Today is the first day of the Main Tournament — Individual Battle day.
The Individual Battles today will go all the way through to the semifinals.
I woke up early this morning, got some light exercise in the yard with Shiromaru and the others, worked up a sweat, and had the leisure to enjoy a proper breakfast — but inside, I was pretty excited.
So far I'd experienced my share of combat against other people, but none of it had ever been the kind of fight where I could test my own abilities and techniques — they were either training sessions or life-or-death struggles.
So in my mind, this tournament's Main Tournament had started to feel like my debut match... I knew it was a little late to be thinking that way, though...
While I was caught up in these strange thoughts, my heartbeat had quietly quickened without me even noticing.
It seemed my earlier excitement had turned into nervousness.
I took several deep breaths to shake off the tension, letting oxygen circulate through my body.
"Alright, let's go!"
I gave myself a little pep talk and headed for the Arena.
It was still early before the matches were set to begin, but the Main Tournament participants had been told to arrive ahead of time, since there would be an explanation of the prize money and other details.
The schedule for today was supposed to go like this: confirmation of prize money and rules at the Arena, the Main Tournament participants being introduced to the audience, the Individual Battle draw, and then the start of the Individual Battle matches.
Today's matches would be up to four rounds — the first round, second round, third round, and semifinals.
If I won today, I'd advance to the finals on the tournament's final day. There had never been a 15-year-old champion in the past. The youngest record was apparently 19, held by a man named Din.
For reference, Din had won this tournament 10 times in the past. His best achievement was five consecutive victories, and across all his Individual Battle appearances, he had only lost twice — once in the second round when he was 17 and first entered, and once in the semifinals when he was 18. Both times, his opponents were said to have been the top favorites to win at the time.
However, those opponents had apparently exhausted all their strength in their fights against Din and ended up losing their next matches as well.
So when he won his first championship, he was said to have been the overwhelming favorite by a wide margin.
The reason five consecutive wins was his ceiling was because he had sat out certain years due to duties like guarding the King — who was Crown Prince at the time.
Or, to put it the way people around me would say it — apparently, I'm the disciple of someone like that.
As I drew closer to the venue, I could hear the whispers of the people lined up waiting to purchase general admission tickets.
It was my first time hearing it, but it was true that Din had taught me all sorts of things, so I supposed he could be called my master, in a sense.
When I entered the waiting room, several people were already there, and as soon as they saw my face, they made unpleasant expressions.
They must have been the ones who'd heard the rumors being discussed outside earlier. Among them, some looked relieved — those seemed to be the participants in the Team Battle.
Among the people already there, the Bandit King was also standing leaning against the wall, but either he was asleep or he simply didn't react.
I sat down in a corner of the room as if to avoid their gazes, and before long, familiar faces started arriving one after another.
"Oh! There you are! Heard the news, Tenma! You're the Black Lion's disciple, huh!"
"That's not fair, man... The Black Lion is our idol, you know!"
The first to call out to me was Jin, followed by Garat. Behind them were Menace and Lina.
"Black Lion" was Din's nickname. Apparently, when he was young, he wore black armor and wielded a black sword and black shield, so even now that his equipment had changed, people still called him that.
While I was talking with them, Agri showed up next. Beside him was a young man I didn't recognize.
"Morning, Tenma. It's been a while. I managed to make it to the Main Tournament too. Oh, and while I'm at it, let me introduce you. This is my grandson, Ricky."
"While I'm at it, huh... Well, whatever. I'm Ricky Monocart. I've heard quite a few things about you, Tenma. Nice to meet you."
Ricky was a friendly, easygoing-looking young man who was apparently twenty years old. He wasn't a Tamer — instead, he worked as a solo adventurer as a swordsman.
As I was shaking hands with Ricky, Marquis Samons appeared.
"Hey there, Sir Tenma. Congratulations on the new record."
He congratulated me for breaking the youngest-record milestone and shook my hand at the same time.
The appearance of Marquis Samons caused the murmur in the room to grow noticeably louder.
