The steel bathed in the pale moonlight was so beautiful that it sent shivers down my back. I was starting to understand those maniacs who found themselves enchanted by swords.
“Please give me some guidance. There’s a level much higher than myself, isn’t there?”
Well...
“At the end of the day, this is all we martial artists can do.”
Who was strong and who wasn’t? Fighting over something so small and petty was perfect for us.
Much more perfect than chatting.
We were now on day five of the main tournament, the third round of matches. Just like yesterday, the matches would take place in the afternoon. Since we were now down to only thirty-two competitors, there would be sixteen matches. This would be announced officially later, but we were given priority so we could prepare for recording.
Apparently, they were concerned about players withdrawing due to injury, so they’d filled in the gaps to prevent any wins or losses by default. It was just a little extra work from the organizers.
Still, we’re down to thirty-two fighters, are we? The end of the tournament was finally approaching. With so few competitors left, it was about time that the audience would be able to very clearly put names to faces.
Tomorrow would have eight matches, the day after would have four, and then we’d have four competitors left, leaving the finals for both the weapon and bare-handed divisions on the final day.
For now, all my students still remained. Naturally, if they ended up matched against each other, those numbers would decrease, but that still hadn’t happened yet.
The match of most interest to me today was the one between Gandolph and Tohaulow, that blue fox beastkin. I still couldn’t get a read on that girl. Just like Sauzan, all her matches until now seemed like she was barely breaking a sweat. There wasn’t anything particularly notable in her fighting style either, she was just strong. She’d taken no risks—in fact, she’d seemed like she was holding back.
Personally, I would’ve loved to have seen her and Zeon fight. As two lightweight beastkin, it would have likely devolved into a brawl of speed. It was fun to watch fighters who were skilled maneuverers since it was always so flashy.
It was hard for me to consider that Gandolph would lose this match, but Tohaulow was definitely hiding something up her sleeve. It was just a question of whether or not that would be enough to take down Gandolph.
How exactly would this girl fight? Gandolph’s victory was practically inevitable, so her fighting style would be the point of interest in this match.
All righty.
“Shall we get going?”
After having breakfast with my family, I’d had a meeting with Bendelio and the rest of the production crew. And now, it was time to head off to recording once again.
“It’s Nia!”
“Ah, Nia!”
Yes, yes, it’s me.
When we stepped off the airship and began heading for the arena, the crowds instantly began making a commotion when they saw me.
Yes, there was already a crowd by the arena. It seemed there were still plenty of stalls and opportunities to interact with the fighters, so there were lots of ways for the visitors to spend their time. Everything was just as successful as the day before.
The Altoire and Silver production crews were also recording the festivities. Apparently, the recordings of the competitors interacting with the regular citizens were being received well. Hildetaura and Reliared were probably off doing interviews somewhere right now.
“Hey, ain’t that the Liston prince’s little sister?!”
There was that deep voice again. How many times had I heard it now? Who the hell was he? Ugh, there’s too many people for me to try and pinpoint him... He seemed dangerous, like he could pose a potential risk to my brother, but I couldn’t figure out who it was. I wanted to question him to understand why the hell he was getting so excited.
Wait, huh?!
“Mr. Bendelio, could you wait a moment?”
“Huh? Oh, do you want to go see Relia?”
I was pointing to where Reliared and the Silver production crew were standing. The real thing that had caught my eye was who was in the middle of them all.
“Sure, so long as you don’t take too long.”
“Okay.”
If even Bendelio was saying that, then I definitely didn’t have much time. I’d better make it quick.
I stood to the side, waiting for them to wrap up recording, but then Reliared noticed me and came over. “What’s up, Nia?”
“I was wondering what you were doing.” And why Anzel was here. And Rikelvita. I wanted to figure out why these two were together.
“Oh, Rikel is sketching portraits of competitors and spectators together. Just as a little way to involve the fans.”
Wow, that sounds fun.
Rikelvita was the artist behind those paper plays on magivision. She wasn’t that famous, but she was well-known in certain circles as a brilliant artist. Her illustrations were beautiful and she worked fast. She was definitely the right person for the job. If the ones getting drawn could keep the picture, it would serve as a nice keepsake.
But the one I was interested in wasn’t her.
“And Anzel?”
Right now, Rikelvita was sitting in a stool drawing a couple—one of them was a losing competitor. Her name was... Uh, I forgot, but she was someone that Lynette had fought. If I recalled correctly, she was a martial artist who used sai as her weapons of choice.
Standing beside Rikelvita was Anzel, sometimes waving when the crowd would call his name. Whoa, whoa, what’s going on? Since when have you been someone so cheerful and sociable as to do fan service?
“He’s serving as Rikel’s bodyguard. When I brought up what we were doing and asked if he could help, he agreed.”
“He agreed?” Anzel did?
“Yeah. He’s not a stranger to Rikel and he said it was fine if all he had to do was stand beside her.”
You’re a member of the underworld, aren’t you? What are you doing?
There must have been a reason. I considered calling him over to ask, but it wouldn’t have been a good idea. Understanding he had a reason was good enough—if the teacher was too nosy, my student would end up hating me. I was very curious, but there was no time, so I put it aside for now. Besides, Rikelvita looked kind of happy. It would have been rude to interrupt.
“We are now on day five of the tournament—finally, we are approaching the climax.”
I was at my usual place by the ringside, giving my commentary.
“Now that we are this far into the tournament, all the matches are exciting to look forward to. Everyone left is a skilled fighter—anyone could win now. I am personally most interested in the fourth match today.”
I was fairly certain of how the rest of the matches would go. This was the only one I couldn’t predict.
“It is the match between Gandolph, a vice-deputy instructor of the Heavenstriker style, and Tohaulow, a blue fox beastkin. Although Gandolph defeated another beastkin, Zeon, in the preliminaries, it appears there remain doubts as to the nature of his win. People still question how Zeon could’ve been the one injured when he had kicked Gandolph. Tohaulow is another beastkin who specializes in speed—perhaps the doubts around Gandolph will be cleared up with this match.”
As I was giving my comments, the first match of the day began.
The matches went by smoothly, and before long, the fourth match was up. The controversial man and the fox-eared beastkin entered the ring.
“This will be a battle of fortified defense against nimble speed. Depending on how Tohaulow chooses to attack, she may struggle to deal damage to Gandolph. How will she choose to fight? This will be worth looking out for.”
Mixed in with the cheers of the crowd were the occasional jeers toward Gandolph. This had been the case for pretty much all of his matches, though, so it was pointless to take note of it at this point. It didn’t look like the man himself was all that bothered either. I had asked him about the doubts surrounding him during an interview, but it seemed he had been much more concerned about Zeon than his own reputation. He hadn’t intended to break Zeon’s leg and was worried he’d gone too far.