The nineteen battles that I obseeved while in the partic.i.p.ant"s room were uninteresting. None of the battle exceeded ten minutes. All the partic.i.p.ants fought cautiously, making the battle dull. However, the crowd seemed quite thrilled.

There were artifacts stationed so that the battles could be broadcasted all over the Royal Capital and outside the dome. It was so similar to the international games in my world that it was scary. Although, their reached seemed rather limited, but it surprised me nevertheless.

It was time for my battle, so I pulled up my pants and stretched my arms. While I was sitting in the partic.i.p.ant"s room talking to Haru via telepathy, the other people were glaring daggers me for... well... "existing". Three out of the twelve commoners were already defeated, no, they were killed. Yes, they were killed by their opponents.

During the other battles, the winner left the loser alive as killing a n.o.ble would result in many unforeseen consequences. However, the same wasn"t true for the commoners. One of those who died was an adamant.i.te-ranked adventurer, a national treasure, hope of the commoners, the strongest commoner, or so the people referred to him. I saw the same man gets toyed with and then mercilessly slaughtered in front of my eyes.

After each commoner was killed, I looked up to the V.I.P room and found that almost all of the people inside were extremely satisfied. The King that people loved, the Prince they were going to be under the rule of, emissaries from a friendly nation, all were smiling as they watched the commoners slowly yet surely meet their end. There were only two people who were troubled by this. Julian was clenching her fists and lowering her head while Sylvia bit her lip over and over again to stay calm. Needless to say, this went unnoticed by everyone present in the dome as they didn"t have the necessary eyesight.

I exit the resting area and make my way to the gate that leads to the field. There were some people of the staff present to guide me to my position, they were very kind to me, guess being a commoner comes in handy. I hear Zoya"s voice calling to me and I enter the field surrounded by thunderous applause and motivating cheering.

While I was still mentally recovering from the last slaughter I saw, the name of my beloved was announced on the microphone. The name I was yearning to hear, the battle I wanted to witness, all of those desires vanished once I saw the commoners getting slaughtered. Surely, they were three in number, however, they were all splendid.

Born with low mana capacity and inferior talent, they managed to attain such power with sheer hard work and determination. All the three commoners were high-ranked adventurers, one was even an adamant.i.te, still, even if I say that in so many words, they were easily killed by the n.o.bles. And now, I am scared. I don"t want Toru to descend on to the field. I don"t want him to experience pain. I don"t want him to die.

>

[I believe that he won"t be killed like the others. But we can"t see the future, can we?]

>

I turn my neck towards one of the two gates that opened into the field. The one walking into the field is a woman in her early twenties. Her wavy brown hair was quite short in length, but that was only because of her battle prowess in close-ranged combat. In the age of magic, Nazriysan is one of the most prestigious of swordswomen left on the battlefield. Her use of wind magic is unique and unpredictable, it could take even the most experienced of fighters years before they figure out her fighting style.

However, her hatred of commoners is genuine. She hates them from her very core. A victim of discrimination"s gotta discriminate against others, huh. Well, as a woman myself, it"s not as if I don"t get what she means, however, our circ.u.mstances are different, and as such, I can"t imagine myself in her situation.

The same woman, the same strong person, the very same hater, is going to battle Toru. He"s a commoner, but I don"t have a single issue with that, I love him nonetheless. But I am also aware that I am one of the very few people who think that way. Nazriya is equipped with her battle-gear, her gear has been known to be one that compliments her fighting style. The purple, full-body armor is a legendary-cla.s.s item and combined with that divine-cla.s.s sword, she"s already surpa.s.sed the realms of what can be cla.s.sified as "expensive".

Toru entered from the gate which was in the polar opposite direction to that of Nazriya"s. His black coat sways with the gentle wind. He"s walking as calmly as ever, indifferent to the glaring, scowling, and expectation-filled gazes of the people. His eyes aren"t clouded, he isn"t the least bit scared, he came into the battlefield... knowing that he would win.

They both reached the middle of the huge field, more than 250 meters of nothing, no matter in which direction they look. Due to the field"s large size, the battles are displayed on the screens in close-up view as the eyesight of commoners weren"t as good as ours. And as such, even the conversations they have are audible to us.

>

I braced myself for the fight to begin, but nothing happened, Toru just raised his hand in front of him, signaling Nazriya to wait. Normally, n.o.bles wouldn"t wait for commoners, however, Nazriya"s chivalry and warrior-spirit influenced her to not draw her sword on someone"s who"s requesting her to halt her a.s.sault.

"What is it plebeian?"

Her cold voice reverberated through the entire arena, and outside of it as well.

"Just wanted to talk a bit… I am interested in those items that you"re wielding."

"They"re beyond you. You"ll be dying momentarily."

"So, you"re going to kill me?"

Toru"s tone was friendly and approachable, there wasn"t a single bit of malice hidden behind them.

"Hey, Sylvisan, isn"t that your fiancé there?"

While I was completely immersed in the match, someone came close to me and whispered in my ear. It was Julian, the first princess of Hades.

