Straf walks down the stairs from the betting tables and places a paper bag full of popcorn in Cycelia's lap.

「Huh!? Ah, Straf… Welcome back. As expected, that was really impressive!」

Cycelia smiles at Straf as he sits down. He grabs a handful of the still warm popcorn.

「What was? I could smell him from across the arena.」

Straf says, then shoves the popcorn into his mouth.

「The way you disarmed him, Straf! What else? Not even my sword instructor was as good as you!」

Cycelia praises Straf, putting a single popcorn into her mouth between the sentences. Straf grabs another handful.

「You had a sword instructor?」

「Yes, but… I'm not very good. I just quite often watched the knights at the palace spar when I was younger. My grandfather gave me his sword, and my father hired an instructor… Ehhh…」

She sighs and looks down at her popcorn with a sad pout.

「Cheer up, Lia. Look, you're watching all those uh… Great warriors go at it.」

Straf awkwardly points at the bloody arena, trying to get Cycelia's mind off of her grandfather's broken sword. She nods, and throws a small handful of popcorn into her mouth.

「Yeah… By the way Straf, can I see your sword for a moment?」

「Sure, here.」

Straf moves his sheath closer to Cycelia to appease her. She draws it and tries to get a feel for its balance, and also presses her finger into the blade's edge. Cycelia visibly cringes after a few seconds and looks at Straf, still holding his sword in her hands.

「…Straf, what's wrong with your sword?」

She asks, still cringing.

「Yeah. What's wrong with it? Seems fine to me.」

Straf shrugs. Cycelia holds the sword up so Straf can see it better.

「Straf… It's as sharp as a hammer. And the balance is out of whack. How much did you pay for this?」

「1 silver. But it's rented for the duration of the tournament.」

Straf takes another handful of the popcorn while she's busy playing with the sword.

「I see… For that price, it makes sense. It's heavy, unbalanced, and basically a blunt weapon. I'm even more amazed now, Straf. I thought your sword as really good, but I suppose you just make it look easy.」

She sighs, and places the sword back in Straf's sheath. Straf starts paying attention again, and nods towards the arena to get Cycelia's focus back on it as well.

「Look Lia, who do you figure will win?」

Straf asks as the announcer throws his arms around.

「…And his opponent is Cobalt the Contractor! What contracts does he handle!? And for whom!? We asked, and he wouldn't tell, for sake of 「professionalism, and client privacy」 he says!」

「Come on, let's go bet. You were right on the money so far.」

「But…」

Cycelia hesitates, but Straf gets up and starts walking upstairs. She reluctantly follows. They arrive to the betting table, and the crowd around it has thinned considerably by this point.

「If you're going bet, hurry up.」

The man behind the secure desk rushes them. Cycelia looks over her shoulder down at the arena.

「2 gold coins on Cobalt.」

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Clink.

She puts the coins on the desk.

「And you?」

「30 gold on Cobalt.」

Clank!

「Woah. High roller.」 「What!?」

Cycelia's eyes widen when she sees the pile of gold coins on the desk. The man drops the gold coins into the box full of them, and writes something down on the ledger. He gives Cycelia and Straf stamped squares of black metal.

「S-S… Straf! That's a lot of money! Are you sure!? I'm betting entirely on instinct!」

Cycelia stutters as Straf takes the bet tokens without a worry in the world.

「Hey, too late to unbet now. Your instinct was spot on so far.」

Straf shrugs and walks down the stairs their seats. Cycelia nervously fidgets with her medallion…

「…Yorick Bugrum! Versus! Cobalt the Contractor! Combatants, prepare yourselves!」

「Straf, how did you even get so much money? I don't want you to be mad at me if we lose-」

「Relax. It's just for fun.」

「…30 gold at risk means nothing to you?」

「You having fun means a lot more to me…」

Ba-dump. Ba-dump.

「A-Ah…」

Cycelia looks down at her popcorn and starts shoveling handful after handful into her mouth, blushing across her entire face and the tips of her ears.

「Fight!」

Gonnnnnnnnnngggggggggggg…

「…Than coins of questionable gold content.」

The gong reverberates across the arena, drowning out the second part of Straf's sentence. Yorick Bugrum watches his leather-clad opponent closely. Cobalt the Contractor doesn't take a direct path towards his enemy, and instead chooses to attempt to circle around him.

「Honestly, it might be because I am so conditioned into using worthless paper, that even real money has no meaning to me.」

Straf thinks out loud with his arms crossed, tilting his head slightly as he observes the fight.

「Huh?」

Cycelia in her confusion glances at Straf only for a second, not wanting to miss any detail of the fight. Cobalt pulls out thin knives out of the belt across his chest, and throws them with a flick of his hand. Yorick manages to dodge out of the way and block the last one, but the maneuver put him into an uneven footing and unfavorable position.

Cobalt lunges at Yorick's throat with his dagger. Yorick tries counter-attacking, but his opponent expertly catches it onto his dagger's crossguard. Yorick's eyes widen and he jumps back when he sees a second dagger coming straight for his ribs.

「Ladies and gentlemen, it seems like this time around, Yorick Bugrum's nervousness is the genuine article! We have two nimble combatants, but who will come out on top!?」

The announcer comments, the fighters do not take it as a cue to pause. In the blink of an eye, Cobalt throws another dagger from up close. Despite dodging, it hits Yorick right above his knee, as if Cobalt predicted where he will dodge towards. His opponent clenches his teeth as his pant leg runs red with blood.

Yorick manages to hold his own against alternating dagger stabs and slashes for a few moments, but then the Contractor knees him right between the ribs without a warning, knocking the wind out of him. Yorick tries his best to continue fighting, but he falls over backwards when blocking one of the stabs.

The Contractor jumps on top of him, trying to get a stab at his chest. Yorick desperately blocks the attempt, but then the second dagger comes for his throat. He recoils away from it on the ground with his teeth clenched.

The dagger stops just short of actually spilling blood. The pressure of the dagger driving for his heart easens. Both Yorick and Cobalt freeze in a pose very disadvantageous to Yorick, as he gasps for air.

Yorick decides to let go of his sword's grip with his other hand, and raise his open palm up. When he feels the dagger threatening his torso stop pushing against his sword, he lets go of his weapon and raises his other hand as well.

Gonnnnnnnnnnngggggggg…

「Huh. That was actually not bad. And I think I won a lot of money off that. Or maybe not, I didn't check the odds.」

Straf shoves another mouthful of popcorn into his mouth out of the rapidly emptying bag of popcorn in Cycelia's lap.

「That's a relief… Good thing I have a dragon's luck.」

Cycelia sighs, and sets it down on the seat as the announcer declares the winner in the background.

「Huh? A dragon's what?」