I arrived in the arena for my second match, against Zack Prower.
After being through a strict check-up from several tournament committees,
I had been forced to wear clothes that would limit my abilities and strength.
Yup! It seems that the tournament committee would be under troublesome
pressure if I win the tournament. I mean, why else would they force me to
wear these clothes.
As for my opponent, the wild-looking man with red hair―Zack Prower
—had already entered the arena amongst the deafening booing the audience
directed toward me. He stood in the middle of the arena with a daring,
battle-junkie-like smile on his face.
I had seen Zack's previous match; it turned out he was quite an
accomplished martial artist. You could say that he was rather similar to me,
someone who has created their own martial art style. I'm also looking
forward to testing his abilities, but honestly, the explanation of the chairman
of the tournament committee was like pouring cold water on my passion.
「Oi chairman, you must be joking, right?」
I could see blue veins bulging out from Zack's forehead as he asked the
chairman of the tournament committee, a black-haired man.
「Yeah, this is also a measure to prevent any kind of cheating from the
incompetent!」
The chairman exclaimed so without a shred of guilt.
The content of his explanation was as follows: I wouldn't be allowed to
hold a wooden sword to prevent me from cheating, and the referee could
disqualify me the moment he judged that I was cheating.
In short, my disqualification was guaranteed the moment they started the
match. Well, in the end, such a tournament was nothing more than a means
for me to gain money. I didn't care about such things, but apparently, they
would confiscate my prize money too if I was disqualified.
In short, to keep my prize money, the only choice I had was to lose on
purpose against Zack. To be honest, I started to question the personality of
the tournament committee members who thought about such f*cked rules.
Only an idiot would feel delighted on being able to win such a f*cked up
tournament.
「ARE YOU F*CKING KIDDING ME! This is a match between us,
martial artists! It ain't a place for you f*cking amateurs!」
Despite trembling non-stop upon seeing Zack's enraged face, the chairman
continued.
「Well then, I'll leave the rest to you, Referee!」
He went down as if he were escaping from the arena. After that, a haughty,
bear-like referee stepped into the arena.
「FIGHT!」
The referee gave the signal to start the fight and moved to the side in a
hurry. Since he didn't let go of his eyes on me, I honestly didn't feel like
fighting at all.
Zack glared toward the tent of the tournament committee for a while with a
furious expression, then…
「I give up! I won't give a sh*t about this cr*p anymore! I
SURRENDER!」
He shook his head and went down from the arena.
「KAI HEINEMAN, you were doing something suspicious just now!!」
The referee suddenly shouted at me; he might have been flustered due to
Zack's declaration of surrender.
「I have not even moved an inch from this place, you know!」
「NO! You definitely made a suspicious movement just now! With this,
Kai Heineman is disqualified due to foul play!!」
The clown called the referee declared so with an extremely loud voice,
enough to resound in the entire venue.
「I guess so.」
I guessed I shouldn't waste my time in this farce anymore. There was still
some time until the deadline for the payment of the slave. I decided to focus
on gathering the amount of money I needed during that period.
I turned around, and the referee raised his right hand toward Zack.
However…
""
「GUGA!!」
The next moment, the sorrowful wail of the referee resounded in the arena.
When I looked back, the referee had already fallen back with a caved-in
face and was twitching like a dead frog.
「Look, I have attacked the referee. Now, I'm disqualified too, right? Since
both of us are disqualified, how about a little bout?」
A bout, huh!
「I don't mind.」
I looked at the tent of the tournament's committee.
「A-AS IF YOU'RE ALLOWED TO DO THAT! Both of you are
disqualified! Now, get out of here!」
The chairman chased us out in a condescending attitude.
「What do you think?」
「Yeah, let's change the place. It's not like this is the only place to fight in
the world. Anyhow, these f*cking retards don't have the qualification to see
our bout either. The match-fixing arranged by the tournament committee
after this is already good enough for these boors.」
Zack's complaints resounded loudly in the entire venue.
Unlike mine, Zack's matches were really popular. His pure physical
strength, which he had trained to the limit and used to overwhelm his
opponent, had apparently charmed the audience. And Zack denouncing the
tournament was a huge shock for the audience.
I feel bad for the audience for doing this but―
「I agree with you.」
I looked at the spectators and agreed with Zack.
Honestly speaking, martial arts were for struggling for life against another
person. It wasn't a show, nor was it something that needed spectators.
