Chapter 95

　　“Yo, Hibiki . Good job . ” (Sai)

　　Along with the end of the first round, there would be a slightly longer break time .

　　As Lux and I left the waiting room, we were greeted by familiar faces who were busy talking about getting some snacks .

　　“You have already arrived, Sai?” (Hibiki)

　　“Yeah, I was right on time for Hibiki’s match . ” (Sai)

　　Behind Sai there was Kuesu and the others, as well as Amy and Zir .

　　“Good work, master . ” (Amy)

　　“Yea, t’was quite a bout . ” (Zir)

　　The two of them praised me .

　　“That’s right . You were up against a hero candidate after all . ” (Gary)

　　“It was really amazing . ” (Baara)

　　I nodded at Gary’s impression, and smiled at Baara in reply .

　　“[Annihilation] is my disciple after all . ” (Kuesu)

　　Winning was only natural . Kuesu had made that sort of statement . I wondered where that confidence came from .

　　“…” (Seira)

　　Seira was still staring at me . Without worrying about it, I continued with the conversation .

　　“Lux was much more amazing than I was . ” (Hibiki)

　　Kuesu shook her head, while Gary and the rest smiled wryly .

　　“Lux, is Lux . ”

　　“That’s right, there is no point in cheering for Lux’s matches . ”

　　“He’ll still survive even if left alone . ”

　　Contrary to what they said, it showed how much they trust him .

　　All of us entered a nearby restaurant but it seemed that everyone else also had the same thought . It was packed .

　　“This, I guess we came a bit late . ” (Hibiki)

　　“Master and Mr . Lux still have some matches left after this, so we better get them something to eat now if we can . ” (Amy)

　　“Since that is so, we all can simply eat whilst viewing the matches . ” (Zir)

　　I’m not that hungry yet, but I appreciated everyone’s concern .

　　Fortunately, Lux and I were still able to eat the sandwiches and skewers they had bought earlier from a street vendor .

　　“Ah, that’s right, Sai . I’m sorry, even though you have just arrived but I have something to request of you . ” (Hibiki)

　　I spoke to Sai while biting on the skewers .

　　“What’s with this rough treatment of your employees? Then, what do you want to ask?” (Sai)

　　I asked Sai to gather information about my next opponent .

　　“By next, do you mean that lady with a lot of scars?” (Sai)

　　Apparently he watched the girl’s match as well . His face looked troubled .

　　“Sure she’s quite strong, but not as good as you, Hibiki . ” (Sai)

　　Apparently her opponent was wrapped in a fire pillar as soon as the match began .

　　Saying that I’m better than her after seeing that match was quite weird .

　　“It’s just in case . I’ll just do what I have to do . ” (Hibiki)

　　“I know . I’ll collect as much information as I can before the match starts . ” (Sai)

　　Sai immediately left .

　　My match will be the second match, so it couldn’t be helped since there was not much time left .

　　Break time was over and the second round began .

　　At the moment, there were two magicians clas.h.i.+ng with their magic spells in the arena .

　　Those two seemed to be a part of the “exempt from the preliminaries group” and were rivals to one another .

　　Since the commentator talked about the match for quite a long while, Sai’s info managed to get to me in time .

　　The winner of this match, was the elite magician who was proficient in water magic .

　　Now then, my match came next .

　　Called by the official, I quietly rushed to the arena .

　　I was greeted with the live commentator saying that ”This girl has a better chance of winning the match” .

　　As the referee announced the beginning of the match, the [Sickly Girl] immediately shot fire and water b.a.l.l.s with both hands .

　　The crowd cheered at that flashy attack .

　　I manipulated the wind to divert their trajectory, cladding my sword in flames then proceeded to use the fiery sword to cut the water ball .

　　I couldn’t completely deflect the fireball, but I managed to divert it enough to allow me some gaps to wade through .

　　I somehow managed to withstand the first wave without a hitch, and returned fire with my own fireball . To display that I’m her senior it should be a bit bigger than the girl’s fireball, don’t you agree?

　　The girl didn’t even try to dodge the fireball . It directly hit her in the stomach .

　　The crowd started booing at me . What’s with this difference in treatment?

　　However, the girl was still standing there . Upon closer inspection, her stomach was actually protected by a layer of ice .

　　Apparently that was what neutralized my fireball .

　　“Girls shouldn’t let their stomach’s feel cold . ” (Hibiki)

　　I approached the girl while spouting that light remark . It was to fight within sword range .

　　The girl seemed to notice my intention, she prepared an ice blade in her left hand .

　　I once again cladded my sword in flames like I did earlier .

　　Fire Sword VS Ice Sword, both swords clashed against each other at the blade’s midsection .

　　It seemed to be a draw at first glance, but it was actually my loss .

　　I quickly released my grip on my sword and retreated .

　　The next moment, a fire and ice blast bloomed at where I previously stood .

　　“You have deprived me of my weapon, eh?” (Hibiki)

　　Taking a quick glance to the audience seats, I noticed Sai waving at me .

　　“Apparently, it seems that he rescued her safely . ” (Hibiki)

　　I sighed, then talked to the girl .

　　“Leelan . That’s enough . ” (Hibiki)

　　When I pointed towards Sai, [Sickly Leelan] turned towards the audience seats .

　　“Para, thank goodness . You really helped me out!!” (Leelan)

　　The girl fell to her knees and started crying .

　　The referee looked at me with scornful eyes . It seemed that he suspected me of threatening the other partic.i.p.ant .

　　He reluctantly declared me the victor . The crowd also seemed to have the same idea, thus they started booing at me again .

