Future Matchups

'The tournament 1v1 rounds are up.'

I said to myself as I checked the notice board in the reception of Silver's Inn. There were 16 pairings and 32 participants. I wonder who I'm going to be put up against. I tried jumping to look at the sheet, but I couldn't see it properly. I really hate my height. If I were to jump upwards with strength, then I'd probably jump too high. Maybe I should train my control too.

The tournament sheet was taken off the notice board and given to me, by none other than the man himself, the innkeeper, Silver. He didn't talk to me. He simply gave me the sheet and smiled, then followed by him walking away. He's a nice guy. I look at the sheet and the matchups.

Arcana is fighting Aarya. Sirius is fighting Zacharias Thunder, while Sakurako is fighting Aaron Marshal. I feel like that matchup with Sakurako and Aaron Marshal was rigged because of her performance against him in the Group-A Preliminary match. The person I'm fighting is... Ah, it's that Amazon woman, Nyuri Nayami. What luck I have. A strong opponent for my first round.

«In terms of strength, you beat Nyuri Nayami by a long shot. Her speed may be greater, or the same as yours but her primal instincts are better than yours.»

Meaning that I only have my strength going for me. They said we can't use magic, but that doesn't exclude the use of skills. Skills that are similar to magic will be considered magic. I think. Like Battle Thread, if I were to use that, I bet they'd count it as magic. If I were to use Iron Body, they wouldn't count it as magic, would they? No, no, but it's like reinforcing yourself with armour, so... I shouldn't use it, just in case.

Oh yeah, who's that Joker guy fighting? I scan the sheet for Joker's name and I found it eventually. He's fighting Caris. If I remember, he was in Group-C with me. He was strong, well, from my point of view, anyways. Looking at that Joker guy's ki, Caris may be an easy win for him.

'Oh, Altair, you're up early.'

I turn to find Sirius waving at me. He approached me with a hazy look on his face. Seems like he didn't wake up on the right side of the bed today.

'I could say the same to you, though you don't look too good.'

'Tell me about it. I woke up, in the middle of the night, to that Dragonewt's foot in my face. She then tossed and turned, started to hug me hard while she was sleeping. I couldn't sleep at all because it felt like my arms would pop at any moment. I don't even know how she got into my bed. Felt like fucking torture.'

Yeah, maybe we should've slept boy-boy and girl-girl. I wouldn't even mind sleeping with a sadist like this. I'm guessing that in his mind, he's super pissed about the fact that it wasn't him doing the torturing.

As he continued to scratch his hair, his eyes drifted onto the tournament sheet in my hand. Sirius took it out of my hand and looked at his opponent.

'Shit. I'm fighting that super fast guy who was in my group.'

'Is he that good? I never saw him during the broadcast.'

'I tried going after him once, but he completely disappeared from my vision. In the end, he was behind me. If it weren't for my instincts, then I wouldn't be in the 1v1 stages.'

Seems like he's worth putting on my list of "pains" in this tournament. Sirius shifted his eyes, probably to either Sakurako's, Arcana's or my matchup.

'Sakurako's matchup seems rigged.'

'That's what I was thinking too when I saw it. That guy has a surname meaning that he's noble, right? They really are twisted. Some, anyways.'

He reached for an extra pin, on the notice board, and pinned the tournament matchups back onto the board.

'The Marshal family are earls. Meaning that they're quite average in the noble rankings.'

Ai, what's the order of noble titles?

«Baron, Viscount, Earl, Duke, Aristocrat and Royalty.»

'Though they are average, they're practically bottom when it comes to finances and reputation. Because of that, it seems that Aaron Marshal wanted to prove others wrong, and in doing so, he joined the Military Academy. Even there he was ridiculed and made fun of, but he put those who made fun of him in their place. He's a very arrogant person despite his looks and background.'

'And why do you know all of this?'

Sirius shivers. He starts sweating and he scratches his face with a single finger.

'W-well, Sis and I research various nobles to know which ones are corrupt and which ones aren't.'

Back in my world, that'd be considered stalking no matter what. Or would it? I mean, you're memorizing someone's info and backstory. If he was a yandere, then it would definitely be. I wonder about something.

(Appraisal.)

A screeching noise filled my ears and a rectangle-shaped red screen appeared in my field of vision.

[Cannot Appraise]

It's different from last time. Last time, Identify was blocked, but this time, it says "Cannot." These guys are hiding something. I'm still going to trust them because I doubt it would be because they wanted to hurt me or Sakurako.

Well, I just want to chill out for this whole day, though I have nothing to do these days. Sometimes I do miss my PC, TV and games. My anime, manga and light novels too. I regret not being able to finish that one rom-com. If I could go back and finish it, I definitely would. Man, I haven't met anyone I can talk to this stuff about too. If we exclude Zyn that is.

What is Zyn, anyways? He calls himself the god-like being, so, who is the god of this world? Do you have any idea, Ai?

«Classified Information.»

Meaning that she does.

'Something wrong, Altair?'

'No, I'm just nervous.'

'Ah, you're fighting the Amazonian woman, aren't you?'

'Yeah.'

We walk along and continue chatting. At times like this, I wonder why I closed myself off from society and the outside world. Well, whatever, I don't regret my past life. Not one bit.