The person who had stepped forward to scold the nobles who rushed toward Tenma…
"D-Duke Sanga?!"
He was none other than Duke Sanga — a high-ranking noble and one of the most prominent aristocrats in the kingdom.
The nobles who had rushed over clearly hadn't expected to find the duke walking alongside me, and every single one of them had gone pale.
"You lot don't seem to know the meaning of the word 'decorum'… Rushing at someone who is, at the very least, a duke…"
That wasn't entirely accurate, but given the situation, it was understandable that it came across that way.
"Had I been here on official business, your little stunt just now could very well have resulted in your summary execution without so much as a hearing!"
Duke Sanga's voice grew even louder. But I had already been told that this was the "duke's performance" — the very "countermeasure" the attendant had spoken of — so rather than being surprised, I merely watched the nobles being dressed down by the duke with a cool, detached gaze.
"I-it's a misunderstanding, Your Grace! I was simply trying to—"
"Oh? So you dare do wrong to a duke and call it a 'misunderstanding'… You've certainly got nerve."
The duke showed no sign of listening to anything they had to say, turning his gaze toward the nobles with a voice so cold and heavy it seemed to press down on them.
Seeing the duke's demeanor, the nobles dropped to their knees on the ground, begging for mercy as though pleading for their lives.
"Father, don't you think that's enough… Everyone makes mistakes from time to time. Isn't it the duty of those in higher positions to be forgiving? And, well… Tenma-san seems rather troubled by your behavior as well…"
The one who spoke up in an attempt to calm the duke was not in her usual armor but rather dressed in a blue gown — Primera. The lines she delivered were a touch stilted, but the nobles who were desperately begging for their lives were in no state to notice.
"Hmm… I suppose you have a point… Very well, I'll let it slide just this once — but don't you dare think there will be a next time!"
Expressions of relief spread across the nobles' faces as they realized their lives had been spared.
Duke Sanga gave me a subtle glance, then ignored the thoroughly drained nobles and walked away from the spot.
"Even if I was the one who set this in motion… Duke Sanga, you're a cruel man."
"Of course I'm cruel. I'm a noble, after all. Besides, I'd say it was a good lesson for those people — about just how important information gathering can be. Now then…"
The Duke shifted his gaze toward Primera. For some reason, she seemed nervous and hadn't even noticed the Duke looking at her.
I gave the Duke a slight nod, then moved in front of Primera and offered my greeting.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, my lady. I'm Tenma — an adventurer whom Duke Sanga has been kind enough to look after, far beyond what I deserve. I look forward to your good graces…"
I knelt before Primera with just a touch of theatrical flair and took her hand to greet her… I did draw the line at kissing it, though…
My little performance left Primera's eyes spinning. When I took her hand, she let out a strange "H-hey!" sound, but she refrained from calling me out on it.
"T-Tenma! What kind of joke is this?! Stop it — it's embarrassing!"
Her face flushed bright red as she pulled her hand free and took two or three steps back. The tension seemed to have broken, but in its place she was clearly a bit annoyed.
"No, but come on, this is the first time we've ever met… you in a lady's outfit, I mean… so I tried giving an"
"aristocratic-style"
"greeting…"
I had met Primera plenty of times before, but she'd always been in her armor — giving off a strong "Primera of the Knights" vibe. This time, though, she was in a dress I'd never seen before, and the ultra-rare sight of "Lady Primera of the Duke's House" had set my mischievous side aflutter… Not to mention the Duke himself had been egging me on!
That accomplice of a Duke was laughing silently, out of Primera's line of sight.
"I'm sure a dress like this doesn't suit me, but… there's no need to tease me about it…"
Primera seemed to think I was mocking her because the dress didn't look good on her, but in reality, it suited her quite well.
Originally, Primera had received an outstanding education as a daughter of the Duke's family — one of the finest among the nobility — and she had naturally well-proportioned features. On top of that, her membership in the Knights meant her body was toned from training, and given her personality, she took great care of her health, so her skin and hair were in excellent condition.
So, if one were to evaluate Primera, she would without question be classified as a "beauty"… though that assessment did not include her personality.
As a side note, according to Lina — a friend of Primera's — some of the other girls were quite jealous of the fact that Primera was constantly being told she was beautiful by those around her, even without making any particular effort (Primera herself thought they were just being polite).
