Just a Comedy of Errors
After all the fights in the 64-strong bracket were over and they had taken a three-hour break, they immediately moved on to the 32-strong bracket.
“Iris-senpai, something’s off.”
Iris-senpai muttered that, and every eye in the dining area turned to her.
The break time was also lunch time, so we were all eating a late lunch.
“Senpai, what’s wrong?”
Riel looked at her and asked, and Iris-senpai answered right away.
“Well… Alan’s match.”
“Ah…”
The moment Alan’s name came up, Riel’s expression darkened.
Ever since that day, Alan hadn’t approached Riel, but he had stared at her constantly.
Every time he did that, Riel would jump and flee to me to escape his gaze, which was adorable, but honestly it was unpleasant.
Still, besides the staring, there was nothing he actually did, and staring wasn’t a crime, so I couldn’t do much about it.
At best, all I could do was let Riel snap, “Why are you staring so much!” and make her turn away?
But then he’d do it again later.
I didn’t say anything because I didn’t want Riel to have a bad experience, but honestly I was genuinely uneasy.
“He only took a little damage from that desperate elf attack, but I can’t shake the feeling.”
“You mean Baldur, right?”
“Yeah, we’ve sparred a few times.”
Iris-senpai continued answering Emilia’s question.
“That guy’s tough. He’s got the durability to match his size, so I had to hit him several times properly just to knock him out.”
“Knocking him out was impressive enough, though…?”
I blurted it out without thinking.
Even though Iris-senpai was the one who had landed several attacks and knocked him out.
Well, I probably could have done it too, but it would have taken way more than that.
Plus, to land a hit I would have had to close the distance, which wasn’t easy…
“He’s not completely useless. His speed alone probably puts him in the top tier at the academy.”
That was true.
As Iris-senpai had said, Alan’s final rush was unbelievably fast.
Baldur had blocked it and even taken a few hits, each one dodging a vital spot.
Well, the flip side was that his power was so weak he couldn’t even land a clean hit.
“But no matter how I look at it, he didn’t have the skill to beat Baldur… Maybe it was just bad condition?”
Iris-senpai trailed off with a thoughtful hum.
I and Iris-senpai weren’t the only ones who had doubts about that match.
Especially the second-years who knew Baldur well had contacted the tournament organizers, asking if magic had been used.
The organizers had answered that they felt zero mana flow and had panicked a bit.
…Those second-years had basically swarmed Baldur like a group of big guys, and the organizers must have been completely bewildered.
Anyway, Baldur had himself said he didn’t feel mana, and blamed the condition issue, so it hadn’t blown up into a big scandal.
Still, the uneasy look on Baldur’s face had bothered me a lot.
“If that guy keeps winning, I’ll face him sooner or later, Iris-senpai.”
“Yeah, and I won’t lose.”
Iris-senpai clenched her fist and declared her resolve.
Honestly, looking at the bracket, Alan’s opponents in both the 32-strong and 16-strong brackets were all fierce second-year talents.
With the level of skill I had seen in Alan during the 64-strong round, it was hard to imagine I could beat anyone in those matches.
How on earth had the original Alan won in the story?
Or had he gotten weaker than in the original? I had no idea.
“Be careful, Iris-senpai.”
“Haha, don’t worry. I’ll smash them head-on no matter what they pull.”
…For some reason, I felt like with this person I could actually crush them for real.
The 32-strong bracket started after the break.
My first fight was against a girl my own age, a first-year girl.
I remembered her being in the same class, but I didn’t remember her name.
She was the one who had followed Alan like a goldfish…
“Kyou Ventus!”
“Hm?”
She called my name from the other side.
Ah… so that was it.
“Um… so you must be…”
“I’m Refia Albein!”
Ah, she introduced herself right away.
She looked like a commoner, since I had never heard the name before.
…Actually, she wasn’t one of the heroines who had trailed Alan, and we weren’t particularly close, so it wasn’t surprising I didn’t remember her name.
“You don’t stand a chance against Alan! I’ll take you down right here!”
