Chapter 12: Second Round - 2
Chapter 12: Second Round - 2
The day after the second round.
Jiha was in the library, reading.
The Commons' barracks had a few leisure facilities, and the library was one of them.
Summoned Commons automatically acquired the language and script of Warsland, so reading was freely available to them.
But Jiha was alone in the library.
Who would spend today turning pages when they might be dead tomorrow?
"Nothing...."
Even so, Jiha had thrown himself into reading from the moment he was summoned.
Since he lacked combat ability, he figured he should at least gather as much information as possible.
"The Demon God, vampiric Mana—no source mentions them anywhere."
Right now he was digging through books to learn about vampiric Mana.
The effort had yielded nothing.
"Then it must be an ability passed down in secret. And I can't exactly ask other people about it...."
Jiha closed the history book and picked up a different volume.
A work that gave short descriptions of each species. He turned to the entry on succubi.
"Succubi have extremely slow Mana recovery before their Second Awakening, and Second Awakening occurs through contact with a male.... The explanation is way too short."
As Jiha muttered to himself, the library door opened.
He thought it might be the librarian, but the person who came in was a man with the head of a wolf.
The hands and feet visible outside his clothes were covered in fur as well.
A wolf beastman.
It had startled Jiha the first time he saw him, but now he was unfazed.
This man was also a Blue Seal Common—someone dragged here from another world and forced to fight.
The same situation as Jiha.
"You're late, Uben."
"Am I?"
The wolf beastman, Uben, apologized with his eyes and sat down opposite Jiha. He glanced around and gave a bitter smile.
The way a wolf's mouth softened was an odd thing to see.
"The smell of books is strong. Not a place I like."
"I called you here because I have something to say."
Jiha got straight to the point.
"I'm stepping out of the rotation for a while. Because of my injury."
"......."
He meant he would not be participating in the Summoning War against Purple's Commons.
Enril would likely try to send him out again tomorrow.
He couldn't keep being pushed around, so Jiha had started making his own moves.
Uben raised both palms.
"Is the head injury serious?"
Jiha, who had taken a club to the head from the troll Baujing, still had bandages wrapped around his skull.
"Well, they say I need rest for the time being."
"I understand the situation, but why tell me? If you're withdrawing due to injury or illness, isn't that something to discuss with your supervisor?"
"The reason I called you here to talk about this...."
Uben's record was fourteen wins and six losses. At a glance, it looked decent, but it was actually an impossible record.
In a fight between Commons, defeat meant the right of life and death was entirely in the opponent's hands.
Just as Jiha had been able to kill Zrambul, Uben could have been killed the moment he lost—yet he had survived.
An uncannily lucky wolf beastman.
"You've never surrendered either. You lose by a hair, win by a hair, right?"
"That's right."
"And you've been here as long as I have."
Ironically, Jiha was one of the senior Blue Seal Commons.
Even though it had only been three months.
The ones summoned before Jiha, the strong ones, were almost all dead.
Jiha had survived this long because he kept surrendering.
"I know I must look pathetic to you."
"......."
Uben didn't answer, just stared at him steadily.
Jiha, who had clung to life by doing nothing but surrender, commanded no respect among his fellow Commons.
In military terms, a man cut from the lineup? No—just someone not even worth mentioning.
"But I've found a way to win."
"You're talking about Mana."
Uben wore an enigmatic smile.
His face said he genuinely wanted to confirm whether Jiha truly possessed Mana.
Since Commons couldn't spectate other Commons' matches, he had only heard the rumors that Jiha had Mana.
"After Zrambul, you beat Baujing too. A bare-handed human, no less.... If you have Mana, that would make it believable."
"......."
Not one of the Commons summoned to Warsland had ever possessed Mana.
The accepted theory was that only beings without Mana were deliberately selected for summoning.
"May I ask how you acquired it?"
Right now, that was the hottest topic among Blue Seal's Commons, among the people of this city—Waris.
The emergence of a Mana-wielding Common. How had it happened?
