Chapter Fifteen: Surprise Attacks and Conspiracies
It’s not like I was planning on making a habit of it or anything, but I headed back to the tavern where I’d met the drunkard woman. Things were relatively lively there, but the matches were still going on, so the customers seemed to be mostly paying attention to the coliseum. Judging from the atmosphere, mercenaries and other participants with upcoming matches had gotten together there and were exchanging information.
“Oh?”
I grabbed a random seat and ordered a drink, and the same drunkard woman from before cheerfully made her way over to where I’d sat down. Damn! I’d been seen!
“You seem to be advancing in the tournament quite nicely. I saw your matches, you know.”
“You figured out it was me, huh?”
I’d gone to the trouble of wearing an iron mask so that no one would recognize me. But she had obviously figured it out.
“I could tell by your build and how you move.”
That made me think . . . When someone puts on a mask or something like that in an anime or manga, suddenly even their own family doesn’t recognize them. They’d probably be made in an instant in real life. I guess you could say the fact that they didn’t notice meant they must not have been very close. Had my plan been pointless?
“By the way, I never introduced myself, now did I? I’m Nadia.”
“. . .”
If I told her my real name, it might give my identity away. What should I do? Whatever. I would just use my ring name.
“I’m Rock.”
“That’s right, isn’t it, little Rock? Tell me, little Rock, have you gotten used to things at the tournament?”
“We haven’t been struggling as much as I thought we would.”
Fighting without revealing how powerful we really were was surprisingly difficult. In the end, we’d pretty much, halfway, given ourselves away. Itsuki liked to do things that way, apparently, but I just didn’t get it. We were only concealing our strength because it would cause problems for us if people found out. If there was no need to stay hidden, I’d happily send Filo on a rampage without hesitation.
“Everyone is paying attention to you, you know? You did finish those griffins off really quickly, after all.”
“So that was a standout fight card, after all . . .”
Nadia gave an affirmative response in her usual overly familiar style and then ordered a ridiculous number of drinks, just like last time, before continuing the conversation. Just how much did this woman love her alcohol, anyway?!
“Aahhh!”
Several mercenaries began to approach us, but the drunkard woman,
a.k.a. Nadia, waved them away with a casual flick of her hand. She’d said that our fight had gotten us some attention, so maybe they just wanted to ask me some questions.
“Well then, little Rock . . . How about I give you part two of things to watch out for at the tournament, then?”
“Huh?”
You mean there was more?
“Well, it’s really more common sense—it’s not so much a problem that you’ll encounter at every tournament, but it’s something that participants should always be on the lookout for.”
“Oh, I see.”
“It’s an especially prevalent problem for the official coliseums, and you can even get disqualified for it in some cases, you know.”
“Spit it out already, why don’t you?”
Nadia responded by pouring a drink in a stein and passing it over to me. So she wanted me to drink it? Fine . . . whatever. I chugged whatever it was that she had filled the stein with. It was some kind of fruit wine. It even still had some of the fruit left in it. It had infused well, giving the wine a really fruity flavor. I had a feeling I’d drank something like it before.
“Aahh . . . So? Tell me already.”
I placed the empty stein back on the table.
“Hmm . . . Well . . .”
She had really played it up, whatever it was, but she didn’t seem like she was going to talk any time soon.
“Little Rock, you really hold your liquor well, don’t you?”
“It’s the same as water to me. I’ve never been drunk in my life.”
This Nadia woman’s eyes grew wide. She seemed genuinely surprised. What was that reaction supposed to mean?
“Well, then . . . I guess I should tell you, shouldn’t I? But it’ll be easier just to show you, so how about we get out of here and enjoy a little stroll in the night air.”
“What about the matches?”
“The next few matches are all teams that won’t be advancing much further in the tournament. I already checked them out yesterday, so don’t worry about them.”
Hmm . . . Nadia’s intuition had been right about who would win the other night. She might have been right about these, too. Plus, those mercenaries from earlier seemed strangely interested in us and kept glancing over in our direction. I had to admit, it was getting on my nerves. It probably wasn’t a bad idea to just leave the information gathering to the inconspicuous Rishia and head back early, myself. I didn’t think my identity had been revealed, but still . . .
