Are you ready to go? They're going to have a test, so let's get there early.

　I took my own luggage and called out to the djinn who were checking their luggage from a little distance away.

'Oh, no problem!'

　Jin replied as he raised his hand, followed by Garratt, Menace, and Leena, who signaled with their hands that they were okay.

'I'm ready too!'

　Namitaro, who was on the roof of the carriage, seems to be ready to go... most of all, Namitaro's preparations are not very high...
　Shiroumaru and Solomon howl in response to Namitaro's voice. Solomon in particular seems to be fired up, since he hasn't been able to get out as far as he could since he came to the royal capital.
　It's hard to tell because Slarin' is in Tanikaze, but he's been making gestures from a while ago that seem to make the horse excited, so he seems to be fired up enough.

"Temma, you got a minute?

　Just as Shiroumaru and the others have finished howling, Namitaro comes calling from above us.

'What?'

Can you help me take him down? I'm starting to get a little dry and it's hard for me to move.

　Me and Jin and the others almost slipped off at those words, but I hit Nami Taro with a low-powered water magic method for now.

''I'll come back to life~''　

　Nami Taro comes down under his own power while talking about it. He dives straight into my bag and wakes me up when we get there.

　I put Shiroumaru and Solomon in my bag for now, though the energy I put in earlier seems to have already slipped away, and I get into the carriage.
　Jin and Garratt said they would take care of Gosha, so I didn't hesitate to get in.

''I'll be off then,''

　After calling out to the grandfathers who were out to see us off, the carriage headed towards the venue.


　Even though it was early in the morning, the area around the venue was overflowing with enthusiasm, and although it took a little longer than I expected, we were able to enter the venue without much trouble.

'So, see you at the game.

'Oh! I'm not going to take any chances when I get hit!

　It seems that they're doing an inspection just inside the hall, and that's where we're going to leave Jin and the others.

'Over here, please.'

　It was still a little early to meet up, so only one group was there before us, and that allowed us to get into the inspection room right away.
　There were two inspection rooms, and they were far apart from each other, so we naturally separated from Jin and the others.

''First, I will explain the inspection. In this room, we will briefly check the weapons, armor, and participating members. Also, you are allowed to bring your magic bags and other items into the waiting room as usual, but just before the match, you will be asked to put the weapons you will be using during the match into a bag that you can borrow in front of the officials. You will be asked to put your weapons, etc. in a bag that you will borrow in front of the officials. If you are unable to do so, please give your bag to someone you know in advance.

　Since he was told that, he put the weapons, tools, etc. that he planned to use on the desk.
　The attendant kept a record of them, especially the number, types, colors, and even the shape of the bottles, especially for recovery medicine.

'If you want to use recovery medicine after the game, please use it in front of the attendant, except in an emergency. Now we will check the members of the team. The Temma players were members of the subordinate in the tamer, weren't they? Please call me.

　Since I was told that, I really wanted to keep it a secret, but I had no choice but to call them all out.



　Slarin, Shiroumaru, and Namitaro seemed to have heard the information, and the attendant wasn't that surprised, but when he saw Solomon jumping out of the bag with great vigor, he yelled out and sat up.

'What happened!'

　Hearing the shouts of the attendant, the knights came in, opening the door roughly. I quickly put Solomon in my bag, but it looked like I hid something that I didn't want him to see, and a few knights came around me.

'Now get that thing you just hid out in plain sight!

　The knights say that as they hold their weapons at the ready, but it's impossible.

'I can't do that. This is my trump card. Besides, it's not something that's against the rules.''

　The knights, who didn't believe my words, looked at the attendant who was sitting down.

''Su, I'm sorry. The Temma players are not breaking any rules. It's just that I was surprised by the suddenness of the situation...''

　A little embarrassed, the attendant says to the knights, but the knights are still skeptical.

''If we haven't broken any rules, we should be able to get them out here!

'So this is my trump card. I can't show it to someone who isn't an attendant.

　As I was wondering what to do with the knights who said that, but were still unconvinced, a new figure appeared in this room.

''What happened?''

