NBAA Vol. 7 Chapter 5 Part 2
“L-Lady Maria!? W-Why are you in a place like this…?”
“Oh, Aunt… I mean Sis.”
“I’m not sure how to get a hold of you, but I’m sure you’ll be able to find your way around. Come here, Reito.”
“Wow!”
Maria smiled and opened her arms, and Reito ran to her like a child and hugged her lightly.
Kahne and his soldiers widened their eyes at the sight. They had never seen Maria embrace a human being with such a gentle expression on her face.
After the light embrace, Reito asked Maria a question.
“What are you doing here, Sis Maria?”
“I just came here to take care of a few things. Also, I met your friends earlier. I’ve heard the general situation, so you can go home now.”
“Eh, but…”
“It’s okay, leave this to me.”
Maria, while gently advising Reito, took the documents he had retrieved.
Then she sent Reito back to his friends.
The soldiers wondered if they could let him go after messing with Kahne, but seeing Reito’s friendly conversation with Maria, the city’s authority figure, they decided they couldn’t take any chances and cleared the way.
“Well…you did a lot of things while I was away.”
“Y-You are away? W-What are you talking about?”
“Never mind that… you guys are a nuisance, now get out of my way.”
“““Yes!!”””
Hearing Maria’s words, the soldiers hurriedly left the room.
Maria sat on a chair like it was natural, and Kahne hurriedly got up and sat on the chair across from her. No matter his status as a count in the kingdom, he had to change his attitude when dealing with Maria.
The reason Kahne was able to run the arena in this city was largely due to her influence, and she was by no means an opponent to be crossed.
“W-Well, Lady Maria!! What kind of business do you have today?”
“First of all, calm down. And my nephew was in your way earlier, wasn’t he?”
“Oh, nephew!?”
Kahne realized from Maria’s comment that Reito was her relative.
He turned pale when he learned that he had threatened someone who was a relative of the city’s most powerful person.
—But it was shortly after this that he was further psychologically cornered.
“I hear you’re doing strangely well these days. I wonder if you are making that much money?”
“Eh? Yeah…thanks to you.”
“Not only did you use monsters, but you even hired necromancers to take advantage of the monsters!”
“…!?”
Kahne’s face turned pale at Maria’s words.
Kahne was extremely upset that she already knew what they were doing, but if he thought about it calmly, it was only natural since she had already made contact with Reito’s friends in her earlier conversation with Reito and said that she knew everything that was happening.
“I would not have thought that you would go to the trouble of transforming the monsters that were killed in the match into Dead Soul Puppets and repurposing them for the match. I would never think of using them to earn money.”
“W-Well, Lady Maria. They are not criminals. We don’t hire people who belong to the underworld!”
“I’m not going to blame you just for hiring a necromancer. The question is where were you disposing of the corpses?”
Maria read the document she received from Reito and put it on the desk.
When Kahne saw it, he broke out in a cold sweat. Unfortunately, something terrible ended up in the hands of the person who should be the last to know.
“According to this document, they’ve been doing whatever they want for a long time. The sewer system would have been in serious trouble if we hadn’t acted in time.”
“T-That’s right…”
“Well, if it hadn’t been for the Battle Festival, I would punish you right now and drag you down from your position, but… this time it can’t be helped.”
“Eh?”
Kahne was taken aback by Maria’s unexpected words. For a moment, he had a faint hope that he might be forgiven, but Maria glared at him with a sharp look.
“From now on, this arena will be managed by me for a while. This is the kingdom’s decision.”
“Huh…!?”
“Don’t believe me? Then look at this.”
Maria handed him the document she had received from the king when she stopped by the royal capital, and Kahne took it with trembling hands.
“I-I… am I guilty of treason!?”
“That’s right. The kingdom has deemed you guilty of treason for cheating on the taxes you were supposed to pay and has revoked your ownership of this arena. So it has been decided that I will temporarily manage this arena.”
“That’s nonsense! I cannot believe it!! I built this place!”
Kahne slammed his fist down on his desk. The document also stated that he would be stripped of his title.
Maria, however, spoke to him with cold eyes.
“You have been abandoned. By me…and by that woman.”
“Hi…!?”
Kahne, unable to say anything back to Maria, who radiated a sense of intimidation that was different from Reito’s, silently sat down in his chair.
Maria crossed her arms and let out a light sigh.
“That’s ridiculous… I certainly paid the required amount of taxes, why?”
“You kicked out the person sent by the queen without permission, right? That woman judged it to be an act of rebellion against herself. That’s why she created an unfounded crime and took everything from you.”
