The sun was at its highest point as we made our way to the arena, which was also in the north district. Elird and Fiss went ahead to get his belongings to their home.

“Why does Risa have to come?” Her eyes rolled and sighed heavily as if this was a heavy burden for her.

“I mean, you’re already here…”

“And?” Risa furrowed her brows. “It might take Risa a bit of an extra time going home but Risa would rather do that than watch these boring matches.”

I gave up. Risa was hardheaded and pursuing her was like talking to a wall. No matter what you threw, she always had a rebuttal to return it.

Merry bent down on Risa’s level. “Are you sure you don’t really want to come? I did bring a book with me because I know you’ll get bored without it.” Merry produced a book from her bag. It was a thick book that could keep Risa occupied for hours.

“If I were you, I’ll take it. It makes me sick knowing I’ll be alone with William in his house.” Takana looked disturbed and then shook his head as if shaking off a disgusting thought out of his mind.

“A-Alone with William…?” Immediately, Risa took the book from Merry. “What are you people doing? Let’s get to the arena already!” Her tone turned upside down as she energetically encouraged as to hurry up.

We all started walking when I saw Takana lagging behind. “I-I’m so proud of her…” I furrowed my brows as I saw him about to cry with a thumbs-up. Since I didn’t want to be caught in whatever he was doing, I hurriedly went to the rest of the group.

As we come closer to the arena, a surge of people made their way through the arena. We entered, having to purchase tickets, and found our seats. Good thing we came there earlier or else we would be standing. We save one seat for Fiss.

It was a square shaped arena with canopy. The seats were basically long blocks made of polished stone. There were several vendors who sold snacks. Overall, the place didn’t look bad, except for the seats, they were too hard.

As for the audience, there were a few VIPs, though they were not the nobles themselves but rather, a representative of nobles. They resided in a comfortable box above all the seats.

In the middle of the arena was a circle stage, where the participants would fight and it was made entirely out of polished stone. Being slammed down the ground would certainly hurt.

After waiting for a while, some people put up a sign all over the arena. I went closer and saw words that I couldn’t read, so I brought Risa to read it.

After Risa read it, she explained it to all of us.

Basically, there were only three simple rules:

All types of weapon and magic were allowed. A win could only happen if the opponent conceded, was knocked out, stepped out of the stage or if referee concluded the match to be over. Any kind of cheating, bribery or blackmailing would result in an imprisonment or death by hanging.

Those are very simple rules. With these, the participants shouldn’t worry much about anything and fight to their very best.

“Technically, someone could die. It is not stated in the rules that they can’t kill someone or badly wound them.” Risa explained with a little smile on her face.

“Is that intentionally put there?” Fuyuki tilted her head.

“It must be. Risa’s entirely sure it would make the crowd happier if there’s blood to be shed.”

Soon, all the participants entered the stage. There were sixteen of them. We saw Elird with his leather armor and his big claymore. Many of the participants were the same age as Elird and some were women, too. Simultaneously, Fiss arrived and seated on the empty seat.

Guess they all have a lot to prove here. Goodluck, Elird.

Other participants left the stage while Elird and his opponent stayed. His enemy was a young man who used a sword. He was probably quick on his feet and most likely would be using it to his advantage.

“Elird is so unlucky,” Takana commented. “Right off the bat, he’s already facing an opponent he wouldn’t like.”

I often see Takana having a hard time with quick and nimble enemies, so he was probably right with what he said.

A referee went to the stage. After he checked the both of them, with a bell on his hand, he rang it, echoing through the quiet arena but only to be crushed by the sudden energetic and lively cheers of the crowd.

The match commenced.

Elird’s opponent quickly dashed to him while Takana stood like a wall. As expected, he was fast. As his opponent came within his range, Elird slashed him horizontally.

He barely missed.

With his momentum, Elird’s opponent slid underneath the claymore, barely escaping his head from being chopped off. After his gutsy move, he deeply cut Elird’s left leg and then distanced himself with Elird. The crowd cheerfully cheered as blood fell on Elird’s leg.

“Well, this is bad,” Takana remarked. “If he manages to hurt another leg, Elird will lose this match.”

“Why is that?” Fiss asked.

“Think about it. Obviously, all limbs are important but in Elird’s case, if his opponent disables another leg, Elird will be chipped away until he is force to give up. He’ll be like a prey that wouldn’t be able to move away from his predator.”

“He clearly knows what he should do when facing against opponents that are similar to Takana and Elird.” Merry commented.

His opponent started running around the stage. He was probably looking for an opening as the limping Elird tried his best to turn his body around.

I wonder what Elird will do. Oh, there goes his opponent.

Just like before, his opponent quickly dashed to him. It seemed he lagged a bit behind and now his opponent had an opening. As his opponent prepared another nail in his coffin, Elird turned around to face him.

His opponent stopped midway and immediately stepped back. He looked visibly confused and troubled. The crowd fell silent to the sudden move.

“There we go,” Takana grinned in satisfaction.

“Care to explain what happened?” I asked him.

Takana sighed. “What are those eyes for, Terrin, huh?” After an annoyed look at me, he continued, “Basically, it’s intimidation. I’m not sure if he understands what’s happening but his opponent is now very cautious of him because he thinks he has something on his sleeve, when in reality he looks like he’s just enjoying their match.”

“This is why I always smile when we’re fighting. Your enemies don’t like it when you smile.”

I could see Elird smiling, while at the same time, he looked like he was in pain.

Elird’s opponent ran in circle again. This time, though, Elird had gotten used to the pain and was catching up to his movements.

