The matches continued, and the best eight proceeded to the next round. My regulars Minerva, Meryl, and even Garmr were among them. Baron Ethel had also participated in the tournament today, but he’d been defeated in the first round.
“Oh my, and I was so close...”
“You were just narrowly defeated, Baron Ethel,” I consoled him.
“Indeed. I want to show all of you my good side in the next tournament!”
Apparently, those of nobility had a lot of free time, so Baron Ethel came down here every day to participate in matches. His official stance was that he was down here to obtain the universal elixir from the ten-rim game for the king, but his subordinates were the ones actually taking it on. They used up at least 3,000 rims every day but still hadn’t been able to obtain a new elixir.
✦ ✦ ✦
The tournament progressed, and the four semifinalists were determined. Minerva and Meryl were two of them.
“They got me!” Mira cried, making a rare show of displeasure. She was normally so peaceful and easygoing, but it appeared she was extremely frustrated that she hadn’t made it into the final four.
“There, there. Let’s hold an after-party for the tournament tonight with everyone. It’ll be my treat.”
Mira perked up. “Really? Wow! Where will we be going?”
My shop was turning a profit, and Meryl, Mira, and Minerva were always helping me out.
“I heard that!” Minerva shouted. “You’re inviting Mira on a date right now, aren’t you?!” Why did he sound like he was about to cry? And where had he even come from anyway?
“I only said that we should have an after-party for the tournament with everyone. You’ll be coming too, right?”
Minerva deflated a little. “Y-Yes. Of course.”
“Now go and blow them all away. I’ll let whoever wins drink some high-grade booze.”
“That’ll be a piece of cake. (I’ll definitely beat everyone!)”
“Think again!” Meryl said, butting in. “My Red Shoulder and I will be taking that victory, thank you very much.” She then turned to me. “Mister Yusuke, let’s make a ranking table after the tournament. I’m going to make sure my name will be forever etched beside the word ‘champion’!”
“I hear ya. Now go do your best.”
In high spirits, the two of them faced the semifinals head-on. Unfortunately for Meryl, though, her Red Shoulder was taken out by veteran adventurer Mister Komusai and his Jujiong.
“Jeez, it should be against the rules to stretch its arms out to attack from behind!” Meryl huffed angrily. However, dishing out an attack like that while maneuvering the model at the same time required a lot of skill. All you could say was that her opponent’s mana management skills were a cut above.
On the other hand, Minerva easily took down a naginata-wielding Gugurecas and moved on to the finals.
“You’re crazy strong, Minerva! There’s no one else out there who can move a Mobile Force as smoothly as you!” one spectator called.
“And that’s not all,” Meryl agreed. “Your sword-wielding abilities were on a whole different level to begin with.”
Minerva was so strong, even Meryl could only meekly sing her praises of him.
In the final round, it was Minerva’s Kian against Komusai and his Jujiong that had torn down Meryl, but with a lightning-fast thrust and a blinding flash, Kian won.
“Congratulations, Minerva. You were amazing,” I said.
“It was nothing... (I’m happy! I’m super-duper happy! Yay! ♡)”
I turned to Meryl. “I’m sorry, Meryl.”
“Waah! My Red Shoulder...” Meryl’s model was damaged, and she’d lost, ending up in fourth place.
“Now then, I’ll hand our top three winners their prizes, specially from Dagashi-ya Yahagi!” I gave each winner their prize, commending them on their bravely fought battles.
“You folks were all super into this,” I called out to the crowd, “so I’ll probably start up another tournament soon. Will you all be participating?”
“Yeaaah!!!”
The tournament ended on a high note, with the venue exploding into huge roars of excitement. And thus concluded the event.