Lesten quietly clasped his hands, leg bobbing up and down, clearly unable to remain calm. He was the one who had bet on Sauzan. Given he was still young, he was feeling the pressure both at the idea of paying out the bet, and also at the idea of receiving fifty billion krams from each member of the underworld here—that would make a total of two hundred and fifty billion krams.
Actually, he might have been more concerned about what would happen if he lost the bet at this point. Since there were two people here who had bet on Anzel, if Anzel won, they wouldn’t need to pay up just fifty billion krams, they’d be paying one hundred billion, fifty for each. Fifty billion was already deadly enough, double that would be...well, he’d never get his life back.
“You good over there? Looking a bit pale,” Kaffes, one of the people who had bet on Anzel, smirked with an irritating amount of comfort.
“It’s just a fifty-billion-kram gamble. Calm down.” Grieg, the other who had bet on Anzel, sneered at him next.
“Sh-Shut up! This is just how I enjoy things!”
Everyone could see just how shaken Lesten was. The fact he was still able to act tough showed he might have actually been on the courageous side of the younger generation.
Kaffes sent a signal with his eyes to the black-suits. Get ready, he was telling them. The only one who noticed was the one man keeping his eyes fixed firmly on Kaffes’s movements—Grieg.
Someone knocked on the door of the waiting room before opening it.
During the majority of the tournament, these huge rooms had been filled with people. Now, though? Only one man remained.
“Anzel, you’re up,” a staff member informed him.
Anzel stood. He was the last one left in this room. His opponent was likely similarly waiting alone in a different room.
“Please wait here.”
He was stopped in the corridor right at the entrance to the ring. Beyond the darkness was a large ring bathed in light. The eyes of the crowd, the deafening voices... It was a place where all sorts of attention would gather.
“Man, I really do not belong here...”
“Sorry?”
Anzel had muttered so quietly that the staff member hadn’t picked up what he’d said. “It’s nothin’,” he said, before clamping a cigarette between his lips.
“You’re certainly calm,” another man said, stepping up beside him.
It was Sauzan.
There were several paths into the ring, so it was possible for them to go through different entrances, but it seemed Sauzan wanted to walk out with him. Or he was just led there by the staff.
“I may not look it, but deep down, I’m shittin’ myself.” Anzel lit his cigarette and puffed out the smoke.
He wasn’t exactly lying. He didn’t care so much about the prospect of fighting in a match on a huge stage—it was having so many eyes on him in broad daylight that was frightening. He genuinely believed he did not belong somewhere that was so blindingly bright.
“But it ain’t like panickin’ now’s gonna do me any good. Hell, how are you so calm about this?”
“The only thing I’m capable of is fighting,” Sauzan replied. “If all I have to do is my usual to the best of my ability, then I have no reason to be nervous.”
A very straightforward answer. Anzel was starting to think that they were similar. The only thing he could be proud of was that his body was on the tough side and that he was a little strong.
“You used to be a bodyguard, right?” Sauzan asked. “And yet you seem pretty damn strong.”
“Because I trained. What about you? You came from the Kingdom of Slengradd, right? The media’s sayin’ you’re one of those Heroic Star Assembly folks. Are you?”
“O-Oh, uh, n-no...”
“Dude, you gotta work on your poker face.”
Sauzan was a funny guy. One of those people who was obviously hiding something but was really bad at hiding that fact. Honestly, Anzel wasn’t sure how serious Sauzan was being about that. Was this all an act? Or was he really this ditzy?
“It’s almost time,” one of the staff warned.
Anzel snuffed out his cigarette in his portable ashtray, and then rotated his neck.
This was his last match. Now that he’d made it this far, he could not afford to lose.
“Say...you willin’ to throw for three hundred million?” Anzel was pretty sure what the answer would be, but he gave it a try anyway.
“Ha ha, funny joke. If my partner were here, she’d be rolling on the floor laughing.”
Yeah, didn’t think it would work. Guess I just gotta lock in.
“At long last, we have reached the final match of this martial arts tournament. Who will join Leeno on the throne of victory? Sauzan? Or Anzel? It is time to decide who will stand at the peak, having survived over ten thousand fighters. This is the one match of this long tournament that you should not miss. Have you been to the bathroom? Have you readied your drinks? Are you ready to watch this match to the end? In that case, it is time for the finals!”
The two men of the hour walked out a few seconds after my comment and the audience immediately erupted into cheers. Anzel and Sauzan were walking to the ring together. Anzel looked completely relaxed, same as usual. He looked a little tired too—it was hard to sense any motivation from here.
But that was just how he was presenting himself. Deep inside, he was a raging storm.
Of all my students, I’d always thought Anzel was the one with the most desire to fight. Years ago, he kept challenging me again and again, even though every time, I fought him off. He wasn’t someone who broke easily. Surprisingly...it could be that he still wasn’t content with how our battles had ended. He may even still be planning some sort of revenge. I couldn’t picture a version of Anzel that had truly given up.
His opponent was Sauzan Flameen, a young man with sharp features. Seeing them side by side, I realized they looked pretty close in age. I still hadn’t seen the depths of this man’s strength. He’d reached this point without me managing to figure out how strong he really was. Even against Lynette, he had barely struggled.
This is gonna be tough, Anzel. He’s strong.
From my analysis, Sauzan was the strongest one at this tournament. But, of course, I could defeat him easily even while calculating the area of a trapezoid.
The two of them stepped onto the ring and faced each other.
One was wearing a black suit without a blazer, the other was dressed in light adventurer’s gear.
One was wielding a metal pipe, the other a dulled sword.
They seemed like two people belonging to two very different worlds, but in the face of strength, they were equal. No matter who they may be, the strongest would win. That was all there was to say, but nonetheless everyone here wanted to know the answer.
They were holding their breath, waiting impatiently for the round to start.
The referee’s voice rang out loudly in the silent arena.
“Let the finals...begin!”
Just like the bare-handed finals, the weapon finals also came down to a clash.
Actually, that would have been inaccurate. It was more like Anzel was one-sidedly slashing at Sauzan. Straightforward, sharp, and all-around ferocious. As Anzel charged forward, Sauzan was calmly dealing with each strike. Anzel blocked and dodged several of the other man’s counters, but some still slipped through and hit him.
Perhaps that was fine. Sauzan was incredibly stable and his defense was solid. Attacking recklessly may not break his guard, but not attacking at all meant the chance wouldn’t exist. He was a steady fighter, and he showed in his battle with Lynette that he had a lot of stamina. If the match went on for too long, Anzel would be at a disadvantage. If his chi wavered, Sauzan would immediately push through. Anzel would have to end the match before that happened.