"Waaa!"
Just as Olivia was about to fall over, Soren caught her and pulled her up.
"Sorry, Soren…"
Her expression made her thoughts easy to read.
She was likely apologising because this situation had already happened quite a few times.
Given her role as a priestess, Soren didn't complain either; it would have been silly to expect someone super athletic in such a role, especially in the first semester, where students were still gathering their bearings.
Noticing her mood, Soren took his hand off her and tried to cheer her up.
"It's fine, you're a priest, it'd be weirder if you could run perfectly through a forest as dense as this one."
The only reason Soren was managing was thanks to his near-death experience back in Rena Forest.
"Still…"
He wanted to keep talking and cheer her up properly, but Soren was feeling antsy ever since the noise behind them had quieted down.
"You're doing well, I promise. Let's keep moving."
Their destination had already been decided, so all that mattered now was getting there before 'it' reached them.
To be honest, Soren wasn't even sure if he was the one being chased, but he didn't want to risk it on the off chance that he was, since one wrong move would mean the loss of two entire skills.
"Kay!"
••✦ ♡ ✦•••
"Huff- Soren -huff- can we -huff- take a break?"
'Finally!'
He cheered inwardly at Olivia's innocent question.
They had been alternating between walking and running for over an hour, focusing solely on reaching their destination.
Soren turned to her and spoke in a voice full of exhaustion.
"Huff- Yeah… sure…"
He was quite surprised that Olivia had lasted as long as she had.
'Who would've thought her stamina was better than mine…'
Soren had run out of stamina long ago, but kept pushing himself when he noticed that Olivia was still managing.
'It would've been embarrassing if I tapped out first.'
It may not have seemed like it, given all of his past actions, but there was still some semblance of pride left within Soren's body, and given the fact that he had to act strong in front of Olivia to keep their alliance going, he couldn't be the first to ask for a break.
Upon getting permission, Olivia grinned widely and cheered as she collapsed against a nearby tree.
"Ah! Heaven–!"
Soren chuckled at the sight, then offered her a drink from his canteen that he had just drunk from.
"Thank you so much, Soren!"
Without any hesitation whatsoever, she took the canteen from his hand and downed the water.
'Wow…'
Because he was now inside the world of a game, Soren had somewhat expected some over-the-top reaction where she would blush and say things along the lines of 'W-Wouldn't that be an indirect kiss though?' or some other tropey lines, but nothing of the sort happened.
Instead, it was the complete opposite, zero hesitation.
'I can't tell if she doesn't see me as a guy or if the thought just didn't cross her mind… or maybe she just didn't care. Oh well.'
"..."
After thinking about it for a few more seconds, Soren very quickly concluded that it was likely the second option, given her airhead tendencies.
As much as he wanted her to realise so he could tease her, he decided against it since it would likely make the mood weird.
'Plus NTRing heroines is a no-go.'
By this point, Olivia had already been crushing on Alex for well over 10 years, so Soren even felt bad at the idea of getting in the way of that.
He was well aware of how arrogant that thought was, but he had seen himself in the mirror enough times to know how powerful his current body was in the looks major.
When someone reaches a certain level of attractiveness, even just attempting to talk to someone can be misunderstood as flirting, so he didn't want to risk giving her the wrong idea.
'Oh, the pain of being attractive.' He jokingly thought as Olivia handed him back his canteen.
He refilled it using [Aqua] when she suddenly started a new conversation.
"At this rate, we'll easily end in the top 10... Ahhh! I'm so happy, I can't wait for my allowance to go up hehe."
"What are you planning to buy?" Soren said as he took another drink from the canteen.
"Mmm… Pretty clothes and makeup! I've never been able to afford them and…"
Her voice slowly trailed off as her face flushed.
Soren smirked at the sight.
"You have someone you want to show, right?"
"!!!"
Olivia was shocked by the fact that Soren had noticed and just sat there with her mouth agape.
"Pfft, it's fine if you don't want to talk about it, but let's make sure we do well today, okay?"
