The Arena (Part 3)

The demon race was a race of entertainment.

Confronted with anything fun, they would either butt in or dive in and do it themselves. A boring life was utterly intolerable to them, and for that reason, their history was littered with every variety of mischief.

Fortunately, as the ages passed and a proper culture of leisure developed, such incidents grew rarer — though only by a little. Looked at historically, you could say the vast majority of entertainment-related scandals were the work of demons.

Which is precisely why their culture came to prize patience and self-restraint as virtues. That was how inseparable entertainment was to the demon race — truly a trait that defined them as a people.

"No way! This is rigged! It's rigged, I tell you!"

And Princess Keirin of Mephisto was no exception. If anything, being a princess, she was a textbook case of someone who had plunged headlong into it. Nothing in the world thrilled quite like the entertainment indulged in secret.

Her support for Chae-yu was genuine, yes — but at its root, it was entertainment that had started it all.

"Why on earth did it lose? Did Grylls rig this?"

Eyes flashing, Keirin pressed her face right up against the Gallery. She was practically nose-to-screen with the floating window — proof of just how absorbed she was.

THWACK! THUD! THUD!

The Gallery was playing a certain video. Two kangaroos traded crisp, efficient boxing, until Kangaroo No. 2 landed a counterpunch that spun its opponent's head clean around. No. 1 crumpled to the floor and didn't stir for a long while. Knocked out cold.

"...It did deserve to lose."

Having replayed the footage, Keirin muttered quietly to herself. With evidence that damning laid out in full view, she had nothing to say. If Grylls had closed the match without posting the video, all hell would have broken loose — but with proof this ironclad, not a soul could object.

With the match over, beggars had appeared in droves. Keirin was one of them.

The points she'd staked — her Ladder Points — meant next to nothing to Keirin. It wasn't as though she'd sunk real cash into the Gallery in the first place. By that logic, Ladder Points could be dismissed as nothing at all.

'...And yet it still infuriates me...'

But they were also everything. If the sum had been small, whatever — the trouble was the sum itself was enormous. Keirin had been active on the Gallery for quite a long stretch, and she'd banked a hefty hoard ever since Ladder Points first went live. Shoving more than half of it into a single bet was enough to bring tears to her eyes.

'Phew. Well, it was my first match. It'll be fine.'

She composed herself and checked the Gallery. The ruined souls who'd flushed their points down the drain were everywhere.

An eyesore of a fixed-nick if ever there was one — KingLeor had apparently cleaned up.

Keirin's wave of despair lasted only a moment before she steadied her heart. The kangaroo arena wasn't finished yet.

As one commenter had said, the lack of live streaming was a genuine shame. If broadcasting had been possible, a monstrous crowd would have flooded in. But whether it was a limitation of the Gallery itself or something the Juddak had deliberately withheld, no such feature existed.

'Well, Grylls knows a thing or two, at least.'

Whether he'd realized the same or not, Grylls had tweaked the format after a single match. Instead of closing the match the instant it ended, he posted the footage and shut ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠it down five minutes later. Spoilers? Just don't read the comments and you're fine.

Keirin smiled — briefly — then turned her mind to where to bet this time. Kangaroo No. 1 was somewhat the larger of the two, but No. 2 was no pushover either.

'The big one lost last time because it got careless... so this round, the big one.'

Who knew what circuit her reasoning had traveled, but Keirin settled on Kangaroo No. 1. She'd watched it lose from pure carelessness last time, so surely this round would be different. What she was forgetting, however, was that these were not people. They were animals.

Even humans can hardly hold their temper when enraged — how much worse for a beast?

"No?! No?! Wh-what are you doing?! What the hell are you DOING, you bastard?!"

Right up until the very end, Kangaroo No. 1 had held the advantage, and Keirin had all but tasted victory watching it. That is, until, without the slightest warning, No. 1 launched a dropkick at a kangaroo sitting in the stands.

"You maniac! Your opponent isn't the audience! What is wrong with you?!"

In the end, No. 1 brawled with the spectator kangaroo until it was dragged out of the ring. To any observer it was a flawless disqualification loss — an event absurd enough to make Keirin swoon outright.

It was an incident still retold as a legend of the sporting world — that's how notorious it had become. In any case, Keirin had lost her points yet again. She had even topped up her balance with recovery in mind, and it had all evaporated in one go.

'...So this is why gambling is terrifying.'

