“Heh.”
Fran smirked, not looking the slightest bit worried. The prospect of going up against the Beast King’s personal bodyguard didn’t scare her. In fact, it only roused her fighting spirit. Still, she would still have to win two matches before she could even go up against Colbert. In any case, Zehmet was first on our list.
Who’s after Zehmet… Wow, really?
“Cruise Riouselle? Sounds familiar.”
I didn’t think you’d remember. He’s the C-Rank we met back in Alessa. We explored the dungeon with his party and Amanda.
“Hm?” Despite my best efforts to jog her memory, Fran tilted her head.
Remember? The good-looking guy who looked like he’d been carrying the weight of his teammates all his life?
“Uhh, maybe? I’m not sure.”
Perhaps seeing his face would remind her. I hoped so. If I saw Cruise, I would tell Fran and stop things from getting too awkward, though I wasn’t even sure he’d make it past his first round. He was up against the fourth seed in the block.
Looks like he’ll be fighting Radule. The self-proclaimed oldest adventurer in Ulmutt.
“He said he was C-Rank.”
But he’s as strong as a B-Rank, and he used to be a court mage, too.
No wonder he was seeded. Radule was stronger than his competition. With all due respect to Cruise, our time would be better spent preparing for a fight against Radule.
“Radule’s going to win,” Fran agreed. We needed to come up with a way to handle the old mage before our fight.
And if all goes well, we’ll get matched up with A-16 after that. Colbert.
“Hm! Can’t wait!”
Steelclaw had helped us a lot in Bulbola. He was more experienced than Fran, and he definitely had some tricks up his sleeve. We couldn’t completely rely on the data we got from Identifying him, since his gear might have the Fake Identity skill. All I remembered was that he had a strange Martial Arts skill called Dimitris Combat School. We’d have to do some more digging.
Beat Colbert and you’ll finally be up against Gaudartha.
“Hm.” Fran nodded, going quiet all of a sudden.
We’ll need to figure out a way to beat him, too.
“We’ll get him for sure!”
Yeah, that’s the spirit!
Beating Gaudartha would be like taking home the gold. He was an A-Rank, after all—strong enough to single-handedly bring an army to its knees. His reputation made him one of the top favorites.
You’re probably gonna get matched with another A-Rank if you beat him, though.
Amanda was a shoo-in for the semifinals, provided there were no upsets. If we beat her, we would face either Forlund or Royce in the final. I had a feeling that Amanda and Forlund were much stronger than Gaudartha—we had seen their power firsthand in Bulbola. Either way, my estimates couldn’t be that far off.
“I’ll beat them anyway.”
We’ll try, that’s for sure.
Fran was still determined. And if she was in this to win, then I had to step my game up, too.
Hrmph!
“Teacher?”
Just psyching myself up. Let’s win this, Fran!
“Hm!”
There were bound to be strong competitors other than the top seeds. We looked through the roster for familiar names and happened upon Phelms, who was in D-Block with Royce. I hoped the former A-Rank performed well. We should be in for quite a match.
Next was Elza, who was in B-Block with Amanda. It was bound to be an interesting fight, if a little hard to watch—a showdown between the two most terrifying women of the Adventurers’ Guild.
Phillip Christon was one of the C-Block seeds. What was he doing here when Bulbola was still in the middle of reconstruction? Didn’t his city need him or something? Well, he must have his reasons. He was a strong fighter, if the battle with Linford was any indication. We’d get to see him flex his skills against Forlund.
We found Charlotte in the roster, too—the caretaker of the Bulbolan orphanage. The girl was a Battle Dancer and specialized in malice purification and bewitching her foes. She was up against Elza. The poor thing didn’t stand a chance, but we should still watch her match to support her. I couldn’t find any of our other acquaintances in the roster, no matter how hard I tried.
“Lydia didn’t make it.”
I couldn’t believe she lost after all that talk before her match. So much for that!
When we were done going through the roster, we made our way to the Adventurers’ Guild. We needed information on the competition.
“Elza’s not here.”
Even if she were, should we really be asking her questions about the tournament?
“Hm?”
She’s fighting too, remember? I’m not sure if she’ll be too eager to tell us what she knows. We might end up facing off at some point, so I wasn’t sure we could trust her information. Let’s try asking Dias or the other adventurers.
“All right.”
We started looking for someone we could ask. At least, until Elza closed in on us like a frenzied shark.
“Frannie, it’s been so long! Congrats on making it to the finals!” Elza was beaming. I felt silly for thinking that our tournament rivalry would change how she felt about Fran. “I saw your fight. You sure showed them what you’re made of!”
“Hm.”
“I just wish you would’ve roughed up that Blue Cat a little more… You’re allowed to, you know?” Elza turned red with anger just recalling Fran’s match. It was safe to say that the Blue Cats were now her enemies, too.
“I didn’t want to get disqualified.”
“Unnecessary force towards the defeated is forbidden…right. Anyway, you seem different, Fran.”
“Hm?”
Elza scratched her chin. “How should I put it? You seem much stronger now, more reliable.”
“Training paid off.” All those long hours in the dungeons preparing for the tournament weren’t for nothing.
“Is that it? It feels like you did a
