"We're on our own now."
"Yes…" Milleia nodded.
I twisted the throttles and channeled a huge amount of mana. Milleia followed after me.
"Where are you going, Edward!"
"Huh?" I looked behind me and saw Alfred driving at a tremendous speed with his bike shining gold.
Just behind me was John also in his bike which was burning dark red.
They stopped fighting and concentrated on the race huh…
"Your Highness!" Right behind them was Thomas who was bleeding from the forehead.
"Edward!"
"We are late, Edward!"
Jayden and Carla were slightly behind them.
"I will cover you Milleia, go ahead!"
"Okay!" Milleia nodded and left ahead of me.
With Layla in the front, she just had to deal with Elona.
"Rings of Vysindra!" I threw my sword in the sky and mana left my body before gathering in my sword. The sword shone purple before splitting into a hundreds of swords. My face turned a bit pale since I was driving at high speed but I had to hold those two back.
"Burning Rain." I muttered and the hundreds of swords rained down toward John and Alfred. Both stopped driving and started to defend themselves.
I ignored them and accelerated further to join Milleia.
Milleia was fighting against Elona and she couldn't advance more because of that. If it continued, Layla was going to win without doubts.
"Millea-!" Before I could finish, a burning red lance flew past me at a tremendous speed and it headed straight toward Milleia's back.
"Milleia!" Alfred shouted worriedly.
"!" Milleia turned around but she was defenseless.
That attack…
It was going to seriously damage Milleia, if not…
John… that bastard!
I gritted my teeth and snapped my fingers discreetly.
My face turned even more pale and a giant mirror appeared behind the shocked Milleia. The lance flew through the mirror and disappeared. Few seconds later, the mirror broke into silver smithereens covering Milleia's blue hair.
"..." I couldn't read John's thoughts and I didn't want to either!
He really has a lot of screws loose in his twisted mind!
"I'm going ahead!" I said to Milleia before driving past her and Elona.
"H-Hey!" Elona was too late unfortunately for her.
I looked in front of me. Layla was a dozen meters in front of me.
"Ah…it's over…"
I could never catch up to her and she was reaching the finishing line…
"Edward!!!" Then suddenly, I heard Jayden's voice from behind me. He was pretty injured but he had a smile on his face. "Let me help lend you my strength, Zeus' Lightning Steps!"
An astounding explosion rang and following that my bike crackled in blue lightning.
"What…the HEEEEELL?!" I lost control of my body and the bike as well and at a frightening speed I reached the dumbfounded Layla.
"Edward…?" Layla narrowed her eyes when she saw that I was going to overtake her.
She raised her speed immediately in panic and we both crossed the finishing line.
-WOOOOOWWW!!
"A-Amazing!!"
"W-Who won?!"
"It's a close call! I don't know!"
As I tried to recover my ragged breath, the spectators so all the clubmates noisily commented. I could also hear the others behind me crossing one by one the finishing line.
"What an amazing race!" The announcer shouted and the cheers increased in reply.
"And the winner is...…"
Ah, fuck it.
"Layla Adrian Tarmias and her group!"
When Layla's name came out, all the men stood up in unison and shouted Layla's name.
As expected, it would have been too good if I had won.
"Edward Falkrona has taken the second place for his team!!"
This time, most of the people cheering were girls with blushing faces.
I ignored the announcer and glanced at Layla.
She was happily smiling while waving her hand at the public. Here I thought that only Alfred was in her mind. For the first time, I could see a genuine pretty smile on her face, different from the other ones.
….
….
….
Five minutes later, we both landed on the hard ground and were treated by the healers of the club.
"We were so close…" Milleia was getting treated next to me muttered, disappointed. "I…really wanted to win…"
"We have already done a good race, Milleia." I said to her, " Moreover, we are talking about Layla. That girl has trained since long ago in that sport. Since childhood she has played it and has even been trained by professionals."
"Eh? Really?" Millleia was surprised.
"Yeah. Rather you should be happy to get the second place, just behind her," I sighed.
I mean, even I was surprised that for a second I nearly overtook her.
"Wow…" Milleia nodded with a smile. "U-um by the way, Edward….I think Lord Ronald is angry at you…" she added as she threw a stealthy glance behind her.
Indeed, Ronald was furiously glaring at me.
I mean, I robbed his bike before throwing him in the void, separating him from Layla. You bet he is angry.
