Duel Festival (2)
There it was again—that look.
Eyes fixed on prey, a presence coiled and ready to spring at any moment. Kenis watched Friga with a growing, uneasy dread.
Where Friga's gaze was pointed could not have been clearer. Among the ten colossal Sacred Flames, it was the one that cast a horse's shadow.
Friga's sharp stare. Kenis watching her watch it. Somehow, every line of Kenis's face was thick with worry.
"Um… Lady Friga? I'm only asking because I have to be sure…"
"Huh?"
Kenis dithered for a long moment, torn over whether she even had the right to ask. Regardless of the answer, the question itself was wildly improper.
But what if her fear was real? What if Friga's… preferences had wandered down a truly wrong path? Then, as Friga's friend, it was her duty to set her straight.
Kenis steeled herself and asked.
"You aren't… actually thinking those kinds of thoughts about animals, are you?"
"Those kinds of thoughts? What kinds?"
"The—extremely blasphemous kind? The sort one might call… unspeakable?"
"Unspeakable?"
"You know… with animals…"
"…Huh?"
Kenis whispered it so softly that even Friga, standing right beside her, could barely catch it—terrified someone else might overhear.
Friga blanked for a second, face empty with pure incomprehension. Then the meaning landed, and her face went steadily, brilliantly red.
"W-WHAT?! Hey! There are things you say to a maiden and things you don't! Are you completely insane?!"
"No, my lady, I was genuinely worried about your preferences—"
"You lunatic! Make some sense! Who the hell thinks about that with animals?!"
"The Pantheon strictly forbids congress with beasts as a most unholy act, so I was only fretting that you might have developed a… misguided sexual inclination—"
"You absolute maniac!! I just thought riding a horse would look insanely cool! You're treating me like some deranged animal!"
Whether from the sheer humiliation of the absurd misunderstanding or from pure rage, Friga's pale skin flushed so scarlet it was visible even from a distance.
At that violent reaction, Kenis let out a long breath of relief. Anyone who exploded that hard clearly had nothing of the sort on her mind. Her worry had been baseless after all.
"Wow—you really are a complete psycho! Hey, pick up your weapon! We're settling this right now!!"
"A-ah—my lady. You don't truly think I saw you that way, do you? I was only fretting over the one-in-a-million chance—"
"So you did see me as some freak who gets it on with beasts!"
Outrage at the ridiculous accusation had her blood boiling from the roots of her hair. Friga yanked out her axe and hopped in place, ready to swing—and if the announcer hadn't stepped in to stop her, blood would have been spilled before the festival even began.
"You… when I meet you in the arena, we're finishing this conversation."
"L-Lady Friga? My lady!!"
Thoroughly furious, Friga growled the threat into Kenis's ear like a snarl from some cornered beast. The murderous notice made Kenis's heart drop into her stomach.
Yes… her question had been far too hasty and far too rude…
Oblivious to Kenis hanging her head and sighing, the announcer finished introducing the various dignitaries.
"All right—! We will now begin the drawing of duel opponents!"
Beside the announcer sat one enormous box and one small one. Two tiny holes were cut into the bottom of the large box, and a round crank handle jutted from its side.
"This box contains balls marked with the names of every challenger in the festival! Turn the handle, and two name-balls drop from the bottom—those two become each other's duel opponents!"
A system that left matchups entirely to chance. The Pantheon had agonized long and hard over how to pair the challengers for the duels.
After endless deliberation, they reached a conclusion.
Leave it to the will of the gods.
The festival itself had begun by divine will—so the process should follow divine will as well. That opinion had carried the day.
If the selection belonged to the solemn and impartial gods, the results would be pure and absolute, free of bias or prejudice.
And so the Pantheon ran the Duel Festival by lottery entrusted to the heavens.
"Balls bearing the names of warriors who win their first-round duels will be moved into this smaller box to prepare for the next round!! A winners' bracket only the victors may climb! Who will stand at the very end of it all!!"
The announcer threw himself into the festival with everything he had.
The crowd's roaring cheers never stopped. The Pantheon had opened its coffers and handed out free drinks and snacks to every spectator—free booze and a good fight to watch. Boredom didn't stand a chance.
"In the first round of duels, a total of twenty warriors will form ten pairs and fight all at once!! Now then—behold! The warriors who will open this festival are—!!"
The announcer spun the handle with gusto, and twenty balls tumbled from the box. He checked the names written on them and bellowed them out.
"…!"
And the crowd's cheers swelled even louder.
Coliseum Special Event Conditions Met!
Fight, and Win! is beginning!
Calculating prize values…
"Haa…"
I let out a long, anxious breath. In the end, of the prizes for first through tenth place, I'd had to slap together the three I was short on. I had no idea how much time was left, and the rest of the prizes were already high-end gifts—so I figured it would be fine. A bit of a gamble, honestly.
