I Have Become The Heroes’ Rival

“Who are you to know something like that?”

The sorcerer looked at the world’s best sorcerer and wondered. Due to the magic that altered appearances, he wasn’t fully aware of who his opponent was.

Felix said with a troubled smile, “I’m just a man with a lot of different thoughts.”

The sorcerer was helplessly affected by the magic. I guess it was akin to a monk’s inability to cut their own hair (with scissors)¹.

I heard that unless you became an anti-sorcerer, there was no way to nullify magic unless you offset it with a more powerful force.

They didn’t even know that Felix, the most admired and unrivaled ‘number 1’ wizard, was in front of them. It was like watching a comedy.

I shook my head from side to side.

It was then. I inadvertently turned my eyes away, and for a moment, doubted my eyes.

I found Claudia with an arm outstretched, barely holding onto the railing. It looked dangerous – she looked like she was about to fall into the sea.

‘Oh gosh, what are you doing?!’

Chloe! The moment I opened my mouth to shout, my legs suddenly wobbled.

This time, it wasn’t because I couldn’t keep my balance. The area around me quickly darkened.

I was so dizzy that I couldn’t tell if my body was upside down or if my stomach was overturning.

The last sense that helped me determine that I wasn’t dead yet was my hearing.

There was the sound of a splash, and then my whole body became helplessly heavy.

I felt like I was sinking out of nowhere.

“Ugh…….”

‘Oh, my head hurts.’

I groaned at the terrible headache.

Something hot and solid was constraining me. I felt like I was trapped helplessly in some form of limbo, but I managed to fumble around in front of me.

I thought it was just a sturdy wall, but it didn’t seem to be the case. It was kind of like human flesh…….

My consciousness was already restored. But it took a long time before I realized what I was doing and remembered how the hell I got such a terrible headache.

When I heard about the situation from Anthony, I couldn’t understand it at all, but now that I experienced it myself, I realized that was no way to explain it.

Slowly, like ice melting in the water, I recalled the memories from a little while ago. Oh gosh, Chloe!

As the seawater rushed to my eyes, I furiously tried to force them open and noticed that Felix’s face was right in front of me.

“…….”

To be more precise, rather than his face, it was more like his lips.

My eyes stayed fixed onto the thick coral lips that exhaled a light breath through a slight gap.

He was wet from head to toe. I wondered why it was so wet. It was inevitable because we were hugging each other while we were both soaked.

The idea of feeling rather uncomfortable because of the salt-filled seawater had already flown away somewhere in the distance.

‘Oh, no. This is not the time.’

I stiffened my body until I belatedly thought about getting out of his arms.

But no matter how much I struggled, he didn’t budge. There wasn’t even a single movement.

I grunted for a while as I tried to push his chest away from me, but soon became exhausted and had to give up and catch my breath. It seemed as pointless as trying to push down a wall.

“Felix? Wake up.”

Felix was quite a sensitive and light sleeper, and he would often open his eyes even at the faintest hint of movement. Except when he was sick.

At this point, it was likely to happen, but there was no movement. Did he completely faint?

I looked down at my palms touching his chest. Someone’s words of ‘once you feel it, you’ll always want to become the person’s better half²‘ kept lingering in my head.

‘Oh, Martina. Older sister, why on earth did you say that to me?! You’re making me think weird stuff about an unconscious person!’

As soon as I was conscious of my thoughts, my palms suddenly heated up. Startled, I removed my hands.

While deliberately trying not to touch him as much as possible, I pushed him with my elbow.

Perhaps, heaven was moved by my desperate efforts?

Felix’s long, voluminous eyelashes fluttered like butterfly wings and slowly lifted.

Huuu, I survived.

I smiled broadly with eyes filled with joy and relief. The gaze that looked at me was unfocused but somehow relaxed.

“I’m glad I came to my senses.”

‘Well then, why don’t you let me go now?’

At this moment, I hoped that Felix would quickly get away from me as usual.

“Felix.”

A dreamlike color between the dense eyelashes traced me very delicately and slowly.

