CH 19

◇Etoile PoV――――――

After waking up, I confirmed that I’m in the medical room right now.

It took some time for me to remember what exactly happened, but I knew for sure that I was unable to defeat her so I have lost.

This was a first for me, and I wonder where I went wrong.

First of all, her power is already on another dimension. Me being a wall for her would be nothing more than plain sarcasm.

I am trying to remember the details of what exactly happened during the match but right now I’m still a little confused. But somehow, I can at least remember how it all started.

First, shortly after the referee swung his hands down, she – Toto-san fired air bullets towards me. She was probably probing out my power because in the previous battle, this move was first witnessed during the fight with Benihana-san and brought her victory.

However, though strong, it’s not powerful enough to push me back through my defense. In fact, it wasn’t even a threat for me.

I was still expecting more from her. Probably because she realized that it was useless, she charged forward to engage in close combat.

Her movements are indeed that of an amateur, I easily dodged her using the phantom boots with minimum movements.

As a brief explanation about the Phantom boots, it’s basically a pair of boots with a magic effect (enchantment) that will distort the visual perception of those who attack the user creating an illusion to make the user’s current position unclear.

And as I have expected, her skin was even tougher than a monster’s protective leather being able to take one my attacks. My calculation was correct, if I used my sword against her, it would have been pretty much useless.

However, it seems like some damage passed through to her and she’s starting to slow down after being hit 3 to 4 times now.

With this, I can probably beat her if this keep going on, simply avoiding her while attacking. I am doing my best concentrating, and when I thought that this would be an easy fight, she changed her tactics and started using feints, even I was barely able to dodge that.

Still, with her movement now becoming more sluggish, I was certain of my victory but then… that happened.

Pausing for a bit, she suddenly said 「So that’s how it works」, and then all the damage that I thought have been accumulating felt like it all disappeared.

No, I also noticed it a while ago, but she was probably not even receiving damage since the start of the match.

She was probably acting to make me feel like I’m winning while she’s trying to find out the effects of the boots. Even if the visual recognition would be distorted, it doesn’t mean that everything else would also be affected. It would be possible to determine the right location by using senses other than sight.

At that moment my heart broke, I thought in the depths of my mind that it was already impossible to defeat her.

Soon after that, my consciousness disappeared as she was able to land a direct hit on me.

「To be a wall for her…… I could not even become a proper opponent for her」

As embarrassing I could think of it, I could now understand the feeling of that C Rank adventurer that I’ve preached.

I am claiming to be a strong warrior who has been directly taught by my master hailed as Sword King, and even that strength was recognized, hailing me as an A Rank adventurer. In adventurer ranks, a rank of one or two above is already considered as a great wall, and it would be like an adult fighting a child. Then I thought, what was wrong with him giving up since the beginning of the match?

「Ah, Ane-san, are you ok!?」[TL:Ane-san – Female Gangster Boss]

Then the aforementioned, Ceres-san, appeared in front of me in the medical office.

「Ceres-san. About preaching you for abandoning our match from before, I would like to apologize to you in regards to that.」

After saying that, I sat up from my bed and then bowed. Then Ceres-san only shook his head and said it was fine denying what I’ve said.

「It was an excellent match Nee-san! And about what Nee-san said, it made me realize. If an adventurer easily gives up, then there won’t be any adventures that anyone could look up to!!」

Seeing him being this excited, I am somehow feeling pained, but he still continued.

「I, what I was before all of this, I was considered to be the strongest in our village, that’s why I became an adventurer, and despite being recognized as such, I easily gave up when facing someone with a higher rank, but your preaching made me realize that this is not what I’m supposed to do.

That time I was thinking, just what kind of adventurer did I turn into?

However, Nee-san’s preaching made me realize that I shouldn’t give up that easily and made me remember the time when I’ve just started my adventurer days. It’s more of me wanting to say my gratitude than to hear Nee-san apologizing to me」

「…I was of help to you then, this useless me」

「Eh, what were you saying just now?」

「Nah, I was just talking to myself」

I laughed at my pitiful self inwardly. The case that I have taken is not about me beating Toto-san, and it was more to be thankful to her for showing me that there would always be others who would stand above me.

My purpose this time seems to have been fulfilled, and so I will be going on a trip after taking a short break to sort myself. That’s because there are still a lot of people out there who would probably be in need of my help.

It seems like Ceres-san was also able to find his path, and maybe someday he would also become a famous adventurer with titles attached.

