by Aneko Yusagi
Well, I guess the nice thing about Raphtalia’s skills is that they didn’t appear so blatantly unusual, like my attacks did. Of course, they had skill-like elements to them, too, but at first sight, it just looked like she had swung her blade around really fast. I’m sure people would realize you were a hero immediately if you started making shields appear in mid-air. Or maybe they would think it was magic? Hmm . . . I still wasn’t sure where that line was drawn.
Both the spectators and the announcer were speechless.
“We . . . we have a winner! Rock Valley’s Paaarrrtttyyyyyyyy!”
The announcer screamed out, and after a brief delay, the spectators burst into cheers. We had finished the fight so quickly that they didn’t seem to know how to react.
“As expected, I still can’t fight at my normal level. I had to use a skill just to be able to defeat an opponent like that in one blow.”
“Yeah.”
“Jingle-jaaaangleee!”
Filo picked up her beloved morning star and came back over to us. I gave a perfunctory wave as we headed back to the waiting room.
“I wanted to avoid standing out, but it looks like that’s going to be difficult.”
“Yes. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t worry about it. You only did what I told you to do.”
We would just have to accept it. Perhaps it was being careless, but I didn’t want to force her to hold back, either.
“You want to go back to the village, Filo?”
“Yup! By the way, where is Rishia?”
“I’ve got her gathering info about the coliseum.”
Rishia was with Raph-chan gathering information on the more powerful teams. I wasn’t sure how much she’d actually be able to figure out, but she was knowledgeable about all kinds of things. I figured it might prove to be helpful one way or another.
“Bye-bye! I’ll be good, so don’t worry about meeee!”
That morning star was quickly becoming her new favorite toy, and lately she had been swinging it around everywhere she went . . . What part of that was being good? I was pretty sure good little girls didn’t go around creating pillars of fire. That was literally playing with fire and just asking for something bad to happen.
“Yeah, yeah. Don’t play with that thing too much.”
“Okaaay!”
I used my portal to send Filo back to the village. She disappeared instantaneously, right before my eyes.
“Okay, Raphtalia. I’m counting on you again, tonight.”
“Understood. The time to be depressed has come, once again.”
“Yeah.”
We didn’t have the money, so we couldn’t buy the remaining Lurolona slaves. It was painful just watching them being bought off, but if we didn’t keep an eye on who they were being bought by, then we wouldn’t be able to purchase them when we finally did have the money.
“But it’s not like there’s no point. Just keep at it.”
“I know. Alright, then you keep at it, too, Mr. Naofumi.”
“Will do!”
I was going to go watch the remaining coliseum matches, like Rishia had been doing. I’m sure if Raph-chan had been in the audience rooting for me, it would’ve made me happy.
Chapter Fifteen: Surprise Attacks and Conspiracies
It’s not like I was planning on making a habit of it or anything, but I headed back to the tavern where I’d met the drunkard woman. Things were relatively lively there, but the matches were still going on, so the customers seemed to be mostly paying attention to the coliseum. Judging from the atmosphere, mercenaries and other participants with upcoming matches had gotten together there and were exchanging information.
“Oh?”
I grabbed a random seat and ordered a drink, and the same drunkard woman from before cheerfully made her way over to where I’d sat down. Damn! I’d been seen!
“You seem to be advancing in the tournament quite nicely. I saw your matches, you know.”
“You figured out it was me, huh?”
I’d gone to the trouble of wearing an iron mask so that no one would recognize me. But she had obviously figured it out.
“I could tell by your build and how you move.”
That made me think . . . When someone puts on a mask or something like that in an anime or manga, suddenly even their own family doesn’t recognize them. They’d probably be made in an instant in real life. I guess you could say the fact that they didn’t notice meant they must not have been very close. Had my plan been pointless?
“By the way, I never introduced myself, now did I? I’m Nadia.”
“. . .”
If I told her my real name, it might give my identity away. What should I do? Whatever. I would just use my ring name.
“I’m Rock.”
“That’s right, isn’t it, little Rock? Tell me, little Rock, have you gotten used to things at the tournament?”
“We haven’t been struggling as much as I thought we would.”
Fighting without revealing how powerful we really were was surprisingly difficult. In the end, we’d pretty much, halfway, given ourselves away. Itsuki liked to do things that way, apparently, but I just didn’t get it. We were only concealing our strength because it would cause problems for us if people found out. If there was no need to stay hidden, I’d happily send Filo on a rampage without hesitation.
“Everyone is paying attention to you, you know? You did finish those griffins off really quickly, after all.”
“So that was a standout fight card, after all . . .”
Nadia gave an affirmative response in her usual overly familiar style and then ordered a ridiculous number of drinks, just like last time, before continuing the conversation. Just how much did this woman love her alcohol, anyway?!
“Aahhh!”
Several mercenaries began to approach us, but the drunkard woman, a.k.a. Nadia, waved them away with a casual flick of her hand. She’d said that our fight had gotten us some attention, so maybe they just wanted to ask me some questions.
