The Match of the Century (Not Really)
"You're not backing out now, are you?"
Redberry's sudden challenge caught me a little off guard, but I accepted. I'd been meaning to test myself against her anyway, and a ranked mage was exactly the kind of opponent who would make teaching feel rewarding.
For some reason, though, Redberry seemed to have a problem with that, and pushed the duel back a day — "Tomorrow, please! You must be tired today..."
Missing my chance to test the divinity right away was a bit of a shame, but I told her that was fine. My body and my stamina had recovered, but the mind was another matter. It would need rest before it was ready.
So I returned to the real world, left Yena a message — "Next time, I'm eating you." — and went to bed.
The Lilytube Discord room was a festival every single day. Good news was always arriving, and Lilytube was always storm-growing, every graph climbing nearly vertical — practically flying on rocket fuel. Who would dare call this a channel less than a month old?
I woke at seven every morning and dropped into the Discord room.
Ding.
The editors and managers were hard at work first thing in the morning — either they'd pulled an all-nighter or gotten up absurdly early. I'd already planned to pay them more, but I was going to have to give a much bigger bonus than that. I read the summary email my newest manager, Jjoa, had put together, and answered.
"What's the big news?"
Well, it was the first solo world boss takedown in history, so of course all eyes were on it. Not to mention the mysterious "?" class. To anyone else it must have looked tantalizingly cool, but I already knew what it was and had been using it with total ease, so I couldn't muster much excitement. The total freedom was nice, though.
"Then now is the perfect timing."
Right now, while everyone's attention was fixed on me and my name was on every tongue — right now was the moment to upload. White Autumn posted a sweating rabbit emoji frantically wiping its brow into the chat.
"Mm."
Truly, the best-prepared slaves in the business... I mean, editing team. I told them not to overdo it, and added with a laugh,
"Feel free to look forward to this month's bonus."
"Why are you all thinking so small?"
I'd been budgeting for five times as much.
"?"
Had they all done something wrong? This much was just the baseline, no?
After the Lilytube Discord descended into a raving party for a good while, I carefully slipped out of it. Apparently I wasn't to log back in until everyone had calmed down.
"Fun."
You'd think I'd tire of it, but every one of them was so full of personality and enthusiasm that just watching was entertaining. I'd have to take the editors and managers out for a little dinner sometime soon.
Food... the grilled crab I got last time.
I'd cooked it myself, and it had certainly been delicious. Ordinary crab knights were tasty enough — the pincer of the Crab Empire's crown prince would be even better.
I returned to Deoen. Now that I had divinity, the gap between this world and reality had widened even further. A quiet, austere divinity flowed through my hands, and I lifted off lightly into the sky. My body rose naturally into the air without a single flight spell, and the green landscape spread out beneath me in a single glance — the peddler caravans trundling along in the distance, the monsters wandering their habitats, the birds soaring high overhead.
I watched the scenery for a moment, then headed for the agreed-upon duel arena.
Today.
Today was the day.
Redberry stood before the duel arena and drew a deep breath. Why did I make that choice?
Ah, my past self. My past self was, without question, insane. Even thinking back on it now, she could not understand her own behavior. She could have simply met Lily, talked through her concerns, maybe asked — carefully, tentatively — whether the woman would be willing to teach her. That alone would have been a perfectly solid play. So how, how, had the words "let's have a match" come out of her mouth?
In the real world, Redberry had kicked her blankets across the room while inventing dozens of alternate scenarios. If only she had done it this way. If only she had opened the conversation that way. No — if only she'd gone about the whole thing differently from the start...
But spilled water could not be unspilled. All that remained for Redberry was a one-on-one against a monster who could beat world bosses. By any reasonable read, the duel would end with her getting flattened — and yet, still...
If I can just learn something, anything, from it!
Mana manipulation. The essential skill every mage had to master. In practice Redberry did handle mana through skills, but she couldn't push beyond her built-in limits. She could move only the "numbers" the system dictated and cast only the "skills" the system allowed.
Say she used Fire Rain, a skill that launched eight fire arrows. Those arrows would pierce exactly eight enemies; against a ninth, she would have to recast the entire skill, or deploy another technique with comparable destructive power. But if she could actively manipulate mana and add a single extra arrow to Fire Rain?
She would never again waste mana or skill casting time on the excess.
"Hoo..."
And so she waited, and waited. Until —
"It's been a while."
"Ah..."
Lily stood before her, blue hair rippling in the wind. She was glowing. Not beautiful-glowing, not a flattering-light kind of glowing — she genuinely emitted light. Some unknowable radiance made Redberry narrow her eyes against it.
"...You feel even stronger than before."
"I completed my 3rd Advancement. Didn't you hear?"
"I-I did, but..."
They had done nothing but face each other, and already the gap yawned, vast and vertiginous. Who on earth would call this a "newbie" of barely a month? Redberry felt as though she were standing before a world boss.
Can I even last a few seconds...?
"You asked for a match, so I came fully prepared."
"No, that's really not necessary. I mean, that wasn't even the intent—"
"It's fine. I'll face you at full strength. No holding back."
No! Please hold back! Please, please hold back—
Sadly, her silent screaming never reached Lily at all.
I asked Redberry's permission to turn the stream on, then did. It wouldn't have mattered either way, but a NewTube's brand value is precious. I felt like a professional streamer these days, truly.
Stream title...
Match of the Century_
"Tsk."
"Um... Lily? 'Match of the Century' seems like a bit much, don't you thin—"
"Why? You're plenty strong yourself, Redberry."
A ranked mage circulating around the top 100, bearing the title Mage of Scorching Heat. And mages were a class long rumored to be utterly broken. At the very least, she was nobody who deserved to be dismissed.
The stream went live.
Viewers came flooding in from the very first second. The screen showed the waiting screen Jjoa had designed for me. About ten minutes passed, and then the feed cut to me. I bowed respectfully.
"Good evening, and welcome, everyone, to the Match of the Century."
"?"
"This match will be conducted with the utmost seriousness. Having been the one challenged, I too intend to take it seriously."
"Um, excuse me—"
"And now — the challenger who requested today's duel — let the match begin! A big round of applause, everyone!"
Clap clap clap clap. I applauded right along with them. Then I turned to my side — where Redberry stood staring at me, half incredulous, half utterly bewildered.
She had challenged me so boldly that I'd assumed this was exactly the kind of stage she wanted. Granted, I had thrown in a few... minor additions for my own entertainment.
Ahem!
"Ah. Hello."