When I said, "You can be a hero," to a child with no talent, he really started to become a hero, so I acted like I knew what I was doing, like I was a wise master. - Chap 21: Warrior Tournament

The Warrior Tournament. It is hosted by one of the Seven Holy Swords, a person called Dododo, to compete for the strength of warriors and rank them.

Why do such a thing? It is because he himself is seeking those who possess young strength. The demons have been harming the world for many years. Therefore, he wants to discover a new strength that can counter them.

The next generation of heroes is you!

That’s what’s written on the flyer I received. Huh, so that spear user is doing something like this now? I didn’t know that at all.

Dododo, I remember him as a man who initially used a sword, but suddenly began using a spear at some point. Isn’t he close to 60 years old? It’s amazing that he’s doing something like this. I used to have an image of him being a bit obnoxious, but… Well, that’s all in the past. I don’t really care about it.

“Are you planning to participate in this?” 

“Yes.” 

Huh, well, it could be a good experience, right? It seems you can get a reward if you make it to the best four or above… Oh! The winner gets 100,000 gold; that’s quite a lot. Will probably won’t win any prizes, though. Eugene will likely participate as well, but that also seems tough. Maybe Alfred is a winning candidate? I don’t know if he’ll compete, though.

“I see. Well, do your best.”

“Yes.”

“More importantly, what’s wrong? You look very exhausted today.”

“Ah, um, well…”

His face is incredibly pale; I wonder what on earth happened to him?

“The Sword of Beginning, I… broke it, and… what have I done…”

Ah, now that he mentions it, it was broken when we were fighting the Lizardman. Hey, hey, don’t mess up your hair with your hands and look down like that.

“Ahaaaaaaaaa! What have I done! I…”

“Don’t worry. All things that have form can be broken; it’s as simple as that…”

“…Breaking a legendary heirloom, how could I!”

He’s not listening to me. And heirloom, you say… I’m not dead, and it’s a second-hand sword, but I can’t tell him that. What to do? He’s as confused as if he’s committed murder…

“I didn’t… mean to do it, I just tried to block the Lizardman’s attack with the Sword of Beginning… and then this, this happened…”

Is this how a detective feels when taking a confession from a suspect? He didn’t kill anyone; he just broke a second-hand sword, Will.

“The Lizardman had a cursed sword; I had to defend against it on the spur of the moment…”

“Don’t worry about it; it’s not a problem that it broke. More importantly, what effects did the cursed sword you obtained have?”

“…Eh? You’re not angry that I broke the Sword of Beginning?”

“I don’t care about that; what about the cursed sword?”

“Well, it seems to have Carnage Infliction, and its sharpness increases when magical power flows through it.”

“I see… increased sharpness. In other words, enhancement. It means you can defend without worrying about the state of the sword.”

“Yes, I thought so too. It’s simple but seems to be quite a cursed sword. It seems to have a rank.”

“I see, there are ranks given to magical tools with special effects…”

Will seems to have finally calmed down. But a cursed sword, huh? Mysterious tools called magical tools have ranks, ranging from 1 to 100. Incidentally, the sacred sword I have is also broadly considered a magical tool, and its rank is apparently 100. Since it’s been used by successive heroes, I’m concerned about hygiene, so I don’t use it much…

“My cursed sword has a simple spec rank of 35, it seems.”

“That’s impressive.”

“But more importantly, to me…”

“Forget about the Sword of Beginning; it’s already broken, and eventually, it will return to the earth, as is its fate.”

“Y-yes… I will gather the fragments and bury them properly in the ground.”

“Do that. Don’t worry about the Sword of Beginning anymore. I have broken many important things myself; it’s a path every hero must walk.”

“Y-yes!”

Speaking of which, there was a time long ago when Lin was crying a lot. She said she broke the birthday present I gave her… I don’t think it’s something to worry about, though.

◆◆

And several days have passed since training with Will. Nothing particular happened during that time… but today is the day of the Warrior Tournament. Quite a large number of people are heading to a colosseum-like place, and it’s noisy. 

Occasionally, I see people wearing iron masks, imitating me, but that’s nothing new. At such events, there’s always someone who resembles me. Even Will, who’s right in front of me, is wearing an iron mask. Participants in the Warrior Tournament apparently wear iron masks.

“Alright, I’m going then!”

“You’re my disciple, so I won’t allow any disgraceful fighting.”

“Yes!”

“If you proceed as expected, winning a prize is certain, so say you’ll do your best.”

“Yes! Thank you!”

Winning a prize is likely impossible, but I have to show this kind of expectation anyway. It would be troubling if he loses his motivation. Now then, shall I start thinking about what to say to comfort him when he loses?