　The one who appeared there was the muscular man I often see in my house.......Lyle-sama.
　Lyle-sama appeared suddenly, and everyone except me poked their knees at him. However, the attendant was the only one who still seemed to be out of his seat, and it was a strange feeling.

'Face up. What in the world happened to you, anyway? What's up?

　As soon as he looked at me, the dignified voice from earlier returned to his usual voice.
　Seeing Lyle-sama's reaction, the knights' faces turned pale, but the leader knight still reported to Lyle-sama.
　While listening to the report, Lyle-sama thought for a bit before making a suggestion.

'I understand what you guys have to say. It is true that we will have to confirm what Temma has hidden. However, as a player, you want to keep your trump card hidden as much as possible, and you can't ignore the fact that the attendant said he didn't commit any violations. So, from now on, I want you to get the person in charge of the attendant right away. He and I will see what Temma has hidden. That's good for both of us!

　So it was hastily decided that only the man in charge, Master Lyle, and the original attendant would check it out.

'So, Temma. Was it caused by Solomon?

　Master Lyle seemed to understand, and was quick to attribute the cause, but the man in charge was a little confused as to what he meant.

'Exactly. Come out, Solomon.

　Solomon jumped out at my signal. As expected, Lyle-sama, who was used to seeing me, and the attendant, who was ready for the second time, didn't make a sound, but this time the man in charge was surprised by a loud voice.
　The knights outside heard the loud voice and were in a panic, but they didn't come in as Master Lyle called out to them.

''Solomon is not in violation of the rules, is he?

　I asked the man in charge that, and he nodded, looking half in love with me.

'Temma, are you going to let Solomon out in the first round?'

I intend to.　

Okay.

　With that, Master Lyle opens the door and calls out to the knights outside.

'Me and the person in charge just checked. As a result, there was no violation. The one that was hidden was a member of 'Oration'. I can't reveal its identity right now, but I was forced to ask them to let me out of the first round. At that time we will find out what caused the commotion.

　Saying that, Lyle-sama took the knights and pulled them up.
　After that, I was apologized to by the person in charge and the attendant with great vigor, and I ended up attracting strange attention from those around me.


''I'm in a lot of trouble...''

　Remembering the shame play I had just done, I headed to the designated waiting room while complaining.
　At the moment, I had planned to fight around Solomon in the first round and Namitaro in the second round, so what Lyle-sama told the knights was half a lie, but the lie seemed to work harder on the attendants than on the knights, and when the attendant in charge of inspecting me was crying for real while apologizing to me, it was the opposite. I felt sorry for this one.

　About half an hour after we arrived at the waiting room, a staff member came to call all the participating teams.
　I was told that a representative would be coming in for the draw now, but since there was no other choice in "Oration," I left everyone else behind and followed the attendant.

　The lottery is held right in front of the audience, just like the individual matches, and the order is based on the order in which you enter the hall, so my turn was number three. Jin was lined up in front of me, and in front of me was the leader of the previous winning team.
　Other than that, I can also see Aguri and the Marquis of Sammons.

''Temma I heard you did something early on. I heard you made the attendant cry.

　Jin speaks to me in a whisper, but apparently there's a tail end to the conversation, and I tell him it's hard to explain exactly what he's talking about now, so I'll tell him more later.

'We'll start the drawing now. The first one, please.

　The attendant called for the first man and the drawing began.
　The result..........



　The team I know drew numbers that didn't win each of the first and second rounds.
　　In descending order of numbers, "Seigenteimers A" was '3', "Demon Soldiers" was '8', "Oration" was '9', and "Sword of Dawn" was '13'.
　Other notable teams are the previous runner-up, 2, the previous runner-up, 11, and the previous winner, 16, who is looking for a second straight championship.
　The rest of the teams are not that well known, and it's a 50/50 split between teams that have participated in the finals before and teams that are making their first appearance.

'But this isn't it...'

　The 'this' I mentioned is the name of the team you're going to play against in the first round (...).

"I didn't think that Solomon's debut opponent's team name was the 'Dragon Gunners'...

