The Long Vacation (11)
The black-haired girl flipped the table two more times before she finally seemed satisfied and finished her meal. Just to clarify, it wasn’t the plate—it was the table itself. The laws of physics felt slightly distorted, but when I thought about it, mukbangs from my previous life had been pretty much the same, so I let it slide.
After we left the restaurant, the girl stroked her completely unswollen stomach with a satisfied smile.
“Wow, thanks. I totally forgot I’d left most of the money I had with someone else for a bit.”
“You mean that five hundred gold coins thing?”
The shop owner clearly took it as a joke and brushed it off without any real belief, which made sense. Direct comparisons were tricky, but we were talking about an amount roughly equal to five billion won. Who would believe a young girl was walking around with that kind of fortune?
“Exactly! I went all-in betting on myself winning this tournament. Once it’s over, the payout’s going to be massive, so just wait a little! I’ll pay you back several times what I ate today!”
The girl’s confident declaration was met with a brief silence. To be precise, Fiore and I reacted with an internal ‘Ah…’ while Ligret gave off a distinct ‘Hmm.’
I found myself feeling something strangely complicated. Pity for this clueless young lady, mixed with the creeping suspicion that someone like her might actually be incredibly dangerous.
After all, wasn’t it a classic cliché for protagonists or heroines who seemed recklessly foolish and got treated like idiots by everyone around them to suddenly shatter expectations and bulldoze their way to victory? And on top of that, I had Ligret’s personal guarantee that this girl’s skills were no joke.
At this point, dismissing it as empty boasting would be the real idiot move. The problem was, if that cliché actually played out in reality, it would be extremely inconvenient for me.
What now…?
…….
Fine. Let’s go with this.
Hmm. Too bad. Looks like getting that money back is going to be difficult.
The moment Chrome opened his mouth with an expression of utmost regret, Ligret thought, That swindler is at it again.
At Chrome’s words, the black-haired girl—who they still hadn’t learned the name of—tilted her head in confusion.
“Huh? Why? Do you have somewhere to be? You just need to wait until the tournament ends.”
“No, it’s just… the martial tournament has an insane number of monstrously skilled fighters entering. It’s going to be pretty tough for a delicate girl like you to win.”
The part where he wanted to add That delicate girl could probably take your head off with one flick of her wrist never left his mouth.
Ligret stood ready to step in at any moment in case the girl took it as provocation and went on a rampage, but fortunately—or unfortunately—she didn’t get angry. Instead, she simply let out a small, amused laugh, as if looking at someone who didn’t understand anything.
“You don’t know much, do you? There’s no need to worry. I’m really, really strong, you know?”
Chrome put on a skeptical expression and asked, “Hmm, you don’t really look it. Though with that build, you’d probably have an advantage in speed even if raw power isn’t your thing. Are you the extremely fast type?”
“I don’t know exactly how fast ‘extremely fast’ is, but I’m about this quick!”
The girl’s body seemed to sway and blur for a moment. The next instant, her clothes fluttered as if caught in a gust of wind. She slipped through the crowd of passersby like a flash, touched a distant wall, and returned to her original spot. The whole sequence took roughly one and a half breaths.
“So? What do you think?”
“Uh…”
“Wow. That’s incredible.”
Chrome and Fiore’s answers sounded somewhat dazed. To their eyes, she had probably only appeared as a scattering afterimage. Ligret, who had seen the entire movement clearly, was inwardly impressed. In terms of pure speed, she could keep up, but the girl’s footwork and body control were remarkably unique. She barely moved her feet at all, shifting only her center of gravity. The technique looked less like martial arts and more like some kind of arcane spell.
The girl smiled proudly at Chrome’s seemingly astonished face, but she had celebrated victory too soon.
Chrome continued with an admiring expression. “That really is amazing speed. With that, you might actually have a chance.”
“Right? Right?”
“Ah, but…”
“Hm?”
Chrome’s bright expression suddenly darkened.
“A lot of the contestants wear heavy armor and defend themselves completely. No matter how fast you are, that alone won’t be enough to take them down.”
“You’re worrying about the weirdest things! Ordinary shields are just toys in front of me!”
A steel ball about five centimeters in diameter floated above the girl’s palm. The moment she flicked her finger, the ball shot into the ground and left a hole exactly its own size. It was so deep the bottom wasn’t visible, and its penetrating power was clearly monstrous.
“Th-that’s incredible! Lightning speed and devastating destructive power! But rapid fire must be impossible, right!?”
“I can control about ten at the same time without breaking a sweat!”
“What!?”