Just as I was about to clear up Primera's misunderstanding, the Duke interjected.
"Primera. Tenma here is absolutely not teasing you! I can tell. After all, his behavior just now was practically identical to how I courted your mother! Of course, Tenma wasn't trying to court you — but that's just how men are. When they see a beautiful woman, they can't help but act this way!"
With that, the Duke launched into a personal anecdote… and then shot me a sideways glance, seeking my agreement.
Of course, there was absolutely no way I could say "I had no such intention at all, I was just teasing you" at this point, so I nodded vaguely.
"R-Really...?"
Primera murmured that, her cheeks flushing in a different way than before.
I couldn't stand staying in this awkward atmosphere any longer, so I decided to ask the Duke about something that had been bothering me.
"Your Excellency, the reason you all came to pick me up — that was the King's idea, wasn't it?"
"Ah, that's right... You figured it out, huh."
The Duke admitted it readily enough. But that raised a new question. Specifically...
"But in that case, wouldn't the King, or Lyle, or perhaps the Grand Duke have wanted to come themselves?"
Given the personalities of those three, there was no way they'd let something that (to them) looked so interesting slip by. When I raised that point, the Duke let out a wry smile.
"You say that as if you were there... But you're right. Apparently His Majesty himself wanted to go at first, but Lyle and the Grand Duke rather forcefully convinced him that it wouldn't be appropriate for the King of this country to go welcome someone. However, the Queen caught wind of the scheme, so at the last minute, Primera and I — who had actually met you before — were sent in their place. The three of them — His Majesty, Lyle, and the Grand Duke — apparently all got an earful from the Queen."
It seems the Duke and Primera, who were called upon at the last minute, took a little time mainly because Primera needed to change her clothes.
"Well, just think of this as a token of my gratitude."
"Your gratitude?"
According to the Duke, he had apparently placed bets on my matches, and the payout had been quite substantial.
In the betting on who would make it to the main tournament, my odds had originally been around 30 to 1 — the least popular in my bracket. But they apparently dropped to about 3 to 1 soon after, and by the end I had become the most popular pick in my group.
The reason was Duke Sanga, Marquis Samons, my acquaintances, and myself.
Apparently, there's an unspoken understanding that the royal family doesn't participate in the betting at this tournament, so my odds stayed where they were.
Later, I learned that the Duke, the Marquis, and I had each bet a million G, while Grandpa had put down 500,000 G — all massive wagers. Incidentally, while it's allowed for contestants to place bets on themselves, if you're involved in match-fixing...
basically...
you're guaranteed to end up as a slave.
After that, we made it back to the manor without any trouble.
The next day, there were pair preliminary matches at the Arena again, but since I didn't have any particular interest in them and didn't know anyone competing, today we'd just do a light check of our team coordination for tomorrow's Team Battle in the courtyard with a barrier set up.
When I say "check of our coordination," it was more about seeing how things would feel with Namitarou joining in, but to cut to the chase, we didn't accomplish much.
Namitarou would get carried away, Shiromaru would get roped in and start fooling around, Solomon would join in and get excited, Slarin would get angry—and this loop would repeat over and over, so in the end we settled on a plan dubbed "Fight as the Situation Demands."
So we wrapped things up early and decided to relax at the manor.
Inside the manor today was very quiet, which made it perfect for lounging around.
The three girls, Primera, and Chris's team weren't at the manor for coordination practice, and while I was keeping an eye on their situation—
Jeanne and Aura had been dragged off by Aina and put through rigorous training, and Grandpa had been summoned by Ernest and had reluctantly headed out but still hadn't returned.
On days like this, a leisurely stroll might be nice, but the Royal Capital was right in the middle of the festival and far too lively. And for a while now, people had been passing in front of the manor—
Specific people—
making it obvious they were doing so on purpose.
Those passing by could be broadly divided into three types.
The first was ordinary folks who'd watched yesterday's fight, developed a favorable interest in me, and were casually peeking at the manor.
The second were individuals hoping to make my acquaintance if the opportunity arose. This included nobles and their emissaries.
And the problematic ones were the third group—those harboring hostility. Among them were people who seemed to be nobles' agents, adventurers, ordinary citizens, and even what appeared to be underworld figures.
