Eddie tilted his head for a moment at the two flowers that had suddenly appeared, but he assumed they were for Ketron, who was sitting next to him, and didn’t think much of it.
Eddie stared at the two fresh flowers that had suddenly appeared, then looked at Ketron next to him.
Their eyes met as Ketron, who was drinking the sports drink Eddie had given him, looked back at Eddie.
Eddie quietly looked at Ketron next to him, then, as if possessed, reached out and tucked a flower behind Ketron’s ear.
“…?”
Ketron paused for a moment. The flower tucked behind the ear of the man, who was large and usually had a stern face, was unbalanced but instantly elevated the freshness, which had been close to zero.
To Eddie, it seemed like a miracle, turning the cuteness that had been close to 100 into 200.
“Haha.”
On a roll, Eddie tucked the other flower behind Ketron’s other ear.
Ketron looked momentarily perplexed by Eddie’s bizarre behavior, but he didn’t reject the gesture.
Eddie’s prediction was right. There was no way a handsome man wouldn’t look good with flowers. Beauty and beauty had something in common.
Ketron stared at Eddie for a moment, then chose to leave his face in Eddie’s hands instead of removing the flowers from his ears.
Such an obedient guy.
Eddie smiled pleasantly and playfully tapped Ketron’s cheek with his finger before looking down at the tournament arena, where no matches had yet begun.
He enjoyed watching skilled players on YouTube more than playing games himself, so he settled into a comfortable position, thinking that being a spectator was the most comfortable. The perfect spectator’s posture.
That was the last peaceful moment between the two of them ‘before the scene changed.’
The anomaly came silently and without warning.
“Come on, buy a sausage!”
In addition to the girls handing out flowers, there were also many people selling food and drinks with makeshift stalls strapped to their bodies.
“Hmm.”
Eddie hesitated for a moment as a stall selling delicious-looking sausages passed by. Of course, there were many hot bars at convenience stores, but there weren’t any right now, and the taste of a semi-cooked convenience store hot bar and a freshly grilled, greasy sausage would definitely be different.
“Two, please?”
“Yes!”
Eddie decided and bought one for Ketron as well. It was the moment Eddie was rummaging through his pockets to take out silver coins.
Click.
Eddie heard a sound he had heard somewhere before, like gears meshing together and turning powerfully.
Startled, Eddie quickly looked up at the sound.
Click, click, click.
The sound grew louder and louder. It was impossible not to hear it.
But of course, there was no way a giant gear large enough to ring in Eddie’s ears would suddenly appear inside the Colosseum.
The surroundings were still buzzing with anticipation for the upcoming tournament, and no one seemed to notice anything strange, as if Eddie was the only one who heard the gear sound. The merchant standing in front of Eddie was simply waiting for Eddie to pay, with the same expression as before.
It was as if Eddie was the only one hearing the sound.
Click…
By the time the gear sound finally subsided, Eddie was breathing heavily, as if he had just sprinted.
“Sir?”
The merchant called out to Eddie, looking puzzled as Eddie froze with a pale face while taking out money. The merchant didn’t seem to have heard the sound at all.
“Ah, sorry.”
Eddie apologized readily, having been frozen for a moment, and took out silver coins to pay.
I must have…… misheard?
Even though he knew that wasn’t the answer, Eddie tried to think that way. Otherwise, the situation was too strange and scary.
The merchant, pleased with the sale, struck up a conversation as he handed over the change.
“Our sausages are big, and you’re buying two for yourself, so you must eat more than you look!”
“No, I’m with……”
Next to my friend… but that didn’t sound right.
Eddie hesitated for a moment about what to call Ketron, but he didn’t think it was that important, so Eddie nodded.
“I’m going to eat it with my friend next to me.”
“Friend?”
“Yes.”
Saying that, Eddie turned to look next to him and his eyes widened. Ketron, who had been sitting next to him the whole time, had disappeared.
Only the two flowers that Eddie had tucked behind his ears remained where Ketron had been.
It was as if only Ketron had suddenly vanished.
Huh?
Knowing that Eddie was anxious when he was alone, Ketron tried not to be away from Eddie if possible. And if he was going somewhere, he would definitely tell him and then leave, so something was wrong.
The merchant added a word to Eddie, who had a bewildered face.
“You’ve been alone since earlier.”
“Yes?”
Eddie looked puzzled, as Ketron had clearly been in the seat next to him until just before the merchant came.
“Since when?”
At those words, the merchant made a truly strange expression.
“I’ve been walking around this area since earlier, and you’ve been alone from the start.”
Did you lose your party member or something?
Eddie heard the merchant’s question, but he couldn’t say anything because he felt a chill and his lips seemed to stiffen.
Eddie felt his fingertips growing cold. It was the kind of thing that couldn’t be helped even with the hot pack he was holding.
As Eddie stared silently at his fingertips with a pale face, the merchant, who had already finished the calculation, looked at him with a puzzled gaze and then quietly left.
