CH 15

Today’s qualifying matches have finally ended, and the proper tournament based on the qualifiers will be held tomorrow, is what was taught to me when I returned to the waiting room.

The opponents for tomorrow will be decided by lottery after each set of matches, so it will not be an ordered group but the final match has already been scheduled.

It seems like the knight commander-sama will be in the final match as expected.

I wonder why they didn’t let the knight commander-sama join the main battle, but well because of that, he will definitely be marked as a prize blocker when proceeding to the finals.

「Toto-san will be participating in the second match, and your opponent will be Benihana-san」

Whose name was that again? If I remember correctly, it was the name of that Ronin girl.

「The start of the first match will be at 10 o’clock, the same time as the today’s battles. Participants are also encouraged to come one hour before their match and be in the waiting room at that time, well in the case of Toto-san, it would still be fine if you will be a little late, we won’t mind it that much」

「Nn, come same place as today?」

「In regards to that, Toto-san, there are two other waiting rooms that we will be using for the main battle and not this one, people on the left bracket will be using the waiting room on the left side of the arena while people on the right side also will be using the one on the right 」

「Understand」

After confirming, I was given my green participation ticket again.

「Before you enter the waiting room, be sure to show this to the soldier-san that will be guarding that place, it’s to prevent troublesome things like the fraud that entered in the past」

「Nn」

「And well, I was wondering if you would like me to prepare tickets?」

「Ticket?」

「Yes, we could prepare up to five for free if you want to hand it to someone, it is for the participants who have either family friends or acquaintances to cheer for them or just watch their match」

「So do you want any?」

「One piece, good」

I then carefully placed the participation ticket and audience entry to my shoulder pouch.

「Well then, be careful on your way back. It’s only half a joke though, but anyway, be sure to remember that you will need to be here at 10 o’clock or at the very least right on the time when the first match begins」

「Nn, bye bye」

I waved to the kind soldier-san as we parted, then climbed up the stairs to the audience area where mom was. Because the qualifying matches were over, a lot of the audience had already moved out of the arena so I was able to quickly locate mom. For some reason though, the adventurer maniacs were still there and there were more of them.

「Toto, you……」

My mom’s voice feels a bit shaky, is this fear? Could this be leading to that pattern?

I only want money and if at the same time surprise mom with my strength and I was thinking that it she would be glad and would support me when I tell her that I wanted to be an adventurer in the future, but honestly it would be really awkward if I got rejected at this moment.

No matter what I end up being, I will still be the child raised by my mom.

「Ah, about that, mom you se—-」

「You were extremely strong! So much that you were able to win with ease! 」

And then I was hugged and squeezed. Ah, it seems that the trembling voice from before was from too much excitement, I’m glad really, I was really glad.

「But still, being able to fight like that was truly unbelievable, where you hiding the fact that you’ve been doing battle training from us all this time?」

「Uu, un, since before, was fighting monsters」

「Is that why we couldn’t find you anywhere at those times huh……」

「Iya, you’ve got us good Jou-chan, I will be looking forward to the matches tomorrow!」

「I see so the reason why the 《Rookie》 surrendered early was because he didn’t want to be beaten in the same way as《No Chant》 or 《The Accomplished》」

「Nn, Easy」

「Gahahaha, that’s awesome!」

◇Rihanna PoV――――――

Since the early days, I already knew that my daughter was kind of strange.

She was trying her best not to show her clumsy parts, as much as possible for her, but to us the parents who watched over her all the time it was futile.

Especially that unusually strong power she has but even if she did try her best to hide it she still slipped.

That girl, she’s really so simple that when something slips out of her mind she will unconsciously forget it, especially when she is thinking of different things every now and then, just like the time when someone asked her to lift something heavy for them, the things she carried were heavy enough to even need many full grown men to lift or a cart to carry around and yet she lifted it and carried it around as if she was carrying a pillow or something as light.