"Leave him, he's just a loser."
"That's mean, Edward."
"The truth hurts and Ronald needs to understand that he is blinded by his affection for Layla."
"You did that for him?" Milleia tilted her head incredulous.
"Of course, Ronald is my previous childhood friend," I said with a 'kind' smile even if I didn't give a damn about him.
[<Will you one day stop lying to her?>]
'Do you want me to say that I just wanted to spoil his day?!'
[<At least you would have been honest.>]
MY honesty won't work with people like her and Jayden unfortunately. They had the mindset of a Protagonist who will put others above them, even sacrificing their life for others.
"I-It's over, you can rest now!"
"Y-Yes!"
The girls who treated me and Milleia ran away without looking at my face.
"Hm?" I felt something touching my shoulders. "Milleia?" I glanced at her as her body was pressed against me.
"Ah…I'm sorry, Edward…I'm just tired…" Milleia quickly pulled back.
"Tired? We only drove for two laps though?" I asked incredulously.
"It's not that." Milliea pouted before looking at the darkening sky. "I…wish to see my mother soon."
"..."
"Ah! I'm s-sorry! I didn't want to-" Milleia raised both her hands, nearly crying.
"It's okay." I shook my head when Milleia hurriedly apologized. She knew that my mother was dead so she might feel guilty.
Speaking of Milleia's mother…
Time has come for her Event.
"Um…"
"..."
An awkward silence fell between us.
"Why did you do this?!" Fortunately or not, Elona's voice rang loudly in the surroundings, prompting us to look at her.
"Huh?" I let out dumbfounded when I saw her facing John.
John was looking down at my sister still with that 'I don't care' expression.
"Answer me!" Elona shouted again angrily.
"I don't know what you are talking about." John said shortly before walking past her.
"Wait! I'm talking about Milleia! Your attack could have killed her!" Elona stopped John.
Well, she was right. His attack was extremely dangerous for the defenseless Milleia and that's why I summoned that mirror…
"Oh! Now that I remember, 'he' helped me!" Milleia shouted near me.
Shit…
I wished she would have forgotten.
" 'He'? Who?" I asked with a 'frown'.
[<You will become a professional actor before the end of the game.>]
[He already unlocked most of the titles. If he keeps going on, he will unlock all of them.]
'I don't care about your shitty titles, Jarvis!'
"It's…someone who saved me and Jayden during the day of the entrance ceremony…remember? I talked you and Lyra about him." Milleia's face beamed in admiration. "He saved us and the children…and he again saved me today…" She said and her eyes opened wide.
Oh no.
"Could it be that he is also a student of the academy?!" Milleia stood up and started to look…for me!
Thankfully I used Mary's ability with utmost discretion while hiding my mana…
"Apologize to Milleia!"
They still didn't finish?
I thought as I looked at Elona glaring at John.
"..." John stared at Elona for a long minute before replying. "No."
"W-What?!"
"What's happening, Elona?" Layla intervened seeing her brother and Elona quarreling.
"Layla…it's John… You didn't see it but he threw a powerful attack to Milleia and she could have been seriously hurt…" Elona explained.
"Oh, a shame, it did not…" Layla muttered out loud.
"Eh?!"
Oy, Layla. Don't let your true thoughts leak.
"No! I mean! Brother! That's not good!" Layla scolded her brother.
John let out a sigh and approached Elona. He approached her really closely. Their nose nearly touching.
"W-Wha-!"
"I'm sorry Elona Falkrona," John whispered to Elona's ear before walking away.
Elona was blushing bright red and tears were threatening to fall. "H-Hey! I asked you to apologize to Milleia! Not me! A-And why did you blow i-in my ear?!"
As her brother, hearing that, I felt really awkward.
And why are you shouting that in front of everyone Elona?!
More importantly! What is the twisted brother doing?!
Could it be that he is trying to 'rob' Milleia?
That's what I would have thought if John was actually a Pretender as he was not. John was Major Antagonist in the case you chose Milleia's route over Layla's unique route.
And if you chose Layla's route—John will become a strong ally but right now I don't have any idea at all about his 'status' since Jayden had yet taken either Milleia's route and even less Layla's route which was really strange. Since the day Carla appeared in his life, it was like his eyes were only on her thus slowing down the development of his relation with Milleia or Lyra. Though I agree that I played a big part in this mess…
