WIEDERGEBURT Chapter 39

We had been hired to accomplish a joint job with another sect. The Battling Valkyries were in need of a group that could help guide them through an ancient ruin located on a peninsula north west of Midgard. It was located amidst a dense jungle. While the location itself wasn’t known, everyone knew it was there—the group the Battling Valkyries were after was the same group who’d killed those people from the Mountain Sect, the cultists who worshiped the Great Overlord.

The dense jungle air was humid and muggy, causing my clothes to stick to my skin as sweat poured down my face and neck. I wore only brown pants, boots, a white shirt, and a chestplate, but I still felt like I was dying. I wasn’t sure how Erica and her four companions were able to remain so calm. They were decked out in full battle regalia.

“Are you sure we’re going the right way?” asked one of them. She was a thin girl who looked quite young, but her bearing made her feel many times older than her actual age represented. I couldn’t remember her name. I thought it might be… Karen… or something like that.

“Yes,” Kari, who was in the lead, said as she thrust out her ranseur and impaled a Boa Snake Demon Beast. The creature riggled on the tip of her blade. It wasn’t very big, maybe one meter or so, and it died quickly. “According to the tracks I found, those cultists took the people this way.”

“But this jungle is so large,” the girl argued. “How do you know we’re heading the right way.”

I sensed movement on my left, spun around, and slammed my foot into the jaw of a Black Panther Demon Beast. Lightning surged from my foot and fried the creature’s brain. It was dead before it struck the jungle floor.

“Take a look ahead of us,” Kari directed the girl’s attention to something that could just be seen between the trees. It was a massive beast with no legs, covered in scales, and coated in a thick layer of blood. Big enough that it would have taken me standing on someone else’s shoulder to climb up, it wasn’t something that just anyone could defeat.

“That’s… a Giant Anaconda!” Karen exclaimed in shock. “Those are A-rank Demon Beasts! And this one is so big…”

“It is also quite dead,” I said. “That thing is easily 20 meters long, and its scales are said to be almost as hard as dragon scales, but someone sliced it clean open. That isn’t something a normal person could do.”

Kari nodded. “Those cultists and the villages are the only people present on this peninsula. I doubt the villagers have anyone powerful enough to do this, so it must be the cultists. We’re on the right track.”

“I apologize for doubting you,” Karen muttered.

We continued traveling and eventually discovered the ruins, which were located near the foot of a mountain. These ruins were marked by a stone archway that had two statues on either side acting as guardians. Like the ones me and Kari had seen in Litten, these statues featured a tall man with pointed ears and an elegant figure that seemed feminine. Something I noticed about these statues was that this person’s eyes seemed a bit sharper than the other one’s from back then. I wondered if the ruins had maybe been designed by two different people.

Behind the archway was a building made of stone. It looked old. The stones had cracks running through them, but the columns being used to support the roof remained sturdy even after several centuries. The roof of these ruins looked like a layered cake with a pointed tip. On either side of the building were a pair of waterfalls that flowed into two small streams.

“These are the ruins?” Erica murmured with a soft frown. “They do not look like much.”

“This is just the entrance,” Kari said as she walked up to the door and studied it. “My bet is the actual ruins are built inside of the mountain. Most ruins seem to either travel underground, or they are built into something larger.”

“I see,” Erica said.

“What do you think?” I asked Kari as she frowned.

“It looks like this entrance was originally sealed shut.” She ran her hand along the edge. I could see there was something wedged inside. “These cultists managed to unseal it, which means they probably have someone with them who is knowledgeable about Runes. There’s some Spiritual Residue on the entrance, though it doesn’t feel human.”

“I can’t see those monsters knowing how Runes work,” I muttered.

Kari gave me a smile tinged with uncertainty. “Me neither. That’s what makes this so worrisome.”

“Excuse me,” one of the other Valkyries said. She was a redhead with blue eyes and an intense demeanor. I hadn’t seen her smile once since we met. “What does any of this have to do with our mission? We need to head down and rescue those villagers.”

“The fact that someone among the cultist’s ranks knows about Runes is a serious issue,” I said to the woman. “Some of these ruins have traps that can be activated or deactivated with Runes. It’s very likely we’ll have to deal with a number of traps. Knowing that means we can prepare for them.”

“You really should trust these two more,” Erica told her companions. “I wouldn’t have hired them if I didn’t have confidence in their abilities.”