　My opponent's representative was two or three people behind me, so I was able to identify him, though he was only representative.
　He looked like a muscular Dharma, and if I had to judge him by his appearance, he was a power-type vanguard, and although I couldn't tell what equipment he was equipped with, I was probably sure he was a warrior.
　The representative's build was slightly larger than the djinn's, and he looked skinheaded and hot.
　Compared to the other participants around him, he had the vibe of being quite capable.

''Well, still, no problem?''

　 ...If it's more than that, they'll come out on top in the individual competition. It was hard to believe that such an entity would be able to avoid the individual competition together. With that representative, it didn't seem strange that he would have participated in the main individual competition.　


　This time, since there was time before my first match, I decided to take it easy and have a meal.
　As for the food, it is said that you can eat whatever you want, whenever you want, but instead you will be examined with a magic item before the match, and in some cases you will be made to take a potion or medicine to counteract the effects of magic. Of course, failure to follow the instructions would result in immediate disqualification.
　Well, it's said that if the food is cooked with normal ingredients, it won't be like that, so there's nothing to worry about.

　As we were preparing the food on the table, the first game had just started and we could hear loud cheers from outside.

As I recall, the previous runner-up team will be coming out of the first game.

　Muttering that, I continued to prepare the meal. I didn't go to see them because I wasn't really interested in them and more importantly, the pressure of the four eyes that had been staring at the meal preparation beside me from earlier was too much.

　What I prepared under pressure was a rice ball, miso soup, an egg roll and pickles.
　The ingredients for the rice ball are fish fillets and pickled plums, and the pickles are cucumbers and pickled eggplant... I found out when I arrived in the royal capital that what we used to call komai is apparently the local name for the things that are usually called plums.
　Namitaro said that the person who introduced the name "komai" to the public was apparently a reincarnated person, and it seems he was Japanese, and when he saw a small plum seed, he called it "komai (konmai) plum", which became "komai plum", and finally "komai".
　To make matters more complicated, the name of the village where I learned about komai was "Komai Village", and its dried plums were sometimes called "komai-zuke".
　This is when I lost track of Namitaro. I've been calling it pickled plums ever since.

"Temma.

What is it, Namitaro?

　From the bag on the wall, Namitaro peeked out and called my name.

'Don't you dare!'

　...Every once in a while, Namitaro would say something that sounded like he read my thoughts...and most of the time it was something that annoyed me.
　I stood up quietly and shoved Namitaro deep into my bag. Then I closed the bag so he couldn't come out, and wrapped the bag around my shoulder strap........................Let's just leave it like this until Namitaro's time to come out.
　Fortunately, all but Namitaro are out, so there's no problem.
　I started eating as it was, and served the softly-cooked tuna to Slarin and the others....the occasional bag on the wall seemed to be moving, but I guess it was my imagination.

　As we were getting ready to eat, we heard a loud cheer from the arena. It seemed that the game was won.
　About 20 minutes from the start to the end of the fight? That's about the average amount of time it takes to play the first and second rounds of a team fight.

You didn't get to a decision?

　There is actually a time limit for team fights. This is because team fights with up to ten players in a jumble of teams are a bit too small to split the arena in two, so the first round is set at 30 minutes, the second round at 45 minutes, and the semi-finals at one hour, with only the final being unlimited.
　Because of this, there aren't many teams that are completely defensive in nature, so the matches tend to unfold quickly, and since there is often a lot of flashy offense and defense, the team matches tend to be the most exciting as a result.
　In the past, there was a proposal to increase the time limit per game by increasing the number of teams from 16 to 8, but the number of teams has never changed because the more teams there are, the more exciting it is and the shorter the games, the more spectacular and economical it is.

The decision is made by the chief referee and four deputy referees using flags, with no draws, and always deciding who wins or loses.
　Since there were only a few cases of referee irregularities in the past, the king now appoints the referees in person, and in the worst case scenario, a referee who cheats could be charged with treason. Instead of severe punishments, the referees are given honorary knighthoods after the festival is over as a reward.

''Ooh, looks like the next game has started.......so it's Aguri's team?''

　I wasn't sure if I should go watch for a moment, but I thought that Aguri's team would not lose, so I decided to continue eating.

