80. Discomfort [SIDE - Barry]
"What's going on?!"
The first day of the tournament ended. In the evening, I shouted at the male organizer.
"Why is that loser advancing?! He shouldn't have a sword!"
"That's what I want to know! Winning the tournament without a weapon is unheard of..."
I grabbed the man's collar and slammed his hefty body against the wall. His 'uh' echoed in the room.
"I need to confirm. You did break the sword as I ordered, right? If you held back..."
"I-I did it properly! You saw it split in half, didn't you?!"
"Then it must be him... What's going on with him?"
I let go of the man's hand and sat at the table in the room.
This world is simple. As long as the calculations are correct, everything goes as planned.
However, that loser—Arx Seirant—is an outlier. You never know what he'll do.
At this point, he has overturned two of my calculations. The first time was when we first faced each other. And the second time was when I found out there was no sword.
If he loses the sword, he loses his reason for participating in the tournament. So, I threatened this middle-aged man at risk.
Yet—why does he keep participating in the tournament? Despite being berated by the audience and having no reason, why does he step onto the stage?
And what bothers me is the second round. Arx faced the match without bringing the female blacksmith.
One could interpret that the woman couldn't endure the audience's ridicule and fled—but if that's the case, the reason for the loser participating in the tournament would also disappear.
An unsettling feeling remains. What are they thinking?
"Hey, if the sword breaks, they can't prepare a new one, right?"
"Uh, yeah. According to the tournament rules, you can't bring a second sword..."
If the organizer says so, it must be true. Even if that blacksmith made a new sword, it would be impossible to bring it into the match.
Maybe I'm overthinking it. Perhaps those two have simply gone insane.
"Can't they disqualify those two? They didn't bring a sword, and there's no blacksmith, right?"
"It seems they can't do that. There's a rule against using a different weapon, but there's no obligation to bring a weapon, and the blacksmith's entry is just for publicity..."
"Useless!"
After kicking the sofa hard, I stormed out of the room.
Outside, the sun had almost set, casting an orange light on my irritated self.
"You seem quite upset."
"...Elgen, huh?"
Waiting for me outside the venue was my partner, Elgen.
He's usually sarcastic with others, but not with me. In fact, I feel like I can be myself around him.
"So, how did it go?"
"I tried to eliminate that loser, but it seems impossible. Maybe if we fabricate some cheating, it'll be different."
"Hahaha, ruthless. Is that also part of your calculations?"
I remained silent. I didn't want him to think I was afraid of that loser.
Elgen seemed to sense my feelings and laughed again.
"You can win. We've been through this together, and you've never miscalculated, right?"
"...Yeah. I'll definitely win. But if anything goes wrong..."
"Of course, I'll help like I did before. We're the strongest duo."
I met Elgen six months ago. With eyes like crows, we met at the garbage dump that day.
For some reason, only he seemed to understand my feelings. It seemed the feeling was mutual for Elgen.
We decided to use each other. And we swore.
We will definitely win the tournament and gain fame.
Tomorrow, we'll crush that loser in the final match. We won't make any mistakes in our calculations.
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