「Hey, hey, what’s going on? If you can’t keep up with this level of movement, it’s almost impossible to be Crimson, right?」

Hearing Bratta’s teasing words, Rhodes’ sword gained even more momentum.

He fired off a series of thrusts, his best attack, but all of them failed to even scratch Bratta.

「Rei won today’s match against someone called Gander. You saw the fight, right? The speed and power of each attack. Both are at a much higher level than you. With your current level of skill, what do you think you can do? It’s impossible fo you to defeat Crimson.」

「Shut up! I’ll do it……I’ll do it!」

The speed of Rhodes’ long sword increased further. However……seeing that, Bratta gave a small sigh as he flicked his own long sword, a bladeless one used for mock battles.

With just a flick, the long sword in Rhodes’ hands was easily sent flying.

「No, no, no, I told you in the beginning. When the blood rushes to your head, the power of your attacks increases, but your accuracy drops proportionally. It’s impossible to defeat Crimson like this. Just calm down. Every time I said something, your accuracy dropped. That’s why you were so easily defeated without being able to do anything.」

Rhodes grit his teeth at Bratta’s onslaught of criticisms.

Bratta had promised Rhodes that he would be given a magic weapon, but he had also said it would be meaningless if it wasn’t accompanied by a certain level of skill, which Rhodes understood.

He had been told that he would be training with Bratta, and that was what he had been doing……but he had made one miscalculation.

It was that Bratta didn’t think highly of Rhodes.

To Bratta, Rhodes might be skilled, but he was far behind himself. He was also not amused to see Sobble, his partner, value Rhodes so highly.

Deep down, he knew that Rhodes had been drawn out not as a fighter, but mainly to gather information about Rei and Elk, and as a countermeasure in case they had to fight either of them.

However……if it didn’t interest him, it didn’t interest him.

Sobble had told him to train Rhodes with the logic that Rhodes needed to be strong enough to be given a magic weapon, but as someone honest with his feelings, his training was inevitably tough and aggressive.

「Haa, haa, haa……」

「Because your mind was only focused on attacking, you ended up losing your breath. You failed in the same way against Crimson, didn’t you? Don’t you know to not make the same mistake again?」

「I-I know.」

Taking a deep breath, Rhodes regulated his breathing.

Seeing that, Bratta gave another sigh as he put his training sword on his shoulder.

「You’ve got the basics right, and it seems like you can fight reasonably well, but I don’t know what to say……you can’t apply them well? Simply put, you don’t have any combat sense.」

「Gah.」

Rhodes was the one who understood what Bratta meant the most. He grit his teeth in frustration as he glared back.

However, Bratta didn’t seem to care at all as he just kept speaking.

「Combat sense can be improved up to a certain point with practice, but in the end, it’s mostly intuition, so talent matters. ……Well, that’s why for high ranking adventurers, the higher you go the less there are. It’s the same for knights and similar occupations.」

「……I guess so.」

Rhodes agreed as he thought of his father and Rei.

「So, if you think about it from that point of view, you just don’t have the talent. To be honest, I think it’s almost impossible for you to beat Crimson……why don’t you just give up?」

「I refuse!」

Even though he didn’t have much talent himself, he still had a strong determination regarding Rei.

Of course, he also held feeling for Vihera, but those were separate to his thoughts regarding Rei.

Rei was someone who had left a mark on Rhodes. Because of that, he had no choice but to deal with it.

「Haah. ……I get it. Then why don’t we try fighting some more. In my case, I’m not a good teacher, so we will focus on mock battles. ……I’ll hammer all this knowledge into your body until you can’t fit any more. That’s what we’ll do, to the point you can keep fighting even when unconscious.」

「That would be a great help.」

Finally calming down, Rhodes once again faced Bratta with his long sword at the ready.

「Here I come!」

He shouted as he attacked Bratta.

 

 

「We’ll do it tomorrow.」

「……Tomorrow? I’m ready, but it’s still quite sudden.」

Inside a mansion in the Imperial Capital, Sistoi looked surprised at Mulla’s words.

Although he was surprised, he didn’t seem upset about it as he realised that they did have to make a move soon.

He just hadn’t thought the time would be tomorrow.

「That’s right. If possible, I would have liked to observe him a little longer, but……you see, there was the incident with the children, right?」

Sistoi frowned slightly at Mulla’s words.

If it hadn’t been for the people who had come to their rescue at the time, he would definitely have been killed by Rei and, most of all, they wouldn’t have been able to save all the children.

However, Sistoi couldn’t help but feel bitter about the fact that as they ran away, several of the people who had come to rescue them had ended up losing limbs from the last minute attacks Rei had made.

It was the same for Mulla, who continued to speak after giving Sistoi a slightly concerned look.

「In the end, our actions had a lot of effects. We have to clean up our own messes. Also, we’ve been getting messages from our clients reminding us.」

「Or maybe that’s how things should be.」

「Well, what do you think? Even though we call them our clients, most of them are lower ranking nobles. Considering the organisation’s connections, I feel like they are surprisingly arrogant towards us.」

It was true that Mulla and Sistoi were known to be among the most skilled members of Requiem’s Toll. Still, they were not unique, and for Requiem’s Toll, that existed in the background of society, keeping their identities a secret was paramount to their existence.

