CH 91.1

“Welcome to the home of warriors, fighters.”

The elegant cry drew the attention of all participants to the owner of the voice.

The upper level of the arena.

A snowishly gray-haired woman stood on a balcony specially set up to look down.

“Witch…”

One of the preliminaries muttered.

Calling the princess of the Duchy a witch was blasphemous in every sense, but no one criticized.

Rather, they all looked at Leslie with vehement looks, as if agreeing with him.

Leslie didn’t seem to care about such stares, and she continued.

“Today, you all have come here to prove your worth as warriors. However, this fight, this tournament will be a bloody battle in which lives cannot be guaranteed. There will be no one to give a hand. So if you are afraid, turn back right now.”

There was no one retreating.

Leslie put on a satisfied expression.

“Welcome, warriors.”

Krrrgh!

The thick arena door opened and the assigned personnel began checking their plaques before letting the participants enter.

“Carefully go up to the stands.”

I said to Katarina and Shedia.

“If there is danger, just run away. It doesn’t matter if it looks ugly. Got it?”

Katarina’s voice was full of anxiety.

I chuckled.

“Aren’t you doubting your boyfriend too much? Is it because I have never shown myself to you in a fight before?”

“Stop talking nonsense. Do you understand what I said?”

“Right.”

When I gave a passive nod, Katarina’s face soured as Shedia muttered from behind.

“Just die. Really…”

Katarina hugged me tightly before turning away to walk with Shedia, trailing behind the crowd. I watched them for a while, and when it was my turn, I showed the wooden plaque to the soldier.

“Pass.”

The soldier dismissively glanced at the wooden plaque and let me in. The arena was a circular arena like the Colosseum of ancient Rome.

Participants who had entered first were searching for a good place to stand in the arena.

They were moving away from those who looked strong and approaching those who seemed weak.

Those who seemed to be really talented took their place without much care. For example, that friend with six arms. There stood no one next to him.

I also took a stand in a fairly empty spot.

Then, some guys sneakily gathered around me. They exchanged glances among themselves and then began to surround me like hyenas staring at their prey.

‘These fucking jackasses…’

We haven’t even started yet, but they’re already teaming up?

Stunned, I looked around.

I wasn’t the only one experiencing this phenomenon. The elf, knight, and female martial artist I had sighted before were also in trouble of being surrounded by other warriors.

Oh, of course, the six arms ox was an exception.

There was no one by his side.

“Why is he being not targeted by any of you guys?”

When I pointed at the six arms, the people around me burst into laughter.

“Why is the man who is about to die curious about that?”

“Can’t you tell that much to satisfy the curiosity of a man ‘who’s about to die’?”

“Well… actually, it’s simple. Really.”

One of them shrugged.

“After we are done with you guys, we’ll kill him altogether.”

Aha.

Hunting slowly by stepping on stage by stage. Good plan. Mostly.

“I wonder, does that satisfy you?”

“One more thing. I understand about those guys, but why make me one of the primary targets?”

“The Giant slayer, Galid the slayer.”

One of the assholes grinned.

“I hope you are catching up?”

“That is the guy I beat up. Is he famous?”

“You dare say that even after hearing Galid’s moniker? Such a grandiose moniker doesn’t stick for nothing. It’s only when you achieve that level of achievement, you get one.”

The moment the man finished speaking, a screeching horn resonated throughout the arena.

It was the signal to announce the start of the preliminaries.

“Don’t be too heartbroken. It’s because of you, yourself, who acted too conspicuous before the tournament.”

With their mob monologue finished, eight men surrounding me lunged. Seeing the blades approaching my body, I side-stepped to draw my sword.

‘Don’t think Katarina’s immune to witnessing killing yet.’

She wanted to kill Lonwell to take revenge, but eventually, she relented as well. And there’s a huge visual difference between killing one person and killing eight people at once.

‘I’ll have to slowly increase her immunity.’

Letting out a small sigh, I recalled my hand back from the handle of the sword. I twisted my body to avoid the stab from the front and punched the man in the face. At the same time, I leaped forward and got out of the encirclement.

“What?!”

“Tect, that idiot… Let’s go together at the same moment!”

“Is this the time to complain? Kill that bastard!”

The remaining seven warriors flanked without hesitation.

I grabbed the ankle of the man who had passed out after being hit by my fist and swung him like a club at the man who came closest to me.

“Hih?!”

Maybe he hadn’t expected me to use a person as a weapon?

He opened his eyes wide. At the same time, he was hit by a ‘Tect’ and rolled on the floor.

“What the f**k…”

The other six who had rushed at me hesitated in bewilderment. I went in between them and mercilessly swung ‘Tect’. Fortunately, none of them cut their former comrade without hesitation, and they fell like fallen leaves in autumn.

I flicked ‘Tect’ — the human weapon I was coming to like — to flick off the blood…

Oh. He was not a sword.

Shook him again, then stopped and roughly threw him away.

Wiping my hands, I looked around. Perhaps because of the stunt I had just showed, no one tried to approach me.

‘Five? They are holding up better than I thought.’

Contrary to their embarrassing appearances earlier, the knight, sissy elf, and martial artist were calmly responding to the duel. Avoiding the approaching blades, they made sure to clean them up one by one.

The six arms was yawning, perhaps because no one had come to him.

I turned my gaze to the spectators.

I careened my eyes a few times over and found the familiar faces.

Katarina and Shedia.

As I waved my hand at the two of them, Katarina let out a smirk of astonishment, and Shedia silently continued to eat her bread.

Next, I turned my gaze toward Leslie’s balcony.

I had no particular intention, just curious about what Leslie was doing.

But by some coincidence, her eyes met mine.

A situation that would turn awkward if we just averted our gazes.

While she wondered what to do, I winked at her, to her shocked amusement.

* * *

Leslie tilted her head.

Did she see it right? Did that guy just wink at her?

It seemed right when he kept looking at her.

One of my siblings brought off mooks, huh?’

There was no other reason one would insist on squaring gazes with her, the monarch of the land.

‘There are all eccentric people.’

She smiled and looked away from him.

Her interest in Cloud ended there. Because he won’t be the only one bought off by her brothers and sisters.

‘Elf, knight, martial artist capable of strange techniques, and even a monster. They have gathered quite a collection.’

The reason she pinned them easily was because they didn’t kill other warriors, just like Cloud.

Leslie knew why they didn’t bother killing other warriors.

That’s why she snorted.

Because they had prepared to gain nothing.

With calm eyes, she watched over the arena until there were eight people left to go to the finals.