Chapter 696

The Qualifying Round

Translated by Tods

Edited by NotEdited

The first round of the qualifying round of the martial arts tournament was a battle royal this year as well.

Each round consists of five or six participants, and the one who survives moves on to the next round. It’s exactly the same as last year.

The fights between the small fry were boring, but there were also some talented people in the mix. Other matches in which people we knew were participating were also worth watching in their own right.

The Scarlet Maidens, a party of three girls who worked for us at Barbra, participate this year too.

They’ve improved their abilities quite a bit since last year. They must have trained hard.

They were still unable to advance past this year’s qualifying round though.

Well, the girls are the type that put more emphasis on coordination than individual combat power after all. Moreover, they are a party that excels at fighting in dungeons and outdoors.

But before that, Maia, the thief, and Lydia, the sorceress, were not suited for a martial arts tournament. In the end, as the most skilled, they were all targeted by the other participant, and they ended up losing.

As for Judith, their leader and a swordswoman, she had a bad opponent.

She fought against one of Dimitris’ disciples. Even though he was still a disciple in training, he was probably equivalent to a C-Ranked adventurer in terms of ability.

It seems that he is one of the people that are under Hilt’s supervision.

Colbert told us about the Dimitris school, and it seems that it is mostly Hilt’s role to instruct the disciples.

It also seemed that Dimitris has always been putting his own training first, and is not that concerned about preserving the Dimitris style that he created.

Still, he has disciples and dojos all over the country because there is no end to the number of people who want to become his disciple.

At first, the adventurers who admired Dimitris were simply learning the basics of fighting in between their activities.

Before long, Dimitris himself became somewhat interested in raising disciples, and the number of disciples in his school increased, until it became a large dojo with more than a hundred disciples in total.

That certainly sounds like a lot of disciples for someone who was just starting out, but I also heard that his training was extremely strict and many were quitting because of it.

Well, with his status as an S-Ranked adventurer, it wasn’t hard for him to eventually get thousands of disciples.

If the disciples were able to continue their training without failing and become top disciples, they would be allowed to be trained by Dimitris in person. However, it is also said that many of the disciples are disheartened by his insane Spartan training.

In such an environment, Colbert and Hilt were among those who remained.

And even though Colbert was quite capable, he was treated as just a top disciple, not a master.

Hilt and the other masters who had passed the ordeal must be highly capable.

It is even said that there have only been three masters since the ordeal to become a master was introduced.

Well, the ordeal was to become an A-Ranked adventurer while sealing their own abilities after all. I doubt many of them will be able to achieve that.

「Oneesama, do you know the person who just lost?」

「Nn. She’s an adventurer from Barbra」

Fran also seemed to be rooting for Judith. When she lost, she unconsciously uttered an 「Ah―」, and Katley didn’t miss it.

「Is that so? That’s too bad」

「…I’m sorry」

「Why would Nilfe apologize?」

「Because her opponent is grandfather’s disciple…」

Nilfe bowed her head, looking like she was about to cry, but Fran stopped her.

「Nilfe has nothing to do with this. It is their problem alone」

「Is that, so?」

「Nn」

「…Thank you very much」

「?」

Seemed relieved, Nilfe smiled at her. Fran didn’t quite understand, but it seemed that she had been through a lot.

Just being the lineage of a famous person must have attracted a lot of attention and unreasonable complaints.

It’s not surprising that a person like Dimitris, who doesn’t bother to conceal his lack of respect for others, would be resented by many people. That resentment has been turned to her simply because she is his granddaughter. The fact that she immediately expressed her apologies just now suggests that she must have gone through a lot of hardship.

「Milady」

「Thank you, Michael」

Michael gently offers a handkerchief to the teary-eyed Nilfe. How dependable of you, Michael!

However, Fran is wary of Michael. She noticed that he has been glancing at us on occasion. He’s probably just holding a grudge about Colbert, just like Hilt.

I didn’t feel any strong hostility, but he had been watching us with a watchful eye. It was an eye looking for weaknesses and gaps. We can’t afford to let our guard down in this situation.

「Ah! Oneesama! That person was one of the participants in the main competition last year, wasn’t she!?」

「Nn. Charlotte」

Charlotte seemed to be participating in the tournament this year as well. Her rank as an adventurer is the same as Judith and her party member. but her fighting style is more suitable for martial arts competitions compared to Lydia and Maia. I’m sure she’ll make it to the top again this year.

Even now, on top of the arena, no one could catch her dancing movements and she kept defeating them one after another. Moreover, when I appraised her, I found that she was much stronger than last year.

In addition to the fact that her level has increased, her job has also changed. Last year, she was a Combat Dancer, but now she is a Combat Fighter. Her unique skill set includes the Dance of Trance, and she has even acquired another special skill.

Last year, she lost because of her lack of offensive power against Elsa. It seemed that she had taken measures to counter that this year.

Anyway, should we go comfort the Scarlet Maiden for now? They seemed to be very confident this year and cried a bit after losing.

I also want to greet Charlotte too.

Well then, let’s see what kind of contestants we’ll meet this year, shall we?