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Shredica nodded in understanding. There were only a hundred participation tickets available, distributed randomly to lucky individuals. That marked the start of the King\'s Game. Anyone who wanted in had to either persuade or coerce ticket holders to hand them over. The game was limited to a hundred participants, but anyone could try to get in.

"I don\'t think I\'ll be much help, to be honest. I haven\'t scored a ticket myself. How about you, Leon?" Titania asked.

"I did," I replied, producing the ticket for her to see.

"You\'re planning to jump in the fray too, right?" she inquired, already aware of my intentions.

"Yeah, that\'s the plan," I confirmed. "Which is why I can\'t hand it over to Shredica."

Shredica had been the one to invite me into the game in the first place.

"Hmm... This is tricky," Titania muttered, her brow furrowed in thought. Then, suddenly, her face lit up. "I\'ve got it! I know someone who has a ticket!"

Shredica and I exchanged puzzled glances. As far as we knew, Titania wasn\'t particularly close to anyone. So who could this mystery person be?

***

The person Titania mentioned turned out to be Zeruel, who was seated alone in the cafeteria, voraciously stuffing her mouth with food. It was quite a contrast from her usual graceful demeanor during duels. Seeing her like this, hunched over at a table tucked under the stairs leading up to the second floor, filled me with a sense of melancholy.

As she shoveled food into her mouth, Zeruel suddenly caught sight of us and her eyes widened in alarm. Hastily, she tried to finish her meal quicker, hoping to avoid our approach. However, she still had a second plate to contend with.

When we finally reached her table, Zeruel slumped her shoulders in defeat, still chewing on the food she had crammed into her mouth.

"That\'s a lot," I whispered, eyeing the towering stack of ten plates she had devoured.

Zeruel shot me a glare at my comment. Oops. I hadn\'t anticipated her being sensitive about it.

"What do you want?" she grumbled, avoiding my gaze.

Titania slammed her hands on the table. "You\'ve got a ticket, right?!"

Zeruel regarded her with suspicion. "How did you know?"

"That\'s not important right now," Titania retorted. "Mind if we buy the ticket off you?"

Zeruel seemed to choke on her food momentarily after Titania\'s request, pounding her chest to dislodge the stuck morsel from her throat. Finally managing to clear it, she gulped it down and turned her attention to Titania. "Y-You want to buy the ticket? Why?"

"Shreddy here wants to join the King\'s Game, but she doesn\'t have a ticket, so we\'re trying to find someone who does and negotiate for it," Titania explained.

"I told you not to call me that..." Shredica muttered to Titania, who ignored her. When had these two started getting along? Probably since that study group we had.

Zeruel set down her spoon and looked at us apologetically. "I\'m sorry," she said. "I need the ticket. I plan to join the game myself."

It was only natural for Zeruel to covet the ticket. Winning the King\'s Game meant she could pay off her mother\'s sanatorium bills or lift her family out of poverty. The game granted a request to the King of Milham himself, a reward too valuable to pass up. I couldn\'t blame her for wanting it, not when faced with such dire circumstances.

"Is that so?" Titania responded, showing understanding in her expression. She didn\'t push the idea any further. "Oh well. If you say so," she conceded, motioning for us to leave.

"Are you sure that\'s the best course of action? We could just strong-arm her, you know? Even though she\'s top two, I could handle her just fine," Shredica suggested as we returned to the rooftop.

Titania looked at her sternly. "We can\'t resort to that, Shreddy! We can\'t force someone to hand over their ticket, no matter what. And I doubt Zeruel would give it up no matter how hard we try. Besides, with the game\'s prize, it could change her life for the better."

Shredica must have been aware of Zeruel\'s financial struggles, which perhaps tempered her suggestion of resorting to more drastic measures. However, it was clear she still had reservations. After a moment of contemplation, she finally voiced her thoughts. "It\'s not like she\'ll actually win and get the reward, right? If she ends up losing, then that ticket will just go to waste."

