The Seventh Match - 1

Aureatia's Nineteenth Minister, Hyakka the Heat Haze, was sometimes called a young prodigy.

Looking from one side of things, that was a possible interpretation.

Hyakka the Heat Haze wasn't quite as young as Mizial the Iron-Piercing Plumeshade or Elea the Red Tag, and he didn't have either the superb brains of Hidow the Clamp or Quewai the Moon Fragment, nor the excellent physical abilities of Qwell the Wax Flower.

Hyakka's reason for being in his present position was due to a single occasion of good fortune.

In the past, there was a visitor named Luisa the Morning Dew. A self- proclaimed demon king, by spreading a new variety of wheat that was extremely tenacious and resistant to bugs and diseases, she completely changed the ecology of the eastern farmlands. On top of that, she brought tenant farmers with her when she seceded from Aureatia, creating a massive food crisis.

Negotiations with Luisa, appealing for a radical reformation to the system of farmland ownership, had broken down a number of times, and while a military clash seemed nigh unavoidable, the man chosen to serve as the diplomat was Hyakka. Lacking experience and given the job even when, by that point, the Aureatia assembly's policy had already been decided, there were even dubious voices suggesting he may have just been appointed to allow the former Twenty- Ninth Minister to flee from his responsibility in starting the war.

However, with his seat at the peace negotiations, little more than a formality at that point, the situation completely changed.

Luisa the Morning Dew seemed to take a one-sided fancy to something in Hyakka's personality and what he said. Things went almost absurdly smoothly from that point until both sides reached peace… Hyakka was thought to have exceptional executive abilities that brought with them great successes—the reason behind such successes being a mystery to Hyakka himself until he was sworn in as the Nineteenth Minister, in charge of the agricultural division.

I was simply lucky.

It was Hyakka's custom to admonish himself with this mantra.

Aureatia's Twenty-Nine Officials were a realm where bureaucrats, far more capable than him, exerted influence over minian race politics. It was inconceivable to think something convenient specifically for Hyakka would occur a second time.

In which case—his next accomplishment absolutely needed to be through his own efforts. That was what he believed.

There was an opportunity to do just that, too. The Sixways Exhibition.

He had single-handedly found the nameless skeleton mercenary who'd slayed

the Kazuki the Black Tone.

Luckily, the end of the war with the Free City of Okafu was a big part of it as well. It allowed him to sponsor Shalk the Sound Slicer, a former Okafu mercenary, as a hero candidate.

However.

"Shalk the Sound Slicer!"

He called out the name of his hero candidate right as he threw the door open. The room was in a luxurious inn in Aureatia's central district. Shalk the

Sound Slicer was leaning up against the back wall and gazing outside the window at the night cityscape.

Hyakka brought both legs together, adjusted his posture, and looked up Shalk, who was taller than the minian man.

"I heard! You were apparently present during the violent fracas at the Blue Beetle?! Why can't you immediately report that sort of stuff to me?! It's outrageous that I, your sponsor, am not being informed of what's happening with his own candidate without hearing about it from other officials!"

"…A fracas? That's the phrasing you all use for a minor scrape like that, eh?"

Shalk the Sound Slicer's skull face had no expression. This was just as true whenever he joked and spoke sarcastically.

"I'll be more careful next time, but should I 'immediately report' to you stuff like a rock in the road someone could trip over or if the booze I ordered is out of stock, too?"

"D-don't… Don't belittle me, thank you very much!"

Hyakka sat down at the table in the middle of the room, poured himself a drink, and held his cup in both hands, taking a big gulp.

This room was rented by Hyakka the Heat Haze as well. After investigating the crime and safety in the surrounding districts, as well as the level of service

each inn showed their lodgers, he had picked one that was also equipped with perfect security protections. However, all that effort seemed totally useless to this guest himself, who would go out walking the city streets night in and night out.

"Don't get too rowdy with the alcohol now," said Shalk.

"I should be asking you to stop trouncing around to different taverns when you can't even drink yourself! Especially the haunts of the low-class scoundrels! Are you trying to degrade the hero candidates' integrity?!"

"I've got my own way of thinking about things. That and I don't have a lot of fond memories associated with inns like this."

Shalk had never shown any interest in the high-quality bottle of alcohol the inn provided every night.

Obviously, he wouldn't. Skeletons didn't need food or drink and may not have needed a safe place to stay at all. Hyakka was only able to able to provide him with lodgings based on minia standards of quality.

"I'm sure you can fend off the likes of a petty thief, but the ones seriously out to assassinate you aren't gonna hesitate. If you value your life, I wouldn't be dropping by this room too much."

Hyakka silently drained the next glass.

For him, he had wished for his hero candidate to be nothing more than a tool. However, it was then he was faced with nothing but an all-too-reasonable reality… Someone possessing power that far eclipsed his own was never going

to obediently serve under him as his tool in the first place.