“My apologies,” the woman muttered with a frown.

“Please forgive Janet.” Erica gave them an apologetic smile. “She is anxious to rescue those villagers. The longer we wait, the less likely it is they are alive.”

“You are right, of course.” Kari sighed as she stared at the entrance, which she clearly wished to study longer. “Let’s go. The villagers come first.”

We journeyed into the ruins, which grew dark after we had traveled for about fifteen meters. Kari created a light sphere to illuminate our path. The sound of our feet tapping against the stone floor echoed down the hallway we were in. While Kari watched the floor, I watched the walls and ceiling for any potential traps. The Battling Valkyries traveled behind us.

“This place is a little creepy,” Karen muttered.

“It’s not creepy,” Kari pouted.

I smiled. “Is this your first time visiting ancient ruins?”

“Yes,” the girl answered.

I would have said more, but at that moment, Kari and I spotted something and forced everyone to stop. We stared at the wall with a hard look. Erica and her group stared at us, then at the wall, but it was clear from their confused expressions that they didn’t see anything.

“What is it?” asked Erica.

“A trap,” I said as Kari walked up to the wall. Her finger glowed white as she dragged it across the wall, revealing a runic pattern that lit up the moment she touched it.

Not even a second after she touched the Runes did a strange “Woosh! Woosh! Woosh!” sound echoed through the tunnel. The sound was followed by something cracking apart. I followed the noises to their source and discovered several arrows embedded into the wall. The arrows were quite thick. The fact that they had been able to penetrate the wall also spoke of how powerful they were.

“So that’s the trap?” Karen muttered. “Nice job spotting it.”

“That was only the first trap.” Kari leaned down and placed a hand on a stone panel of the floor that was a little elevated compared to the rest. “This is another trap right here. The moment someone steps on this tiles, it will activate another trap. I suspect either the walls or ceiling will try to squash us, or a trapdoor will open beneath our feet and drop us into a spike-filled pit.” The Battling Valkyries gulped. “Come on.”

With Karen and I leading the way, we managed to avoid the traps that hadn’t been activated. Our journey led us deeper into the mountain. It didn’t look like there were any stairs in these ruins, just a bunch of side passages that led to more dead ends, which were also traps. There were also a number of rooms. Most of the rooms were empty, but a few looked like they’d been the sight of a large battle. These rooms often featured destroyed golems and several cloaked corpses.

“At least now we know the cultists really are here,” Erica murmured as she stared at one of the corpses. It’s cloak had been torn to shreds, which meant she could see the ugly creature underneath. It was the same pale-faced, red-eyed, pointy-eared creature as before. “Though I can’t for the life of me tell what this thing is. It doesn’t look like a Demon Beast, but it is very far from being human. It’s not one of the other races known to us either.”

“We won’t get any answers here. Let’s keep moving,” I suggested.

We left the room and continued on, traveling through hallways, avoiding traps, and running into several more corpses. A few were obviously those cultists, but there were also villagers mixed among them. It seemed some of the villagers had died and were left to rot.

“These cultists are disgusting,” Karen muttered.

“Aye,” Erica agreed.

Our journey eventually took us to a large room that two stories. However, the different floors were more like walkways than actual floors. Even the floor that we were on was a walkway. There was a steep drop on either side of us. When I peered down to see how deep it was, all I could see was an unfathomable darkness.

At the end of this walkway was a door, which was larger than anything we’d seen so far. It looked like a giant slab of stone that had been carved into the shape of a door, then decorated with hieroglyphs that depicted that same pointy-eared figure. Like all the figures we had seen of this particular person, he or she was being worshiped by a large number of humans.

Kari stood in front of the massive door and placed her hand against it. I stood behind her alongside the five members of the Battling Valkyries. Finally, Kari turned around and searched the room.

“There’s no way this thing can be pushed open,” she declared. “This type of door needs a kind of leverage system to account for its massive weight, which is normally activated by applying pressure to several platforms.” She looked around the room, and then looked up. “There. There. There. And there. If four people can stand in those spots, the door should open.”

The areas that Kari had pointed out looked like parts of the walkway several dozen meters above us at first glance. It was only after I looked at them further that I realized these sections, which just sort of stopped as though the walkway had crumbled away, were actually being held aloft by sturdy-looking chains. Furthermore, I finally noticed that the walkways on the first and second floor vaguely resembled the shape of an E—if an E had an extra “🇱” at the bottom.

