Volume 5 Chapter 44 ACT.175 Aisha Seven (V)
"──Okay, that's enough."
Aisha sighed, but strangely, there was no hint of disappointment in her voice towards the 4 who had collapsed.
Rize felt that her words carried a pure sense of "what should I do?" and "this is troublesome."
"I-I'm sorry, Ms. Aisha!"
The gladiator's girl, who had taken the first strike against Aisha, wobbled and stood up using her spear as a staff.
On her face, there was not the frustration of losing, but rather a feeling of shame for her own shortcomings.
"No, it was me who asked for too much. Thanks for taking part in the practice battle."
"Ah, Ms. Aisha."
"You all, thank you for going along with my selfishness."
To them, Aisha instead offered kind words and bowed her head.
"P-Please don't say that!?"
"Yes, we should practice our teamwork next time!"
"No, that's enough."
Her next words were filled with a sense of resignation.
──Probably directed at herself.
Aisha scratched her head with her right hand and looked up at them.
"Thanks for hanging out with me. Unlike me, you all have more gladiator matches ahead, so go home and rest."
These were genuinely heartfelt words of encouragement.
However, Rize sensed a different nuance from it.
(Is she trying to push them away?)
Then the 4 who practiced against Aisha deeply bowed and left the room.
A silence fell over the Training Grounds.
Aisha gazed at the door they had just exited for a while.
Her posture was almost like...
(Like she's checking to see if anyone else is coming.)
Waiting for someone to suddenly return.
Or expecting another person to walk in.
It looked as if she was timing it just right.
Sensing some kind of premonition, Rize quickly covered her mouth with her hand, trying even harder to hide her presence.
She wanted to let out not even a single breath and focused on Aisha's every move from her hiding spot.
"──Is it good now?"
The silence of the Training Grounds was shattered by her single word.
It was a voice that didn't belong to the champion of the arena, but one that fell with disdain.
The voice, filled with an icy, tense detachment and a clinging anger that contrasted it, was like a villain's soliloquy.
Dragging her greatsword, she descended from the stage and touched its corner.
(What is it?)
For a moment, a question mark floated in Rize's mind.
With a loud clunk, something large detached, and the stage itself shifted slightly.
Then, as if being sucked in, Aisha's body disappeared into the shadow of the misaligned stage.
In that instant, Rize felt her heart pound loudly.
"──No way."
After a moment's pause, Rize crept quietly from the shadows towards where she had vanished.
Deep down, Rize wished it was a lie.
She had a fondness for Aisha Seven, despite not knowing her long──a one-sided sympatico, perhaps sensing a similarity to herself.
Yet, Rize had placed a certain trust in Aisha.
She wasn't the type to cooperate with reincarnators.
She wasn't the kind of villain who would actively participate in evil deeds.
However, Rize's wish was involuntarily shattered by the facts before her.
"It has to be a lie."
──The Training Grounds, which everyone including Rize always used, had a hidden underground.
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