Chapter 99

#99 Chapter: The Tin Knight and the Martial Arts Tournament (6)

Kumara, a silver-ranked adventurer from the Adventurer’s Guild, thought to himself.

‘How did things end up like this?’

The series of events related to the Taros Labyrinth wrapped up with the death of the Schwarz Branch Chief, but the Kumara party couldn’t return to the Schwarz Branch.

Sure, the Branch Chief was undoubtedly trash, but you know what they say: when the top is dirty, the bottom gets murky, too.

The employees and adventurers associated with the Branch Chief thought that the Kumara party had stirred up a lot of trouble and that they were to blame for the mess, whispering “traitors” under their breath.

Of course, their forces, battered by extensive audits and organizational restructuring, had significantly diminished, and those who either had no connection to the Branch Chief or were displeased with him celebrated the Kumara party as heroes, meaning the risk of direct retaliation was pretty much non-existent.

However, no matter how low the tangible threats were, it was still uncomfortable knowing that there were many people harboring grievances against them.

Having already stirred up some trouble once, the Kumara party decided to settle down in the Weiss Branch instead.

With their solid basic skills, they quickly gained recognition in their new workplace, and the Kumara party appreciated the much more laid-back atmosphere of the Weiss Branch compared to the Schwarz Branch.

The problem was that this freedom sometimes got a bit excessive.

“Peter Branch Chief has disappeared again! He went to Trakus to catch the ones who scammed him! Why Trakus, you ask? According to him, the chances of those guys showing up nearby next time are high or something, but I’m not really sure. If we leave this unattended, he might just wander off on some weird adventure again, so you guys better go to Trakus and bring him back. Why you? Didn’t you give the clients their letters? Once you get involved, you have to finish things up. Okay, I’ll count this as a commission, so move quickly.”

The Vice Branch Chief of the Weiss Branch.

Kumara felt wronged by his words, as he was practically the acting Branch Chief regarding administrative tasks.

“All we did was escort some poor travelers who almost got dragged into the guild’s conspiracy, then got caught up in the mess they caused when those travelers acted out, and now we’re just cleaning up the fiasco!”

But what could be done? If told to do something, there was no choice but to comply.

Kumara could unhesitatingly confront villains who used vile threats for their own gain, but he lacked the courage to oppose a hysterical superior armed with dark circles under their eyes. It was a rule of thumb that you shouldn’t poke at an employee going mad from stress.

Despite the crummy start, their journey was quite smooth.

Although the northern part of the Empire, bordering the Magical Kingdom, was perceived as a “dangerous place” among the Empire’s people, the strong military presence actually meant that the security was better than one might think.

There were no worries about encountering thieves, and as long as they didn’t venture into strange mountains like the one with the Garden above, they were unlikely to face any monsters.

“Oh, are you also heading toward Trakus? Since it’s fate, let’s go together.”

“Ah, thank you, Merchant Leader Lorenz. We will assist with the escort, even if it’s just in a minor way.”

Upon joining the Halder Trading Company, which was coincidentally heading to Trakus, the travel became even easier.

They even got the bonus news that the Tin Knight’s party was in Trakus.

“Peter Branch Chief, you’re not planning to harm that witch’s party, are you?”

“Well, who knows? He’s received plenty of odd assessments, but he’s not a bad guy, so I think he’s just going to lecture them a bit.”

“It seems like the folks from the Trading Company are quite friendly with the witch’s party; I really hope nothing awkward happens between the two groups.”

Kumara and his colleagues’ concerns were half correct.

They didn’t get caught in between Peter and the Halder Trading Company, but a different awkward situation arose instead.

“Oh? You came looking for me? Sorry, but I can’t go back right now. I still have stuff to do here. I’ll head back after the martial arts tournament, so just wait until then. Um, no wait. That seems like wasting your time, so why don’t you all participate in the tournament too? From the looks of it, you are just a few steps away from reaching gold rank. This tournament will be a great experience. I’ll sign you up.”

There was no room for refusal.

When a revered industry senior, not just a boss but a legendary adventurer with widespread fame across the continent, says to do something, what choice do you have?

“Damn it, fine, I guess I’ll do it! Just like that, I’m getting that gold medal!!”

“Yeah, but I can’t help but think winning is going to be tough.”

“Hold on, the other teams might be okay, but that knight’s team is absolutely impossible.”