Will bows and takes his leave. Ah, Eugene is here too, and Alfred is also lining up at the reception. Everyone is participating, it seems. There was indeed a long line at the reception. There, I saw a familiar face.

A boy with gray hair, with a cloth wrapped around his eyes, carrying a spear on his back. He seemed to be searching for the reception with a slightly uncertain gait.

“You came too?”

“Oh, it’s the Hero! Did you come to cheer for me?”

I immediately recognized my disciple “Tessie.”

Tessie Rufor, the eldest son of the noble Rufor family. He has the distinct characteristic of being blind, but unrelated to that, he has some talent. In terms of his family’s status, he has been branded as talentless. The same as Eugene.

But I saw potential in him, so I approached him. If you ask whether he has an outrageous, extraordinary talent, I can’t say for sure, but at least his evaluation by those around him was an underestimation, and there was no need to bring him down so much…? That’s what I thought as I approached him. Besides, he’s a loner, and the likelihood of exposing our relationship is low.

“The reception is over there; I think you’ve noticed, though.”

“Oh, that’s why I felt a lot of powerful magic energy.”

Originally, he was a boy who was more timid than Will. However, since he wanted to be a one-of-a-kind existence, wanting to change himself, I taught him the Kansai dialect from Japan. Thus, a boy who spoke the Kansai dialect was born in this different world.

“I knew you were here, Hero, but… you’re still letting out a seriously intense aura.”

“Is that so?”

“It’s not just ‘is that so,’ ya know. It’s your fault that my sensing gets dull. The density of your magic is so strange, it messes with my senses.”

Tessie seems to be skilled in sensing others’ magic power. I can feel magic in a vague way, but Tessie can apparently sense it even more than I can. It seems to be a sensory thing, so he can’t explain it well, but he can generally feel and avoid it, sensing people’s movements.

“Heh, not bad,” is the impression I get… In his noble family, he’s branded a failure due to his blindness and his very low magic power. Well, they are a famous noble knight family. They may not be one of the four great nobles, but they likely have some troublesome family precepts.

“I see, well, do your best.”

“Oh, I’ll win it!”

“I’m looking forward to it.”

He has some talent. But winning is impossible, and even getting a prize is difficult. The reason is that Tessie was a shut-in until recently. He uses a spear, but he only started using weapons in general very recently.

I approached Will last winter, and Tessie at around the same time, so it’s only been half a year. I thought it would be interesting because he’s good at sensing magic, but it’s still just half a year. He has talent, certainly more than the average person, even more than me.

But it’s only been half a year. Winning will likely be a challenge.

He has talent, but he lacks experience and many other things. His magic sensing and growth rate are truly eye-catching, though.

Now then, shall I take off the iron mask and operate as an adventurer named Ban to watch the competition? If my master sees the match, he might get nervous.

“Dan”

“Lin?”

That was close. I was about to take off my mask, and Lin was there. That was close; I almost got caught. But isn’t it rare for Lin to come? Ah, but she did say something like “I might go too” at the previous adventurer’s exchange meeting when I said I, Ban, was going.

“You coming is… quite unusual. You’re not participating, are you?”

“Of course not. If I participated, I’d win. There’s nothing more boring than a foregone conclusion.”

“I suppose so. So, you came to watch?”

“Heh, watch… well, let’s say I came to see into the future with foresight.”

“Ah, I see…”

“In other words, to look down from above.”

“No, I don’t have such a bad personality.”

Saying that, I parted ways with Lin and took off the iron mask, transforming into Ban. As I was buying the entrance ticket for watching at the reception, someone spoke to me again.

“Hey, what are you here for?”

“Huh?”

“Ah, what brings you here, Lin-san?”

“I just called out because I saw you.” (I just totally revealed the Hero’s face, didn’t I?)

Ah, that’s not good. I momentarily spoke in my heroic Dan mode. But it seems I’m safe since I wasn’t caught.

“Ah, I see…”

“Are you participating by any chance?”

“No, no, if someone like me were to participate, you know?”

“Really? You defeated the Four Heavenly Kings, so you could probably win.”

“No, I’m just a humble adventurer doing trivial things, so it’s impossible.”

I must keep up this deception and show my humble side. Otherwise, there’s no point in quitting playing the hero. I wouldn’t be able to live an ordinary life after retirement. Adventurer Ban must be portrayed as humble and lowly.

“Fu-fu, r-right…” (This is dangerous; I might laugh because it’s so different from before! What he’s saying is too inconsistent.)

“Are you participating, Lin-san?”

“N-no, fu-fu, I’m here to watch.”

“Oh, I see.”

“Y-yes, since we’re here, let’s sit together.”

“That’s fine, but it won’t be fun with me.”

“It’ll be enjoyable enough, so it’s okay.” 

(Someday, I’ll definitely tease him about this role-switching, poking his cheek.)