Considering that, Mulla felt that it was the organisation’s compassion that they weren’t immediately eliminated after the previous incident.

「Who is Crimson’s opponent tomorrow?」

「Uhh, I think it was a mage.」

「……There’s still a mage left?」

Sistoi was surprised at Mulla’s words.

He couldn’t believe that a pure mage, not even a magic warrior like Rei, had made it to the fifth round.

If this had been any other year, the mage would certainly have been a hot topic. However, the reason that such a mage hadn’t made headlines was because of Rei and Noiz.

Even if a star shined somewhat brightly, next to a much brighter star, they would not stand out.

As a result, the tournament had progressed this far without much attention being paid to the extremely talented mage who had made it to the fifth round.

Of course, the audience who had come to see the tournament knew about the mage, but they still hadn’t been able to get over the topic of Crimson and Immovable.

There were several other participants with titles, but considering that even they hadn’t been talked about, it was only natural.

「That seems to be the case. She seems to be quite skilled, but I don’t think she had a chance of winning against Crimson. Also, no matter how deep the injuries she inflicts against Crimson, they will all disappear when he leaves the arena.」

「That’s true. But……it’s only physical injuries, right? It’s not like his mental fatigue will recover.」

Hearing those words, Mulla showed an expression of understanding.

Because it was an undeniable fact.

However, she quickly gave a sigh.

「But, will she be able to corner Crimson to the point where he feels mentally fatigued? Even if you look at his previous matches, he hasn’t used his full strength, right? In the first place, since the main tournament started, Crimson hasn’t used magic at all.」

「That’s true. But since we still have to do it, there’s no choice but to bet on someone that gives even the slightest chance.」

「……Well, you’re right. So what are we going to do? You’re not going to launch a head on attack, are you?」

「No way.」

Sistoi denied Mulla’s thoughts.

They had known for a long time that they stood no chance of winning if they fought head on. And above all else, they had already fought like that once to save the children, the reason they had pushed forward their attack to the next day, so they understood that whether they liked it or not.

It had been a long time since they had felt such chills facing someone.

(Rather, it’s like we’re not fighting a human……no, that’s impossible.)

Sistoi muttered to himself but quickly dismissed the idea.

He had seen Rei’s face several times and he did not have the distinctive ears of an Elf or the muscular physique of a Dwarf. He also lacked any features that would identify him as a Beastkin.

No matter how he looked at Rei, he was definitely a human.

That was why he dismissed the idea as he kept talking, not realising that he had chanced upon the truth.

「If possible, I would have liked to attack as he returned to the waiting room after the match. At the very least, it would be more likely to succeed than attacking at any other time.」

「I guess so. But I can’t just put a doll in the waiting room, right? The dolls I have are quite skilled, but they can’t do something like hiding their presence, they’re only suited for combat unless I adjust them.」

「……Is it really that hard?」

「Yeah. In the the time and resources to adjust one thief type doll, I could adjust 10……no, 15 ordinary combat dolls. Besides, there aren’t many people who can adapt to thief techniques.」

Despite kidnapping and brainwashing people for their own purposes, Mulla’s attitude towards it was very matter of fact.

Yet, when children from the slums were used as pawns, they had gone to their rescue even at the risk of putting themselves in danger, maybe because they had drawn a clear line between their own people and everyone else.

「Putting poison in the food……is not good, is it? If we could do that, it would be quick.」

「There’s no way someone with a title would die from something so simple. Considering how sharp his intuitions is, I don’t think it would be surprising for him to be able to tell if food had poison in it or not.」

「……That’s true.」

Having seen Rei’s unreasonable abilities, he couldn’t deny that it was a far fetched option.

「But, if you think about it the other way around, if he is careful of avoiding poison, it’s only because it would work, right? Considering that……well, putting poison in food and drink is still something I think we shouldn’t do.」

「You’re right. It would be nice if he just ate the poison, but if he doesn’t, that won’t be good. It would make it a lot harder for us to catch him off guard.」

Rei was a very difficult opponent. Mulla and Sistoi had no choice but to recognise that.

「Anyhow, since we have no choice, we need to be fully prepared. Mulla, please make sure to adjust all the dolls.」

「Leave it to me. ……Oh.」

After nodding in response to Sistoi’s words, she stopped moving, as if thinking of something.

Staying like that for a few seconds, Mulla eventually spoke up.

「Hey, Sistoi. If poison might be effective, how about smearing poison on the weapons used to attack Crimson?」

Sistoi was surprised by the proposal.

It wasn’t unusual for assassins to use poison. However, Mulla and Sistoi had never used poison on their weapons.

It was partly because there was no need for it with Mulla’s dolls and Sistoi’s skill, but also because there were various inconveniences to coating weapons in poison.

One reason was that the people conditioned into dolls by Mulla would slow down for a few seconds when forced to make their own decisions.

Most of all, she feared that the weapons used by her dolls would be taken away and used against Sistoi.

But, this time, they didn’t have the leisure to consider such things.

Deciding that it was necessary to defeat Crimson no matter what, Mulla decided to take some risks.

Sistoi seemed to understand that as well. Nodding at Mulla’s words, they continued discussing how to take down Crimson for a short time after. Ultimately, they decided to prioritise thief skills over combat skills, even if only slightly, to increase the opportunities to use poisoned weapons.

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