After drawing out the girl’s full arsenal with an abundance of dramatic reactions, Chrome finally raised both hands in surrender.
“I’m really sorry for doubting you. As an apology, you don’t have to pay for the meal.”
“Huh? No, you really don’t have to do that.”
“It’s fine. After you showed me all that, it would hurt my conscience too much to take your money.”
Your conscience probably turned to desert sand a long time ago, Ligret thought, but the swindler’s apologetic face showed no cracks.
The girl looked momentarily stunned, then broke into a bright smile.
“You’re such a timid guy! You don’t have to worry about stuff like that.”
“Really? I genuinely felt bad. Normally people hide their techniques and real abilities from others, but I ended up seeing yours by accident. Now I see you’re not only skilled but also incredibly generous.”
“Eh? Uh? …Y-yeah! Anyway, something like that doesn’t really matter!”
Chrome smiled at the girl as he continued.
“Actually, Ligret and I are also participating in the tournament. We already finished the preliminaries—did you happen to watch any of the matches?”
“No, I wasn’t really interested so I didn’t… Huh? Wait?”
The girl looked momentarily confused, but Chrome didn’t give her time to think too deeply and pressed on.
“Well, the preliminaries aren’t that important anyway. Someone with your level of skill and boldness would obviously pass without trouble. Right?”
“Y-yeah, that’s true. Obviously.”
“Let’s both do our best if we meet in the main bracket. Oh, right—we haven’t introduced ourselves. I’m Chrome. This is Ligret. And this is Fiore. What’s your name?”
“I’m Joy.”
“Got it, Joy. I’m looking forward to seeing you shine tomorrow. Even if we face each other in the main tournament, let’s both give it everything we’ve got.”
“Haha, you got it! Leave it to me! See you later!”
After the girl waved and disappeared from sight, Chrome lowered his own waving hand and muttered.
“It was so easy it almost feels awkward.”
Fiore answered with a laugh.
“That whole scene smelled incredibly like a crime scene.”
“Come on, we both smiled, no one got upset, and we even canceled the debt. That’s good enough, isn’t it?”
“I never said it was wrong? Why are you making excuses like that, Brother?”
“……”
The girl who called him “Brother” despite being separated by two degrees of actual blood relation spoke with a bright, cheerful smile. Chrome fell silent, then glanced toward Ligret.
Ligret thought for about two seconds before answering.
“A frog croaking isn’t a sin. It’s just doing what it always does. What’s there to say?”
“Just insult me. Insult me properly.”
The next day, during the preliminaries. The arena’s heat was every bit as intense as the first day—if not hotter thanks to the spreading rumors. They even had to install additional magical broadcasting devices on the outer walls of the coliseum for spectators who couldn’t fit inside.
Amid the crowd arguing and shoving to secure even slightly better seats, Chrome’s group—who had once again reserved seats at five times the normal ticket price—watched the steadily progressing preliminary matches in perfect calm, as if the surrounding chaos had nothing to do with them.
Block 28 concluded!
The contestant advancing to the main tournament is Riven Bane!
Despite the announcer’s declaration of victory, the neatly dressed young nobleman descended from the stage without any particular sign of emotion, as if the result was only natural.
“For brothers, his atmosphere is completely different from Mr. Crow’s.”
“Yeah. Honestly, he gives off a different kind of arrogance compared to Alphonse or Eagle. Ligret, what do you think of his skill?”
“He’s definitely strong. Might be a bit dangerous. Still, if he’s from the same school as Crow, I roughly know his methods. I can handle it.”
Seeing Ligret remain completely unconcerned, Chrome felt a strange sense of pride. In the original story, Riven Bane was the second-strongest competitor in the tournament. At this stage, unless a player used special tricks or got extremely lucky with equipment, beating him was considered nearly impossible.
Yet Ligret showed no sign of being intimidated. As someone who had poured every effort into raising her, how could he not feel satisfied?
“Ah, Miss Joy is stepping onto the stage now.”
At Fiore’s words, Chrome focused his gaze back on the arena. I wonder how she’ll fight? If her specialty is those iron balls using some kind of projectile or telekinetic technique, maybe she’ll go for an ambush…
The moment the match began—fwip-fwip-fwip-fwip!—steel balls shot out from inside Joy’s sleeves and ricocheted wildly across the arena like pinballs.
Of course, only Chrome’s group—who had been given prior explanation—and a handful of truly skilled observers could even recognize them as steel balls. As participants fell one after another, the crowd murmured in confusion, and Joy stood at the center of the arena smiling boldly, Chrome thought to himself:
Damn it. Maybe I should have dug for more information.