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n“You don’t seem to be in a good mood.”

n“Who? Father-in-law? I guess he’s going through a mid-life crisis. The same also happened to our father.”

n“… No, I’m talking about you, Ruby.”

nWould you be in a good mood if you were me? Do you think I enjoy sitting next to you?

nThis b*stard had no conscience.

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nThe audacity of him had me shaking my head and laughing to myself. This conversation was just so ridiculous. “Don’t say it like that. Why wouldn’t I be in a good mood? I’m having so much fun right now. You don’t have to glare at me like that. I’m good at managing my facial expressions, you know.”

nMy life must be one hell of a comedy to anyone watching.

n“… Am I glaring at you?” Cesare, surprisingly, didn’t let much of anything show on his face. The faint look of confusion was gone within the blink of an eye.

n“Actually, why don’t you put a smile on your face?” I hoped my sneering wasn’t that noticeable. “Your brother-in-law, who will most likely become the King of the North in the future, will appear at any moment, so shouldn’t you be showing your good side to him?”

nCesare didn’t say anything further. Instead, he just kept glancing at me while fiddling with the rosary in his hands.

nHis constant peeking was especially annoying today, but I decided to just put up with it since I didn’t want to hear him any longer.

nBefore long, the loud trumpets signaling the start of the match reverberated throughout the arena, but the rambunctious shouts and cries from the spectators drowned it all out as the entire coliseum filled with the crowd’s excitement.

nMy eardrums were about to burst. They were definitely going to burst.

nDespite the fact that this was the moment I had been waiting for, I felt somewhat indifferent.

nI hadn’t even thought about what would happen after this game was over.

nI had nothing to lose anyway. Whatever happens, happens, no matter if I worried about it or not.

nEverything is meaningless in the end, after all.

nThe first batch of monsters unleashed on the battlefield were Behemoths. They were animal-like demons of tremendous size and power, whose special ability was bewitching humans into giving in to one of the seven deadly sins, the sin of wrath.

nThey were ferocious and fearless creatures, unstoppable when angered, and they looked like a strange mix between a rhinoceros, a hippopotamus, and a dinosaur. The monsters rushed out into the stadium and the jeers of the audience became even louder. I think I understand now why the people of this kingdom had so many anger management issues.

nThe crowd’s hollering and cheering, the Behemoths’ shrieking and screeching, all of it became too much.

nThere were so many Behemoths down there, how on earth could these people contain their anger? Did the cries of these monsters not trigger their wrath?

nAs if everything I knew about the monsters did not matter in the slightest, the players, who had been waiting for this moment, dauntlessly jumped into the fray with their holy swords drawn. The swords had been declared sacred by the priests during a holy ritual before the start of the game, and they clanged as the men boldly and confidently faced the beasts.

nThe shouts of the audience crying for blood, the roars of the demons, the sounds of metal and flesh meeting each other and the blinding lights of divinity sealed in the swords releasing and bursting forth like lightning strikes—everything made me nauseous.

n“Kill it! Kill it!”

n“Where are you looking at, you stupid b*stard?! You’re the disgrace of our family!”

n“Hurry up and cut it off! Hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry!”

n“If you die here, don’t even think about coming back to Rembrandt!”

nThe hysteria was worse than yesterday.

nI felt sick to my stomach, but everyone else seemed to crave for violence, for blood to flow.

nWasn’t this just like the Olympics? Like other sports events? The human desire to see disaster happen was the same no matter what world I was in.

nEven though many of the Behemoths had been slaughtered already, there were still a few tenacious ones left that had withstood the bloodbath. And yet, when the last mana stone from the core of the monsters rolled across the floor, the roaring that incited the sin of wrath finally faded away.

nThe player that had taken down the last monster standing was a knight from Dorias.

nThe mockery and taunts aimed at the men who were getting dragged out of the arena because of their injuries was only expected.

n“It looks like it’ll be impossible for them to recover. That’s too bad,” Cesare said as he watched the helpers come out and clean up the mana stones scattered all over.

