They had arrived early enough that Jill could still make it to her fight. He was just impressed that she had been able to teleport them so far. Apparently, her improved teleportation skill was significantly better now. They got a quick meal while at home, before heading towards the arena. Red’s fight was around lunch, and she might still be fighting.

As it turned out, they both had finished their fights. However, that didn’t exactly make either of them happy, especially as Jill kept teleporting around and bragging about how she had been right. Furthermore, Red hadn’t reached her advancement, despite killing a few monsters in her fight. That only made her angrier when she learned of what happened.

Mash proceeded to inform them of the course of events, and had Luke check his condition. Mash had meditated after the fight and felt healed, but still wanted to check if the damage to his soul had persisted. Luke informed him that there was no damage, and Mash was glad that his skill looked like it would let him recover from any wound.

They spent much of the afternoon discussing what had happened and also talked about what they wanted to do about their contracts. Ultimately, the three of them decided that they would cancel their contracts once they were ready to go to the other dungeon. Essentially, they would be waiting on Red to advance but guessed that it would happen soon enough. It was probably just one more fight away, and the Colosseum had their next fight scheduled for three days from now. It was the day after the year ended. The tournament ending the day before the new year seemed to make it a more exciting event.

Finally, Jill’s fight came around, though Mash felt like it wouldn’t be very exciting. He highly doubted the organizers had monsters that could stop her from teleporting, and she wouldn’t get hit by anything that couldn’t do that. Honestly, the only way Mash could win against her, would be getting a lucky hit. Maybe his dragon form would be fast enough, but the precognition made him unsure.

As expected, the organizers didn’t have such a thing prepared, and instead brought out a large wolf. As it moved its grey fur reflected the sun like pure metal. Considering it was called a blade hound, that seemed to line up with what he knew about the creature. It had an extremely good sense of its surroundings and was rather quick for its rank. However, it was not as fast as he was, and even he was not able to touch Jill.

Jill didn’t even bother getting into a stance, and merely waited for the wolf to rush at her. She only teleported away right before the creature bit her. This repeated for almost half an hour. The monster had tried a few different things and even demonstrated some magic. Mash hadn’t known the monster was capable of that, though the surprise attack didn’t even make Jill flinch. After the half-hour, the monster gave up and laid down to sleep. Jill appeared on top of the creature and just sat down on it. It didn’t so much as bother attacking, and the monster just kept on sleeping.

Eventually, the announcer decided that it would be better if he ended the fight. Simply declaring Jill as the winner, was enough for her to give the audience an unnecessary bow before teleporting away. She reappeared in the room he was in, and he couldn’t stop himself from laughing. The fight had been a joke, an insult even to the audience and the organizers.

They didn’t linger after the fight ended and escaped the arena quickly. He doubted that Jill would get in trouble for the little display, but her incessant laughter wasn’t helping their situation. He figured her reputation would probably build from this fight, as it was much more memorable than her last. However, nobody would really be able to understand how powerful her class was and would only see her as a teleporter with a lot of mana.

Red couldn’t help but be unhappy, as her fight had been so drab in comparison. It seemed like the organizers kept failing on giving her fights where she could really showcase her abilities. Her fight today had been against another type of golem, and it met a similar fate to the last. She only needed one more level for her advancement, and they walked back home while discussing what they would do.

They stopped to get a meal on the way back and, by the time they returned, there was a letter waiting for Jill. It was from the Colosseum and was a cancelation of their contract. They had apparently been offended by her actions today and had decided to stop her from further fights. It sounded a little forced, but she didn’t really care. Honestly, it let her avoid the cost of canceling it on her own. With their plan to enter the dungeon, they would need to cancel the contracts anyways.

Nothing else exciting happened until his brother returned. Then there was a lot of commotion as he shared some information with them. Sadly, there were no survivors in the village. There was not much else other than the state of the adventurers, and more sightings of the black-feathered crows. Mash wondered what it meant, however, that was a piece of information that his brother didn’t possess. The interrogation of those adventurers was underway, but Arthur didn’t think they would have much valuable knowledge. They seemed weak, and more like grunts than people who would know anything important.

His brother told them that there would probably be some more information in the coming days, but for now, that was all he could say. With the little information they had received, and the obvious preamble to some greater disaster in their mind, Mash struggled to fall asleep. It’s not like missing a day of sleep would be that big a deal, especially considering he could just meditate before his fight. That would deal with most things.

