Perilous Festival (3)
The dull thud echoed across the arena.
“Ugh…!”
“A fine match.”
The winner is the young man in scholar’s robes—Rabaul! He has defeated Grendel, one of the top contenders, and advances safely to the finals!
“That obnoxious outfit hasn’t changed at all… but at least it looks like you’ve actually trained properly this time.”
“Walking two paths at once is exhausting, but not impossible. I simply give thanks to the parents who gave me this sturdy body.”
“Hmph. Just don’t do anything that would tarnish the honor of our people.”
I watched the two burly men exchanging what looked suspiciously like a moment of bromance and turned to Pino, who was sitting beside me in the spectator seats.
“Since when did those two get so chummy?”
“Who knows. She’s usually pretty prickly, but the fact that he keeps coming around to talk to her… maybe it’s that hometown solidarity thing?”
Ah. Like how seeing the national flag overseas suddenly makes you patriotic even if you never cared before.
“Still, it’s surprising. I didn’t think Rabaul would bother with something like a strength contest.”
“That’s rich coming from you, Ligret. You’re the one who’s completely indifferent unless it involves weapons.”
Our eyes met.
“Did you tell her to enter? Don’t bully the guy too much.”
“Isn’t it unfair for a man to shove a woman into an arm-wrestling tournament and then just sit back and watch?”
“Hey now, I simply placed the right talent in the right spot. Gender has nothing to do with it.”
“I’m throwing those exact words right back at you. And Rabaul was actually pretty into it, you know.”
Yeah, dragging this out would only make us both look pathetic. Better to leave it to the people involved.
The moment the match began, both Ligret and Rabaul grimaced. Their clasped hands stayed dead center. A perfect stalemate.
Pino muttered in genuine amazement.
“I knew Ligret was strong, but I never imagined she’d be able to match Rabaul… Last time I tested him, he was bending iron bars with his bare hands.”
“Wait, when and where the hell did you do that?”
Were you filming a prison break show or something? What kind of scenario had been running behind my back?
“It’s not a big deal. Just… you know.”
Pino avoided my gaze and changed the subject. I stared at her for a moment, then turned back to watch Ligret’s expression.
Truthfully, this arm-wrestling event wasn’t that difficult. If you raised the protagonist’s strength stat high enough before the event started, winning was practically guaranteed. The original Nameless War Demon could have cleared it easily if she’d paid even a little attention to her physical abilities. With the current Ligret, it should have been a walk in the park.
The problem was that Rabaul might be the Proud Barbarian template.
By the time Rabaul had seriously started dipping his toes into combat, I’d already heard about his past. I also knew that the reason he’d become so obsessed with civilization and wisdom was because of the northern mercenaries I’d dragged around while hunting for medicine everywhere. It was ironic as hell that the guy overflowing with martial talent had been stuck studying only magic because of me.
At this point, I was honestly scared of where the other two templates I hadn’t met yet might pop up from. Please don’t tell me they’d taken some weird route and ended up inside some shady organization.
The Proud Barbarian had the lowest magic-related abilities among all templates, but in terms of pure physical ability and hand-to-hand combat, it was the undisputed champion. Even against the Nameless War Demon, a pure contest of strength would normally be a lost cause.
But Rabaul had several years of downtime, while Ligret was far stronger than the original War Demon.
“Whoa, this is intense. I can’t tell who’s going to win.”
“Go get ‘em, brown-haired girl! Since you’ve made it this far, just win the whole thing!”
“Hey, scholar boy! You’re the last pride of all men! Win even if it kills you!”
As the crowd’s cheers grew louder, a ominous creaking sound began leaking from the desk the two were gripping. It looked like they’d prepared a reinforced iron table specifically for arm-wrestling, but even that was failing to withstand their power.
“Rabaul! You got this!”
At Pino’s cheer, Rabaul’s hand slowly began pushing Ligret back. Honestly, even if Rabaul won, I could just buy the prize, so the outcome itself didn’t matter that much.
Still…
“Ligret! Win! You have to protect the name of the strongest!”
Who cares about petty calculations at a festival? If you’re going to enjoy it, you have to win!
Ligret turns the tide from the brink of defeat! And the winner is—
Crack!
