CH 16

TL Note: Benibana was changed to Benihana…

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「……A child with red eyes was fighting in the tournament?」

「Yes, that’s what I received from the report, and I thought《No Way》 when I was reading that report」

In a dimly lit room where not much light enters, a man and a woman were having a conversation.

The one who reported was a woman around her twenties wearing a long hooded robe, and she also possessed shining red eyes just like Toto.

The man who responded was a man that you could say to be the very image of a typical bad aristocrat, dressed gaudily and grossly overweight. You could even see distasteful golden decorations all over his clothes and it looked like he was around thirties.

「The goods haven’t been perfected yet, so that’s definitely not someone under me. Not to mention, having enough strength to easily break those strong adventurers, you weren’t mistakenly thinking that I would even bother appearing in such an event right?」

Aiming her glare at the fat man, he flinched.

「N, No, that’s kind of…… but you see, thinking about the descriptions in the report of those who witnessed her, it seems like she isn’t that strong but could possibly be graded as above a certain level」

「Have you verified if the report they have sent you is really accurate? then tell me more of her distinctive features」

「E, eh well, they reported that she was a little girl probably aged around 10, black her and red eyes, won against adventurer A Rank Vergil and B Rank Paranoia」

「《No Chant》 and 《The Accomplished》is it…… Tsk, I should have taken care of that earl at that time with my own hands. If that one becomes a power for that earl, then we need to change our strategy for the worst」

「Maybe that one just came to participate in the tournament」

「It would be fine if that was the case, but I don’t really want to be too optimistic about it. By the way, what’s the procurement of those 《Weapons》?」

「About that, the condition is still no good……」

「Although I can somehow manage without it, but that Vanilmirt guy is different, I will be immediately neutralized. Well, the more damage we could inflict the better the results would be. ……well, I can leave things like moving behind the scenes to you right? Those ones are just unusable because of how easy their mouths could talk」

The woman shrugged her shoulders, and then she walked around the room with her arms folded together thinking about something.

「What’s wrong?」

The bloated man asked, and then the woman gently pinned her index finger on her cheeks and tilted her head.

「Can’t we just take a look at that girl」

「I see, then let me arrange the ti――」

「Are you an idiot? You do know that I can’t enter the kingdom. I am going to look at it from a distance」

「From afar? Well what about me……」

When the bloated man was looking bewildered, the woman took out what seems to resemble binoculars and placed it on his desk.

She opens the mouthpiece like tube after handing it over to him.

「You can watch from as far with this, you won’t be needing anyone to be your eyes, even if you are alone you will be able to watch over the kingdom and the things that will happen. Well, the only thing good about it is no one would notice, that’s all」

「Haah……」

And as the woman moved out of the of the room she stopped for a moment remembering something she forgot to say.

「Be sure not to be selfish and get noticed. Well, if you did stand out and get caught in their eyes then you could expect something like what happened to me happening to you」

The woman then pointing at her neck laughed in amusement, and there he could see a big scar, and it was as if her whole neck was cut off at least once.

「……guh」

The man choked his breath.

But the woman moved on ignoring that man’s reaction, she then left while still chuckling.

「Is that woman really going to prepare things quietly……」

In that dim lit room, that small murmur echoed.

◇――――――

During the first match, the participants were one Rank C adventurer… who was it again, Ceres, yes Ceres. And a blond haired Ojou-sama who won the fifth of the qualifier matches and she seemed to be an adventurer despite being a noble. She was wearing expensive looking armor and protectors and her main weapon was a splendid rapier. She also wore a cute big ribbon that suited her, and her name was Etoile.

The battle, or more like her sermons continued on for about 20 minutes after she instantly defeated her opponent.

The main battle itself didn’t even last a minute, but because she was seemingly dissatisfied with the fight, she stopped the adventurer Ceres who was about to return to her waiting room and gave her a full 20 min sermon about how she was so frustrated and such and then pretty how much it dumped her motivation.

「Come back here you! I will preach to you what you should do and how you can regain power right at this moment! 」

Etoile’s shout could even be heard inside the waiting rooms.

At first the audiences were stunned by her as she went on and on, and some in the audience started to sympathize with her after listening to her whole story and nodding in agreement. There were even those who argued with each other to the point that all kinds of sound overflowed.

The Referee was also wondering if he should just stop it or let it continue because the venue itself already started to become a strange mess.

I properly followed what the soldier-san said and arrived at 10 o’clock, so I’m just laying around waiting for my turn.

Laying down on a bench somehow felt really comfortable, it made me feel sleepy again.

It’s probably because the bench was soft and was not made out of stone that it felt really comfortable.