“That… How much money and time do you think I spent to get here…!!”
“For that woman, anyone who doesn’t obey her is an enemy. Imperial soldiers will be sent here to capture you. So before that, answer me. What did that queen ask you to do?”
Maria knew that the money Kahne earned in the arena was sent to the queen in the royal capital under the name of “taxes.” She had recently learned that the nobles who followed the queen were increasing their private armies and purchasing weapons, and she knew the funds’ source was coming from this arena.
It would seem easy for the nobles to increase their private armies, but their manpower was a problem.
The nobles in the current royal capital are using the funds earned from the arena to hire a large number of mercenaries through underhanded businessmen. Many skilled mercenaries are being gathered from mercenary guilds, and they are also being drawn from adventurer guilds other than Hailstorm. The queen’s purpose for gathering so many fighters in the royal capital was unknown, but there was no doubt that she was planning something nefarious.
“You were famous as a weapons collector. I know from my research that some of the weapons you stored have been sent to the royal capital. Answer me, what is she up to?”
“That’s…”
“How long will you stand up for the woman who betrayed you?”
“……”
Kahne looked down at Maria’s words, and then, as if made up his mind, he said, “The queen—”
Maria held her head as she heard the truth from his mouth.
Maria discovered that the queen was about to cause an uproar beyond her imagination. She had to think of a countermeasure as soon as possible.
◆◆◆
The day after, the incident in the sewers caused by the Battle Association was revealed. People from all over the city gathered in the arena, and in front of the audience, Maria explained the outcome of the series of events.
She explained that the culprit of the incident was Count Kahne, a nobleman of the kingdom, who took responsibility for the incident and declared that he had entrusted the arena’s management to Maria.
“From now on, I will manage the arena. However, there will be some who will question my management of the arena, as the guildmaster of Hailstorm, even if only temporarily.”
It was true that the kingdom entrusted Maria with the arena’s management, but she was only a substitute, and in the near future, someone worthy of taking Kahne’s place would be sent in to manage the arena.
However, until then, Maria, who was essentially in charge of Adventure City, would still be in charge of the arena, and here a certain problem would arise.
“As for the main Battle Festival scheduled to be held a month later, many adventurers from Hailstorm are participating in the main tournament. I have been entrusted with the arena’s management, and since I am the guild master of Hailstorm, there will be people who fear that I will commit injustice in the main tournament.”
If the main tournament of Battle Festival were to be held while Maria was in charge of the arena, it would be highly likely that she would be suspected of match-fixing or cheating.
Therefore, Maria decided to postpone the date of the Battle Festival until a new organizer was appointed.
“So we are postponing the date of the Battle Festival. The original plan was for it to take place in one month, but we are changing this to two months from now. In conjunction with this, we will be making a major expansion of the arena in Adventure City.”
The arena would be expanded until a new manager was appointed. The construction technology in this world was excellent, and with the help of the Giant Tribe, who boasted of their overwhelming strength, and the Small-bearded Dwarves, who were more dexterous with their hands, they could build a sufficient expansion in as little as one month.
“Also, we are thinking of greatly increasing the number of contestants for the Battle Festival. Our original plan was to have only 16 contestants who performed well in the individual competitions held in the arena, but there were more applicants for the main competition than we had anticipated, and more people from other countries were coming to participate in the Battle Festival. Therefore, we are changing the number of contestants for the main competition to 32.”
Maria’s speech ended with a few specific details of the Battle Festival, which had been kept silent until now.
Although some people were disappointed that the start of the Battle Festival had been extended, many were relieved that the Battle Festival had not been canceled due to the mismanagement of Kahne, the owner of the arena. Those who had been unable to obtain the right to participate in the main tournament were also happy to have a new chance to do so, as the number of participants had doubled.
The Battle Festival gained far more recognition than originally planned, and rumors of the event also spread to other countries. In fact, the royal family of Four Leaves Kingdom, the nation of the elves, came to watch the Battle Festival and stayed one month before the event’s original date.
Incidentally, the royal family had to return home once because the date of the Battle Festival was postponed, but they left a message that they would visit the city again on the day of the festival.
The King and Queen of Baltros Kingdom would undoubtedly visit the Adventure City for this Battle Festival, and the extended duration of the festival would make its existence known to other nations. It was expected that many tourists would visit.
—And the one who was most happy about the postponement of the scheduled date for this Battle Festival was Shizune.
She visited Reito’s house again to propose for further growth—