Manowa - Chapter 115

Chapter 115 - Let's Become Wind

Two days had passed since Master had abruptly shown up and gone back.

「Buu」

Yumika was angry.

It was because of yesterday's qualifying match. They expected she would be able to win and advance to the main battles, but it was still Yumika's first official match. Naturally she was nervous, but when she looked to the audience for support from her companions she only found Tiara and Naoki there. Her best friend and teacher had forgotten, and were noisily racing around outside.

「Sorry. I mistakenly didn't keep track of the time.」

「Sorry Yumika. For a while I became wind.」

Jinrai and Kazane apologized to Yumika. From the start they thought she would win the match. I thought it wouldn't be a problem if I didn't see it! ...... they could have said that, but after promising to return and cheer her on after driving for a while they had no excuse.

「Well, it has already happened, so I guess it's fine.」

Yumika knew that the two people had no ill will. They just wanted to become wind. So it couldn't be helped. Yumika was giving up.

「Certainly like teacher said I won the match itself smoothly, but I was being strangely scrutinized.」

「Ah, that's because Yumika is Jinrai-san's disciple.」

『The disciple of the winner from 10 years ago taking part is a major topic of discussion. It makes you an attractive target for betting.』

Because Louise was not there, Mefirus was talking from within Tiara's arms.

「Is that how it is?」

『That's how it is. That will be the same for the main battles, so there will probably be large amounts of people coming to your matches. Be prepared for it.』

Mefirus answered Yumika's question.

「Well, aren't Yumika and Minaksan showing up in the main competition the day after tomorrow? Ah, I guess Naoki is too.」

「Don't just casually add me on. Still, it will be tough to win the championship.」

「Are your knees getting weak?」

Naoki pouted as he responded to Kazane's words.

「It feels like I really don't have a chance against Yumika. Even though I came here 3 years ahead, I've lost all self-confidence. Truly.」

So saying, Naoki sighed.

「It looks like you have been training well as an adventurer up until now, but it seems you have little interpersonal battle experience. Well, you're young. You have time.」

「I understand, Master Jinrai.」

Before he knew it Naoki was calling Jinrai master. He participated in practice every morning and evening.

「You can't use those flying swords?」

Naoki shook his head to Kazane's question.

「It needs to be the right situation to use those. It's the same as Aneki's Skill・Charge. I can't use them unless I can confine the opponent's movements.」

「With the tournament's format the distance to the opponent is short. It is difficult to find a gap to use the Active Skill system.」

To Yumika's remark Kazane replied「Yeah, that's true.」

The tournament's standard format had the participants starting at the center of the arena with weapons out ready to exchange blows. The distance was short enough for swords to start crossing right at the start. The format was said to have started long ago because there were circumstances where powerful techniques kept being used when the distance was higher, making it too common for people to die.

Furthermore, support spells, spell swords, and magic swords were allowed. Attack spells were prohibited. It would be negligent to have magicians fight each other in the first place. Magic battles were NG because there would be too many corpses.

For the same reason, summoning was also prohibited. Putting aside normal summons, Childstone summoning was considered overpowered because the beings that were summoned were challenged by several adventurers. Furthermore, while there weren't battle competitions for magicians, there were other kinds of competitions, but those were not done in this city.

『By the way, Louise won't be with us today as well?』

「Yeah. She seems to be busy.」

Kazane met Louise when she came to see Minaka's state yesterday, but it seemed that more adventurers than imagined were contracted with devils.

「She said that with the amount there's probably something going on. She was saying that, honestly speaking, she wants them to suspend the tournament.」

「It seems very serious.」

Jinrai groaned.

「Although she says that, of course they can't suspend the tournament at this point, right?」

「That's right. They told her it was impossible.」

Kazane agreed with Yumika's words. The tournament was already in the final moments of the preliminary competitions. The main battles would be held over the 4 days after they finished tomorrow.

「But they don't know the aim.」

「They tentatively think that fellow devil users are planning to use the competition as a front to kill each other. If that's the case, even in the worst case there should be few victims among the unrelated participants.」

「……Hmm」

Jinrai had a displeased expression. It seemed he thought it was boorish to use the competition as a front.

「For the time being, Yumika and Naoki should be careful. Louise-san said that if you see anything, be sure to report it.」

Yumika and Naoki nodded to Kazane's words. After seeing them agree Kazane stood up.

「Well then, I will be going out for a moment.」

「Alone?」

Jinrai asked, and on the other side Naoki and Tiara were rising to their feet. The two wanted to accompany her, but Kazane replied to Jinrai「Alone,」and the two hovering bottoms sank back into their seats.

Usually there would be no problem with setting out with Tiara, but her purpose this time was gathering information. Although Tiara had passed through the Adventurers Guild adjacent tavern with Jinrai the day before, she was still hesitant to take her to that place. Naoki was also out of the question. When Kazane was talking to a man he would become strangely restless.

「Well then, I'm off.」

So saying, Kazane left the room.

◎ Adventurers Guild Adjacent Tavern

One hour after leaving the inn, Kazane was at the tavern next to the Adventurers Guild.

「That's terrible.」

Kazane said while pouring lemonade for the man beside her.

「Indeed. There are already 12 murder cases.」

The name of the man Kazane was talking to was Brick, and he was an information seller. Kazane had been restlessly talking with people in the bar, and he had caught her at the counter a little earlier and invited her to chat.

「They were all tournament participants. Every single one had also lost. There's probably some kind of connection.」

With those words Brick drank his chilled fruit juice.