Now that I thought about it carefully, the place I was standing in had gathered the most talked-about figures of this tournament.
First, there was me — having cleared the Preliminary for both the Individual Battle and the Team Battle as the youngest competitor, and being Din's disciple, I was attracting a great deal of attention.
Next is Jin of the Dawn Sword — while he hasn't placed in the upper rankings yet, he's competed in the Main Tournament for several consecutive years and is considered a strong contender. As a team, they've also qualified for the Main Tournament these past two years, and team member Garat has also competed in the Individual Battle's Main Tournament.
Then there's Agri, the oldest competitor in this tournament. He's participated in this tournament before and has reportedly achieved excellent results on several occasions.
Finally, Marquis Samons — this man is by far the biggest reason. After all, he's
a Marquis.
It's not unusual for nobles to compete, but it's rare for someone of Marquis rank to participate. And naturally, he's the most important person here by far. Normally, you'd never get the chance to see a Marquis up close.
When I casually asked the Marquis about it...
"Well, royalty has competed in the past, you know... when the current King was young..."
So he said. By the way, what he competed in was the Team Battle, and the King's teammates were my father and mother, Din, and Kurif — and they actually won the whole thing.
But apparently the King doesn't think he contributed much, and to this day he still says things like "I was just allowed to be part of a team that could win" and "I only held my allies back."
However, he apparently did defeat one opponent in the finals, so it seems like the King is the only one who feels that way.
Well, setting aside such unusual exceptions, it's already rare for the family of a high-ranking noble like Primera to compete, so the fact that the Marquis himself is participating is more than enough to raise the level of attention on where I'm standing.
And naturally, there are those who have been simmering with resentment at how much attention we're drawing.
A killing intent-like aura has been drifting around for a while now. They're not directing their killing intent at the Marquis, of course, but it's still not a good sign. However, since the Marquis himself doesn't seem to care much, the knights serving as his guards and teammates have only remained on heightened alert.
After that, the preparations seemed to be complete, and we were called by the staff and moved to the Arena.
There, just like on the first day, we had to listen to the King's gracious speech, and then only the Individual Battle participants remained as the draw began.
However, this time there were three fewer entry slots, so whoever drew a different number from yours would receive Seed Rights.
The draw order was based on arrival time, and I was tenth.
The Bandit King was first, and he drew the 2 and 3 cards.
As the draw progressed methodically, a huge roar of applause erupted for the competitor just before me. It turned out to be the previous champion.
The previous champion drew number 10.
When my turn came and I drew my card, the number was 1. If things went smoothly from here, I'd face the previous champion in the semifinals — and I wouldn't have to fight the Bandit King until the finals.
After me came Jin. The card he drew was number 32.
Next was Garat, but the moment he drew his card, his face twisted into an expression of pure disgust.
Clutched in Garat's hand was the number 24. That meant his first-round opponent was the Bandit King.
The draw proceeded in order, and once the twenty-ninth and final person had drawn, the Seed Rights were determined.
The cards that went undrawn were 9, 21, and 31. In other words, Jin, the previous champion, and one other person were selected as seeds.
Once every Individual Battle participant's name was written onto the tournament bracket, a certain fact became apparent.
"What an insane skew..."
"Yeah, most of the guys who performed well in the last tournament drew low numbers..."
There were twelve people who had made it to the Main Tournament last time and were competing again this time, including Jin — but of those, the eleven excluding Jin were all clustered on my side of the bracket.
Excluding me and the number 9 slot, our side had fourteen people. Eleven of those were previous Main Tournament competitors, and the remaining three had also competed in the Main Tournament before.
Among the previous competitors, there were naturally the champion, the runner-up, and the third-place finisher. That meant I'd face the runner-up in the first round, the third-place finisher in the third round (scheduled), and the champion in the semifinals (scheduled).
Meanwhile, the other side was made up almost entirely of first-timers. The only ones who had drawn any real attention before the tournament were Jin and the Bandit King — and those two wouldn't cross paths until the semifinals.
