Chapter 534: Idiocy of the Desperate

The first day of fights was mostly uneventful. After Eiro, Krog and Jess both obliterated their opponent as well. But there were actually two more fights that Eiro was quite interested in watching.

First, Evelyn's fight. He wanted to see the audience cheer for her, since she was probably the most famous person participating in this tournament. He couldn't wait for the shock that the audience would feel when Eiro simply toyed with her.

For most people, Eiro would try to fight them immediately, but once he got to Evelyn, he would simply stand there. He would receive each of her attacks, and make it known just how weak she was compared to him. It would be a wonderful feeling. But well, of course, she was still quite powerful compared to many other people, so her fight with her opponent finished quite quickly as well.

And there was one more fight that ended in an instant. The man that Eiro had watched on the first day of the preliminaries. Apparently, he was able to finish each fight with just a single swing of his blade, and without even touching his opponents. And the same happened in this one. His opponent didn't even know what happened to them by the time that they were laying on the ground, bleeding out of a gaping wound on their chest.

Those two would be quite interesting.

"Krog. You will fight that guy in the quarter finals. Be careful, and don't underestimate him." Eiro said as a genuine warning, since he didn't want Krog to lose to anyone. Until now, everyone was really just joking around, but when they saw that man's fight, combined with Eiro's genuine warning, they actually started to be a bit nervous. Especially Krog.

"Don't worry, I won't. I'll be careful." He replied, apparently already trying to figure out what he should do against an opponent like that, before Eiro lightly smirked, "Don't worry, starting from the quarter finals, you're allowed to use special items. Remember what Armodeus made for you?" The Demon asked, and Krog opened his eyes wide with a broad grin on his face.

"Seems like that fight will really be quite interesting." 

--- 

After the first day of the true tournament was over, Eiro chose to make sure no tomfoolery was going on. After all, at the end of the day, a lot of nobles had extremely high stakes in this tournament. Eiro created a few shadow-servants and made them dive into the shadows of certain chosen people, so that they could watch them and let Eiro know if something unwanted happened. Such as bribery, assassination attempts, and so on.

But when Eiro saw those small servants dive into the shadows of those people, Eiro got a little idea that he sort of wanted to try out. He looked at his own shadow, making sure that it was completely saturated with his mana, and then said, "Wake up, my shadow, Mislan. Be my tool, my servant, hiding himself in plain sight." Eiro said with a grin, and watched as his shadow slowly started to shift around. Despite him being in his hidden human form right now, the shadow looked as if Eiro was in his normal unhidden form.

--- 

[You have created the named Servant {Mislan}]

--- 

"Hide yourself." Eiro said, and immediately, the living shadow hid its horns and became a 'normal' shadow again.

"Come out, Mislan." The Demon said next, supplying a bit of magic to his shadow, as an actual physical being stepped out of his shadow. A figure that looked as if one mixed him and the monster king. Eiro's form, but the King's shadowy mist around it, "Hm, that's not really pleasant to look at... How about this?" Using shadow magic, Eiro quickly adjusted Mislan's form. He basically tried to make the shadowy mist smooth instead, something more pleasant to look at. Being a servant that Eiro would make use of quite often, Eiro figured that he should make Mislan look presentable to others as well.

Using his butlers as inspiration, Eiro gave Mislan a vest, shirt, tie, suit pants, and suit shoes. He somehow looked better without the jacket, though. Eiro figured to smooth the hands down as well, as if Mislan was wearing gloves. His head, he let keep nearly normal, however. Just a few adjustments here and there to make Mislan's details actually stand out. His wings and tail stayed in that shadow-mist form as well. And with that, the named shadow servant Mislan had been created.

"I will give you the power to command other shadow servants, so make sure they behave themselves." Eiro said in a clear tone as he started to walk away, and Mislan simply nodded and bowed lightly as he disappeared back in Eiro's shadow.

