Chapter 227 - Looking Down

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 

While most others were focusing on the upcoming race, and Sam was already set to go, observing her sister fondly, an enraged screech attracted Emilia's attention. She turned around to look at what was going on, only to see a somewhat familiar figure in a helmet arguing with a dark haired woman. 'Hm? Have I seen her before? Do you recognize her, Cynthia?'

Cynthia snorted. "Of course, it's the helmet woman. Who else could it be?"

Emilia blinked. 'Who?'

The emerald eyed girl groaned. "Seriously, Emilia… you can just ask. I can't see through objects either."

Emilia chuckled. 'Right. Grumpy as always.'

Cynthia could only pout and ignore her partner. Who's grumpy? Definitely not her. If Emilia treated her half as well as she did the others, she would definitely be super nice!

With the race about to start, the non-participants of course backed off away from the track under the directions of the security personnel, including the dark haired woman.

The layout of the Bucherer's was actually quite strange to Emilia, with there being no security fence or anything to protect the spectators from any accidents, just in case. Of course, given that the race would only start and end here, perhaps that wasn't so necessary. At least, there hadn't been such an accident so far, from what she'd heard.

Aside from the wide band of asphalt, the spectator platform was slightly elevated, though it definitely wasn't for the purpose of allowing them a better viewing angle.

Emilia watched curiously as the previously dark screens lit up one by one, each showing the various participants, and two large ones displaying the scoreboards.

She smiled upon seeing her sister's name being marked as 'Queen Sam', though there were plenty of other curious names on the board, including a particular 'McQueen', which she thought wasn't in good taste considering it was similar to her sister's title. Couldn't she have picked something different?

With her betting ticket in hand, Emilia waved cheerfully in Samantha's direction as the announcer started shouting for them to get ready.

"Ready? Set—"

A bang echoed through the area, and the participants shot off immediately. It didn't take them long to disappear from the sights of the audience, and Emilia's eyes soon turned to the screens, along with everyone else.

Unlike the regular racing tracks, which were generally circular and contained inside stadiums to allow for easy viewing using the naked eye, the Bucherer's used a series of cameras spread throughout the track on the mountain, alongside an army of drones, to provide the audience with multiple viewpoints.

Some cameras focused on particular seeded riders, while the others covered the overall situation.

Emilia jumped in excitement as she watched her sister pull ahead of the other riders, though most of the audience seemed quite calm in comparison.

Feeling her shoulder being touched, the redhead turned around with a frown.

There had been no lack of people devouring her with their eyes in this place, but knowing her identity, none had dared to actually approach her without any excuse.

Even if she seemed to be without a bodyguard, they knew they couldn't handle the fallout if they pissed her off. 

Allison chuckled when she faced the glare of the redhead. "Chill, little girl, I just thought you looked lonely all by yourself, so I came to keep you company. Oh, and this will also keep away some pervs while we watch your sister lose."

Of course, her real reason was to check out the student that had managed to drive her friend up the wall like that, and also have some fun while at it, but saying that to the girl's face wouldn't be a very good idea.

Emilia resisted the urge to roll her eyes as she shook off the woman's hand. Had anyone bothered her yet aside from her? But recognizing that she was the same one she had seen chatting with the screeching biker, she couldn't help but be a little curious. "I can handle perverts by myself, and it looks like your friend is going to be destroyed by my big sis today, along with everyone else. Who did you say was going to lose?"

Allison grinned, and much to Emilia's annoyance, a few others around her also started laughing, as if making fun of her ignorance. "The little girl is both cute and adorable, but your cheering might be quite fruitless today. Little Sam may be using a good bike, but it's not her usual, and I can tell she's not as used to it just by looking."

The dark haired woman pointed her chin at one of the displays, where an extremely focused Macmillan could been tailing right behind Sam alongside Theo. "You may not know since you never came here before, but Sam always wins when she's not in the lead at first, not the other way around. You better get your lip balm ready for a smooch when my friend takes off her helmet, because she's not called McQueen for nothing. I'll warn you, the kiss will be quite rough, so don't go crying."

Obviously, Allison just wanted to make the situation more fun by creating this misunderstanding. Just thinking about the expression of her friend when her student looked at her like a beast made her giddy. As for her friend not winning, well, could she even afford to lose?

A heavily tattooed shirtless man in a leather jacket chuckled. "Never thought Allison would be so supportive of someone. Aren't you just bullying the little girl?"

The dark haired woman grinned. "So what if I am?"

Emilia rolled her eyes as she pointed at the scoreboard. "Say what you will, but my big sis is winning, and that's all that matters. Hmph."

Even the tattooed man shook his head helplessly. "Well, hate to admit it, but Allison wasn't actually making it up, little girl. The track loops through the nearby hill and winds back to Bucherer's, so the starting and finishing spot are the same, the lead at the start doesn't matter. The trickiest part of the race is managing the speed through the twists and turns."

She hadn't been very interested in the audience before, but seeing how everyone seemed to agree with the man's words, Emilia couldn't help but furrow her brows. "You're all betting against my sister?"

Allison laughed, while the tattooed man shook his head with a chuckle. "Well, the odds aren't in her favor."

Although many others looked away awkwardly, it was clear that they really weren't hopeful of Samantha's win.

'Are these guys stupid? I've checked before, Sam wins here quite often, and I don't think the track changes, right?'

Cynthia chuckled. "Just standard cannon fodder mentality. They're here to get their faces slapped."

'Really? They're all stupid?'

The emerald eyed girl chuckled. "No, actually, they're all just making fun of you, I think. Who knows where they really placed their bets? Not everyone's waving their tickets around like you."

Emilia snorted. 'Whatever. Sam better win now, or I'm gonna be really annoyed.'

Allison grinned. "Anyway, the two of you are sisters, yeah?"

Of course, she had already heard all she needed to know about these girls from her friend, but she couldn't really mention that, could she?

Emilia nodded before giving her a curious look. "By the way, you seem oddly supportive of your friend, given that you seemed to be arguing before."

Allison's eyes went wide. "Eh? I'm flattered that a beauty was paying me such attention!"

Emilia rolled her eyes in annoyance. "I'm a beauty now, not little girl?"

The dark haired woman grinned. "Just kidding, heh. Anyway, not all good friends are all lovey-dovey. With how mush-mush you had been with your sister, you probably wouldn't understand. We may call each other names all the time, but yeah. My McQueen will kick your sister's ass."

Emilia snorted. "Hmph. Bark while you can."

Suddenly, the atmosphere turned a little heated, and the previously leisurely appearance of the audience turned to excitement.

Looking at the screen, Sam was still ahead of her competition, though a sharp turn was approaching, and the others weren't too far behind.

Allison chuckled as Emilia dodged her palm when she tried to pat her back. "So shy? Anyway, here comes the first turn. Watch your sister lose to my McQueen carefully, little girl!"

Emilia humphed and refused to respond to the woman's goading, whatever her reasoning may be to taunt her like this, she was going to regret it later.

The people here hadn't been wrong to think that ten million was really just throwaway money for her, and that Emilia didn't particularly care about the odds of winning.

Emilia thought that if her big sister won, it called for a celebration, and if she lost, she would have to console her properly. Either way was fine with her.

But that was before. Now that these idiots dared to look down on her, how could she stomach her loss?

Of course, it wouldn't be wise to hastily come up with any tricks at this point, so the fate of the race lay squarely with Samantha's skill.

'C'mon, big sis, you can do it!'

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━