Jiha felt the change in the way people around him looked at him too.
"I'm trying to find a way for everyone to win."
"......What do you mean by that?"
Uben's voice dropped at the unexpected turn of the conversation.
Jiha only sent him a meaningful look.
"It's going to take time. And if it works, it'll be good for everyone. If I drop out of the rotation, the others will have to fill the gap—so you smooth things over for me. If I try it myself, it'll just be ugly."
"......."
Uben, who had been studying Jiha quietly, nodded.
"Got it. Is that all I need to do?"
"Yeah."
"Consider it done."
Uben left the library without even a goodbye.
Injured or not, if Jiha stepped out of the rotation, someone else would have to fill that slot.
There was bound to be grumbling.
Jiha intended to manage his reputation among the Commons.
So that when the day came to overturn Warsland, the other Commons would follow.
'That's why I picked Uben for this role—he's a senior, so his voice carries weight. Okram is more reliable, but he's still a newcomer.'
He had secured free time and also prepared for the future.
"One problem solved. Next is the medical certificate...."
Blue Seal's Common barracks.
The infirmary.
Normally, this was where Commons with serious injuries from the Colosseum came to receive healing magic.
Warsland had healers who could treat others using Mana.
"I thought it might be a concussion, but fortunately it doesn't look that way. Still, you should be careful for two or three days, yes?"
The brown-haired woman in a white coat, who had just withdrawn her hands from Jiha's head, spoke.
"If you avoid overexerting yourself and stay quiet, you'll be able to return."
"About that... submit the certificate. Say I need at least two weeks to a month of rest."
"You want to fake an illness?"
The healer Sirel furrowed her brow.
She was an urbane beauty whose bob cut suited her perfectly.
A polished career woman, yet so cheerful and approachable that Jiha never felt any distance with her.
"I am actually in pain. And with a head injury, you have to be careful. It's not that unreasonable a request, is it?"
"Anyway, you're basically asking me to write a false certificate."
Sirel didn't seem too keen on the idea.
He'd figured their rapport was good enough for this, but she was being oddly difficult.
"Jiha? You do realize this request violates professional ethics?"
"......."
Jiha stared at her blankly.
Contrary to her words, Sirel was laughing brightly.
"Well, whatever. It's rare for you to ask me for a favor, so I can write one certificate for you."
A resident of Warsland, someone who could heal others with Mana—her grade was Rare.
But she never pulled rank when dealing with Jiha, a Common.
Sirel had always been thoroughly unpretentious.
"Even if I submit the certificate, you know your supervisor has to give final approval, right? I'm only providing a medical opinion."
"I'll handle that part."
When Jiha nodded, she held out her palm as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
"Money, then."
"......Treatment for Commons is free, isn't it?"
It was a laughable arrangement, but medical treatment for injured Commons was indeed free.
You don't bill someone for patching up a wounded military dog, do you?
But Sirel, sitting with her legs crossed, leaned her upper body forward.
That gave him a clear view of the valley of her breasts inside her shirt.
The angle even offered a glimpse of pink undergarments, and Jiha's gaze naturally lingered on the fair skin.
Breasts that looked like they'd fill a hand with a little to spare, the white skin smooth.
"You finally earned some real money. So obviously you should buy me a meal. When you came in with your arm torn open, with your abdomen split open, I saved your life—were you planning never to buy me so much as one dinner?"
"I've seen everything now. Shaking down a Common?"
Sirel was Rare Grade. Her food, clothing, and shelter would all be far more comfortable than Jiha's.
"You got a big dividend, didn't you? And you expect to get off empty-handed when I'm even writing you a fake certificate?"
Sirel, who had been pressing him, gave a wry smile.
"Still, I guess I'd feel bad squeezing something expensive out of you when you just barely scraped together a win. How about dinner at Yorn and we call it even?"
Yorn was a restaurant and bar not far from the barracks.
The food was decent and the prices weren't high, so it was always crowded.
Jiha had been there once with Okram.
