Trapped as an NPC in a Dating Sim-Chapter 52: Both Aria and Sylvia are Oblivious!

"Where is that Soren? After accepting the challenge, he himself is this late?"

Sylvia pouted in anger, scanning the area but seeing no sign of him.

They were at the same training ground where they had entered the F-rank dungeon before. The only difference was that today the place was far busier than it had been the day before yesterday.

After all, today, four teams would compete against each other to see who could clear the E-rank dungeons the fastest.

Of course, they had come to watch, even though they couldn’t enter. Not just them, but several professors were already here as well, their eyes scanning the teams set to compete.

The twin siblings, Morgan and Darius, were already ready with their own team of five members, carefully balanced across classes. As heirs of powerful families, they naturally served as the captains.

Judging by their expressions, they seemed utterly confident, showing no fear of the E-rank dungeon that had nearly taken their lives just the day before yesterday.

In truth, the main reason they were competing today was to regain the prestige they had lost that day.

Soren’s team, in comparison, was merely a fuse.

"I don’t know. I heard he left the academy this morning to do some work."

Evan scratched his head and replied, feeling a little hurt that Sylvia was paying so much attention to Soren.

Still, after a few moments, he was slowly getting the hang of it. But he couldn’t help feeling a bit sad.

"Tch... he still has the guts to go play around after leaving us in this mess."

Sylvia didn’t notice his emotions at all and was rather busy cursing Soren. Maybe this was just her way of letting off steam.

After a while, she grew bored and turned to Aria, looking at her with a hint of curiosity.

"Hey, Aria, that hairpin on your head, it’s an artifact, right? It’s so beautiful. Where did you get it?"

She asked suddenly, startling Aria a little.

"Eh? Oh, this..."

Only then did Aria realize what Sylvia was asking about. It was none other than the Sylvanleaf Hairpin that Soren gave her as a gift.

For a moment, she felt awkward, especially with Sylvia asking.

If Sylvia knew she got it from Soren, would she kill both him and her together?

"Umm... I-I bought it from the treasury."

In the end, she could not tell the truth. She was not as brave as Soren.

The closest she had come to real bravery was allowing Soren to play with her thighs in class yesterday. Even that, she regretted later, blaming her impulsiveness.

She gave him an advantage for nothing.

"Wow... it is really beautiful. You must have thought a lot before buying it, right? It suits you so well."

But looking into Sylvia’s shining eyes, filled with a bit of jealousy, Aria realized that maybe Soren deserved that much of an advantage from her after all.

"Y-Yeah...thank you."

Aria felt a bit shy about her words and tried to change the topic away from her.

"W-what about you, Sylvia? That bracelet of yours is an artifact too, right? It is also quite beautiful."

One thing that separated men from women was that women were inherently very attentive.

Especially, they noticed other girls, what they were wearing, how their hair was done, what kind of accessories they had, even the smallest details. Nothing escaped their notice.

So, of course, Aria noticed the bracelet on Sylvia’s hand.

"Oh... this...?"

Sylvia was a little surprised, but she quickly came to her senses, smiling cutely and playing with her fingers.

"You are right. This is also an artifact I got from the treasury."

She wanted to say that Soren had given it to her, but she was too shy to reveal that.

After that, she started talking about random things to distract Aria, and Aria didn’t want to talk about her hairpin either.

In an instant, the two became as close as best friends, chatting and laughing together, unaware that both of them got the gift from the same guy.

Only Evan and Aurelia were left standing alone, looking awkward.

While Evan tried hard to hide his jealousy as he watched Sylvia bubbling with energy, Aurelia, on the other hand...

’A hairpin and bracelet... do they really make someone more beautiful?’

....busy thinking about it idly, noticing that they did seem to make both girls stand out more.

Maybe she should buy something like that, too.

"Hey, guys. You are here?"

Just at that time, a soft male voice entered their ears, distracting all and causing them to turn around.

"Haha... I am not too late, am I?"

The person in front was none other than Soren, smiling widely while getting closer. His tall, masculine figure carried a bit of charm, distinctly different from before.

All the team members instinctively felt that something had changed within him, but they couldn’t pinpoint what it was. For a moment, everyone looked at him in silence.

"Look...seems I am just in time. Professor Ruther Kane is already starting."

Only when Soren pointed ahead did they come back to their senses and turn around, only to see the professor floating above the crowd.

"Dear students. You might already know me. I am your Professor Ruther Kane."

The professor spoke, silencing everyone in the crowd and continuing only when he saw that everyone was paying attention,

"As you all know, our mischievous new students have concocted a rather amusing challenge today."

"Well, as a professor, I don’t really care about such things. But someone requested that I hold this competition to make it fair and square, and I cannot deny it, you see."

Ruther spoke lightly while scanning the crowd below.

"So, let me briefly explain the rules of this competition. Due to the request of the students, the academy has given the right to conquer four E-rank dungeons in this competition."

"Don’t worry, someone has already paid for them, and the academy isn’t being partial here."

Ruther first clarified and then waved his hand, pointing at the four portals visible within the training ground.

"Those E-rank dungeons are behind these portals. However, I must warn you, these portals aren’t fixed, meaning which one leads to which dungeon, even I don’t know."

Ruther explained, basically suggesting that the competition was fair.

"But whatever dungeon you get, if you want to win this challenge, you have to complete it the fastest. There is no other way around it."

"As for the danger, you can leave the dungeon anytime you want, just like before. However, leaving will disqualify your team."

"Still, I don’t suggest leaving too early. Even if you feel you are going to lose, I suggest you take your time to compete. After all, you won’t get to freely enter an E-rank dungeon and keep all the loot for yourself every time."

Ruther gave a meaningful smile.

Basically, he was telling them to take advantage. In his opinion, the biggest reward for this competition had already been given to the four teams.

Of course, only if they managed to conquer it.

"Right, you still have to do this until the evening, as your right to challenge is only valid for today."

He added,

"Oh, there is also a reward for the winner of this competition. A D-rank clearance token from Darius Blackthorne. So, do your best."

Ruther was too lazy to say anything more than necessary. He directly pointed at the portals and said,

"Okay, now you guys can enter. Choose one portal you want. No need to fight, as it doesn’t matter." 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

Although he said so, Soren didn’t believe him. In the first place, this guy was an early villain in the game, much like Darius.

If he really thought there was fairness here, he would be an idiot.

But Soren didn’t care about that and instead smiled at his team, signaling toward the closest portal after seeing all three other teams choose their own.

"Then, shall we leave too?"

He asked, and all three of them nodded solemnly, except Sylvia, who seemed a bit anxious as soon as she saw the portal.

"Umm... S-Soren... y-you enter the portal first this time."

She couldn’t help but ask shyly. She didn’t forget the two times Soren took advantage while she was teleporting.

How could she dare enter the portal before him?

Fortunately, her shyness was misunderstood by Aurelia and Evan as fear. After all, entering the portal first carried its own risks.

"Okay then. Let’s go. I’ll enter first since I have the highest agility in the team. Evan can come right behind me, followed by the rest of you."

Since they had already decided that Soren would be the captain this time, he gave the order without waiting and moved forward.

His eyes faintly scanned the figure of Darius, who had already disappeared into the portal ahead.

’Tch... tch... no matter what you did, that token is as good as mine now.’

He thought, his confidence countless times higher than yesterday.