Zenno Rob Roy's Unreasonable Request

Kitasan Black was even more confused. She even turned around to look at the empty track behind her. "A phantom? Senior, there's—there's no phantom in front of me?"

She thought Zenno Rob Roy meant it literally, that she had inadvertently blocked something.

Zenno Rob Roy turned to look at Kitasan Black, then smiled with a complicated look in her eyes. "Ah, sorry. I was talking to myself. I meant—me and Noble Elegance. And the phantom I faced—I think you can guess it. It was The Matriarch."

Kitasan Black froze.

Zenno Rob Roy's "phantom" back then had been The Matriarch. She had heard about that. Then Noble Elegance's "phantom"—

Her heartbeat quickened slightly.

—Was it me?

The moonlight seemed to grow colder, and the laughter from the distant courtyard became muffled, as though separated by a layer of water.

Zenno Rob Roy's expression became incomparably serious. Beneath her usual composure was even a trace of something that could be called earnestness.

"Little Kita, I want to ask something of you." Looking into Kitasan Black's eyes, she spoke each word distinctly. "Something—

Something very selfish, and perhaps ill-timed."

The confusion in Kitasan Black's heart had yet to fade. She did not understand why Senior Zenno Rob Roy had suddenly wanted to run with her, or why she was suddenly making a request.

But she said nothing, merely gazing back at her quietly.

"I don't know how best to put it." Zenno Rob Roy's voice lowered, carrying a heavy echo. "But I have experienced firsthand what it feels like to always come in second. It absolutely doesn't feel good. It's like always being one breath short, like never being able to touch the ceiling. But—"

She drew a deep breath, and her tone suddenly grew heavier. "I know there is another feeling, one