[ED: Not sure if Ceres-san is male or female]

[TL: Ceres-san is male]

◇――――――

Etoile-san seems to have taken measures against me, so I tried using a strategy of acting naïve in order to understand her power, but the effects of her equipment seemed to be really annoying.

At the beginning, I tried directly attacking her with force, but that felt like I was slapping a tree without breaking it, and although I thought that it might be effective, the result was only a feeling as if I was hitting air and made me think that my eyes were playing a prank on me. I was also countered, but the pain I’ve felt from that was so minor that I didn’t even consider it a threat, but I was being weary about the effects of her shoes.

At first, I was thinking that maybe it is used for attacking because of the design of the shoes, but then I realized that it was more troublesome since it was disrupting my sense of sight allowing her to easily dodge my attacks just like that time with Vergil-san. Also, I might have become even more troubled if it had something that would let you do a short dimensional jump.

I was doing my best trying to hit her, but all of my attacks were easily dodged.

Early in the fight, I still couldn’t hit her directly and Etoile-san also splendidly countered every time I attack. I let her hit me on purpose so I could grasp the true effects of her shoes.

Well, it’s not only the effect of the shoes but Etoile-san was also able to splendidly avoid me though.

And because of that, it was not almost impossible for me to hit her back then. I then mixed in some feints and started to gradually pressure her in the middle of the match, and finally I understood where her real position was based on the sound of her footsteps.

I was worried about the strange sensation I felt at first, but then I realized that the sensation itself was messing things up.

After identifying her real position from that strange occurrence, I send a punch her way, and that attack properly connected, sending her flying out of the ring.

Well, I was thinking that I really had a great luck this time, but she wasn’t able to deal any proper damage against me so it was kind of useless.

Etoile-san was immediately taken straight to the medical office. For an instant, recovering magic did activate so she’s probably alright.

Well then, time to get my mind out of this match and return to watch the next fight… but I wonder if it’s alright?

It will be my turn again after the match of Virgilio-san who replaced me when I returned to the waiting area, and my next opponent would be the winner from their match.

Then next match should be between the winner Ornica-san, who defeated Cliff, and the winner of yesterday’s match, Virgilio-san, an A Rank adventurer who is using a magic sword.

Virgilio-san is a strong man in his thirties, also really tall, probably over 2 meters and has a body jam packed with muscles. He has a two-handed sword on his back which looks really heavy, but Virgilio-san said that it is actually lighter than it looks and swinged it around while talking about it. Well it would also be too light for me though.

However, in the semifinals, the one who will win will be fighting consecutive battles, is it ok?

And on another note, the final battle will be between the previous champion the knight commander-sama and the winner, so it will be three consecutive battles if I will win all my fights. I think it’s strange……

「Ne, ne, fighting done, what should do?」

「Nn, ah, were you not given the schedule?」

First thing I did, I asked the soldier who was waiting at the entrance of the waiting room.

The soldier too out a piece of paper from his pocket and showed it to me, but well I can’t read it you know.

「Etto, letters can’t read」

「Eh? It sure is rare finding people who can’t read」

He had the same reaction as the soldier yesterday. After all, it is definitely rare to find someone who can’t read letters…

「Today’s next battle is between Ornica-san and Virgilio-san, then it will be after a 30 minute break in order to avoid too much fatigue on the participants. Toto-san’s match will be against the winner of this match as the semifinals, that will all for today’s battles」

「Eh, final match time, tomorrow?」

「Well yeah, we have to arrange a lot things before the match so the final match will be around 12 o’clock tomorrow, it will be a battle between the Knight Commander Vanil Mirt-sama and today’s final contender」

「various things?」

「Most nobles watch the final match along with those who want to see how the knight commander fights. Because of that, the necessary preparations to improve the security of the area are needed」

「Ticket, what should do?」

「You can use the one that you have been using today, and well it should have been written… a you can’t read. Sorry about that.」

Well, now that I think about it, there was an area on the audience seat that was cleared up a while ago. It must be the place where nobles and the likes are seated.

If there’s time for a break, then I’ll go back to mom and relax for now to calm down.

「Umm, when late, what to do?」

「Well, there will still be time before this match ends, there’s also around 30 minutes before the next match starts, you can come to the waiting room at that time」

「Nn」

After that I waved to the soldier-san and return to where mom is after passing by the corridor and returning to where we sat before.