I really thought I was perfectly fine.
So why did I suddenly pass out?
I was sitting there thinking how strange it was that my mory had simply cut off, when the upper part of the bed smoothly rose.
Thanks to that, I ended up sitting upright without effort and took in the seniors around .
Ricardo and Yun were there, and three more chairs had been placed nearby.
One of them had a familiar jacket draped over it. Judging by that, Kairos must have co too.
Ah, and those car keys with the keyring are Ami’s.
These were the sa people I used to see often in the hospital room even before being discharged.
So I caused trouble again.
I smiled awkwardly and was just about to apologize.
At that mont, Yun hooked his phone onto a smartphone stand attached to the bed rail—a stand I hadn’t even realized was there.
“Yun?”
I asked in confusion, but the senior didn’t answer.
Instead, he started playing a video on the phone, which had been laid sideways.
I blinked and looked at the footage playing right at eye level.
The dodgeball match....
[WAAAAAAH!]
[DODGEBALL VICTORY! DODGEBALL VICTORY!!]
People were cheering.
It seed to be right after I hit Yun. Maybe it had been fild by a drone, because it was surprisingly easy to watch. There were no spectators blocking the front, and the audio was clear too.
The seniors and the dodgeball players were all visible.
The eliminated mbers of our team hopping up and down in celebration, and the Snake-Eagle team looking drained.
Ricardo crossing the line with a relieved expression, and Trevain snorting as he pulled off the bracelet....
[Huh?!]
“Oh.”
The in the video clutched my chest and pitched forward.
[Hey! He collapsed!]
What is that.
Watching myself suddenly crumple, I let out a hollow laugh.
I didn’t even rember being in pain, so it was honestly shocking.
What surprised even more was the fact that Trevain and Yun had both caught in the middle of my fall.
[What the hell?]
Trevain’s voice was caught in the video as he grabbed the back of my clothes.
[What’s wrong with him?]
[Hilde!]
People started shouting.
[Hilde!!]
This is seriously embarrassing.
Feeling heat rush to my face, I started rubbing the back of my neck.
Did Yun play this to shock on ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) purpose? Like so kind of warning to manage my body properly from now on?
To be fair, I really had no warning signs at all, which made it feel a little unfair....
But looking back on it, maybe I really shouldn’t have participated in the sports festival in the first place.
I looked awkwardly at the seniors.
“I’m sorry.”
I greeted them with a bitter smile.
“I said I wouldn’t overdo it.... and in the end I caused trouble anyway.”
“You should’ve gone out together when I got eliminated~.”
“Usually after it hits like a seizure once, I’m fine for a while.”
In fact, I felt excellent right now.
“I really thought I’d be okay. I was honestly fine right up until I threw the ball at Yun.... I still can’t believe I collapsed like that.”
“You’re saying you forgot all about how you groaned the whole ti while we carried you.”
“Huh?”
I blinked at Yun’s words.
“I did that?”
I hadn’t even ant it as a request for confirmation.
But Yun deliberately replayed the video and showed the transfer scene in detail.
I grumbled that I didn’t want to watch sothing so embarrassing, but of course that didn’t work.
...I do look like I’m in pain.
Still, they didn’t need to worry that much.
Seeing everyone rushing toward made feel embarrassed all over again.
The cheers were replaced by worried murmurs, and Yehyeon and the seniors ca running over pale-faced.
The mont I saw their expressions, guilt welled up inside .
Knowing that the entire crowd had gone silent until I was carried away only doubled the feeling.
I ruined the ending of the sports festival.
Ricardo was right—I should’ve stepped out at the right mont.
I’d been so confident in using my body that I thought I had a perfect grasp of my own condition.
Did the backlash from the control interference affect ?
Or had moving so violently after such a long ti simply put too much strain on my body?
Either way, regretting my own foolish choice, I looked at Yun.
He raised one eyebrow.
“What.”
“...You let yourself get hit on purpose back then, didn’t you?”
I smiled awkwardly again.
“Thank you. For getting yourself eliminated on purpose because of ....”
“Because of you?”
Yun asked, sounding puzzled.
“Why because of you?”
“Huh?”
A stupid sound escaped .
Wasn’t it because he noticed I was in pain?
I stared blankly at him.
“Didn’t you get hit on purpose because you saw I was hurting?”
“I did.”
