By Zephyria Leonardo frowned at the rays of light pouring down.
When he looked up, he saw a clear sky, unlike the gloomy complexion. It had been raining constantly, but miraculously, only the Central region was clear.
‘I want to rest.’
He wished his mind was as light as the fleeting clouds, but his mood didn’t improve easily. Yesterday, he had stopped by the funeral held in Riverside.
Because it was a service in which all the townspeople participated, the crowd was lined up to the alley entrance. Even though he had no choice but to watch like a shadow from the corner, his heart was with them in the same space.
Grimbleton, unlike his eccentric side, seemed to have shown a lot of kindness during his lifetime.
The residents had turned every bench and path he frequented into a flower garden. If you mingled among them, you could occasionally hear his sayings or deeds. In the meantime, there were no circumstances or evidence of murder.
When he asked the person next to him about the cause of death, he received the answer that it was natural causes. According to what he heard from Terzio, with whom his relationship had recently become awkward, there were no traces of outsiders visiting afterward either.
Leonardo, who had no choice but to send off the coffin procession, walked to the front of the supplies store with a bouquet of white flowers. After completing the offering, he quickly turned away. It was because a woman dressed in mourning clothes was standing blankly in front of him.
Her face could not be seen properly as it was covered by a black umbrella and a veil attached to her hat. But he knew that she was crying, hiding in the sound of the rain.
“Please, let me pass.”
As he stood there blankly, shielding the sun with his palm, he occasionally bumped shoulders with others. Leonardo, who was wandering through his memories with a dazed face, turned to the side. Soon, he met a face that looked annoyed.
He tried to respond with a sensitive gaze due to fatigue, but soon, he saw the crowd flowing to both sides based on him, like a stream splitting along a rock.
“……”
With an awkward expression, he nodded and trudged to the edge of the path.
The place where people were heading was the entrance to the stadium, which was wide open between the pillars. The tawny exterior walls made of travertine stone resembled a reconstruction of the gladiator arena that had been popular in the past.
Whether it was the traces of time, the exterior had a somewhat rough and aged texture, but the grandeur of the scale was no less than any other stadium. That place was the main stadium for the 3rd preliminary round, the venue where the second part of today’s test would be held.
‘I still have to go. I’ve come all this way.’
The death of an elder to whom he had given affection, even for a short time. Friction with a business partner he trusted and relied on. And the harshness of reality that he had stabbed into his heart like a dagger.
A dishonest relationship. Resentment of the past and affection of the present. A heart that couldn’t give up either side.
The voice he had heard the other night surged into his exhausted mind like nicotine. He knew it was bad, but he couldn’t quit easily.
Leonardo left those things behind and was swept away by the wave of participants.
Often, the world flows relentlessly and consistently.
If you indulge in sadness or self-loathing, you will sink below the surface. So today, he had to struggle hard for his goal.
Unlike the first part of the competition, the venue for the second part was changed, but there was no mental burden. Perhaps it was because the place where he had been wandering around to register for the league was right in front of this place.
Rather, he was glad that the number of reporters who had been annoyingly following him had decreased significantly. Today, he covered his face more thoroughly, so it seemed that no one recognized him yet.
Following the crowd, he passed through the tunnel passing under the lower part of the spectator seats, and the bustling interior of the stadium appeared. However, it was not as noisy as the 5th main stadium of Agrigento Territory, where the opening ceremony was held. The spectator seats were empty, and it seemed that everyone except for the occasional staff member passing by had gathered as participants.
Was it so crowded last time because it overlapped with the opening ceremony? Recognizing that there was no seething heat or resounding roar that seemed to tear the sky apart, his mind became much more at ease.
“Participants, please line up in four rows in order of arrival!”
Right in front of him, white tents were towering high in a row. The ground condition could not be checked, perhaps because they also served as a barrier to maintain security.
‘Are we moving through the Portal again? That’s going to be a pain.’
He was about to stand in line as if possessed, carrying idle thoughts, but he moved to the corner of the stadium with regret. He thought it would be okay since there was still some time left, so he took out a cigarette case from his pocket and put one in his mouth.
Already, there were many smokers nearby, arming themselves for the last time with narrow intervals between them. Since smoking was prohibited inside anyway, the league officials were creating an atmosphere that encouraged them to resolve it appropriately in front of this place.