　By the time we finished eating, the third game was about to start, and Aguri's team seemed to have won in a predictable way.
　Originally I wasn't worried about Aguri's team because they were well balanced and organized at a high level, but I was still relieved when I heard that the team I knew had won.
　The problem would be the last time the team would play in the second round, and I think it would be a good match. However, according to the information I got, the other team didn't play the first round with its full complement of players, so I'm worried about the rest of the team.

　The third game is said to be a battle between almost evenly matched teams, so I don't think it will be a quick decision, but since the next game is the Marquis of Samoens' team, it would be safer to prepare for your own game as soon as possible.
　The Marquis' opponents are said to have a lot of rearguard, so Gulliver's performance will be something to see.

　As I waited while stretching for the after-dinner exercise, I heard the spectators' loud cheers. Apparently, the third game was over and the fourth game was about to begin, so we moved closer to the arena as well.

　We were checked by the staff as we moved near the entrance. It didn't take much time as they asked us what we had said during the break and we just put our hands on a stone slab-like item.
　Just after the end of the check, the fourth game began and we saw Gulliver start to run at full force.

　The opponents of the demon soldiers were two warriors in the vanguard and two archers and one wizard in the rear guard.
　The two vanguards looked surprised at Gulliver as he suddenly rushed into them, but soon one of them had his shield at the ready and the other had his axe at the ready. The rearguard archer fires an arrow over the vanguard's head, but Gulliver knocks it all away with the club in his hand. The wizard in the position between the archers starts chanting, but Gulliver is quicker to pop the shield vanguard than he is to finish chanting.
　The shield warrior rolled backwards under Gulliver's side blow. There was a wizard at the end of the roll, and the wizard stopped chanting to duck the warrior who was rolling towards him.
　The other warrior stands in front of Gulliver to protect the rear guard, but the game was decided here.

　The fact that this is a team fight seems to have slipped from their minds with Gulliver's power. The moment the axe warrior noticed the knights hiding behind Gulliver, the knights jumped out from behind Gulliver with their shields at the front and went to the rear guard.

　From there, it was one-sided. At any rate, the warriors were held back by Gulliver, the archers drew their daggers and held them at the ready because they were too close to the distance, but they couldn't counter the knights and were knocked down, and the sorcerer released a short chanting spell to damage one of the knights, but he couldn't fire in rapid succession and turned his eyes around to hit the other knights' bodies.
　The axe warrior hadn't been defeated by Gulliver yet, but he was considerably outnumbered and his rearguard had been wiped out, so he surrendered.

''Gaaaaaaaah!''　

　It was Gulliver who was most excited about the unexpectedly overwhelming victory. He was so excited that he was barking while waving his arms around.
　Gulliver suddenly started barking, and not to mention the audience, even the knights, who should be used to it, were surprised and naturally kept their distance from him.
　There were only two people who could confirm that they were happy to see Gulliver barking and clapping their hands.
　One was his master, the Marquis of Samons, and the other was Luna, though he didn't know why.
　Luna was clapping as she leaned forward from her royal seat, struggling to support Tida behind her to keep her from falling off.

　Luna's applause may have triggered cheers and applause from the surprised audience.
　The members of the demon soldiers pulled up proudly in the middle of it all. I didn't see them face to face since they were on the opposite side of the street from where I was, but the Marquis of Sammons seemed to be happy to be able to show Gulliver's success.

''Ladies and gentlemen of the Oration, please enter.

　An attendant called out to me when the group in front of me had disappeared from the fighting table. The attendant who called out to me was the attendant I had assigned to the morning's inspection.

'Let's go!'

　I let Slarin and the others who were waiting in the bag out and took off Shilomar and Solomon's collars.

'Heh?'

　The attendant froze with a strange voice when he saw Shiroumaru and Solomon, who had grown larger as soon as the collar was removed.
　From the opposite doorway, the opposing team's 'dragon squad' had just come out, appealing to the crowd.

(Sorry, but I'm going to have to ask you to be Solomon's stepping stone.)

　I walked away, imagining the reaction of the onlookers to what was about to happen.