of concern about her history with Amira landed her a position in Absolute Helix. From observing contextual information over time, however, Tsutomu became aware of what had been cooking in her darker side.
“You went as far as to resign from Ealdred Crow despite being in their second best team, joining us instead so you could get back at Amira — that shows that you are determined. I’m not particularly against that, because it does provide good competition among Clan members. That’s why I let you in…”
“……”
“But now, you’re trying to brute force it, running away from it all. You’ve lost sight of your original goal, haven’t you?”
“…I am well aware of that,” Leleia said, cracking a dry smile, and continued with an exhausted voice, “To be honest, I have grown… tired of this. Being the best in this Clan means being better than even Amy and Diniel. Considering that, simply beating Amira down instead would be much easier.”
“But her frustration will be stronger if you beat her in achievements rather than in a fight, right? You’ve seen her reaction when she didn’t get chosen for Team 1 — actually, when I saw that, I finally understood what it was you were trying to do. She probably hasn’t ever been that humiliated before. Really, your plan was pure genius. How’d you come up with it?”
“…Honestly, I’m not at all happy to be praised for this kind of thing.”
“That was meant to be sarcastic.”
“I’ve never met anyone quite like you before, either. Getting to know you makes me feel… good about myself.” Leleia let out a subtle, emotionless, self-deprecating chuckle, then heaved a long sigh and forced herself to continue, “You see, I was born to a household of knights — but I did not follow in their footsteps. My personality disqualifies me from being like them… Now, if I were a knight, perhaps I would have already forgiven Amira.”
“Just a perhaps, huh?”
“But then… that face Amira made when she was not chosen to be a part of your team… it was so… satisfying to see. I got goosebumps just thinking how much better it would feel if she was looking at me — at my superior achievements. As dishonorable as it sounds, that is the way I am.”
“So, as far as I understand, you want to flaunt your superior position at her… is that right?”
“…Perhaps — well, no, I’ll just say… Yes. I don’t particularly care what my other comrades feel, but Amira… she makes my stomach turn. If she was as… nice… back then as she is now, we all would have stuck with her. Me and all my comrades. By the way, the jealousy I feel towards YOU also has to do with this, Tsutomu.”
“…Now that’s what I call a curveball,” Tsutomu said half-jokingly.
Leleia covered her eyes with one hand and continued,
“To us Dragonewts, Dragonewt Deities are special, obviously. But even without that to her name, I felt an… attraction towards Amira. I wanted to be with her, and did work hard to achieve that. But then… ah, this will be full of assumptions on my part, by the way…” Leleia trailed off and put her hand down, revealing eyes burning with the aforementioned jealousy. “…But please let me say it. It’s unfair — why does she respect and like you so much? If I could talk to her on good terms, I would. I wish I could just let bygones be bygones, like the others who accepted her apology.”
“It’s still not too late for that, though?”
“I can’t do it. I just can’t. I’m all messed up inside — my feelings toward her are so intense that I want to kill her. The respect and jealousy burning inside me go hand in hand. I want to win against her at least once. I have to.”
“Better work your way up the ranking, then.”
“…Could you please let me have that duel with her? Just once?”
“After hearing you say you wanted to kill her? Yeah… I think not.”
“……”
Hearing Tsutomu’s reply, Leleia’s face turned beet red as she cast her eyes down.
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