Unexpectedly, Elird made a move. He predicted where his opponent would continue to run and met him head-on there. Elird caught his opponent by surprise and brought down his claymore into him. His opponent, due to momentum, couldn’t stop and instead tried to block it with his sword.

Even using two hands, his opponent’s sword couldn’t handle the raw power that was brought down.

It broke, and Elird’s claymore buried itself deep in his opponent’s shoulder.

As blood gushed forth from his body, his opponent loudly cried in pain but it was buried by the sheer volume of the crowd’s cheers. I instinctively blocked my ears with my hands. I wasn’t used to my surroundings being this loud.

How can you read peacefully when people are literally screaming right beside you, Risa?

While Elird stood there, the referee broke up the match and called priests to heal his opponent’s wound. He then declared Elird as the winner as he raised his arm. The crowd cheered and clapped for him.

The match lasted less than five minutes.

*

As the other matches continued, we visited Elird. After another seven matches, he was going to have another match.

“Yooooo!” Takana put his arm on Elird’s shoulder. “That wasn’t a disappointing match, I’ll give you that.”

“You could have complimented him more, you know?”

“No need,” Takana brushed Elird’s hair. “It’ll only make his head bigger.”

Fiss, who was looking at Elird, noticed something about him. “Are you…okay, Elird?” she asked hesitantly.

With his head low, I couldn’t see much of his face but he was indeed acting strange. Also, Takana was close to him and he didn’t shout at him or anything.

“Y-Yeah, I am…” He stutteringly responded.

Fiss raised his head with both of her hands and saw a terrified Elird. His eyes looked shallow and he couldn’t keep a direct eye contact with Fiss, as if he was guilty of something. His mouth quivered and he tried to bite it to force it to stop.

“What did you do, Takana!?” Fuyuki grabbed Takana by the head and dragged him away from Elird while strangling him.

“What!? I didn’t do anything! I’m innocent! Fuyuki, stop! I can’t breathe!”

“It’s not Takana’s fault…” Elird said with a weak voice. “It’s just that guy’s face…”

Oh. I immediately understood why he was such in a shambles.

The familiar face of despair.

I remembered the grotesque feeling of the flesh being cut and the cries of humans. It was probably Elird’s first time seriously hurting a human being.

Before I could speak, Fiss grabbed Elird’s head and brought it to her chest. “You’ll be all right. We’re here with you…”

Elird still had three matches to get to win the Tournament. It was a good thing he experienced it on his first match because there was a huge gap between experiencing it the first time and the second time.

“It’s all right, Elird!” Fuyuki encouraged. “I saw the guy earlier being treated by priests!”

“You dumbass!” Takana shouted while still being held by Fuyuki. “That’s not the problem. Also, he’ll get over it just give him time.”

Merry nodded with a cold stare. “You’ll get used to it. Hurting others is part of life, after all.”

I inwardly nodded to what Merry said. Though I didn’t like her cold stare, she probably experienced it many times and that was why she could say those words as if they were facts.

“Such a weak human, and you want to win this tournament? Laughing right now would be the appropriate response.”

Many of us were used to Risa’s sharp words, and most of them thought that her harsh words were her way of saying encouraging others. While her words were brutally harsh, they were always backed with logic.

Still placed on her chest, Elird looked at Risa. His eyes had a little bit more life compared to when he saw him earlier. After a while of looking at Risa, and making her stare back at him as if they were having a staring contest, Elird buried his face on Fiss chest again.

“I don’t know if this will help but…” from her bag, she took out a leaf. “This is an Argo and it’s often used by hospitals to make their patients calm down…”

“Wait, that’s seems like an incredible coincidence for you to have something like that in this moment.” Fuyuki let go of Takana and touched her chin while staring at Kihana. “Kihana…are you from the future!?”

“This dumb girl…How can you even reach that conclusion!?” Takana said as he touched his neck.

“No…I bought it earlier at the market because it was a leaf and I was curious by it…” she then proceeded to show us her bag full of various leaves with her innocent and curious eyes.

After a moment of silence, we all had a hearty laugh. Seeing Kihana with her bag full of leaves was just so Kihana.

We decided to go back to our seat to prepare for his next match. I was still pondering if I should say something or not.

In the end, I was able to let out a “Good luck” before leaving.

I internally sighed as I left. When words mattered, I couldn’t say anything. So typical of me.

A few matches before Elird’s match commenced. They didn’t look strong but they definitely had some ideas about what they should do, just like Elird’s opponent earlier. Winning this tournament was important and it was shown by the skills of the competitors that it shouldn’t be taken lightly.

Specifically, there was this large guy who had been defeating his opponents as if they were nothing. He was definitely leagues above his enemies. I didn’t even think you could call him a rookie.

After some time, Elird managed to win his second match. His opponent was a girl who used a dagger and a bow.

The match was hard for Elird but he knew once he could get close, she could overpower the girl. He didn’t bring his shield, so he was in a pinch but his opponent was much like Fuyuki.

She often missed.

But that was not to say she didn’t hit or graze Elird. As he ran in zigzag, she would sometimes get lucky and graze him.

In the end, the girl ran out of arrows and used her dagger to defeat Elird. She tried to stab him but to no avail as Elird blocked it with his claymore. He then grabbed her wrist, forcing her to drop the dagger.

Elird carried her, where she wiggled and flailed but her efforts were in vain as Elird threw her out the stage.

Though he won, the crowd booed them hard for not making the match more bloody and interesting.

As Elird walked out of the stage, he looked happy winning his second match. Little did he know, the next match would prove to be a tough head-on battle.