Reincarnated as a… Completely Average Person? - Chapter 195

[How did it come to this.] Ryla thought.

It was supposed to be a simple trial, she was at the very least a better tactician than both Zacariah and Mathias. The girl was the only X factor and Ryla deemed her to be a weakling. Even so, Ryla had an ace up her sleeve. The skill she had managed to copy from Kotori. [Mana Musician] While it wasn’t as strong as Kotori’s nor did she have as large a mana pool Ryla still found the skill immensely useful.

An assessment that was soon proven wrong but not to the point where Ryla was concerned about it. It was only going to be a minor twist in her plan. What she didn’t plan for was a tri-way confrontation between her, the girl, and Zacariah, and now the hulking man in front of them.

Ryla now on her knees was struck with a sudden sensation of loss. After running into Zacariah she had planned to fight with him long enough to make an escape. If it weren’t for that damnable Hectaire that was.

Ryla had suspected that something was going on with Hectaire that had propelled him from a strong gold-ranked adventurer to the strongest platinum-ranked adventurer in the city. She was sure that Zacariah was the cause but she could never pinpoint it.

Still, Hectaire had exceeded all expectations. As Gildron desperately tried to hold on versus the beast of a man. It was not enough and soon he was pushed back.

Ryla who thought it was all over found that too her surprise that Fawk’s candidate, Kotori was giving her aid.

[Why are you helping me!] She screamed internally. It was not in Kotori’s interest to help her, and there was a good chance that she could get away right now with Hectaire distracted by Ryla’s adventuring party.

Despite her urge to cry out, she held it in. Looking stubbornly at the girl.

“Get out! This isn’t your fight I don’t need your help!” She said instead to the girl.

To her surprise, the girl only grinned at her.

““Oh, can you really deal with him alone?” Kotori goaded her.

Ryla found herself gritting her teeth.

“This is my battle. I will fight it alone and retrieve my crown. I don’t need an outsider to help me on my path. It’s mine alone to follow” She said. Her pride refused to allow Kotori to help her. To do so would be accepting that Ryla was weak. Something that she would only accept with her own death.

“Are you sure about that?” Kotori asked that.

It was at that moment that Ryla saw Gildron tossed into a wall as Hectaire manage to overcome him.

She felt herself gritting her teeth so hard, it felt that they would shatter. Despite his supremely punchable face, Ryla realized that her life was tied to that man.

Ryla had never been close to her father. He was one of hundreds of concubines that her mother had. In all honesty, she was closer to the male caretaker that took care of her in her earlier years than that man.

Though, it seems that Gildron had managed to worm his way into that spot in her heart. As she saw the figure of Gildron groaning in the wall where he had been thrown she realized how old he looked now.

He had already been old when they first met but his smile always carried some amount of youthful exuberance that seemed to offset this. Now that Ryla was looking at him she realized something.

[He’s old]

She hadn’t noticed the wrinkles on his face growing deeper or the way his graceful movements appeared to have slowed. Despite the fact that he was an elf, their aging was nonlinear. Staying youthful for many years but aging as fast as any other human in their twilight years.

She looked back at the man, and then back at Kotori, and Ryla’s pride shattered in that instant.

She didn’t want Gildron to die. That was an unacceptable outcome, even more, unacceptable than her crown. Ryla’s thoughts raced as she thought of a way out of her situation. Her brain kicked into overdrive rifling through possibilities only to come up with nothing.

She felt her legs give out under her, perhaps a result of mental strain. Her brain worked beyond capacity or even simply a wish for freedom.

Ryla’s lips trembled and then she spoke.

“Mou, just do what you want. I’m done with it all…”

[Kotori POV]

Kotori saw the proud-looking woman collapse on the ground her face looking downcast and heard her speak in resignation.

She found herself internally beaming at besting the woman. Still, she would feel Amelie’s glare beside her.

“What?” Kotori said shocked. She had finally gotten the better of that devil woman.

Amelie gave her a dead fish stare.

“Kotori it’s no good to bully girls,” Amelie said flatly before jumping into to fight Hectaire.

Kotori could only look at her with a dumbfounded expression.

“But… But…”

She looked at the figure collapsed figure of Ryla on the ground and suddenly was aware of the fact that Ryla was a woman.

Ryla’s pitiful state suddenly made Kotori very uncomfortable and she shifted in her feet.

[I guess Amelie is right…] Kotori thought.

She shook her head as if to rid herself of the thought and then yelled out her order to her spirits and Amelie.

“Suppress Hectaire!” She said, in an attempt to ignore the fact that she bullied Ryla.

Kitsura

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