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I received a correction, and after looking into it, I realized it didn't make sense for Tenma to wonder whether the parents who gave birth to him existed — so I've made the following change:
Before:
It was only at this point that I first wondered — do the parents who gave birth to me exist somewhere in this world?
Even if they did, I'd absolutely never consider people who abandoned a baby me in a place like that to be my parents, but I thought I'd like to ask the gods someday why a baby me was left there.
After:
It was only at this point that I first wondered — are there people in this world who share the same blood as me?
Even if there were, it wouldn't be a big deal, but it did bug me a little.
And even though it's probably too late to ask now, I'm curious why the gods placed me in a place like that. I thought I'd like to ask the gods someday about why they abandoned baby me there.
I've rewritten it as above.
"Semifinal Match Two — Orasion versus Blue Hornet! Begin!"
Once we saw the referee step back on his signal, both teams began to move.
The opposing team was the previous tournament's champions, and even if they weren't at full strength, they possessed enough power to toy with the Dawn Sword.
Their team composition was one swordsman, two warriors, and two mages. The two warriors lined up in the front row, with the mages positioned behind them, half-hidden from view. The swordsman stood behind the mages.
It was a rare Formation with the swordsman held in reserve at the back, but it was probably meant as a countermeasure in case we used our speed to flank around behind the mages.
None of them could exactly be called young, but in exchange, they exuded the presence of...
...battle-hardened veterans...
...the aura of seasoned fighters who had been through countless fights.
This is definitely the strongest team I've fought in this tournament. If things go wrong, Shiromaru and Solomon could end up seriously injured. As for Slarin...
Emperor class...
...if he reaches that, I think it'll be fine.
"Tenma, these opponents look tougher than expected... what are we gonna do? Even if we brute-force a frontal assault, we'd probably still win... but the damage would be pretty hefty."
Namitarou had also sensed from their aura that these would be tough opponents.
"Yeah... why don't we try a little trick? Shiromaru, Solomon!"
I called over the two who'd been poised and ready to spring into action, and decided to have them join in on the little trick I'd come up with.
"Fire Wall!"
The enemy mage struck first with a spell, so I deployed a Fire Wall for both defense and to conceal our positions. The opposing spells were a Fire Ball and an Air Cutter, both prioritizing speed over power, so they weren't able to penetrate through my magic.
"Water Ball!"
Next, I conjured ten oversized water spheres around myself.
The spectators, seeing
Water Magic,
which is rarely used in tournaments, began to cheer. However, from the enemy side, the water spheres were hidden behind the flames and likely invisible to them. The sudden eruption of cheers seemed to put them on guard. I could sense both mages ramping up their Magic Power, ready to unleash a spell at any moment.
"Go!"
I launched the water spheres at my own Fire Wall.
The water spheres struck where the flames were rising, extinguishing the fire while simultaneously generating a massive cloud of steam over a wide area.
"Shiromaru! Solomon!
Go have some fun
!"
I gave Shiromaru and Solomon their orders at the same time. The moment they heard my command, the two split left and right and dashed off, circling toward the opposing team.
The warrior on the opposing side, upon seeing Shiromaru and Solomon suddenly burst out, remained completely unruffled and moved to guard the mage.
He braced himself.
The mage, too, didn't waste mana hurling spells at Shiromaru and the others recklessly, instead continuing to keep a wary eye on my position.
Shiromaru took a wide arc, occasionally darting in zigzags while glancing at the opponents, and Solomon flew at a height of about one to two meters, also circling wide as he rotated and hovered, watching the enemy.
Then, the instant the two came right up alongside the warriors, they suddenly accelerated—
—and shot straight past.
.
Caught off guard, the opposing team froze for a split second, but they quickly noticed the change and shifted into an intercept formation.
The instant the enemy shifted into their intercept formation, a projectile hurtled toward them at a speed that could tear through steam.
"Just as I thought! They're coming! Intercept them! Take down the Tamer and it's over!"
The swordsman who had taken up position in the rear issued orders to his comrades, then turned to face the direction Shiromaru and the others would be attacking from, timing his strike.