“Then that ans you took the hit out of consideration for .”
“Even if I hadn’t, you were going to collapse in a mont anyway.”
Yun’s voice still held that sa genuine confusion.
“Whether I took the hit or not, the result would’ve been the sa.”
No.
I opened and closed my mouth.
“Then why did you let yourself get hit on purpose? It couldn’t have been sothing sentintal like wanting to let enjoy the joy of victory.”
“I just didn’t want to keep playing.”
Sasu answered in the tone of soone explaining the most obvious fact in the world.
“I didn’t want to be left alone all cozy with Trevain while those eliminated idiots kept trying to hit the two of us.”
Ricardo and I both stared at Yun.
Yun truly seed unable to understand why we were making those expressions.
He asked in confusion,
“If I hadn’t deliberately taken the hit, what would’ve changed?”
“Well. I probably would’ve collapsed before hitting you.”
“Right. And then you would’ve been carried off imdiately. Sa thing.”
“Then what were you about to say right before I threw the ball? You opened your mouth like you were going to say sothing.”
“I was going to tell you that you looked like you were about to keel over.”
“Then why didn’t you say it?”
“Would you have listened if I did?”
...I’ve completely lost the trust of my seniors.
Honestly, after everything I’d done, I had nothing to say in my defense.
And sohow Yun’s explanation was both absurd and perfectly logical, leaving with no way to argue back.
I stared silently at my Sasu for a mont.
“...I’m sorry.”
Then I placed a hand over my chest.
“I interpreted your actions with the logic of a normal person again. Please forget what I said before, and let thank you instead for catching before I collapsed and carrying over.”
“Good boy.”
Yun replied.
The green-eyed senior sitting across from us looked away from Yun.
Even though Ricardo still clearly had a what the hell are you even talking about expression, he didn’t say anything.
He looks like he wants a cigarette....
I gave Ricardo my thanks too.
The green-eyed senior waved it off with a flick of his hand.
“The doctor says you can be discharged later today~?”
“Oh!”
That was good news.
“Thank you. Then later I’ll ride Kai—ah, I an Jack’s car back.”
“Don’t wander off anywhere stupid. Just go back and sleep~.”
“There’s nowhere else for to go.”
I smiled at the senior’s nagging.
“The sports festival was basically my whole schedule lately.”
Once I returned to the cabin, all that would be left was to hear the report on the new Elder.
It was Yoow’s level of skill. I wouldn’t even be surprised if he’d already identified who had been controlling the Creatures.
Kairos probably had a decent idea too.
Depending on the report, I’d need to decide whether to contact Erich Erhart.
While thinking that, I suddenly realized I’d missed sothing.
“Ah, right—so who won the sports festival?!”
“It was a tie.”
I see.
I nodded while ntally going over the event results.
“If it’s a tie, what happens to the special leave reward the winning team gets?”
“No special leave. Instead, everyone gets company al vouchers.”
“Oh!”
That’s not bad at all.
As my face brightened, Ricardo snorted and pulled out his phone from his inner pocket.
“Want mine too~?”
“You don’t use al vouchers, Rick?”
“Absolutely not.”
The answer ca back firm.
I nodded enthusiastically.
“Then I’ll gratefully take it.”
“Take mine too.”
Yun said as he pulled out his own phone.
“I’ll just add eighty percent of the voucher amount to your debt, so don’t feel pressured.”
Ricardo and I both stared at Yun in disbelief, unable to hold it in.
Yun, completely unfazed, was already transferring the vouchers to on his own.
Naturally, my refusal was ignored.
I was just about to grumble sothing at him for blatantly pretending not to hear —
when Ami walked in.
“Hilde!”
She had co with Kairos and, surprisingly, Ro.
“Yay, you’re awake! Samuel said you’d wake up soon, so we waited!”
“Ami.”
I smiled brightly as I welcod the seniors and my kin into the room.
“Ro sunbae, Kai. I’m sorry for making you worry.”
“Hey, Kumde!”
Ro strode over, overtaking Ami.
Ricardo narrowed his eyes as he watched Ro approach, but naturally Ro didn’t notice in the slightest.
He stopped beside Ricardo’s chair.
“Did you know?”
Huh?
For so reason, I stared blankly at the visibly fuming Ro.
“Know what?”
“The straw!”
Ah, the team na leak culprit?
