His laughter gradually increased in volume, and as he saw Alina’s expression grow more severe, Gose cackled like he couldn’t hold it back any longer. “All right, then! Pick one! Get it wrong, and the world will be destroyed! It all rests on your choice!”
The world will be destroyed?
Alina cocked her head in confusion—that was quite the dramatic way to put it.
Is he trying to say that my peaceful life will be ruined…? …I don’t really get it, but oh well.
Meanwhile, Jade stared at Alina with eyes wide in shock. “The world will be destroyed…? What is the meaning of this, Executioner? What’s the deal with that statuette…?!” he asked.
Alina fell silent. Cold sweat streaked down her temple.
I flicked off the head of the tournament prize.
Alina waffled about whether she should own up to it or not. If it was just Jade, then maybe she could tell him quietly. Wait, but if she could just get that figure, then her perfect crime would be complete. Just a little more, just one more step—
“I can’t say right now,” Alina said heavily.
The stinging tension of her remark must have gotten across to him, as Jade closed his mouth.
She gave him a look that said, I’ve got this, and he responded with a little nod.
Letting out a breath, Alina turned back to the prize.
She had to choose fast to end this stupid game. She was impatient. Because if you looked reeeeeeally closely at the real figure, you could tell that there was a strange crack in it…!
On top of that, though Jade had intuited that he needed to be silent right now, his eyes and intuition were unusually sharp. If the boy asked him to pick out the real one, he would inevitably examine the statuette. She had to end this game before he figured it out…!
“Hey, c’mon, Executioner, hurry and pick!” Gose jeered, stirring up Alina’s impatience. “Or should I give you a hint? If you get down on the ground and say, ‘Please tell me,’ then I wouldn’t mind—”
“The right one,” Alina said decisively.
“Huh?”
Gose had been smiling in amusement, but when Alina answered instantly, full of confidence, he blinked in puzzlement.
“The right one.”
“…”
A brief silence passed over the arena. Gose gazed at Alina for a while, their gazes clashing. Alina was absolutely sure. She could see a faint crack in the neck of the right figure.
“…Really? Are you really okay with that?”
“The right one.”
“I—I could give you a little more time…”
“The right one.”
“You should consider it a bit more…”
“The right one.”
“…”
“…”
At her side, Jade was getting anxious and worked up. The audience also must have caught on to the tension, as they were dead silent.
“—Tsk. Why’d you have it right…?”
The click of Gose’s tongue rang out in the quiet fighting arena. He stopped using the high-pitched voice of a boy and twisted his face in a hateful expression.
“This is no fun!” he yelled out in a fit of anger, throwing one of the statuettes in his hands at Alina… It was the left figure. Jade immediately came up to Alina and knocked the figure away.
“Not that one! The right one!” Alina cried out, heedless, but Gose held the real one in his arms and leaped way back.
“No more games! I’m done with that! I’m switching to a game where if you want the real one, you steal it from me!” he said quite arbitrarily as he summoned blue flame in his hand. As Alina watched the hostile boy, a light bulb went off.
I…don’t really get what’s going on, but this is my chance!
Alina activated her skill without hesitation and pulled out her war hammer
“If that’s what’s going on, I guess I’ve got no choice!”
“Alina?! Wait, if you attack him carelessly—”
Ignoring Jade’s attempt to stop her, Alina swung back her war hammer and approached Gose.
“Yes, I’ve been waiting for that attack!”
Instantly, Gose brought the figure out in front of himself, using it as a shield.
“!”
Of course, now that she’d started swinging her war hammer, she couldn’t stop it abruptly. Even if her brain did recognize that Gose had made the figure his shield, it wouldn’t be able to get that message across to her body in time. Alina’s war hammer continued to swing forward—no, in fact with even greater speed—to slam Gose away, figure and all.
The sound of something breaking rang out through the arena.
As the audience, judges, and Jade watched, there came a lifeless smash. The statuette flew through the air and shattered into pieces, starting from the stomach, right where the mark of Dia was.
The audience members instantly broke into shrieks.
“Waaaagh! The victory priiiize!”
“The pure relic! The pure reliiiic!”
The onlookers burst into a commotion at the shattering of the statuette, grieving and breaking down. From the corner of her eye, Alina saw the judge foaming at the mouth.
But Alina kept her cool. Since what had just happened had clearly been inevitable. No matter how you looked at it, Gose was at fault for shielding himself with the figure. It’s not my fault. I just happened to hit it. In other words—she had successfully destroyed the evidence in a totally unsuspicious manner!
A sparkling smile came to Alina’s face.
I did iiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!!!
She was so pleased that she smirked under her hood and cheered in her heart.
The shattered figure made a clunk sound as the biggest piece of it hit the ground first. Next, the smaller fragments fluttered down, along with the head, which had escaped its glue and flown away. That head was the only part that was suspicious, as there was some hardened glue on it, but oh well, they wouldn’t know.
Phew, now I don’t have to go all the way to victory. Man, glad that’s over. Time to go home and sleep.
“Heh-heh… Ah-ha-ha-ha…”