Winning the King\'s Game was the only way to claim the reward. Those who lost received nothing. Entering the game meant risking one\'s life, as there were rare instances where participants succumbed to severe injuries that even magical healing couldn\'t mend, or fell victim to devastating attacks that bypassed healing magic entirely.

This meant Zeruel was not only entering a high-risk, high-reward tournament but also potentially leaving her family behind if she met an untimely demise.

I\'m sure Zeruel wouldn\'t want that outcome.

"Well, I\'m sure Zeruel is giving it some serious thought right now, but fighting her for it isn\'t the best approach, Shreddy," said Titania.

Shredica shot her a glare. "Don\'t call me that."

After our discussion, the bell signaling the start of afternoon classes rang, prompting us to head to our respective classrooms.

***

After class, I informed Titania that I wouldn\'t be joining her back to the dorms because I had something to attend to. She bid me farewell with a smile. My destination was the sanatorium where Zeruel\'s mother was confined. Her mother suffered from the mysterious Deep Sleep Syndrome, a condition where mana circulation ceased, causing the person to fall into a coma from which they might never awaken.

The only thing keeping them alive was magical intervention to maintain mana circulation throughout their body.

This, however, wasn\'t cheap, so Zeruel\'s sanatorium bill might be reaching a point where she couldn\'t afford it.

Upon arriving, I spotted a girl sitting on a bench, her face clouded with melancholy. Her resemblance to Zeruel was uncanny, from her features to her hair. It wasn\'t hard to guess that this girl was Zeruel\'s little sister.

"Hmm..." I pondered for a moment before heading to Leonamon\'s cake shop. I ordered a tart there before returning.

When I came back, I found the girl curled up into a ball, her head resting on her arms, which were folded over her knees. She was crying.

I approached her cautiously. "Are you alright?" I inquired softly. As she heard my voice, she looked up, her face streaked with snot and tears staining her cheeks. Embarrassed, she immediately covered her face.

"I-I\'m okay..." she mumbled, though her shaky voice betrayed her true feelings.

"Did something happen to the person in the sanatorium that made you cry like this?" I probed gently.

The girl fell silent for a moment, then hesitantly replied, "My sister told me not to talk to strangers."

"Okay..." I nodded understandingly. "Mind if I sit beside you then? I won\'t talk to you. I\'m just here because someone I know is also admitted there," I fibbed.

"It\'s fine," she murmured. "As long as you won\'t talk."

I settled down beside her, and a heavy silence enveloped us. Neither of us spoke, and I began to feel increasingly awkward about the situation. What was I even doing here, intruding on this girl\'s private moment?

Then, she spoke up suddenly. "My mother..."

"Your mother...?" I prompted gently.

"Yes," she nodded, her voice trembling slightly. "My mother is the one who\'s admitted in the sanatorium. She was the only one taking care of us because our father cheated on her. Despite her poor health, she worked tirelessly for us. But eventually, her health deteriorated to the point where she collapsed. And she never woke up again."

That\'s right. I recalled that Zeruel\'s mother collapsed two months after she was admitted to the academy. It was the same day I had confessed to her, hoping to gain her interest. Perhaps that\'s why she had lashed out at me so harshly and turned me down in such a cold manner.

She likely didn\'t mean to be so cruel, but the shock of her mother\'s collapse had shattered her composure, causing her to react that way. I couldn\'t help but feel guilty for adding to her distress during such a vulnerable time.

"Our family is poor. So poor that we can\'t even afford proper clothes," she continued, her voice tinged with sadness. "That\'s why we can\'t pay the bills at the sanatorium. But we can\'t bear to give up on our mother. So my sister and I have been working tirelessly to try to cover the costs. However, despite our efforts, we\'ve only been able to scrape together a fraction of what we owe.

And our debt just keeps growing. The doctors at the sanatorium told us that if we can\'t settle the bills by the end of this week, they\'ll have no choice but to remove the magical intervention keeping our mother alive. But if they do that, she\'ll die. That\'s why my sister is planning to do something... something desperate."

"Something desperate?" I prodded gently.

"She\'s going to sell her body," she whispered, her voice filled with despair.