“Are you trying to sap our spirits?!”

“Kumara team! Enough chit-chat! The match is starting!”

Meanwhile, in the audience seats.

“Oh my, you fight better than I expected.”

[‘Tin Knight’ asserts that his judgement is never wrong!]

[The ‘Tin Knight’ doesn’t know much about the wizard’s abilities, but evaluates that just the warrior and ranger’s skills alone place them among the top contenders in the tournament!]

“Yes, outstanding! Thanks to you, the betting odds seem quite favorable!”

Unbeknownst to the two otherworldly beings who could be considered the root cause of these events, Kumara and his comrades fought tooth and nail to win the tournament.

In fact, it might be better that they remained blissfully unaware until the end.

***

With the classic combination of ranger, warrior, and wizard, the Kumara team seized victory.

With a fundamentally flawed combination of melee, melee, and melee, the Lion Duke’s Bloodline team also snagged a win.

After the utterly berserk Tin Knight bashed in opponent’s heads, knees, ribs, and heads again—well, all sorts of places—they claimed victory.

The final bout of the team elimination round that drew an audience’s spotlight was, in many ways, a highly anticipated match.

“Alright, everyone, thank you for your patience! The champions of the last tournament are back! Alongside the individual champion Kalidah, another set of champions has returned! In the blue corner! The Haga Party!”

As the referee introduced them, two warriors adorned in insect-like armor and a wizard in robes appeared on the stage, erupting explosive cheers from the audience… which quickly fizzled out.

While there were some cheers, the fervor was noticeably less than that of other participants.

Some among the spectators even feigned recognition with remarks like “Oh, is that team the champions?”

This greatly displeased Haga.

“Damn it. Kalidah, Kalidah everywhere! I’m so bored. We’re champions too; why are we being treated like this?”

When asked who the champions were among the citizens of Trakus, over 90% would mention Kalidah.

It wasn’t until they were asked about the team competition that people finally mentioned Haga’s name, if they could even recall it at all.

In the first place, the Trakus Martial Arts Tournament was fundamentally about the individual competition, while the team competition was hastily added when restrictions on summoned beasts kept wizards from participating.

With this setup, people’s basic perception naturally leaned towards ‘the individual competition as the main event’, and though the team competition had its unique thrills, the impact of each individual participant simply couldn’t compete.

“This time around, in the red corner! The Empire’s aristocratic wizard, the one and only apprentice of the South Witch, Alingd Goodwitch and his comrades!”

“Waaah!”

The enthusiastic cheers echoed out.

To say that the cheers for Alingd overwhelmed those for Haga, even when compared, was a mild understatement. Naturally, this made the faces of Haga and his comrades contort with discontent.

Here we were, champions facing off against challengers, yet the cheers were far louder for the challengers. What a bizarre situation, especially since this was Haga’s party’s very first match of the tournament!

But the audience had their reasons.

‘They’re beautiful and stylish!’

‘On one side, you have a magical beauty with a long title, accompanied by her knight. On the other, you have a trio of rough-looking guys. Shouldn’t that be enough of a comparison?’

‘Sure, if you had really handsome men or a substantial presence, that could work, but these guys are rather plain.’

Haga was on the verge of going insane.

“Kalidah was wrapped up in armor too; nobody knows what he looks like! Why is he the popular one while we get treated this way?”

His laments over the absurdity of life soon morphed into hatred toward the opponent standing right in front of him.

“Let’s crush that witch completely.”

“Isn’t she an apprentice of a high-ranking official in the Empire? Can we handle the aftermath?”

“Damn it, if you were worried about that, we shouldn’t even be here! If we reluctantly take it easy after this, we’ll just run off to another country. Plus, if we pull this off a bit, won’t our name value increase?”

“…You’re not wrong.”

“Right, so take your medicine or something.”

Haga confirmed that the two burly, middle-aged warriors were taking small potions to strengthen themselves, then he began his magic preparation.

As the signal for the start of the match rang out, the two warriors positioned their large shields, and set up a solid defense.

They clearly had no intention of making the first move.

Then, from behind the makeshift wall created by his comrades, Haga’s magic activated.

Swoosh.

Like igniting a damp branch, thick gray smoke began to spread slowly, filling the arena as if it had a will of its own instead of rising upward.

