[Author's Note: Everyone, after the results of J-Novel Club's OELN Contest finally came out, I regret to inform everyone... I did not make it past the first round. I know I promised to make it three chapters before Spring Break ends, but after receiving this news. I'm just... a little depressed right now. This would probably be the last chapter I post in a while as I go on hiatus to cope with my depression. Sorry if this one is a little short like the last one. Once I come out of my depr- I mean hiatus to figure out what went wrong with the novel, I'll be sure to lengthen both this chapter and the last. If any of you have suggestions on how I can improve. Please let me know. I was in a bit of a rush when I posted the last chapter, when I went back to review it, I noticed a lot of errors and typos. Don't worry, I'll fix it sometime in the future. I'll also make sure to extend its content as well.]
Haaa! I lay on my bed, exhausted. Both mentally and physically. The sudden words of the Beastgirl still ringing in my head.
"I'd like to join your team for the Grand Chaos Tournament!"
I nearly forgot about that.
Not the Tournament itself, but rather, the team battles.
Students who wish to participate in the Tournament formed teams of up to seven members.
After teams are formed, each school will make their students and teams fight it out until the very best is selected, and sent to compete in the Grand Chaos Tournament.
These teams would fight each other in all sorts of different battlefields and scenarios.
No one knows what sort of fight the contenders may get into. Hence the name, Grand Chaos Tournament. It can be something as simple as a team vs. team brackets tournament, or a chaotic battle-royale mayhem.
There have been rare instances in history when one person went solo and won the entire thing by their lonesome, skipping the last internal fighting part of the tournament. Originally, I wanted to do the same thing and participate by myself.
At least that's what I had in mind until I met that Beastgirl, I still haven't got a clue as to who she is. After hearing her sudden desire to join my team, I became frozen in shock. In my lapse of inaction, the she slipped away and ran away from me again for the second time.
Now, I lie on my bed thinking what to do.
...
I'm open to having teammates, but I'm a little reluctant to team up with a Beast Person.
Many people don't take to kindly to Beast People.
Savages, half-breeds, brutes. These are just a few of the names people call them.
It'd be a lie if I said I weren't a little prejudiced against them.
Just take a look at the girl I encountered. A complete and utter wimp.
Damnit!
I sound just like those bastards who look down on me!
Ugh! I don't want to be like those guys, but teaming up with a Beastgirl?
Dangit! I'm not a racist, but I can't help but feel reluctant to bring her on as a teammate! I mean look at her! Attitude aside. She got her *ss kicked by a bunch of third-rate villains!
But I also can't be picky either. Let's be real, nobody in the world would be willing to team up with someone cursed by a god.
Ha! What to do?
I rolled around in my bed, hoping to come up with something. Anything I could respond to the Beastgirl with.
Ugh, it's no use. Not only do I still not have an idea, but all this thinking makes me a little hungry.
I might as well head out. Use whatever meagre allowance I have to buy myself some bread and dried meat to throw together a simple sandwich or something.
On my way to the supermarket, I passed by a poster or rather, several posters with an old man smiling and holding something akin to a sandwich. His face also has a moustache and looks suspiciously familiar.
Wait a minute...
Why the hell is Sir Charles' face on the poster?
Actually, isn't this a good opportunity? I can ask him for advice on how I should reply to the Beastgirl.
But where the heck is his restaur-
Wait, nevermind, the address is at the bottom.
Memorizing the address, I changed my destination and headed toward the old man's restaurant.
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"Okay, it should be right about he- *OOF!*"
Absorbed in my mental map, I failed to notice someone else rounding the corner at the same time as me.
*BAM!*
The result is not as you expected.
My tailbone cried out in pain as I fell and it made contact with the hard, cobbled stone street.
"Ouch! Watch where you're- woah."
I released a tiny breath of surprise and remained rooted in place, speechless. A girl of great stature towered over me.
"My apologies! Are you alright?"
I let loose another breath of surprise. Like, wow. Just, wow. Tall, well-proportioned, beautiful ruby eyes. Then throw in this... this magnificent melodic voice. Damn.
...
Wait! What the hell am I thinking!?!
I'm straight!
[Author's Note: Happy Late April Fool's! While I won't be posting for a while, it won't be as long as the two-month break I took after completing Volume 1 of the series. However, because it didn't make the cut for the contest, I'm not in a hurry to continue pumping out chapters. So, I decided to take a break from writing Old Knight In Another World and work on another novel. I just gained some sudden inspiration and will either be recontinuing Sherlock In Another World With The Maxed-Out Appraisal Skill series or starting a brand-new one, which is called the Weakest Floor Boss Decides To Climb The Tower (or To Conquer The World's Most Hellish Dungeon, or To Quit And Become An Adventurer. Like I said, still working on it, but you can tell it's going to be an interesting one). Anyway, I'll be sure to let you guys know in a week or two. See you all in the next one!
PS: I'll definitely continue writing the Sherlock and Old Knight Series. I'll also eventually overhaul and do a re-write of my Mr. Spy Establishes An Intelligence Agency In Another World Series as well. It'll be completely different and set further back in time to when Enjento first got isekai-ed. Fans of my first novel, The Weakest Spy Saves The World With His System will be disappointed to find I'll no longer work on the series. Until I write at least three volumes (240K words per series, and 720K words in total) for the series I mentioned above. I highly doubt I'll ever touch it again in the future. That very work haunts me in my nightmares to this day by how unorganized my plan was for it.]
[PPS: Just noticed some errors and missing parts in this chapter too. Sorry, I'll be sure to fix it as well.]