Vol 4 Chapter 20

People around them were looking at them in bewilderment or surprise as they ran frantically, but it wasn't the time to worry about such things. They re-entered the colosseum and searched the entire audience area and even the waiting room, but failed to find Caesar. Rather, they had trouble avoiding Rob, who was still waiting in the waiting room and tried to cling to them excitedly when they met him again, so in the end, there was no gain at all.

"Kap... Are you sure you really saw him earlier?"

As Kran mumbled while walking out of the colosseum, particularly exhausted from getting into many unnecessary arguments alone while searching between the audience seats, Kapros nodded firmly.

"It was clear. There's no way it wasn't Caesar."

"Yeah... I believe you, I do. But the fact that neither that high schooler nor I felt anything is a bit..."

"..."

What kind of believer's words were those? As Kapros looked at Kran with such an expression in his eyes, Kran scratched his head.

"Then maybe he didn't go to the colosseum...? Ah, this is enough to make a ghost weep."

Kapros also felt as if he had been possessed by a ghost. What he had felt was definitely the guy's presence. When he turned around, there was nowhere else to go except the colosseum they had just passed, but he wasn't there.

"If it's certain that Caesar is here, he wouldn't leave without doing anything. It would be better to keep watching while we're here."

Un-o, who had been silent for a moment, drew a hopeful conclusion. At those words, Kapros stopped thinking and was able to nod for now.

"Alright."

As Un-o said, it seemed better to wait for now. Since it didn't seem likely that the guy's purpose was anything other than them, they would eventually encounter him if they waited.

However, even after the second and third rounds passed, Caesar's figure was nowhere to be seen. During that time, they had all advanced without a single defeat. The number of people showing interest in the three of them in the colosseum waiting room increased, but they consistently ignored them all.

The prizes for this tournament, revealed after the first round, were three swords, one gem, and a small golden potion, which was somewhat disappointing as it didn't seem to include the magic-related items Kapros had hoped for. Still, fighting using only a sword without using magic evoked nostalgia in Kapros while also being enjoyable, so it was fine.

- Woooooah!

"It would be better to declare it comfortably..."

"Damn it... Alright. I lost!"

As Kapros quietly spoke while placing the tip of his sword, wavering with mana infusion, at the neck of his fallen opponent, the guy who had been gripping his wrist and breathing heavily fortunately made a surrender declaration obediently. He had heard that it was very difficult to get a surrender declaration without killing in this place as all the participants were belligerent, but in his case, fortunately, all his opponents had listened well to his suggestions.

[ Kar's victory! ]

- Woah!

Hearing the cheers for the victor and jeers for the loser pouring down from above, Kapros sheathed his sword and bowed his head.

"Thank you."

The courtesy of greeting the opponent he had fought was still one of the things that came naturally. The opponent said nothing while lying face down on the ground, and Kapros turned around to examine his condition.

This fourth-round opponent had given him quite a tough time while fighting purely with swords. Rather than a lack of sword skills, it felt like the inevitable limit of having to bridge the gap between the swordsman and mage professions. Indeed, when fighting against a user who had honed their skills as a swordsman to a certain level, Kapros fell behind in speed, strength, and skills.

Even applying real-life experience, it was difficult to overcome the power of skills specialized for the game. Especially today, he had only been able to end the fight after engaging in a fierce battle that left his clothes torn in several places and blood flowing from his arm, so he didn't think he could guarantee victory if he fought the next opponent.

As he entered the waiting room, watching the blood dripping from his fingertips, Kran, whose face had turned pale, came and hugged him tightly.

"Kap! You're hurt, aren't you? Let me see!"

"It's nothing."

The wound was a long cut on the outside of his left forearm. Although it wasn't deeply cut, there was quite a bit of bleeding, probably because the torn area was wide.

"But your health will continue to drop. A cleric's healing skill would be faster than a potion, so it would be better to get treatment quickly."

Even as Un-o spoke seriously, Kapros was scratching his head and thinking about where to go for treatment when suddenly Kran pulled up his sleeve over his forearm and gently placed his gauntleted palm over the wound. While Kapros was bewildered, wondering what he was trying to do, Kran, with furrowed brows, softly exclaimed.

"[ Cure Force ]!"

Whoosh!

Along with a faint light, Kapros felt a force similar to air pressure emanating from Kran's hand and pouring into his wound. Surprisingly, as he watched the wound healing at a visible speed, the diminishing light finally faded when it was almost completely healed.

"Phew..."

After catching his breath with a pale face for a moment, Kran looked at Kapros's healed arm and grinned.

"Was it worth squeezing out my non-existent mana? How is it, are you okay?"

"Well, yes, but..."

As Kapros trailed off while examining his healed arm, clenching and unclenching his fist, Kran asked, "Huh?"

"That just now..."

"Since holy knights, like clerics, are a profession that believes in gods, I originally received one healing spell. It's just that my mana is so low that it's a spell that's worse than not using it..."

"I've heard that holy knight healing magic is so weak that it's hard to understand why it exists."

As Un-o, who had been observing from the side, added an explanation to the trailing words, Kran surprisingly didn't flare up but nodded seriously.

"Yeah, that's right. But recently I got this gauntlet too... As my skills improved, I can now barely manage to squeeze out enough to handle that level of wound. Hahaha. You could say this is my last resort! Something like that?"

Kapros seemed to remember him saying something similar even after receiving a new quest skill before... As Kran was puffing himself up and boasting, they saw a bearded face in the distance that had spotted them and was waving happily.