Happy New Year.
Thank you for your continued support of "Isekai Tensei no Boukensha" this year as well.
Merlin's Side
"Well then, Amour, let's stick to the plan!"
"Got it."
"Pair Finals... Begin!"
After a quick confirmation of the strategy with Amour, the signal to start the match was immediately given.
Hearing that, Amour and I both headed left—straight for Viscount Robo.
"Hm? I won't let you!"
Branca, who had been about to charge at Amour up ahead, paused for just a moment to assess the situation and was about to move to cover Viscount Robo, but—
"Good, come at me!"
Viscount Robo had taken the bait and lunged forward toward Amour and me.
"Amour, I'm going to—"
"per—"
"form—"
"as—"
"planned!"
"I'll take on Branca! Be careful!"
"I will! You be careful too, Grandpa!"
I wedged myself between Viscount Robo and Branca, splitting them apart and setting up a matchup of me versus Branca and Amour versus Viscount Robo.
"Darn it! My brother's so simple-minded, the whole plan fell apart!"
"Hmm, I must say I'm a little surprised myself. I thought Amour rushing out would lure them in, but I didn't expect them to fall for it so spectacularly. Oh my, careful!"
I told the frustrated Branca that everything was going exactly according to plan, and mid-sentence, she thrust her spear at me. I caught the blow with my trusty staff, and it turned into a test of raw strength. If we stayed locked like this, there was a chance Viscount Robo would come at me from behind, but if I deflected carelessly, she'd break free and head straight for Amour—so I was stuck, unable to move.
"Branca, why don't we reset things here?"
"Very well... Then on the count of three, let's both leap backward, shall we? One, two—"
"Three!"
On three, I mustered all my strength and—
lunged
straight ahead—
or at least, I tried to.
"Oh Branca... why is the force pushing against me getting stronger?"
"That's exactly what I was going to ask you!"
It seemed like each of us had tried to push at the moment the other shifted their weight backward, hoping to seize the initiative. This stalemate was ideal for Branca, who had been planning to get Viscount Robo to attack me from behind—but Viscount Robo hadn't noticed our deadlock at all. He was too busy being tossed around by Amour.
"What is my brother even doing...?"
"That's just what Amour does best, isn't it—ha!"
"Gah!"
The moment Branca's gaze shifted toward Amour, I didn't let the opening slip away. I pulled back on her arm for just a split second to throw her off balance, then drove forward with everything I had, putting even more distance between us and Amour and Viscount Robo.
"Well then, at this distance, even Branca shouldn't be able to rejoin Viscount Robo so easily."
If she ignored me and went after Amour instead, I planned to unleash a barrage of magic at Branca's back the very next moment. That would put Amour at risk too, but during the planning phase, Amour herself had said, "If those two come at me together, I'll go down in minutes," and asked me to just blast them both away at once. Well, I should be able to control it to some degree, so with any luck, I might be able to avoid hitting Amour.
"It's exactly because of this that I didn't want to be separated from you... Oh well. I either hold out until my brother finishes off Amour, or I take down Lord Merlin... Even in the worst case, if it ends in a draw, that's a win for us."
Branca seemed convinced that Amour would lose to Viscount Robo, but it wouldn't be that simple.
Well, considering the gap in ability and experience, Amour was certainly at a disadvantage. But ever since the pairings were decided, I'd been anticipating that a situation like this might arise, and I'd been doing special training for exactly that purpose. Even if Amour's abilities were inferior to Viscount Robo's, if he took her lightly, he'd be in for a rude awakening.
"There's a chance Amour could win, and more importantly, if I take you down and go help her, there won't be any problem at all. So with that said—hurry up and fall!"
Once we'd been dragged into a one-on-one fight, once one member of a pair retired early, that pair's defeat was virtually guaranteed.
Well, if Amour lost, I planned to use magic without any hesitation... but ideally, I'd like to settle this with a fistfight. Challenging someone to a brawl and then resorting to a barrage of magic just because you're about to lose isn't exactly dignified.
All these thoughts ran through my mind as we clashed with our weapons, staff against spear, but the fight wore on and on, and before long we'd abandoned them entirely and were trading bare-fisted blows.
"Could you... at least... show some mercy... to an old man!"
"You can... take that statement... and apologize... to every other old person... in the world!"
Fighting at close quarters, locked in an evenly matched back-and-forth—
"Groooooaar..."
From the direction where Amour and the others were fighting, a low growl rumbled through the air.
