“This stuff really is amazing.”
It was day four of the main tournament. Lynokis was in her room fixing her disguise. Looking at her face in the mirror, she couldn’t help but marvel at the quality of the most luxurious aristocratic makeup once more. It really didn’t come off. The staff had said it wouldn’t when she’d bought it at the magic pharmacy, and clearly they had been telling the truth. No matter how much she’d sweated or rubbed at her face this past week, the disguise had stayed put.
The makeup was much closer to a kind of potion, and the secret behind it... Well, Lynokis had it explained to her, but she was so clueless about magic that it all went in one ear and out the other. Basically, it was magic makeup. Once the product settled into the skin, you could remove it without disturbing the look, so you could wear makeup with none of the feeling of it on your face. Even washing your face didn’t take it off. No wonder it had been so expensive; it made life so much easier.
Lynokis had been using it since preliminaries, so she could attest to its effectiveness. The effects would start wearing off after a week, but it only wore off gradually, so there was plenty of time to reapply before it fully wore off. (On a related note, there was a potion to remove the makeup too, similar to what was used to remove Nia’s magic hair dye.)
“Okay, let’s do this.”
After pumping herself up, Lynokis left her room. Now that she’d reapplied her makeup, she didn’t need to worry that it would start wearing off in the middle of a match. Knowing that her identity wouldn’t be revealed made it much easier for her to focus on her fight. After all, her opponent today would definitely not let her win easily.
Starting today, matches would only be held in the afternoon.
The number of competitors in the main matches had started at around three hundred. That number had been cut in half after the first and second days, and the tourney then started in earnest on the third day. Now that the first matches of the tourney were over with, there were roughly seventy-five fighters left. The organizers said it was a number that allowed for an even split without needing to work with anyone being allowed to automatically qualify, but since that number combined both the weapon and bare-handed divisions, it all became a little complicated. For the fighters, all they needed to remember was that they had one match a day.
By the end of day four, the second matches of the tourney, those seventy-five competitors would be cut in half again, so they decided to only have matches in the afternoon taking into account how fast they went by.
At least, that had been the plan, but because of the rule that had been added the other day, a number of fighters had already dropped out, the injuries they sustained having been too serious to continue. Lynokis could guess who those might’ve been. If someone’s match ended in a narrow victory, chances were the damage dealt to them would make fighting in the next match a hopeless endeavor. Unfortunately, they just had to accept that reality.
In any case, very few matches dragged on. She was fairly sure all the matches would be finished by evening.
“It’s Leeno!”
“Leeno’s here! Leeno!”
A whole crowd of spectators were loitering by the entrance to the arena. The moment they saw Lynokis, they erupted into cheers. There was still time before the matches began, so they must’ve been waiting to see the competitors enter.
The sight of such a massive crowd of people started to make all the work feel worth it.
With that thought, Lynokis responded with a friendly wave. The staff trying to hold the crowds back were clearly struggling, so she quickly made her way inside.
“Zeon’s here too!” someone yelled.
Lynokis turned around. The moment she saw the wolf beastkin walking toward her, she swallowed nervously. She could feel the murderous aura emanating off of him. Each step he took felt like another corpse would fall to his feet—that was how dangerous he felt right now. Never mind being motivated, he was the definition of a starving wolf.
Ever since the prelims, Lynokis had thought that Zeon wasn’t normal. But that was to be expected. Sonicspeed Zeon was so well-known that even those outside of the adventuring scene knew his name. His experience and achievements were not to be ignored. That was why he was incomparable to someone like Leeno, whose achievements were all a sham.
“I won’t lose.” Those were the words he left as he walked past Lynokis and disappeared into the building, not even stopping for a moment.
Lynokis silently watched as he passed, and then let out the breath that she had been holding.
This match might be a bit of a doozy.
After we interviewed the audience members in the morning, we entered the arena and stood at the ready beside the ring—this was where the Liston production crew would be stationed for the rest of the day yet again.
Still, the crowd sure was excited. Today’s matches wouldn’t start until the afternoon, but they were already here so early in the morning. I would say that they were too restless, but that wasn’t really true. Just like the capital, the tournament island was overrun with a festive air.
Delicious scents were wafting from the several pop-up stalls near the arena, and MagiPads had been set up around the venue showing interviews and previous matches. Naturally, we were selling merchandise as well—but the main attraction was undoubtedly the presence of the fighters themselves.
The defeated fighters were separated from those still in the tournament, moved to the losers’ lodgings—as mean as it was to call it that—but they weren’t required to leave immediately. This was where the organizers stepped in. They’d approached several of the losing competitors and asked them if they were able and willing to stick around until the end of the tournament to interact with the spectators and provide some fan service. They even offered to pay for the losers’ daily expenses. It was basically day labor.
Even those who lost were likely still curious who would win, so a good number of them wouldn’t want to leave the island right away. Many of them had traveled from afar, after all. If someone had made it to the main part of the tournament at all, even if they lost in their first match, then they were likely someone who lived off of their strength. That made it more likely for them to be curious about the strength of their fellow fighters.
Those losing fighters who remained would then meet with the audience. For the audience, it would be like those faces they’d been watching on magivision for the past few days were now here in front of them. They might even be able to meet the fighter they’d been rooting for.
It seemed it had been received well. The fighters themselves were also realizing that they’d had fans all along and that surprisingly led to further work—there was strangely quite the interest in them. In fact, those tygre beastkin brothers had become quite famous due to the demand that came with popularity, even though they had lost in the prelims. It turned out they’d been really popular with the children.
Honestly, it felt like all the beastkin were pretty popular. Probably because they weren’t all that common in Altoire. They were quite a combative people, so a country known for its naive peace likely wasn’t that attractive to them.