Nadia stood up and I followed her out, leaving the coliseum behind.
The nighttime streets of Zeltoble were brimming with activity—the phrase “a city that never sleeps” fit perfectly. There seemed to be quite a few shops catering to debauchery lining the streets, as well. Judging from the shop signs there were places for humans, demi-humans, and other races, too. Taverns were all over the place, and you could hear the uproar of voices coming from within. That said, Nadia said she wanted to enjoy the night breeze and headed down a small back alley that ran alongside an irrigation canal.
Zeltoble was situated alongside a waterway that led to the ocean, so it was possible to travel there by boat. Perhaps that was why the smell of the night air reminded me of the sea. The intricate canals running alongside the back alleys made it feel kind of like you were in Venice. It actually seemed like a pretty nice area for a leisurely stroll.
“Now then, little Rock, continuing our earlier conversation . . .”
“Yeah?”
“It may be that it happens relatively more often when people start paying attention to you, but regardless of that . . . did you not notice a certain phenomenon occurring, starting around the first round?”
“Huh?”
I tried to recall the first-round standings that Rishia had compiled for us. I hadn’t really paid much attention, since I was only interested in our own results, but had there been anything odd about them?
Hmm . . . Now that I thought about it, our match had been moved up ahead of schedule. It did make me wonder why the previous match could have ended so quickly. They had been making more adjustments to the schedule just earlier, too. I thought about how all of that matched up with today’s standings.
“The number of wins by default is peculiarly high.”
I guess there would be fighters that signed up to participate and then just didn’t show up for the tournament, right? Or maybe it was because no one worried about staying on schedule? That would suck if you ended up being the one affected by it. I mean, come on . . . Just how poor was their time management?
I considered several of the more peaceful possibilities, but the answer had already appeared in the back of my mind.
“Exactly. You know why that is?”
“. . .”
Her suggestive phrasing sent beads of cold sweat running down my back. At that very moment, I heard the sound of a weapon being drawn, and a group of aggressive-looking men appeared in the alley and surrounded us. Damn . . . Had I fallen for a trap?
Under the circumstances, I had to consider myself on my own. Could I get away if I just defended against their attacks and ran to a crowded area? But wait! Surely I could drive them back if I used a shield with a counterattack, right?
This woman! To think she set me up! Just who the hell does she think she—
“Oh? You boys think this is all it will take to stop a girl like me, do you?”
“Can it, woman! You two are sitting ducks out here, and roast duck just happens to be our favorite! How could we pass up an opportunity like this?”
This guy acting like the boss of the belligerent bunch . . . Yeah, he’d been at the tavern. I guessed they were mercenaries. They looked like they had been in a few fights before.
“Nadia! And you, too, Rock Valley! Do us a favor and . . . die!”
The boss shouted out his rallying cry and the surrounding men all lunged at us. I held my shield out to defend against their attacks, but . . .
“Now, now . . . I’ve got nothing against children being a bit feisty, but you boys are just plain naughty, aren’t you?”
Nadia spoke quietly as she took the harpoon from her back and began to cast a spell.
“As the source of your power, I command you! Let the true way be revealed once more! Lightning! Strike down and penetrate those before me!”
“All Drifa Chain Lightning!”
Several blindingly bright bolts of highly condensed lightning shot from the tip of Nadia’s harpoon, piercing right through the group of belligerents!
“Gahhhhhh!”
“Arrrghhh!”
She was fast! She moved like she had been in quite a few battles. And the flashes of crackling lightning moved as if they had a mind of their own, jumping from one belligerent to another and striking the whole bunch down.
“This piddling bunch is all that came? That’s no fun, now is it?”
The men stood there twitching with their heads thrown backward for several long moments. Finally, they fell to the ground, their eyes rolled back. The way they looked . . . I’d seen this before! That monster that they had been serving up at the coliseum back when I first met Nadia had the very same look!
“I’m not . . . finished!”
