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(A little earlier)

Mercy entered Hope's room, accompanied by the latter.

It wasn't quite a room, but more of an apartment, spacious, with two separate bedrooms for Hope and his roommate.

The girl closed the door behind them, after making sure that no one was following them.

"Phew... Will be hard walkin' around tomorrow... Well, gonna just stick to Dora, he's always the center of focus."

She sighed and looked at her knight who was more defeated than ever.

"Alri't, let's see... Gonna stay like this forever? Hello?"

He slowly tried to raise his head but lowered it again, smiling.

"If you want to beat me, please just do it."

He slumped to his knees pathetically.

Mercy stayed silent for a moment then walked toward him and crouched down in front of him.

"What's in yer head, dumbo, no one is gonna beat ya... even though ya need a serious wake-up slap."

She put her hand on his cheek and gently raised his head.

"Hope, why are you always so fire with Dora? You said you were pals, but no one can believe that."

Hope looked at her and from his point of view, the girl and everything in his sight moved frantically.

Tears fell, and the boy took away Mercy's hand to not show her his face.

"Hope, if I was a stranger I would say that Dora is a menace but... Can we be honest? You do know that you're the one who keeps bothering him."

"Why..."

"Hm?"

He looked at her again, crying profusely.

"Why can't you talk about anything but him? Why? Why always something about him? I'm in pain... I'm in so much pain! Why don't you beat me instead of talking about him ?"

He lowered his head again and began to cry.

He felt like the lowest life form, there was no way he could be more crushed than that.

It was then that Mercy's warm embrace brought him back to life.

"Listen, I'm sorry. I understand a little more what's bugging ya... Hope, you're jealous of Dora, aren't cha?"

He looked at her again, her words pierced him like a dagger, but when he looked back, the girl showed not pity or anger, but something filled with warmth and compassion.

"Do you want to talk about it? You're my knight so I should listen to your troubles and help ya."

She smiled at him, hammering the last nail into his coffin.

He held her hands tightly and cried like a child.

"It's unfair... It's so unfair... I've done everything, I've trained, I've studied, I've tried again and again... I've been nice to everyone world... I did my best, I really did!... But people never remember my name... To them, I'm just Elizabeth's brother... They don't know anything about me, they never care about me... I don't want to be selfish... I just want... to be myself..."

His head fell to her belly.

"I wanted... to be chosen... when this Rift opened in my village... I trained a lot, I'm Elizabeth's brother... they knew it... I wanted to be... be asked to save everyone... be asked to join Leon... when the Rift was announced, I went to the public market to train... I wanted them to realize that I could save them, that I was there... but without me knowing it, it was already over... Dora and Leon did it and became famous."

Mercy patted his back, keeping Hope from hitting the ground by letting his head rest on her lap.

"They created Shining Sword... I wanted to join them so bad... I thought if I kept training they would notice me... I wanted to be the one to carry them... I could do it... but they never called me... So I started to challenge Dora... Because everyone, EVERYONE... everyone knew him...everyone was talking about him... always Dora, always, ALWAYS! I was only Elizabeth's brother but he was already the talk of the village."

He started renewing his composition.

"Dora has always been so lucky... he was a leader of the only party in the village, he was liked and popular, he was strong, very strong!... he had experience in Rifts... when I could only study them on books... he had the most beautiful girls around him, the most beautiful girlfriend... but he never cared... He could have the best life, but he didn't care... because he is used to that..."

"Hope..."

"I was so angry when he let them kick him out... haha... I was angry, yeah... because I imagined myself in his place... I imagined me as the one being kicked... I envied his situation, I wished I was the only one to see Marie's kindness..."

He wiped away his tears and sat up on his knees.

"When we joined the academy, I thought things would be different... I was introduced to the dean... Personally... I met the most beautiful girl I've ever seen, and she wanted me to join her council... and she was so strong... every student knew who I was, a beautiful nurse was interested in me... everything was perfect... but Barron took the merits... he got a historical performance, he got Iris... I was so jealous..."

"But then, why did ya reject Dora? I know you were harsh to him there, right?"

"...I don't know! I was angry... He never cared about anything, he could have been the one with a historical performance, with Iris as mentor, with Freya or the princess as noble... I got enrolled in the academy because I am Elizabeth's brother, he got recruited because he is strong, Do you understand how painful it is? But he chose to ridicule himself just to be... free?! Come in my life, I'll show you freedom... I understood that my fight wasn't his, so I wanted him as far as possible of my story... I just had to train, everything was close enough."

His hands started to shake.

"But he never disappeared... the council noticed him again and talked about him, over and over, I met Freya first, I was nice and polite, but she ignored me... later she said that she wanted to use her veto to get him... why always him?... and I... He chose a nobody again... and I... I had to tell you that I am Elizabeth's brother for you to pick me..."

Mercy frowned lightly but kept patting Hope's hands.

"I wanted to impress you, to impress Freya, to become her friend... I trained a lot, but Barron always defeated me... when we went to the Rift, I wished to be the superhero who would put a masterclass... but Dora did it again... and you slapped me... and you were so nice to him..."

"Hope..."

"Now even the Princess is clinging to him... and I know you will too... the dean, Iris, and my own sister... all of them joined him... I haven't seen her for months... but apparently Dora is so important that she must come without even calling me... and I know you will too, won't you? He said that you were loyal-" 𝑓𝑟𝘦𝘦𝓌𝘦𝑏𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸ℴ𝘮

"Hope!"

He raised his head, started by Mercy whose gaze had darkened.

"Hope, I wanna help ya, but you're doing a bad thing now."

"Bad? It's bad? What is bad? Saying the obvious is bad? You're going to join him, aren't you? You're like everyone else, like Iris, like Freya, like the Princess, you don't care about what people do, you only care about the power... You always seemed unreachable, you never showed emotion, but the way you're looking at him..."

"Hope."

He flinched, realizing that he had gone too far, and hesitantly looked at her.

"See? This is exactly what I hate about you."