“Well then, little Rock . . . How about I give you part two of things to watch out for at the tournament, then?”
“Huh?”
You mean there was more?
“Well, it’s really more common sense—it’s not so much a problem that you’ll encounter at every tournament, but it’s something that participants should always be on the lookout for.”
“Oh, I see.”
“It’s an especially prevalent problem for the official coliseums, and you can even get disqualified for it in some cases, you know.”
“Spit it out already, why don’t you?”
Nadia responded by pouring a drink in a stein and passing it over to me. So she wanted me to drink it? Fine . . . whatever. I chugged whatever it was that she had filled the stein with. It was some kind of fruit wine. It even still had some of the fruit left in it. It had infused well, giving the wine a really fruity flavor. I had a feeling I’d drank something like it before.
“Aahh . . . So? Tell me already.”
I placed the empty stein back on the table.
“Hmm . . . Well . . .”
She had really played it up, whatever it was, but she didn’t seem like she was going to talk any time soon.
“Little Rock, you really hold your liquor well, don’t you?”
“It’s the same as water to me. I’ve never been drunk in my life.”
This Nadia woman’s eyes grew wide. She seemed genuinely surprised. What was that reaction supposed to mean?
“Well, then . . . I guess I should tell you, shouldn’t I? But it’ll be easier just to show you, so how about we get out of here and enjoy a little stroll in the night air.”
“What about the matches?”
“The next few matches are all teams that won’t be advancing much further in the tournament. I already checked them out yesterday, so don’t worry about them.”
Hmm . . . Nadia’s intuition had been right about who would win the other night
. She might have been right about these, too. Plus, those mercenaries from earlier seemed strangely interested in us and kept glancing over in our direction. I had to admit, it was getting on my nerves. It probably wasn’t a bad idea to just leave the information gathering to the inconspicuous Rishia and head back early, myself. I didn’t think my identity had been revealed, but still . . .
Nadia stood up and I followed her out, leaving the coliseum behind.
The nighttime streets of Zeltoble were brimming with activity—the phrase “a city that never sleeps” fit perfectly. There seemed to be quite a few shops catering to debauchery lining the streets, as well. Judging from the shop signs there were places for humans, demi-humans, and other races, too. Taverns were all over the place, and you could hear the uproar of voices coming from within. That said, Nadia said she wanted to enjoy the night breeze and headed down a small back alley that ran alongside an irrigation canal.
Zeltoble was situated alongside a waterway that led to the ocean, so it was possible to travel there by boat. Perhaps that was why the smell of the night air reminded me of the sea. The intricate canals running alongside the back alleys made it feel kind of like you were in Venice. It actually seemed like a pretty nice area for a leisurely stroll.
“Now then, little Rock, continuing our earlier conversation . . .”
“Yeah?”
“It may be that it happens relatively more often when people start paying attention to you, but regardless of that . . . did you not notice a certain phenomenon occurring, starting around the first round?”
“Huh?”
I tried to recall the first-round standings that Rishia had compiled for us. I hadn’t really paid much attention, since I was only interested in our own results, but had there been anything odd about them?
Hmm . . . Now that I thought about it, our match had been moved up ahead of schedule. It did make me wonder why the previous match could have ended so quickly. They had been making more adjustments to the schedule just earlier, too. I thought about how all of that matched up with today’s standings.
“The number of wins by default is peculiarly high.”
I guess there would be fighters that signed up to participate and then just didn’t show up for the tournament, right? Or maybe it was because no one worried about staying on schedule? That would suck if you ended up being the one affected by it. I mean, come on . . . Just how poor was their time management?
I considered several of the more peaceful possibilities, but the answer had already appeared in the back of my mind.
“Exactly. You know why that is?”
“. . .”
Her suggestive phrasing sent beads of cold sweat running down my back. At that very moment, I heard the sound of a weapon being drawn, and a group of aggressive-looking men appeared in the alley and surrounded us. Damn . . . Had I fallen for a trap?
Under the circumstances, I had to consider myself on my own. Could I get away if I just defended against their attacks and ran to a crowded area? But wait! Surely I could drive them back if I used a shield with a counterattack, right?
This woman! To think she set me up! Just who the hell does she think she—
“Oh? You boys think this is all it will take to stop a girl like me, do you?”
“Can it, woman! You two are sitting ducks out here, and roast duck just happens to be our favorite! How could we pass up an opportunity like this?”
This guy acting like the boss of the belligerent bunch . . . Yeah, he’d been at the tavern. I guessed they were mercenaries. They looked like they had been in a few fights before.
“Nadia! And you, too, Rock Valley! Do us a favor and . . . die!”
The boss shouted out his rallying cry and the surrounding men all lunged at us. I held my shield out to defend against their attacks, but . . .
“Now, now . . . I’ve got nothing against children being a bit feisty, but you boys are just plain naughty, aren’t you?”
Nadia spoke quietly as she took the harpoon from her back and began to cast a spell.
