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But then a strange laughter starts to be heard, and a voice I don't know speaks to me from the shadows. "Surely you were expecting to meet that poor old orc you keep by your side under threat, but in reality it was me, Oid, who wrote the letter..."

As the young orc speaks, he keeps making strange gestures, as if he were in some kind of theater class.

".... You thought you could escape justice by leaving town after what you did, but you were sorely mistaken. Prepare to get what you deserve, you vile, thieving slave. You caught me off guard the other time, but this time it will be different..."

He then points an accusatory finger at me.

'Thief?...

You and that piece of shit tavern keeper tried to attack me!…

You should be grateful that you didn't get something worse in return.'

"... I don't know what you will have threatened that venerable orc with to make him follow you everywhere, but today I will release him from the yoke of your tyranny. Surrender yourself willingly, and your crimes will be judged by the empire...'"

After hearing his words, I quickly recognized the name and voice of the person who was talking to me.

It's that stupid orc who tried to attack me in the tavern that day I met Kaelion.

'Haa.... This guy is crazy... But he doesn't seem to be a bad person; he just has his ideas a bit... twisted. I probably shouldn't kill him... Wait, how did he find me?'

"... Don't you say anything? I see you can't say anything in the face of the righteousness of my arguments. Good! That means you can at least acknowledge the wrongness of your actions, but don't expect mercy on my part...." says the demented chattering orc while I keep thinking about what I should do with him.

" .... Perhaps I might have considered it if only the guilt of attacking my friends and me weighed on your head, but you have committed an unforgivable sin by threatening that poor, weak old orc. I don't know what your twisted and shady motivations are, but today I, Oíd, will end with.... Agh... that hurts! What are you doing? No! Stop! Mgmgm-"

The young orc tries to unsheathe his twin swords in the middle of his stupid spiel, but....

Before he finishes speaking, I leap over and give him a light punch in the stomach that stamps him against a column.

After which, I hold both hands above his head with one of my hands.

And I use my other hand to cover his mouth.

"Listen to me, you fucking lunatic. I don't know how you did to follow me here, but this is the last time I will spare your life..." I say while I tighten my grip on his wrists a bit, and some tears start to come out of the young orc's eyes.

"... This will make two times I've let you go with just a few hits after you've tried to attack me, but there won't be a third time. Is that clear?"

To elicit a response from him, I remove my hand from his mouth.

However, as soon as he regains the opportunity, he reverts to his incessant chatter.

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"You won't get away with this, you damned slave, justice..."

'Haa....

I can't leave him alive...

He puts my stay in the capital at risk....

But for some reason, I don't like the idea of killing you...'

"Boy, I wouldn't want to have to kill you. You seem like a nice guy... Deep down inside... But if you keep testing me, you're going to end up meeting your death. I am not threatening the old orc you saw me with. In fact, he's my... friend. Okay? Now I'm going to knock you unconscious, and I'm going to go back down to the first floors of the Colosseum...."

'He thinks he's doing a good thing by trying to capture me…

Capturing me? Yeah, I guess that's why I don't like the idea of killing him. He's never really threatened my life.'

"... I hope when you wake up you don't try to do something stupid, because otherwise I'm going to go back to that village where I first saw you and slaughter all its inhabitants…”

'It's an empty and stupid threat, but I'm sure he'll believe it.'

“... I'm no monster, no matter how much you are convinced of it. Don't force me to be one," I say, and, without letting go of his hands, I give him a headbutt that instantly knocks him out.

I then release him and pull out a health potion.

I pour its contents over the head of the young orc, who is now collapsed at my feet.

With this, I hope he understands that he should leave me alone and that I just want to be at peace in the capital.

'At least for now, though sooner or later I will have to challenge the emperor... and that can end very very badly.'

***

Yesterday, after I had knocked the two-sworded lunatic unconscious, I went back down to where I was sitting on the bleachers before the note reached me.

Kaelion showed up around the time the ranking bouts were to start.

That day, I was able to reach 34th place in the rankings before the end of the period to fight for the rankings, thanks to the fact that I kept winning with absurd ease.

As I got higher in the rankings, the bouts lasted a little longer, but no opponent could hold out against me for more than 5 minutes.

This made my fame, and consequently the cheers of the public, increase.

This new fame aroused equal parts contempt and respect in the people I challenged and from whom I received challenges.

But, despite this new fame I was gaining, unfortunately, the champion did not make an appearance in the Colosseum.

Today Kaelion told me that he didn't want to go to the labyrinth, as he had to go to a certain place alone.

So I decided to try to climb some more places in the colosseum, as it is very inefficient to go alone to the labyrinth.

But all the opponents I challenged have refused to show up.

So, to kill my boredom, I'm on one of the stands on the top floor, fiddling with the flintlock pistol and analyzing its mechanism.

According to what the old orc told me, that's what I have to do to acquire the Engineer class.

He told me that ideally I should take it apart and try to reassemble it on my own several times.

But I don't have the tools for that, so for the time being, I can only study how it works by observation.

Every now and then some of the people in the audience look up to glance in my direction, but so far no one has tried to get close to where I am.

'They probably think I'm cocky for sitting so much higher than them,or maybe they're thinking of some other stupidity since I'm a 'slave' who is alone...'

While staring at the flintlock pistol from various angles, I suddenly hear a familiar female voice behind me.

"Hello, Mr. Destroyer, or should I call you.... Xelean..." the voice says, and a singsong laugh is heard as I see Rinka approaching from the inner hallway of the Colosseum towards where I am sitting on the bleachers.

The young female orc wears a light orange blouse that is low-cut and loose-fitting, paired with tight blue pants that leave little to the imagination.

"...Can I have your autograph? I have many friends who are fans of your exploits."

"Ahh, hello... What... how... shouldn't you be working?" I say the first thing that comes to mind.

I struggle to think clearly about what to say due to feeling dazed and uncomfortable realizing that my secret was exposed.

'Yesterday it was that Oid guy, and now this? Today, I definitely should have gone to the labyrinth and forgotten about the troubles for a few hours.'

"I'm on my day off..." says Rinka, smiling as she comes to where I am and sits down next to me.

"...What are you doing?"

"How... How did you find me out?" I ask in a strained voice, ignoring her question.

"Let's see... It was a combination of several things..." says the young female orc, bringing her right hand to her chin and tilting her head slightly as she speaks.

"... The first thing is that you have used fire magic in some of your fights for the ranking positions, and since I had seen that you had an affinity with fire when you registered in the association and that you were a high-level spellcaster, which is obviously something extremely rare in the empire.... well, it was quite easy to make the connection..." she says as a mischievous smile appears on her face and she starts listing with her fingers all the reasons she is mentioning.

"... Besides, you've also used that new tattoo of yours here, and I also knew it's on the back of your right hand, thanks to the information I got from Jackal when he told me how you helped him. Thanks for that, by the way. Jackal... He's like a brother to me..."

At the mention of her friend, Rinka's smile loses its mischievous and amused tinge and becomes warm.

"... But back to the topic of how I discovered you: Obviously, I didn't see any of your fights yet, since I'm usually working at this hour. But, as I said, I have several friends who think very highly of your... physical capabilities.... to give it a name. I'm not really surprised. I..."

As I listen to the girl talk, I'm thinking at full speed about what the fuck I can do to get out of this problem.

But no matter how much I rack my brains, I can't come up with a solution.

'Should I kill her? No, I can't kill her. We're in broad daylight... Besides, nothing assures me that she hasn't told someone else...'