95-Chapter 5-18 Famous Taxes

In the second semifinal, "Oration" versus "Blue Hornet"! Let the game begin!

After seeing the referee step back on cue, we began to move towards each other.

The other team was the previous winner, and even though they weren't perfect, they were still strong enough to take the Sword of Dawn opponent by the hand.

The opponent's team consisted of one swordsman, two warriors and two wizards, with two warriors lined up in the front row and the wizards hiding behind the warriors. And the swordsman was in a position behind the wizards.

It's an unusual formation, with the swordsmen holding back, but perhaps it's a countermeasure to be wary of our speed and get behind the wizards.

You can't say that they are all young, but instead they give off an atmosphere of 'experienced and experienced fierce men of war'.

This is without a doubt the strongest team I've played in this tournament. If I'm not good, Shiroumaru and Solomon could be seriously injured. As for Slarin I think he'll be fine as long as he's the Emperor.

I'm sure you'll be able to do better than you think, Temma. Even if we force our way through the front, we'll most likely win, but the damage will be commensurate.

Namitaro also seemed to sense from the atmosphere that he was a tough opponent.

'Well let's try a little trick. Shiroumaru, Solomon!

I decided to call the two animals that were poised to jump out at any moment to join me in the little trick I came up with.

'Firewall!'

The other side's wizards used their magic to make the first move, so I deployed a firewall to defend and hide our appearance. The other side's magic was fireball and air cutter, both of which could not penetrate my magic because they were more concerned with speed than power.

''Waterball!''　

I then created a water ball that I made ten large rounds around myself.

The crowd cheered as they saw the water magic method (...), which is rare to be used in competitions. However, the water ball seemed to be hidden by the flames from the other side, and they seemed to become more alert to the sudden cheers that went up. I can feel the two wizards increasing their magic power and preparing to release their magic at any time.

''Go!''　

I fired the water ball at the firewall I had created.

The waterball landed on the spot where the flames were rising, extinguishing the flames and creating a large amount of steam in a wide area.

''Siloumal! Solomon! Go play (.........)!

I gave orders to Shiroumaru and Solomon at the same time. The moment they heard my instructions, they split up into two groups on either side of me and jumped out, heading around the other team.

The other side's warriors didn't waver when they saw Shiroumaru and Solomon suddenly jump out of the way, and they were able to protect the wizard.

I prepared myself.

The wizard also didn't release magic at Shiroumaru and the others who had jumped out, but kept a vigilant eye on the direction I was in.

Shiroumaru was running in a detour, occasionally zig-zagging and glancing at his opponent, while Solomon was flying about 1-2 meters high, spinning and circling in a detour to watch his opponent as well.

Then, just as the two animals came right next to the warriors, they accelerated rapidly and went straight past (........).

The unexpected event caused the opposing team to stop moving for a moment, but they immediately seemed to notice the change and moved into an interception stance.

The moment the opponents entered the intercept stance, there was a bullet heading towards them at a speed that seemed to drown out the vapor.

''It's still coming! Counterattack! Take down the tamer and it's over!　

The swordsman who was camped behind him gave instructions to the other companions, and himself turned towards Shiroumaru and the others who would be coming to attack at the right time.

And the one who appeared in front of the wary warriors was........

You think it was Temma? Shame! It's Nami-chan~~　

It was Namitaro, sliding at high speed.

Snap out of it! It's coming from somewhere!

The swordsman scolded his companions, who had stopped moving for a moment at Namitarou's appearance. Namitaro slipped past the warriors and went straight for the swordsman.

The swordsman ducked the Namitaro that was coming at him at high speed, but he took his eyes off Shiroumaru and the others as he was about to do so.

'Oops! Watch out for wolves and dragons!

At those words, the other four reflexively looked at Shiroumaru and the others, but Shiroumaru and Solomon had begun to chase each other, moving in a trackless manner.

''Guh!''

"Whoa!

By the time the swordsman heard his companions groan and turned around, the warrior and the wizard on one side of him were both down. The culprit was me.

''Where the hell have you been?!''

The swordsman barked at me as he took down his companion. I think I should adjust my stance before asking such a question, but maybe I'm confused by the suddenness of the situation.

So to that question I'm....

"Up.

I pointed my finger at the sky.