Shalk the Sound Slicer didn't want anything.

Neither food, women, nor money could be used as a bargaining chip against the dead.

Hyakka couldn't even imagine it. How were the other sponsors controlling their own hero candidates?

"…Dammit, damn it all."

"You okay? You're not gonna tell me you can't hold your liquor after chugging it down like that, right?"

"Wh-what…does it matter to you?!"

"What, Hyakka? Come to kvetch at me again, have you?"

A noontime café. The man sitting in a seat on the terrace was the Fifteenth

General, Haizesta the Gathering Spot. "That's not it!"

Hyakka got the sense he was constantly being tormented by misbehavers like the man in front of him. It had always been like this, before he even got involved with Shalk the Sound Slicer.

"General Haizesta! Just today, I had multiple women come up to talk with me! There've been six complaints as well! And for some reason, all of them came to me! Do you realize how much trouble this is causing for me?!"

"Oh, six complaints, eh… Nyeh-heh-heh. I tried seducing eight today, but if that's the case, that means two showed some interest. Ain't bad."

Haizesta's voice and laugh were always lower-pitched, even lower than a male opera singer.

He was uncouth, with a large frame. A military officer who gave the completely opposite first impression compared with small and fidgety Hyakka.

"It is bad! First of all, all six of the people who came to see me were married! Four among them even had grandchildren! I cannot fathom how such a frivolous and irresponsible man like you ended up in the Twenty-Nine Officials!"

"See, you're kvetching after all… Nyeh-heh-heheheh."

As it was for almost all the military officers among the Twenty-Nine Officials, Haizesta the Gathering Spot, too, had been included in their ranks thanks to his past battlefield achievements. However, there was a fundamental problem with him as a government official: his terrible behavior.

Thus, there were not very many, even among the other Twenty-Nine Officials, who willingly involved themselves with Haizesta. Hyakka had never seen anyone besides himself lecture the man about his behavior straight to his face.

Despite being over a decade younger than the man, for some reason, this responsibility had landed on Hyakka's shoulders.

"First of all, General Haizesta, what are you even doing during the day? I'm always the one who's forced to figure out where in hell's name you are and whether you're goofing off or actually working!"

"C'mon, I'm doing a bunch of stuff on my end, too, okay… The Sixways Exhibition's bound to get interesting from here, lemme tell you."

"This isn't the time to kick back and enjoy yourself!"

At this point, it wasn't public knowledge that Haizesta the Gathering Spot was, in fact, part of Kaete's camp and actively working behind the scenes. In Hyakka's eyes, he simply came off as an even lazier man than he thought he

was.

Hyakka placed both hands on the table.

"Even if you're not a sponsor, you should address the situation seriously! The Sixways Exhibition is an extremely important true duel event, with the future life of Aureatia on the line!"

"Your promotion's on the line, too, and all."

"That's right! Wait, no, that's not it! I—I simply believe that being royal games, we should be even more disciplined than usual! And yet Shalk will go outside without my permission, and there's delinquents like you lying around, too…"

"Ohhh. So you want your hero candidate to obey your orders, too, huh?" "Yes! Wait, no, that's not the point here! Gaaah, I give up!"

"You're a goody-goody, but still a real worldly fella, aren't you?"

Normally, this wasn't the time to trouble himself with a man like Haizesta.

His present problem was Shalk the Sound Slicer.

On top of it, once he got control of Shalk, he'd have to put him up against the legendary champion, Mele the Horizon's Roar, and he needed to win. It was his sponsor, Hyakka, who needed to think about how exactly to make that happen.

"…Nyeh-heh-heheheh."

"What are you laughing at now…?"

Hyakka groaned, with his face flat on the table. This was a battle that no one else had ever experienced before. There wasn't anyone out there who could tell him how he was supposed to fight it.

"What…am I supposed to do?" "Good question."

Haizesta let out a big yawn.

"I mean, you handled the arena situation pretty well, right? Should go fine if you just keep that up, yeah?"

"...?"

This might have been the first time he had felt something was off.

At this point in time, there hadn't been any negotiations at all regarding the arena for the seventh match.

Hyakka learned about the fortunate change in the situation after a big month had gone by.

He was in the middle of a conversation with one of his subordinates in his office.

"By the way, Hyakka, sir. I heard that the Dogae Basin was decided on for the seventh match."

"What...?"

The Dogae Basin was a modest caldera in Aureatia's southern area.

The ground had collapsed into a circle, like a stadium; it was evenly leveled and surrounded by a high rock face.

Indeed, the Dogae Basin was far and away the venue that would give Shalk the best advantage when going up against Mele the Horizon's Roar. Hyakka himself had even planned on requesting it for the venue.

Talk about the arena's already going around?

Naturally, Hyakka had no recollection of making such an arrangement with Mele's sponsor, Cayon the Skythunder. There certainly hadn't been any official negotiations, but there hadn't been any talk of any personal verbal promises, either.

