“I’m in...Block D, twenty-first round. That should be the day after tomorrow, I think.”
“Who’s your opponent? Didn’t you have some deep rivalry with Zeon? Think you’ll be matched up with him?”
“Deep? Well, I guess we did both end up leaving that match with our own frustrations. I personally wasn’t satisfied with it, that’s for certain. Where is he?”
Two more pairs of footsteps appeared from behind them while they were scanning the board for Sonicspeed Zeon’s name.
“Did you guys see my name anywhere?”
“And mine?”
It was Anzel and Lynette. As they stood and pointed out where everyone they were curious about was, another person arrived.
“Do you all have that much free time on your hands?”
It was Lynokis on her usual run around the island.
“What block are you in, Leeno?” Fressa asked.
“Block F, twenty-fourth match, if I recall correctly. Should be around the end of day two.”
“So we’re all separated. Well, I guess that’s to be expected when we’re not all in the same division.”
“Seems we can take it easy for our first matches.”
“I hope so.”
Fressa, Lynokis, Gandolph, Anzel, Lynette—none of Nia’s disciples would be facing against each other in their first matches.
All of them were various levels of relieved. None of them were confident they could win against the others. The last thing they wanted was to be pitted against each other in round one. They had all entered the tournament with their own goals. They couldn’t afford to lose so easily.
Money, trust, pride as a martial artist... Of the many reasons they had, there was one they all had in common: They didn’t want to put on a terrible display in front of Nia. They didn’t want to hear a disapproving, “How disappointing,” nor did they want to hear a comforting, “You did your best. Don’t beat yourself up.” They were also quite afraid of a scathing, “What a pathetic display. I’ll have to train you from scratch.”
Lynokis and Lynette in particular felt a unique pressure due to being bodyguards of the Liston family. If they didn’t make a good impression here, they may find themselves removed from their positions. Thinking of such an outcome always made them break out in a cold sweat, so they would shut down that line of thought quickly.
“I won’t lose, no matter what,” Lynokis swore to Gandolph before she returned to her run. If the two bare-handed fighters won all their matches, they would eventually come face-to-face in the ring.
“I still don’t see how I can win this...” Gandolph muttered bitterly to himself as he also left.
“I’m going to pray we don’t get matched up until the end. If we do wind up fighting before then, though, I won’t hold back,” Lynette said upon her own departure.
“So, uh...how much do I needta pay you to get you to throw?” The underworld dweller moved to strike an illegal deal.
“Mmmm, depends.” The other underworld dweller answered without hesitation. “If we both make it to the finals, then you gotta give me at least three hundred million. I’ll go down if you pay up.”
“Three hundred million? You’re a pricey gal, ain’tcha?” But he was pleased that the option was there. Anzel walked away while seriously considering it.
“All I’m really after is the money, you know...” Fressa muttered, watching Anzel’s back.
Fressa was beginning to think that she had misjudged her opportunity to back out. She’d thought that if she didn’t disappear before her identity was revealed, she’d never be able to return to Altoire again. She’d never imagined the tournament would become such a huge event with so many eyes on it.
But she could almost certainly aim for the win. If Lynette and Anzel ended up against each other in the semifinals, so long as they tired each other out, no matter who won the match, Fressa may really stand a chance. It would be even better if they knocked each other out completely.
It was because her chance to win wasn’t just a pipe dream that she had mistimed her chance to quit. Honestly, she wanted to drop out right now and leave. Her instincts were screaming at her that that was the correct choice to make. But as much as she knew it was the right choice, she couldn’t resist the allure of five hundred million krams.
“I’d like ten million at the minimum, though.”
Having drawn so much attention just to walk away with nothing would hurt—it would mean that she’d taken all that risk for no reason. That was why even just ten million would suffice. If she could just place in the top three, she would receive her own share of the reward money. Second place would receive fifty million and the two third place fighters who lost in the semifinals would win ten million each. There would be no match to determine third place, which was why there would be two of them in third.
Fressa wanted to stick it out until the semifinals. They wouldn’t know the third day matchups until later, so her decision would be entirely dependent on that. The last chance she would have to disappear without a trace would be three days from now. From that point on, she would have to be in constant fear of her identity being revealed.
But it was five hundred million krams. Five hundred million! She couldn’t resist that.
No one remained in front of the bulletin board.
It was the day before the matches would begin. Starting tomorrow, huge crowds of people would gather day after day, filling the whole island with life. Not just the tournament island, but the capital too, and even the rural areas. You could watch from anywhere so long as you had a MagiPad, after all.
The event that the Kingdom of Altoire had been preparing for over a year was entering its final phase. It would no doubt enter the annals of the kingdom’s history. Various goods had been imported, people had traveled far, and the economy had prospered. All of it was for the sake of this martial arts tournament.