Yes, all he had to do was get stronger. If possible, stronger than even me.
Oh, right.
“Can I leave a message with you?”
I’d wanted to see Shine, but if she wasn’t here, then I may as well get Gandolph’s assistance.
Evening rolled around and a banquet began in the Silvers’ private airship. Hildetaura had said that they would hold an official banquet hosted by her father for everyone who assisted with the tournament at a later date. In other words, they would hold a wrap-up party. With an event of this size, there had to have been a lot of people involved. Without the king’s assistance, it would be difficult to rein them all in.
Tomorrow, my parents would return to our territory, and the Silvers would return to theirs. Hildetaura would remain on the tournament island for a few days to assist with the cleanup. Perhaps there were matters that could only be handled by a member of royalty. Neal and I would be returning to the academy tomorrow ourselves, so this would be the last day I’d get to spend on the island.
When the Silvers’ modest feast concluded, everyone went their separate ways and we Listons returned to our airship. I was quite tired, so I laid down on my bed for a while. The next time I awoke, it was midnight.
This should be late enough. Donning the wig that I thought had made its last appearance, I put on my coat and left the room. Sneaking through the quiet airship, I exited out onto the deck and made my way down the anchor rope as I had the previous night.
Now that the tournament was over, the island was no longer crawling with patrolling staff. The competitors without any reason to remain should also have made their way back to the royal capital by now. The only ones who remained were those who did have a reason to stay.
As expected, the night after the most exciting day of the tournament was quiet. It was the calm after a day of festivities.
I proceeded through that quiet, dark night toward the arena.
“A bit late, ain’tcha?”
Upon noticing me, the man standing by the entrance—Anzel—moved forward.
“Are they here?”
“Sure are.”
“Good. Sorry, but I’ll need you to stick around for a bit.”
“Yeah, ain’t a problem. Hurry up and go.”
Those were the only words we exchanged. I walked past Anzel and— Oh wait, before that.
“Congratulations on your victory.”
“Thanks. That last one was a bit of a fluke, though.”
He viewed it as a fluke, did he? It could have been, but I didn’t think he could definitively say so. The one thing I could say for certain was that in that moment, that one moment, Anzel had surpassed Sauzan. That was why he had won. That was the undeniable reality. Personally, it was something he should have been proud of, but, you know...
“As my student, I really would expect you to be able to win a round like that even while shaking a cocktail.”
“While makin’ up a drink? I wouldn’t be caught dead doin’ something crazy like that.”
After that bit of lighthearted banter, I continued inside.
I walked down the corridor reserved for the competitors—the same corridor I’d walked down many times over the course of the tournament. During the day, I had walked down it for work, but this time was different. Right now, I felt like one of the competitors.
The ring faintly came into view underneath the pale starlight.
And then, so did two people.
“Sorry to keep you waiting. You haven’t been here for too long, have you?”
I stepped up onto the ring and approached them—Sauzan and Tohaulow.
Sauzan’s face was entirely composed, but Tohaulow looked a little lost when she saw me. “U-Um... We were told that someone strong wanted to challenge us. Is that...you?” she asked.
Oh. Of course.
“Yes, yes, it’s me.”
I’d asked Gandolph to pass on a message for me: Someone insanely strong who could effortlessly take on the two of them at once wanted to meet them. If they were interested, they were to wait by the ring of the arena at night. I hadn’t told him to say that I wanted to challenge them, so they must’ve just assumed it was the case. The specifics weren’t important so long as we got the opportunity to fight.
I had also put a call out to my students—I asked for help in keeping other people away from here at this time. It wasn’t just Anzel who was keeping watch but my other students too. They should still have been stationed at the other entrances.
Just in case, I’d also asked Shine to stay back so that there would be a magic physician available at the infirmary. Now I wouldn’t need to worry if I ended up injuring either of them. I didn’t check to confirm after leaving the message, but surely she listened, right?
“Uh, we came here cause we heard there’s someone stronger than us,” Tohaulow repeated.
“Yes. I’m strong. Honestly, from what I saw of your matches, I could take you both down with one hand easily.”
“Easily, huh...”
Tohaulow was clearly unsure of how to take what I’d just said. It wasn’t that she didn’t believe me, it was that she couldn’t. She was still treating me like a child after all.
“You’re both Hero candidates from the Heroic Star Assembly, aren’t you? Oh, don’t think you need to answer me. I know you can’t. Honestly, I don’t really care what the answer is. Whatever the case, I felt that sending you home like this would be a bit of a shame.”
“A shame?”
“Well, neither of you got the chance to go all out, did you?”
The moment I said that, Tohaulow finally tensed up.
I’d thought to myself that it was a bit of a shame for them to have come all this way and not get to use their full strength, so why not set up a situation where they could? They’d helped considerably with hyping up the tournament after all—I owed them that much. In a way, it was like a personal gift from me to them. Though I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t also partly because I wanted to fight.
“The tournament wasn’t enough for you, was it? You were approaching it as if it wouldn’t be such a big deal if you lost. You weren’t in there desperately fighting to win. I sometimes noticed how easy you were finding it all.”