“It doesn’t look like we can climb up from here,” I said, glancing to our left and pointing. “But there is a passage over there, which I bet leads to the second floor.”

“Then let’s go,” Erica said. “Karen, I want you to remain here with Kari. Myself, Janet, Luka, and Eryk will head up there.”

“Ma’am.” Karen saluted.

“Be careful,” Kari added.

“We will,” I said before leading the three women off.

We walked down the hallway, on the lookout for traps, of which there were several. All of them were Rune based traps that activated after you passed them. I wasn’t as talented at Runes as Kari, who had studied them far more extensively than me, but I knew enough to deactivate them using Rune Writing. It didn’t take more than half an hour to find a staircase that led to the second floor. After which, we wandered down another hall that led to the room where Kari and Karen were waiting by the large door.

“I guess these platforms are what we need to stand on,” Erica said as she glanced at one of the platforms, which only appeared like part of the walkway at first glance. There were a pair of chains coming down from the ceiling, forming a V-shape as they attached to either side of the platform.

“Looks like it,” I said. “You take the first one, I’ll take the second, and Janet and Luka can take the third and fourth platforms.”

Everyone agreed and we walked over to our respective platforms. As I walked, I was completely aware of how this walkway was not only old, but also of how there didn’t seem to be anything holding it up. I wasn’t sure how this architecture worked, but it seemed to stand in defiance of several natural laws.

I walked onto the platform at the same time that Erica, Janet, and Luka walked onto theirs. A loud cranking sound like metal chains being unraveled echoed around the room. The platform shifted beneath my feet. Then it began descending. The cranking noise increased in volume as I looked at. These chains were attached to another chain, which was extending from a hole in the ceiling.

The platforms lowered to the first floor. When it did, a loud noise like rumbling thunder resounded throughout the chamber. All of us turned toward the door, which had begun shaking as it slowly but surely opened. Little by little, the chamber on the other side was revealed. I couldn’t see much, but from what I could see, I could already tell that this chamber was even bigger than the one we were in.

“Let’s go,” Erica said, about to step off.

“Wait!” Kari shouted, causing everyone to stop. “If you four step off now, I think the door will close. You’ll need to run the moment you four get off those platforms, so be ready.”

I glanced at Erica, who set her foot back on the platform and looked at me. She nodded. Then I looked at Janet and Luka, who both nodded back to me as well.

The four of us took a deep breath. I counted down to three, and then we rushed off our respective platforms.

Just like Kari had said, the moment we stepped off the platforms, they began ascending back up, and the large doorway began closing. Karen and Kari were already on the other side, but the four of us had to rush across the walkway and duck through before it closed. Fortunately, the Battling Valkyries were really fast for a group of women decked in full-body armor. We made it just before the door shut completely.

“Well, we made it,” I said.

“We did.” Erica nodded, her lips curving into a frown. “Though now I am wondering how we’re going to get out of here.”

“There’s probably a mechanism to open the door from this side.” Kari shrugged. “Anyway, let’s keep going.”

We found ourselves at the foot of a large staircase, which explained why I couldn’t see anything when the door opened. Our group traveled down the stairs. Below us was a gigantic room that seemed to span for at least a couple hundred meters. Like a good portion of these ruins, this place was marked by numerous archways and columns.

As we walked past the columns and archways, we finally came to the end. It wasn’t a true end. What we found was a steep drop into a steaming pit of boiling water. Steam rose from the surface. I couldn’t tell how deep or hot it was, but I was fairly positive that anyone who touched it would be scalded.

Several meters away from us was an island. It was shaped like a circle, there was an elevated platform made with Runes carved into it, and on that platform were the villagers who’d been kidnapped. They weren’t alone. Several other figures were with them. These figures wore the black cloaks I’d grown familiar with. They were surrounding the terrified villagers, all of whom were tied up.

Among those cloaked figures was one person who wasn’t wearing a cloak. He was taller than the others. Dull armor the color of rust covered every inch of his body. His skin was a pale skin, and not the vibrant emerald kind either, but the puke-colored green. He had no hair on his head, nor did he have any eyebrows. His thick brow ridges and square jaw was covered in wrinkles and scars, and his wide nostrils with no nose made me wonder if it hadn’t been burnt off. As the four of us stood there in shock, he raised his hands.

