Act 2: Chapter 30: Bet Your Honor
「I don’t mind if you insist that those are the results of your hunting. But, you should show proof.」
Alfred unsheathed his sword and swung it lightly.
Tension ran through our surroundings the moment he did so.
「I have no intention to let you off the hook after you insulted me. Now I’m gonna reveal your true nature, self-proclaimed saint, Pomera. IT’S A DUEL!!」
He turned out to be far more dangerous than I expected.
Pomera was glaring at Alfred, her lips formed “へ” and then turned around to look at me.
「… Let’s kick his ass, Kanata-san.」
Maybe all of Alfred’s misplaced anger made her really irritated right now. I mean, I’ve never actually seen Pomera this angry before.
I nodded to her, and the reason was simply because there was nothing wrong with letting other people know that she was strong enough to beat Alfred.
I’ve reminded Pomera again and again that I wanted to lay low for the sake of our own safety to prevent those people who were as strong as me from keeping tabs on me. But, I guess it wasn’t a problem if the other party was someone of Alfred’s caliber.
Even when considering the fact that we need a quick cast for my experiment, pretending to be a B-rank adventurer would only hinder our plan.
As a result, we would only delay the ether experiment.
I beckoned Pomera over to me.
Pomera then came closer to me, enough to prevent anyone from eavesdropping on what I was about to tell her.
「Since this already happening, make sure that you go easy on him… but, won’t it make thing easier if we just apologized to him?」
「Oi, I can hear you.」
When I turned toward the place where the voice came from, I failed to realize that Alfred had already come really close to Pomera.
He was glaring at me with bloodshot eyes.
「U, UWAAA!」
I unintentionally stepped back upon seeing his bloodshot eyes. Dammit, that was scary.
It seems that he came along when I beckoned to Pomera, thus ended up hearing me telling Pomera to go easy on him.
I would never have expected him to come obediently when I didn’t even call him and hear our conversation.
Alfred swung his sword.
His sword blade ran through the floor and the receptionist’s counter.
After leaving a beautiful cutting trace, I saw a wisp of smoke rise from the sword blade.
The onlookers made a stir upon seeing that scene.
「Going easy? How dare you to look down on me.」
「… I understand. Let Pomera be his opponent.」
Alfred revealed a nasty and cruel smile upon hearing Pomera’s remark.
「But, it’s simply because Pomera has had enough of your delusional bullsh*t about us. Even this matter of Ragnos actually has nothing to do with you since we only did this because we need money. In addition, how about accepting another condition?」
「What’s the condition?」
「Pomera doesn’t really care no matter what you say about Pomera. But, if Pomera wins, you have to apologize to Kanata-san for calling him my follower when you know nothing about him! Kanata-san is the first human who treated Pomera like a proper comrade after all.」
「You’re talking as if you’ve already won the fight. But it’s okay, I’ll accept your condition. Now follow me.」
Alfred walked outside, leaving the guild.
Pomera, whose lips were still formed into a “へ”, followed after him.
「P-Pomera-san! I’m really happy that you’re angry for me but, it’s okay, we should just ignore him…」
When I tried to go after Pomera, Philia had already run past me toward her.
「Philia too! Philia want to fight along with Pomera!」
She spoke with sparkling eyes, seemingly misunderstanding this event as some sort of game, or play.
I hurriedly rushed toward Philia, stopping her before she turned Alfred into minced meat.
「S-Stop Philia-chan! You’re not very good at going easy after all!」
Things would get really messy if she unleashed her 《Dream Sand》 in this kind of place.
Rather, we would to be in real deep sh*it.
Thus, I brought her along with me to the outside of the adventurer guild building.
Pomera and Alfred were already facing each other with onlookers standing a little bit away around them.
In fact, I also became one of those onlookers.
Just how in the world did things turn so complicated like this.
「This isn’t a comfortable range for mage, right? It’s okay, I allow you to take some more distance. I don’t want to win against someone by taking the advantage of their weakness.」
The distance between the two of them was five metres apart.
A swordsman like Alfred would only need a single step to close in on Pomera at such distance.
「Thanks for your concern. But, Pomera refuses. Pomera will be troubled if you make an excuse later on by saying that Pomera won because Pomera fought at the best distance for a mage.」
「You stupid girl.」
Both parties obviously became more and more irritated as if they were ready to explode at any moment.
But then, Pomera’s level was more than twice that of Alfred’s. That’s why even if she was unarmed and could only use one arm and leg… Pomera will never lose.
「GO POMERA GO~!」
Philia was cheering on Pomera with an extremely bright smile on her face.
Alfred’s comrade, Sarah was entrusted with the job of being a referee.
Seeing her face, I knew that she didn’t want this to happen.
It seems she was yearning for Alfred and called his current situation as a child who was throwing a fit. That’s why she didn’t agree with this duel.
「… The match is decided when the other party has no intention to continue the duel. Well then, begin…」
Sarah raised her hand and dropped it down as a signal for the start of the battle.
Alfred leapt forward right away, closing in the distance between him and Pomera.
He unsheathed his sharp sword and slashed Pomera’s large cane.
「Spirit Magic, 6th-Rank; 《Fonsball(Fire Spirit Fox’s Fireball)》」
Pomera stepped back, pointing her cane toward Alfred as she invoked her spirit magic.
And then, a magic circle deployed on the tip of Pomera’s cane and a fireball as big as a human head fired from the magic circle.
《Foosball》was a magic that borrowed the power of the fire spirit who lived in the spirit world and gave birth to a fox spirit. The fireball will move on its own as if they had their own will, flying around to aid their summoner.
Carelessly exposing her real power would only turn her into the target of the upper echelons of this world. That’s why for my own safety too, I asked Pomera to go easy on Alfred.
I mean, it would be too suspicious if she won with an extremely powerful magic, or pure sheer difference between their level.
Maybe she wanted to keep Alfred in check with 《Fonsball》 and win by using another magic.
Alfred, whose attack was about to land on Pomera, jumped to the side to dodge the 《Fonsball》.
But, the fireball was moving in between Alfred and Pomera, as if separating them.
Pomera was also moving as if she was hiding behind the fireball.
「What troublesome magic…! I see you’re definitely not a small fry.」