“Oh?”
One of the men that hadn’t been wounded as badly as the others stood up and rushed at Nadia. Was I being completely ignored? Well, I had no obligation to help Nadia, and as far as I could tell from the way she moved, it didn’t look like she needed my help, either. Nadia quickly spun her harpoon around and thrust it hard at the man’s chest while taking a firm step forward.
“Gah!”
It connected with a loud thud and the man went flying, disappearing into the darkness of the alley. Shortly afterward, the sound of his body smashing into a wall echoed out . . . followed by silence.
“I guess that’s it, isn’t it?”
As if to signify an easy victory, Nadia twirled her harpoon around before returning it to its place on her back.
“I guess that explains it, wouldn’t you say?”
“Pretty much.”
The reason for the wins by default was fighters were ambushing their opponents. The opponents would be rendered unable to fight . . . Some of them would probably end up incapacitated or even dead. There were probably cases of it backfiring on the attackers, but that meant that ambushes like this were common. There was a lot of money at stake in this tournament, not to mention the whole thing was shady to begin with, after all.
Ah, so that was why you could place early bets on who would advance in the tournament—there would be cases when participants were eliminated without even making it to their matches. Did people actually trust the tournament betting system? I was surprised anyone would be brave enough to place a bet at this competition.
“Your approach to the matches isn’t bad, little Rock, but making a display of strength that convinces opponents to just give up, because they can’t win, is another possibility, you know.”
“You mean, because otherwise, I’ll have to deal with pests like this coming after me?”
“Well, it’s not like eeeeeveryone will give up, since there is money involved, you know.”
But this woman . . . she was unexpectedly formidable. I guess she wasn’t just a drunkard, after all.
“They fight dirty and they’ll use every trick in the book, so watch your back. Hanging around spacing out in a place like that tavern is just asking for trouble. Even if it’s a girl like me giving you trouble.”
“Putting it like that must mean that you’re willing to fight dirty, too, if it means winning.”
“That’s right. I already made one attempt on your life, you know.”
What? What had she done? Had she used her magic to try to shock me along with those other guys? That’s too bad, because hitting me with a stray bullet wasn’t going to make me flinch. Or maybe she had poisoned my drink? I had a skill that detected poisons, though, so there’s no way I wouldn’t have noticed. Realistically speaking, with all of the skills I had from my shield, it would be near impossible to assassinate me. And yet here she was saying she had done something to me.
I was puzzling over the issue when Nadia suddenly took my hand and placed it on her chest for some reason. She was rather well endowed. She probably had Raphtalia beat, by the looks of it. Now that I thought about it, this might have been the first time I’d touched a female’s chest.
“Boobies!” she suddenly exclaimed.
Was this woman some kind of half-wit? I was just starting to enjoy the moment and she had to go and ruin it. I jerked my hand away from her.
“Oh . . . ?”
“So what? What did you do to me?”
“Oh, that . . . Let me make up for it by confessing my love for you!”
“Stop screwing around or I’m leaving.”
“You’re too serious, little Rock!”
The drunkard woman cackled cheerfully when she responded. I wished she would stop playing games and just answer already . . .
“I mixed rucolu fruit into your drink, earlier.”
“Ohhh . . . that was it? Is that all?”
“It’s used to assassinate people, you know? Especially at taverns . . .”
Well, I guess it was supposed to be something you diluted with water before drinking. For various reasons, people had begun offering it to me at villages I visited while peddling, almost like a proof of identity. I see . . . So the shield wouldn’t react if it was something that I wouldn’t consider a poison.
But seriously, I hadn’t even considered that rucolu fruit might be used that way. The thing seemed like it would actually be great for assassinations —arsenic wouldn’t even compare. My body apparently didn’t react adversely to it, but still . . .
Nadia quickly wrapped her arms around me and kissed me lightly on the cheek.
“What do you think you’re doing?!”
Was she trying to come on to me? Give me a break! Nadia began walking away slowly. After she had taken several steps, she stopped and looked back over her shoulder at me. She grinned when she spoke, but I wasn’t sure if the look in her eyes was cheerful, worried, or excited for what was to come.
