“P-Please calm down!” came the panicked voices of the staff.
The reactions were numerous: Some kept their distance while looking annoyed, some stepped in to try and help stop it, some made things worse by egging them on.
Anzel sighed and moved to the wall. With so many violent professionals, of course there was going to be trouble eventually. Anzel didn’t care what the staff needed to get done, whether it was height and weight measurements, general body measurements, or health checkups, but he really wanted them to get it over with as soon as possible—this fight was only going to slow everything down.
Getting impatient wouldn’t fix anything, though, so Anzel decided he’d just relax instead, placing a cigarette between his lips...and then immediately returning it to the case. Because the woman beside him had given him one hell of a dirty look.
It was Lynette Bran. She was standing quite close. Anzel wasn’t sure if she’d already been there or if she’d arrived after him, but either way, she’d managed to get this close without him detecting her—there was no doubt she was a threat. It brought to mind the run-in he’d had with the head of the main house of the Qilong not long ago. That matter still wasn’t fully settled. At best, he’d delayed the inevitable.
First there was the bet being placed on him and now the Qilong wanted him dead. He could feel a horrific headache coming on.
“Want somethin’?” Anzel and Lynette were both Nia’s students, but their relationship didn’t go much further than that. They’d barely even had personal conversation with each other, and yet here Lynette was, looking at him like she wanted to say something.
“I thought you would’ve stepped in to stop them.”
“Huh? Me?”
It sounded like they were still fighting on the other side of the crowd. From the sound of the frantic staff and the heckling from the audience, the situation seemed two steps away from exploding. Anzel wouldn’t have been surprised if a fistfight broke out any minute now, but...
“I ain’t here to get mixed up in trouble. Besides, Leeno’s here. She’ll put a stop to it.”
Leeno was also part of this group. If anything happened, she would probably deal with it one way or another, whether that meant stopping anything from breaking out or simply beating the troublemakers into submission.
“Anzel.” Lynette came closer and whispered in his ear. “I think it would be a good idea for you to score some points now considering what is coming ahead.”
Anzel narrowed his eyes. “Sorry... Got no idea what you’re talkin’ about.”
“Score some points.” Those weren’t the words Anzel had been expecting to hear from Lynette and it made it all that much harder for him to understand the meaning. Score points from who? And what for?
It was so out of the blue that Anzel thought he’d misheard her at first. This was the first time he’d been so uncertain about what Lynette had said that he’d thought he was starting to go deaf.
The problem was that he couldn’t even begin to guess from context what she meant. Was she trying to say this was a good time to take advantage of the commotion to steal some wallets so he’d have some money saved up before he had to make a break for it? Nah, no way. We’ve not spoken so much that she knows my circumstances.
“I already told you I don’t want to get mixed up in trouble. I shouldn’t even be allowed here.”
“That’s exactly why I’m saying you should help.”
“Huh...? No, seriously, I’ve got no idea what you’re on about. Stop beatin’ around the bush.”
“Then I’ll be blunt.” Lynette came even closer before she continued. “I’m telling you to increase your popularity. You might have a criminal record, but if you’re popular enough, there will definitely be someone willing to defend you. If you proceed to the next round without doing anything, won’t you be arrested?”
Now that was definitely clear enough for Anzel to understand.
She was right: He would be arrested. It was something he’d mulled over well before preliminaries started, well before he’d even registered as an entrant, even.
Those who were a part of the underworld should never stand in the spotlight of the surface. The more you drew attention to yourself, the riskier things got. For someone like Anzel who was in the deepest pits of the underworld, there was plenty of dirt to pat off his body, including a whole bunch of petty crimes that he didn’t even remember anymore. He’d settled down once he started working as a bartender, but he’d gotten away with all manner of things in his life before that.
Right... Popularity. For a long time, he’d been trying to figure out if there was even a glimmer of hope for his survival. He’d half given up that his only chance was to escape the country if the situation called for it. But no, gaining popularity was another option. Like Lynette said, with enough popularity, there would always be someone willing to defend you. The voices of the public might not have been of much use, but what if he caught the eye of someone in authority? The benefits of that could hardly be measured.
He shouldn’t be trying to hide; he should be doing the complete opposite. He should be stepping into the light, gathering all the attention he possibly could, and gaining popularity with the public. He needed to be like Nia on magivision every other day.
“All right, be back in a sec.”
The minute the main matches started, he’d be standing out whether he liked it or not, anyway. He could try to stay in the shadows all he liked, he’d still catch everyone’s eye.
His only choice was to bet on this as his last hope.
Now that he’d found an option that could potentially protect him, he had to give it his all.
Anzel weaved through the crowds until he made it up front.
“You bastard! You wanna go?!”
“Who’s calling who a bastard, you bastard?! Bring it!”
When the staff member trying to hold one of the fighters back was flung off the man’s arm, Anzel stepped forward.
“Stop right there.” Anzel slipped in behind the man who had been about to throw the first punch and held him back by the belt.
“Wh-What d’ya think you’re doin’, asshole?!”
“Whoa.” Having only become further enraged, the man flung his elbow back toward Anzel’s face, but Anzel easily blocked it with his free hand. “Calm down already.” He adjusted his grip on the man’s belt and arm before throwing him onto the ground. Gently. Doing his best not to hurt him. Making sure his body would slide and roll gently. Absolutely making sure he did not slam him directly down.
“Well, this is a surprise.”
“Huh?” Anzel had been watching the guy he’d just thrown when suddenly he heard a voice by his ear. When he turned around, Lynokis was standing there. She must’ve been about to interrupt the two men herself.
“I expected you to stay out of something like this,” she said.
“Normally, I would. Circumstances have changed.”
It didn’t take much effort to learn that Anzel was the bartender of the bar that Leeno frequented, so there was likely no danger in them talking to each other even with everyone’s eyes on them.
“Haven’t you both had enough? You can decide who’s the strongest during the tournament.” Lynokis’s words were quiet, but held an authority that was impossible to defy. Both the men who had started the fight and the members of the crowd unhelpfully jeering were now completely silent. It was proof of how much weight the words of the predicted winner held; everyone keeping their eye on her meant that her presence and influence were great.
“Guess I wasn’t really needed here,” Anzel muttered to himself. Everything would’ve wrapped up the moment Lynokis stepped in.
But it wasn’t as if he had much of a choice. If he wanted to gain more popularity, he needed to step forward when the situation called for it. Rather, he’d started to think it was quite literally his only chance of survival.
It wasn’t really his style, but he had to see it through.