73 – Climbing-8
“Sorry. Seriously, I don’t have anything to say…”
Seeing Daisy bowing her head to me, I shook my head with a puzzled face.
“No, it wasn’t that I didn’t necessarily want to do it. Well… It wouldn’t be bad if something changed.”
In the first place, she didn’t think this would ever happen from the moment she signed her contract with her.
It is not unnatural for sports players or pro gamers to run advertisements or events.
In the Earth I knew, slaves were used as contestants only in gladiators, but the gladiators here were treated much better than that.
It was also a world with restrictions on status, so it was not possible to scrape together the money of a wealthy aristocrat or a successful merchant.
However, compared to commoners or ordinary fallen nobles, he was receiving a huge salary. Among them, I was the one who got paid the most, but other gladiators also got paid quite a bit.
Tickets for my matches are expensive, but you will have to work harder to get the value of your salary.
“But… Would sword fighting be okay?”
“It doesn’t matter. Rather, I feel stuffy…”
Recently, I’ve been feeling my skills stagnate strangely.
You won’t lose the fight right away. When I first entered the arena, I didn’t expect to become so strong so quickly.
I was serious about defeating Dana, but there were too many unknowns to think about it realistically.
However, it was just as frustrating now.
I’ve never fought Danawa in real combat, but I’ve done sparring a lot. I could feel it instinctively.
I can’t beat her at this rate.
It was just my misunderstanding that I thought it was Dana who had reached the pinnacle of other gladiator fighters.
They use the same sword and carry the same shield. However, the difference in specifications was too great.
Faster, stronger, and sharper than any Secutor.
When I heard that such a gladiator was not the ruler of the Colosseum, but one of the many champions, I couldn’t believe it.
After searching, there was no one among her secutors who could beat her.
Among the gladiators with a special class, only those who honed countless new strategies to win a single victory were able to win a single victory.
“So, what should I do?”
“Lightly, I received a suggestion that I could do a sword fight in front of the envoys from another country. He said that he would probably have a sword fight with someone he designated there.”
“Is this common?”
“It wasn’t that there wasn’t one at all… But if the person calling was Evan-nim, it would be a bit different.”
Well, it wasn’t bad.
Because it seemed like nothing I could learn from gladiator fights or personal training here.
It’s not that they are weak. The more my victory continued, the stronger the opponent became, and they were fighting a fight that ‘wouldn’t have won if it wasn’t for luck’.
But, to be honest, it has nothing to do with Dana.
I fought against many classes of gladiators.
There were Letarius with nets and spears, and even gladiators who fought with hooks on their arms like Captain Hook, gladiators with shields and spears, and gladiators with various other weapons.
It was a good experience, and it was also quite fun. However, the victory was not necessarily happy.
You have to beat them a hundred or a thousand times, because you couldn’t take the slightest advantage in the sparring with Danawa.
There were quite a few gladiators who used shields or swords, but they were very different from Danawa.
I wasn’t sure that I could defeat Dana by using the strategies I thought would be effective by fighting them, even if I thought of using them once.
Still, there are only a few footprints left.
My score was high enough. Enough to participate in a game that’s about the size of a ‘playoff’ based on my world.
“Please call me when you have a schedule.”
It was a bit uneasy that the other person was the princess, but unexpectedly, I might not have personal feelings for you.
After taking a deep sigh, I pictured Dana’s movements in my mind. Again, no answer came out.
/////
“Look at this. Isn’t it amazing?”
“…Keep your head down. I told you, but we’re not going out to play.”
Inside the tent, the silver-haired sister was inside.
“The man is active as a gladiator!”
“The Empire’s fighters are all weaklings?”
“No, that’s a different story! Doesn’t it just… Make your heart race just for a man holding a sword?”
“Well, I’m not sure.”
On the small piece of paper held by the woman on the younger brother’s side, a man dressed in her armor pulled out a sword and held it.
“I’m a bit envious. There’s paper to waste in a place like this.”
In the northern part, which did not have the level of productive power of the Empire, paper was a fairly important resource.