Feeling the voice shouting, “Sausages for sale!” fading away, Eddie stared blankly at the empty seat next to him.
He wasn’t here from the beginning? Then where’s Ketron? …Where is Ketron?
Why? When? No, why?
When did this situation start to go wrong?
As he was thinking that, he suddenly saw the Sorcery bulletin board, which had been changing in real time since earlier.
[Participant List]
Ketron.
The moment Eddie saw the familiar name clearly visible below it, he jumped up from his seat. Eddie, who turned around sharply as the people in the row behind him complained, handed them the two sausages they were holding.
“Wh-what?”
“Eat them!”
Eddie shouted powerfully and immediately jumped out of his seat, he didn’t know where he got such strength.
There were many people nearby, and he would have flinched with a pale face as usual, but now he didn’t even feel scared thanks to the dopamine that seemed to be rising from somewhere.
“Excuse me, I’m going through!”
Eddie couldn’t think about the seat he had reserved anymore. First, he had to go to the first floor, that was all that was on his mind.
Why is Ketron’s name on the participant list?
Why on earth.
Eddie ran without stopping for the first time since coming to this world. Of course, he had always exercised when he had time in his previous life, but after dying young, he felt that it was all useless, so he only did the minimum amount of exercise, so he felt that his stamina was running out.
I should work out when I get back. I should at least follow Ketron’s workout routine.
Eddie, who had made up his mind, ran even more desperately, thinking that this resolution could only be kept if he found Ketron somehow.
When he went to the first floor, there weren’t many people and a few managers were standing around chatting. It seemed that everyone who was going in had already gone in. The tournament was about to start.
They saw Eddie, who was panting, as a late participant and clicked their tongues, asking.
“Participant?”
“Ah, no. Um, uh.”
Even while panting, Eddie didn’t know how to describe Ketron.
When you think about it, Ketron and Eddie weren’t even friends. It was hard to say that they were in an employer-employee relationship.
Eddie realized anew that they really weren’t anything to each other. If he had to express the distance, which seemed very far, the closest thing would be a friend.
“I have something to say to my friend, who is a participant. Can I go inside?”
In the end, Eddie, who couldn’t choose a word, chose a vague word, and the managers shook their heads with stern faces.
“I’m sorry, but only tournament participants can enter from here. If you have something to say, we can deliver it, so please tell us who the other person is.”
This was quite kind of them. But what could he say?
He had run over in surprise, but Eddie hadn’t even properly grasped what the situation was.
Ketron’s name on the participant list.
Eddie sitting alone in the audience.
Yes, this was the scene he would have faced if he had decided to participate in the tournament.
But Eddie had never made such a choice. He hadn’t made Ketron make such a choice, and he wasn’t so dull that he didn’t feel this sudden change in the situation, which was contrary to the natural flow.
But even if he felt it, Eddie was just a powerless ordinary person and didn’t have the ability to break through these managers with stern faces and go to meet Ketron.
Eddie finally asked in a weak voice.
“The tournament, um… you received applications in advance, right?”
“That’s right. The deadline was already a week ago.”
“…”
The tournament application deadline was already a week ago. Ketron participating in the tournament now.
That meant that it wasn’t just the current situation that had changed.
More than a week ago, Ketron had applied. No, the past had changed so that he had applied.
Ketron had clearly not applied for the tournament, even though he hadn’t.
Seeing Eddie’s face turn pale, the managers glanced at him, perhaps misunderstanding something, and spoke to him cautiously.
“Is it very urgent and important? Then we can deliver the message right away.”
“Who should I deliver it to?”
But there was no message to deliver in the first place. Ketron probably didn’t even feel that something was wrong.
Rather, Eddie was likely the one who had urged him to participate in the changed past, so what could he say?
The ‘story’ has changed.
The story of this world has suddenly changed, who do I tell?
He must be the only stranger in this world.
At that moment, Eddie heard an unknown,
Clunk
sound in his ear. It was a sound with a resonance, like gears meshing together and turning, like a giant machine moving.
At the same time, the wind stopped.
Eddie quickly looked up at the sensation that the cold, which he hadn’t been able to feel properly because the situation was so volatile and he was so flustered, seemed to have disappeared in an instant.
There was no more sound.
There was no more cold.
Eddie realized that he was no longer standing in front of the managers on the first floor. No, it wasn’t even Sandehern anymore.
Perhaps, it wasn’t even a space in this world.
It was an empty space with nothing in it. The only source of light was a single ray of light pouring down from the ceiling, or the starlight above, and in the place where the light shone, there was a single book.
As if possessed, Eddie approached the book. In the first place, everything else was dim and hard to see.
He moved with steps much slower than usual, but it was only a moment before he reached the book.
On the black leather cover of the book, the title was written in neat letters.
〈The Hero Doesn’t Hide His Power Too Well Part 2〉