And then, appearing before the wary warriors was...
"Thought it was Tenma? Too bad! It's Nami-chan~!"
It was Nami-taro, sliding across the ground at high speed.
""""What?!" """
"Don't let your guard down! They're coming from somewhere!"
At Nami-taro's sudden appearance, the swordsman barked at his momentarily frozen comrades. Nami-taro slipped through the gap between the warriors and headed straight for the swordsman.
The swordsman managed to dodge Nami-taro's high-speed charge, but in doing so, he lost sight of Shiromaru and the others.
"Damn it! Watch out for the wolf and the dragon!"
At those words, the other four reflexively looked toward Shiromaru and the others, but Shiromaru and Solomon had already begun a game of chase, darting around on erratic paths.
"Gah!"
"Cough!"
By the time the swordsman heard his comrades' groans and turned around, the warrior and mage who had been on one side were already on the ground. I was the culprit.
"Where the hell were you?!"
The swordsman roared at me for cutting down his allies. Before wasting breath asking that, he should have been regrouping, but the suddenness of it all had probably thrown him into disarray.
So to that question, I...
"Up."
I pointed skyward.
Actually, the trick I had mentioned worked like this: I used Shiromaru and Solomon's
movements
to make them guard and draw their attention, then used Nami-taro—made to look like the main threat—to layer another feint on top. Meanwhile, I hid in the steam, flew up overhead, and struck from above to chip away at their fighting strength.
And on top of that, this trick still had more to it.
"Fireball—glrgh!"
"What the—glrgh!"
The two who had been about to launch an attack on me were suddenly pulled in by a large mass of water that had crept up behind them, and they gasped in pain.
"Hey! What the—damn it! A Slime?!"
By this point, the swordsman finally seemed to remember that Slarin had been hiding its presence all along.
The one who dragged the two in was,
His Majesty the Emperor.
That was Slarin.
Slarin was originally supposed to hold back to provide support, but it must have seen an opportunity and decided to go on the offensive on its own judgment. And by delivering decisive results, it had essentially decided the outcome of this match. Incidentally, I confirmed that Slarin had cleverly hitched a ride on Namitaro's back while moving.
"This ain't over yet!"
The swordsman gripped a sword in each hand and came charging straight at me. He completely ignored Shiromaru and Namitaro, who had been keeping him at bay until now, and intended to settle everything in one all-or-nothing clash.
Behind him, Shiromaru and Namitaro were about to strike, but I drew my blade from its sheath and took my stance.
"Shiromaru, Namitaro! Stay out of this!"
Hearing my words, Shiromaru and Namitaro halted their attacks.
"That composure of yours will be your undoing!"
The swordsman slashed at me with both blades. In terms of skill, he seemed just slightly below Chaos.
If the other members had comparable strength, then they truly had the ability befitting a champion team.
Moreover, if every one of them could enter the Team Battle in perfect condition without having spent themselves in the Individual Battle, that would be even more impressive.
But this swordsman seemed like the type who was more accustomed to fighting in coordination with allies than relying on his own individual strength. On top of that, he was trying to take me down before the outsiders could interfere — he was getting impatient, and his attacks were becoming sloppy, with his wide swings standing out.
Perhaps because of that, as someone who had fought strong opponents in the Individual Battle, I found him a little underwhelming.
"What's wrong? I thought that was supposed to be my undoing?"
I dodged every one of his attacks while deliberately putting on a cocky attitude to taunt him.
"Hrrggh... Hah!"
As if my provocation had worked in reverse and brought back his composure, the swordsman refocused, and compared to before, his movements had grown noticeably sharper.
The swordsman abandoned his dual-blade style midway through, switching from wide, sweeping attacks to small, precise strikes, and became quite a handful.
Even so, I never once felt like I was going to lose. His composure meant I couldn't afford to be careless, but he had only just reached the same level as Chaos.
I gradually increased the speed of my attacks, and once he could no longer keep up with my movements, I knocked his sword flying.