Olivia nodded, then cautiously opened her mouth.
"Actually, can I talk about it?"
Soren was momentarily confused by how open Olivia was being, but chalked it up to her naivety before nodding.
"Uhm… I won't say too much right now since we're in an exam, but there's this boy who lived in the same village as me, and we've been together for as long as I can remember. When we were kids, I was a bit chubbier, which meant I got bullied a lot by the other kids in my town. And…" She hid her pink cheeks in her knees and continued. "...Alex was the one who saved me, he stood up for me when nobody else would, not even my parents. Ever since then, we've never been apart, we even came to the academy together…"
Soren was reminded of why he was always team Olivia in the shipping rankings.
The destructive power of the girl in front of him was immense, so much so that even Soren could feel his cheeks warming up at such a pure, innocent love story.
It was for reasons such as this that Soren couldn't support the idea of Alex having a harem, no matter how much the laws of this world allowed it.
"I hope everything works out between you two. If you ever need advice, feel free to come to me."
Soren knew that Olivia didn't have many friends thanks to her commoner origins, even more so because she pretty much only spoke to Alex, so he didn't mind offering his ear to her every once in a while in hopes that his ship would sail.
Olivia raised her bright red face from her knees and looked at Soren with a huge grin.
"Hehe, Thank you, Soren… You know, I've always wanted to have some girl talk like this."
"Huh?"
"I've always struggled to make friends for some reason, so this is the first time I've spoken about my feelings ehehe…"
"Actually—"
Soren opened his mouth to correct her mistake when Olivia's eyes fell directly behind Soren, her face filling with worry as she shouted.
"Soren–!"
Soren, belatedly realising the situation, stood up in a panic.
"Shit!"
A person was flying towards him at an alarming rate.
'I don't have time to cast.'
He didn't even think about taking such a fight head-on; instead, he jumped to the side in an attempt to avoid the figure.
BOOOM—!
'What the fuck?!'
His eyes shook as he looked at the newly formed crater that appeared where he had just been standing moments ago.
'Wouldn't I have died if that hit me?'
Sweat dripped down his spine as the dust cleared.
"This is the worst."
He couldn't help but think that when he saw the figure standing in the crater.
Amelia Indras Einhardt.
"S-Soren, what s-should we do?"
Olivia's voice was shaking, but she still hadn't run away.
'I knew my plan was right.'
It was the only silver lining at the moment.
Soren smiled slightly upon realising that she had decided to stay.
If it were anyone else, they would've started running the moment Amelia had appeared, but instead, Olivia stood by faithfully, waiting for his directions.
"Hehe."
Soren's relief quickly dissipated at the sound of laughter.
"You dodged?"
Her neon-yellow eyes shone like a predator eyeing her prey as they scanned every inch of his body.
'Fuck, I'm scared!'
The fear he had felt back when he was on death's door in Rena Forest couldn't even be compared to how he felt at this exact moment.
It took every fibre of his being to stop himself from running away.
He desperately tried to think of a solution to his current predicament, but there was nothing. No matter how hard he racked his brain, there was not a single idea that came to mind.
All it would take for everything to be over was a measly 3 seconds.
That was how long it would take for Amelia to beat both Soren and Olivia.
That was how strong Amelia Einhardt was.
A bruiser tank who was one of the first characters released all the way back in the first update and managed to stay meta-relevant all the way until the end of service announcement.
While Soren was lost in thought, Olivia spoke up.
"Uhm… Miss Amelia Einhardt? Why are you after us? If it's points you need, we can give them to you…"
It seemed that it wasn't just Soren who was desperate either, since Olivia had essentially offered up her entire future allowance in an attempt to survive this encounter, but alas, it was in vain.
"Heh."
Amelia just laughed in response to Olivia's offer.
And then, instead of responding to Olivia's words, she looked directly at Soren and spoke with a wild grin on her face.
"Fight me."
'I'm fucked.'
————「❤︎」————