The first day of the main tournament.

Compared to the qualifying rounds, there was a much larger audience in the stadium.

Naturally, the emperor, princes, princesses, and nobles of the Bestir Empire were present. Even those who weren’t interested in the fighting tournament itself still visited the arena for the chance to see the faces of the emperor and other members of royalty.

Until today, the Imperial Capital had been filled with people, but now the streets were empty.

That was only natural as most people who had come to the Imperial Capital had come for the fighting tournament.

Of course, that didn’t apply to everyone, but there were few people who weren’t interested in the Bestir Empire’s annual tournament.

「Woah……how many people are there?」

Outside the stadium, there was someone who could helping muttering out loud because of the large number of people.

He had come from a village in the Bestir Empire’s countryside and come to the Imperial Capital to watch the fighting tournament for the first time. However, due to various circumstances, he had only arrived the day before.

He had been unlucky and missed the opening ceremony several days ago, not to mention the qualifying rounds.

That said, it was hard to get to the Imperial Capital from the countryside, so it wasn’t uncommon to arrive late by a week or two.

Weather, accidents, and bandits. Considering all possible situations, the man was lucky to arrive at the Imperial Capital safely, even if he had come by carriage.

Although it was a great opportunity for him to watch the tournament, he couldn’t help but speak out loud at the number of people in the stadium.

「What is it, brother? Is this your first time seeing the fighting tournament?」

A nearby man in his 40’s called out to him, perhaps feeling sorry for the man or simply because he was tired of just standing in line.

「Hm? Oh, yes, this is my first time……is this normal for the Imperial Capital?」

「No, no, definitely not. Normally there aren’t that many people here for the fighting tournament either……I wonder if you’re lucky or unlucky……」

「What do you mean?」

The man didn’t understand what the middle-aged man was talking about as looked over in confusion.

The middle-aged man replied with a smile.

「This year’s tournament is special in many ways. ……Well, it can’t be helped since it’s your fist time in the Imperial Capital.」

「……Special?」

「That’s right. FIrst of all, Crimson is participating in the tournament.」

When the man heard that name, he was puzzled.

The name crimson was familiar to him. He was an adventurer from the Mireana Kingdom who had caused devestating damage to the Bestir Empire during the Spring War.

「Why would such a person come all the way to the Bestir Empire? Did he come here to pick a fight?」

Hearing the man’s words, the middle-aged man shook his head in denial.

「According to what I heard, someone from the Mireana Kingdom brought Crimson with him. It seems that Crimson became interested in the fighting tournament because of that and decided to participate. Well, I don’t know the truth. Either way, Crimson is definitely participating. I actually saw him in the qualifying rounds.」

「……Eh? Did they participate in the qualifying rounds? Normally, special participants like them go straight to the main tournament, right?」

「That’s true. ……Well, I guess Crimson has his own plans. Anyway, he participated in the qualifying rounds and easily advanced to the main tournament.」

「Is that so.」

The man nodded after hearing what had happened.

Fortunately, the village where the man lived was in the countryside, so only a few people from the village had fought in the war……and those that did weren’t exactly close friends of his.

That said, it still didn’t feel good to see fellow village residents die, so he definitely wouldn’t accept if if someone of Crimson’s level were to lose in the qualifying rounds.

Because of that, it was only natural for Crimson to make it through.

「So, Crimson is here, are so many people gathered to see someone so scary?」

Even though he had been at the end of the line earlier, dozens of people were already queued up behind him.

If he asked himself whether or not Crimson carried that much fame, he would have to say no.

「No. ……What the people lined up here really want to see isn’t Crimson. Of course, Crimson’s fighting style is flashy, so it is worth watching.」

「Then what have they come to see?」

「……It’s because someone else is participating in the fighting tournament. Noiz-sama, the Immovable, the S rank adventurer.」

「……………What?」

It wasn’t just a short pause. The man only spoke up after a full minute of silence.

It was easy to see why. S rank adventurers were a rare and valued existence, yet such a person was appearing in such a high profile event like the fighting tournament.

Noiz was well known as an S rank adventurer and for his title, Immovable.

It was no wonder as there were only three S rank adventurers in the world and Noiz was the only one from the Bestir Empire.

However, although rumours of his spectacular exploits had spread, he had never participated in the fighting tournament up until now.

That was why the man struggled to believe what the middle-aged man had told him.

of course, the middle-aged man knew that as well. He nodded in understanding as he continued to speak.

「This brings us back to the topic of Crimson. It’s just a rumour, but if things continued as they were, Crimson might have ended up winning the tournament. So, I think this is a trump card prepared to prevent that from happening.」

「Oh, I see.」

That line of thinking made sense.

Crimson could be considered the Bestir Empire’s mortal enemy. If such a person ended up winning the biggest fighting tournament held in their own empire, they wouldn’t just lose face, it would be like having their face trampled over.

Additionally, important guests from the surrounding countries had been invited to attend the tournament, so if anything went wrong, they would all be able to see it.

From the perspective of the Bestir Empire, which advocated domination over the surrounding countries, this was something that couldn’t be tolerated.

Even if he didn’t understand all the details, knowing that it was an issue of superiority was still easy enough.