“Begin the ritual,” he said in a deep voice.

As one, the cloaked individuals knelt on the ground and pressed their hands to the elevated platform. The Runes lit up. Muffled screams erupted seconds later from all of the villagers, who fell to the floor and began writing as though they were experiencing excruciating pain.

“Stop what you are doing right now and release those villagers!” Erica demanded.

The man, creature, turned his head and stared at her. His eyes were the color of blood. He snorted.

“Little girl, I do not know how you found this place, but do not interfere in my business!”

His words caused Erica to gnash her teeth, but he ignored her and made another hand signal. As if that was a cue of some kind, several cloaked figures suddenly leapt down from where they’d hidden themselves on the archways and attacked us with jagged-looking swords covered in rust.

“Damn it!” Erica cursed as she unsheathed her longsword and performed a graceful pirouette. Fire gushed from her blade like a torrent and overtook several of the cloaked figures, igniting them. The human fireballs shrieked as they were lit ablaze. Several ran and fell into the boiling water below, which caused them to suffer terribly before they died from being boiled alive.

I did not have a sword on me. I hadn’t found a weapon that really suited me yet. However, I was quite good with my hands and Spiritual Powers.

Using the Flash Step, I appeared next to one of the cloaked figures and slammed my lightning encased fist into their hooded face. An explosion of pale electricity burst from my fist and fried the creature’s brains. As the smoking carcass landed on the ground, my left leg ignited with electricity that I launched it in a wide arc. Several of those cloaked figures were struck and sent flying. Their bodies hit the ground as they jerked around like they were having seizures. I then spread the fingers of my left hand wide. Several beams of lightning shot out and penetrated each of the spasming figures, putting them out of their misery.

“You!” the large figure standing on the platform shouted in shock. “What is your kind doing here?!”

“My kind?” I blinked. What did he mean by that?

The man glanced behind him and suddenly smiled. “It doesn’t matter. Regardless of your reasons for being here, I have already accomplished my goal! The gate shall open!”

I didn’t know what he meant at first, but then I realized that all of the villagers were rapidly growing thinner. It was like their bodies were decomposing while they were still alive. Their skin became shriveled and their bodies looked like twigs. Their faces soon sank around their cheeks as the eyes in their sockets seemed to bulge. Then their skin cracked and began falling apart. As these people began withering away, colorful streams of Spiritual Power wafted off their bodies and was pulled toward a large archway that stood behind them.

“NO!” Erica shouted as she saw the villagers die. However, the sound of her voice was drowned out by the mad laughter of the creature in charge.

“AH HA HA HA! Finally! I have finally opened a gate! Now our legions can enter this world!! Our invasion has begun!!”

His words were shocking, but what shocked me even more was what happened to the archway. A large film of silver swirled around the archway like liquid metal. It rippled and undulated for several seconds before stabilizing, and then something emerged—several somethings. Several hundred somethings.

A grim feeling swept over me as I saw more creatures like the one before us exit from that strange portal-like thing. It reminded me of a Warp Gate, but it was different. It felt different. Something about it caused a chill to freeze my bones.

The expressions on the members of the four Battling Valkyries and Kari turned just as grave when they realized how perilous our situation had become.

What had once been a rescue mission was now a fight for survival.

***

I released a gasp as I woke up. My body was covered in a cold sweat as remnants of the dream I’d just had filled my mind. Violence and death covered my vision behind closed eyelids, causing me to release a pained groan. However, while my mind was inundated with scenes from my previous life, my body felt oddly comfortable.

It took me a moment to figure out why.

Someone was stroking my hair.

Soft fingers ran through my sweaty hair. The nails at the tips of these fingers were slightly longer than what most people normally had, and they were a little sharp, but the tenderness, and dare I say loving, way those fingers lightly grazed my scalp caused me to release a sigh of pleasure. This sensation was so comforting that I was tempted to fall asleep again.

Except I didn’t.

The reason I didn’t was because I realized, belatedly, that my current situation was one in which there was only one person who could possibly be running their fingers through my hair.

I opened my eyes and stared into the golden orbs of Lin. She was in my bed again, using one of her arms to rest on her side as she stroked my hair. Long curtains of darkness descended behind her like threads of silk, and a few strands also fell down her front. The dark skin of her chest was completely visible. Her nipples were hard and goosebumps had broken on her skin, but she just continued to run a hand through my hair.