Leonardo mixed into the acrid smoke and lit a fire. With a hiss, a whispering voice brushed past his ear.
“Why are there so many people today?”
“I heard there was a balance adjustment after the first part of the competition. All the dangerous groups from the 5th stadium were scattered elsewhere. I hope it’s not here.”
“Ah, the one that blew away half the stadium?”
His golden eyebrows twitched.
‘It wasn’t half.’
Sitting on the ledge supporting the bottom of the pillar, he naturally eavesdropped on the surrounding conversations. He also wanted to grasp the atmosphere of the stadium and hear the news from the smoker information network.
“There were a lot of unusually strange guys in the 5th stadium.”
“What was the first event there?”
“Was it tower occupation? I don’t know the details, but the end times of the matches varied greatly for each group. A colleague who used to work with me is in the 5th stadium, and according to what I heard from him, some guy was spouting nonsense and made alliances from the beginning, and the match ended in an hour. The guys who formed an alliance with that guy all passed, and the guy who told me got eliminated.”
“That’s possible? Is he a staff member?”
“The rules were a bit unique, I guess. But there are more crazy bastards than that. There were groups that completely destroyed the tower, and in some places, there was only one qualifier.”
“One person? Why?”
“What else could it be? They eliminated everyone and went up alone. Those fucking bastards. What’s wrong with sharing some of the prize money?”
One person? Leonardo’s eyes naturally rolled at the words that seemed to be filled with anger.
“Someone almost died in that group. There are a lot of cruel guys anyway.”
“From the test? He managed not to be disqualified.”
It seemed that there was a ruler like Appendix in other groups as well. Unfortunately, Group F had Lion, the expected winner, so it was useless.
Honestly, he had gone through a crisis of elimination once, so he wanted to avoid troublesome opponents before the main round with 1-on-1 battles. He was so confident when he first started, but since the goal was to win, people tend to look for the easy way.
“Then isn’t it more advantageous to have more allies? Block the solo runners, cooperate when necessary. Should I talk to this side once? Let’s form an alliance.”
Two participants who were looking around glanced at Leonardo, who was sitting nearby. Fearing that he might receive an awkward signal, Leonardo quietly pulled down his hat. Suddenly, Ero’s voice, saying, ‘It’s more advantageous to have more helpers until the main round!’ came to mind, but he didn’t want to increase the baggage to 5 or 6. They didn’t seem very strong either.
However,
“They look weaker than you?”
‘Shit.’
Hearing his thoughts through someone else’s mouth in just one second, he felt keenly how arrogant his judgment was.
His condition was already poor, and he felt even worse about being judged as weak externally, following the start of the first part of the competition last time. All that was visible was a figure wearing a cloak, but what did that bastard know?
Leonardo, who barely managed to resist breaking the cigarette butt, jumped up from his seat.
“If you form a team and it’s an individual match, things get complicated. It’s more troublesome if you meet as enemies later.”
“That’s true… Hey, hey, they’re looking over here. You were too loud.”
“What does it matter, everyone’s an enemy once we go in anyway. Should I show you my skills first?”
One guy, who was saying things that could be heard as if whispering, was shadowboxing in the air. Leonardo stared straight at him, then shook his head and tried to leave.
Didn’t he go through all that trouble by being at the center of the commotion last time? He didn’t want to become a hot potato again, even after coming to a new stadium.
Just as he was about to turn his wrist, put a cigarette in his mouth, and go behind the pillar to soothe his disappointment,
Thwack—
“I can handle most guys, ugh—!”
The voice that had been chattering until just now screamed. Leonardo, who had paused, turned around.
“W-what!”
The guy who had been talking about his skills was suddenly lying on the ground. The guy who was with him hesitated and stepped back two steps.
‘…?’
An unknown figure was tangled in the limbs of the fallen guy. It looked like the figure of a person wearing luxurious silk clothes. But when he looked closely, it wasn’t a person, but a rag doll that was at least the size of an adult man.
The head was painted with bright red paint, and the mouth, which was torn to the ears, stood out particularly. It looked like some kind of cursed doll at first glance, but the problem was that the monstrosity was very familiar.