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"He disappeared?!"
Bete's heart suddenly tightened.
"No, he's just too fast!"
As his eyes darted rapidly around, he caught sight of the figure rushing up from behind him.
That figure was so fast that a string of afterimages trailed behind him. What Bete found impossible to accept was that the figure was rapidly closing the distance between them!
"He's catching up to me even while taking a curved route?!"
Bete's eyes widened in disbelief.
Ryoji hadn't charged straight at him. Instead, he first ran to the edge of the courtyard, then deliberately began circling around behind him.
Bete could guess Ryoji's train of thought. If he caught up in a straight line, it could still be explained away as predicting Bete's movement path rather than simply being faster, but if he caught up while running the same circular route, then there was only one possible explanation,
His speed completely surpassed Bete's.
And if that was the case, Bete could only accept defeat wholeheartedly.
"This bastard… he wants to beat me in the thing I'm best at!"
Bete clenched his teeth.
He pushed his legs even harder, practically drawing out every ounce of strength he had. Every speed-enhancing ability and technique he possessed was brought into play.
But,
"On your left!"
Only a few seconds later, a dark figure appeared beside his left side, grinning as he greeted him casually.
To Bete, that smile looked like outright mockery.
That relaxed attitude made it seem as though Ryoji didn't even regard him as a threat.
"Whoosh…!"
Shortly afterward, Ryoji directly overtook him, then burst forward with a divine speed that left Bete eating dust, effortlessly surpassing him by ten meters, twenty meters…
"On your left!"
Before long, just as Bete felt like his eyes were about to split apart from rage, Ryoji's figure caught up from behind a second time, once again waving at him with a smile.
Twice in a row!
The Loki Familia's courtyard wasn't particularly large.
But to lap him by more than a full circle while running at such high speed meant that Ryoji's speed exceeded his by a considerable margin! If Bete's speed was enough to make many Level 6 adventurers admit inferiority, then Ryoji's speed had genuinely reached the top-tier Level 6 standard!
But how was that possible?
He was clearly human, so why was he better at speed than a werewolf like Bete?
Bete gradually slowed his pace while clenching his fists tightly. The intense unwillingness nearly made him grind his teeth to pieces.
But he knew he had already lost.
Even the field he was most proud of had been crushed by Ryoji in the most direct way possible. The silver-white fur on his ears and tail slowly drooped, as though reflecting his utterly dejected mood.
Ryoji also came to a stop.
Unlike Bete's dispirited expression, Ryoji still looked completely relaxed.
Did that mean he hadn't even gone all out just now?
Bete didn't know.
And there was no way for him to know, because he simply couldn't force Ryoji to use his full strength.
"…Say it."
Bete raised his bloodshot eyes and looked at Ryoji.
"?"
"I lost this time. According to what we agreed earlier, you can make one request of me!"
"Aahhhh."
Ryoji nodded in understanding.
Honestly, he hadn't taken that promise very seriously.
'You're not even a cute girl, what kind of request would I even make of you?'
Besides, with Bete glaring at him so fiercely, anyone who didn't know better would think he was planning to silence him permanently.
"I'll save it for later. I can't think of anything right now." Ryoji waved his hand casually.
"Hmph. You'd better think of something soon!" Bete clicked his tongue loudly, his face full of obvious displeasure. "Next time, I'll definitely beat you and take back that condition!"
Ryoji's performance had dealt a severe blow to his pride, igniting an unprecedented competitive spirit within him. For a long time to come, he would absolutely train with ten times more dedication than before, until the day he surpassed him.
Bete silently swore this in his heart.
"Also, one more thing."
Bete took several deep breaths, barely managing to calm himself down, though his expression remained ice-cold.
"What exactly are you thinking?"
"What do you mean?"
"Quit playing dumb. I'm obviously talking about Ais and the others!"
Bete bared his teeth, showing extreme disgust at Ryoji's blank expression.
"That stupid Amazoness is completely devoted to you, Ais is acting weird too, and even the women in the Familia practically worship you. So what exactly are you planning to do?"
His words clearly carried the implication:
'You'd better make a decision soon instead of keeping everyone hanging like this.'
"…Are you jealous?"
"As if I'd ever be jealous of you!" Bete exploded in anger, pointing at Ryoji's nose as he shouted.
"But don't you like Ais?"
"That's completely different!" Bete clicked his tongue, his expression turning complicated.
But he clearly didn't want to discuss the matter any further with Ryoji, so he skipped over the topic entirely.
How was that "completely different" at all?
Ryoji couldn't understand it in the slightest.
Bete liking Ais was basically an open secret within the Familia.
Yet after spending months together, he showed absolutely no intention of pursuing her. Normally, he didn't even try to get closer to her. It was genuinely baffling.
"…Are you a tsundere?"
"I'll kill you!"
"Then why are you meddling so much?"
"Mind your own damn business!"
'Good grief.'
You want to meddle in other people's affairs, yet you refuse to explain why, how am I supposed to deal with that?
A vein bulged on Ryoji's forehead.
'This werewolf was definitely a tsundere. But tsunderes were already outdated, you know?'
And besides, when a guy acts tsundere, it's not cute at all, got it?
"Haa…" Ryoji took a deep breath.
"You…!" Bete suddenly understood.
"Let me make this clear first, you're not allowed to deny it!"
But just as Bete was about to explode, Ryoji suddenly became serious.
"This is the request I'm making of you!"
"...?!?!"
Bete's face instantly twisted in agony, his teeth grinding loudly.
'Not allowed to deny it?'
After shouting something like that so loudly, everyone would definitely become suspicious. If he wasn't allowed to deny it, then it was basically the same as admitting it!
He had truly picked up a rock only to smash his own foot with it.
Very well.
Let's just kill this bastard already.
(End of Chapter)