Because Brick knew about Kazane he didn't treat her like a child, but his overly familiar attitude was also a little uncomfortable. However, even with that deduction, the contents of the man's talk was very interesting, so Kazane didn't leave her seat.

「The tournament participants are being killed. This city has guards, right?」

A city's guards also acted as police while protecting a city. Brick replied「Of course there are.」

「However, even if they only have to worry about the participants, there are still more than 500 people this time. And among them, only a few of the losers were killed. That means it isn't someone who bears a grudge from being beaten, or people lashing out after losing money betting.」

「You don't think it's retaliation for lost bets?」

「Although I'm not saying it's impossible, the number of victims is high, and the people killed weren't famous at all.」

If the dead people weren't good betting targets in the first place, Kazane's conjecture was probably a miss.

「Hmm. Do the losing participants have something in common?」

Kazane felt like Brick's eyes glittered for a moment at those words.

「More or less. There is evidence that they were being shadowed by a guild group.」

(Ah, I see how it is)

And from Brick's reply Kazane realized the reason he invited her to talk.

「And who do you think that guild group was?」

「Was it Louise-san?」

Brick nodded to Kazane's words with a smile.

「It's helpful that you guessed well.」

In other words, he called out to her for information because she was that woman's companion. Kazane was wondering why he was so willing to speak even though she didn't pay any money, but Kazane herself seemed to have been seen as a news source in the first place.

「I don't know what you are expecting, but I don't know much about it either. I'm guessing you have some ideas after mentioning Louise-san's name?」

「Well, you know.」

Louise Cancer was well know to be a famous devil hunter, so if he knew that he should understand a little about the circumstances.

「I have an idea, more or less. Devil Hunter Louise Cancer herself is doing something, but I don't really know any more than that.」

「Because of that you called out to me.」

「Well, there is also that, but that is just a convenient excuse for my real intention of acquainting myself with a celebrity, Ogre Killing Princess-san.」

「Celebrity, huh?」

Since that hadn't been said to her face very much Kazane laughed「Ehehe」with an embarrassed grin. She was really easy.

「Well, I wouldn't go that far, but maybe so?」

Brick thought (that's a really flimsy objection, isn't it?), but he held back. This man also understood the danger of stepping on the tiger's tail.

「Well, I know that Louise Cancer is currently moving behind the scenes and can interpret from there, but I don't know anything more about that subject. With that in mind, do you know this story? About the Crawling Lightning.」

Kazane said「I heard about it just now.」

「I hear it's a lightning monster? It seems no one was attacked, so the danger is unclear.」

Kazane didn't know that the story was about herself. Well, yesterday and the day before yesterday Kazane was actually riding it, so there was no way she could understand how the Thunder Chariot looked from outside.

「I've heard that your group trains just outside the city. If you happen to see something I will pay you for information.」

「Understood, I will remember that.」

Kazane said, and she started thinking about how she could defeat a mass of lightning.

(Will it disperse if hit with enough firepower, or should I try water? Well, maybe hitting it with Hippomaru-kun and the Thunder Chariot will go well)

However, due to personal reasons, Hippomaru-kun and the Thunder Chariot couldn't meet the Crawling Lightning. That information was so confidential that even Kazane didn't know it.

「Well, I also have a match tomorrow, so I don't think I'll be able to see it.」

「Hmm? But you weren't on the participation list.」

「I'm in the summoning division.」

By the way, the Ogre Killing Princess' subordinate monster cat was reasonably famous, and since it was expected that she had eaten the meat of a named dragon, she was considered one of the favorites to win the tournament.

Then Kazane parted with Brick, left the tavern, and saw Minaka passing through the crowds of people with a quick pace. And there were also some men tailing behind her.

Name: Yuihama Kazane

Occupation: Magic Swordswoman

Title: Ogre Killer, Dragon Slayer

Equipment: Staff 『White Blaze』, Two Handed Sword『Black Fang』, Adhesion Sword『Gum』, Spell Dagger, Dragonscale Breastplate, Drake Gauntlets, Silver Sheep Clothes, Sylphan Skirt, Plasma Pants, Dragon Ogre Greaves, Indestructible Cloak, Mysterious Pouch, Crimson Saint Coffin, Heroic Spirit Summoning Ring, Circlet of Wisdom, Magic Accumulator, White Magic Accumulator

Level : 29

Health: 101

Magic Power: 170+420

Strength: 49+10

Agility: 40

Endurance: 29

Wisdom : 55

Dexterity : 33

Spell : 『Fly』 『Torch』 『Fire』 『Heal』『Firestorm』『Healer Ray』『High Heal』

Skill : 『Warrior's Memory』 『Night Vision』 『Crushing Blow』 『Dog’s Sense of Smell』 『Golem Maker: Lv2』 『Rush』 『Fire Principle: Third Chapter』 『Healing Principle: Second Chapter』 『Air Jump: Lv2』 『Killing Leg: Lv2』 『Fear Voice』 『Invisible』 『Tiger Eye』 『Wall Walking』 『Intuition』 『Cheat Death』 『Nimble』『Charge』『Material Shield』『Information Link』『Optical Camouflage』『Dash』『Bloodsucking Blade』『Dragonization』『Regenerate』『Rear Presence』『Stealthy Placement』『Thunder Chariot』

Yumika:「I knew it. Yeah, I knew it. I will never be the main story.....」

Kazane:「Um, I'm seriously sorry that I didn't go.」