At that exact moment, Branca and I were locked in a four-armed grapple, testing each other's strength. Since we'd both frozen in place, we reflexively turned our gaze toward the source of the growl at the same time. And what we saw was—
"That little Amour actually did it... No matter how you look at it, a groin shot is the most blatant foul in the book."
There stood Amour, proudly brandishing her Bardiche with her chest puffed out, and at her feet, Viscount Robo was crouched on the ground.
"Well actually, it looks like what got broken on Viscount Robo wasn't his groin—it was his leg."
Being some distance away and with him crouched down, it wasn't easy to tell exactly what he was clutching, but the angle of his arm seemed slightly off. And more importantly, since the referee hadn't stopped the match, it was highly likely the attack had been within the rules.
Just as I was thinking this—
"Ah!"
Amour brought her Bardiche crashing down on the head of Viscount Robo, who was still crouched on the ground.
Scoundrel Defeated!
For a moment, the sight of Amour hoisting her Bardiche high overhead and the motionless Viscount Robo at her feet stole my thoughts and froze me in place, but—
"Amour, he's next!"
I quickly remembered the match wasn't over yet. Hearing my shout, Amour gripped her Bardiche and charged forward. Branca made a face like "What was that one-on-one fight just now even for?!"... but honestly, I'd grown tired of this.
Just moments ago, I had genuinely been enjoying my fight with Branca, but Viscount Robo's groans and the sight that followed had sapped my motivation entirely. I just wanted to end this fight quickly and have a proper meal.
"Tch! Let go!"
Branca tried to bolt before Amour could close in, but I wouldn't allow it—I held her firmly in place, then seized the opening to lock her in a full nelson.
"Go! Amour!"
"Full power... total destruction!"
"Stop! That line isn't a joke—guh!"
Branca's cries were in vain. Amour's strike came crashing down mercilessly upon her skull. Well, Amour did say "full power," but she had held back to roughly the level needed to knock someone unconscious.
"The winners are—the Merlin and Amour pair!"
And just like that, Amour and I won the pair tournament. Looking at it objectively, it was a pretty standard outcome—the pair whose partner goes down first loses—but between the parent-child showdown and the finals featuring three-quarters southern-born fighters, I'd say it was a thoroughly exciting match.
"Well, I'm hungry. Time to see if Tenma can whip something up."
"I'm hungry too!"
As I mumbled this heading back to the waiting room, it seemed Amour intended to eat with me as well...
"You've still got the Team Battle ahead, Amour. Eat too much and you'll be in a world of hurt."
When I said that, she made a very unhappy face.
As it happened, when I returned to the waiting room, Tenma had already moved over to the spectator stands. That meant only I, whose match was over, could leave the waiting room to get food—and Amour wound up treating me like a traitor for it.
Merlin's Side — End
Amour's Side
"Mgh... What a real pain. You're in the way."
What he was using was a weapon that replaced the axe head of a halberd with a hammer — a "Warhammer." It was remarkably troublesome; if I carelessly tried to clash weapons, my own might shatter.
So I tried to dodge in wide arcs, and when that wasn't possible, I aimed for the shaft while avoiding the hammer — but the weapon already packed a devastating punch, and on top of that, that idiot was swinging it around without a shred of thought, so several times I nearly got sent flying along with my weapon.
"Truly barbaric... nothing at all like Tenma."
"That brat is just as barbaric once you scratch the surface! All men are barbaric!"
The booming oaf in front of me had picked up my muttering with those devilish ears and was shouting something incoherent. But more importantly —
"Once you scratch the surface, he's vulgar. And you just admitted you're barbaric..."
At the very least, Tenma was nothing like this vulgar, barbaric man in front of me. Well,
"If it was Tenma, I'd welcome him whether he was vulgar or barbaric."
"THAT BASTAAAAAARD!"
Just as I'd expected — the moment I brought up Tenma, he took the bait instantly. Well, what I'd said about Tenma was mostly true, anyway.
Still, I had to acknowledge one thing: this guy was stronger than me. Even if he'd been driven from his seat as lord of the southern region and only received the honorary title of viscount out of charity, he was still said to be the third-strongest in the south, and that meant that for me —
just
a
little
bit
too much to handle.
"This is exactly the kind of moment where I need to put Aina's special training to use..."