"I yield. I surrender."
I parried the sword with my blade, then pressed the tip against his throat on the return stroke. The swordsman raised both hands in surrender.
"That's it! Winner: Orasion!"
The tricks worked even better than I'd expected, and we managed to win without anyone getting hurt.
This was probably because our opponents overthought my little ruses. If our opponents had been the type to charge forward aggressively like the Dragon Strike squad in the first round, or a team like Jin's that knew my personality to some degree, the tricks wouldn't have been nearly as effective.
In short, brute-force-leaning teams were less vulnerable to them, while teams that fought while thinking things through fell for them much more easily.
Anyway, with that, all of today's matches were over. All that remained was the finals three days from now.
I gave the audience a light wave in response to their cheers while planning out my days off in my head.
During the two-day break before the finals, I'd need to recover from my fatigue, then handle weapon maintenance, procure new weapons, and browse the festival stalls and street vendors—there were things I wanted to do and things I had to do, and having only two days off felt frustratingly short.
Apparently, stalls and street vendors in particular cycled through their inventory frequently, with items selling out or being replaced within a single day, so bargains tended to disappear fast.
On a somewhat tangential note, it seemed I'd set several new records at this tournament.
First, the youngest-ever finalist in the Individual Battle (and only the second in Team Battle). Simultaneous finals in both the Individual and Team Battles. The fastest victory in the Individual Main Tournament (my match against Ogo). And the crowning achievement—finals participation across three generations of a family (technically two generations plus a great-uncle).
I'd heard that Dad and Mom had won the Team Battle when they challenged alongside the King and the others, but apparently Grandpa had even won the Individual Battle. Dad and the others had won once, but Grandpa had actually taken back-to-back titles. After that, he apparently got tired of competing, and the consecutive championship streak came to an end.
Even though we were family, I'd wondered how that worked since I was adopted, but I'd been raised by them since I was a baby, and apparently adoption was fairly common in this world (especially among nobility), so it wasn't considered strange at all... or at least, not particularly...
"Grandpa... our family tree just got a lot bigger all of a sudden."
"It did, didn't it... Shall I eliminate them?"
Grandpa said something rather alarming there, and I very nearly agreed with him.
On the first day of my break, a crowd of several dozen people had gathered in front of the mansion. If these had been mere onlookers, we never would have ended up with such thorny feelings about the situation.
This was all because of those people over there.
All sorts of people were gathered at the mansion. A grimy, beggar-like man. A garishly made-up woman who looked like a prostitute. Fat merchants dressed in expensive clothes, and mercenaries who didn't look very skilled. There were even nobles who appeared to have fallen on hard times mixed in with nobles who looked dim-witted.
Every last one of them was a con artist claiming to be my parent or relative.
The trouble started yesterday, right after the semifinals ended, when I tried to leave the venue to head home.
After the semifinals, I'd gotten the explanation about the finals from the staff and left later than when the spectators had gone home, yet a man and a woman who claimed to be my real parents called out to me.
They'd somehow gotten hold of my information and come sniffing around to suck up some easy money, but at the time I handed them over to the security guards stationed nearby to deal with con artists, so I thought the matter was settled. But then this morning, when I sensed a suspicious presence in front of the mansion's gate and woke up, I found a great many—
Self-proclaimed parents and relatives
had gathered.
I'd already told Grandpa and the others about the con artists after returning to the mansion yesterday, but I never expected them to show up en masse the very next day, all chattering about being my parents or relatives and screaming that they wanted to take me in. I was reaching my limit.
Right now, the gate-guard Golems and security Golems were lined up on the inside of the gate, so no fools had managed to break through, but honestly, I kind of wished someone would try—it would let me deal with them openly as criminals. Maybe just one
Hero
would show up?
Anyway, if either Grandpa or I got anywhere near them, some little
slip-up
could
accidentally
lead to their complete annihilation, so I asked Slarin and Shiromaru to deliver a letter to the Royal Capital.
The nearby guard post would have worked too, but I figured the most powerful person in the country would be the fastest to respond and the most reliable in handling the situation.
