Chapter 115: The Quarterfinals

"The last day of the tournament is here," the mayor of Qilian City, Zhen Yuhan, declared on the stage. "Eight contestants are left standing. Of them, who will be the champion?"

Behind him sat the three elders from the Blessing Nature Sect, the same ones who had been here yesterday. I noticed the woman sitting in the middle glance directly in my direction, but I pretended to not have realized and instead fixated my sight on Zhen Yuhan.

"I trust everyone is eager to have the matches begin, and the time is just about right. Without further ado…" the mayor paused and smiled. "The first duel of the day will be between Igarashi Kaze and Xuan Kun!"

I sighed. "… Seriously? I have to fight first? What a pain…"

"Hehe, good luck, Kaze-kun," Hina-nee smiled and gave me a gentle embrace.

I nodded in response and headed for the stage. My opponent was already there, wearing a haughty face and a smug smirk.

Gathering experience from all the light novels I've read in the past, back on Earth, I could safely say this guy was the 'young master' type. They act all high and mighty until someone steps on them, then they worship this person like their own father. Crazy, isn't it?

This personality nature of theirs though, made them far more useful to me than villains like Qin Yao will ever be. These young master types were easy to control and used like sacrificial pawns — all I had to do was crush them first. But people like Qin Yao? They would never give in. They'll keep trying to get revenge for as long as they are still alive, no matter how many times it takes.

"Wussup, little guy," my opponent, Xuan Kun, snickered, even though he appeared to only be about a year or two older than I was.

"Hello there," I responded calmly, a smile plastered over my face.

"You have quite the entourage of girls there with you, y'know? What do you say you give them to me?" he laughed. "Hey, tell you what — if you do, I won't kill you here… maybe just break a leg or two."

I raised an eyebrow. "Oh? Which ones do you want? You can take the one with velvet hair and the one who uses a scythe. I don't really care about them. But the other one…"

"What if I say I want them all?" he snarled, revealing his crooked white teeth.

"Well then…" I sighed. "… You're just an idiot."

He froze his movements and looked deep into my eyes. "What did you just say…?!"

Calmly, I took out Dokujin and twirled it around in my hand.

"Yikes, yikes… so easily angered," I chuckled. "You won't get anywhere in life if you let emotions get the better of you all the time like that, you know?"

He gritted his teeth and drew his own weapon, a metal club with spikes all over it.

"You're talking like my goddamned mom!" he yelled, charging towards me, club in hand.

Not even needing to use any skills, I tilted my body slightly right at the last second, watching in amusement as the heated 'young master' fell forward from his own momentum.

With a perfectly neutral expression, I stuffed the hand holding Dokujin into my pocket and made the other into a fist, driving into his stomach with all of my strength. The impact sent him flying backwards the way he came from.

"Oof!"

He collapsed onto the floor, spitting blood. I glanced down at my fist in wonder.

"Seriously? One hit, and you're already coughing blood?"

"Agh… shut up…" he muttered, pulling himself back up to his feet and wiping the bloodstain away from the corners of his mouth.

"Still haven't had enough?" I taunted, making him take the bait.

And that he did.

"I said… SHUT UP!" he yelled, charging at me once more with his club, and I prepared to receive it once again.

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" a booming voice suddenly interrupted.

Immediately, a large figure appeared between Xuan Kun and I, unleashing a shockwave powerful enough to make even the most experienced of fighters think twice about engaging in combat with him.

Xuan Kun was blown away by the force, flying a short distance before crashing painfully into the ground once more, this time even harsher since it was off the stage. I, however, was not fazed in the least.

I calmly stood, completely unaffected by the shockwave the figure had let out. He seemed to have realized this as well, and turned to me curiously.

"…" he narrowed his eyes as if inspecting me, but did not say a thing.

A few seconds later, he returned to his seat — the left throne. He had been one of the elders from the Blessing Nature Sect.

"Xuan Kun — disqualified!" mayor Zhen Yuhan suddenly announced, much to my surprise.

Xuan Kun pushed himself off the ground and yelled in anger. "W-What?! Why am I disqualif-"

"You engaged in violence before I signaled for the battle to begin. That is a clear violation of the rules and common sense. You even had to make Elder Han step in… disgraceful. By my discretion, you are hereby eliminated from the tournament!"

Elder Han… so that was his name. The elf woman was Elder Ning, and the one with glasses was Elder Zhang. With this, I had them all.

"Wha…" my opponent's jaw dropped in shock as he realized his mistake. "B-But he was the one who start-"

"Quit whining. Guards, drag him away."