Lost money? Then just put in more until you break even! Which was, in effect, pouring water into a leaking jar. Considered from that angle, Keirin was a blessed woman. Ladder Points were pure Gallery currency, unobtainable even with cash. Had she been betting real money, she might well have ended a full-blown gambling addict.

By the looks of it, KingLeor had lost his points too. Keirin snorted, then flopped back onto her bed.

Losing the first time was one thing, but getting shafted in the second round brought a creeping sense of helplessness. She resolved never to go anywhere near it again. That was her decision.

'...Just one more match. Only one.'

For roughly five seconds.

Still lying on the bed, she checked the next match. This time, for sure, she would win it all back. Her luck had simply been rotten so far, that was all.

An exhibition match had been staged during the break. Keirin set her disappointment aside for the moment and focused on it instead.

Wonmo was the Gallery's most beloved animal — a creature who could justly be called the Gallery's mascot, its Gallery Lord. That little one, fighting? No user alive could possibly look away. Keirin too, praying for Wonmo's victory, waited for the result.

And so the exhibition match ended in Wonmo's defeat. A little disappointing.

Keirin left a message of encouragement in the comments, then retreated back a page. According to Grylls, it was break time and the kangaroos were dispersing. So she resolved to give up, clean and simple.

'My points...'

Giving up aside, the points were still precious beyond bearing.

Keirin sighed and idly browsed the Gallery. Her duties as a princess had all been completed ages ago; nowadays nobody would breathe a word of complaint even if she lazed about all day.

'Come to think of it, Crown Prince Arnold is ascending to Emperor, huh...'

The recent succession ceremony of the Messiah Empire had set the whole Gallery abuzz. As the Princess of Mephisto, this was not something she could lightly ignore. True, the distance between Mephisto and the Messiah Empire was considerable — but that was no license to disregard it.

'This is what the Gallery is for.'

News that a foreign ruler was changing hands was a matter of supreme importance. Under ordinary circumstances, it would have taken a long stretch of time before she could merely glimpse the omens. But thanks to the Gallery, the intelligence arrived in real time. The succession itself had been rushed, no less — which meant she could respond with agile diplomacy. Invaluable.

'The problem is, we have no idea what the elves are up to...'

The elves were quite active on the Gallery as well, and among them were fixed-nicks who cultivated rather unique personas. Their common denominator was that every last one of them was a few cards short of a full deck. Where demons played around with a brainless "uhuhu" cheerfulness, the elves were characterized by collective madness.

'Their silence is exactly what makes them suspicious.'

With the elves' movements unclear, Keirin had been ramping up espionage as well — yet with no meaningful intelligence coming back, the situation was all the more unsettling. She combed the Gallery for anything worth using.

Not much of a haul. It was mostly mindless praise, end of story. Keirin clicked her tongue and scrolled to the next page.

The page filled with kangaroo arena content. Apparently the break was over and the arena was back in session. A smile spread wide across her face as she opened Grylls's post.

Keirin placed her bet immediately, driven by the singular conviction that this time she would win. But within five minutes, conviction had curdled into despair. Watching the kangaroo she'd backed get pummeled into the dirt, she murmured:

"Nope. I'm done with this sh—"

It was the moment a brand-new entertainment culture was born on the Gallery.

"...One more match."

Addiction came thrown in as a bonus.

And just as Keirin, like every other ruined soul present, was about to pour her points into the next match —

Clearly displeased by the overheated gambling den, the Juddak had moved to shut it down.

'I haven't even broken even yet!'

Keirin jolted upright and scrambled to plead her case with the Juddak. The den could not be allowed to close — not until she'd recovered her losses. Fortunately, the Juddak seemed willing to concede that the matches were, at bottom, fair, and listened her out.

And so the Juddak clamped a cap on the betting. Keirin thought back over the points she had lost.

'Painful, but... whatever.'

As long as the entertainment itself survived, that was surely enough.

Grateful, Keirin settled in to watch the next match.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

"WHAT?! Why are you doing this AGAIN?!"

And she was annihilated like a dog.

Staring blankly at her point balance — a crisp, clean zero — Keirin finally wrote a comment.

"Yay! Thank you so much!"

Keirin praised Grylls from the very bottom of her heart.

Meanwhile, Grylls — who had been watching every bit of this unfold — mused aloud:

"They're going to throw it all in anyway, so whatever... I'm the only one who profits. So THAT'S why they say the casino owner always wins, huh?"

He could understand, deeply and completely, the heart of a casino owner.