"Looks like there's nobody worth a damn until the semifinals."
Jin said that and pumped his fist in a small victory pose. On the other hand, Garat slumped his shoulders and heaved a sigh.
"Of all the draws for the first round,
him
...seriously? He's one of the two people I least wanted to face in this whole tournament..."
Apparently, the other person Garat considered an "opponent I'd hate to draw" was yours truly.
According to Garat, the only two opponents he wanted no part of were "a monster you can't figure out, and a monster you can."
First, I gave Garat a headlock punishment for calling me a monster. I went easy on him since it was before the match, but he ended up tearing up from the pain.
While we were messing around like that, an official called me over — my match was about to start.
I'd forgotten, but the number I'd drawn was "1." That meant I was in the very first match.
Matches were held two at a time. The thirty-two slots were divided into Group A and Group B of sixteen each, and fights proceeded in order from the lower-numbered tickets.
I pulled Kogarumaru out of my bag and headed up to the Arena.
My opponent was already waiting there — a man.
His name was Ash Boughman. He'd been the runner-up in the previous tournament and had earned Seed Rights to the Main Tournament.
He was twenty-four years old with no championship wins, but he'd made it to the Main Tournament four times and even placed third two tournaments ago.
Having been the runner-up last time, he was apparently fired up to take it all this year.
His fighting style was described as "nothing flashy, but no real weaknesses either — every aspect is honed to a high level." He wielded a sword in his right hand and a small shield in his left, and was apparently quite popular... mainly with women.
You could probably guess from the female fanbase, but the guy was handsome.
Short silver hair, blue-green eyes, and about 180 cm tall. His personality was said to be good too.
I heard he was even more popular than last year's champion — though admittedly, that had a lot to do with the champion's terrible personality.
With someone like that appearing on the field, yellow cheers erupted from every corner of the Audience Seats.
It was a relief that his female fans weren't hurling insults at me, but honestly, he was going to be a tough opponent.
The referee had no intention of quieting the crowd and was going over the rules with me and Ash.
"You're Tenma, right? Nice to meet you. I have no intention of underestimating you just because you're a kid. I'll be going all out from the start."
Ash declared this and extended his right hand.
"Yes, likewise — I'll be going all out."
I replied the same way and shook Ash's hand.
The referee waited for us to release our hands, then signaled for us to take our positions opposite each other before raising his right hand...
"Main Tournament, First Round, Match One—Tenma versus Ash Boughman. Begin!"
He brought his hand down as the signal to start.
I seized the initiative. Before Ash could step forward, I drew Kogarumaru from its scabbard and closed the distance, cutting in a iai-style slash.
Ash's reaction was a fraction of a second late, but he managed to block with his left-hand shield at the very last moment. He tried to counter with his sword, but my strike was stronger than he'd anticipated—his stance buckled, and his swing ended up being nothing more than a slash powered by arm strength alone.
I deflected that strike with my scabbard and pulled back to create distance.
The entire exchange had lasted barely five seconds. The spectators' minds couldn't keep up with what had just happened, and the arena fell completely silent.
Only when Ash and I had pulled back and momentarily paused did the audience's thoughts finally catch up, and the arena became a
crucible
of excitement.
We took the crowd's cheers as our cue and began moving, closing the distance between us once more.
The instant the spectators thought another clash was about to begin, Ash thrust his left hand forward.
"Light!"
The spell Ash cast burst forth before my eyes. It was "Light"—the simplest form of light magic.
A spell that merely produced a flash of illumination, it had no offensive power to speak of, but in exchange, its casting time was extremely short and its magic power consumption was negligible.
Blinding me with "Light," Ash swung a fully committed strike at me.
But I wasn't where his blade fell—the instant his sword cut through empty air, Ash's body was sent flying sideways.
Ash managed to right himself as he tumbled, but he clearly didn't understand what had just happened.
In his line of sight, I stood in a half-body stance, hips lowered.