On the screen, a loading bar filled beneath the message that prize values were being calculated. The assessment finished almost at once.
Prize valuation complete! The prizes are… 'Absolutely Outstanding!'
A true feast of astonishing treasures! Warriors from across the entire continent have flocked to the Coliseum!
Total warriors gathered at the Coliseum: 817!
For a "very high" prize rating, the turnout felt oddly middling. Was 817 a lot? I honestly couldn't tell whether that counted as a crowd or not.
"Almost eight hundred people. Out of that, at least ten hero-class adventurers should show up, right?"
I clung to the hope that eight hundred was enough for at least ten of them to appear. No matter how low the odds, eight hundred was a number that ought to spit out a few.
Transferring to Coliseum-exclusive screen!
"Oh…"
They'd put real work into the event—there was even a dedicated UI.
"Waaaaaah—!!"
A vast Coliseum filled the screen, packed with thousands—maybe tens of thousands—of people roaring their lungs out. The cheers carried straight through the display.
I rather liked the camera view that looked down over the entire broad arena at a glance.
"All challengers have taken their places! Now we shall begin this great and glorious Duel Festival—!!"
"Man, the voice acting on this thing is seriously top-tier."
The announcer's booming delivery sank right into my ears. I'd thought it before—the dubbing on this game was ridiculously good.
— Creak, creak…
Then came the sound of something ancient and badly worn grinding along. A little cart trundled into the Coliseum arena, wobbling as it went. Curious, I zoomed the screen in at once.
Something was loaded on the back of the cart. A person?
The figure on the cart suddenly sat bolt upright and bellowed.
"I am Lionheart—!! Heart of the mighty lion, strongest Paladin in the Holy City—!!"
Participating Warriors: 817 → 818
The number in the upper-right corner ticked up.
"What is this now. Is this guy late?"
The character who'd been riding the cart couldn't even stand straight—he swayed on his feet, face flushed bright red like someone who'd been drinking hard. His eyes were spinning in little whirlpools; he clearly wasn't sober.
Uh… so is the concept that he showed up late because he was drunk? What is he? An actual Paladin, or just a lush?
Reveal the prizes and declare the start of the festival?
Y / N
I was still staring blankly at the late arrival when the prompt asking whether to reveal the prizes appeared. No reason not to. I hit Yes without a second thought.
Please create the Coliseum bracket!
If left unset, the bracket will be generated randomly.
"I have to make the bracket too?"
Looking at the empty slots on the screen, it was clearly a tournament format. A tournament was the most straightforward approach anyway.
I scrolled down the participant list on the left side of the screen, skimming the names—and noticed something like titles written in front of them.
"Miracle's Proxy Kenis, Dragon Hunter Friga… Iron Wall Iscal? Demon Slayer Hans, Furry Rohan? …And what's a Goblin Hunter?"
From cool titles to weird and bizarre ones—plenty of fun, original epithets. I had no idea why Kenis was called Miracle's Proxy, but I could guess about Hans and Friga.
Both of them had one thing in common: they'd beaten a boss one-on-one. Maybe soloing a boss was how you earned a title like that.
A little easter egg, basically.
"Getting titles like these is pretty neat. Can you only see them here?"
Dragon Hunter, Barbarian Warrior Friga! Hell yeah—that already sounded insanely cool. A barbarian warrior splitting a dragon's skull with an axe!
Demon Slayer Hans! He needed a massive chainsaw and some killer heavy metal to go with that.
Honestly, building Hans's whole concept around that wouldn't be half bad.
I was drifting off into all kinds of daydreams over the titles when I snapped back to reality.
Concept work was fun, but the bracket was what mattered right now.
"Okay, so…"
I shuffled names around, building the bracket. The heroes who'd received weapons from me couldn't meet before the round of sixteen—I had to calculate carefully.
To keep my heroes from getting eliminated mid-tournament in some disaster, I paired them against people with titles that looked weak.
"Kenis against Furry Rohan, Friga against Goblin Hunter Yotson."
Everyone else I just dumped into auto-placement. Moving eight hundred people by hand was way too much.
The finished bracket was stuffed full of bias and personal agenda. Fair play and honest competition?
Weak talk for weaklings. Winning is justice! As long as they win, nothing else matters.
I made the ones who looked strong fight each other in their own groups, and stuck the weird, weak-looking title holders against my heroes.
If they didn't like it, they should've hosted their own event. What else was I supposed to do?
"We will now begin the first duel!! The warriors who will open this festival are—!!"
The moment I finished the bracket, the Coliseum prepared to start the first match.
"Let's see. First match…"
With eight hundred warriors entered, they were running group matches until the field thinned out. Twenty people in the very first bout.
I scanned the bracket quickly—and felt my eyes go wide.
This guy was in the opening match?