In fact, the little trick I mentioned was to make them alert and pay attention with Shiroumaru and Solomon's actions (playing), and then feint further with Namitaro, which was disguised as the real deal, to reduce their strength with my attack, which flew up into the sky under the cover of the water vapor.

And there was more to this little trick.

'Firebo, Gobo!

Come on, dear.

They were about to attack me, when a large mass of water sneakily appeared behind me and pulled me in, and I let out a painful breath.

'Oi! What do you... Slime!

The swordsman seemed to remember Slarin from his hiding place here.

The one who dragged the two of us in was Slarin, who became the Emperor-sama (Emperor).

Slarin was originally going to be holding back to follow us, but seeing an opportunity, Slarin must have made his own decision to attack. And with the result he got, the winner of this match is almost decided. Incidentally, Slarin made sure that he was inadvertently on Namitaro's back when he moved.

'It ain't over yet!'

A swordsman holds his sword in both hands and comes running towards me. They completely ignore Shiroumaru and his friends, who were on guard earlier, and seem intent on making a one-sided battle.

I'm sure you'll be pleased to know that I'm not the only one who's been in this situation.

''Shiroumaru, Namitaro! Don't touch it!　

Hearing my words, Shiroumaru and Namitaro called off the attack.

''That margin is fatal!

The swordsman comes slashing at you with both swords. As far as skill goes, they seem to be a bit inferior to Keos.

If the rest of the team members had abilities similar to this, then they are certainly capable of being worthy of the winning team.

Moreover, if all of them didn't compete in individual battles and were in perfect condition to compete in team battles, that would be even better.

However, this swordsman seems to be the type of person who is more accustomed to working together with his friends rather than fighting on his own individual strength. Moreover, he seems to be thinking of defeating me before the outside world gets in the way, and perhaps in a hurry, his attacks are a bit crude and large swings are noticeable.

That's probably why I feel somewhat unsatisfied with the fact that I fought against a strong opponent in an individual match.

What's up with that? Didn't it save your life?

I deliberately try to provoke my opponent with a spare attitude while taunting them with all their attacks.

On the contrary, being provoked seemed to have brought back his calmness, and the swordsman, who had regained his spirits, was much sharper in his movements than he had been earlier.

The swordsman stopped his dual-force attack midway through and switched from a large swinging attack to a smaller, sharper attack, which was becoming quite formidable.

But he still didn't feel like he was going to lose. I couldn't relax as much as my opponent had cooled off, but I was finally even on par with Keio.

I gradually increased the speed of my attack, and when my opponent couldn't keep up with my movements, I flicked off my sword.

''Oh no. I surrender.

The swordsman raised his hands in surrender as he flicked his sword and thrust the tip of his blade into his throat with the returning sword.

'That's it! Winner, 'Oration'!

The trick worked better than I expected, and we won the game without getting hurt.

I think this was because my opponent was able to read my tricks too well. If our opponents were the type to come forward like the first round's dragon squad, or if they were a team that knew me (and my character) to some extent like Jin and the others, it wouldn't have been as effective as it was.

........In short, it's less effective for teams that are more brain-based, but more effective for teams that fight while thinking.

Anyway, today's match is all over, and the only thing left to do is to play the final match in three days time.

I waved my hand lightly in response to the crowd and thought about the rest day schedule in my head.　

After recovering from the fatigue of the two days of rest before the final, there are things I want to do and need to do, such as taking care of weapons, procuring weapons, and chilling out at stalls and stalls, so it's frustrating that I only have two days to spare.

Especially at the stalls and stalls, items are frequently replaced or sold out in a single day, and bargains are often sold out quickly.

That's a bit of a digression, but I've heard that I set several new records at this event.

Firstly, I became the youngest person to make it to the individual final (the second time I've made it to the team final), made it to both the individual and team final, and won the individual final in the shortest amount of time (against Oggo). And to be more precise, two generations of parents and their children (to be precise, two generations of parents and a great-uncle) made it to the final.

I had heard that my father and mother had won the team competition with the kings before, but to my surprise, my grandfather had also won the individual competition. Dad and his friends had won it once, but Grandpa had won it twice in a row. After that, he'd had enough of competing and his record of successive championships was broken.

I'm an adopted child, so I wondered about that, but since I was raised from a baby, and since adoption is a common occurrence in this world (especially for nobles), I heard it's not particularly strange... not really. .........

'Grandpa you've suddenly got more relatives...'　