“You are finally awake,” Lin said.

My first impulse was to ask that she stop running her hands through my hair, but there were a few reasons I didn’t.

The first was because of the worry on her face. Lin’s expressions often ran on the haughty side. She generally kept this slightly arrogant but mostly childish composure that made her seem a little spoiled. However, her current face reminded me of the expression Kari wore when Kayli ran into our bedroom crying because she’d had a nightmare. There was no way I could tell someone to stop when they looked that concerned.

The second reason was honestly because her actions just felt good.

“You were worried about me?” I asked instead.

Lin bit her lip as if tempted to deny my accusation, but then she nodded and spoke in a halting manner. “You were thrashing about in your sleep… and you wouldn’t wake up when this princess called to you.”

“I’m sorry,” I apologized in a hoarse voice.

“Were you having a bad dream?”

“A very bad dream.”

Lin nodded. “This princess has had bad dreams before as well. Before meeting you, she used to dream of the attack that separated her from her bodyguards. There was violence and death everywhere. This princess’ guards would always sacrifice themselves for her, falling by the blades of her unknown assailants. She would try to help, but it always ended the same way, with her being forced to flee and getting injured in the process.”

“Before meeting me?” I breathed. “Does that mean you haven’t had them after meeting me?”

“That is correct.” Lin smiled at me, and it was filled with a tenderness that I easily recognized. “Ever since you saved this princess from those boars when she was unable to transform into her original form, she stopped having those nightmares. Part of the reason this princess sleeps with you is because the nightmares don’t haunt her when she’s in your arms.”

I didn’t know what to say to that, so I kept my mouth shut and closed my eyes. Lin didn’t seem to mind. She continued to stroke my hair with the gentleness only a lover could pull off. I remembered hearing the term “guilty pleasure” once, and I believe they were referring to something like this. It was a pleasurable experience, but the guilt I felt for feeling that pleasure made it hard to accept.

“Thank you,” I said at last.

My eyes were still closed, but I could imagine Lin’s smile as she said, “You needn’t thank this princess. You are her husband. She will always be here to help you.”

This girl said some of the sweetest things, but those words felt a lot like someone digging a knife into an already open wound.

“The tournament you are taking part in should be starting soon,” Lin finally said, causing me to open my eyes. “You should probably get ready.”

I sighed. “Yeah. You’re right.”

My morning routine didn’t consist of much. After leaving the bed, I went into the bathroom and washed myself off. My body was covered in sweat, so I ended up washing more than just my face and hair. Following that, I got dressed in the outfit I’d worn the other day. I’d decided this was going to be my standard attire from now on. It was the first outfit someone had bought for me in this life, so it had sentimental value.

Lin was in the living room when I finished getting dressed. She trailed after me with her eyes as I wandered into the kitchen, and then came back with a large loaf of bread, some slices of dried fruit, and two plates.

“Would you like some breakfast?” I asked as I set everything out.

Lin stood up from the divan and slithered over to me. “This princess is pretty hungry. She will have some breakfast with you.”

Our breakfast was eaten mostly in silence, but I think a part of that was my fault. I really didn’t know what to say.

Lamia were meat eaters. I remember speaking to one in Midgard, a member of the Battling Valkyries, and she’d told me that while they could eat fruits, vegetables, and food made from wheat, they really needed meat to sustain themselves. Despite this, Lin ate the bread and dried fruit without complaint. Despite acting spoiled, she was a good girl.

I was going to buy two meat pies for her when I got home from the tournament tonight.

Once we finished breakfast, I grabbed my weapon of choice and found myself standing by the entrance. Lin stood beside me. There were no overt signs that she was feeling anything, but I could somehow tell that she wanted to say something. It looked like she was seconds away from opening her mouth. The rose-shaped ring pattern on my hand was also throbbing.

“Go… good luck,” Lin finally said. I don’t think it was what she wanted to say.

“Thank you.” I smiled at her and turned around. My hand was on the door when I paused, turned my head, and looked at her. “Once I’ve won, there will be nothing stopping me from taking you outside.”

A strange luster filled Lin’s eyes as I said that. Her lips trembled a little. For a moment, I thought she was going to cry, but then she smiled, and her long ears wiggled happily.

“This princess will wait for you to return,” she said.

I nodded before turning back toward the door. Taking a deep breath, I adjusted the ruler over my shoulder, walked outside, and began my journey toward the colosseum.

