Chapter 105: Three Knockdowns

“Waaaaaa!”

The moment I turned my gaze back to the stage, a thunderous roar erupted from the audience seats.

The match had ended.

The result: Vigdis lost by ring-out.

‘It was thanks to her Aether Attribute, but she lasted longer and fought better than I thought.’

Anyone would have to admit as much.

That’s probably why such cheers broke out. It meant that many people were watching the match with intense focus.

I wouldn’t be surprised if about half of those cheers were in praise of Vigdis.

Though she lost, she seemed very satisfied with the match, beaming with an excited smile.

I saw Nidhr approach her and offer a handshake.

‘Come to think of it, Nidhr did the same in the original after losing to Reysir!’

He accepted defeat cleanly and acknowledged Reysir’s skill, so up until then, no one suspected Nidhr would turn out to be a villain.

Most thought he was just a friend-and-rival type character for the protagonist.

Anyway, it’s not strange that Nidhr offered a handshake to an opponent who never gave up despite an obvious gap in skill.

But since the opponent was Vigdis, a small question surfaced.

‘Doesn’t he worry that Karvald Austri will get jealous and try to get back at him? Or maybe it’s rumored that I don’t interfere with Vigdis’s personal relationships, so he figured a handshake would be fine?’

The two exchanged a few words, released hands, and stepped apart.

Then Nidhr immediately returned to his seat, and Vigdis, after getting treatment from a healer, came back to where we were.

“That was amazing!”

“Ah…! Th-thank you…!”

Vigdis blushed shyly at Reysir’s praise, but her smile was radiant.

Just as in the original, I wondered if she had developed feelings for him.

At that moment, Vigdis turned her gaze toward me.

“Kar.”

“Is there something you want to say to me?”

“Shouldn’t you be the one with something to say, Kar?”

No way.

“…Good work.”

“……”

“……I see you have the makings of a great swordswoman.”

“Thank you—!”

Who would’ve thought, after Liolikin, even Vigdis would try to wring praise from me.

“Karvald Austri. You’ll praise me later too, right?”

Reysir, you too?

For some reason, I was starting to get a headache. So I rubbed my forehead and let out a sigh.

Then Liolikin, in a timid voice, asked,

“S-sis… aren’t you… upset…? For l-losing in the first round…? Especially since you h-had to face such a s-strong opponent just because of bad luck…”

Right.

Now that I think of it, Liolikin was the only one who hadn’t heard the conversation we had before Vigdis went up to compete.

So it’s natural he’d say something like that.

“If it weren’t for what Kar said before I went up, I’m sure I would’ve felt that way.”

“W-what did Karvald Austri say to you…?”

“He told me it was arrogant to worry about not winning, when I haven’t even been learning the sword for a full year. So before the match, I asked my opponent how long she’d been training, and this is her ninth year. Hearing that made me realize how foolish my worries were.”

So while the MC was chatting with Nidhr during the host’s blabbering, she was actually asking that?

It wasn’t particularly special information. In this world, anyone interested in martial arts usually starts training around the age of ten.

Most of the main tournament participants have trained for nine or ten years—at the very least, five years.

‘Still, unless you intend to make martial arts your profession, or you’re not tormented by trauma like Reysir, most people wouldn’t just train nonstop. There’s no need to get discouraged by the difference in years.’

If you do your best but lose in the first round, it can’t be helped—but don’t give up before you even try.

When I reached that conclusion,

Liolikin spoke with a gloomy expression.

“S-so jealous… to not even have to win….”

It turns out Liolikin wasn’t worried Vigdis would be down after losing—he was worried about himself, dreading having to face a strong opponent in the next round due to bad luck.

“Don’t tell me you’re already laying the groundwork to use ‘my opponent was just too strong’ as an excuse if you fail to meet the condition I set?”

“W-well… um… I-I didn’t mean it like t-that…! B-but… y-you saw it too, Karvald Austri…? S-she fought so well… And she’s been learning swordsmanship for nine years….”

When I spoke with a suspicious look, Liolikin panicked and started making excuses.

Glancing at Reysir with shifting eyes, he was clearly hoping Reysir would take his side.

Looks like he finally realized Reysir doesn’t dislike him anymore.

“Honestly, I don’t think Liolikin can beat Nidhr. Not because Liolikin’s weak, but because that guy’s just too strong.”

Reysir jumped in to defend him, just as Liolikin hoped.

Back in episode 89, he told me I was too soft, acting all high and mighty with, “You can’t just push Liolikin away that easily.”

“That’s unexpected. Reysir, I didn’t think you’d say that.”