"No… Julian-san, he"s my boyfriend."

"Is that so? Aren"t you worried about him?"

"Of course I am. I am way more nervous than he is. Look at him! He"s so relaxed!"

"Shh! Keep your voice down princess. Let me say this, you shouldn"t worry… I don"t know what exactly happened, but I can tell that he"s strong, all those strong escorts were afraid of him, weren"t they?"

"Yes, you"re right."

She"s right. What am I even worried about? He"s a time mage. But he said that he"d hold back in the tournament because of all the authorities watching him. If he were to show his power, the various authorities of the world will be out to kill him, and he just finds it troublesome. He"ll be fine… probably.

"Certainly. You should be honored. You"ll be meeting your end by my hands."

This b.i.t.c.h!

"I am experiencing serious dejvu."

"Now then… Let me-"

"Tell me Lomentsama…"

A chill ran down my body. Toru"s voice became cold. Cold as ice, no, even colder.

"...If I kill you. Would your husband be sad?"

This… This feeling… That"s the true form of Toru. The same form which he displayed that day.

"YOU b.a.s.t.a.r.d!!"

She ran towards Toru with all her strength. The distance between them was about twenty meters, but it was covered almost instantly. She brought her golden sword down on Toru"s head with all the force her feminine arms could muster.

"What am I, a kid?"

The only thing that the blade was able to cut through was the air. Toru didn"t move his legs, he simply tilted his neck and the blade pa.s.sed by him without even grazing him. Nazriya could be seen frustrated with this development, so she spun her sword around and aimed for his jaw. Toru calmly took a step back and avoided the blow yet again.

What happened after that was beyond me, I could only see a black shadow running around in circles and a golden flash following it. After about three minutes, the two shadows stopped and the dust that was thrust into the atmosphere as aftermath cleared up. What came into sight was the figure of Toru standing ten meters away from the panting Nazriya.

Her expression giving away her frustration, her breath giving away her exhaustion, his untouched being giving away her incompetence, the result was clear, she wasn"t able to hurt him.

"Wind magic to accelerate the sword from the blunt side. A sword light as a feather, yet somehow able to cut through the ground like it"s nothing. Armor that is thin as paper, yet visibly impossible to destroy. How weak~"

"W-W-What do you mean!?"

"Oh? You want me to say it, huh? You don"t have any strength. You have no power. You have no defense. You are weak. You rely on speed, and even in that, you are lacking, and as such, you use such expensive items to cover your weakness."

"D-Don"t spout nonsense! You haven"t been able to touch me either!! Hahaha! It"s you who is weak. You can"t kill me. You can"t even touch-"

"My, is that so?"

He lowers his head and then… vanishes?

I could hear the crowd screaming, wondering where he went, but the only ones who could see what had occurred were those with better perception of time, even better than those of n.o.bles. He teleported. More accurately, he ran so fast that it seemed like he teleported.

The very next moment, he was standing beside Nazriya. His body facing the opposite direction, his lips barely missing her ear, their shoulders almost touching. The video was amplified further to capture the sound they make.

"What a convenient delusion Lomentsama. It isn"t as though I can"t kill you. Killing you will be so easy that I just can"t get the motivation to do that…"

His voice, so low and cold. His body relaxed. His eyes, those of a hunter who wants to toy with his prey.

He lifts his hand and places it right beside Nazriya"s neck, his hand didn"t touch her, but her trembling and shivering figure showed how scared she was, her eyes were wide, her face covered in sweat. She was on the verge of tears, one more push, and she would break.

"However. Killing you would be quite interesting, would it not. Well-"

It seemed like Nazriya couldn"t take it anymore, she put all her strength in her arms and swung her sword in Toru"s direction. If it were me, I wouldn"t be able to react.

"W-W-W-W-What i-is h-happening!!??"

Her sword"s position was at Toru"s neck, it was so close that it felt like his head would fall any moment, however, the sword was stopped by something invisible.

"You"ve been spraying me with harsh killing intent since the match started. It"s fun at first, but it soon gets annoying. It"s like a mosquito constantly flapping its wings near my ear Now, do you wish to have a glimpse of how genuine killing intent feels like?"

*THUD*

As soon as Toru completed his sentence, he released his killing intent, explicitly directed at Nazriya, even still, each person present felt the absolute terror that came with it. Silence followed, no one could utter a word, we were left wordlessly staring at an unconscious Nazriya in the middle of the field, and just by her side, was Toru.

[M-My, that ended quietly, huh. It seems like Zoysan is still recovering, and as such, please allow me to announce the results. The winner of the twentieth match of the Athena Festival battle-tournament is~ Toru~!]

n.o.body could cheer, no, more accurately, they were physically incapable of doing so. I want to cheer. I want to scream the name of my beloved with everything I have, but even so, I can"t, my voice won"t come out, my legs won"t stop shivering, my hands won"t stop shaking. Toru"s killing intent was exposed to us for less than a second, and we ended up like this, I wonder what would happen if he were to expose his true power?