*****************************************************************************

Mash approached the guild, a bit surprised to see how much of a crowd was gathering. It was the day before the new year, and it was also the final day of the tournament. Even if the event was meant for common adventurers, he guessed that the audience would be filled with high-profile individuals. Once he got nearby, he was glad to see that the crowd recognized him. They let him enter easily, some people even wishing him luck as he passed. That was a surreal feeling, especially considering the treatment he had been familiar with.

His friends were allowed to pass with him but couldn’t follow him once they got downstairs. Apparently, he needed to head somewhere else, and prepare for a meeting with someone important. They led him to a room and told him to wait there. He would be called soon but had slightly over an hour to himself. Mash sighed, wishing he had arrived a bit later. Mash couldn’t sit still even if the room was nice. It was easily as big as his bedroom and had foods and drinks laid out on a nearby table. There was a couch against the back wall of the room too, though he didn’t really feel like sitting. He did grab some food though but didn’t linger in the room. Even with the words of the attendant, he decided that he wanted to walk around. Maybe even find the hero to speak with.

Walking through the hallway, he used his domain to feel for the hero’s mana. He had been close enough to feel it before and should be able to recognize it now. Well, Priscilla would be able to recognize it even if he couldn’t.

However, Mash wasn’t expecting to feel the mana coming off a girl who looked more like a servant than a fighter. Unremarkable clothes of a grayish-brown did little to accent her orangish hair. The only standout feature was her pupils, which seemed tiny compared to the size of her eyes. Those were a shade of mild blue that wasn’t nearly as impressive as some he had seen. Even with all that, he thought that she was oddly cute. She was a head shorter than Mash and wore thick glasses that made her eyes look bigger. her hair was cut short and kept straight with a headband. It only reached the base of her neck.

“Hello.”

Mash spoke while holding out a hand to her. She was startled by the motion, and he realized that she hadn’t been paying attention to him.

“Hello, is there anything I can do for you, sir?”

Her voice sounded a bit forced, and she spoke quietly. Mash didn’t understand what the ‘sir’ was about but asked what he wanted to anyway.

“Right, I wanted to ask you about the sword. What hap-“

“Stop! Can we not do this here?”

She sounded panicked, and Mash was a little surprised when the meek girl interrupted him. She didn’t seem like the type to do something like that, but he nodded and followed her anyways. He wasn’t really worried about a sneak attack or anything like that. Even though she fought to win, she was still a hero.

The girl’s room here was much the same as his own, and he saw the telltale armor sitting on the couch. Or at least, arranged to look like someone was sitting there. Somethings fell into place as he saw the suit of armor, and the sword lying beside it. She was pretending to be in the room while wandering around looking like a servant. Her appearance was probably intentional, though he had no idea why.

“Why go through all this? Oh, and what’s your name?”

Mash had completely forgotten her name and felt a little bad for not remembering what the hero’s name was. She looked at him, glaring and her whole presence seemed to shift. The meekness changed into skepticism, and her gaze seemed more analytical rather than afraid. Her presence changed slightly too, and she seemed more like a knowledgeable scholar than a servant. It was such a stark difference, that he wasn’t prepared for the change in her voice.

“I don’t really want or need to answer any of your questions. Maybe after today, but certainly not now.”

There was venom in her voice as she spoke, and Mash wondered what he had done to give her such a bad impression. She wasn’t wrong though, especially considering that they might end up fighting one another. He had wanted to ask her about the sword and armor, but that didn’t seem like a good decision now. He only nodded and left while giving her a small apology.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to offend you.”

He left and could vaguely hear her muttering something in response. Mash tried recalling the situation as he made his way back to the room. Thinking about it, he might have been rude to her. At the very least trying to find out information about an opponent, seemed extremely condescending. If someone had done something like that to him, he would assume that they were certain that he would lose. He didn’t think he was that bad, though he understood her position now. He would make sure to give her a better apology the next time they met, and he did still want to hear the story behind the blade.

He spent most of the remaining time eating what he could but that didn’t last very long. It wasn’t because of the time, rather he finished all the food that was there. It was good, consisting of cuts of meat and cheese. It was not a very impressive spread considering the situation, and he found himself surprised by the thought. It seemed like his short time in luxury was getting to him, and considering some of the things he had eaten, this was pretty good. Even remembering the demon flesh made him gag. He was saved from his thoughts by a knock at the door.