Moreover, the majority of the participants honestly lacked fighting spirit.
People who enjoyed our battles as some game or rigged the matches
wouldn't understand even if they saw our battle where we put our pride as a
martial artist on the line. It was something akin to giving an expensive
jewel to a pig.
Thus, it was better to finish this before facing all of those troubles. I mean,
all this commotion stemmed from the competition between that idiot prince
and Rose. Since such a trivial matter didn't concern me in the least, I had no
reason to regard a competent martial artist like Zack as one of these fools;
nor did he need to receive some punishment.
I took out a medium potion and walked toward the referee, who was still
wailing in pain due to Zack's punch. Opening up the lip of the potion bottle,
I poured its contents on the referee's face, restoring his wounded face at a
rate visible to the naked eye. Such a grade of potion should be enough to
restore even someone on the verge of death, and the ingredients one needed
to make it weren't that rare either. That's why I judged that it was safe for
me to use this potion here.
Different from the healing slimes, this potion might leave scars, but this was
good enough for this idiot.
「Just what in the world is that nonsensical item? It can restore wound
instantly?」
「Let's go.」
I was about to walk away without replying to Zack, who had asked me that
question with a dumbfounded expression. However…
「There's no need for you to choose another place. This old man shall
become the referee for you.」
A white-haired old man whose eyes were covered by his bangs suddenly
spoke up. The old man lightly jumped into the arena and declared so while
touching his long, white beard.
What a coincidence! To think I met this old man of all people in this place.
It means…
「It has been a while.」
I slightly bowed while giving a formal greeting to that old man.
This old man was the grandmaster of the Kaien-style, Aaron Kaien. I had
met him a really long time ago(according to my perspective) when my
grandfather had taken me for a tour.
「Uhm, long time no see.」
The venue fell silent when Old Man Aaron raised his right hand to greet me
back.
「Aaron-sama, this incompetent was cheating, and Zack assaulted me!」
The referee, who I had just healed, pointed at Zack and me, speaking with
an extremely indignant expression. Yet…
「SILENCE! You're now banished from our school!」
Old Man Aaron shouted back at the referee with an even more terrifying
expression. He didn't beat around the bush and immediately banished the
bear-like man.
「Hah? W-Why did you banish me?」
「You fool, do I need to explain the reason one by one? Expose all your
shame to the public?」
「…」
The color drained from the face of the bear-like man; his face turned ashen
white in just a moment. That was right. To this old man, it should've been
obvious whether I was cheating or not.
「I don't know how much you got for agreeing with this folly, but your
actions have crossed the line. You're a shame for a martial artist. FROM
THIS MOMENT, you're no longer a part of our school! Now, get the hell
out of here!!」
After hearing all that, the bear-like man descended from the arena with a
lifeless gait and vanished into the passage.
「My deepest apologies for this folly, Kai, Zack. As much as I'm ashamed
to say this, but that man was a member of our school until I banished him
just now for his shameful act.」
「Don't worry about it!」
「Yeah, it's not a big deal!」
Old Man Aaron heaved a sigh upon seeing both Zack and me giving way
for him; it wasn't his fault after all. Then, he looked at the tent of the
tournament committee like a bird looking at its prey.
「Thank you, but still, it doesn't change the fact that our school is the one
who's managing this tournament. Oi, chairman, you better prepare a proper
explanation for this incident. You hear me?」
He straight out threatened the chairman.
The committee members and the haughty-looking chairman, all of them
could only hang their faces down in shame upon receiving that threat and
tremble like newborn calves.
Uhm, it seems that the air of this old man and even his enraged tone was
similar to that of my grandfather. These two factors were still the same as
the one in the memory of the past Kai Heineman.
「Old man, you're the referee, right? Then, let's get this started.」
Speaking of Aaron Kaien, he was a sword master whose ability rivaled my
grandfather's. He was one of the strongest martial artists in this world. And
this rascal dared to act so brazenly in front of such an existence. Though, I
couldn't bring myself to hate a battle junkie like him. Yup, it's decided! This
guy will replace me as Rose's royal guard.
「Uhm, you're right! We, martial artists, talk with our skills. My apologies
to make you wait.」
Old Man Aaron's face changed into that of a merry old man as he spoke
those words while raising his right hand.
「BEGIN!!」
Then, our battle started with the cue from Old Man Aaron.