“I saw her this morning too, but Ao is really strong, isn’t she?”
“Even so, she’s still holding back quite a bit.”
Sylvia-san, watching the match from the food stall just like me, spoke with a hint of excitement as she shared her thoughts. It seemed that a swordsmanship match—so different from yesterday’s magic duel—had gotten her even more thrilled.
“Man, your slime is seriously strong. No doubt a top contender for the championship.”
“That is, if things keep going smoothly.”
“Yeah. By the way, I’ll take five rice balls, please.”
“Of course, thank you very much.”
And since the crowd knew that Ao was working at the stall, people swarmed over as soon as the match ended. Honestly… this was going to be tough.
“I’m back! Ao won!”
“The crowd is incredible!”
“Good work, Ao, Shiro, Fran. Sorry, but head inside the stall right away.”
““Okay!””
At that moment, Shiro and the others returned from the match. I felt bad asking so soon, but I had them step inside the stall.
“Oh, you’re back from the match.”
“That was an amazing fight.”
“You were so cool!”
“Do your best again tomorrow, okay?”
This is bad.
With Ao back at the stall, even more customers surged forward. She tried politely waving her tentacles at them, but it was becoming impossible to keep up.
“Ten meat sandwiches over here!”
“And twenty rice balls over there!”
“Ehh—!”
Shiro and Fran’s voices echoed from inside the stall, but seriously—who had placed that many orders?
I glanced toward the reception area.
“Sir, what are you doing?”
“Oh, just a little treat for the tournament staff.”
“I-I see… thank you as always…”
The culprit was the Margrave himself, accompanied by his guards.
I almost said something, but wisely held my tongue. And since it was a gift for the tournament staff, there was no way I could complain. So I hurriedly got back to grilling the meat.
“All events for today have concluded. Tomorrow’s matches will begin at nine in the morning.”
Sigh.
“I’m exhausted… I wonder how much meat I’ve grilled today.”
By the time I had been cooking nonstop, all the matches were over. It had been far busier than yesterday—nothing like the preliminaries.
This was what the main tournament felt like.
“I’m a little tired too. I thought I had plenty of stamina, but…”
Even Sylvia-san looked a bit worn out.
Well, if you spend the whole day cooking like that, it’s no wonder. Somehow, Ao looked a little floppy too. The attendants also showed signs of fatigue, so it was clear just how many customers had come.
“There were so many customers today.”
“Right?”
And Fran and Horn… how are you still so full of energy?
They’d been dealing with a huge number of customers all day, too.
“Now then, we’ll be returning to the manor to pay our respects to the Margrave.”
“We’ll go with you.”
With the cleanup finished, we decided to join the attendants in greeting the Margrave. While we were at it, we decided to stop by the medical team’s tent and bring Sue and the others along.
Just as we approached the tent, though…
Zusha!
“Boohee!”
“Honestly, enough already!”
Just as I thought a man had been blown out of the medical tent. Then came Horn, storming along in full anger mode. It was rare to see Horn get angry at anything other than sleep deprivation—but then, even more furious, Sue emerged from the tent behind her.
“Ugh… ughghgh!”
“You… you were hitting on us yesterday, and today you’ve done it multiple times again. And you even tried talking to Horn-chan!”
Ah—so that’s why he looked familiar.
He was the same idiot who’d been flirting yesterday. Honestly… this guy seemed to be willingly sentencing himself to execution. Quite the masochist.
The flustered, flattened pick-up artist was restrained by the guards and led away.
I’m sure he was being taken to a lovely little vacation home they call, jail.
This is translated by Yume Neiji. Kindly read at yumeineijiworks.wordpress.com.
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