At that moment, the iron plate where their elbows rested finally gave way under the immense pressure, bending into a smooth V-shape. Both of them lost their balance at the sudden shift, but Ligret recovered faster.
Thud!
“Mmm. I have lost. You truly are strong, Lady Ligret.”
“You too.”
Ligret had won.
The grand prize was ten gold coins and a priority voucher to commission any magic tool from the workshop sponsored by Duke Mars. Most people’s eyes had been on the gold, but what I wanted was the voucher.
To process the Bloodstained Stake I’d obtained along with the cube generator from the black cube, I needed a skilled craftsman. Mars Workshop was the perfect choice. Those places ran on connections, and their usual clients were all nobles or tycoons. You couldn’t just throw money at them and expect to get a commission.
“Good work, Ligret.”
“…Honestly, the last part felt like luck, so I don’t feel great about it.”
“Wait, isn’t luck part of skill? Are you denying my very existence right now?”
“Chrome, what you do isn’t luck. It’s just throwing money around.”
Ouch. The truth hurts!
When I clutched my chest in mock agony, Ligret let out a small snort of laughter.
“That look suits you. Why don’t you smile like that more often?”
“Like your little sister?”
“No… she uses a smiling face like a poker face, so it feels like a completely different category…”
“Forget it. I’m not going to start acting cute at this point.”
“Oh? So you’re aware that you look cute when you smile?”
“Keep pushing and you’ll get hit. I used a lot of strength earlier, so I might not be able to hold back properly this time.”
I quietly shut my mouth. I still had a lot to do at the festival. I couldn’t afford to end up in the infirmary on the first day.
Ligret asked, “What’s next on the schedule?”
“Obstacle course race.”
“That should end quickly.”
After that, we wandered around collecting various rewards. Most of them were the usual mediocre festival prizes, but a few were genuinely useful—even if they couldn’t compare to the priority voucher we’d already secured. I’d store them in the Midas Cube later and use them as goods.
As the sun began to set, we bought some food suitable for dinner and decided to rest in the park.
“Huuu-ah.”
Ligret stretched her arms and legs wide, letting out a big yawn. She somehow looked like a cat.
“I’m starting to get tired of this. Is there still more to do?”
“We’ve pretty much finished everything that can be handled with physical effort. Good work.”
“You make me do hard labor all day and then just end it with one sentence? What a wicked employer.”
Maybe I’d worked her too hard even for a festival? In times like this, it was best not to overthink and just be honest.
“Sorry.”
When I scratched my head awkwardly, Ligret—who was biting into a croquette—shrugged.
“I’m not seriously complaining, so you don’t have to make that face. If I really had a problem with it, you wouldn’t be sitting here right now.”
“If not here, then where?”
“The emergency ward.”
“……Ha, haha! Your sense of humor is pretty sharp.”
“I wasn’t joking.”
Scary.
“Chrome.”
“What?”
“After the festival ends… is something going to happen?”
Ligret stared straight at me. I thought I’d hidden it well, but it seemed I hadn’t been as subtle as I believed. Come to think of it, she was also the one who had pointed out my expression when she first heard about the festival.
I pondered for a moment before deciding to just be honest.
“Real combat.”
“Aren’t we already doing that?”
“Not the kind where ‘if an accident happens, you might get seriously injured or die.’ I’m talking about battles where killing and being killed is the premise from the start.”
Ligret didn’t ask why I thought that or where I’d gotten the information. She simply replied in her usual monotone.
“A lot of people are going to die.”
“Probably.”
Of course, it wouldn’t mean everyone would immediately plunge into a bloody slaughter the moment the festival ended. The academy’s atmosphere wouldn’t change dramatically overnight, and laughter wouldn’t vanish from every student’s face.
Still, something foreign—something different from before—would definitely slip in.
And instead of avoiding or turning away from that crack, I planned to charge straight into it. Because I’d rather smash it head-on than live in fear of a time bomb that could go off at any moment.
Hmm. Maybe it was because the stars were so bright in the night sky. I was getting strangely sentimental.
I closed my mouth, and Ligret didn’t ask any more questions.
We sat side by side like that, quietly gazing up at the stars.