Immediately, four tall guards clad in iron plated armor stepped onto the stage and surrounded Xuan Kun in an instant. He looked around, bewildered.

"W-Wait! Do you know who my father is?! I will tell him to come and destroy this city! Every one of you will be killed without mercy! Especially you, Igarashi Kaze!"

Oh boy… how troublesome.

As he was dragged away by the guards, I sighed and shook my head. My plan was ruined. How unfortunate.

I had originally been planning on thoroughly beating him up and making him lose all hope, then turning him into one of my pawns, but if it's like this, I didn't even get to inject any fear into him. And now, I have his father on my ass, apparently. If what he said about his father was true, being able to lay waste to an entire city as big as Qilian, then… well, we have a problem.

This must mean his family background was extra-powerful… damn, the more I think about it, the more I regret not being able to manipulate him to my liking. Looks like I had no choice to use Plan B then, if I wanted to get something out of this whole ordeal.

I stepped off the stage and returned to the others.

*****

"Well, that was… an interesting fight, wasn't it?" Hina-nee laughed awkwardly.

"Sure was. Match was over before it even began," I replied, unamused.

Furuwa snorted. "I wonder how that guy even made it to the top eight with those dull and slow movements of his."

"Hehe, it's something called… bribing~" Nadeshiko giggled.

"You think he bribed his opponents to let him win?" I raised an eyebrow. "I don't know about that. He didn't try bribing me."

"Probably because you look so weak on the surface," Furuwa remarked. "Look at what you are wearing."

I glanced down.

Ah… that's right. I was wearing the Deceiver armor set I got from the Vault of Deception. It was meant to make me seem weak and normal in all regards, so Furuwa's analysis made sense. Hell, this thing didn't even look like armor. I appeared just like any other civilian, to the untrained eye.

"Well, whatever. I'll take a free win… though this makes things a bit troublesome," I sighed.

"How so?" Hina-nee asked.

"Didn't you hear? He said his father could destroy this entire city," I replied. "And, given Xuan Kun's words, it seems he will be targeting me specifically."

"I don't believe his bullshit one bit," Furuwa said. "Smells like some last-minute bragging to save face to me."

"That may be so, but you never know," I shrugged. "These young master types always tell the truth when talking about their family's power and background. In light novels, anyway."

"So then, what do you propose we do?" Hina-nee asked.

"It's simple," Nadeshiko smiled like a little devil and licked her lips. "We kill him~"

"No, we don't!" Furuwa frowned and immediately interrupted in a slightly loud tone, causing some people to turn and look at us.

"I mean… a-ahem, we shouldn't," she edited her message, this time in a quieter voice.

"Actually… I agree with Nadeshiko on this one," I said. "Killing him can give us some good loot."

"K-Kaze-kun, that's a crime back on Earth, you know," Hina-nee murmured softly, as if hesitant.

"Yeah, but… we aren't exactly on Earth now, are we?"

"… Good point."

"Besides, he wanted to take you away from me," I continued with a bold smirk. "Simply because of that, he deserves to die."

After a short silence between the four of us, Furuwa finally broke it.

"Kaze… you've turned… darker."

"Really? I don't think I've been out in the sun all that much latel-"

"Not that. I mean… your heart. Back then, you never would have suggested killing someone for their loot," she whispered softly, then turned to Nadeshiko. "Is she… influencing you, somehow?"

I blinked. "Is that so…?"

Hina-nee smiled. "Chiaki-san is right, Kaze-kun. You have changed, in the mere span of a month or so. But… you know, I like the current you as well, just as much."

"Hehe~ Kaze, Kaze, are you starting to see the fun in killing as well~? Hm?" Nadeshiko latched onto my back from behind and whispered seductively into my ear.

"Don't lump me in together with you," I said, prying her hands off of me. "I don't kill for the sake of killing. I'm only killing that guy I just fought because he's a threat if he tells his father about me, and there's a high chance I'm going to gain something out of this. Nothing more."

"Sure, sure…" she smiled charmingly. "Whatever you say, Kaze~"

"Nadeshiko-san, I believe I have warned you about casually latching onto Kaze-kun like that," Hina-nee interrupted in a business-like tone. "Only I am allowed to do so."

"Oops~ my bad~" Nadeshiko winked suggestively at me and looked away, whistling nonchalantly. She clearly had no intention of listening to Hina-nee's warning.

"I apologize for that shameful display from one of our contestants," Zhen Yuhan suddenly spoke through his megaphone. "The tournament will now proceed normally — I ensure no other incidents of the sort will happen again."

The audience cheered wildly, waiting in anticipation for the next match to start.

"And so, the next match will be… Chiaki Furuwa against Lionel Kratos!"