***

With the preliminary rounds over, the Colosseum had become even more packed now than it had before. Perhaps this was the result of people hearing about the amazing fights that had taken place the other day. Kari was sure there’d been some people who decided not to attend the tournament at first, but then decided they needed to come by after hearing about the amazing battles that happened yesterday.

The Colosseum had a total capacity of about 150,000 people. All of the seats were made of stone, and were elevated above the arena floor by about ten meters. The other day, about two-thirds of those seats had been filled, but today, it appeared as though the entire stadium was overflowing with people. She even found some people who couldn’t find seats and were standing near the entrances or on the stairs.

“Which contestant do you think two think is going to win?” asked Geirolf.

Mikkel stroked his chin. “That’s hard to say. Had you asked me who I thought was going to win before the preliminaries, I would have said either Astrid Kriger, Hellen Brynhild, or Torgny Leucht… but that was before I witnessed Eryk Veiger fight.”

“Do you really think he is that powerful?” Geirolf scratched his head. “I’ll admit, he really surprised me during that preliminary match, but I mean, come on! He was good, but he wasn’t that good.”

“Eryk Veiger is definitely the black horse of this tournament,” Earland said before falling silent once again. His words caused Mikkel to nod in agreement and Geirolf to scowl.

Kari’s brothers were sitting behind her and Mother as always. She listened to them with just one ear, frowning a little when she heard Geirolf talk about Eryk. Her first inclination was to dispute him. Fortunately for her, Earland did it before she could.

“What do you think, Kari?” asked her mother.

“Excuse me?” Kari looked toward her mother, startled.

Her mother smiled. “About the tournament. Who do you think is going to win?”

Kari frowned at her mother’s question, but then she looked down at the arena floor, where all of the contestants were currently standing in front of her three fathers. There were only sixteen now. Among them, she saw Eryk and Fay standing next to each other. While Fay looked a little nervous, Eryk wore a calm expression as he let his ruler rest on his shoulder and spoke with the redhead, seemingly trying to reassure her.

“Eryk will win,” Kari said.

“You sound pretty confident,” Geirolf muttered. “You realize he’s going up against some of the top Spiritualists in Nevaria, right? What makes you so certain he’ll win?”

“Because… I just know.”

“Hmph! Is this that women’s intuition crap I’ve heard about?” Geirolf snorted. “Sounds like a bunch of bullshit if you ask me.”

Kari’s only response was to shake her head. She didn’t know why, exactly, but she was certain that Eryk would win.

***

Stelys Valstine was sitting in the noble section of the Colosseum, which was located on the upper tier. Of course, even though he and his family were doing much better for themselves, he still didn’t have the political or financial power to have his own private booth like some of the noble families. He was grateful, though. His current finances were much better than they had been… and it was thanks to Eryk Veiger and his idea to work with the Alchemist Association.

It was too bad the boy had rejected his proposal to marry his daughter. He really did think they would have made a good match, and he actually liked the boy, unlike Grant Leucht.

A commotion suddenly attracted his attention, causing him to turn his head, whereupon he found a beautiful woman dressed in modified alchemy robes walking toward him. She had reddish orange hair. The sleeves of her robes had slits running through them, meaning everyone could see her bare shoulders. As she walked up to him and his small group of elders, a number of eyes were drawn toward this woman.

“W-who is this pretty lady?!”

“I think I’ve seen her before…”

“Wait. Isn’t she the Head of the Alchemist Association?”

“No way!”

“I had no idea the Alchemist Association head was so gorgeous!”

Stelys almost snorted when he heard the comments being bandied about. There was no doubt that the woman also heard them, but she merely maintained her smile as she walked up to him.

“It is good of you to make it, Feinrea,” he greeted.

“Stelys Valstine. Esteemed elders.” She gave him and the elders a respectful nod. “I appreciate your inviting me here today.”

Stelys laughed. “It was no trouble at all. My daughter and our little benefactor are currently taking part in this tournament. I figured it was only appropriate that you also have a good seat to view this battle.”

“I normally would not attend an event like this, since I prefer remaining in my office and testing ingredients.” Her smile widened. “But I figured it would be a good idea to witness this tournament since Eryk is participating.”

“Indeed.” Stelys nodded as he stroked his beard. “That little fella has surprised me quite a bit lately. I’m expecting very good things from him. I have even put 70,000 valis on his victory.”