“You only entered Liolikin in the tournament so he could overcome his fear, right? It seems he’s already achieved that, so maybe you could ease the condition just a little…?”

No can do.

If I’d set the condition as two people from the start, when Liolikin won earlier, he’d have felt a sense of accomplishment and gained confidence.

But if I now change the goal from three opponents down to two after the fact…

‘He wouldn’t feel any accomplishment, and he’d get complacent. Liolikin’s that type of character!’

If he faces something overwhelming, he’ll settle for compromise, and if an enemy’s too strong, he’ll start to believe it’s okay to run.

No need to imagine the distant future.

Once his goal vanishes, he might just pretend to fight against Nidhr and then surrender.

And most importantly… If it was just a casual comment in conversation, maybe, but for something this important, I can’t take back my word.

If I did, my authority would lose weight.

At least for ‘commands,’ my words must be absolute, so he’ll stand his ground in the face of fearsome monsters.

That’s why I decided to bluff, as if all this was part of my calculation.

“I didn’t give you an impossible condition. I anticipated that some students in the preliminaries would forfeit out of fear of Liolikin’s appearance, and I also planned from the beginning that he might face someone in the main tournament he couldn’t possibly defeat.”

“Huh? That doesn’t really add up…”

“Did you forget what the condition I set actually was?”

“……Ah!”

Reysir let out a cry of realization.

He realized my seemingly contradictory words weren’t actually wrong.

Now, only Liolikin needed to be convinced, so I turned to look at the cowardly boy, standing at the crossroads of forming self-confidence.

“I’ll say it one last time. The condition I set was not to win. You simply need to physically knock down three or more opponents. Even if those you knock down get right back up and defeat you, as long as you did that, you fulfilled the condition.”

“U-uh….”

“Don’t tell me you still don’t get it, even after I explained it this much?”

“N-no…! I-I understand!! It’s just…”

Even as he claimed to understand, he dragged out his words, glancing at me nervously as if he still had something to say.

I furrowed my brow and prompted him to finish.

“It’s just, well…”

“Karvald Austri… do you really think… I can do it…?”

Thankfully, he didn’t bring up the question I was worried about—whether I’d considered he might face a powerhouse not in round two, but round one. That would have been hard to answer.

Yes, there were loopholes in my words, if not outright contradictions.

“Yes. I believe you can do it.”

So Liolikin wouldn’t notice the loophole in my words, I decided to be generous with the lip service today.

At that, the big, yaksha-faced boy looked at me with such an overwhelmed and burdensome expression, his confused eyes sparkling.

“R-really, I’m so moved… s-so moved…!”

He was so moved, he repeated the same word twice.

In this situation, there was only one response for me. I turned away with a sharp “Hmph!”

As I did, I heard Reysir and Vigdis, seated on either side of me, stifling their laughter.

‘Even Vigdis, really…!’

They say ‘one who stays near ink gets stained black.’

It seems this black-haired character has now started rubbing off on those around her too.

Then I realized that wasn’t the only problem.

‘Come to think of it…, when did the protagonist of someone else’s novel change seats?’

Vigdis’s seat is supposed to be right next to mine.

But between Reysir and me, Yor’s seat exists.

But since I kept holding Yor in my arms, the baby dragon’s seat was left empty, so Reysir slid in and sat there.

‘If I told Reysir to go back to his own seat now, would he think I was acting aloof out of embarrassment…?’

In case anyone’s curious about where Liolikin ended up, he’s sitting right behind me.

Even if he can’t sit in a row with us, as long as he’s physically close, that’s enough.

With all the noise in the stands, it’s easier to hear each other sitting front-to-back rather than with a seat or two between us.

Thinking about it, Liolikin’s usual denseness and frustrating demeanor can’t be trusted after all.

“By the way, Karvald Austri. I missed the timing to ask earlier, but didn’t it bother you that Vigdis was talking and holding hands with another guy just now?”

Though he and Vigdis were both snickering at my expense, when I didn’t react, Reysir seemed to find it boring and tossed me a new topic.

There was no need to hesitate over my answer.

It was a question I’d already decided my answer to long ago, so I replied immediately.

“From now on, please don’t ask me things like that. Vigdis already told me that if I interfere in her relationships again, she’ll really start to dislike me. Even if you ask, there’s nothing I can say.”

“Then why were you so obsessed last semester…?”

Reysir clicked his tongue, giving me a look I couldn’t tell was pity or disdain.

It was the response I expected, but since the one who’d built up this karma wasn’t me but someone else, I couldn’t help but make a sullen face.