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Though Tōji should have felt a weight lifted off his shoulders, he was actually feeling quite down.

Was it because he'd never encountered such a situation in either of his two lives, and couldn't understand someone else's "willing sacrifice"?

『Seems like I can never be the protagonist in any world. A small fry with no stature is only fit to quietly scrape by, I suppose…』

Lost in thought, Tōji returned to his spot in the stands.

He had no idea how much of the tournament had already passed.

But he knew the later matches wouldn't be as interesting. The only matches worth watching were the early ones, when the slightly stronger examinees challenged opponents they felt confident against.

Just then, Akamon Manabu and Natchi were taking the stage…

That quicklime guy from the previous round was no match for Natchi.

After that, only Suzume and Tsubaki were left.

Deciding the remaining matches weren't worth watching, Tōji figured there was no point in keeping up his disguise anymore. He walked toward the contestants' waiting room.

He didn't want to tell Natchi about Kenji's decision, but he felt he should fill Neru in—since she already knew part of it anyway.

Taking advantage of Natchi being in the middle of his match, Tōji walked into the waiting room without caring who was watching.

"Hey, everyone." Tōji greeted them as if nothing had happened.

"Tōji? You're okay!" Kotetsu came over. The others also turned to look at him.

"I'm fine. First time brewing poison—got a little impatient, hahaha." Tōji gave an awkward laugh.

"Tōji…" Neru started to say something but stopped.

Tōji nodded to Izumo and Iwashi as a greeting, then quietly said to Neru, "Let's step outside."

"Mm." Neru stared at him intently, replying in a voice only he could hear.

While the others were focused on the match, Tōji and Neru slipped out of the waiting room without drawing attention…

Only two people noticed them.

Tsubaki wanted to say something but was too timid to speak up—since Tōji had forfeited this round, she, as the last contestant, was left without anyone to challenge.

Mizuki also watched them leave the waiting room from the shadows. The fact that they didn't even care about watching their teammate Natchi's match—and the suspicious timing of Tōji's sudden withdrawal and equally sudden reappearance—made the scheming Mizuki suspect something was off.

But neither Tsubaki nor Mizuki made any move.

Tōji led Neru back to the same spot where he'd spoken with Kenji earlier…

"Kenji found me just now. I came clean with him." Tōji got straight to the point without preamble.

"And he believed your nonsense?" Neru seemed surprised, though her expression barely changed.

"Didn't you?" Tōji wanted to roll his eyes at her. "He probably won't tell anyone—but he's still determined to go through with the mission. He just won't take me, you, or Natchi…"

"Shouldn't you be happy about that? You dodged what you called a major disaster." Neru studied his face, as if waiting to read his reaction.

"Do you think people like you and me will end up like the captain someday?" For some reason, Tōji felt that these were words he could only say to someone like Neru—and it didn't feel awkward at all.

"From the way you are right now, I wouldn't rule it out. But I probably won't." Neru's forced casualness was obvious to Tōji. "To be honest with you—I've already mastered the 【Healing Palms Technique】, so I probably won't run into situations like this anymore."

"…" Tōji hadn't expected her to have picked it up faster than him. No wonder she was so confident about getting into the medical corps.

"Your 'intuition'—it's more than just intuition, isn't it?" Neru finally asked the question she really wanted to ask.

"You're guessing that just because I told the captain?" Tōji didn't give a direct answer.

But even that was enough for Neru to read between the lines.