--- 

The third, and last, day of the tournament. The only rounds that really mattered to Eiro, were finally here. In his first fight, he would face Evelyn. In his second, he would face James, and in his last, either Krog or Jess. So at the very least, today would be more fun than yesterday. Eiro fought twice, but they both ended in an instant, so it was actually rather boring.

Before it was Eiro's turn to fight, it was James', however. His opponent actually seemed to be half-skilled as well, since their fight ended up lasting a couple of minutes. But for the most part, that might be just because James wanted to have some fun and show off some of his techniques while playing with this guy before he was just obliterated by Eiro.

The Demon looked at James with a smile on his face, grinning lightly, "Nice fight. Too bad you aren't winning anymore after this." He pointed out, and James glared at him annoyedly, "Just shut it, man. I know it already." 

"I know, I know, just reminding you." Eiro replied, as he stood up to make his way into the arena, where his fight would begin in just a few minutes. He stood by his side's entrance and just waited for the announcements to come, when he noticed someone approaching.

"Duke James, what a surprise this is. Actually, nevermind, it's not a surprise at all." Eiro said with a light smile, and the Duke looked at him with a somewhat nervous expression, "I'm here to make you an offer."

"An offer? Of what kind?" Eiro asked with a light, casual smile, although he already heard all about it. The Duke was one of the people that Eiro attached a shadow servant to, after all. This man ground his teeth as he stared back at the Demon in front of him, "I will give you power, and a position where you don't ever have to worry about money again. I will give you literally anything you want. Alcohol, women, as much land as you want. I will even consider giving you Evelyn's hand in marriage..."

"Oh? What a great offer~! And what would you like in return?" Eiro asked with a smile on his face, and the duke's face lit up, "Y-You just have to make sure that you lose this fight!" 

"Hm, do you know that what you're doing is basically treason, considering that I'm his majesty's personal candidate?"

"It-It's fine as long as nobody finds out!"

Eiro grinned, thinking that this was all way too easy, "Hm... I don't know if I can really lose on purpose, but... if I just happen to be so tired that I stand in place and take all of her attacks for let's say... five minutes... I think I can arrange that." 

"Yes! Perfect! Do that, and I will give you anything you want!" 

"Anything, huh? Alright. Then how about we make sure that you keep that promise?" Eiro asked, holding his hand in front of him, creating a complex magic circle between himself and Duke James.

"Wh-What is this?" The Duke asked, and Eiro smiled lightly, "You know, I am the owner of a card that gives me power of the Absolute Domain of Truth. Recently I found a way to integrate that power into spells. This is really just a contract between two individuals, that makes sure that either party follows the conditions of the contract. For this particular one, since you probably don't fully trust me, I added the condition that if either of us doesn't follow the conditions... so let's say, if I were to try and fight back against Evelyn immediately after all, I would become subservient to you. Like a... slave, of sorts." Eiro explained, adn the Duke couldn't be more happy about this. And of course, since Eiro told nothing but the truth, the Duke had no reason to doubt his words.

"Simply offer this spell a drop of your blood, and we'll be fine. The more blood, the stronger the contract. Of course, I will match the amount of blood you give." Eiro explained, and the Duke immediately nodded. He took a dagger off his hip and cut a deep wound into his hand, letting as much blood as he could pour into the magic circle. And as he said he would, Eiro did the same, letting out the exact same amount of blood into the complex magic circle.

"The conditions are simple, so let me repeat them. I will stand in the center of the arena for five minutes, without stepping away of my own accord, not counting when Evelyn might push me away with her powers of course, and I will not fight back during that duration of time. And in return, you will give me literally anything I ask for, without denying any of my requests." Eiro said, and of course, the duke immediately agreed to these conditions. 

And then, Eiro activated the spell. Immediately, two magical symbols appeared in the air. One settled down on the Duke's left hand, and the other settled down on Eiro's left hand.

"This shows that the contract is intact." Eiro said, as he started to hear his announcement. He quickly turned around, while the Duke was looking at the symbol with a broad, sinister grin on his face.

But the Duke's emotions were no match for Eiro's, as he was inwardly laughing at the idiocy of the desperate.