Chapter 91: Leslie (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 91: Leslie (2)
“Welcome to the home of warriors, O warriors.”
At the noble cry, the attention of every participant turned to the speaker.
High up in the arena, a woman with white hair stood on a balcony specially designed for looking down on the grounds below.
“The witch…” someone among the preliminary participants muttered.
Calling the duchy’s princess a witch was a blasphemous thing to say, yet no one rebuked him.
Instead, they looked at Leslie with sullen eyes, as if in agreement.
Leslie, paying no mind to their gazes, continued speaking.
“Today, you have come here to prove your worth as warriors. However, this will be a bloody battle where your lives cannot be guaranteed. No one will go easy on you. Therefore, those who are afraid should turn back now.”
No one left.
Leslie wore a satisfied expression.
“Come, warriors.”
Rumble.
The thick arena gates opened, and the people at the front began to check their passes and head inside.
“You should head up to the stands now,” I said to Katarina and Shedia.
“If it gets dangerous, just run. It doesn’t matter if you look pathetic. Got it?”
Katarina’s voice was thick with anxiety.
I let out a small laugh.
“You have so little faith in your boyfriend. Is it because you’ve never seen me fight?”
“Stop talking nonsense. Did you hear me?”
“I got it.”
When I gave a half-hearted nod, Katarina’s expression soured.
“Don’t you dare die. I swear…”
She gave me a tight hug, then turned and walked toward the spectator seats with Shedia. I watched them for a moment before my turn came, and I showed my wooden pass to the soldier.
“Pass.”
The soldier gave the pass a cursory glance and let me in. The arena was a circular stadium, like the Colosseum of ancient Rome.
The participants who had entered before me were sizing each other up, looking for a good spot.
They moved away from those who looked strong and sidled up to those who looked weak.
The ones who seemed truly skilled, however, just picked a spot at random. For example, that unique-looking fellow over there with six arms. No one was standing next to him.
I also found a random empty spot.
At that, a few guys started to creep over to my vicinity. They exchanged glances with each other and then began to surround me like hyenas eyeing their prey.
These fucking bastards.
Teaming up before it even starts?
Dumbfounded, I looked around.
I wasn’t the only one experiencing this. The elf, the knight, and the female martial artist I’d seen earlier were also surrounded by other warriors, looking troubled.
Ah, but of course, Six-Arms was the exception.
There was no one near him.
“Why isn’t anyone going after that guy?”
When I pointed at Six-Arms, the men surrounding me snickered.
“Why does a guy who’s about to die care?”
“Can’t you at least tell a dead man that much?”
“Well… I guess there’s no reason I can’t.”
One of them shrugged.
“We’re going to kill him together after we take care of you lot.”
Aha.
So they figured a small group wouldn't be enough and decided to form a raid party.
“Is that all you’re curious about?”
“Just one more thing. I get why you’re targeting them, but why me?”
“Giant Slayer, Gallid the Slaughterer.”
One of them grinned.
“Ring a bell?”
“The guy I beat the crap out of. Is he famous?”
“You heard Gallid’s title and you’re still saying that? Grand titles like that aren’t given for no reason. You only get one when you’ve achieved something to match.”
The moment the man finished speaking, a horn echoed through the arena.
It was the signal for the start of the preliminary round.
“Don’t hold it against us. This is your fault for drawing attention to yourself before the tournament.”
With those final words, the eight men surrounding me charged. As I watched the blades coming for my body, I reached for my sword, then stopped.
Katarina probably doesn’t have an immunity to killing yet.
She had resolved to kill Ronwell for revenge, but in the end, it was just a resolution. And visually, there’s a big difference between killing one person and killing eight at once.
I should build up her tolerance slowly.
I sighed softly and took my hand off my sword’s hilt. Twisting my body, I dodged a thrust coming from the front and planted my fist in the man’s face. At the same time, I leaped forward lightly to escape the encirclement.
“What?!”
“That idiot Tect… I told you to go in at the same time!”
“Is this the time to complain? Kill that bastard!”
The remaining seven warriors rushed me without hesitation.
I grabbed the ankle of the man I had just knocked out with my fist. Then, I swung him at the closest man.
“What?!”