“You are gambling?” Feinrea’s eyes widened a little. “What are the odds currently?”

“Eryk Veiger has 4:1 odds, which is better than I expected for someone who is the obvious black horse of this tournament. Currently, most people believe the victor will either be Astrid Kriger or Torgny Leucht. Hellen Brynhild is listed as the third most likely person to win.”

Feinrea hummed in thought before a smile lit up her face. She reached toward her waist, where a coin purse was tied to a sash that went around her lithe torso. The coin purse jingled as she untied the string.

“I suppose I should also place a bet on Eryk as well. Given everything he has done for my Alchemist Association, putting my faith in him is the least I can do.” Feinrea wore a smile as stood up again. After asking Stelys for directions to the betting booth, she bid them a quick farewell.

When she returned, Stelys would ask how much she put on Eryk. He would be shocked to discover that she bet 360,000 valis on Eryk winning the whole tournament.

***

“Everyone, welcome to the second and final day of the Spiritualist Grand Tournament,” Rainer said, standing between Dante and Valence once again as he took on the role of spokesperson. “I hope all of you managed to get some rest. Today is the last day of the tournament. This day will be divided into four rounds: round 1, round 2, the semi-finals, and the final round.”

I stood next to Fay as I listened to Rainer speak, but the longer I listened, the more I felt someone else’s eyes on me. A frown crossed my face. Glancing around with just my eyes, I tried to locate the source, but I couldn’t find it. Of course, everyone’s eyes were currently on us. It could have been that my nerves were simply getting to me, but I didn’t think that was it since I didn’t feel nervous.

“We’ve decided on the first round match ups,” Rainer continued. Dante removed a fairly large goatskin scroll from inside of his red jacket. He and Valence unrolled it as their spokesperson kept talking. “The first round matches have been divided into sixteen brackets that were randomly selected last night. As I said the day before, the winner of round one will face the winner of round two. Round three’s winner will face round four’s winner and so on. The fights will continue like this for all eight matches, and then there will be an intermission before round two.”

The goatskin scroll that Dante and Valence were holding between them did indeed show off the brackets for round one. 16 rectangles were lined up from top to bottom on the far left. Within these rectangles were names. A thick line was drawn from the ends of each rectangle, forming a “]” shape between two of the 16 names, and then another line extended from that to the next bracket, which had yet to be filled in.

My name was in the first bracket.

So was Grant Leucht’s.

I smiled.

“The rules for these rounds are the same as yesterday’s,” Rainer continued, unaware of my feelings. “The winner will be decided by knockout or forfeit. No killing is allowed. Furthermore, if I decide that someone has lost, you cannot contest that decision. It is final. Attempts to contest it will result in your automatic disqualification and ban from attempting next year’s tournament. Is everyone clear on the rules?”

“Yes!” everyone said at the same time.

“Good.” Rainer nodded. “Then will the first two contestants please remain behind, while the rest go with Dante to the waiting room.”

“Hehe, alright everyone! The fourteen of you who aren’t fighting right now should follow me,” Dante said as he walked toward the door. Everyone except for me, Grant, and Fay followed him.

“Good luck,” Fay said.

I didn’t think I’d need luck, but I accepted her sentiment with a smile. “Thanks.”

She smiled back before hurrying out of the door.

I glanced at Grant, who was looking back at me with an ugly smirk. The look on his face made my blood boil.

“It appears fate has decided you were going to be unfortunate enough to face me right from the beginning,” Grant taunted. “It’s too bad… for you. Now I’m going to teach you what happens to people who try to steal my things.”

“Your ‘things’, is it?” I murmured before walking away from him. I had no desire to trade banter with a moron.

My lack of a response must have upset Grant. His glare hardened as his face turned an ugly shade of red, but he walked over to where Rainer and Valence were standing. He stopped when he was about ten meters from where I stood.

“Are the two of you ready?” asked Rainer.

“Hmph!” Grant removed a pair of gloves from a pouch at his hip. He put them on, the left first, and then the right, in a very methodical fashion, as if he was showing off. Then he clapped his hands together and tightened them into fists. “I am ready.”

I removed the ruler from my shoulder, holding it in a single-handed grip, and nodded to Rainer. “I am also ready.”

“Then I declare this match officially underway.” Rainer raised his hand in the air, and then swung it down. “Fight!”