Like how I was in a daze for a while after I regained consciousness, he also looked like that.

If that was the case, I had no choice but to wait until his mind cleared up.

I desperately endured his stare that kept making me feel strange. I felt numb at my fingertips and toes to the point where I just wanted to curl up.

“Do you remember what happened earlier?”

“What happened?” He asked in a low, hoarse voice.

As expected, he was still out of his mind.

“You mean what happened last night?”

I asked what happened earlier, but he went too far back.

And yesterday, everyone fell asleep early because it was obvious that they would suffer all the hardships once we started the voyage to the island – what a night.

Felix lifted one of the arms that were hugging me. I could finally get out.

But with his other hand, he held my waist stronger. I was pulled helplessly into the embrace.

Our bodies were so close that I could feel the sound of our hearts rapidly beating together.

He stroked my cheek with his freed hand. It was not a touch that was overly careful and considerate, nor a touch that completely abandoned consideration.

He swept along my cheek and slowly down my jawline, then he continued downwards and gently brushed my neck until he reached my collarbone.

“Fe-Felix?”

Was this the same person who, not long ago, touched me with a face filled with guilt and death?

From his eyes, his breath, his hands, and his heart – I could feel a clear intention. I lost my words at his quick, unstoppable touch. He slowly half-closed his eyes and lowered his head.

A hot breath warmed the nape of my neck. His lips were about to touch.

As soon as his firm hand gently descended onto my shoulder, I closed my eyes and stiffened my body.

It’s not that I hadn’t imagined him touching my body, but wasn’t it too fast and sudden?

‘We haven’t even kissed yet!’

Since it was my first time, I wanted to do it step-by-step!

In this situation, we shouldn’t be doing this in the first place!

Even though I understood the theory, I was afraid of a situation that I had never experienced before. It was so different from what I had vaguely imagined that my body trembled.

Then, the fog finally lifted, and the focus returned to his previously hazy eyes.

“Ah…….”

Ah?

“It’s real.”

“……”

After saying that, Felix released me and raised himself from his seat. I tried so hard to get out of it, but he did it so effortlessly – it got on my nerve.

I couldn’t figure out what the hell happened.

He really must have been out of his mind.

Felix leaned against a stone pillar and touched his forehead. As he lowered his head, his wet, white hair spilled down.

He must be suffering from a massive headache, just like I was.

“Sorry……. I’m sorry.”

Why was he apologizing? Hmm, was he in a position to apologize?

In retrospect, it was wrong to do something like that out of the blue in this situation. If you’re going to do it, you had to wait until things had calm down, then while taking one step after another, and after receiving each other’s consent, in bed…….

No, what was I thinking about?

“I forgive you.”

Honestly, I wasn’t even upset.

But he looked so distressed that I felt compelled to say so. He didn’t seem to be able to forgive himself, so I decided to at least forgive him instead.

‘And I was dubious about it before.’

No matter how inexperienced or ignorant I was in this field, I would have known at some point.

The words of that jerk, Benjamin, weren’t wrong.

I couldn’t believe he could notice it in an instant. At least, as far as reading people’s desires was concerned, no one could match him.

“But why were you holding me?”

Felix then raised his head with a face gripped by agony and guilt.

Up until now, I wished the ground would swallow me up, but now he looked so miserable and pitiful, I wanted to hug him tightly.

“…….I think I held onto you before I passed out because I thought you might get hurt. In fact, I must have done it unconsciously since I don’t know why.”

“Thanks to you, I don’t have a single scratch on my body. Thank you.”

I didn’t mean anything bad, but I stood up and waved my arms around, telling him that he didn’t have to worry anymore.

Felix, who also realized that was not the case, clenched his teeth and woke up from his self-blame.

^{1. There are some guidelines for monks and one of rhythm is that they must not use scissors to cut their hair (unless medically necessary) and must use a razor. (However, some communities don’t allow for the use of razors either).↩}

^{2. The full quote from Martina (ch48) is: “When you fall in love with a fine man, no reason is needed. Once you feel it, you’ll always want to become their better half.”↩}