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The sacred ground of the Cres Kingdom, except the Sacred Beast Hill, was a plateau isolated by the smooth vertical cliff as if they had been carved by a knife.

I think the closest place that it resembled was Table Mountain from my previous life? Just imagine that but much sharper 一 to put it bluntly, like a whole cake on the table, while the surface was blessed with nature. The plateau was a stark contrast to the surrounding wasteland, with a verdant jungle growing on it.

If anything, nature looked like decorations on a cake. Not that it’s related, but this reminded me how I so much wanted to eat a whole cake about size 10 at least once.

Anyway, near the central part of the plateau lay a square, flat white boulder around 100 meters square which is used for things like rituals, ceremonial dances, and battles, so it has become the stage for the ‘Decisive Battle for Beast King’.

By the way, yesterday was supposed to be the final qualifying round between Revan and Cyril but Cyril (the real one we rescued afterward) forfeit before the fight, easily pushing Revan to the final.

“…… Did you play any trick on him?”

Revan had looked at me with awfully suspicious eyes, but of course, I was all clean… I mean, I even shielded him from the disaster, so I denied his accusation with all my might.

“Rest assured, I didn’t do anything shady!”

一And gave a thumbs-up.

“You haven’t done anything shady, that means you have done something else, right?”

This was asked by Asmina.

“Err…… ”

I stuttered there for a moment on how to gloss over it.

But decided to tell them the summarized story 一 How I suspected that a player was trying to cheat his way into the tournament, and when I tried investigating this matter, the culprit was an old acquaintance who one-sidedly attacked me for his stalkerish grudge but when I beat him down to pulp in his own game, he self-destructed and ultimately, the root cause of all this was a guild member from the past who seemingly has joined the hostile force, becoming one of its members. Though he escaped before I could capture him.

“A thrilling situation when you were attacked by an acquaintance whose face you don’t even remember but you somehow managed to reverse the situation, and then a boy whom you were awfully close with in the past suddenly appeared who then escaped when you tried talking about the details 一 was it?”

Huh? I kind of feel like it’s different though. Or rather, why are Asmina’s eyes sparkling so brightly?

“M-My lord, this is a love triangle entanglement, isn’t it!? As expected of Lady Hiyuki. Let’s talk about this in more detail!”

Ugh, I think I prompted a completely wrong input command.

After that followed the scene of Asmina who kept pestering me…and I mean it when I say she was too bothersome 一I know that girl desires to have a friend who’s just like her, of the same age and in love with someone, but in her case, she’s half mentally ill, so I would like to not be together with her一 so I excused myself giving a perfunctory response, but when I returned to the Scarlet Jade Castle, everyone was gingerly approaching me as if I was some kind of bomb ready to explode at a mere touch, apparently already informed of Kagerou becoming my enemy (Yeah, I don’t even need to know who the culprit is since there were only Kagerou, Utsuho and me in that place!).

I tired my mouth by repeatedly telling them,

一‘A secret love between a master and her servant’ was nothing more than Kagerou’s delusion! We absolutely hadn’t had any sort of relationship like this!

Yet, they didn’t take my words at all as they kept replying with a gentle, smiling face, “You don’t have to be embarrassed, we understand the painful feelings of Princess.”

I mean, I very much was a believer in ‘be what you want to be’ whenever I played MMORPG usually. However, that is another thing and bringing it to reality is anoth一…… Ahh, I forgot this is ‘Reality’ for them, so I guess rather than complicated, it’s more like the adverse effect of realization.

Hmmhmm…… I feel like Kagerou might have become an enemy even more formidable than Lubbock in a sense.

◆◇◆◇

A lot of things happened, but it was finally the day for the decisive battle to decide the beast king.

From the qualifying round of Demon Wolves’ Feeding Ground was Revan, the next chief of the Lionkin tribe, and disciple of the current Beast King.

From another qualifying round, Earth Dragon’s Bed, who emerged victorious was ‘Strong Arm’ Acheron, current chief of the Tigerkin tribe, a strong opponent as far as rumors about him go.

As it was a sacred battle, tens of shrine maidens chosen from each tribe including Asmina performed a dance dedicated to the sacred beast. Even the spectators’ eyes were glued to the fantastical dance scene,

『一一Hmm? Princess. Kurashi, who was watching over from the skies currently, said he was hungry so he caught a live prey but he is asking if it’s all right to eat them.』

Utsuho, who was in pet unison state, said in quite a sloppy tone.

『That’s fi一……』

I don’t think there’s any problem with filling their stomach with local items since we don’t have lunch boxes, so…… No, wait,

『――Don’t tell me the prey is human.』
『Of course not.』

I was instantly relieved to hear the immediate negative response.

『Then it’s all right.』
『Roger. It seems that the master of this place is a Sacred beast, but whatever, prey is prey.』

No sooner did I catch up with Utsuho’s following words, I hurriedly looked up while the surrounding focus was centered on the stone stage.

With my acute vision, I could somehow see the figure of a tiger with wings surpassing 10 meters in total length 一 Kurashi of the seven calamity beasts, floating in the sky looking delighted with a stag 5 meters in length, if measuring from the top of antlers, enveloped in blue light, in his mouth.

『W-W-W-W-Wha! You can’t. No matter what, it’s a Sacred beast! Release! Release! Get it out! Get it out!』

Kurashi made a face as if he didn’t like it.

『He’s asking if he can have one of its legs at least?』
『……hnn, one. It’s a Sacred beast so it should be able to regenerate, I think? Let’s try it a bit.』

When Utsuho’s words followed, the Sacred beast shook its head left and right as strongly as it could. Apparently, it can’t regenerate.

『It seems to be expressing its inability. 一一Hey you, the master of this place. We can set you free if you pledge your allegiance to the Princess.』