(160) Martial arts compet.i.tion for Haru and the others 3
Translator: Tseirp
“I heard that you guys were attacked by somebody and suffered severe injuries but — ”
In a room of a certain inn in the Cat Sith village.
When she went to that room after hearing that Jofre and Elize had suffered serious injuries, Haurvatat instead saw Jofre and Elize chatting and an angry Mikke.
“It’s not a joke nya! I requested for your help because I heard you guys were strong but you guys won’t do with that ability nya! Stella, is this your doing nya?”
“I didn’t do anything nya!”
Stella strongly denied Mikke’s doubtful gaze as he was close to bursting out in anger.
“What’s going on in the first place? From what I can see, your legs are injured though.”
Jofre and Elize. The both of them had bandages wrapped around their legs.
Even if they drank potions, it would be easy to tell if they were injured. Drinking potions will encourage recovery but for cases like broken bones, it would take at least a few days for it to fully mend.
If it is to be healed immediately, then it would require the Healing Magic of a Pract.i.tioner but the number of Pract.i.tioners is extremely small and among the Cat Siths, there are even fewer individuals who have been promoted to that job. Apparently, there is only one — the attendant of the attendant of the current first prince, Mikke and Stella’s brother.
To become an Apprentice Pract.i.tioner, one must raise his Commoner level. Defeating monsters or paying taxes is required to gain Commoner experience points. However, in the Cat Sith village, the concept of taxes doesn’t exist in the first place and there are few workers too so the number of Cat Siths playing around as Commoners is extremely small.
“We were pinned under the table you know. Hah, I’m beat. The table was surprisingly heavy. It will take me 3 days to completely recover from the bone fracture.”
“I was seriously shocked you know. So shocked that even my hiccups stopped. For me, 2 days to fully recover.”
The two of them explained with a tone as though there wasn’t any problem with it.
Haurvatat was just a little curious. The tables in the Cat Sith village were made of wood. She wondered if getting pinned under a wooden table would cause such a serious injury.
“Why did the table break? You mentioned that they were attacked so were cuts made onto the table to make it break?”
“No, that’s not it. We were given a sumptuous meal from the people supporting the tournament. Then, just as we were about to dig in, Centaur entered from outside — ”
“And jumped onto the table. Centaur’s heavy so the table legs broke.”
“And that’s how the bones in our legs broke as well.” (TL: Lol those rare medals really gave Centaur the pounds.)
Haurvatat had nothing to say towards Jofre’s lame joke. Stella sighed and,
“It clearly has nothing to do with us nya. More importantly, did you request Maru-oniichan to treat them nya?”
“I did nya. But he told me that Potch has to administer Healing Magic for the tournament tomorrow and the day after tomorrow so he must rest nya … haa, so I have to compete with three people right off the bat … it’s already impossible nya.”
Mikke entered a solemn mood on his own.
“But that is not the only problem nya. After investigating, it was found that within the food that was prepared for the two of them — there was a couple of hundred times of a lethal dose of poison, enough to kill even a dragon, inside their food nya. We checked the Cat Siths who carried the food over and it seemed like they had been placed under hypnotic magic nya. It was clearly an attempted murder nya. If the criminal is part of Stella side’s partic.i.p.ants, you will be disqualified for that reason nya!”
He gave a daring smile.
“We won’t do such a thing nya!”
Stella bellowed in anger but Haurvatat was startled.
“Then, Centaur-san who ate that food — !”
In that circ.u.mstance, that was the first time Haurvatat raised her voice. Even if it was a donkey, Haurvatat thought of it as a companion who challenged a labyrinth together with them once.
“Ah, that donkey —”
Mikke gave a deep sigh as if he was fatigued to the depth of his soul.
That figure made them imagine the worst scenario.
Then, Mikke spoke with heavy words.
“After eating the majority of the food, he is still eating the gra.s.s at the back of the inn nya. I really want to cut open and examine just what kind of stomach it really has nya.”
He said and laughed. His laughter had already turned into despondent laughter.
(Perhaps Centaur-san came rushing to aid Jofre-san and Elize-san when they were in a pinch … nah, he probably only wanted to eat the food.)
Haurvatat speculated but probably only Centaur knew the truth.
Then, Haurvatat said.
“We will definitely not attempt to poison the two of them. They are our acquaintances after all.”
“Fumu. Moreover, our master would not wish for something like that.”
Marina commented after she had worn her mask without any of them noticing.
The master Marina referred to was not Stella but Ichinojo.
“Furthermore, we have no reason to harm the two of them. Seeing that is the case, the criminal is another set of partic.i.p.ants. Can it be that Maru-san?”
Haurvatat asked.
“”Maru-oniichan will nyot do something like that nya!””
Stella and Mikke said in sync.
※※※
Meanwhile.
Norn and Kanon who had entered the Cat Sith village had come to the planned construction site for the arena.
Even though it was called an arena, they apparently only plan to create audience seats in the wide desert and they won’t even make a stage.
Currently, the Cat Siths were proceeding with the construction at a quick pace.
“Are you sure you don’t want to go? You know Jofre and Elize right? I don’t really want to meet the two of them since they bought my fake weapons. Nihihi.”
“I also don’t have any good memories of them so —”
Norn explained evasively. She didn’t go visit the two of them not because she didn’t want to meet Jofre and Elize. It was because she was uneasy leaving Kanon on her own.
In Norn’s heart, she felt that Kanon has some kind of a secret.
On the other hand, Kanon knew that even though Norn has not seen through her true ident.i.ty, she knew that Norn has a vague intuition that she is not an ordinary person but she was enjoying it.
Even though Malina had traveled with her for years, she had totally not noticed her true ident.i.ty.
“Hn? That Cat Sith. He’s together with humans. Is he that Prince Maru?”
What Norn saw was a Cat Sith together with 3 humans.
Kanon looked at them and her eyes met the eyes of one of the men. A man with a fearless smile.
Kanon froze.
“Kanon-san, what’s wrong?”
Kanon didn’t answer even though Norn asked.
That was because, along with that Cat Sith possible to be Prince Maru, one of the human —
No, he is not human.
“Why … is he here?”
The person there was the Third General of the Demon Lord’s army, the vampire Valf.