"Who exactly did you hear that from?"

"Umm, who? I mean everyone's talking about it. Is that not the case?" "…I haven't entered into any talks about the venue yet."

"Really? Then someone must have jumped the gun, perhaps. I myself thought that Dogae Basin would be the absolute best possible terrain for Shalk, though."

Like the Mari Wastes, it was an arena removed from Aureatia city proper. Although the fighting field was spacious, due to the prominent topography that encircled the area, it didn't allow enough space for Mele's archery.

The most advantageous development for me is to get Cayon the Skythunder to agree to this venue…or it was. With Shalk's speed, far faster than Mele could nock an arrow with his sluggish, giant body, he'd be able to close inside the gigant's bow range from the starting position in an instant. He could gain a decisive advantage right from the start of the match.

The only arenas that could handle fights against irregularly large bodies like Lucnoca the Winter and Mele the Horizon's Roar were the Mari Wastes and Dogae Basin. With that in mind, Hyakka could understand this rumor itself. There was obviously someone making assumptions ahead of time about the venue for the seventh match.

…In which case, can I use this rumor to my advantage?

This fact might be a second visit of good fortune for Hyakka.

He proposed something to his subordinate who had brought the rumor to his

attention.

"Could we spread that rumor around to more people?"

"I suppose…? But you haven't decided on the arena yet, right?"

"That's exactly why. We just have to pretend any advantageous terms for the match are an established fact. If there's a rumor going around that the venue's already been decided, next can come a rumor about the number of spectator seats. Once that's dispersed enough, next can be a rumor about the day and time for the match. If the shops and citizens take it as true and everything trends toward Dogae Basin as the venue—by that point, even Cayon wouldn't be able to go back on it. I'll be able to force through the exact conditions I want!"

There was more than enough time left until the date of their negotiations in the Coordinating Room.

Until then, he would remove every obstacle in his way and suppress Mele the Horizon's Roar abilities before the match even begun.

I might be able to do it.

An unexpected exaltation welled up from within Hyakka.

The strategy he just blurted out on the spot, to make use of these rumors for himself, didn't seem like too much of a long shot. If it succeeded, he'd gain a decisive advantage, and if it failed, it wouldn't cost him anything.

Above all, this scheme was one Hyakka had thought up on his own.

No, I can do it. I…I'll win the Sixways Exhibition with my own abilities!

The rumors about the seventh match's arena had begun spreading even among the citizenry.

It was the match of Mele the Horizon's Roar, the living legend who had protected the Sine Riverstead from any threat against it. The people were highly interested in him, only dwarfed by their interest in Rosclay the Absolute, Alus the Star Runner, and Toroa the Awful, and when Hyakka went into the city, every day, he'd hear the topic come up around him more and more.

That day, Hyakka entered a general store to do some inconsequential shopping.

"Good day, Hyakka, sir! I've heard the rumors about the royal games!" "Thanks! This, please…and three of those lampwicks."

"Yes, right away. Our supplier's changed from last month, but I've already confirmed their quality for myself. Rest easy… Incidentally, will the match

arena really be Dogae Basin?"

"No, it hasn't exactly been decided on yet!"

Hyakka gave this sort of answer whenever he was directly asked about the subject. He was a man concerned with worldly pursuits, but he was still an upright civil official. He couldn't give false answers no matter what.

"However, it does seem like things will turn out like that soon."

Therefore, he tempered people's impressions with responses that weren't technically lies.

It could be said that this future was on the horizon, though, now that the rumor was spreading voluntarily among the people.

"Ha-ha. Is that right? So it's not set in stone?"

"I assume, then, people really are talking like it is, after all?"

"Both the blacksmith Yewty and the boss at the Sparkling Stag were saying as much! After all, I mean, it's Mele the Horizon's Roar's match we're talking about here. Anyone who says they're not interested is a liar."

"Are tickets already being sold? I need to take care on my end to know if there are any shops accepting reservations before everything's decided, after all!"

"For the seventh match… I haven't heard any myself. The second match apparently filled up with reservations a long time ago. Is it true that Lucnoca the Winter's gonna take part? Eh-hee-hee-hee!"

…Mrrrm. I guess things aren't going to turn out that perfectly for me.

If hasty shops were already getting to work, he would've been able to present the rumors of the arena as indisputable facts.

However, for that reason, tickets sales were being strictly regulated.

The results of any negotiations were submitted to Aureatia's Third Minister, who was in charge of trade and commerce—Jel the Swift Ink. As long as he didn't acknowledge the situation, it would mean it'd be impossible to have the shops clear the way for him ahead of time.

"Though, well, that's good," said the shopkeeper. "What's good?"

"Oh, no, nothing, nothing, just talking to myself. We'll be eagerly awaiting your next visit to our shop, Hyakka, sir!"

The rumor was spreading among the people. Things were going smoothly— that's how it seemed to Hyakka.