Rigged Matches?

"So... Did you try recruiting her too?" Kies asked Nyana, considering the pattern up to now. Whenever a strong person appeared, the elf would try to recruit them and he wanted to know if she also asked Rui who was a royal guard.

"No, of course not," Nyana said as a matter of fact. "I know that she is bound by duty to this kingdom. I already know without asking that she will say no."

"I see..." With that in mind... "Who else have you asked?" Kies asked her out of curiosity.

"Hmm..." Nyana crossed her arms, taking a minute to count all the people that she asked. "I think I asked three other people. They all refused because of personal reasons."

"So I'm the fourth one?" Or maybe not. She might've asked someone else after him and he could be the second or third, but he wasn't sure.

"Yes, you are the fourth one," Nyana answered him.

"Who were the other three?" Kies knew that one of them was that man that Iris fought against, but he didn't know who the other two were.

"They are that hooded man, a mercenary, and an ex-guard of a noble house."

"Oh." That was a lot of people, and from various professions and positions too.

They heard footsteps next to them and turned to see Wompa being carried to them by Rui. And just like before, they were attracting a lot of attention. Almost everyone in the arena was looking at them now which was even worse than before.

"..." Kies turned away from the two, pretending like they're not there, but he knew that it didn't work like that. The entire colosseum had their eyes on them instead of the fight happening in the arena.

"Oh, fancy meeting you here," Kies heard Rui's voice say. He slowly looked up and saw that the royal guard was looking at him. "I guess that means that these two are the girls that I met the other day?" She looked back at Wompa who was in her arms and then at Iris.

"What? How did you recognize me so fast?" Kies asked Rui.

"Well... There aren't exactly that many people here that look like you..." Rui told Kies. He was the only one that wore a cloak all the time and had his face hidden. Even if people didn't know what his face looked like, it was easy to recognize him with the clothes that usually wore. In a sense, he wasn't exactly keeping a low profile. He stuck out like a sore thumb and the only thing his cloak and mask were doing for him was hiding his identity.

"Anyway, nice to see you again."

"Same to you," Kies greeted her back.

"So... Where do you want me to put you?" Rui looked back at Wompa and asked her. She was still being carried like a princess which was ironic since she was one, but they saw that she was getting embarrassed since everyone was looking at her and she wanted to get down. Wompa nodded her head towards the empty seat in between Sirks and Iris. "Got it." Rui brought Wompa over there and sat her down.

Since Wompa couldn't speak, she bowed her head to Rui to thank her. "Don't sweat it." After putting Wompa down, Rui walked away and stopped in front of Nyana. "You're that elf..." she recognized her from the fights before.

"I am, and how may I help you?" Nyana asked the royal guard.

"Oh no, I'm just talking to myself. Sorry," Rui quickly apologized and turned to walk away but stopped and looked back at the elf. "Actually... Are you here in Otane temporarily or are you staying permanently?" she asked Nyana.

"I think you know the answer to that question," the elf replied to Rui. No one other than a human would want to stay in Otane and the ones that are here are all only just visiting.

"Ah, that was rude of me to ask. Once again, I'm sorry," Rui apologized again in case she offended or disrespected Nyana in any way.

"No, it's not rude for you to ask. But if I may, what is your reason behind asking me that? Do you require my help with something?" the elf asked. That was the only reason that she could think of as to why she wanted to ask about how long she was staying there.

"Yes, that's what I wanted to ask you about..."

"Oh, in that case, don't be shy. I'll try to do my best to help you with my abilities." Nyana didn't mind helping someone in need and told Rui to ask away. As long as it wasn't too troublesome of a task, she was willing to help her.

"Oh no, I was going to ask if you were interested in joining the army or guards. It would be nice to have someone like you with us," Rui explained to her why she asked how long she was going to stay in Otane. "If you're interested, I promise that we will treat you well. We don't discriminate against other races here... Uh-" Rui coughed and corrected herself, "Well, most of us don't."

Otane followed the simple rule that who one is didn't matter and what did matter was how strong they are. However, regardless of what they teach their people, there are always those that think otherwise and discrimination will always exist even in a place like this.

Nyana shook her head, explaining to Rui that she couldn't do that. "I'm not staying for that long," she told her. "I'm only here for the tournament," she told her. After that was over, she had no reason to stay here any longer, and even if she did, she didn't exactly have the luxury of time to. From what Nyana has told her so far, the elves were in a lot of trouble and needed to get back as soon as they could after finding help.

"Is that so..." Rui said disappointedly. She would've been more than thrilled if she had someone like Nyana join the army, but it seemed that it wasn't possible. "Well, I need to take my leave. I have some other matters to attend to." The royal guard bowed and hurried away, looking like she was in a rush to do something. Kies breathed a sigh of relief when Rui left since she took most of the attention away with her.

'So... That's two out,' Kies quietly noted in his head. They only had two people left in their team that can still go on, and Sirks probably couldn't make it through another fight. In the end, his prediction came true. He would be the only one that would make it to the third round. Kies didn't like the idea of that happening but he would have to figure out something.

If the tournament was really keen on getting rid of their entire team then he could expect to go against all the hardest opponents in his matches. It was a good thing that he didn't get tired or else he would be in trouble... Or rather, bigger trouble. Facing against the toughest opponents was already a problem. But on the bright side, if he could win against them all then he would be able to breeze past the third round as all the hard opponents would be gone.

While Kies was deep in thought trying to figure out a plan, a pair of tournament staff walked over to them. Everyone looked up at them, confused about why they were here. Was there a problem? All of them just fought and so they weren't going to be called down again anytime soon... Were they?

But as it turns out, the organizers had something very devious in mind as the staff pointed at Kies and Nyana. "What!?" Sirks shot up from his seat and grabbed one of the staff. "What kind of a sick joke is this!?" he yelled at his face. Though his mask covered his face, everyone could see the anger in his eyes.

"This is no joke," the staff calmly told Sirks, not at all intimidated by him. He was an entire foot shorter and was on his tippy-toes, trying his best to keep his balance as Sirks held him up by the collar, but he didn't even flinch when he was getting yelled at by the man.

"..."

Sirks looked like he was about to beat the two men up but Kies stopped him. He got up from his seat along with Nyana and he waved for Sirks to calm down. "It's fine," he told him.

Sirks looked at Kies, furious that he would just accept what they were doing to them. "What do you mean, it's fine!? We haven't even gone through a tenth of the participants and yet you two are fighting again!" he pointed out. All around the stadium, Kies could see that the spectators and other contestants were laughing at them, mocking them as if they were saying that they deserved this for coming as a team.

Did he really think that? Kies was also furious but he was just keeping his composure. There was no point in taking it out on these two men as they were just being told what to do. They weren't the ones in charge of rigging the matches. No, he didn't care about them. However, he was definitely going to make the ones responsible for this pay. "Don't worry. I'll teach them a lesson," Kies told Sirks, his voice so monotone that it was almost lifeless, sending chills down everyone's spines.

Even the staff being detained by Sirks shivered at the sound of Kies' voice. "O-okay..." Sirks, both startled and astonished at how someone so much smaller than him could make that cold of a threat, let go of the man and the staff glanced at Kies, quickly turning away to avoid his gaze. The two of them then hesitantly guided the now pissed-off Kies and the aloof elf into the arena where the current fight was just about to end.

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