Meanwhile, on the opponent’s bench:
“I’M QUITTING!!!” Ryan screamed at the top of his lungs.
“You’re just going to have to suck it up and get out there, Leader.”
“NOOOO!!! Nobody told me I was gonna have to fight!!!”
“Those are the rules.”
“Damn you, Goliath! Some ‘Master Mercenary’ you turned out to be! You’re just a vagrant, a bum! I want my money back!” Ryan shouted as Goliath returned to the bench.
But Goliath simply kept walking without so much as acknowledging the glare on Ryan’s face.
“HEY! I paid a fortune for this, remember?!”
At this, Goliath exhaled. Then he turned and tossed something to Ryan’s feet—a leather satchel with silver coins inside. This was the payment Ryan had originally given Goliath.
“Wh... You bastard!”
“I’m done here, pallll. I came here excited to crush some weaklings, but right when I finally get a singles match, the lady foooorfeits? I’m so pent up, I’m gonna diiiie,” he explained in a singsong voice. But in the next moment, all cheer and jest evaporated from his tone. “Then again... I did get an unexpected boon, I suppose. I ought to thank you... now I have something worthwhile to report to Lord Maxwell.”
“Huh? What unexpected boon? I’m totally screwed because of you!”
But the mysterious adventurer simply ignored him and walked off. “See ya.”
“Rrgh... Goddamn it...!” Ryan growled through gritted teeth. The plan was to let a mercenary do all the work so they could take home the trophy without him having to risk his own skin. This all worked out perfectly fine last year! What makes this year so different, damn it?!
“Man... Our team’s nothing without Tanya,” one of the senior party members lamented.
“Th-That’s not true! We don’t need her!”
“But without her, the work’s starting to pile up, and now we’re in the red for this month...”
“Urk...!”
“It’s not just the accounting, either. We’re behind on our Guild paperwork, too. Tanya always used to do it months in advance.”
“It’d end up riddled with corrections, of course, but still... looking back, she really did a lot for us.”
The other party members all nodded in agreement.
“How come we had to fire her, anyway...?” someone whispered.
“And now we have to fight her?” whined someone else.
Damn it, why are you all taking HER side?! I’m a nice guy! I was just trying to make sure she wouldn’t end up an old maid! Besides, you all totally agreed we should do it... and now look at her! She’s totally gonna kick my ass!
Ryan thought back to the murderous aura he’d sensed that night at the Little Vixen... and shuddered.
“...Alright. There’s only one thing to do,” Ryan muttered. He straightened up to his full height, and everyone heaved a sigh of relief before he announced: “I’M GONNA FORFEIT, TOO!!!”
“Don’t be stupid, Leader!”
“Yeah! You heard the crowd out there! If you forfeit, they’ll never hire us for another gig as long as we live!”
“Just go out there and let Tanya whoop your ass so we can get second place, okay?!”
“Shut up! I’m not fighting!” Ryan shouted. But before he could leave the arena—
“Aww, what’s the matter, Ryan?”
“Huh?! Oh! Katherine!”
Indeed, there stood Katherine, wearing her new change of clothes and blocking his exit. While this new style was decidedly more modest, the frills and elaborate needlework on the sleeves suited her personality nicely. Relieved, Ryan hurried over to her.
“I... I was so worried about you!”
“Says the guy who didn’t even bother to check up on me.”
“Huh?”
“You know how to say all the right things, but when I need you the most, you’re never there. You’re an asshole.”
“Wh... Excuse me? You can’t talk to me like that! Thanks to your epic screw up, I’m totally fucked!”
“I beg your pardon? You’ve been skipping out for far too long. It’s time for you to pay your dues, you coward! And besides...” She smiled faintly. “Just listen to that crowd!”
“Huh?”
He shifted his focus to the sound in the distance. At some point the audience had stopped booing at Laplace, and now...
“You can do it, Lilium!”
“Go get him, Tanya!”
“Kick his ass!”
“Is Stone Cold Stunner feeling okay?!”
“You’re a badass, Nadine!”
...nearly the entire arena was cheering in support of Tanya and her friends—mostly female voices, but with some male voices mixed in as well.
“You don’t need me to tell you what’ll happen if you forfeit now, right? So suck it up and get out there, Ryan.”
“Eeek!”
The other party members glared daggers at him as they slowly boxed him in.
“Aah... wh... AAAAAAAAGGGGHHHH!!!”
Ryan’s scream echoed across the stadium. And with the fanfare heralding the start of the third and final round, the crowd’s cheers grew to a deafening roar...