Now, Seras is sleeping on the bed.

Her breathing while she sleeps is well-regulated.
Her chest slowly moves up and down with each of her breaths.
Her face while she’s sleeping is quite calm.
I have just invoked <Sleep> towards Seras.
She can’t sleep because of the price she has to pay to use the ability of spirits.
However, Seras is really tired tonight.
So, I proposed on making her sleep with my <Sleep>.
Seeing the degree of fatigue her body is currently in, I thought that she could recover after sleeping with my skill.
This should have been something you’d greatly accept.
However…

[……………]

I don’t have a single ounce of vigilance while I’m sleeping.
She won’t be able to wake up from the effect of my sleeping skill unless I release it myself.
Whatever you do, she won’t be able to wake up.
Even Seras knows about that.
Eve had just said that I’m a soft-hearted person.

[Nnmm…]

Seras turns over.

[A real soft-hearted person should be someone like this person.]

Soft-hearted.
The first people that came into my mind would be my uncle’s family.
The next thing that came up in my mind were my classmates.

Kashima Kobato.
Sogou Ayaka.

I wonder, how are those two doing right now?

▽

The next morning.

[I’ve finished changing my clothes, Touka-dono.]

Behind me, Seras finally finishes changing her clothes.

[Then, let’s go.]

I gently patted Pigimaru.

[I’m counting on you to hold the fort today.]
[Pii!]

Our first goal for today is to visit the Blood Colosseum.
It’s so that we could collect information about Eve Speed.
After having breakfast on the first floor of the inn, we went out.

Hmm?

[What is it?]

Seras were shrinking her shoulders.

[I’m sorry that I’m eating really slow…]
[Don’t worry about it. Have you got sufficient sleep?]

Seras’ ability to change her appearance relies on her spirit.
As compensation for its usage, Seras must offer her desire to sleep.
Last night, I invoked <Sleep> on Seras.
The duration of its effect have also increased after it leveled up.
Now, the effect lasts up to 3 hours.

[I woke up exactly 3 hours after you’ve used it.]
[And you remain awake until morning came?]
[Yes, I’ve been awake. I still have to pay the compensation for this ability so… However, this is many times better than those times when I couldn’t sleep at all until I’ve paid all of them.]

Until now, she couldn’t get any sleep even if she wanted to.
She couldn’t sleep properly until she paid all of her compensation.
However, there is now my <Sleep> that works through their contract.
The difference between having this is really big.
I feel like were cheating the spirits a little bit though.

[At that time back in Mills Ruins, you look really exhausted.]
[…W- Well, I was really nervous at that time.]
[If you were to put it in another way, are you saying that you’ve been moving around at that time like that? Rather, couldn’t you boast if you have willpower as strong as that?]

Seras wryly smiles.

[Milord really can find things to admire in people.]
[Of course, I’m the type that praises people when they deserve it.]

▽

We finally arrived in the Blood Colosseum.
It’s location is away from the main street.

The first thing I thought of when I thought of when I saw the Blood Colosseum is the Colosseums back in our world.

It’s something you could often see when you read stories about ancient Rome.
Looking around, I found a map of the interior of the building posted outside.
The audience seats were surrounding the center field.
Is the appearance of colosseums the same wherever you go?
People come and go in the plaza outside of the Blood Colosseum.
I could also hear the cheers from inside resounding out to the sky.
It seems that there’s a duel going on right now.

[Now then, I wonder what’s going on… Speaking of which, is Eve Speed going to duel—]
[It seems that Eve Speed won’t duel today.]

Looking at the poster, Seras said.

[I see…]

Well, at this point, I don’t think anything would change even if we were to look at her duel…

[For the time being, how about we go around and ask people about Eve Speed’s reputation and any stories they might share about her?]

There is no internet in this world.
I can’t just easily search for any information.

[Now that I’ve come to a world without any internet, I could really feel the inconvenience at times like this…]

That’s why I’m really thankful for the existence of the walking dictionary Seras.

[Internet…? What is this internet?]
[Hmm? Ah, there was a convenient way of searching information from around the world back in my world. Well, you can’t really find any highly classified information in there.]

Be that as it may, you could still be able to acquire basic information.

[Is it something like a library where everyone could put any books they want?]
[It’s a bit different.]
[I guess you couldn’t use that internet in this place?]
[Yeah, that’s right.]

Well, I couldn’t power on my smartphone since there’s no battery at all.
I look at the people walking around the area.

[For the time being, let’s collect some basic information we would need.]

We’re newcomers in the royal capital who have become curious after we heard about were-leopards.
I guess we would be something like that?

[Should we split up?]
[That’s right. We can’t spare too much time.]

I passed the small coin purse that I had used last night towards Seras.

[This is?]
[You could use this money at your discretion if it’s necessary.]

There are various stalls in front of the Blood Colosseum.

[Some people’s tongue would be looser if you were to give them something.]
[Are you sure?]
[This is what we call “allowable expenses”. Well, I don’t really know much about allowable expenses either.]

My uncle had talked about allowable expenses before.
That’s apparently what you call the money you could spend while in the middle of work.
That’s how I understood it though.
It would be difficult to say if what we’re doing is “work” though.

We started collecting information about Eve.

After about three hours, we met again in front of the Blood Colosseum.

[I haven’t seen you for quite some time.]

No, I haven’t seen Seras while I’m in the middle of searching information myself.

[Actually, I went towards another district.]
[Is that so?]

I let Seras do what she thinks she must do.

I mean, it’s her.
I can’t even think that she would play around.

[And, what did you find?]
[I guess you could say she’s a really famous Blood Champion as expected… As for the stories about Eve Speed, I feel like most of the people would be really lively while talking about her.]

It’s the same case as mine.
Everyone was glad to talk about the strength of Eve Speed.
Every person will be happy if they’re talking about what they like.
Thanks to this, we could also easily collect information.

They gave us the information that we were interested the most.

Apparently, Eve was originally a slave.
She was sold to the Blood Colosseum by a slave trader.
And also, the audience at that time were getting tired of the usual duels.
At that time, the management introduced the unusual race, were-leopards.
Thereupon, it became really exciting after her first fights.
In this way, the duels were brought back to life.

[It’s amazing that she hasn’t lost for three years.]
[Eve’s side would always win, so it seems they haven’t allowed her to participate in any group battles for half a year.]
[It was because Eve had such an impression that she had lots of supporters. There are only a few people who expects her to lose.]

If the same person keeps on winning, it would be inevitable that the audience would get bored.
However, that is not the case with Eve.

[She’s trying to show the audience an unforgettable fight. Perhaps, she knows how the audience wants her to win. Everyone now has the impression that she only battles to see her win.]

That’s why she had become so popular huh…

[By the way, have you heard that tomorrow is the last duel of Eve Speed?]