“Allow me to state the rules once more.”
It was the third day. For the competitors, it was time for their second rounds.
“Are you busy today as well, Nia?”
“Yes, I will be recording almost the whole day.”
Bright and early in the morning, I was eating breakfast with my family on our airship, watching Hildetaura’s live broadcast from the front of the arena. All of us were here—my father Ornitt, my mother Allieu, and Neal after his fabulous Wingroad performance. It was the first time we’d all been together in a while.
Right now, our paternal grandfather—the previous Lord—was managing the Liston territories while we were away. Our parents were attending the tournament as aristocrats, which meant this was an outing of an official capacity. They’d asked grandfather to watch over the house while they were away because the rest of the tournament would take about a week.
I hadn’t seen my grandfather in so long. We at least exchanged letters sometimes, though. It sounded like Neal had been dropping by to visit during the long vacation periods, so I suppose it wasn’t too much of a big deal if I didn’t. Apparently, he watched me on magivision when he could, so if he wanted to complain about not getting to see me, he should make all his complaints to Bendelio directly.
After the initial rounds on the first and second days, we would move on to a tourney-style elimination format. As confusing as it made it, this would be known as the first round of the tourney. That was what Hildetaura was explaining on magivision now. Naturally, I already had all of this hammered into my brain. This was where the fun would really start, after all.
“All of you will be watching from the VIP seating, yes?” I asked. Neal might have been a student, but he was also the successor to the Liston name. Watching the tournament was part of his duties in a way. “Which means that I will be the only one doing something different.”
Due to the letter I received from the king yesterday, my work had changed to giving ringside commentary for the full day, and I imagined it would remain that way for the rest of the tournament. At this rate, I wouldn’t get the opportunity to join my family in watching the matches.
As Hildetaura had explained, starting today, the matches would be in a tourney style. Each fighter would fight one match each day (except for a few in the smaller bare-handed division) until only one was left standing.
Of the additional rules, the most important one was that the winner of the match was not allowed to receive treatment. Or, more specifically, magic treatment. They were allowed to use creams and ointments, and bandage up any wounds, of course, but any injuries that would take a long time to heal such as broken bones or deep cuts were only allowed to be treated with the most basic methods. If the fighter didn’t withdraw, they would enter the next match bearing those wounds.
That meant that for the fighters, another priority would be determining how to get through the matches with as few injuries as possible.
Some competitors might have assumed that they would be able to get magic treatment after each match—no, some definitely had. The additional rule hadn’t been announced until now, and they’d been allowed to receive treatment in the preliminaries and after their first match. There were probably fighters worried by this news.
The rule was naturally to try and prevent any deaths at the tournament. If magic treatment was readily available, the competitors could get too reckless and decide to fight with their life on the line, and that made it all the more likely that they would die in the process.
All they had to do was win a few more times and the five hundred million krams would be within their grasp. They had to not let themselves be so tempted by the prize dangling in front of them that they took unnecessary risks. If they were willing to sustain potentially fatal injuries just to win, they could easily end up dying.
Even if we were to imagine a scenario in which there were no prize money on the line, there were martial artists like me who would risk everything for a good fight—there was no greater place for us to die than in battle. But there weren’t that many people passionate about martial arts to such an extreme level. At least, I didn’t think so, but I couldn’t guarantee they weren’t there.
There were a lot of idiots among us martial artists. There were occasionally those who would put their lives on the line purely for some childish pride to prove that they were the strongest. The additional rule was to try and dissuade any idiots like that. At the very least, it should dissuade them from being reckless until finals. Anyone who showed no care for their life regardless could just do what they wanted—so long as they didn’t get themselves killed, that is.
“I get the sense you’re working a bit too hard,” mother worriedly said.
I agreed. I was working too hard. Not just me, but Reliared, Hildetaura, and all the other production staff as well.
“This is the last of it. If we can just manage this, our schedules will open up for a while.” The only reason we were so busy right now was the martial arts tournament, after all. We were trying so hard because we’d never get this chance again. And, well...I was the one who’d suggested this ordeal in the first place.
“I see. Well, let’s all go on a trip as a family once the tournament is over, then,” father suggested.