Most of the adventurers and ordinary people were probably just sore losers from the bets who happened to find out where I lived and were glaring as they passed by. But the nobles' agents and underworld types were likely connected to the Reformist Faction—or rather, that was the only explanation I could think of.
I'd use Appraisal on a few of them, take some notes, and discuss it with Grandpa later.
The manor had security measures installed everywhere, so I didn't think anyone would make a move easily, but just to be safe, I'd increase the number of deployed Golems.
For the exterior, I concentrated them near windows and doors and around the back of the manor. Inside, I increased the deployment around Jeanne and Aura's rooms and the guest rooms.
Honestly, it felt like overkill. The newly added Golems alone numbered around one hundred, and including the previous ones, the total came to roughly one hundred and fifty. On top of that, there were magical and magical-artifact security devices, so even if an army of a thousand knights attacked, they wouldn't be able to take the manor easily.
After finishing the security enhancements, I went straight to sleep. Then, when Grandpa got back, he immediately spotted the security upgrades and was dumbfounded.
"Tenma... what exactly are you planning to fight against? This isn't a manor anymore — it's a fortress disguised as one..."
I do feel like I may have gone a bit overboard, but I'm not the least bit sorry about it!
By the way, when the King and the others came to visit a few days later, they said exactly the same thing as Grandpa.
For the record, Jeanne and Aura hadn't noticed the manor's fortification at all.
The next day, the team battle preliminary rounds took place.
This tournament had 136 participating teams, the third-highest number in history. They were divided into 16 groups for the preliminary rounds.
However, it was impossible to hold all the preliminary rounds in the Arena alone, so the participants were first gathered at the Arena in the morning for a group draw, after which they would fight at temporary preliminary venues set up throughout the Royal Capital.
Among my acquaintances participating in this team battle were the Three Sisters and Primera's temporary team "Beauty of Gunjo," "Dawn Sword" led by Jin, "Demon Soldiers" with Garibar—a Familiar of Marquis Samons—at its core, and the three teams from Seigen's Tamer's Guild: "Seigen Tamers A," "Seigen Tamers B," and "Seigen Tamers C."
Ideally, all the acquaintance teams would have been nicely spread across different groups — but unfortunately, things turned out so that I and "Seigen Tamers B" ended up in the same group, "Beauty of Gunjo" and "Demon Soldiers" ended up in the same group, and "Dawn Sword" and "Tamer's Guild C" ended up in the same group.
The Tamer's Guild teams were composed as follows: Team A had Agri with three Grappler Ape Familiars; Team B had Light with two Hard Lynx Familiars and Ted with a Thunderbird Familiar; and Team C had the Sakarat Brothers with a Flame Tiger Familiar and a Mountain Turtle Familiar.
Apparently, when this group assignment was decided, Light and Ted were quite dejected.
"It's over..."
That's what they both said in unison, or so Agri told me after the preliminary round.
My group had eight teams, and the venue was an open lot on the outskirts of the Royal Capital. Participants had to make their way there by noon on their own, but they were allowed to priority-use shuttle carriages — not shuttle buses, but "shuttle carriages" — to reach the venue, so I boarded a carriage together with Ted and Light.
"To think Tenma's in our group... we've really got bad luck, Light."
"Yeah... but there's nothing we can do. Our real goal is to raise awareness of the Tamer's Guild!"
"That's true. Honestly, with Tenma there, at least we can lose without any regrets!"
"It's pathetic, but still..."
Listening to their negative chatter, our carriage headed toward the venue.
The temporary venue wasn't all that spacious, but it was packed with a considerable number of spectators.
I was wondering why that was when one of the staff members sidled up to me and whispered.
"You seem puzzled, but it's because of you, Tenma."
I tilted my head at that, and the staff member went on to explain in more detail. Apparently, I was considered one of the "notable participants," and when word got out that I'd be competing in the Team Battle as well, a lot of people had come to see what sort of teammates I'd be paired with.
After sharing that information, the staff member went back to work.
The venue had three types of tents set up as waiting rooms, one for each participating team.
Around the tents, the teams that had already arrived were going through their warm-up exercises.
The spectators watched the proceedings to get a sense of which teams to place their bets on — in simple terms, the tents served the same role as a paddock at a horse race.
