บท 263: Another Rival Appears

"You're… Ash, right?"

Sidelined. I was nothing to him but just the drapings that hung on the stage, the rickety floorboards that he pressed his feet against… an ornament piece that was obviously there but never needing any more than acknowledging that it was indeed there and then nothing more. 

But I guess it was fair… you put Ash and I on a pedestal in front of an eagle-eyed audience, I guarantee you I could replace myself with a cardboard cutout and no one would have even noticed. Beside Ash, I was practically invisible.

And Leon was no exception to that irrefutable truth of the universe, those wide blue eyes of his stared one-way and one-way only, reflecting back a hint of shimmering emerald greens.

"Yes, that is I indeed," Ash slowly, warily affirmed, keeping close beside me. "To what exactly do I owe this sudden… interaction?"