The morning of the finals arrived. Even in the early hours, the arena was filled with people, with people even willing to stand in case they didn’t get any seats, all of them fighting for the best ones.

“Phew, lots of people.”

In the audience seats reserved for them, Seran looked around himself.

“Don’t go sulking just because you lost in the semi-finals.”

“Are you still angry at me..I apologized plenty already.” Seran complained towards the displeased Lieze.

“So, Seran, how do you think this match will go?”

Hearing Urza’s question, Seran thought about it for a moment.

“..Honestly, I don’t know. If it was Kyle before he fought me yesterday, I would’ve bet on my old hag’s win.”

This morning, Seran himself asked Kyle about his chances, and he simply declared ‘I won’t go for any tricks. I’ll be facing her with everything I have’. To Seran, who knew Kyle very well, this was a clear improvement compared to before.

“How do I say this..he’s taken a step forward by winning against me.”

Naturally, Seran saw right through that, but he still felt annoyed that Kyle basically got a step ahead of him.

“Well, I personally would be happy if both of them lost.”

“Just shut up and watch.” Lieze kicked his shin.

In preparation for the final match, Kyle sat in the waiting room, gathering focus. As for the injuries of the semi-finals, he used the expensive healing medicine, and Urza’s healing magic to recover from 90% of the injuries, so he was pretty much back to normal. As for his mental state, he was oddly calm, and also equally motivated.

“Now, I can fight Teacher..”

And, he might even be able to win.

‘Finally, we have participant Kyle who pretty much decimated his last three foes! Will that explosion work against the Crimson Ogre!?’

“Treating me like some terrorist..”

Right as he threw in a retort, the door opened without even a knock, and someone entered the waiting room. Kyle was about to ask who it was, but seeing the person, he swallowed that. It was none other than Konrad.

“To think you’d make it to the finals..Well, I came here to wish you luck.”

Konrad is one of the most reputable people in the Empire, so Kyle thanked him.

“Thank you very much..So, can I help you with something? I’m about to head out to my final match..”

“I need to depart outside the country because of diplomatic reasons. However, before that, I needed to talk to you no matter what..Do you know the Mera Cult?”

Kyle was shocked to hear that coming out of Konrad’s mouth, but he managed to hide that, and acted like this was his first time hearing about it.

“I have heard the name before, but..what about them?”

“There are traces that this Mera Cult has been looking into you..and even interacted with you. We do not allow the doctrine of discriminating against races in our country, so do not get involved with them.” Konrad said, just to make sure.

“So the reason you kept wanting to talk to me all this time..just to warn me?”

“No! I was actually intent on kicking you out from the very beginning! However, Brother and Maizar seemed to be pondering killing you, so I just wanted to get it over with!”

“Eh? So..you tried to save me?”

Not expecting this, Kyle raised a voice of surprise.

“N-Not at all! It’s just..you know..I have a debt to repay with Teacher..with Seraia..Is she doing fine?”

“You know my mother?”

“When we were younger..she taught me a bit about Ancient Language Magic..Since you’re her son, I was a bit curious, that’s all!” Konrad was flustered, his face a bit red.

“..Was she your first love?” Kyle knew he was being quite rude towards the second prince, but he had to ask that.

“Wha..O-O-Of course not!! Though I have to admit, she was a w-wonderful person!” Konrad denied it, red as an apple.

Seemingly, Kyle hit the mark.

“I-I am responsible for dealing with the Mera Cult within our Empire! I just wanted to tell you to not cause any problems! That’s all!” Konrad seemed frantic, denying everything he just said.

“Thank you very much for going out of your way to worry about someone like me. I won’t forget your advice.” Kyle lowered his head, giving his earnest gratitude.

“..Hmpf!” Konrad let out an arrogant snort, and quickly left the room.

Watching him walk off, Kyle muttered.

“It’s fine. It’s a bit late for me to not get involved, but I have my own ideas.”

***

The seats in the audience for the imperial family and high nobles were separated from the rest, creating a small space for social interaction, a salon of sorts, which allowed the nobles or other higher-ups to talk before the match. Unlike the normal seats where you were sitting shoulder to shoulder with your neighbor, the seats here were quite a ways away from each other, even allowing for walking around freely. Sitting on one of these seats, Barrel was in an exceptionally good mood, awaiting the final match to start.

Kyle truly stood out through his erasure of that reptile, but he brought more attention to his name because of yesterday’s semi-final match. It even made Barrel think that “Maybe he could best the Crimson Ogre?”, indeed. If he achieved that, his name would spread like a wildfire. Once he became a follower of Mera, it would give them immense amounts of influence.

That means we will have to remove that long-eared woman immediately, and pull him over to our side..

As he was thinking that, a faint impact shook his head.

“My deepest apologies, Head Priest.”

The person apologizing seemed to be the daughter of a noble. In a faint moment of carelessness, she seemingly happened to splash whatever liquid she had in her glass onto Barrel’s clothes, frantically taking out a handkerchief. As the head priest for the Goddess Cairys, he naturally answered politely, not telling her to worry, but—his hand wouldn’t move. He tried to get up from his seat, but he couldn’t muster up any strength. Rather, he was about to fall off his chair.