Well do you want me to turn it off?

My grandfather said something rather boisterous, but I almost agreed with him.

On the first day of rest, there was a crowd of a few dozen people in front of the mansion. If this had been just a wild horse, we wouldn't be feeling this whispered about.

It's all because of those guys over there.

There are all kinds of people in there. A man who looks like a dirty beggar and a woman who looks like a prostitute with bad makeup. Pig merchants in expensive clothes and badly skilled mercenaries. There was even a nobleman who looked like a fallen aristocrat mixed in with a dumb one.

These guys are all frauds who talk about 'my parents or relatives'.

The commotion started when I left the hall to go home after the semi-finals yesterday.

After the semi-finals, I was briefed on the finals by an attendant, and even though I left the venue later than the crowd had left, I was approached by a man and woman who claimed to be my real parents.

They got my information from somewhere and approached me to suck the good juice, but I thought the story ended there as I turned them in to the security guards who were near the venue as con artists, but this morning I woke up when I felt a suspicious presence at the gate of the mansion and saw that many of my self-proclaimed parents/relatives (the con artists) They had gathered.

After returning to the mansion yesterday, I explained to the grandfather that the impostor had left, but I didn't expect them to come together suddenly after yesterday, and they were shouting about my parents and relatives, shouting that they wanted to welcome me, so I was getting close to my limit.

It's a good thing that there are no idiots who try to break in because the golems and security golems are currently standing in line inside the gate, but for me, I was hoping that at least one brave (or foolish) person would show up to try to break in, because I can get rid of the criminals as criminals without hesitation.

Anyway, if me and my grandfather went near them now, I might accidentally (...) eradicate them for some reason (...), so I asked Slarin and Shiroumaru to go deliver a letter to the royal castle.

It could have been at the nearby guard packing station, but I thought it would be quickest and most reliable to have the most powerful people in the country help me here.

I figured that since Slarin and Siloumar would be famous in the royal castle, they would be able to talk to one of the royals, and in the worst case scenario, Slarin would be able to sneak in unnoticed by the guards and at least give the letter to the kings.

They took the letter to me about an hour and a half ago, so if all went well, help would be on the way in another hour or so.

But Slarin and the others worked harder than I expected, and the kings seemed to move fast, too.

I thought it would take another hour at the earliest, but less than thirty minutes later, Slarin and the others returned.

''Thank you for your help. The letter ... looks like you were able to hand it over safely.

As I was offering words of thanks to Slarin and Shiroumaru, I sensed numerous signs of movement surrounding the con artists outside.

''Don't let one of them get away! As long as you're alive, I don't care if I hurt you!

What a loud conductor was Mr. Dinh. Other than that, Edgar-san and Chris-san are also there. Furthermore, it is not only the Kingsguard who are under Din-san's command, but also knights and others seem to be mixed in with them.

Even though they are in the city, they are riding horses, and it looks like they came to annihilate the city rather than come to help.

I'm sure you'll be able to find a great deal more information on this topic.

All of the imposters have been roped and gagged, and Mr. Dinh is standing in front of the gate facing the gate keeper's golem.

Mr. Dinh is recognized by the king as being related to the mansion, so the golem opens the gate and lets only Mr. Dinh through (Mr. Dinh is set up for the golem to be able to pass through the gate in case the king skips out and comes to visit).

When we saw Mr. Dinh walking towards us, my grandfather and I rushed to meet him.

'I'm sorry to have disturbed you, Master Merlin. And I know you are uncomfortable, but please accompany me to the gate to check.

As we followed the hard-tongued Mr. Dinh to the gate, we were made to see the faces of our captive con men.

'Do you know any of these men?'

As he said that, me and my grandfather both shook our heads.

''I understand. Oi! Take these guys to the jail cell!

Ha!

Mr. Din ordered the nearby knights to leave a dozen or so knights on this spot and have the con artists taken away. He seems to have the remaining knights patrol around the mansion.

At this time, there were more and more geezers looking at us from afar, and they were all listening in with interest.

''In fact, we have recently received information that a certain group of criminals have been appearing in the area, and we were on special alert, but early this morning we received information from the residents that a strange group of people were barging into a certain mansion and making a lot of noise, and we came to seize them at the order of His Majesty....... I had no idea it was Lady Merlin's mansion.　

Ding-san explains in a voice enough to be heard by those around him that it was third party information that brought him here, and that it was a direct order from the king.