As the announcer excitedly started narrating, Haga felt irritated.

“Alright, the match has begun! This is Haga Team’s unique poison fog strategy! Anyone who breathes in the gas generated by this magic will find their body paralyzed and unable to move! The only ways to counter this are to have previously taken a specific antidote or to hold your breath! How will the Alingd Goodwitch Team counter this!?”

‘Shut up and stop prattling!’

Haga grumbled at the commentator, who was blaring the secret of their tactics when he should not have been.

It was as if they were telling the opponent not to just sit still and wait.

He understood that if the match became dull, saying that “the participant collapsed after breathing in incomprehensible smoke” would not help generate excitement, but was this a biased commentary or what?

As expected, the knights of the opposing team charged forward, seemingly attempting to take Haga down quickly.

Clang!

But they couldn’t realize their aim.

The two warriors wielding huge shields were wholly concentrated on defense, protecting Haga.

Releasing the poison fog, they would endure until the opponent collapsed.

This was Haga Team’s sure-win tactic and the very reason they couldn’t gain much popularity.

Rather effective and powerful, while it definitely worked, it left a dull impression and gave the sense of dragging the match out.

Some threw accusations, calling their tactics cowardly for a martial arts tournament, and claimed that anyone could win by poisoning their opponent.

Of course, Haga didn’t care one bit about this.

‘If it seems so easy, why don’t you try doing it yourself?’

Preparing poison that works even against abilities that could reinforce one’s body with magical power, while ensuring that no ally gets caught up in it, changing the type of poison every match so that the opponent doesn’t get the antidote ready, and manipulating the fog so that wind-type spells don’t blow it away and dissipate—doing all that was no easy task.

Ultimately, the poison fog magic Haga was using was something that a certain necromancer had created over a decade ago, painstakingly modified for practicality.

The original spell could only be used when numerous corpses were nearby, had no directed capability, and would lose effectiveness without a closed space, meaning it would require a ridiculous amount of magical power to force those limits to improve. Just transforming it into a working spell, even on a smaller scale, was deserving of some recognition for Haga’s talent.

“Ahh! They can’t break through! The Alingd team is unable to breach Haga’s ironclad defenses!”

Indeed, the knights accompanying Alingd were stellar fighters, but the warriors on Haga’s team were capable enough to have been champions in the martial arts tournament.

Even as the Kumara team’s knights had to hold their breaths for the fight, Haga’s team could disregard attack and simply endure.

As the battle continued back and forth, the fog expanded further and further, and the knights’ movements grew sluggish.

Though Haga was confident of victory, a singular doubt crept into his mind.

‘Why aren’t they moving?’

Unlike the warriors doing their best to break through the defenses, Alingd was standing idly at the back, showing no signs of moving.

‘Now that I think about it, even in the last match the knights were the ones fighting, and no one got any clue about this person. Could it be, they have no fighting capability?’

With a title like apprentice to a noble wizard, surely that couldn’t be the case, but still, if this was part of some noble’s ‘let’s create a fancy background’ scheme, it made sense.

Half dubious, half expectant, Haga turned his gaze toward Alingd.

And saw.

Alingd staring intently at something in the audience, completely disregarding what was happening here.

‘This witch?!’

Haga’s temper flared.

It was impossible to ascertain whom Alingd was looking at in the audience, but the very fact that she was distracted during a match was infinitely irksome to Haga.

Haga stirred more magic.

Unlike the poison fog generation, which he had refined into a reasonably effective technique, manipulating the created fog still had kinks—making it slow and cumbersome—but he forced it into acceleration.

His head throbbed; he felt the magical power leaking away, but in return, the fog swiftly approached Alingd.

It was the moment Haga was sure of his victory.

“…Hmm. It looks like I can’t do it like them. Even with double the numbers. That’s quite unfortunate.”

Alingd’s muttering was lost on Haga.

He had no time to comprehend.

As Alingd turned to the front and extended a hand, a sudden gust of wind struck like a hammer, battering Haga and his party.

Boom!

The poison fog was blown away in an instant.

The shields and armor worn by the warriors crumpled immediately.

Haga rolled around, entwined with his comrades, hurtling outside the arena, crashing against the audience seating’s wall before finally coming to a stop.

In that moment, a master of elemental magic—the Wizard—had utterly smashed the champion to bits.

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