Slarin and Shiromaru were well-known even at the Royal Capital, so word would reach one of the royals, and in the worst-case scenario, Slarin could sneak past the guards undetected and hand the letter directly to the King himself.
It had been about an hour and a half since I sent them, so if things went smoothly, help should arrive in about another hour.
But Slarin and the others had pushed harder than I expected, and it seemed the royals had moved fast too.
I'd thought it would take at least another hour, but Slarin and the others were back in less than thirty minutes.
"Good work. The letter... seems to have been delivered safely."
As I was praising Slarin and Shiromaru, I sensed numerous presences moving outside, closing in around the conmen.
"Don't let a single one escape! As long as they're alive, I don't care if they get hurt!"
The one barking orders at the top of his lungs was none other than Din. Edgar and Chris were there as well. And it wasn't just the Royal Guard under Din's command—members of the Knight Order were mixed in too.
They were mounted on horseback right in the middle of the city, and rather than looking like they'd come to help, they looked like they'd come to annihilate.
Thanks to nearly two hundred knights—the elite forces of this kingdom, one could say—the conmen who had been loitering in front of the gate were all apprehended in short order, without a single one getting away.
Every last conman had ropes bound around them, and over their mouths...
gags...
...were fitted. Just as that was done, Din stepped before the gate and faced the gatekeeping Golem.
Din was recognized as an associate of the mansion owing to his connection with the King, and the Golem opened the gate to let only Din through (the Golem had been configured to allow Din passage, for when the King came visiting to slack off on his duties).
Seeing Din walking toward us, Grandpa and I hurried out to greet him.
"I apologize for the disturbance, Merlin. Also, unpleasant as it is, I must ask you to come with me to the gate for identification purposes."
Following Din's stiff tone, we made our way to the gate, where we were made to examine the faces of the captured conmen.
"Do any of you recognize anyone among these people?"
When asked that, Grandpa and I both shook our heads.
"Understood. You there! Take these ones to the holding cell at the station!"
"Yes, sir!"
Din issued orders to a nearby knight, leaving a dozen or so knights at the scene while having the conmen taken away. The remaining knights were apparently assigned to patrol around the mansion.
At this point, onlookers watching us from a distance had multiplied, all pricking up their ears with keen interest.
"Truth is, we've recently received intelligence that a criminal group has been active in the area, and we've been on heightened alert. Then early this morning, residents reported that a suspicious group had barged into a mansion and were causing a disturbance. On His Majesty's orders, we came to apprehend them... but I never imagined it would turn out to be your mansion, Merlin."
Din explained in a voice loud enough for everyone to hear that he had come here based on third-party intelligence and under the King's direct orders.
Of course, this was all an act—it was obvious he had been dispatched at my request—but since there were no small number of people who would take issue with a royal family member contacting a participant during the tournament, this was probably the form they had to take.
"That was a tremendous help. With the finals coming up, we were in a difficult position—we couldn't just drive them away for causing a commotion at the gate without drawing more attention to the situation."
I too offered Din an exaggerated expression of gratitude.
"Oh, and Lady Maria passed along a message."
Din lowered his voice so that only my grandfather and I could hear, and began relaying Lady Maria's words.
"'If those kinds of fools show up again, you have my permission to apprehend them. I'll take full responsibility for dealing with them afterward.' Apparently she was quite furious, so she'd like you to come see her once the tournament is over."
Since Din's expression was dead serious, Lady Maria's anger must have been considerable. I promised that I would definitely go see her.
"Right, please do... Well, we'll be withdrawing now, but until the tournament ends, I'll have the guards patrol this area on a regular basis. However, I'm afraid we can't assign you any bodyguards, so please do be careful whenever you go out... Ah, and if you are attacked,
please try your best
not to kill the perpetrators. I'll be reporting this incident to His Majesty, the Minister of Military Affairs, and other concerned parties, so in most cases, self-defense should be applicable. Still, the cleanup and investigation afterward would be a real pain, so..."
