Even though my feet were slowly moving backwards towards the edge of the arena, my eyes remained fixed on Tanya’s, and my eyelids wouldn’t close.

I gave orders to my legs, but they no longer obeyed me. This skill, Puppeteer Eye, was truly a frightening power. No matter how hard I tried, my legs followed Tanya’s will.

"Just a little more, Diane," Tanya said, a certain pleasure evident in her voice. "Just a little more and you’ll become my pet."

Unfortunately, she was right. At that pace, I would lose by stepping out of the ring, and from my position, I felt there wasn’t much distance left.

A few steps later, my feet were one step away from leaving the arena. That was when Tanya’s will made me stop.

"Before I win this fight, how about a word from the other competitor, Richard?" Tanya said, not taking her eyes off me but speaking loudly enough for Rick to hear.

She was convinced she would beat me, and she was enjoying every second of that spectacle.

I couldn’t see him, but I could hear the audience. They weren’t cheering for Tanya. Some of them seemed to be trying to avoid her eyes while keeping their eyes on the ring. Others were mocking my Valkyrie Tamer.

"Hey, raise your head," one of the mercenaries said loudly, quickly following my gaze without releasing me from her power.

"That’s right," Tanya agreed with the voice that stood out from the others. "Because this will be the last time you see Diane."

"Right. I’ll raise my head," Rick said calmly. But then his voice became lighter. "To watch you lose."

...

Some time before my fight began, when we were still in the tent, Rick told me about Tanya’s power.

"Puppeteer Eye," I repeated the name of the skill I had just heard about. "So my sister has that kind of skill."

She didn’t have that power when she was a child, so it was something new to me.

"How can I protect myself from that skill?" I asked Rick.

"You can protect yourself from it just by closing your eyes. You won’t be affected by it as long as you two don’t make eye contact, but once you do, your body will be under her control. It’s an excellent surprise weapon, but it’s pretty simple to defend against. You wouldn’t be able to look into her eyes until the end of the fight, though. Can you do that?"

"I don’t see a problem. I think I have very good hearing, so I can fight Tanya even with my eyes closed."

"Do you come from a family of bats or something?" Rick said to me, but his expression changed as if he had just had an idea. "Wait, you can fight with your eyes closed, right? Then I think I have a plan."

"A plan?"

"Yes, a strategy to defeat her. To start, look into her eyes."

"What?" I was dumbfounded. "That would be a guaranteed defeat."

"Not exactly. Her skill has a small flaw, or rather, Tanya herself might be the flaw in that skill."

"Could you stop talking so mysteriously?"

Rick seemed annoyed by my comment, but continued with his explanation. "Then I’ll be direct. Your sister is a sadist."

I frowned when I heard that. Even if it was Rick saying that, I still didn’t like someone talking badly about Tanya. She was still my sister, despite everything she had said to me.

"She likes hearing people suffer and express their helplessness while under the effect of her skill, so she keeps one part of their body working. The mouth. Unfortunately, her arrogance created her own weakness."

...

Tanya’s skill had a flaw, a flaw created by her own arrogance and sadism. Her arrogance came from the fact that she had never lost a fight while using Puppeteer Eye. Remembering Rick’s words, I bit my lip as hard as I could.

Blood dripped from my mouth. It was just as Rick had said. The moment my brain registered the intense pain, the pressure wrapped around my limbs vanished, and I regained control of my body.

I closed my eyes so I wouldn’t fall under her control once again and rushed at her as fast as I could.

"W-What?" Tanya was startled when I grabbed the back of her head with my bare hands and drove my knee into her face.

That was when I heard Tanya’s body fall to the ground. Then silence, until Vulcan’s voice declared the end of the fight.

"And the winner is Diane!" Vulcan declared for everyone to hear.

I opened my eyes and found Tanya lying at my feet. My attack had hit her head-on, and now the girl was unconscious at my feet.

There was no applause from the audience. None of them were cheering for my victory, so it was to be expected. I could only hear murmurs among the surprised faces. I wasn’t trying to be admired by that bunch of mercenaries, so I barely cared. There was only one person in that crowd I cared about.

"Rick," I called his name. "Please help me here."

I carried Tanya out of the arena and asked Vulcan for some time so we could treat her before his fight against Rick.

"All right. Take good care of her," he told me with a brief smile. I found it strange that he wasn’t irritated that I had knocked down his subordinate in the first place, but instead, I headed towards our tent.

Once we were away from the curious gazes of the mercenaries, I laid Tanya down on a mattress that had been prepared beforehand. I cleaned her nose, which was still stained with blood after the knee strike I had given her. Her breathing was normal, so she would be fine.

I asked Rick to apply healing magic to her. The warm green light radiating from his hand shone over my sister’s face.

When he finished, we remained silent. For some reason, Rick kept looking at me as if he wanted to say something.

"Is something wrong, Rick?" I asked him.

"N-No, absolutely nothing is wrong." He was startled, making it very clear that something was bothering him. He scratched the back of his head, a little embarrassed, this time telling me what was on his mind. "I just wanted to know what you think of Tanya."

"What do you mean by that?" I gave him a suspicious look. "You’re not thinking about turning Tanya into a Valkyrie, are you?"

"N-N-No!" Rick said. I think, by reflex, his eyes ran over Tanya’s body. "T-That never crossed my mind!"

I sighed. "Then what is it? Why are you asking me that?"

"It’s just that I found the way you fought her strange," he said to me. "Not that I think you didn’t fight seriously, but you didn’t use Fatal Slash against her. That skill would have increased the damage you caused. At some point, you stopped using your weapons and fought her with your fists, like a pugilist. I think that even though you fought well, you avoided causing serious damage to her."

"As expected, I really can’t hide anything from you, Rick," I said with a sad expression on my face. "I can’t say I held back in that fight, but I also wasn’t willing to kill her. Deep down, I regret it. I regret not going after her that day, not taking her with me."

"Diane."

"I mean, I would have liked her to live in a better place. For her to have lived in a place she could call home." The words simply came out of me naturally.

"Sis..." a female voice said near us. Rick and I were surprised to see her in front of us.

Tanya had her eyes closed, but she could hear our conversation very well.

"T-Tanya." I startled a bit, slightly embarrassed. "How long have you been listening to our conversation?"

"Since you said something about me becoming a Valkyrie, but I didn’t understand what you said," Tanya said in a tired voice. There was no malice in her voice. It was as if I were talking to my little sister.

Rick, who was beside me, stood up. For a moment, I thought he had gotten embarrassed by the conversation about turning Tanya into a Valkyrie, but that wasn’t the case.

"I think you two have a lot to catch up on, so I’ll give you some space."

And with those words, he left the tent. Honestly, I would have preferred it if he had stayed by my side. Even though we were sisters, we had been fighting until just a little while ago in a not-at-all friendly way, so the mood inside the tent was quite awkward.

I was thinking of saying something, but I had no idea how to start a conversation under those circumstances. My thoughts came to a halt when I began to hear Tanya crying.

"Hey, Tanya, are you hurt?"

"*Sniff* I’m sorry, sis," Tanya said to me through her sobs. "I’m sorry, *sniff*!"