Well, I have to do my best not to sleep though even if I’m getting really sleepy.

「Winner, Etoile!!」

The moment I heard the referee’s voice, I immediately raised my groggy body up. It seems like I actually fell asleep.

Now that I think about it, there are times when we think we are about to fall asleep, yet in fact we are already asleep and were only dreaming about falling asleep.

「Have you done your preparations?」

「Nn~」

After fixing up myself making sure that there are no traces of drool to be found, I nodded to the soldier-san and then he guided me to the entrance going towards the arena.

Standing on the ring was Benihana-san, holding her pair of short and long sword wearing clothes that looked like a worn-out Hakama. As expected she really looked like a Ronin.

「Wah, A kid?」

「Is she really going to be OK?」

「Well just watch, you’ll understand soon」

As soon as I enter the ring, I could hear many commentaries about me here and there. They were probably people who didn’t watch the qualifying matches’ yesterday and those who did were cheering for me.

「Oh, are you sure that you will be fine without wearing armor?」

After entering the ring, Beniana-san talked to me when we were about to be announced by the announcer-san.

「Nn」

Thinking that I was provoking her answering with only a single word, she replied with a sullen look.

Benihana-san also doesn’t wear something that resembles armor other that the breastplate protecting her chest.

「I won’t hold back」

「Got it, me too」

Benihana-san then grasped her swords and positioned herself in a stance. At the same time I also gripped my fist properly to strengthen up. The introductions seems to be over, and then the bell was rung signaling the start of the battle

「First, let’s do some warm-up. White eve—」

「Tou」

Before she was able to complete her form, I quickly closed in our distance in just a split second.

「Kuh!」

Despite being surprised, Benihana-san was able to not only avoid it, she was even able to counter forcibly swinging her two swords towards me.

The small sword was deflected but the other which had more force probably aiming to cut my shoulders hit, but the result was only a really small cut so the damage was almost zero.

「Wah!?」「Eh!?」

Well it definitely would surprise her, since she was probably thinking that she would be able to cut off my arm easily.

But I was also very surprised. I haven’t encountered anyone or anything being able to even scratch me before.

「I have been……」

「I wasn’t able to cut…… No way, what kind of magic is this? 」

「Wrong」

……is what I thought, maybe?

「I don’t think I would be able to win this quickly with an opponent like you. But it would be against the Bushido, so I will use my full power from the very start」

I have also witnessed that stance yesterday, and it was called 《All Sky》, a special technique of Benihana-san.

Now then let’s see it up close, that rule breaking power she talks about

「What did she mean by that?」

After activating her All-Sky, I asked the referee what she was implying. The referee then asked me if I could still remember the rules from yesterday. Even if you ask me that now, I don’t think I could even recall it.

「It’s the rule about a fixed time of the match. It’s about the possibility of not defeating the opponents for a long period of time, and that the one who has inflicted more damage will be declared winner. In the case of Toto and Benihana, despite being both still intact Toto who received slightly more damage would lose, and if no further damage is done Benihana will be declared as the winner」

「I see」

The soldier-san from yesterday wasn’t really able to explain the full details of the rules to me. Well explaining to me about the rules won’t really be of help, I guess that was what he understood since I was even too distracted to really concentrate on his explanations, and I’m really thankful for that.

The difference now is that I do know of that omni-directional counter skill, but I don’t know how it really works.

Furthermore, her confidence in even trying to win against an uncommon makes me think that she will be using it way differently than how it was yesterday.

In other words, she’s confident that she could zero-out all of my attacks for as long as 10 minutes holding that stance.

Well, I don’t have any plan at the moment so might as well try things out and see if there’s anything I could do.

Again, I shorten our distance and initiate an attack, and of course I was caught in a counter immediately after the approach.

I guarded with my arms and was able to properly block it but a mysterious force suddenly pushed me away.

「Wha?」

Fixing myself, I found Benihana-san a few meters away from me.

「This is the true power of All-Sky, it will never allow you to approach me, no matter what you do」

It seems like there’s some kind of strange mechanism at work when she uses that stance. I did attack her quite a number of times but it never seemed to work.

That counter too is really awful, though it doesn’t really deal any damage greater than small shallow cuts the accumulated amount is starting to hurt.

「At a time like this, Tote, there’s still no damage inflicted, if this goes on, Benihana-san will be declared as the winner」

What an awfully long technique, and that patience in maintaining that stance for a long time is really admirable, Benihana-san’s warrior spirit is incredible.

But I still have one more card…… If can’t go near her, I’ll just have trike her from far away, but unfortunately I don’t have any… wait, no, there is one… that…

「Hai」

I declared while raising my hands.

「I will now use magic」