Also, the way she thinks is more mature than her age would suggest, I was able to easily distinguish it after all I have heard from my child rearing friends just how hard raising a kid was like, yet I didn’t really have that much trouble raising her.

Knowing something like that where she excels from others makes me really proud as a mom, but well that kind of thinking would actually be weird to everyone else so I’m keeping it on my own. It would be a smarter move not to tell anyone about it to prevent any further confusion, and that also means covering up that child’s unintentional slip-ups.

Now that I think about it, I was finally able to grasp the whole picture now regarding Toto’s Bloody Incident two years ago with this display of power.

Even considering the speed of that fireball being tossed at her, she handled it so easily not even being surprised about it, and if you compare the monsters surrounding our region area then definitely they would be nothing more than training partners for her.

At that moment she might have misjudged her target and put too much power into her blow, or maybe it was the first time she tried out her power on a monster and was not able to properly hold back. That’s it for sure.

But still, for us who were only a low B Rank adventurer or more preferable to be considered advanced C Rank it is really a mystery for us to have a child with outstanding strength like what she displayed, but well looking closely at her traits and gestures then you can definitely see that she is our child.

That’s why when Toto’s game ended and returned I quickly understood what Toto’s mind was like when I looked at her face.

That girl, she was afraid of being rejected because of her power.

She must have felt like that since a long time ago, I guess she understood that having excessive power would make people be afraid of her that’s why she did her best trying to hide that power.

I don’t really know what her intention is for showing her power to me right now that she has been hiding all this time, and sure she has her reasons for doing so, but thinking about it calmly she it’s not probably that deep of a reason though, I mean she’s just that kind of child.

But, if she’s feeling scared that her mother would reject her, then the only thing I could do as a mother is to properly reassure her.

Well it’s fine since I’m not really bothered by it, and you don’t have to worry about it.

「You were extremely strong! So much that you were able to win with ease! 」

After saying that, I hugged her. I don’t know how she would look like at this moment, but because she also warmly hugged me back, I’m sure that I have eased her anxiety.

◇――――――

I told mom about my schedule for tomorrow and were currently holding hands as we return to Jewel Inn.

「Mom, you aware?」

I asked mom if she knew about my strength, and she returned a smile and said.

「Of course, only to a certain extent. But I didn’t expect for you to be strong enough to easily beat two named adventurers though 」

「I see」

「I’ll be cheering you with my all tomorrow, but do be careful」

「Nn, do my best」

I secretly took a guts pose with my free hand and then I remember about the tickets that was in my shoulder pouch.

「Mom, this」

I handed her a participation ticket for tomorrow, it seems like a lot of acquaintances, parents, and friends will be participating tomorrow. And because the main battle for the tournament is really popular with the people every year, it seems like there are cases where tickets got sold out.

「Come to think of it, don’t you need any armor Toto?」

「Nn~……」

I haven’t really thought about wearing any. I did once worry about it before, but when I tried letting myself be hit by monsters either by claws or blades, I didn’t really receive any damage so I never thought about it.

「Daizobu, can handle it」

An enemy that could actually cut me would already be considered a real threat.

「Hmmmph~」

Mom held me up, then pinched my arm with her free hand while she was holding me.

「It’s not really that hard at all, it’s kind of strange, is it a kind of magic?」

「Wrong」

I tensed up my hand and then let mom touch it once more, when she did she was shocked by comparing the state of my hand from before.

「This is amazing! It’s almost as hard as Iron, with this I’m convinced that you really don’t need any armor.」

Well, the most important part of it is that protective gears are hard to wash, the possibility of it turning into something really stinky is very high. Although they are indeed needed for protection, I don’t really want to wear them that often.

Not to mention that I won’t find anything fitting to my size, and so I will need to pre order, meaning there won’t be enough time for me to wait for it to be made.

「Well then, why don’t we eat something delicious for today, then tomorrow I will do my best to support you」

「Nn~」

After saying that, she put me down and we went to the restaurant area while holding hands.