? No matter the time, you’ll be welcomed with open arms.”
“T-thanks for the offer but…”
“It’s fine. There’s no rush.”
Knowing that the A-ranks aren’t filled with people like Hekaton and are all disagreeable gives me some peace of mind. There are some nice ones as well.
“Keh, it’s a Guild that just throws away men…”
“Haa!? Did you say something?”
A man with long bangs covering one eye was standing in the room. He had a mysterious air about him and was stroking his sword’s scabbard. He has an air of self-importance.
“I know about it. You only let women who’ve been traumatized during a journey or from some other source in the past join your Guild. It’s a gathering of losers.”
“Do you want to start something before the tournament?”
Amane had a gentle face up until that moment, but now she looks like a different person, filled with hatred. Her blood vessels popped out and her body swelled, it makes you wonder if Amane is actually a woman? Though what did that guy mean by trauma? Is he talking about being betrayed by your party?
“You’re Kweed, right? Looking down on me just because I’m a woman…I’m still an A-rank you know? You’ll experience a lot of pain if you keep this up.”
“Now that I think about it, I did something similar in the past. A woman with no knowledge about the world approached me to form a party, and in the end I unintentionally did her. I wonder how things turned out for her afterwards….gehehehehehehahahahaha!”
Amane looked like she was ready to pounce on Kweed due to that provocation, but Nikka came between the two of them to interrupt.
“If you cause trouble in the waiting room you’ll be disqualified, you know that right? Settle your argument in the ring, ok?”
Nikka winked as Amane and Kweed calmed down. Amane was still very agitated and was glaring at Kweed. As if making a fool of her, Kweed laughed and returned to his seat, stroking his scabbard. Amane slowly sat down with a scary expression on her face. Kweed said they were losers, but if you get up after being defeated, you’re not a loser. Even I have lost many times. If you make fun of someone just because they’ve lost once, I’ll be the one to beat you down.
“Uffufufufu, just a bit more…just wait a little longer and you can suck some blood ok?”
Kweed kept stroking his scabbard while murmuring. It’s really creepy so I stopped looking at him.
“Yaa, yaa, I’m sorry for being so late! I even set my alarm for an hour early…”
A person wearing what looked like a crown and a gorgeous robe entered the room. Just before entering, that person had rolled up their hair into an odd hairstyle. I really wanted to put something like a pencil in it.
“So, it’s …I heard you were a specialist in Star magic, perhaps having a one-on-one duel with you would be a good idea.”
Hekaton suddenly declared that in a sarcastic tone. I was trying to think about how was going to respond, but all that came out was laughter as Hekaton’s sarcasm was ignored.
“You may be right about that! However, a person truly shines after putting in great effort! Just like the stars!”
I only saw the ceiling above us, not any stars. was pointing a finger to the sky, seemingly satisfied.
“Sc.u.m.”
Hekaton swung his body as he stood up and faced the match grounds. At that moment, some soldiers came.
“The Opening Ceremony will be starting now! Each of you, please follow me!”
Opening Ceremony? I wonder what that is? Are we not fighting? Tifelia has yet to appear, but we still headed off towards the grounds to start the ceremony.
The match fields from the preliminary round weren’t here anymore, instead there was a large platform in the middle of the coliseum. It was circular and surrounded by spectators. I wonder where Roel is? During the preliminaries I was able to see her seat near F block, but this time there are way too many people to pick her out of a crowd. It was really hot with the sun beating down on us and the numerous people in the coliseum.
“With this, we will now start the Opening Ceremony! First, the partic.i.p.ants!”
We had been on standby at the entrance, and we filed into the coliseum one by one. The fanfare was totally different from the preliminaries, the spectators raised quite the din.
“Well then, I will be the official for this tournament! You may call me Kathia! Now onto the partic.i.p.ants! The representative from A block; crushing his opponents dreams and hopes with his mighty hammer: Hekaton!”
Hekaton raised one hand, as if responding to the shouts from the spectators.
“Why is a murderer partic.i.p.ating again! This tournament is ridiculous!”
“DIE!”
There were some curses mixed into the cheers and shouts from the audience. I recall Ritta talking about how Hekaton killed someone in last year’s tournament and got disqualified…was it on purpose?
“E~h? Well, moving onto B block! Surprisingly a C-rank, a junior crushing her seniors! Even veteran A-rank adventurers are downed with just her fist! The One-Punch Girl, Ryua!”
I feel really uneasy for some reason… Some people were in high spirits from that introduction. But, One-Punch Girl? I didn’t use my sword, but still…
“AHAHAHAHAHA! O-One-Punch Girl she says!”
“D-don’t laugh! I-isn’t it cool!?”
I heard Cynthia laughing and Roel following up on her from somewhere. I hung my head in shame during my introduction, I can’t show my embara.s.sed face to all these people.
“From C block, defeating veterans as fast at the stars twinkle! A-rank Nikka!”
“I’ve been expecting this~!”
There was a fair amount of cheering, but Nikka seemed depressed while being introduced. I didn’t think he was so weak-minded.
“ is a heroine that needs no introduction! Reigning at the top of 100 empires! From D block, inflicting fear deep inside of all men she encounters! A-rank AMANEEEEEEE!”
“Amane-san~! Don’t lose to a man!”
“You amateurs don’t understand Amane-chan’s cuteness!”
“Being scorned by Amane-chan, glared at by her sharp eyes, and best of all when she spits at us and yelling *sc.u.m!* while we breathe heavily!”
She’s pretty popular with women and men, but did I hear some weird comments mixed into those cheers? Regardless, Amane waved her hand to everyone in the audience. She has a big heart, it seems.