Following that, with a perfectly natural movement that showed the lady cleaning up Barrel’s clothes, she made him sit back up on the chair. Met with this irregular and surreal situation, Barrel tried to raise his voice, asking for help, but at that exact moment, Leyla and Kyle entered the arena, which resulted in the audience raising cheers that could make your ears bleed. Through that, Barrel’s weak voice went unheard.

In the meantime, he completely lost all freedom to move his body, and even his ability to speak vanished fully, as all he could do was suffer. All the other nobles and visitors around him were fully focused on Kyle and Leyla, not glancing at him, no attention whatsoever.

“There’s always a perfect place for an assassination. In an empty space, in a location where you don’t have a weapon to defend yourself..and even in a crowd of people is a possibility..” The woman, Minagi, showed a smiling expression, befitting a noble lady.

However, the words she used couldn’t be more extreme and grotesque.

“Kyle seemingly was dead-set on finishing you with his own two hands, but he apparently gave up on that. Instead....Do you know what this is?” Minagi opened up her handkerchief, revealing something that looked like a piece of metal. “This is a fragment of the lizardman’s sword, which you used as mere trash for the sake of your objective..I put poison on it, and stabbed you. It’s a special type, so it’ll seem like a heart attack.”

After the third round ended, Kyle recovered this small piece from Goldar’s corpse. Hearing about this, Barrel showed a terrified, and equally dejected expression for the very first time. Seeing this, Minagi flashed a smirk.

“There’s even some on your face, I’m so sorry.” She said, wiping his face to create a smile. “Now then, if you would excuse me.”

Barrel was even unable to move his face, as Minagi left him alone. As this all happened in a mere thirty seconds, nobody would remember Minagi or her face. At the same time, Barrel’s death was only realized after the final match had already concluded.

“I sure turned upright, huh. Doing it exactly as he requested.”

After finishing her assassination, Minagi walked away from the noble’s audience suite, letting out a sigh.

‘I decided to approach this a bit more simply. I’m not wrong, so the best way is to just pull through with it..If I have to face the Mera Cult either way, it’d be best to erase Barrel as quickly as possible.’

The previous evening, Kyle gave Minagi this contract, with the extra condition that he wanted it done with a piece of Goldar’s sword, and an explanation of what that meant. Of course, Kyle had no way of proving if Minagi really did that, but that didn’t matter to her. Before his death was made public, Minagi snuck into his room, searching for anything related to the Mera Cult, hoping to acquire any possible information about the enemy.

“You better do your best as well.”

Seeing that the match was about to begin, Minagi took out her betting ticket, gave it a faint kiss, and ran from the arena to finish her other job.

***

Standing in the middle of the arena, Kyle and Leyla looked at each other.

“I like that expression of yours, Kyle,” Leyla said, sounding oddly joyful.

“I guess so.” Kyle showed a smile of his own.

His fear of Leyla and negative thinking were gone, as he could now face her with everything he had. Just like during her battle with Darius, Leyla swung her greatsword, taking a defensive posture. This stance was something she only used against someone she recognized as a strong enemy. As for Kyle himself, as soon as the signal for the start of the match sounded, he immediately attacked without hesitation. The conclusion of attacking right away against an opponent that was this good at reading attacks, namely Leyla, came instantly. Immediately after, Leyla swung her greatsword at an almost divine speed, yet holding explosive power. Kyle intercepted this with his own sword.

“Oooooooooh!!”

Kyle’s entire body was raising screams of agony, met with the impact and raw strength. Even his feet were pressed into the ground, but he grit his teeth, standing tall. Defending against Leyla’s full-frontal attack was almost madness in the eyes of many, but Kyle was confident that he could do it. Plus, without that, there’s no way he could win against Leyla either way. Witnessing this, Leyla showed a somewhat surprised expression. This single swing was like her special technique, one she had pride in. There were many times where her opponent evaded it, or deflected it, but taking it head-on was a first.

“Not bad, kiddo!” The crimson amazon raised honest words of praise.

“Here I go!”

With all of his might, Kyle went on the attack. This time, Leyla was the one to block his attack.

“Urk!”

It’s not that she let down her guard by any means, but as she had imagined an attack on the level of when she still taught him, that made her take the block a bit lightly, only for her eyes to open wide in shock at the sheer force and sharpness of that attack. At the same time, although Kyle didn’t know if he could win despite giving his all, he at least was in joy that he was recognized as a strong enemy by the person who once taught him.

“..You’ve gotten strong, Kyle.” Leyla said, happy and with a gentle tone.

Kyle was equally delighted, and moved for a follow-up attack with a grin on his face, when—

“Ah, I forgot to tell you, but Seraia is pregnant.”

“Pffft?!”

Met with this sudden bombshell, Kyle spit out the saliva in his mouth.

“Wha..W-What did you just say!?”

“The birth is supposed to be next spring, I think. By the way, she apparently got pregnant right after you guys left Rimarze..”

As Leyla explained everything in painful detail, Kyle remembered the last sight of his parents flirting around on the day they left, and his face started losing more and more color.

“S-Stop! I don’t want to imagine that!”

For a moment, Kyle’s concentration and focus were shattered to pieces, which was used by the grinning Leyla, pointing the tip of her greatsword at Kyle.

“Ah..”

With that, Kyle’s consciousness soon faded, and the final of the Martial Arts Festival ended in a way different from any other match before it.