My excitement went down a bit when Hiro lightly hit the back of my head. It wasn’t meant to hurt me, but rather to bring me back to reality and help me to make a rational decision, instead of doing what I wanted. It took some seconds until I snapped out of my excitement though.

Everything happened extremely fast. Not many saw me being hit by my own retainer and the ones who did looked rather scared, as if he just woke up a sleeping monster. It didn’t matter, what was important was that I had to act fast, or Sandra was dead meat for sure. That guy was serious about his third attack.

I could have just asked Arthur to settle it. I could have ordered the referee to stop the match. I could have done a lot more intelligent things, but at that moment, I didn’t think about them. I unintentionally decided to do the dumbest out of all the things by taking action myself.

I slowly stood up, which in itself already caused the whole stadium to shut up. I haven’t shown any interest in anything until now. I haven’t wasn’t present when Arthur’s son was beaten, I didn’t care when a beastman was killed in front of the whole crowd.

I didn’t even show respect to the tournament nor to the kings.

Now I had made a move.

There were many whispers, but none of them dared to talk too loud. Everyone’s eyes solely focused on me. Even the execution of… I mean the fight in the arena stopped and Sandra was save. At least for the moment.

I had some hardships in continuing, but as soon as I ignored everyone’s stares and focused my attention only on Sandra and her opponent, I could bear with the pressure.

I stood at a much higher place and stared down at them as if both of them were my minions. Normally, you’d expect me, the “higher in rank” to speak up, but that wasn’t the case.

“Come down if you want to say something. I don’t like someone looking down on me.”(?)

After the already present silent, tension followed. I wasn’t known for my patience or anything alike, but more for my cruelty in killing anyone that annoys me. That statement would normally have been enough to cause a war given my normal character.

The thing which shocked them the most and even left some with open mouths was that I did what he wanted. I jumped down into the arena and we stood face to face.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Where have I met you before?

I was sure this wasn’t the first time we saw each other. It didn’t have to be face to face but I was sure I have already met him once in the past. Before I could think about it any deeper, he replied to my actions.

“Ho.”(?)

Even if somehow managed to ignore the pressure, I didn’t plan to remain there for too long though and I wanted to end it as quickly as possible.

“Tell me your name and what you want.”(Me)

I said that in the most boring voice I could bring out. When I learned one thing then that I should never show my real emotions and thoughts to my opponents.

“But I have the upper hand. How about you start first.”(?)

He said it without a care in the world. The faked smile on his face annoyed me even more. The upper hand? He probably thought that he had found a hostage or something like that. Some veins already popped up on my forehead.

No one was able to see it, but everyone knew that he was pissing me off. The tension grew, but no one dared to interfere. Thousands of people all held their breaths and watched the spectacle.

“Haha. I’m joking. Forgive me. My name is Hayate and I came here for the sole reason to challenge you to a fight.”(Hayate)

Until one single idiot broke the silence. To be honest, if this respond came any later, I would have exploded. I didn’t know if he planned it or not, but I could calm down and instead of raging at him, I more or less answered normally.

“A Challenge? You want to fight against me?”(Me)

“Sure. I have only heard about you I have yet to witness of this demon.”(Hayate)

Demon was one of the five major races, but due to a particular strong hatred as well as a history filled with many battles, humans and demons detested each other. Therefore, when a human calls someone Demon it was more of an insult or out of fear, not as a reference to the actual race. Nala said that it was the same the other way around.

If I judged on Hayate’s look, it seemed most likely that he already knew that we were from the same race, as well as even my true name. It’s not as if I was absolutely clueless though.

“I’ll give you a chance.”(Me)

“Huh?”(Hayate)

I inhaled as deeply as possible.

“I will grant the one who wins this tournament the opportunity to challenge me to a fight!”(Me)

The crowd didn’t dare to cheer. They remained silent and waited for me to leave the stage. I didn’t know that I was that scary. I shrugged my shoulders and went back to the lounge where the two kings sat.

“Take care of the rest for me Arthur.”(Me)

I didn’t even give him time to answer and just left. Hiro followed behind me and as soon as we were out of sight, the arena slowly regained its liveliness. My biggest concern was to find out where I met Hayate before. I skimmed through my memories for a while.

“Ah!”(Me)

I accidently shouted out loud when I came up with the answer.

“Is something wrong?”(Hiro)

“Ah. No sorry. I just thought of something.”(Me)

“Ok?”(Hiro)

If I’m not mistaken and that rarely happens, then the gaze I felt when Kylie and I paid a visit to the beastman capital was Hayate’s. I can’t think of anywhere else, so it has to be it.

“Well. What do you think after seeing him up close?”(Hiro)

I somehow accepted that to be the answer. At the same moment Hiro continued the talk, I accidently started.

“Hm?”(Me)

“Is that Hayate one of us or not?”(Hiro)

“I’d say we found the fourth.”(Me)

“Fourth? Who else is there?”(Hiro)

“We have you with the true name Human. That guy is probably Beast, while Takeshi is Dragon and I am Demon.”(Me)

“Who’s Takeshi?”(Hiro)

“Ah, right. You haven’t met him yet. He attends the same school as me. I’ll introduce you to him as soon as the opportunity arises.”(Me)

“So we only have to find the last one.”(Hiro)

“Yes. There’s only one left. Only Spirit is missing. Hopefully it will be enough to prevent the future Kylie predicted from happening.”(Me)