「Well, that’s why this fighting tournament has a lot of big highlights. In addition to Crimson and Immovable, there are several other people with titles participating as well.」

「……I don’t know if I should be glad that I made it time for the main tournament or be disappointed that I didn’t get to see their performance in the qualifying rounds……」

「Don’t worry about it. Be glad that you made it in time for the main tournament. After all, it’s a tournament like this. There’s no doubt it will be talked about for a long time. ……Oh, the stadium, it looks like admission has started.」

The middle-aged man smiled as he saw the line begin to move forward, albeit slowly.

The other man thought it would be best to concentrate on getting a good seat for now as he moved forward with the line.

 

 

Rei had no idea what it was like outside the stadium as he looked around the waiting area.

Although there were quite a number of people, everyone was focusing on their own battle.

Rei was also lucky that no one tried to mess with him like in the qualify rounds.

……However, the fact that Rei was Crimson had already been made known after the qualifying rounds. Considering that, no one would be so reckless as to mess with him.

At the very least, there were no such people in the waiting area.

(The only people who have a match today are me, Rhodes, and Vaycul. It would have been nice to share a waiting room with at least one of them.)

As expected, it was boring to just sit around silently until the matches started.

On the other hand, he also wanted to avoid a situation where he went for a walk around the large stadium only for his match to be called and fail to make it back in time.

That was why it would have been nice for if there was someone he knew……that was what Rei thought as he looked around.

Some people were going through the motions with the weapons in hand, others had their eyes closed or were conversing with someone they happened to know.

There were many different people, but they all, especially those who were conversing with others, were startled when they saw Rei look at them.

Rei didn’t think they were scared of him, it just seemed like they thought they would end up in trouble if they came in contact with Rei.

In fact, several participants in the waiting room were looking at Rei with murderous intent.

(They probably had something to do with the war, but……actually, I don’t think there’s any other reason, right?)

Thinking about that as he looked back at the person, Rei gave a sigh.

Perhaps seeing that as a provocation, the person instinctively gripped the weapon he was holding.

However, it was now the main tournament and not the qualifying rounds.

If the participants engaged in private fights outside the arena, they would be disqualified without any questions asked……they might even be criminally charged.

When Rei had first heard about it, he thought it was a bit too harsh. But, considering the nobility and royalty present in the stadium, he had no choice but to accept it.

「Cleo, it’s time for your match. Please come to the arena.」

A member of the tournament committee came to the waiting room and called out.

Hearing that voice, a man with a spear stood up and left the waiting room.

Seeing him leave, and having nothing better to do, Rei started doing stretches to kill time and relax his body.

As expected of a body made by Zepairu, it was quite flexible.

Standing up, he stretched his knees and reached for the floor with his hands, palms touched the floor without feeling any particular pain.

Several people looked at Rei with surprised, but he just continued his stretches without caring for them.

Still, there was no way he could continuously kill time by doing stretches, so after 10 minutes, he was done.

(If only there were magazines or something similar……)

As he sat down in a chair, he recalled the manga magazines he had read back in Japan.

Those were very useful in passing time, a game console would have been even better.

(No, if I had a game console in Elgin, I would have stood out way too much.)

As he thought about it in his mind, the murderous glares directed at him started feel troublesome, so he stood up from his spot.

It wasn’t like he was trying to do anything to those people, so it would just make the both of them feel bad if he stayed where he was.

(It might be a good idea to take a look at the matches in the arena. If I win, I’ll probably end up fighting one of them.)

Rei left the waiting room while being careful not to forget the match order.

There seemed to be a number of participants who had the same thoughts as Rei. Because of that, the number of people in the waiting room had decreased significantly.

Most of those who remained had their matches coming up soon.

With that, Rei left the waiting room as a wide range of glances were directed towards his back, murderous glares, curious looks, those who considered him a troublemakes, and others hoping to gain some insight into his abilities.

 

 

「……Phew.」

Finally getting some breathing space, Rei let out a sigh and he took a look around.

Perhaps the fights in the arena were getting exciting, he could already hear the cheers from the audience.

There were a lot of things he could do, but if he did them, it might end up causing a lot of trouble. With that in mind, Rei decided to just walk around the stadium, as if taking a tour.

There were of course others here, but much fewer than those in the waiting room.

Among those people, most held expressions of surprise when they saw Rei.

The only reason Rei was able to move around freely was because he wasn’t holding the Death Scythe in his hands.

Even though Rei barely felt its weight when holding it, it’s weight was still normal for everyone else, so bumping into others risked accidentally injuring them.

Because of the Misty Ring, Rei was able to avoid that and store everything inside that might potentially get in the way of him moving around.

(Well, that’s its own issue.)

That what he thought as he saw other people look at him with awe as he walked down a hallway.

It must have been a strange sight for them, considering he was a mortal enemy to the Bestir Empire.

(Now that I think about it, Elk must have bet on me, right? No, there’s still Min, so I shouldn’t have to worry about it.

As he walked around, continuing to tour the area, he recalled that he had told Elk to bet on him winning his match.

However, he was disappointed that he couldn’t find any food stalls selling food to the audience in the stadium.

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