“We have one more dark horse from E block! The nihilistic B-rank, Kweed!”
“I’m expecting something from you! I just became your fan!”
“That’s somewhat disgusting~”
You can hear some jeering yet reasonable responses. I wonder if he’s still as confident as he was earlier?
“From far away in F block, a star has come around, floating with a royal appearance and a glittering crown! One of the few Star magic users, Rupeeee!”
“There sure a lot of glittering stars today! There and over here as well!”
“KYA~! Please face here, our prince~!”
“Tsk, die!”
Rupee seems to be quite popular with the ladies. Prince you say? He raised his hands while spinning slowly, responding to his supporters. When I thought he was done, a glittering light came out from his hand and flew towards the spectator seats.
“For the happiness I feel today, this is a present. Tomorrow’s happiness will be grasping your hands as if I was holding the stars themselves.”
“Ah~ I can’t take this anymore~”
It looks like people started to faint from being too happy? This is bad. I can’t figure out what he said…I need to study more, it seems.
“And now, from G block is!…eh, what?”
Right, Tifelia still isn’t here. The soldiers that were looking forward to seeing her seemed perplexed.
“I apologize, I slept in late…*sigh*”
Tifelia trotted into the coliseum in a daze, bread hanging from her mouth. It seems…this is how Tifelia does things.
“E-eh! From G block, Avangard Kingdom’s prided and strongest knight! You all know her t.i.tle, ! The sole reason our finances are unbalanced, Tifelia-chan!”
“She’s here!!! Please give me that bread~!”
“Even though I’m a woman, I’d be okay with Tifelia holding me!”
The cheers seem quite…different than what came out earlier. The air and ground vibrated from the sheer noise the crowd emitted. For the entire venue to cheer for one girl like this…
“Keh, the trash is too noisy.”
Hekaton seems to hate seeing this, he’s spitting out some curses. It seems he’s on edge waiting for the fight to start. That’s the vibe I get from him, anyways.
“Lastly, from H block! ….eh? Mysterious Man, Inoro!”
The venue suddenly fell silent. I hadn’t even noticed him in the waiting room. Inoro’s entire face was covered by a black cloth that coiled around his face, his body was covered by a black robe, everything he had on was black. It was really bizarre. n.o.body cheered for him.
“Was there someone like that in the preliminaries?”
“Yeah, but he’s pretty ordinary. He only used normal magic and showed no special traits…”
“Now that the introductions are finished, our Majesty has some words for us! Please be silent!”
Will the King finally show himself? There were two soldiers standing in a spot higher than the spectator seats, as well as an old man with a strict face I had never seen before. An extravagant chair was in the middle of that section, but n.o.body was seated on it. After a brief moment, an old man in one of the seats up there moved forward. He had light brown hair tidily lying on his back. A crown sat upon his head, just like with Rupee. He also had a thick robe on. The old man slowly sat down in the fancy chair. The venue was dead silent. Was there anything interesting to even talk about at a time like this?
“It’s been about 400 years since Avangard was founded. Every year we’ve held an exhibition like today’s tournament. It goes without saying that the goal of this tournament is to cultivate the future for any possible warriors, and to be chosen to bear this country’s hope. Unlike other countries, Avangard does not have many specialties. We mostly rely on imports for products. What we excel at is . Right now, in this era of adventurers, there can be no mistake in the results of cultivating strong warriors. We encourage everyone here to constantly improve and cultivate their abilities. To the eight of you before me, I am proud of you. Adventurers like yourselves are the true pride of Avangard, and I expect great things from you. Your struggle to get here was surely difficult…”
I feel sleepy…I did wake up pretty early after all. How long will he drone on for? I want to start already.
———The King’s speech ended up putting me to sleep.
“I wonder what kind of place ‘outside’ is?”
I’ve always thought about what exists outside the village. I talked to Kurinka about it pretty frequently. She would just obediently listen to me. I really love her…
“If Ryua-chan is going to become an adventurer, I wonder what I will become?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Well, some adventurer cla.s.ses use swords and others magic.”
“Hee~ I wonder which I’ll choose.”
“Ryua-chan looks like she would be bad with magic.”
Kurinka was giggling while she said that. Would it be better to use a sword to fight?
——burning houses. Father and mother crouching, holding their heads. It looked like it really hurt. Both of them were shouting as I ran. They thrust me away when I reached them. “Run away! Run away!”, they kept repeating that to me. Why?
I escaped outside only to see monsters destroying the village. Kurinka. Where is Kurinka? Even though we promised to play outside. I can’t find her anywhere…
I saw something in the distance. That guy was standing amongst the burning flames. That black demon. That one-winged black demon.
He slowly walked towards me. That guy, that’s right…that guy—
“Get away from it!”
Someone shouted.
I ran away.
I turned back to see the Demon pierce that person.
I ran into the deep forest without stopping.
Suddenly a monster attacked.
Just before its claws tore me up—
“…was there. That is the history of our country.”
“guu…suu…”
I was shaken by someone and woke up. It seems I ended up falling asleep. Amane was sitting next to me and awkwardly pointed towards the King. He was looking at me.
“I-I’m really sorry.”
I bowed my head earnestly, though that didn’t need to be said. The King let out a little sigh and continued talking.
“…that’s all! Ladies and gentlemen, I pray you good luck! Now, I declare that the 402th Avangard Tougi Taikai has officially begun!”
The audience got fired up as the King finished. It looks like things are finally starting.
I noticed the King was still looking at me, saying nothing. I just let out and awkward laugh to avoid trouble.
“Fu~…”
The King sighed again. This type of person…I’m bad at dealing with them. “Today, let’s show the King my fights,” I decided.