Day six of the tournament, it was time for the fourth round. Sixteen fighters were left, leaving only eight matches for the day. The match schedule dictated that today would only be for the quarterfinals, but that also meant that we only had a small number of matches today. Would people really travel all this way just to watch eight matches?
Clearly, my worries were for naught; the audience seats were filled again, and the festive atmosphere still filled the air. It must have been thanks to the arrangements they’d made after all—the MagiPads that let you see past matches and also if you were lucky, you’d get an opportunity to talk to the competitors themselves.
Well, whatever the case, with so few matches left, our production meetings barely took any time. There wasn’t anything we needed to talk at length about, after all.
We finally had a bit of free time, so we decided to record the island events before the rounds started, from interviews with the spectators to fan service from the fighters. We’d been leaving that all to the Altoire and Silver production crews until now, but I’d been curious about it all myself, especially after that moment with Anzel yesterday. It was fun when unexpected things happened.
“It’s Nia!”
Even though there was still time before lunch, there were already so many visitors here. Me and many of the other competitors were constantly being called out to. It was great to see.
“Are you here to watch the matches? Or are you here on a date?” I decided to interview whatever people I came across.
“I’m here to support my Lady Freeze!”
Here for Fressa, are you? Well, she was still in the running. But she’d seemed more uncomfortable recently. She was a member of the underworld, so it could have been that she was feeling the pressure of standing out. Honestly, “standing out” would have been a bit of an understatement at this point. The sixteen remaining fighters were practically famous in Altoire.
Even so, the defeated fighters were all around, cheerfully interacting with the visitors. They didn’t appear to be dwelling on their losses, or rather, their losses didn’t appear to have much of an effect on them. There was the large warrior, Jinatan; the half-elf, Lestra, the martial artist who used the sai... Even that nine-section chain sword user that left one hell of an impression on me. The tygre brothers were assisting with the recording too, and I was sure I saw Headsplitter Geeg somewhere—he stood out when he was standing up, but less so when he was sitting down, so I couldn’t quite spot him from here.
“Hah hah hah hah hah! Do you like me? You do, don’t you?” Tohaulow, after losing to Gandolph yesterday, was laughing away. It seemed she was back to form after receiving magic treatment. From my eyes, she had suffered quite a grievous injury, but now, she was surrounded by lots of small children and giving them piggyback rides. Were they children from the academy? Wait, no, they should be in class right now. They must’ve been children from abroad, then.
Whatever the case, I was happy to see it. I was thankful that she was willing to help bring excitement to the tournament even after losing her match. If I had been in that position, I’d probably have been so frustrated with myself at having lost on such a big stage that I’d end up absorbing myself in my training right away.
Or...maybe not? If I fought with all of my strength, I might have felt quite refreshed after it. I couldn’t say for sure because I had no memories of losing.
“Nia!”
Ah, Hildetaura. Surprisingly, she wasn’t with her production crew, and instead just had two members of staff that looked like bodyguards with her.
“Nia, do you have a free moment?”
In fact, it seemed like she had come searching for me.
“I’m recording right now, but I think I have some time.” I was really in charge of the recording of the matches—this part was usually left to Hildetaura and Reliared. We were just doing spontaneous recordings right now, so we could stop at any time. We were just doing it because we were here. Hell, Bendelio could even do it himself.
“Since all three of us happen to be here, I was thinking we could get a portrait of us all drawn. I do not think this chance will arise again for the rest of the tournament.”
Was she referring to Rikelvita’s booth?
“I think it’ll be fine for me to go, but what about Relia?”
“It will be fine. We will be recording it, after all.”
Ah, this isn’t a suggestion for the purpose of having a commemorative picture, but for magivision. Okay, I’m on the same page now. This is work. Or maybe it would be nicer to view it as us getting something nice done that they could record on the side. Hildetaura didn’t often mix her business and her personal lives.
“If that’s what it’s for, then go ahead.”
After gaining permission from Bendelio, I left our crew’s recording and went to get pictures drawn with the girls. We got one picture each, all with slightly different poses and positioning. Apparently, all it took was our presence to draw a crowd, a whole group gathering while we were getting drawn. Like Hildetaura had said, we hadn’t really managed to gather as a trio recently, so it must’ve been a rare enough sight to catch the general public’s eye.
And so, after spending the morning doing whatever I pleased, it was time for the matches again.
With my crew back in our usual spot, we started livecasting the recording right away.
“Today’s eight matches will be the quarterfinals of this tournament. Slowly but surely, we near the finals. Out of ten thousand initial competitors, only the most elite of our fighters have made it here—all of these matches will be filled with unpredictable drama. Let’s watch over our fighters, cheer them on, and let ourselves be absorbed by their performances. What you’re about to see, you’ll never get the chance to see again. Well, unless you have a MagiPad—then you can watch the rebroadcasts all you want!”
After putting in a shameless marketing line, I continued.
“The fights I am personally most interested in today are the matches between Sauzan and Lynette, and Anzel and Freeze. Both will be in the second half. Sauzan has made it through his matches without having to take any risks. His match against the famous adventurer, Lestra, became a very popular topic of conversation. He is a skilled fighter with unbelievable calm that goes far beyond simply being stable. His opponent of the day, Lynette, also had a notable fight with the Kenki, Asuma Hinoki. In order to counter Asuma’s shield-shattering skill with the wooden sword, she used an invisible attack. It has become a popular topic of discussion in martial arts circles as they debate how she did it and what sort of skill it was.”
This was another match where I wasn’t able to predict the outcome. Right now, I thought Lynette was stronger, but I still wasn’t quite sure how strong Sauzan really was. Both of their styles placed emphasis on the fundamentals.
Just how will this match play out?
I could see it becoming a long fight, but on the other hand, it may end surprisingly quickly.
“Next, the match between Anzel and Freeze. Anzel has shown no signs of struggle in any of his matches thus far, while Freeze has been fighting fiercely since the preliminaries. From my prediction, they are equally strong, so I am very curious to see how their match will turn out.”
Finally, my students would clash. That said, it was probably a little awkward fighting each other as two underworld dwellers. But things were finally heating up.
According to the rules of the tournament, fighters through to the next round couldn’t receive magic treatment. As a result, many of the remaining competitors were injured. So many had already dropped out along the way—it would have been stranger if they hadn’t.