“As the source of your power, I command you! Let the true way be revealed once more! Lightning! Strike down and penetrate those before me!”
“All Drifa Chain Lightning!”
Several blindingly bright bolts of highly condensed lightning shot from the tip of Nadia’s harpoon, piercing right through the group of belligerents!
“Gahhhhhh!”
“Arrrghhh!”
She was fast! She moved like she had been in quite a few battles. And the flashes of crackling lightning moved as if they had a mind of their own, jumping from one belligerent to another and striking the whole bunch down.
“This piddling bunch is all that came? That’s no fun, now is it?”
The men stood there twitching with their heads thrown backward for several long moments. Finally, they fell to the ground, their eyes rolled back. The way they looked . . . I’d seen this before! That monster that they had been serving up at the coliseum back when I first met Nadia had the very same look!
“I’m not . . . finished!”
“Oh?”
One of the men that hadn’t been wounded as badly as the others stood up and rushed at Nadia. Was I being completely ignored? Well, I had no obligation to help Nadia, and as far as I could tell from the way she moved, it didn’t look like she needed my help, either. Nadia quickly spun her harpoon around and thrust it hard at the man’s chest while taking a firm step forward.
“Gah!”
It connected with a loud thud and the man went flying, disappearing into the darkness of the alley. Shortly afterward, the sound of his body smashing into a wall echoed out . . . followed by silence.
“I guess that’s it, isn’t it?”
As if to signify an easy victory, Nadia twirled her harpoon around before returning it to its place on her back.
“I guess that explains it, wouldn’t you say?”
“Pretty much.”
The reason for the wins by default was fighters were ambushing their opponents. The opponents would be rendered unable to fight . . . Some of them would probably end up incapacitated or even dead. There were probably cases of it backfiring on the attackers, but that meant that ambushes like this were common. There was a lot of money at stake in this tournament, not to mention the whole thing was shady to begin with, after all.
Ah, so that was why you could place early bets on who would advance in the tournament—there would be cases when participants were eliminated without even making it to their matches. Did people actually trust the tournament betting system? I was surprised anyone would be brave enough to place a bet at this competition.
“Your approach to the matches isn’t bad, little Rock, but making a display of strength that convinces opponents to just give up, because they can’t win, is another possibility, you know.”
“You mean, because otherwise, I’ll have to deal with pests like this coming after me?”
“Well, it’s not like eeeeeveryone will give up, since there is money involved, you know.”
But this woman . . . she was unexpectedly formidable. I guess she wasn’t just a drunkard, after all.
“They fight dirty and they’ll use every trick in the book, so watch your back. Hanging around spacing out in a place like that tavern is just asking for trouble. Even if it’s a girl like me giving you trouble.”
“Putting it like that must mean that you’re willing to fight dirty, too, if it means winning.”
“That’s right. I already made one attempt on your life, you know.”
What? What had she done? Had she used her magic to try to shock me along with those other guys? That’s too bad, because hitting me with a stray bullet wasn’t going to make me flinch. Or maybe she had poisoned my drink? I had a skill that detected poisons, though, so there’s no way I wouldn’t have noticed. Realistically speaking, with all of the skills I had from my shield, it would be near impossible to assassinate me. And yet here she was saying she had done something t
o me.
I was puzzling over the issue when Nadia suddenly took my hand and placed it on her chest for some reason. She was rather well endowed. She probably had Raphtalia beat, by the looks of it. Now that I thought about it, this might have been the first time I’d touched a female’s chest.
“Boobies!” she suddenly exclaimed.
Was this woman some kind of half-wit? I was just starting to enjoy the moment and she had to go and ruin it. I jerked my hand away from her.
“Oh . . . ?”
“So what? What did you do to me?”
“Oh, that . . . Let me make up for it by confessing my love for you!”
“Stop screwing around or I’m leaving.”
“You’re too serious, little Rock!”
The drunkard woman cackled cheerfully when she responded. I wished she would stop playing games and just answer already . . .
“I mixed rucolu fruit into your drink, earlier.”
“Ohhh . . . that was it? Is that all?”
“It’s used to assassinate people, you know? Especially at taverns . . .”
Well, I guess it was supposed to be something you diluted with water before drinking. For various reasons, people had begun offering it to me at villages I visited while peddling, almost like a proof of identity. I see . . . So the shield wouldn’t react if it was something that I wouldn’t consider a poison.
But seriously, I hadn’t even considered that rucolu fruit might be used that way. The thing seemed like it would actually be great for assassinations—arsenic wouldn’t even compare. My body apparently didn’t react adversely to it, but still . . .
Nadia quickly wrapped her arms around me and kissed me lightly on the cheek.
“What do you think you’re doing?!”
Was she trying to come on to me? Give me a break! Nadia began walking away slowly. After she had taken several steps, she stopped and looked back over her shoulder at me. She grinned when she spoke, but I wasn’t sure if the look in her eyes was cheerful, worried, or excited for what was to come.
“I really hope that we don’t meet in the coliseum, if at all possible.”