From the day after it was decided that Grandpa and I would be entering as a pair, I'd been having Aina teach me how to fight Branca. Well, when I say "how to fight," I don't mean how to defeat him — it was about how I could ultimately manage to come out on top. According to Grandpa's prediction (well, mine too, really), if Branca entered the Team Battle, his partner would likely be one of the top fighters in the south, so I'd asked Aina to help me figure out how to hold my own against him.
According to Grandpa, the best at fighting opponents above your level is Kurif, and the second best is Aina. Since she and I are both women, Aina was the one who trained me... but our fighting styles were completely different, so learning how to fight someone stronger was tough. Still, I could tell that all that hard work was paying off right now!
"Damn it! You're so annoying to fight!"
"Tenma, if it were you, you would've caught me by now and just pinned me down... I wish you were here... Whoops, watch out!"
I remembered how Chris had gotten me before and used that as taunting material, and she took the bait beautifully. Well, I did get a little too careless and almost got hit, but still...
"I can handle this!"
I spotted an opening and launched small, sharp attacks to keep her attention fixed on me. Going for a big, dramatic move at a time like this would only invite a counterattack, so I made sure not to overextend.
On top of that, I focused on deflecting or dodging attacks rather than just blocking them head-on — that was the core of what Aina had taught me. In truth, she'd also taught me ways to use my opponent's own strength against them... but they were too difficult, and I hadn't been able to master them.
"Ow! Stop squirming around — there!"
"Not even close! And another one — gotcha!"
I kept my distance, throwing out harassing attacks whenever I saw an opening... and after repeating this over and over,
"This is exactly why I didn't want to leave him with that brat! Before I knew it, I'd turned into a coward just like him!"
"Mmph! Ugh!"
She got so frustrated by how I was playing her that she froze up for just an instant. And that was exactly when she struck — a sweeping horizontal blow. Luckily, I managed to block it with my Bardiche, and the hammer end didn't connect with my body, but the shock alone made my arm go numb.
"Hmph! So this is how you taunt someone! It pains me, but I need to hurry and help Branca... Amour, brace yourself!"
Getting tricked by someone that dense made me furious, but she really did seem to be in a tight spot. And so, without thinking,
"That night, Tenma was so gentle with me..."
...something like that slipped out of my mouth.
"What did you say?"
And sure enough, she was dense enough that it actually worked — she froze again.
"That night, Tenma, I didn't know any of the (card game) rules, and he gently taught me all sorts of things..."
While putting on an act of being flustered, she continued muttering,
"That damn brat!"
He glared toward the waiting room where Tenma presumably was, so—
"Stop having weird delusions!"
"Gwah!"
I swung my Bardiche down on his wide-open shin with all my might. Then, following through with the return stroke, I delivered a full-power blow to his other shin as well.
"Gaaah!"
He crumpled forward, clutching both shins. This was the perfect chance. I'd finish him off without hesitation.
"Heaven's punishment!"
"Guh..."
He let out a strange noise and went quiet, but he was uselessly tough, so this much probably wouldn't kill him.
"Villain—vanquished!"
With only Branca left, I looked over toward Grandpa, and the two of them were just locking horns.
"Another chance!"
For reasons I couldn't fathom, both of them had frozen, staring in my direction.
But Grandpa quickly had Branca in a headlock and was shouting something.
He was probably yelling something like, "Next, sacrifice this one!"
So, to live up to Grandpa's expectations, I gripped my Bardiche tight and charged straight at Branca.
Amour Side — End
"That's definitely not good! I'm heading over there!"
It was cause for celebration that Grandpa and Amour had won the tournament without any serious injuries, but in exchange, Branca and Honorary Viscount Robo had been put through the wringer. In particular, that final blow to Honorary Viscount Robo — no matter how durable he was said to be — might have been life-threatening.
"No matter how tough he is, getting hit in the back of the head can't be good..."
The arena had doctors on standby hired by the royal family, but that didn't necessarily mean any of them were skilled in magic. Still, having more people who could administer treatment couldn't hurt. Honorary Viscount Robo might resist, but since we weren't strangers to each other, he wouldn't turn the doctors away.
Sure enough, my prediction was right — the doctor seemed to know about my relationship with Branca and Honorary Viscount Robo, and agreed to help with treatment. However,
"He really is astonishingly durable..."
"Yes. We'll need to keep him at rest and monitor his condition for a while, but I don't anticipate any major issues."