Of course, this is just a token, and it's obvious that they were sent after hearing my request, but there are more than a few people who take issue with the fact that the royal family communicated with the participants during the tournament, so I guess they are taking this form.

'It really helped. We were in trouble because the final was coming up, and we couldn't just remove people who were making a lot of noise in front of the gate without a fight.

I thanked Mr. Dinh in a big way.

"And Lady Mary has a word for you.

Mr. Dinh began to speak the words of Lady Mary in a small voice, so that only me and Grandpa could hear him.

''If those idiots come out next, you can capture them.

Mr. Din's face was quite serious, so Maria's anger must be quite high. I promised her that I would definitely go to Maria-sama's place to show my face.

''Oh please then we will pull up, but I will have guards patrol this area regularly until the tournament is over. I will report this incident to His Majesty, the Warlord, and the other parties involved, so there is a high probability that self-defense will apply in most cases, but apart from that, the post-processing and investigation will be very difficult.......

After saying this, Mr. Dinh nailed the horses around him and returned with the rest of the knights.

"I wonder if I'm old enough to take it easy on them.......we're in trouble!

Grandpa said loudly, meaning he wasn't going to go easy on him, and took out a large staff from his bag under his robe and poked the cobblestones.

The cobblestones that were poked with the cane shattered with a loud noise, and several people who had heard the noise turned blue and moved away from the yajiba horses in a hurry.

''Looks like you're still here, Grandpa........''

They're all cockroach-like creatures... if you see one, you'll find 30 of them.

I hope the high performance insect repellent (royal prestige) continues to work.............................no potion may work on a real idiot.

Anyway, you're allowed to use your powers next time, so feel free to do so.

''Both of you look so bad........''

Me and Grandpa seemed to be looking very bad before I realized what was going on, and unusually, Namitaro was dong it.

Later, as we managed to get our expressions back to normal, Uncle Mark and Aunt Martha, who had heard the commotion, came to check on us and Grandpa started to tell them what had happened.

After they finished listening to the story, they too seemed to be pissed off at the appearance of the con man and were quite angry.

It seems that the uncles have a strong sense that I am not only my father's (Ricardo) and mother's (Ciria) children, but also the children of Kukri village, and whether they are my real relatives or an impostor, they can't forgive me for coming out and saying something so convenient after all this time.

The two of them ran off to inform the other people from Kukri village about this and said they would keep an eye out for the con artists and be careful.

Today's commotion will spread throughout the royal capital soon, so hopefully the scammers will not appear again, but it will not be complete.

It was only at this time that I wondered if there are people in this world with blood like mine? It didn't matter that I was there, but it bothered me a bit.

And after all this time, I'm wondering why the gods put me in that place, too. I wanted to ask the gods why they left me there as a baby at some point.

I'm going to go to the weapons store. I told them not to go outside, but just in case, give Jeanne and the others the nucleus of this golem. I taught them how to activate it before, so they should be able to do it.

I took out some golem nukes from my bag and handed them to my grandfather.

These golem nukes were tuned for battle, so even if I took on multiple top-notch knights with just one of them, they were strong enough to buy Jeanne and the others time to escape.

''You won't take them with you?''

'I don't think I'd be able to run away and run errands with the two of you in tow if I got involved with some weird (scammers), so... if I didn't have to worry about my surroundings at all, I could handle it.

Grandpa seemed to agree with my words and went back to the mansion.

Shiroumaru and Solomon seemed to want to go with me, but when I told them that I was going to buy a lot of souvenirs and that I would be staying at home because they were going to cause another ruckus if they were together, they sat down and slobbered honestly.

Slarin and Namitaro don't seem to want to follow me from the start, but they seem to be expecting the souvenirs.

And Jeanne and Aura are hiding behind the front door as well.

''I'll get you all some souvenirs, so you'll have to put up with going out!　

I called out to Jeanne and Aura, and they both waved their hands in reply, though their shoulders slumped somewhat, perhaps disappointed that they wouldn't be taken away.

As I walked out through the gate, the remaining yajoma saw me coming out and quickly moved away.

I ignored them and started to walk to my destination, but within five minutes, I saw a person running from the front.

I tried to avoid colliding with the person in front of me, but the person in front of me seemed to be aiming at me, and then he or she approached me, correcting my course towards the misaligned one.