nWas this man actually capable of feeling pity?

nI was at a loss for words so I replied back cheerfully, “Why didn’t you bring Enzo, then? I’m pretty sure he would have jumped at the chance to participate. I mean, wouldn’t you enjoy seeing him get pulverized?”

nYou would have danced with joy if Enzo crushed his arms while fighting here like those poor souls, wouldn’t you?

nAs I kept that stupid smile plastered on my face, Cesare only fixated his eyes on me, looking for something. After a moment that lasted for too long, when I started to wonder if the corners of my mouth would be stuck in this position forever, he finally started to move his jaw. He only spat out nonsense, though.

n“He needs Father’s permission to participate, and Father would never allow it even if that punk had already traveled all the way here. But who knows if it were me?”

nAre you trying to get sympathy from me? I know damn well you wouldn’t have participated even with Father’s permission.

n“I’m not sure… Maybe Father approved of you coming here so that you can take this opportunity to get a grip. He would’ve preferred that much better, isn’t that right? I think you’re having too much of a victim complex. Shouldn’t it be me out of the two of us to think like that?”

n“What does that mean? You know how much our family loves you…”

n“Oh, don’t lie to me. If you thought of me as your real family, you wouldn’t have pimped me out five times.” All I could do was laugh at my harsh reality. “Right, I’m not even Father’s real child.”

nWould it have been different if I was? Would Father have loved me then?

n“No, it’s fine. I’m the daughter of a courtesan, after all, so Father and Brother have truly been merciful. I really have nothing to complain about.”

n“Ruby…”

nHis deep azure eyes trembled with something I couldn’t make sense of and his copper-toned face was twisted into a look I’d never seen on him before.

nThis unfamiliar Cesare I was seeing would have been amusing to me if only I had the energy left to care. So I turned back to the battlefield.

nIn no time, the dust in the air and the stones on the ground had disappeared and been cleaned up. I wondered what other types of monsters today’s match had in store to outdo Behemoths, but the demons that followed next were all Undead types.

nBecause of that, the atmosphere was quite different from yesterday.

nYesterday, the monsters had been reckless and would charge at anything in their way without thought, but today’s monsters made the players be on their guard in a way that the Behemoths had not made them be.

nThe atmosphere turned solemn and the audience quieted down, the gloomy chill in the air making everyone’s hair stand on end. If yesterday’s match felt like an action movie, today felt like watching a horror show.

n“Just go to Hell, you b*stard!”

n“Your father is about to take you out of the family register!”

nBut of course, the madness hadn’t subsided in the slightest.

nThe platform the players were standing on to battle the monsters was overrun with ghouls. Their gray, decayed skin looked awful and they were emitting a strange, dark purple smoke.

nTwo men fell off the platform, but they didn’t seem to be injured. Rather, they seemed to have been engulfed by the strange mist and become enthralled.

nIt would have been nice to actually be able to see what was happening on the ground, but whenever a sword or horse accidentally flew towards the edges of the platform, towards the audience, the sacred shield protecting us all would light up, flashing brightly and blinding my eyes.

nTo my dismay, the eyes of the Cardinals, including Cesare, unfortunately, and other high-ranking priests didn’t seem to be affected at all.

nI always wondered why a committee was formed, because cheating just seemed impossible to do in this coliseum. The audience being seated so high up while all the players were down on the ground made it so that every single thing they did could be seen. But now I understood why. It seems like none but the clergy were able to see clearly.

nMy eyes suffering didn’t matter at all, though, because the monsters kept on continuing their rampage and the audience kept on shouting their lungs out. The ghouls had been steadily killing and tearing apart the players, but the crowd didn’t seem to care whatsoever. The sight of humans dying only fueled their enthusiasm. None of these people batted an eyelid at the horror that was unfolding. No sympathy, no pity, no humanity.

nSo what was the point of any of the men down there fighting so hard to live? What was the point of trying to live at all?