“Y-yes…”
After entering the academy, I had memorized all the names, but with time passing I had forgotten the names of the ones I barely knew.
It felt a bit sorry.
“Fight start!”
“Come on!”
With the referee’s shout, Refia Albein assumed a posture and charged in.
Her stance was surprisingly good for a kingdom sword. It was like she had copied the textbook exactly.
“Hah!”
Keng!!
I raised my sword and blocked her strike.
It was surprisingly solid.
Her form looked well-trained; I could even see the calluses on her palm.
“Yah! Hah!!”
She kept throwing rapid strikes.
I blocked or dodged them, and I knew.
This girl was extremely talented.
Which made it all the more painful.
“Hyah!”
“Kyaaa!!”
After the four consecutive strikes taught in the kingdom sword style, there was a three-second gap.
Everyone had their own way of filling that gap, but this girl filled it with evasion.
The problem was that her evasion was terribly clumsy.
My attack landed on her arm, knocking her sword away and causing her to fall backward while still in evasion posture.
“U-uggh…”
Refia clutched her arm and groaned in pain.
The referee, completely ignoring her, shouted,
“That’s it! First-year Kyou Ventus wins!”
“What kind of half-finished technique is she using in a real fight?”
“......”
“Stop chasing Alan’s tail and train more.”
It was sincere.
This girl was definitely one of the female students who had cheered for Alan at the training grounds.
So it was absurd that she was behaving this way in the Martial God Festival.
If she had trained herself, she could have had a decent match.
And she would have been stronger than current Alan if she had.
Of course I had no intention of losing.
Maybe because I was feeling irritated.
Most of the players on the left side of the bracket were first-years, while the right side, where Iris-senpai and Alan were, was packed with second-years.
…Isn’t this arrangement weird?
“…I’ll get my revenge someday.”
She spat those words, lowered her head completely, and shuffled out of the stage.
I followed her out of the arena.
The 32-strong bracket continued, and Alan’s turn came again.
His opponent was another second-year senior.
“Fridel Rond. She reached the quarterfinals last year’s Martial God Festival. She looks in good condition, so it’s not going to be an easy fight.”
Second-year knowledge from Iris-senpai.
Well, even I could see the skill gap between Alan and Fridel-senpai was obvious.
Logically, Fridel-senpai should win.
But it had been the same in the 64-strong round, and it was the same in the 32-strong.
“That’s it! First-year Alan Ludwig wins!”
The audience erupted in cheers.
Iris-senpai gaped with a dumbfounded expression.
Of course she would.
At the start of the match, Fridel-senpai had clearly pushed Alan.
Continuous strikes at the same speed as Alan’s.
But the power inside them was incomparably stronger.
Alan had taken a few hits and blocked with his own wounds, and he started landing his own continuous attacks.
That was when everything fell apart.
Fridel-senpai calmly blocked Alan’s attack, but her wooden practice sword cracked and snapped right there.
Once the sword broke, the match was over by default for losing the weapon.
Fridel-senpai stared at her broken practice sword in shock.
Iris-senpai muttered, “Her sword state was perfect…?”
She wasn’t the only one.
Anyone with some martial experience couldn’t hide their surprise at the result.
Ordinary spectators probably just thought Alan had broken the sword with his flashy continuous attack.
Alan waved to the cheering crowd and walked off the stage.
“That bastard…”
Discomfort leaked into Iris-senpai’s voice.
“What kind of trickery is he pulling…?”
There had been so many quick matches that they could finish the 32-strong bracket in one day.
The next day they planned to finish the 16-strong, quarterfinals, and semifinals and determine the two finalists.
After the fights ended, I was back at the training grounds.
Iris-senpai stood there holding her sword, and on the bench behind her sat Riel and Emilia.
“Then I’ll go, senpai.”
“Yeah, come at me!”
I gripped my sword with both hands and prepared the stance for the kingdom sword’s continuous attack.
Whatever she thought, this was the exact stance Alan had used in both the 64-strong and 32-strong rounds.
My replicated strike crashed into Iris-senpai.