“I really hope that we don’t meet in the coliseum, if at all possible.”
And then Nadia disappeared into the back alleys of Zeltoble, followed by the tapping of her footsteps.
“I really hope you give up before that, if at all possible . . .”
Those were her parting words. What was that supposed to mean? She had tried to poison me, and yet she still told me all about—and even showed me, in action—the risks of the underground coliseum, and then she disappears before I can figure out if she’s flirting with me or worried about me. Then, to top it all off, she tells me to give up? I’m sorry, but giving up wasn’t an option for me.
I left the back alley and headed back toward the slave market to meet up with Raphtalia and the others.
“Did you see any of the villagers?”
Raphtalia came out to meet me.
“There weren’t any today.”
“I see. That’s good.”
Rishia finally returned, accompanied by one of the slave trader’s assistants who had been acting as her bodyguard.
“Fehhhh . . . That was scary!”
“Rafu!”
“I hear it can be dangerous for you, if people think you’re involved. There are people out there who will do anything to win, apparently.”
“Fehhh!”
Keeping our safety in mind, I used my portal skill and we returned to the village after that. I don’t know if it was our scent or what, but Filo came running up immediately.
“Master! Welcome baaaack!”
“Thanks. It’s late already. Are the brats asleep?”
“Yup. I sang them a lullaby and they started saying they couldn’t eat any more.”
What a stereotypical dream . . .
“What about you, Raphtalia, did you have any problems? I found out that coliseum tournament participants apparently get targeted for attacks.”
“Huh? Oh, so that’s what that was? I did cut a few people down to protect myself . . .”
So she had already taken care of it. She had beaten them at their own game. I guess our match tomorrow would be a win by default. Even so, cut them down? I was a bit worried about the path Raphtalia was headed down.
“Did you polish them off?”
“That makes it sound so violent . . . I only injured them. They should be able to move again after two or three days.”
I had to wonder about that. After all, Raphtalia had grown up to be pretty tough.
“What about you, Mr. Naofumi?”
“Me? Umm . . . Someone I met at the tavern warned me to watch out for ambushes if I wanted to advance in the tournament. I didn’t really get any good info other than that. How did things go with you, Rishia?”
“Huh? Me?! Umm, I managed to get a look at some documents related to matches in the underground coliseum.”
“Oh . . .”
We could probably use that info to check which opponents to watch out for, like high-profile fighters that were always winning.
“There are all kinds of fighters, it seems, but there is one in particular competing in this tournament that we need to watch out for. If we end up facing this fighter, it’s almost certain to be a difficult battle.”
“Difficult doesn’t mean impossible, right?”
“Umm, right . . .”
Rishia had seen the kinds of battles we had faced with her own eyes. The underground coliseum tournaments might show you just how formidable people could be, but surely that was child’s play compared to something as dreadful as the Spirit Tortoise. Not to mention, having seen Kizuna, Glass, and their crew in action made even the strongest people seem weak. That’s the kind of company we had been doing battle alongside, so I sure wasn’t afraid.
“So? Who is the fighter?”
“Umm . . . The one we need to watch out for is a person who fights alone—even in team battle tournaments—and almost always wins, or at least places near the top. There was one other similar fighter, but that one isn’t participating in this tournament.”
Taking on a team battle tournament by yourself . . . Just what kind of hero was this? Maybe one of the seven star heroes was secretly participating in the underground coliseums? It was possible. Honestly, I wouldn’t have been surprised if one of the other three holy heroes that had gone missing showed up in the tournament.
“So? Who is it?”
“Umm . . . The person goes by the ring name Nadia, apparently.”
Say what? It was that drunkard woman, in other words? You’ve got to be shitting me. Then again . . . I had only seen one of her attacks, but judging from her skill with magic and the way she moved, it kind of made sense. It had only been by coincidence, but to think I had become acquainted with someone like that.
“Is something wrong?”
“Nah, it’s nothing.”
Either way, if we ended up fighting her, we would have to be careful.
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