Had he not expected me to use a person as a weapon?
His eyes widened. A moment later, he was struck by ‘Tect’ and sent tumbling to the ground.
“What the hell…”
The other six who had been charging forward hesitated in confusion. I moved between them, swinging ‘Tect’ mercilessly. Fortunately, none of them were willing to cut down their own comrade without a second thought, and they fell like leaves in the autumn wind.
To shake off the blood, I swung Tect…
Ah, right, this isn’t a sword.
I stopped mid-swing and just tossed him aside.
Dusting off my hands, I surveyed my surroundings. Thanks to the little stunt I’d just pulled, no one else seemed to want to approach me.
Oh? They’re holding up better than I thought.
Unlike their earlier troubled expressions, the knight, the elf, and the martial artist were calmly handling being ganged up on. They dodged the incoming blades and took their opponents down one by one with certainty.
Six-Arms, with no one coming at him, was yawning out of boredom.
I turned my gaze to the stands.
After a few glances, I found some familiar faces.
Katarina and Shedia.
I waved at them. Katarina let out a disbelieving laugh, while Shedia just kept eating the bread she was holding.
Next, I looked toward Leslie’s balcony.
I didn’t have any particular intention; I was just curious what she was doing.
But by some coincidence, our eyes met.
This would be an awkward situation if I just looked away.
After a moment of deliberation, I just gave her a wink.
*
Leslie tilted her head.
Did she see that correctly just now? Did that man just wink at her?
Seeing as he was still looking at her, it seemed she had.
Is he not one of the bought-off ones?
But if he wasn’t, there would be no reason to insist on not killing. Therefore, she had to assume he was one of the men bought by her siblings.
What a strange person.
She let out a small laugh and turned her gaze away.
Her interest in Cloud ended there. He surely wasn’t the only one who had been bought by her siblings.
An elf, a knight, a martial artist with bizarre techniques, and even a monster. They’ve certainly gathered a diverse group.
The reason she singled them out was that, like Cloud, they hadn’t killed any of the other warriors.
Leslie knew why they were deliberately avoiding killing.
And for that reason, she could only scoff.
Because no matter what they had prepared, they would gain nothing.
With impassive eyes, she watched the arena until only the eight who would advance to the main tournament remained.
*
The inn was bustling with noise.
Drinkers and non-drinkers alike were all chattering about today’s preliminary round.
Some spoke of the elf’s swift movements.
Some, of the knight’s fantastic swordsmanship.
And some, of the martial artist’s beautiful figure.
I was in a corner of that inn, sipping mead all by myself. The reason I was being so pathetic was simple.
As soon as we returned to the inn, Katarina had said she had no appetite and went up to our room.
It was probably because of the bloody scenes she had witnessed in the preliminaries. Even though I hadn’t killed anyone, there was no guarantee others would do the same.
Shedia had trotted after Katarina.
I debated whether I should go comfort Katarina but decided to give her some time to think alone.
And we only had one room. All the others were full, so we couldn’t get another.
That was why I was sitting here like a lonely widower.
Seeing my empty glass, I was about to order another mead when someone placed a hand on my shoulder.
“Why are you drinking alone so miserably? Come over here and drink with us.”
It was the knight who had participated in the preliminaries with me.
Where the knight pointed, the elf and the martial artist were sitting. Like me and the knight, they were participants who had advanced to the main tournament.
“You want me to drink with the people I’m going to be beating the crap out of tomorrow?”
“Hmm… You don’t want to?”
The knight scratched the back of his neck with an awkward expression. I grinned and stood up.
“Of course not.”
“Haha! That’s the spirit of a man!”
I slung an arm around the knight’s shoulder and walked over to their table. When I sat down, the elf scowled as if displeased. The martial artist flicked her finger, sending a spare mug of mead my way. It stopped precisely in front of me.
“Thanks for the welcome.”
The martial artist shrugged.
Then she suddenly spun around and threw her empty mug. It flew through the air and hit a middle-aged man in the head.
He was the guy who had been commenting on her figure earlier.
Only after seeing him collapse, foaming at the mouth, did she seem satisfied and sit back down.
“By the way, isn’t this a meeting of the main tournament participants? Seems like a few people are missing.”