However, since none of this was instructed by the staff, there were teams that were simply showboating, nothing more than attention seekers.
In any case, since the spectators' eyes had been gathering on me for a while now, I decided to introduce some of my members.
"Slarin, Shiromaru. You can come out."
At my words, Shiromaru leaped out of the bag as if to say "Finally!"
I'd removed Shiromaru's collar beforehand, so his body was roughly three meters long.
The moment Shiromaru burst out of the bag, a huge cheer — and screams — erupted from the audience seats.
The cheers came from people who already knew I was a Tamer; my registration info was listed in the pamphlet when I signed up for the tournament.
The screams came from those who hadn't read the pamphlet and panicked at the sudden appearance of a Monster.
But the screams stopped quickly, and they soon turned into cheers praising Shiromaru.
Then, in the next instant, the roaring cheers cut off abruptly. The cause was Slarin.
After all,
if you look at it generally,
the Slime is known as one of the weakest Monsters out there.
And this Slime appeared right after
Fenrir,
the highest-tier wolf-type Monster — so after Shiromaru's entrance had sent the audience's tension skyrocketing with excitement over what would come out next, having the
weakest Monster
show up was a massive letdown, and the audience's morale plummeted in an instant.
And Slarin's appearance didn't just deflate the crowd — it even made our first-round opponents freeze in their tracks.
Our opposing team looked like a bunch of 'brute force' types at first glance, all five of them bulging with muscles ready to burst, each equipped with a greatsword, hammer, great axe, club, and tower shield respectively.
Once they snapped out of it, our opponents started pointing at Slarin and laughing. Apparently, the idea of bringing a Slime to compete was absolutely hilarious to them.
I was irritated by their attitude, but even more furious was Shiromaru.
To my surprise, Shiromaru started growling and intimidating the opposing team.
Just as I was thinking this could get bad, Slarin stepped in front of Shiromaru and blocked his path, trembling in short little shivers several times as if conveying something.
When Shiromaru saw that, he shot one piercing glare at the opposing team, then backed off.
It seemed Slarin had persuaded Shiromaru just as he was about to lunge — though how exactly she managed that was beyond me…
After that, Slarin calmly led Shiromaru away as if nothing had happened and returned to the tent prepared for us.
"Hey, Tenma… Is Slarin really a Slime?"
Ted, who had been watching the whole thing, asked me the exact same question I'd been wondering about.
Ted and Light were acting as usual, but our opponents and most of the audience had clearly been rattled by Shiromaru's growling and his genuinely intimidating display, sitting quietly without raising their voices.
"Man, Tenma's opponents are to be pitied too… Once you've earned Shiromaru's anger, it's shaping up to be a grim fight…"
Light had his hands pressed together in prayer, sympathizing with our opponents.
While Light was still praying, word came from the staff that the preliminary round start time was approaching, and the participants hurried back to their tents to begin preparing.
The first match of the first round was between Ted and Light's team and a team of novice adventurers.
The battle was controlled by Ted and Light's side from start to finish. First, Light and Ted's Familiars, Hard Lynx and Thunder Bird, took up positions behind and above the adventurers, while Light stood blocking the front.
Ted positioned himself behind Light and began preparing his support magic.
Whenever the adventurers tried to attack Light, Hard Lynx would circle behind them, preventing them from getting close.
But if they turned to deal with Hard Lynx, Light and Ted would seize the opening to strike.
Through Light and Ted's coordinated teamwork, the adventurers initially bunched together to defend themselves, but one of them eventually lost patience and charged out toward Hard Lynx.
However, this proved to be the worst move possible. The moment the adventurer raised his sword toward Hard Lynx, he was suddenly snatched into the air.
It was Thunder Bird's doing. Up until now, Thunder Bird had been quietly observing without even bothering to feint at the adventurers.
It had likely been waiting for exactly this — for an adventurer to break formation. The one who charged out was now being carried through the sky, clutched in Thunder Bird's thick, sharp talons.
The captured adventurer was trying his best to strike back at Thunder Bird, but the talons had seized the right hand holding his weapon, leaving him unable to move his sword.
The other adventurers were worried about their comrade being carried away, but Light and Ted were already closing in, leaving them no chance to mount a rescue.