"You're not going to buy a single meal for the woman who healed you every single time you got hurt? That's not good manners in Warsland."
"Fine. Just get the certificate filed."
Jiha pulled his gaze away from Sirel's cleavage and spoke flatly.
When she looked ready to complain, he added one more sentence.
"Once my head is fully healed, I'll buy."
"Good. Don't go back on your word later."
Sirel brightened, humming softly to herself as she quickly wrote out the report.
She looked pleased, but Jiha said nothing about it.
'No harm in doing business with Sirel, the barracks' dedicated healer. If I can freely control the Summoning War schedule just by buying her a drink or two, it's a bargain.'
As he thought, Jiha's eyes lingered on Sirel's side profile.
The line of her waist flowing smoothly down from the swell of her breasts.
Looking at her softly curved hips and pale thighs, blood rushed unbidden to his groin.
Until now, he'd seen her only as a healer, but Sirel was a young woman, a beauty in her early twenties.
A lively personality, unconcerned with rank differences, completely at ease with him....
"......."
As if distracted, Jiha looked at Sirel's nape.
Right now, only he and Sirel were in the infirmary.
"Hm-hmm."
Sirel, unaware of Jiha's gaze, was humming and jotting down the report.
Just as Jiha began to rise from his chair, she lifted her head and set down her pen.
"All done!"
Turning around with a broad smile, she tilted her head quizzically.
"Why are you standing up and looking out the window?"
"Just getting a change of scenery."
"Feeling gloomy because you're hurt? It's not like it's your first injury. Compared to before, a wound like this is nothing."
Sirel spoke as if offering comfort and rose from her seat.
"You seem down, so cheer up. Now that you've got money, get some fresh air and eat something good. If eating alone feels lonely, I'll eat with you."
"Obsessing over food will make you fat."
"You really say every rude thing possible to a woman."
Sirel chided him and turned away.
"I'm going to file this, so stay put."
Sirel walked out of the infirmary with quick steps.
Only after she left did Jiha look back toward the door.
"Need to move deliberately...."
Sirel was favorably disposed toward him, so it was better to leave her be for now.
Jiha had stood up to look at the scenery and calm himself down.
"If I want to build up strength, I'll have to drink blood properly."
After Enril, he'd only managed to sip a little from small animals here and there.
His Mana capacity had barely increased.
"No matter how many small fry you catch, you can't level up."
Jiha composed himself.
Now that the fact he possessed Mana had been made public, Jiha had become a man of interest in the border city of Waris.
Enril would think twice before trying to harm him.
He would exploit that point.
"Should be about time."
Jiha sat on the infirmary bed and waited for the other party to arrive.
To be officially withdrawn from the rotation, he needed the healer's certificate confirming the injury, followed by the supervisor's verification process.
Sirel had produced the certificate for him, and he had already submitted a formal meeting request to Enril beforehand.
She would be paying attention to his movements, so she would come straight over.
"Time to make sure she can't pull any more shit."
He hadn't seen Enril since they'd slept together.
As a Common Grade, Jiha couldn't go seek her out first, and it was obvious Enril was deliberately avoiding him.
She'd forced him into the second round but hadn't even watched the match herself.
"Put on a show here, pretend it's a temporary truce...."
However recklessly Enril acted, she couldn't attack a Common in the healer's infirmary.
Jiha had chosen a safe zone and planned his meeting with Enril accordingly.
Knock-knock.
Jiha frowned at the knock. The idea of Enril knocking felt entirely wrong.
"Is someone inside?"
A soft, demure voice. Not Enril—another woman.
The succubus Yura.
"......."
Why was she here? A coincidence?
Whatever the circumstances, this was an opening.
A Unique Grade was not someone you could easily meet; Yura wasn't even his supervisor.
Forget a private conversation—it was hard enough just to arrange a face-to-face encounter.
But right now, Jiha was alone in the infirmary. A perfect opportunity.
"Come in."
If the dark elf was aiming for his life.
Then he would use this succubus.