And so, at last, the final day of the martial arts tournament arrived.
After finishing our morning training and having breakfast, we all headed for the plaza together.
“There are more people than yesterday,”
“It’s packed.”
“That’s amazing.”
“Today’s the last day of the martial arts tournament, after all. Everyone’s been looking forward to it.”
“Oh, I see!”
The plaza serving as the venue was already packed with people, buzzing with excitement. There were plenty of patrol units making the rounds, and security seemed more than adequate.
Amid all that, Sue and Horn headed for the medical tent, while the rest of us made our way to the food stall.
“Well then, time to do prep work. I wonder how many people are going to show up today.”
Talking to no one in particular, I focused on chopping vegetables one after another.
Judging by the sheer amount of produce that had already been brought in, it looked like I’d be stuck doing prep work for quite a while.
“Looks like you’re busy too, kid.”
Someone called out.
“Haha, well, we’ve got this many people stopping by the stall you see.”
“Good to see business booming. You too, little slime, keep it up.”
As I worked on the prep, voices like that came from the spectators.
We’d been running the stall for several days now, so there were quite a few people who recognized my face. Some of them even shouted words of encouragement toward Ao, who would be fighting later. Ao responded by happily waving her tentacles back at them.
And then, a petite customer made her appearance.
“Shiro-chan, four fruit sandwiches, please.”
“Okaaay, just a moment!”
It was Fina-san.
She had come to buy fruit sandwiches, accompanied by a pair of soldier escorts. Shiro served her with a bright smile, clearly enjoying herself as she worked.
“Here you go, sorry to keep you waiting. Four fruit sandwiches.”
“Thank you! I thought I’d have fruit sandwiches for breakfast today.”
“I see. Much appreciated, as always.”
“And good luck to you too, Ao-chan.”
Smiling brightly, Fina-san headed back toward the seats reserved for the Margrave’s family. She was probably planning to share the fruit sandwiches with the others there.
Ao waved her tentacles back at Fina-san in greeting.
“There are more and more customers coming now.”
“Maybe a lot of them skipped breakfast.”
Sylvia-san chatted casually while working, but she was right—there seemed to be an unusually large number of people stopping by the stall from early morning today.
From our perspective, having the crowd spread out over time was a huge relief. All I could hope was that things would keep running smoothly just like this.
“All right then, I’m heading out.”
“We’re off.”
“Take care out there.”
As the time for the semifinals drew near, Shiro and Fran headed for the stage together with Ao.
A large crowd had already gathered around the arena, buzzing with anticipation as they waited for the match to begin.
Hn?
Shiro and Ao stepped up onto the stage.
“Ao, the competitor, will now begin her pre-match warm-up!”
Swish, swish, swish.
“Whoa—what’s going on?”
“That slime and the little cat-eared girl are moving like crazy!”
The spectators gasped at the sight of Ao and Shiro in motion, but to me it didn’t seem nearly as intense as the sparring they did every morning.
For Ao, this was probably nothing more than a quick check to make sure her body was moving the way it should.
This is translated by Yume Neiji. Kindly read at yumeineijiworks.wordpress.com.
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