The moment Light lunged at the adventurers, one of their comrades—
dropped from overhead.
.
The adventurer hadn't been dropped from that great a height, so the landing wasn't too devastating, but the armored man on the receiving end of the falling comrade took considerable damage.
The instant their comrade came crashing down, Ted's wind magic, Light's slash, and Hard Lynx's body slam all struck at once, and the tide of battle turned in an instant.
And just like that, the match ended with them being steamrolled. It took a reasonable amount of time, but judging by the result alone, it was a complete blowout for Seigen Tamers B. After all, the opposing adventurers barely managed to land any attacks, and Light's team didn't sustain a single wound.
That result had the venue erupting with excitement, with the crowd praising and hailing Light and the others.
The opposing adventurers also managed to get back on their feet—the dropped man had only broken a leg, with no other major injuries—and retreated to their own tent.
While the venue was still buzzing with energy, we were called up next.
From my team, only Shiromaru, Slarin, and I would be participating in this match, with Solomon and Namitarou sitting it out.
Sending Solomon out for the preliminaries felt like a waste, and since the festival was still ongoing, putting him in now would mean he wouldn't get to enjoy it anymore. As for Namitarou...
"'Even sending me out would be overkill, for sure.'"
...is what he told me, so I held off on having him join the first round.
Looking at the opposing adventurers, I felt that Namitarou's assessment was spot on. After all, they were all outfitted in gear that screamed "professional adventurer," with their equipment bearing major dents and scratches, looking all the world like
well-used gear,
but if you asked me, I couldn't see the point of continuing to use damaged equipment without even bothering to repair it.
Minor nicks and scratches were one thing, but leaving major damage unrepaired made the gear unreliable—I wouldn't trust my life to it. Yet the opposing team didn't seem to have noticed this at all.
The opposing adventurers appeared completely oblivious to my scrutiny, instead pouring their energy into putting on a show for the spectators. It seemed they were gunning for a decisive victory.
They seemed aware of my strength from the individual preliminaries, but they appeared to think that overwhelming us with numbers would be enough. The real problem, as they saw it, was Shiromaru.
They'd been stealing glances at Shiromaru this whole time... while completely ignoring Slarin, not even sparing her a single look.
As this was happening, the referee stepped in between us and gave a brief explanation of the rules.
The rules were essentially the same as the individual matches minus the ring-out losses—nothing worth worrying about.
"Now then—begin!"
The moment the declaration was made, the referee took a safe distance. At the same instant, the opposing adventurers rushed toward Shiromaru all at once.
Just as Shiromaru and I braced ourselves to intercept, Slarin stepped in front and blocked their path.
"You're going to handle this alone, Slarin?"
At my words, Slarin nodded. Shiromaru and I leaped a good distance back. We didn't want to get in Slarin's way.
However, both the audience and our opponents seemed startled by the sudden rush right at the start. They kept their distance, treating the Slime as a decoy.
The opponents wore faint grins as they moved to attack Slarin.
The instant the opponents raised their weapons, a startling transformation occurred in Slarin's body.
That transformation was enough to surprise not only the audience and our opponents, but even me.
According to Shiromaru's ranking system,
Tenma ≧ Merlin = Slarin ≧ Aina >
himself
= Jeanne = Namitarou ≧ Aura ≧ Solomon
is how it goes.
Slarin ranks above him because of imprinting from childhood, plus the fact that Slarin feeds them when Tenma isn't around, and (from Shiromaru and Solomon's perspective) gets scary when angry. Aina ranks above him because she gets scary when angry too, and she also cooks for them.
Jeanne and Aura are essentially equals as colleagues, but since Aura gets scolded by Aina a lot, and he vaguely understands that Jeanne and Aura used to have a master-servant relationship, they rank slightly below him.
Solomon is the youngest and acts like his little brother, so he's at the very bottom.
Everyone else is generally considered to be below Tenma but above or equal to himself, and he makes detailed judgments mainly based on how Tenma treats them.
Additionally, among the members of the King's group that he met as a child,
King > Kurif ≧ Chris > others (Jean, Edgar, Sigurd)
is how it breaks down. The King and Kurif were ranked higher based on how Ricardo and the others treated them. Kurif was judged to be below the King because he would bow his head to the King. Chris ranks slightly above Jean and the others because he played with them.