Co to think of it, who was that?
Recalling the small incident I’d completely forgotten, I blinked.
“No. I don’t know. Do you know who it was, sunbae?”
“You little bastard!”
Ro pointed a finger at Ami.
“Peanut leaked our team na!”
What?
I looked back and forth between Ami—standing calmly at the end of his finger—and the furious Ro.
How exactly am I supposed to interpret that...?
After thinking it through, I asked carefully,
“You an Ami heard the na from soone on our team, right? Since Ami was on the other team, she technically couldn’t be the mole.”
“No, it was her!”
“...What?”
“She’s the straw!”
“...Hm. How is that even possible?”
“I saw Giacomo’s phone.”
Ami, who had been standing there expressionlessly, suddenly giggled.
“When we went to play Whack-a-Mole together. He doesn’t put a password on his phone.”
What?!
I was horrified.
“Ami! How could you do sothing like that!”
“Security is the most basic quality of a public servant, Hilde. The one who failed to protect it is the one at fault.”
“You underhanded peanut bastard!”
Ro raged.
“Don’t you know anti-morality?!”
“It’s business ethics, idiot! And your team smashed the energy bar Kudo was carrying too!”
“Alright, alright.”
Kairos stepped between the bickering seniors with a smile.
“Please calm down, both of you. If this keeps up, Tita is going to co kick all of us out.”
We spent a while in peaceful ti inside the hospital room.
The usual bickering between those two, and Kairos keeping the noise level down.
Maybe Ricardo’s ears were starting to hurt from the endless First Generation quarrels, because he left first, passing along Jonathan’s regards since Jonathan couldn’t visit tonight due to patrol duty.
Not long after he left, Yehyeon ca by.
The mont he confird I was perfectly fine, he smiled gently, told to take my ti getting discharged, then grabbed Ro by the back of the neck and vanished.
Ami and Yun stayed a little longer before leaving.
Ami told John was perfectly fine, that contrary to my worries the sports festival closing ceremony had gone smoothly, and that the sudden Creature attack had been handled without issue.
“Actually, last ti we were the ones who broke the audience Core device!”
...Aha.
“So sothing like this is nothing at all!”
Then the senior recomnded an idle mobile ga about growing mushrooms before leaving with Yun.
After seeing them off, I completed the discharge process with Kairos.
When we stepped outside the hospital wing, the sunset was staining the sky.
Breathing in the evening wind of Center Core, I got into the car Kairos had brought from the outdoor parking lot.
The mont the door shut, I asked,
“What about the Creature incident?”
“The strategist plans to report on it. But apparently it isn’t that urgent.”
“They retreated pretty obediently. Maybe it was just ant as a display.”
“The bigger issue is that you attempted control interference.”
What?
How did he know?
I turned to Kairos in alarm.
But the red-haired controller didn’t seem interested in explaining how he found out.
Instead, he smoothly drove the sedan and added,
“Control interference is not easy to pull off.”
“I know. It’s not that I didn’t trust you—I just wasn’t sure if you were there. You could’ve gone to the bathroom or sothing.”
“So it seed. In the end, I intercepted the control myself and scattered them. They released control fairly obediently after that.”
“Who was it?”
I asked while looking at the side of the controller’s face.
“Just tell this first. Was one of our kin being threatened by the Elders, or did they do it willingly?”
“I heard it was a chick’s talent show.”
Kairos answered with a faint smile.
Then, the mont the car stopped at a light, he turned toward as I finally relaxed.
He stared into my eyes in silence for a long mont.
What.
“...Why?”
“So I’ve decided to drop the sixth-sense concealnt.”
What?
At that bombshell declaration, I jerked upright from the passenger seat.
The controller’s eyes curved.
“It was decided while you were unconscious.”
What is that supposed to an?
From the look of it, I’d only been unconscious for a few hours. What kind of discussion had happened during that ti?
I asked in shock, but Kairos only deflected, saying he’d tell tomorrow.
I pressed him to explain right now, but he only smiled the whole drive back to the cabin.
“Kai!”
“Rest today, Hilde.”
Kairos declared firmly with a smile.
“There’s plenty of ti. Hearing it tomorrow will be cleaner.”
And so my first sports festival day ca to an end.
Leaving with embarrassnt, joy, and all sorts of other emotions.
I returned safely to the cabin.
And fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.
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