Rita woke up with a start and, as her first reflex upon noticing someone beside her, delivered a high kick to the first person she saw in the tent.
The boy took it again without flinching.
"Ow."
Rita did not remove her foot from his face. Her gaze was burning with anger.
"Can you remove your foot, please?"
"How can I know you won't hit me again?"
"I already beat you up once, why would I do it twice?"
"Why did you hit me? I was helping you."
"I know, I just wanted to fight you because you looked strong, and I won, so it's fine."
Hearing that, Rita froze in confusion.
"But… why?"
"Huh?"
The boy stood up calmly, without a sound. Rita watched him through the whole process. He walked forward, calmly pulled open the tent entrance, then shouted to the entire village.
"Hey, did you hear that? She's wondering why I beat her up!"
The whole village looked silently at the boy for a good ten seconds, then they all burst out laughing. Some laughed so hard they fell to the ground, coughing up blood.
The boy then turned back toward Rita.
"Ha haha. You're really funny. Don't you know we're in Nozras here?"
Rita couldn't believe her eyes. Were these people all insane?
"I see. So you too are only motivated by war and becoming the strongest. I left my village to avoid being treated like that."
The boy said nothing but seemed to understand for a moment. He looked at her as if she were a weak, isolated survivor.
"I see, you must not have had an easy life."
"My mother treated me like an assassin so that I would climb the throne and forget the fact that I'm the last Obu."
"I see...…WHAT??!!!"
The young warrior stepped back in shock and fell to the ground, eyes wide open.
Standing before him was the last of the most powerful lineage in the world, and he hadn't even known it.
The man who had ruled Nozras and all his descendants had given birth to Rita, who was now standing right in front of his eyes. The great lineage was before him.
"I am all-powerful. I defeated an Obu."
Rita felt like hitting him.
"Are you listening to me? That's exactly why—"
"So what?"
"Huh?"
The boy stood back up, regaining his serious and composed expression.
"I said 'so what?' If you don't want to be what your mother wants you to be, then do whatever you want. Here, we're not tyrants, we're warriors. I'm going to leave the village soon to go claim the throne. When you hear about me, I'll have become the strongest man in the world. The man who defeated an Obu. Reno Gazor, remember that name."
Rita suddenly admired the boy's confidence. As if no trial could ever stand in his way. He was strong, that much she had seen during their fight. But to declare himself the future sovereign, one needed real guts.
Even if everyone did it in this frenzied country.
"I… I don't want to fulfill my mother's wish."
"I never said you had to come with me."
Rita looked at Reno again. But this time, she was worried.
"But you're going to die. The outside world isn't made for you and—"
"And?"
Reno's gaze shifted from proud to enraged.
"I beat up an Obu and I will sit on the throne. If you don't want to climb it, then don't come discouraging the people who are trying."
Reno left the tent angrily, his club resting on his shoulder.
Rita couldn't understand. She couldn't understand why people risked their lives for such a stupid idea. To her, what she had said made sense. It was rather his will that was insane…
Rita stepped out of the tent some time later.
The sun of Nozras hit her head-on. She raised her hand to shield her eyes from the intense light.
When she adjusted her vision to look at the village, she saw again the children, the women, and the warriors, just as she had seen them before from the top of the hill.
She was in the village as if nothing had happened. No one noticed her arrival, and everyone continued their activities as if everything were normal.
Memories suddenly came back to her. She saw herself again in the gray village she came from, where her mother waited for her in the opposite tent to beat her. Where the warriors trained endlessly under the rain, where the children played without ever looking at her because they were forbidden to do so.
Everything was the same. Yet everything was different.
It was the same style. The same actions. A world she saw as lost in its way of living. But the atmosphere was different. Her mother was not waiting to beat her. The warriors fought with smiles on their faces and helped one another like brothers. The children looked at her with curiosity, and some even invited her to play. The mothers greeted her as they passed by in the village.
She did not feel the pressure of being the last of the Obu. She did not feel abused. She did not feel chained or restrained. She felt at home, and she felt good.
Suddenly, a little girl ran up to her and pulled on her hand, a wide smile on her face.
"So it's true you fought Reno? He's strong, right? He's the strongest in the world. But don't worry, you can train with us and surpass him."
Rita smiled back at her, when another child came up.
"So it's true you're the last of the Obu?"
Suddenly, her expression froze.
Rita carried that fact heavily—that she was the last. She carried the shame of being the disgrace of her family. It felt like she had been struck again, expecting all the remarks people in her village constantly threw at her.
"That's so cool!!"
But instead of mockery and insults, the little boy looked at her with stars in his eyes.
Rita felt a shock in her heart, as if something was wrong.
Other children came to talk to her, and soon other warriors as well, asking how she was or whether she was hungry. Before long, the entire village had gathered around her, full of questions, all kind and gentle toward her.
Rita froze.
It was the first time anyone had truly looked at her. The first time anyone had paid attention to her. She had never felt this before. Her body suddenly began to tremble, and all at once…
"Oh, she's crying…"
Tears flowed out unconsciously. She couldn't hold them back anymore. It was the first time she had ever cried, and it left her disoriented. But to tell the truth, it felt good.
The whole village leaned in around her to see what was wrong.
For the first time in her life, Rita felt loved, and at home…
Later on, after eating her fill and reassuring the village by convincing them that she was fine, she found Reno near one of the village's training grounds. There, he was swinging his club at a wooden dummy, which he destroyed with a single blow. He grabbed another one, placed it in front of him, and shattered it just as easily.
"You don't control your strength very well."
Reno glanced at her briefly and sized her up.
"That's not my problem. My goal is to destroy it no matter what—just like I destroyed you."
"You didn't destroy me… I let you win."
"Raaaaaah."
Reno cocked his head as if he had just heard something utterly absurd.
Rita had walked around the village, and the inhabitants looked at her with admiration because of her status—or rather, because of her ancestor. They now knew she was a descendant of the great warrior. She walked with grace as the village children stared at her with stars in their eyes.
Nozras was respected more than anyone else, even after his death. No one dared question his credibility. Rita had noticed the difference between her native village and the young warrior's village. Here, people admired her; there, people were repulsed by her. They were ashamed of her, though from time to time they also feared her strength. Even if this village still saw her as a warrior, the way they looked at her was different. ;
Still, she couldn't understand why.
"What will you do if you sit on that famous throne?"
Reno destroyed another dummy before answering.
"I don't know. I'll shout from the rooftops that I'm the strongest, and then we'll see. It's not the kind of question I ask myself."
Rita watched Reno strike another dummy, this time in a different way. He held the club straight out in front of him with his arm extended, rotating it slightly to twist the dummy's torso without breaking it yet. On the second strike, he simply brought the club down vertically and crushed it.
"Why do you train? Aren't you stronger than anyone else?"
"Because even if I beat an Obu, there are warriors far more terrifying in this world. And besides, I get the feeling you held back."
A faint smile appeared on Rita's face.
"Didn't I tell you? I let you win."
"No. You really lost. Not because you let me, but because I surprised you. I overwhelmed you. You decided to pass it off as giving up. But you should know that this world will never forgive even the smallest mistake."
Rita silently contemplated the boy's wisdom.
The ground was dry beneath his feet, yet he left clear marks behind. His footing was solid—far too solid for simple kicks to reach him. And yet, she couldn't help herself. His center of gravity could be shifted so easily. His stance was unbalanced, and despite those solid supports, and despite the fact that he was in the middle of training…
"But what the—"
Rita couldn't stop herself from knocking him completely off balance.
"Oh, sorry."