“No need to see the scrubs who just filled the spots.”
The one who answered my question was the elf, still wearing a sour expression.
“What about the six-armed fellow? He’s qualified, isn’t he?”
“You’re not being serious, are you?”
“Why? Maybe he’s more talkative than he looks. Who knows, he might show us some juggling with those six arms.”
“Ha, even if that were possible, I have no desire to converse with a monster like that.”
“You’re the one fighting that monster tomorrow, though.”
The elf smirked.
“I only called him a monster because of his appearance. You don’t really think I’d lose to a guy like that, do you? Me, Aneraph Ellendos, the legitimate heir of the Ellendos family?”
“I didn’t ask for your name.”
“You’d do well to memorize it now. It will be the name of the first king of the Fairy Kingdom, the first to be established on the continent.”
“Fairy Kingdom?”
What kind of fresh bullshit was this?
Do these guys know something I don’t?
The knight and the martial artist were also tilting their heads in confusion.
So you guys feel the same way I do.
“The ones in the forest are all a bunch of old-fashioned bastards. They claim the forest is our only home and refuse to venture outside. Thanks to them, this vast continent is occupied by the likes of you humans, isn’t it?”
The elf chugged his mead and continued.
“I can’t stand for that. I will establish a Fairy Kingdom and bring prosperity to my clan. This event will be the foundation for that great undertaking.”
After that, the elf began to speak at length about the plans he had laid out.
Ah, for fuck’s sake. I don’t care.
*
“What were you thinking, really?”
“I didn’t know that knife-ear was such a chatterbox either.”
How was I supposed to predict he’d talk until dawn?
I tried to cut him off at a reasonable point, but his words flowed like a river, and neither I, the knight, nor the martial artist could get a word in.
“It’s fine. The other guys didn’t get any sleep either.”
“How is that fine? Ugh… come here.”
Katarina pulled my head down onto her lap.
It was cozier than my pillow.
“I’ll wake you up when it’s your turn, so sleep until then,” Katarina said, stroking my hair.
“Alright. But let me watch the first match before that.”
“What’s the first match?”
“The knife-ear and Six-Arms.”
As Katarina and I were talking, the two gates of the arena opened and the fighters entered.
From the left, Six-Arms.
From the right, the elf.
They stood facing each other with some distance between them.
I couldn’t see their faces from this far away, but the elf seemed brimming with the confidence that he could tear his opponent apart at any moment.
A moment later, Leslie raised her hand, starting the match.
The elf moved the instant it began.
With swift yet fluid movements, he circled around Six-Arms.
His movements were so fast that afterimages were left in his wake. The elf thrusted with his rapier.
Six-Arms couldn’t keep up with the elf’s speed.
Because of that, he covered his vital spots with his six arms.
The number of holes pierced in his arms and thighs increased. Blood flowed from the wounds. The bleeding was significant, but he held his stance as firm as a rock.
The circle of afterimages vanished.
The elf was now directly in front of Six-Arms. His rapier, which had begun to glow with a jade light, shot forward with the speed of an arrow.
Shunk.
It pierced through the back of the hand covering his head and skewered Six-Arms’s forehead.
It was over.
Thinking so, the elf pulled out his rapier and turned his back, waiting for the applause that would surely rain down on him. But the crowd was silent, and just as the elf was growing confused…
“Behind you, you idiot.”
Six-Arms, who had been still the whole time, moved.
Finally sensing the presence, the elf moved quickly, trying to create distance.
But it was too late.
Four arms holding sharp weapons blurred, and when they reappeared, the elf’s body was in four pieces, rolling on the ground.
Silence fell over the arena.
I looked at Six-Arms and thought.
He was just toying with him.
The speed at which he had just quartered the elf.
If he had used that speed from the beginning, the elf wouldn’t have stood a chance.
He would have been pushed back continuously until he was eventually killed.
I turned my gaze to the elf’s remains.
So much for the Fairy Kingdom.
If this was going to happen, why did I listen to his story for so long yesterday? I was about to let out a deep sigh when a slender palm patted my head.
I turned my head to see Katarina, her face pale, staring at the quartered elf.
“Forfeit. Let’s forfeit. No, you will forfeit. Right now!”
What is she on about now?