Ash hurried to get back on his feet, but a sharp pain shot through his left side. He grimaced and dropped to one knee. And just like that...
"I surrender..."
I raised my right hand and declared my surrender to the referee. The arena fell silent at Ash's surrender, and the referee came between us and pointed at me.
"The winner is Tenma!"
As the referee's voice echoed through the arena, the spectators erupted in loud cheers and applause, praising me.
Some of the spectators seemed to have caught what I'd done, as a few were excitedly recreating my movements for the people around them.
Ash shook my hand with the help of the medical team before being taken to the infirmary.
"Hey, Tenma. Congrats."
On the way back from the Arena to the Waiting Room, Jin and Garat came to greet me.
"Thanks... though that was a pretty casual way to put it."
When I said that, Jin and Garat exchanged glances and laughed.
"I knew you were going to win, so something like this is fine, right?"
"I knew the opponent was strong too, but I figured you were the better one."
That was their take on it.
"By the way, what attack did you use to send him flying?"
From their position, it had apparently been hard to see my movements, as they tilted their heads while asking.
"I just slipped under Ash's left arm. From Ash's perspective, his own arm was blocking his view, and on top of that, Light's magic probably made me disappear for just a split second. After dodging, I simply drove my elbow into Ash's side... he probably broke two or three ribs. There might also be damage to his lungs and heart."
Hearing my words, Jin and the others realized Ash had taken more damage than they'd expected and felt sorry for him.
"That's brutal..."
"Well, I guess since Ash was going all out against you too, that's the only reason it ended as well as it did..."
While we were talking, the matches continued to progress. Since my match had ended so quickly, Group A had already moved on to the next bout, while Group B was still in the middle of their first match.
Participants in the main tournament were free to do as they pleased until their matches came up—either hole up in their own waiting rooms or watch the bouts of fighters they were interested in.
I split off from Jin and the others to head back to my own waiting room, but for some reason, Jin and the rest followed me.
"Go back to your own waiting rooms."
When I said that,
"Garat's match is coming up soon, so let's watch and cheer together!"
Jin said, and
"Your real target is the Bandit King anyway…"
Garat muttered.
In the end, Jin and the others ended up squatting in my waiting room. I told the staff that they were with me and asked them to come notify us here when our turn came up.
Apparently, when acquaintances had both advanced to the main tournament, going back and forth between each other's waiting rooms wasn't against the rules, and the staff member gave their approval.
We killed time exchanging opinions and whatnot, and then word came that Garat's match was about to start.
Garat, looking tense, started loosening up his body and preparing his weapons.
About fifteen minutes after the notice, Garat was called, and we decided to tag along right up to the last possible moment.
Just as Garat stepped into the Arena, Jin spoke up.
"Hey, who do you think has the advantage?"
"Eight to two in favor of the Bandit King."
At my words, Jin gave a light laugh…
"That's harsh… I'd say six to four, Bandit King."
"So you also think the Bandit King has the advantage…"
At my exasperated tone, Jin continued speaking.
"That's assuming a fair fight. Most likely, though, the Bandit King is a young guy. I've spotted him around town a few times, and there's something a bit childish about the way he acts. So if Garat can dictate the pace, the experience gap might show, and it could actually be 6-4 in Garat's favor... Of course, there are exceptions even among young guys like you..."
Jin said this while watching Garat with a serious gaze.
As for Garat, he was facing the Bandit King without any particular tension.
The Bandit King's face was hidden behind a tiger's pelt, so his expression was unreadable, but he showed no sign of being careless.
"Match ten, Amur versus Garat. Begin!"
The referee gave the signal to start and stepped back.
It was only at this moment that I learned the Bandit King's name was Amur. Then again, it could be a false name...
The Bandit King's weapon was a large axe called a Bardiche—combining the length of the handle and the blade, it looked to be nearly two meters long.
Garat, on the other hand, wielded a dual-sword style with one-handed blades. He usually used somewhat smaller ones, but this time he had opted for slightly larger swords.
