Chapter 168 – Day 3 of the Tournament

Third person POV

  Later, at 9:03 p.m., while the others are sleeping, Robert, Harold, and Marionette are awake in their futons, looking at the dark ceiling. The reason why is that they are anxious about the assassination by tomorrow before noon. Marionette was beside Harold so Harold would sleep peacefully. 

  "Big sis, I wonder if I could live by noon tomorrow," Harold said to Marionette, acting like a child. 

Robert overheard this, and turns to his right. 

  "It's okay, we can do this together," Marionette reassured in response as she strokes Harold's forehead as if she was his mother. 

Their mother passed away when they were young. 

  "How can we be sure?" Harold asked. 

As their low-voice, calm conversation went on and on, Robert looked back at the ceiling and thought, "I'll do anything for him. What a selfish father he has." 

At that point, he was determined to thwart Arnold's assassination of Harold. 

  The next morning, after their morning training, breakfast, and preparation, Robert and his group headed to the plaza arena for their fights in the tournament. Upon arriving there, Marionette, Blaise, and Sol split up and went to the audience, but in the lower seats so they would make the operation easier. Meanwhile, the city guards, especially the highly-skilled ones, are now stationed at the most critical parts of the building. Medics are now on standby. 

Then, Robert and his friends proceeded to the back rooms. 

  Arriving there, however, Sora was there, and he greeted nicely, "Hello, Robert-kun." Upon seeing him, Robert and his friends are very surprised that he became nice all of a sudden. 

  "Oh, um, hi, Sora-san," Robert greeted back. 

Then, Sora felt guilty of his actions towards them, and he replied, "Look, um, I'm sorry for insulting you and being all that prideful to you guys. I should've considered and think about your feelings first before I would say something." 

He then bowed his head deeply. "I'm sorry!" 

Understanding his apologizing attitude, Robert's group couldn't say anything, so Robert said to him, "It's okay, we truly understand. Just forget about it." 

Following what Robert said to Sora, William responded, "Yeah, that's fine." 

  "It's okay," Peter added. 

  "Yeah, whatever," Emma added. 

Realizing that he has been forgiven, Sora get up from bowing. "Thanks, you guys. I'll do my best and don't care if I win or not, as long as I actually enjoyed it." 

Robert then laughed. "That's the spirit, Sora-san." 

  After that, a few minutes before their first match began, Sora asked them about the assassination of Harold. 

  "Oh, yeah, that's true," Harold replied back. "I'm the target." 

  "That's okay, I'll do anything for you," Sora responded back. "I'm on it." 

  "Are you sure?" Emma asked. 

  "Yes, and I'm strong and just use Powerup to fend those pesky Akuma ninjas," Sora replied while being determined with confidence. 

  "Okay, sure," Robert agreed with him. 

Meanwhile, Lain purposely sat in the same row of seats as Sol, Blaise, and Marionette.