Dak!!
“Ugh!”
One of the attacks that Iris-senpai had been dodging completely landed on her shoulder.
It wasn’t that high in power, but she still let out a pained groan with a loud sound.
“Defending without any protection and avoiding everything is hard, right?”
“That’s not my motto! If it’s not working, I make it work!”
The countermeasure Iris-senpai had pulled out against Alan.
That was simply not getting hit at all.
Baldur who had taken several hits and then suddenly felt bad.
Fridel-senpai who had blocked with her sword and then it suddenly broke.
Iris-senpai, suspecting that some attack had hit somewhere, chose the most reckless method of not getting hit by anything.
Dak!!
“Tch! Again!”
That day was perfect for Iris-senpai’s special training against Alan.
It got cut short when Riel suggested they have lunch, but somehow Iris-senpai had managed to avoid every attack several times.
“That’s it! Kyou Ventus wins!”
The 16-strong first match ended without any trouble.
If it had been that easy, the audience wouldn’t have cheered or clapped much.
No matter how you thought about it, it was clear they had filled the left side with only first-years except Alan.
What the hell? Had someone cursed me to make me go to the finals?
And there was the opposite situation.
“That’s it! Alan Ludwig wins!”
Waaaaaaaah!!
Alan! Alan! Alan!
Alan’s opponent was a second-year talent who had advanced to the championship contenders after the 64-strong and 32-strong rounds.
Most of them had been losing until the end, only to be reversed by flashy techniques…
So the cheers for Alan grew louder.
“Haa…”
Of course, like Iris-senpai’s sigh, some people saw it as nothing more than a comedy of errors.
But Alan really was gaining huge popularity in this Martial God Festival.
After the quarterfinal opponents were decided, there would be two hours of rest and then the quarterfinals would start.
Most players looked in good shape, but Alan had gone to get treated for his injuries.
After all that beating, he had to have some bruises somewhere.
And then the quarterfinals.
It was nothing different from the 16-strong round.
My side was only first-years with worse skill, and Alan was fighting another championship contender.
The match flow was the same as before.
Alan! Alan! Alan!
The audience’s cheering for Alan.
Alan’s flashy comeback victory.
There was nothing else to it.
The championship contenders who got caught up in this comedy of errors felt sorry.
Their swords breaking, condition suddenly dropping, tripping over their own feet… anything that happened to experienced fighters was weird.
Some famous martial artists had asked the organizers for confirmation, but the organizers had said after investigating magic, potions, and every other means, there was nothing wrong.
In the end the match continued, and the semifinals began to select the finalist.
From the semifinals onward, the intensity rose because they used personal practice swords instead of wooden ones.
My match… was so straightforward that there was nothing special to note, so I’ll skip it.
The audience was starting to boo now.
How did you even make the bracket, tournament operations committee?
As I came down the stage amid the boos, Iris-senpai’s anxious face appeared.
“Iris-senpai? What’s wrong?”
“It’s just…”
Iris-senpai let out a long sigh and handed me something.
“Senpai, this… no way?”
“Yeah. My practice sword.”
It was black with corrosion, as if the middle had been burned through and broken.
Without a sword, I couldn’t fight.
“A brand-new sword that wasn’t even a day old, and it’s already like this…?”
She had carried that sword all day.
But who would do something like this to it?
That was impossible.
And a brand-new sword turning into this was also ridiculous.
I didn’t have time to go buy a new one right now.
No choice.
“Senpai, use my sword.”
“…Huh? It’ll be fine?”
“Yeah, well… it might not feel as good as a new one.”
“No, no. It looks perfectly clean to me, like new.”
Iris-senpai pulled my sword out and said that.
Well, I had only fought her a few times and never switched swords, so it made sense it looked new.
I swallowed the words and offered her my thumb.
“Good luck in the match. Show the results of the special training.”
“Haha! Thanks. I’ll return the favor!”
Iris-senpai dashed onto the stage.
On the opposite side, Alan entered the arena with a furious expression.
The quarterfinals were about to begin, picking the opponent for the finals.