Leave a comment

Both guilds were pleased seeing Lycoris accept their compliments with a smile. Meanwhile Sakura watched that while holding a handkerchief to her eyes, nodding proudly as well.

“Oh my, it’s such a beautiful sight to see the players who were fierce rivals not too long ago form such friendship…”
“Umm…excuse me, but I feel like they clearly don’t feel any friendship towards me…”
“What?”
“…Nevermind.”

Shao was trying to point out the flaw in that comment, but when Sakura looked at him in a terrifying way that conflicted with her on-screen persona, he quickly pulled back.

Meanwhile there was Crim and Sorleon, who had not been present for their fight.

“…Say, what happened between them?”
“…I don’t know?”

Both of them were unable to follow what was happening, making them feel left out.

Some time passed until their conversation reached its conclusion.

“Alright, now we’ll move onto announcing the personal awards. For that we’ll also let the guests and viewers see all the comments sent by viewers into the chat.” Saying that, the host Kirisu Sakura snapped her fingers.

In response, a window showing the comments appeared on the roundtable.

“First off, the Trickster of the Battlefield award, given to the player who made the biggest impact on the battlefield… And the winner is Shao from Lan Canglong! A round of applause everyone!”

Many messages flooded the chat the moment the award winner was announced. Shao grimaced a little, seeing that even the chat had it out for him, but he happily took the frame holding the award in it.

After that the Fighting Spirit Award was given to Hinagiku, the youngest participant. The Best Commander Award was taken by Reinhard.

“Next, the Best Battle Award! I’m sure everyone already knows this one!!”

Everyone in the chat also agreed with Sakura.

“So the Best Battle Award goes to… Nord Glacier’s Sorleon vs Lua Cheia’s Crim! Congratulations to both of you!!”

There was an even stronger influx of comments. Crim watched in dismay as they quickly devolved into calling her shrunk form cute, and then turned to look at Sorleon.

“…I won’t lose next time.”
“Me neither.”

They raised their fists, already looking forward to their next encounter.

“Ah, by the way, since that was the Best Battle, an uncut recording will be uploaded to the official channel tomorrow. Look forward to it, everyone!!”
“…Huh?!”
“Wait, an uncut version?!”
“Yes, it’ll be from the moment you two saw each other until the end, completely uncut!”
“”Hold uppppp?!””

Both of them still remembered the childish insults they threw at each other halfway through, so they tried to protest against the publication of that video, but their complaints were waved away.

Sakura simply moved on to the next topic.

“And now for the final award, it’s time to announce the MVP..!!” As she said that, all the lights were dimmed and a pair of spotlights appeared, dancing to the rhythm of a drumroll for dramatic effect, before eventually stopping on a single person. “And the MVP is… Lycoris from the Lua Cheia Guild!”

“…Fwha-?!”

Lycoris had not even thought about receiving that award, so hearing her name be called and the spotlights focused on her left her frozen in shock.

“You were chosen for various reasons. First is that being a sniper is extremely difficult in this game, but you never missed a shot, always choosing your targets carefully and striking the right spot to both defend your allies and push your advantage forward. We also got a lot of votes simply because mechanical girls are cute…and many others who mentioned how moved they were at the conclusion of your fight with Shao. Because of all that, you were chosen as MVP.”

“M-M-M-M-Me? B-But why, I didn’t even win…”
“Well…it’s true that usually the MVP is chosen out of the winning team, but in this case they also suggested you take the award.”
“Huh…”

The winning team had also voted for her. Still a bit confused, she turned to look at the members of Nord Glacier.

“Well, we all saw how hard you worked, so we really thought you deserved it after what we did.”
“You did work really hard though, so it’s a well-deserved award either way. Keep your head high, you’ve earned it.”

Hearing such warm words from the rival team made Lycoris feel emotional, her face slowly shifting as she began to cry tears of joy.

“Um…I…I didn’t think I’d get any praise… but everyone here is so kind… really… thank you… thank you so much.” Tears streamed down her cheeks as spoke with a big smile.

Frey, who was sitting next to her, began to pat her head seeing that.

Even more messages congratulating her flooded the chat. Lycoris was overwhelmed with all of that, and in the end all she could do was to bow time and time again to the camera. Seeing that, Crim’s face slowly began to relax.

“…Everything worked out in the end, right Crim?”
“Yeah…it seems so.”

Freya whispered into Crim’s ears, speaking so softly that the microphones would not pick it, and Crim nodded firmly.

They had been worried that Lycoris would keep blaming her for their guild’s position in second place, but seeing her so cheerful at the end of the event filled them with relief…