Against the Bandit King's methodical advance, Garat moved with agile footwork, retreating by the same distance the Bandit King closed.
The Bandit King occasionally used feints to try to close the distance, but Garat read through every one and responded calmly.
As the gap between Garat and the edge of the Arena shrank, he began moving laterally instead.
The Bandit King seized the opportunity and closed the distance with tremendous speed.
However, when Garat suddenly switched from lateral movement and charged straight at the Bandit King, the Bandit King hurriedly swung his weapon to intercept.
However, Garat dodged the blow with a skillful maneuver and circled around behind the Bandit King.
The Bandit King was fast in straight-line movement but apparently poor at agile changes of direction, and he took Garat's successive strikes to his back.
As the Bandit King staggered and stomped his feet in distress, Garat pressed the attack without mercy, slashing relentlessly.
The Bandit King, though in a poor stance, blocked Garat's attacks with his axe, but he took several hits to the body.
Garat's assault continued unabated. The Bandit King was being driven back toward the edge of the Arena by the force of the onslaught.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Garat's actually doing it! He's got the Bandit King completely locked down!"
Jin watched Garat's offensive with visible excitement. The audience seemed just as fired up as he was, and shouts of encouragement for Garat had been ringing out for a while now.
As if answering those cheers, Garat swung his swords toward the Bandit King—but a blow from the Bandit King struck him first.
"Guaaah!"
Garat barely managed to block the Bandit King's strike by crossing his blades, but the impact sent his body flying nearly twenty meters backward.
He somehow managed to land on his feet, but one sword was bent out of shape and the other had a large chip missing from its blade.
"Damn it! What kind of insane strength is that!"
Garat cursed at the Bandit King, but even in that moment the Bandit King was already charging straight at him.
The instant the Bandit King raised his axe, Garat hurled his bent sword right at the Bandit King's face.
It was a clever move. When something came flying at your face, most people would either dodge or try to swat it away—and that split-second reaction would leave a wide opening…at least, that was the idea if the opponent were a normal human.
Sure enough, the Bandit King was anything but normal. He took the thrown sword right to the head without even flinching and brought his axe crashing down on Garat.
Garat had been counting on the Bandit King to show some kind of opening, but that gamble backfired completely—now it was Garat who was exposed.
"Guuh!"
He barely managed to block the descending axe with his remaining sword, which reduced the damage somewhat, but he couldn't negate the sheer momentum. He was sent flying and slammed into the ground.
Garat's body bounced several times and rolled nearly twenty meters before finally coming to a stop.
Seeing this, the Bandit King turned to the referee and called for the match to be ended.
The referee was about to raise one hand to stop the fight, but caught sight of Garat and froze mid-gesture, letting his arm fall back down.
The Bandit King followed the referee's gaze with a puzzled expression, and there he saw Garat swaying as he struggled back to his feet.
Garat was barely conscious, but he gripped his broken sword and, legs unsteady, began walking toward the Bandit King.
The Bandit King watched Garat approach, and the moment the referee called for the match to continue, he closed the distance and swung the flat of his axe in a lateral sweep, smashing Garat to the ground.
Garat went rolling yet again. The audience, the referee, even the Bandit King himself—they all felt it had to be over. But once again, defying every expectation, Garat stood back up.
This time, the interval before he stood up was shorter than before, so the referee didn't call out.
Noticing this, the Bandit King rushed toward Garat and was about to thrust with the tip of his axe blade.
Garat showed no real reaction to the Bandit King's movements. The audience, realizing the horror that was about to unfold, screamed and covered their eyes or looked away.
Jin had already dashed out to stop the Bandit King, but he didn't seem like he'd make it in time.
I shot out alongside Jin as well, but Garat was standing a bit too far from where we'd been. Even if I was faster than Jin, it wouldn't be enough—not by a few seconds.
"Shit! I'm not going to make it!"
Before we could intervene, the Bandit King's strike reached Garat first, and the Bandit King impaled Garat's body with the tip of his axe, lifting him off the ground.