Chapter 611: They Want A 5 vs 10
"Thank you for the leniency you have shown me. I will never forget this debt," The Yoblin thanked me after the match was over.
At least she already knew she was going to lose so she did not complain about losing.
She even shook my hand before we parted ways, with me returning to the waiting room and her leaving t he arena.
At least... That was my destination before I found three male Mahuns blocking my way back to the room.
I recognised two of them as the leaders of the other two teams that made it to the semi-finals. The last one was dressed in a rather formal uniform so I'm guessing he should be a staff member working here.
I first assumed that they were simply making their way back to the arena and I got in their way but they were obviously waiting for me since they simply stood there and waited for me.
Feeling a little confused, I went towards them to find out what they wanted.
While walking towards them, I took a moment to look at the two participants.
One of them was clearly a Mercenary as he was wearing leather armour with a shortsword on his waist while a bow was slung across his back. The other guy was most definitely a merchant since he was dressed in expensive robes and different coloured rings adorned his fingers.
The merchant guy sneered at me when I got close, "You really are shameless, aren't you?"
I tilted my head at him, "Sorry but... Who are you?"
He snorted, "You don't need to know, but to think that they would even allow someone like you to get this far in the tournament... I'm appalled!"
The mercenary guy shook his head, "I was even expecting fair competition too... I guess I was expecting too much."
To say that I was confused about what they were talking about would be an understatement.
"What are you talking about?" I asked.
The merchant pointed a finger at me, "I know what you are doing and I'm here to tell you that your little tricks won't work on us!"
The mercenary also snorted, "That's right. Whatever tricks you were using for the other teams, know that we are more interested in the prize instead!"
"I seriously have no idea what you are talking about right now," I told them.
The merchant pointed a finger at me while looking at the staff member, "Look! She's still denying it even now! She's utterly shameless!"
The staff was also giving me an odd look, as though he was looking at trash.
I crossed my arms, "You know... If you could tell me what you are even talking about, I might be able to address it."
The mercenary jabbed a finger in my direction, "We know you are paying off your opponents to lose to you. There's no need to hide it anymore."
What the fuck?
The merchant scoffed, "No need to act, we saw you talking to the Yoblin before the match. You definitely made an agreement with her where you will pay her if you win. You thought you were sneaky but I have good hearing! I heard the both of you talking about Creas and letting the other person win!"
Err... Well... He's not wrong about the content of my talk with her but it seems like he did not manage to hear the result of our talk and the subject of who wanted to pay who to win...
I frowned at him, "I made no such deal."
The mercenary laughed, "Ha! Did you think I did not notice a pattern? In your preliminary rounds, you always sent out your entire team if you could! But for this match in particular, you only sent out one member each time! It's obvious you had some sort of agreement with her!"
Err... He's actually right about that but for the wrong reasons...
I gave him a look, "I'll just say that that is not true at all. I was simply being cautious since I thought the finals would have much stronger opponents and I was playing it safe."
"Ha! You think any of us would believe a lie as outlandish as that?!" The merchant scoffed.
"Well do you have any proof that I'm lying? Are you going to disqualify me over something that you have no proof of?" I asked.
The staff shook his head, "No, we will not. But the two of them have a suggestion for the next match that we felt inclined to agree on."
"What suggestion?"
"The both of them will combine into one team and face you together in a five versus ten battle. You will be allowed twice the number of support drawn during the fight in return for the numbers disadvantage."
I frowned, "How is that fair at all? Even assuming that I really did pay them off to lose to me, since you've already said the same trick won't work on either of you, you should be able to just fight me normally and win, right?"
The mercenary crossed his arms, "Ha! And that would mean that we would take each other out and leave you to only fight one more team before you win right? Like hell we are going to make it that easy for you! I knew it, your team isn't that strong at all!"
The merchant also nodded, "Yes, yes. If it wasn't for your underhanded tricks, I bet you wouldn't even make it past the first round in the preliminaries!"
Oh wow... These guys are basically in denial about it... They don't believe that there could be a team that would dominate the tournament like we had.
I turned to look at the rest of my companions, all of them looking back at me with determined expressions on their faces.
"What do you girls think?"
Katsuki bowed, "If Mistress would allow me to speak freely... They do not believe that we are capable of winning on our own. We should show them we are fully capable of doing that."
The others also made sounds of agreement as well.
I turned back to the three of them, "Be that as it may, you can't honestly expect me to accept this without some kind of incentive right? None of you even have any proof of what you claim was actually true."
The merchant spat on the ground, "You're really shameless you know that?! I feel sorry for your slaves! Not only do you dress them in such impractical outfits to fight in a tournament like this, you still resort to such means to win!"
"And I said I did no such thing. All of you are falsely accusing me right now. I want you to be prepared to compensate me appropriately if we manage to defeat both of your teams despite the odds against us."
The merchant pointed a finger at me, "Fine! If you manage to defeat both of us in a fair fight, I'll get on my knees and apologise!"
I tilted my head at him, "You're already fighting me in a ten versus five... This fight was already unfair to begin with... Also, I'm not interested in something as boring as you getting on your knees to apologise to me. At least give me something physical."
"Fine! Then I'll be your slave and you can also have the rest of my slaves if you manage to win!"
"Err... No thanks... I'll just say that you're not good enough to become one of my slaves I'm afraid..."
I mean... You're talking about becoming a Nilm family servant right? I'm not interested in guys so I'm definitely not going to vouch for you like I did for the others.
What's more, it's not like you can do anything for me and we weren't lacking in servants in the first place.
The merchant bristled at my comment, "What?! How dare you?! Do you even know who I am?!"
I shrugged, "I don't really care but.. Maybe you should ask who I am first instead? Not that I would tell you anyway since you're clearly not willing to accept reality."
"You... You bitch! I'm definitely crushing you inside the arena!"
I ignored his threat and turned to the staff member instead, "I don't suppose that the odds for our team would be revised for this? So that we could make bets on ourselves?"
The staff considered for a moment, "We will adjust your odds of winning to one point five and you're allowed to bet on yourselves, how about that?"
Well good enough because I was planning to just dump even more on betting on ourselves and make even more money through that.
Hey, if they were willing to change the odds for this and accuse us of doing something without proof, I'll gladly take advantage of them as well right?
This is gonna be the easiest money I have ever earned so far!
Alright, let's just get this over with! No need to go back and rest or whatever, let's just go and hope on the stage right now!