97 Foul Play

***** Rudeus' POV *****

Gorp continued winning round after round with relative ease. While his magical prowess was relatively mediocre, his incredible physique gave him an edge over his opponents. In fact, after watching the first couple rounds, I've had a chance to watch every single participant in action and I didn't see anyone who posed a significant threat to Gorp.

I was beginning to wonder why I even had to be here. Maybe I've already completed my mission when I rescued him from that dungeon? It's hard to say, but I'm going to stay until the end to make sure.

The tournament continued until there were only four competitors remaining. These last four, including Gorp, will compete in the finals tomorrow.

Gorp, Helgar, and I, as well as plenty of their adventuring buddies, went out to drink to celebrate making it to the finals.

"It's just a shame Ichizar and Bellaro couldn't be here with us tonight", one of his friends said.

"They'd be cheering for you louder than anyone!", another added.

"Hello no they wouldn't, they'd be kicking my ass in the finals tomorrow!", Gorp laughed.

"You bet your ass they would", Helgar agreed. "Guess that means you've gotta win this thing in their stead."

"Yeah...", Gorp set his drink down and stared blankly past it. "I'd have never made it back here if it wasn't for those two. That vampire was far too quick and agile, there's no way I beat that thing if I'm on my own."

"Hey now, don't you be going soft on us now Gorp!", one of his buddies said to break the somber silence. "Cheer up, you need to be at the top of your game tomorrow!"

"Haha, yeah you're right! Cheers!"

The celebration lasted deep into the night as everyone took turns buying the next round. One of the waiters even brought a complimentary meal for Gorp. Smart move on the part of the bar, buttering up the potential new leader of your town.

I woke up the next morning with a splitting headache. I massaged the sides of my head as a greenish yellow light emitted from my hands. Soon enough the detoxification magic eased my hangover and I got up to get a glass of water to help with the dehydration.

Helgar was sprawled out on the floor in the middle of the room while Gorp laid on his stomach in bed with his right arm hanging off the side and his hand resting on the floor.

'Say what you want about the demonfolk, but they sure know how to party. Gorp is so knocked out that for once he's not even snoring. Wait a minute...'

I studied Gorp as he laid on the bed completely motionless.

'Is he even breathing?'

"Gorp? You alright buddy?"

I walked up beside the bed and gave him a little shove... nothing.

That's when I began to panic. I turned him onto his back, which wasn't as easy as it sounds considering how huge the man is, and placed my middle and index fingers against his neck.

'He's got a pulse... but it's faint.'

At first I thought he wasn't breathing but on closer inspection, he was just breathing very weakly.

"Gorp, wake up!", I yelled as I smacked him.

"Wha-? What's going on!?", Helgar leapt up to her feet in confusion.

"Something's wrong with Gorp! He's barely breathing!"

"What!?"

Helgar ran up to Gorp's side and grabbed ahold of his shoulders and shook him violently.

"Gorp! Wake up! Wake up!"

She peeled back his eyelid with one of her fingers while trying to wake him before she screamed at what she saw.

The white's of his eyes were completely purple! In fact... on closer inspection... purple streaks could be found all throughout his body. They were just hard to see due to his thick skin.

"He's been poisoned!", I yelled out.

"Poisoned! How!? Who would do such a thing!"

I placed both my palms against his chest and bright greenish light emitted from both of them. I was casting the strongest detoxification magic I knew, which should have been about as effective as King-Tier.. Slowly, the purple streaks faded from his body and his eyes returned to normal.

Suddenly, Gorp gasped a deep breath and began coughing up some blackish purple liquid.

"HUH HUH Huh...", he continued gasping for a while as he caught his breath.

"Oh thank goodness! I thought I lost you again!", Helgar yelled as she hugged him.

"What happened", he asked in confusion.

"You were poisoned", I answered calmly.

"Poisoned? Then, how am I... did you heal me?"

"Yeah, I removed the poison with detoxification magic and then healed the damage it caused with healing magic."

"You saved us once again!", Helgar exclaimed as evidently it was my turn for a hug.

"You're even an expert healer. Is there anything you can't do?", Gorp asked.

"I can't rip the head off a vampire with my bare hands."

"Fair enough! Hahaha I guess we all have our own strengths."

"Yes, and yours is quite literal."

"Who would even poison me?", Gorp suddenly questioned.

"That's what I'd like to know. Plenty of people were buying us drinks last night, it could have been any of them."

"Those were all our closest friends! They would never poison him!", Helgar said.

"That's true... It couldn't have been them", Gorp agreed.

"Well, you guys know the people here better than me. Could it have been the bartender? Maybe he put something in your drink."

"Harry would never do something like that! I've known him since we were kids."