It was an item that could only be seen in peddlers wandering the cold land, or in official documents of royalty and nobles.
“Waste? A man fights with a knife.”
“Even if it’s a Colosseum, it’s just a business. It’s a luxury to simply use paper to make money.”
“I see…”
“…It was a mistake.
“It wasn’t a graffiti, it was a book review!”
“Yes, why do you have to write down your ‘idea for a new deer dish’ in a book that talks about each country’s political system?”
“Ugh…”
My brother kept his mouth shut. The female warriors of the north like to fight, but they were not foolish ones who recklessly took on a fight they couldn’t win.
“Besides, there are men who fight among us.”
“It’s not like that! I hate to say it, but… All the men in the North are cowards.”
The younger brother started swearing at them while sticking out his mouth.
“If you do anything, you won’t be treated like this in the empire, or that you don’t have enough consideration for men. All you do is chatter.”
Her sister was a little taken aback, but then she nodded her head.
Normally, she would have shouted ‘Who will listen!’ And covered her mouth, but in the territory of the Empire, there would be no man to overhear her words.
“She says she’s weak, but doesn’t even carry her luggage. Instead of walking on her own feet, she whines at the slightest bit of cold.”
“You’ve got a lot of complaints…”
“Fighting is like that. Isn’t it when we give men swords and tell them to go out and kill monsters or catch wolves?”
The older sister looked at her younger brother with bitter eyes.
If you think about it, it was obviously unreasonable, but there was no clear way.
“Still, it’s too much to scream and run away when a fox the size of my forearm appears!”
“However, it is unlikely that people here will fight seriously.”
“Well, I’m thinking about that too.”
The Empire’s male protection is nothing compared to that of the Northern Kingdom. Basically, the quality of life itself is different.
When a cold wave strikes, the northern part is where both men and women must shiver on the cold floor.
There were no delicious dishes cooked with flavorful spices, and it was too cold to walk around wearing fancy accessories.
“Still, at least this person raised the sword himself. He’s not stuck anywhere like a prince.”
“Maybe.”
Her older sister, who had been to her empire several times, was rather worried about her younger brother. In the eyes of the men of the Empire, northerners were just something between humans and monsters.
From noble mtl dot com
If there was a reason to put your mind at ease, would it be that a man would greet them wearing armor?
I didn’t think he was a real fighter, but he was grateful for that sincerity alone. At least, he wouldn’t be looking at her and her brother through her bug-eyed eyes.
“Wow, that’s big. This must be an exaggeration, right?”
“Don’t trust the publicity picture too much. The dessert I ate the other day was also much smaller than it looks in the picture.”
“…Really? Dessert? What kind of dessert was it?”
“It was a cream cake with strawberries on top. It looked much smaller than it looked in the picture. About half?”
“Then this person is actually holding a very small sword?”
“Well. Considering the size of an ordinary man… If you want to hold a sword and shield together instead of holding it with both hands as if holding a greatsword, then you wouldn’t be able to use something that big.”
Her brother, who imagined the scene for a moment, smiled brightly.
“It’s cool. You’ll look like a fairy prince…”
“Don’t expect too much. Imperial men are very picky, so don’t talk to them and avoid eye contact.”
“That’s too much!”
“This is for you.”
Being a royal family in the north was an honorable position, but men in the empire were unlikely to think that way.
“Hmm…”
However, her younger brother didn’t pretend to hear and was looking at the poster in detail.
/////
At that moment, Iris was breaking out in a cold sweat while listening to her subordinate’s report.
“Yes. I sent it knowing that you already do that.”
“Maybe I was a little hasty.”
“The speed at which the northerners come running is beyond imagination. Rather than using an inn, they say they all ride horses together and sleep in tents in the fields.”
Having calmed down, Iris tried to think a little more about Logan’s coercion.
However, if she had already started guiding the northerners, she would not back down.
“Last time… Wasn’t there some rudeness on our part? I thought that if we prepared an event like this, they wouldn’t put their minds at ease.”
“…Good job.”
Iris, trying hard to hide her nervous feelings, remembered the northerners who were still running.