With that, Din put the onlookers in their place, then left with the remaining knights.
"At my age, it's hard to say whether I can hold back or not... What a bother!"
My grandfather boomed in a voice that made it clear he had absolutely no intention of holding back, then pulled a large staff from the bag beneath his robe and struck it against the cobblestones.
The cobblestones cracked apart with a tremendous crash, and several people who had been listening went pale, scrambling away from the crowd of onlookers.
"There seem to still be some left, Grandpa..."
"Oh, those kinds
of things
are like cockroaches—see one and there are bound to be thirty more, I tell you."
Just like that
High-Performance Insect Repellent
It'd be nice if it worked... but real idiots might be immune to any kind of medicine.
Anyway, they said I'm free to use force from now on, so I won't hold back.
"Why do you two look so scary right now..."
Grandpa and I apparently had such terrible expressions on our faces without even realizing it that even Nami-taro was keeping his distance for once.
After we finally managed to fix our expressions, Uncle Mark and Aunt Martha came to check on us after hearing the commotion, and Grandpa started explaining what had happened.
The two of them were clearly ticked off after hearing the story—the appearance of the con artists had really gotten under their skin.
It seemed that for the uncle and aunt,
Dad
and
Mom
were considered not just my parents, but children of Kukuri Village—and whether they were real relatives or con artists, they couldn't forgive anyone who showed up out of nowhere saying whatever was convenient for themselves.
The two of them ran off, saying they'd spread the word to the other Kukuri Village people and keep a lookout for the con artists.
I figured today's commotion would spread throughout the Royal Capital in no time, so hopefully the con artists wouldn't show their faces again—but that was probably too much to hope for.
It was only at this point that I first wondered—were there people in this world who shared my blood? Even if there were, it wouldn't really change anything, but I found myself a little curious about it.
Also, it was late to be thinking about it now, but I was curious why the gods had placed me in that location. Someday, I thought, I'd like to ask the gods why they abandoned me as a baby in a place like that.
"Well, the con artists are gone, so I'm heading to the weapon shop. I told them not to go outside, but just in case, give Jeanne and the others this Golem core. They should be able to activate it since I showed them how before."
I pulled several Golem cores from my bag and handed them to Grandpa.
These Golem cores had been calibrated for combat, so even just one had enough strength to buy Jeanne and the others time to escape, even against multiple top-tier knights.
"Aren't you taking them along with you?"
"
If something strange
comes after us, I don't think I'd be able to run away with the two of you and still get my errands done... But if I really don't have to worry about anything around me, then I can handle it."
Hearing my words, Grandpa seemed satisfied and headed back to the mansion.
Shiromaru and Solomon both looked like they wanted to come along, but having the two of them together would probably cause another scene, so I told them I'd bring back plenty of souvenirs and that they should stay and watch the place. They obediently sat down and started drooling.
Slarin and Nami Tarou didn't seem interested in coming along from the start, but they appeared to be looking forward to the souvenirs.
And there, hiding by the front door, Jeanne and Aura were peeking out at me as well.
"I'll bring back souvenirs for everyone, so just stay inside and be patient!"
When I called out to Jeanne and Aura, they seemed disappointed about not being able to come along, and though they drooped their shoulders a little, both of them waved in response.
Once I passed through the gate and headed outside, the lingering rubberneckers saw me come out and quickly scurried away.
I ignored those onlookers and started walking toward my destination, but within five minutes, I spotted someone running toward me from up ahead.
I shifted my path to avoid a collision, but it seemed the person ahead was targeting me, as they corrected their course and headed straight for my new position.
To follow up on that comment about a blood connection—
What Tenma meant by "the same blood" was this: when the gods created Tenma's body, if they used the same materials as with other reincarnators, then perhaps someone out there exists (or existed) who shares similar blood (the same blood) with him.
So it wasn't the product of deep thought—Tenma was just genuinely curious. And even if there were someone with the same blood running through their veins, to Tenma, they would still be a complete stranger.
I plan to elaborate on this the next time there's an opportunity to meet (or be made to meet) the gods.