"What about that waiter?", Helgar suddenly cut in. "I didn't think much of it at the time, but I've never seen him there before."

"Come to think of it, Harry's bar doesn't even employ waiters", Gorp agreed.

*Smack*

I face palmed.

"How could you be so careless? You're basically running to be an elected official, of course you're going to have enemies!"

"Look, I don't know what it's like where you come from, but that's not a thing here in Bristall. People around here have their pride. If someone's got beef with you they tell it to your face. Nobody goes around poisoning people like a coward!"

"The guy who did it probably wasn't from around here", I admitted. "You might not realize it, but people I know have a vested interest in who runs this town."

"You know who poisoned him then? Was it the waiter?"

"I mean yeah, it probably was the waiter, but I'm sure he's long gone by now. We all saw his face so it's not safe for him here. Even so, I'm certain he's not the one you need to worry about. He was just a lackey who was hired to do the job."

"Why would anyone from the outside care who leads Bristall."

"It's hard to explain, but that's why I came to this place."

"That's right! He was looking for you even before I asked him for help!", Helgar remembered.

"The truth is, Demon God Laplace is going to revive sometime in this century."

"What!?"

"The Demon God!?"

"Yes. He's going to try to start another war with the Humans, and my group wants to prevent it. There is, however, another group that wants this war to happen."

"That's terrible!", Gorp exclaimed. "Another war with the humans would be meaningless. Countless people will lose their lives."

"That's my point exactly. Since you have a friendly view of humans, I knew that the warmongering group would not want you to lead Bristall. That's why I've come here to protect you, incase something like this happened."

"Why Bristall? We're just a small, poor city."

"I don't know the details myself, I was just told to protect you until you were elected."

"Hmph!"

I could tell that Gorp wanted to say something like 'I can protect myself!', but the truth is that he almost died twice just in the past week.

"Look, you don't really have to worry about any of this. Just focus on today's matches. I'll be rooting for you", I said with a smile to try and lighten the mood.

Despite my attempt, Gorp seemed to remain in a foul mood the rest of the morning.

We made our way to the tournament arena where Helgar and I had front row seats reserved for us as friends / family of one of the finalists. I kept an eye out for the waiter from yesterday or anyone who seemed surprised to see Gorp show up today. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary though. Whoever poisoned Gorp is probably long gone already.

 Uncharacteristically, Gorp didn't attempt to cast any magic in his first round. In fact, he didn't even bring his wand. Gorp walked out onto the stage with no gear and fought with his bare hands from the get go.

The typical jovial look on his face was gone and instead replaced by a ferocious glare as he stared down his opponent. The man who stood opposite Gorp was fully armored and fought using a two meter long Halberd.

His opponent was skilled, and landed several blows on Gorp. The blows would leave a bleeding gash but couldn't penetrate deep enough to cause any real harm. The armored man deftly kept his distance from Gorp using his Halberd while causing repeated minor injuries to Gorp in the process.

For a while, it looked like he held the advantage until Gorp charged directly at him ignoring any form of defense. Gorp took a halberd strike head on but ignored it as he spread out his arms showing his enormous wingspan and tackled his opponent to the ground.

Once he got ahold of his opponent he picked him up and squeezed him in a bear hug. The armor began to creak and bend under the strain as the man screamed out in pain and the judge immediately called the match.

Gorp unceremoniously dropped him to the ground and walked off the stage to await his final match.

When time came for the grand finals, Gorp walked back into the arena good as new (fighters were treated with healing magic in between rounds). His opponent, who seemed considerably weaker than the armored knight Gorp fought in the semifinals, ended up forfeiting the match when facing down Gorp's stare.

Despite the boos from the crowd, Gorp was declared the champion and was officially announced to be the new leader of Bristall.

Gorp gave an acceptance speech, dedicating his win to his fallen friends.

Once everything had calmed down, I said my goodbyes to Gorp and Helgar. I gave Gorp a lithograph stone and showed him how to use it. This way he could get in contact with me at any time if he needed help with something.

I also went back to the city gate where Fenrir was patiently waiting for my return. Falco, captain of the city guard, had taken over responsibility of feeding Fenrir and the two seemed to have grown attached.

As much as I would like to, I decided against bringing Fenrir back to Sharia with me. He's much too large to keep on our property and his flaming tails would make for quite the fire hazard.

Falco agreed to keep Fenrir and he even officially recruited him as one of the town's guards. He'd have to earn his keep considering the amount of food he eats.

Finally, before leaving, I secretly made an underground teleportation circle just outside of town similar to what I did in Milishion. This way I could get back here quickly if I needed.

From there, I activated the newly formed magic circle, and reappeared in my home in Sharia.