　　Leelan and I could care less about such a thing and the both of us returned to the waiting room .

　　“Thank you, thank you very much . Big brother . ” (Leelan)

　　Leelan kept saying that repeatedly on our way back .

　　Well, what had actually happened before the match?

　　Let’s return back to the time before the first match started .

　　=====

　　“Hibiki!!” (Sai)

　　It was Sai who came to the waiting room alongside of Kuesu .

　　Apparently, people other than those concerned were not allowed to get in, which was why he brought Kuesu along .

　　“The thing about that girl, after I looked around for a while, I found it, found it . ” (Sai)

　　He seemed to have various things to say so I allowed him to explain it to me .

　　=====

　　That girl, she was an experimental object of a magical research inst.i.tute .

　　The name registered for this tournament was [Number 15] .

　　For me, I could only hear it as a number, but for everyone else it seemed that they heard it as something that rhymes with 15 .

　　In other words, there were 14 other people before her .

　　The inst.i.tute was experimenting in order to be able to artificially produce a magician with a dual or even more element combination .

　　Apparently, they experimented by having someone live in extreme environments, like next to the entrance of a volcano or near a iceberg, in order to force them to awaken a new element of magic .

　　They were able to awaken something, but the result was weak in power .

　　They repeatedly tried and found out that the younger the person they experimented on, the greater the result .

　　However, they stalled there . Using younger people also meant that their magic before awakening was not that strong .

　　It would be no different than a single element magician .

　　The next method, was to implant body parts of a monster with a certain element into the human body .

　　Again, there seemed to be some success .

　　Since it was directly put inside the body, it didn’t take very long to take effect .

　　However, they also stalled here .

　　Some individuals did obtain the power, but they soon died .

　　It seemed that the human body couldn’t handle that of a monster’s .

　　From those two attempts, two studies were born .

　　Raising a human from childbirth in an extreme environment, making them capable of mastering 2 elements as they grew into an adult .

　　Grafting monster parts onto the human body to transfer their attribute .

　　Both showed results, but both also had limitations .

　　With a more than normal ability, but less than an elite magician, an amiable human chimera was created .

　　The researchers who weren’t satisfied with the result continued to try to find a better method .

　　Having lived in an extreme environment from their early years, combined with the surgery method .

　　That was, the chimera magician .

　　[Number 15] was the fifteenth result of such an experiment .

　　She was a chimera with her own elder twin sister, showing practically no rejection to the implants and adjusted to them very well .

　　The masterpiece of the research inst.i.tute .

　　======

　　That was the story Sai managed to dig out .

　　It was information gathered in such a short time . So there were bound to be some mistakes .

　　But knowing this much about her was already good .

　　Looking at the girl who sat in the corner, facing down .

　　That man from the first round didn’t seem to be around .

　　I was standing before her when she finally noticed .

　　“Why do you not run away?” (Hibiki)

　　I tried talking to the girl . The girl lifted her face and looked at me .

　　“If you are that strong, why didn’t you try to escape?” (Hibiki)

　　The girl finally realized my intentions .

　　“Because, I’m a big sister . ” (Leelan)

　　So it was just like what Sai told me .

　　“No, it’s because I’m Para’s big sister . ” (Leelan)

　　Para, was the name of the chimera born at the same time as her .

　　It was probably a measure to prevent escape or rebellion .

　　They threatened to kill Para if she went against them .

　　“If I rescue her, then you won’t have to fight anymore, right?” (Hibiki)

　　The girl looked at me with a surprised face .

　　“…hm . ” (Leelan)

　　Hearing that reply, Sai left the waiting room .

　　She’s been waiting for this moment .

　　“That uncle over there will go look for Para . ” (Hibiki)

　　“Really?” (Leelan)

　　“Yeah . So please don’t fight me seriously to buy some time . It will be hard for me if you come at me as fierce as in your previous match . ” (Hibiki)

　　“Hm . ” (Leelan)

　　And with that, she wouldn’t fight seriously in our match .

　　Sai also seriously started searching . He’s a really good guy after all .

　　“Hibiki, we’ll also help . ” (Baara)

　　Baara and the others also offered to help .

　　“It’s difficult to speak about but the church officials are suspicious . ” (Lux)

　　Lux whispered into my ear so as not to be heard .

　　“Why?” (Hibiki)

　　“She’s still alive even with that many traces of implant surgery . Even if the rejection was small, she should’ve run out of energy and died . ” (Lux)

　　I didn’t know anything about this transplantation surgery, nor about this rejection thingy, but I did understand a little about the operation . Baara noticed what I wanted to say .

　　In other words, the surgery wouldn’t be successful without extensive use of healing magic during the process .

　　Only the church was capable of bringing together a large amount of healers .

　　Baara frowned but nodded her head, then followed the others accompanying Sai .

　　=====

　　Before our match began, I had been trying to get to know her better .

　　As long as she trusted me even just a little, it’ll be less risky for me .

　　Her name [Leelan] apparently came from her older sister’s [Lee] and her own [Lanfa] .

　　The researchers usually only called her with “hey”, ”you”, or “Number 15” .

　　She had never met her older sister [Lee] before . It was only natural as they were separated since childbirth .

　　She was called [Lee] on the day of the surgery, the first time they met these two people mutually gave each other names .

　　[Regardless of who will expire first, I will always remember you and you will always remember me . ]

　　Those were the last words of her older sister [Lee] who she met for the first time .

　　“Big brother will not forget about Leelan’s matter, right?” (Leelan)

　　Even after the match had concluded and we returned back to the waiting room, Leelan never left my side .