I see. His vitality. Gandolph did certainly seem like he had a lot of it when you saw how tough his body was.
“What about his eye? Was it gouged out?”
“No. But he has been blinded. If he’d gotten treatment right away, he’d have been fine, but with how long it’s been, it’s a coin toss whether or not he’ll regain his sight.”
Really now. Well, I’m sure it’ll be fine.
“Let’s do it.”
If his vision didn’t return, we could just take out his eye and regenerate it. Since it wasn’t congenital, that would be enough to cure it.
Thankfully, his sight did return as normal. Perhaps this was also thanks to his vitality.
“I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to talk with you more, but I’ll leave that for the next time we meet, should the opportunity present itself.”
Gandolph’s and Lynokis’s treatments were complete. Lynokis was going to return to the main hall to watch the other final round, but Gandolph would need to remain here for a while to rest. He was still unconscious, anyway.
According to the underground doctor, she’d had the other doctors leave in advance of my arrival. “I’m about to do some really difficult magic treatment. If you’re here, it’ll disrupt my concentration, so please go elsewhere for now,” she’d told them. And then, since she’d called me directly by name, it was impossible to hide the truth. So when I asked directly what she was going to do about me, she’d essentially said, “See you next time.”
If the opportunity presents itself, huh?
“Will there be such an opportunity?” I pondered.
“You can’t say there definitely won’t be, right? We did meet for a second time.”
In other words, there was always the possibility of a third.
“I don’t like getting involved in troublesome business, but I do have a great interest in your medical skill. If there’s something I don’t know, I want to learn it. But we don’t have time to sit and chat right now.”
Right. Maybe in the future, but right now? Definitely not.
“You won’t try and actively find me again?”
“Good question... No matter what way you slice it, you’re not normal. All I want to do is learn as much about medicine as possible, not get involved in trouble. Getting involved with you means doing just that, right? Sorry, but I’m still not ready for that.”
I see. If that was how she thought, then I likely wouldn’t need to force her to keep her mouth shut.
She continued, “If there ever comes a time in the future that I hit a roadblock and feel I need to pursue my medical studies further, I’ll likely want to find you. But only then.”
“I understand. May I ask your name?”
“Shine. A magic physician from the major hospital in the capital.”
“I’ll be sure to remember that.”
Would the day ever come that we met again? I wasn’t too bothered whether it did or it didn’t, but I’d at least keep note of her name.
I actually ended up meeting Shine again practically right away. Specifically, today.
“H-Huh? Nia?”
When I exited the infirmary, there was a whole gathering of medical staff standing outside. They must’ve been worried enough about what was going on inside to wait nearby.
Crap, I can’t let them know why I was here. But now they’ve seen me leave. There’s no way I can make up a believable excuse.
Fine, in that case—
“We asked her to hear our wills.”
The one who spoke was Lynokis, who had stepped out with me.
“Both Gandolph and I had suffered serious injuries,” she continued. “We were in critical condition... If things did not improve, we wished for her to speak our final words on magivision. I realize we didn’t necessarily have to call on Nia specifically. She just came to mind first because I’d seen her so often on magivision recently. It appears I was not thinking straight.”
Ahhh, I understood her play. She was trying to make it seem like I had made an impression on her, since I’d been doing all the match commentary, and she was so out of it she just called for the first person she could think of. Will this really work?
“O-Oh, I see...”
Honestly, I wasn’t sure if they believed her, but at the very least, they didn’t seem as if they were going to dig any further.
Thank the gods. I was about ready to just knock them out and then pretend they’d been seeing things. I really did not want to have to raise my hand against innocent doctors, though, so the thought of doing it had bothered me greatly.
“Treatment’s complete,” Shine announced as she joined us. “Things were touch and go for a bit there, but they’re fine now. Gandolph’ll need to rest. I really think Leeno needs rest too, but she wants to go back and watch the matches in the hall, so I’ve decided to respect her wishes.”
Okay, good. I’ll take that as our excuse worked.
Lynokis and I slipped out while the doctors were talking.
“We’ll part ways here, then.”
Lynokis then separated from me to go and watch the last match on the MagiPad in one of the competitor’s waiting rooms. We had a lot to talk about since we’d been apart for over a month, but today was the last day of the tournament. Lynokis was prepared to play the part of Leeno the adventurer until the end, so she never said anything more to me, and I never said anything more to her.
I returned straight to the ringside without making any detours. Bendelio looked genuinely relieved when I returned. I must’ve cut it close.
Now, it’s time for the grand finale.
The bare-handed finals had come to an end. With Leeno as the victor, her previous matches were being shown again on magivision as a little intermission while waiting for the weapon finals to begin. They must have been setting up for it right now.
It had been an interesting match. It seemed like the crowd had been enjoying it, and even through the MagiPad, it had been exciting.
But for everyone gathered here, this was where the game really began.
After a bit of a wait, the white-haired kid returned to the screen.
“The finals of the weapons division will begin momentarily.”
It was finally time.
“We’ll finally see who wins this game.”
As Kaffes had said, there was only one match left. This illegal gamble between the villains of society was reaching its climax.
Their little group of bad guys had been gathering in a special warehouse at the port of the capital for the past few days. Every day, they watched the matches on the MagiPad, and cheered or despaired at the fate of the fighter they had bet on.
It was a gamble of fifty billion krams, after all. It was high-risk, high-reward. And some of them had already lost.
Freeze—the competitor that Frozen Geitz had bet on—had dropped out. Frozen had been incredibly distraught at this news, thrashing about in anger, but no matter how much of a tantrum he threw, a loss was a loss. He no longer had the opportunity to win.
And now, he was looking incredibly pale. He’d have no choice but to pay up now after all.
Even the oldies from Wu Haitong, Keya Kin and Zen Fowah, had lost their bets. In fact, their fighters had ended up clashing against each other. Lynette Bran and Asuma Hinoki had faced off and Lynette had been victorious. Not that it mattered much. Lynette lost right after.
Despite that, they were both calm. In fact, they looked like they were enjoying watching the remaining matches. They would ramble away, making comments while watching the MagiPad as they drank and drank and drank their liquor. It went on and on, and they always looked as if they were truly having so much fun. They were saying the kind of shit that made the white-haired kid seem way more reliable.
And so, no matter who won this match, Frozen, Keya, and Zen would all have to pay up. Anzel and Sauzan had both been bet on. No matter which fighter won, there would be a payout.