nAs I reached over for the basket filled with candies, something made me halt. Someone had refilled it. I hadn’t noticed it, because I had been stuffing my mouth full with them.

nThe fact that someone had done that annoyed me for some reason, so I pushed the basket away and grabbed the glass next to it.

n“That’s rum,” Cesare said.

n“So?”

n“… It’s strong.”

n“A little bit of drinking won’t get me drunk. Didn’t you tell me to have some earlier anyway?”

nCesare twirled his glass before taking a sip from it. His eyes were focused on something far away on the battlefield as I saw him purse his lips. Perhaps he realized he was being contradictory, so he said, “I think the final victor has already been decided. Of course I’ve heard about his reputation and skills, but seeing it with my own eyes, it’s very impressive. Your husband, I mean.”

n“Really? How so?”

n“Should I say that his swordsmanship is intense? Forceful? It’s quite savage yet still elegant. It’s not easy to balance those two.”

nAbsolutely. Who in this world did not know how magnificent Izek was?

nThe fact that Cesare was so genuinely complimenting my husband was laughable. Did he find Izek admirable? Did he want some private lessons in swordsmanship? Did he like him? Why don’t the both of them just hold hands and rush towards their happy ending?

n“Sounds like you are falling in love.”

n“… What?”

n“While we’re at it, I think it should be you that should become the Queen of the North instead of me. Or you two can decide who becomes what by yourselves. There’s already a rumor about Enzo going around that he prefers men, so how about one for you as well?”

nAs the silence continued on, Cesare kept sipping on his glass of warm wine to avoid gritting his teeth too much. The incensed look on his face was truly something else.

n“I’m not interested in that vermin, if you’re curious about that. I despise having any kind of contact with him.”

n“That’s a shame, you guys seemed so close together.”

n“… Ruby, why are you saying all of these things?”

nThe audacity… Did he ask because he really didn’t know? Did it not once occur to him why? Oh gosh. All I could do was laugh. This was just too funny. Chuckling like a madwoman to myself, the crowd suddenly let out a loud roar as the shield in front flashed white.

nOh, my eyes! My eyes! I’m going to be blind, for sure!

n“Are you all right?” Cesare asked while I was trying to blink the blindness away.

n“What would you do if I wasn’t?”

n“That’s strange…”

nWhy was he picking a fight about every single little thing? Why couldn’t he mind his own business? Why couldn’t he just shut up?

nI was so irritated with him and I wanted to lash out, to give him a piece of my mind, but when I turned to him, he wasn’t even looking at me. Cesare was not focused on the players on the ground floor, he was staring at something straight across from him. And so I turned to look as well.

nI didn’t know exactly what type of monster it was; whether it was a specter, a ghoul, or something entirely different.

nThrough the thick smoke, I could only see the outlines of its disfigured body.

nThat thing was floating right in front of me, many feet up in the sky. I wondered if the monster had been hit by something, a sword, or maybe thrown off the platform by one of the players, but instead of rushing back towards the ones that wanted to kill it, it was levitating in front of the balcony me and Cesare were seated at.

nIts eyes were looking right into mine.

nThe fiery glare in its glowing verdant orbs reminded me of the green torches that were supposed to keep Northerners safe from monsters. Bright, brilliant green visible and crystal clear through the transparent shield wall rooted me to the spot. I couldn’t look away. The fire in those greens had me aflame. I’m in big trouble, aren’t I?

nIt happened in a flash.

nAs soon as the commotion grew again, the gray-skinned demon moved and catapulted towards me, its grotesque mouth open and filled with razor-sharp teeth, and was then yanked down to the ground suddenly as if it had been caught by something.

nFor a second, I saw a glimpse of silver-white hair.

n“Kill them! Kill them!”

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n“Finish them off! Now!”

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n“How dare those demons threaten nobles!”

nSeems like the monster only succeeded in angering the crowd and the Cardinals.

nThe outrage of the audience in the stands and the sound of the ongoing battle from beneath eventually all merged together until the only noise I could hear was the ringing in my ears.

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