Both my assessment and the doctor's reached the same conclusion — Honorary Viscount Robo was going to be fine. As a precaution, we each used magic to examine whether there were any problems with the flow of his blood and Magic Power, so unless something truly extraordinary happened, it shouldn't become life-threatening. That said,
"As his physician, I cannot permit him to participate in the upcoming Team Battle."
So the Team Battle finals ended with a doctor's stop, and they left him to rest. As for Branca, apparently she had hardened every muscle in her body the moment she took Amour's blow to brace for the impact. She'd passed out briefly but regained consciousness right away, received light treatment, and was now resting up in preparation for the finals.
Having confirmed that both of them were all right, I headed back to where the others were, only to find—
"Tenma! Where in the world have you been?"
Grandpa had already returned as well, and was having Jeanne and Aura prepare a meal for him.
When I told Grandpa about what had happened to Branca and Honorary Viscount Robo, he looked away with an awkward expression.
"I think Amour went a bit too far as well, but when it comes to Honorary Viscount Robo, you could argue it was just the heat of battle and leave it at that. Holding Branca in a full nelson and letting Amour pounce on her, though — that was going too far. From the outside, that's exactly the kind of thing a villain would do."
Even if what happened to Honorary Viscount Robo was unavoidable, Branca had been completely immobilized, so he could have just forced her to Surrender. There was no way she could have turned the tide in that state, and from Branca's perspective, she still had the Team Battle ahead of her, so she might have willingly surrendered if asked.
"Honestly, everyone was pretty put off by Grandpa's full nelson."
"What!? That can't— Well, I suppose it might be true..."
Grandpa, startled, reflexively looked around at everyone's faces. When every single person averted their gaze the moment his eyes met theirs, he seemed to realize that maybe his approach had been a bit off.
"After the tournament's over, I'll have to go and apologize to Branca..."
"She might not know how to react to an apology, so how about you give her something that could serve as a souvenir instead?"
Branca would probably go shopping with Sana and Yoshitsune too, but it would be nice to give her something separately as a gift from Grandpa.
"I'll do that, then."
While they were having that conversation, it came time for the Team Battle finals to begin.
The finals this time was a clash between two well-known teams: the "Southern Alliance" led by Branca and the "Dawn Sword," now with Amur added to their roster. However, as for the Southern Alliance, Robo the Honorary Viscount had originally been among the members competing in the finals, but due to a doctor's orders, he hadn't even set foot in the Arena.
"Based on how they fought up to the semifinals, the Southern Alliance has five frontliners, while the Dawn Sword has four frontliners and one backliner... The backliner Lina looks like she'll be the key."
"Indeed. The Southern Alliance uses an all-out rush-forward style, so they should match up well against the Dawn Sword's four frontliners. The question is how they'll handle whoever's assigned to deal with Lina. Once it turns into close combat, it'd be too much of a burden for her."
If you lined up all ten people present in order of strength, Branca would be head and shoulders above the rest, followed by Jin, Amur, and the top fighters from the Southern Alliance roughly on the same level, then slightly below them Garat and Menace, and quite a bit further down, Lina. This was strictly the order for close-combat ability, so depending on how things played out, Lina—who could use magic—could potentially rank higher, but in a short, decisive battle where the range of engagement was limited, it would generally shake out like this. In other words...
"In terms of overall strength, does that mean the Southern Alliance has a considerable advantage?"
As Primera said, if things went according to plan, Branca's team would likely come out on top.
"If anything, I'd like the Dawn Sword with Amur to win... Perhaps we should have inflicted a bit more damage on Branca beforehand."
"Grandpa... If people find out you were beating her up for that reason, you're going to get complaints from all over."
The first in line to complain would surely be Ernest, who had known Grandpa for years. The King, Maria, and Caesar-sama would probably have a few words for him too, but those three wouldn't be able to push back too hard against Grandpa, so their
f
r
iend
would more than make up for it.
"W-Well, that's just a joke, of course. I'm just saying that it's true Branca's recovery could affect the outcome of the battle."
It felt like an excuse, but if Branca's damage still lingered, the Dawn Sword could potentially gain the upper hand in the match.
Everyone present knew Branca, but their bond with Amur ran longer and deeper, so they all agreed that they'd like the Dawn Sword to win if possible.
This is the first post of the new year.
Additionally, I received a report that in the dialogue of the year-end manga edition, there is a scene where Regil is referred to as a count instead of a baronet, and upon verification, I confirmed that this is entirely incorrect.
Regarding the web version, I am unsure how it will be addressed, but it should be corrected in the compiled volume.
My apologies for any confusion caused.