Chapter 700

Chapter 700

『We won the first round!』

「Nn!」

After winning against Dufour, Fran went straight to the spectator seats.

The fight was over in an instant, but Fran looked satisfied. Though the same happens in last year's tournament too, I guess winning is always a happy thing.

『Let's celebrate our first-round victory. We're going to have a big party tonight!』

「Curry?」

『Ou. Let's also add menchi katsu (ground meat cutlet) and an extra-large fried egg』

「Tonkatsu (pork cutlet) too!」

『All right. I'll put a pile of tonkatsu too』

「Ooh!」

「Woof woof!」

At Fran's feet, Urushi pokes his head out of the shadows to show that he's there too. It is like having a wolf's head between Fran's legs.

『I'll make plenty for you too, so just keep your head down!』

「Woof」

As we walked, I saw a man standing across the corridor, a disheveled man in his forties.

Immediately after seeing Fran, he opens his mouth and speaks in an arrogant tone.

「You're, the Black Lightning Princess?」

「Nn」

「Hmph. You really are a child, aren't you――」

Fran nodded in response to the man's question, but walked straight past him without stopping at all. For some reason, the man seemed to have assumed that Fran would stop, and he called out to her in a panic.

「W-wait!」

「I won't, the next match is starting」

Well, the next match between Mordred and Naria was the match to decide who would be our next opponent after all. She really wanted to watch the match to get some information about them.

Of course, there was no time to talk to a suspicious person who would not even identify himself.

Fran would have been distracted by him if he had been a strong person. But the man was just a small fry with little fighting ability.

I've appraised him, and he's quite weak. He has some fighting skills, but his status was so low.

But he has a type of skills for threats and negotiation, so he is probably good at intimidating others with words and negotiating in a threatening manner.

Well, that kind of skill won't work on Fran though.

「Hey, wait! I am――」

The man was about to say something, but Fran accelerated quickly and left him behind. She didn't slow down at all as she kicked the wall at the turn, slipped past the surprised passersby, and arrived at the special viewing area in no time.

『Fran, you've gone too far』

「?」

『Ha~h. Anyway, what was that guy doing back there?』

I think he was intentionally waiting for Fran. Was he a messenger from somewhere?

「Doesn't matter. More importantly, the match」

『Can't be helped then』

We can't pretend that we didn't ignore him, but his attitude and timing was quite bad. Well, we'll just say that if someone were to complain.

『The match is starting』

「Nn. Just in time」

When Fran appeared, the people in the special viewing area made a slight noise. This was supposed to be the officials' seats, but it seemed that many of them had never seen Fran up close before.

However, no one was trying to force Fran to talk to them. I guess they know their manners.

On the contrary, people even try to give up their seats for her.

「You can sit here. You want to see your opponent, don't you?」

「You sure?」

「Ah, well, My daughter is a fan of yours. She'll be jealous when I tell her I gave up my seat for you」

「Thanks」

It seems the bard's influence was evident even in this place.

We took him up on his offer and sat down, just in time. On the field below, Mordred was just about to make his move.

His opponent was Naria, a girl who uses a bow. She fires her bow in rapid succession while retreating from Mordred, who is approaching at high speed.

The fact that she had gained rapid-fire skill, which she did not have before, showed that she had improved her bow skills a lot.

The bow, which is powerful enough to instantly kill a goblin, accurately struck Mordred in the face.

She was already holding several arrows in her hand as she pulled the string, and then fired them at high speed. Moreover, the aura arrows created by the archery technique are attacked with a slightly different trajectory from the main body of the arrow.

This rapid-fire and archery skills must have helped her get through the battle royal in the preliminary round.

Fran nodded admiringly as she watched Naria, who had been her student for a short time, grow.

「Naria is doing her best」

『Yeah』

She must have continued her painstaking training after arriving in the beastman country. The results are clearly evident.

But even so, she could not reach Mordred.

「Spear Technique・Spiral Guard」

「Wha! You can do that!?」

He spun his spear around in his hand and flicked all the arrows away without any difficulty. In addition, he immediately approached Naria without delay. She was already at Mordred's range.

Naria and Mordred, they had been together on the ship to the beastman kingdom, and he was a famous B-Ranked adventurer to begin with.

She knows that she was no match for him in close combat.

But Naria stepped in from where she was. She made it look like she was going to retreat even further, but instead, she leaned forward and lunged at Mordred as if she were going to attack.

「Haaa!」

「Hou!?」

She threw her bow at Mordred and stopped his spear movement.

Mordred seemed to have been caught off-guard as well. Naria had stepped over the distance that is generally considered to be the range of a spear, and had entered within his bosom.

She held a dagger in her hand. She must have continued to train the dagger as Fran had instructed her on the ship.

「Haaa!」

Naria's dagger was thrust into Mordred's stomach. The blade is buried in Mordred, all the way to the base――or so it seems.

But Naria looks vexed.

「Molten Iron Magic….」

Mordred had used his molten iron magic to melt the blade of Naria's dagger.

「That was a good fight」

「Guh…」

Mordred then struck his spear on Naria's head, and reaped her consciousness.

『As I expected, Mordred would be our next opponent』

「Nn. He's skillful」

『Yeah, I didn't even realize when he chanted his molten iron spell』

He must have been chanting molten iron magic beforehand in preparation for close combat. His caution and his ability to hide his chanting from the others. And the skill to delay the magic even during a fierce battle.

Skillful is exactly the right word to describe this guy.