“Rafu?”

I wanted something with a twist. Raphtalia would probably get mad at me if I called her something like Raph-chan No. 2, though.

“You’re thinking about something rude, aren’t you?”

“Hmm . . . Alright then. Raphtalia will be Shigaraki, and Filo will be Yakitori.”

“Nooo!”

Filo had the nerve to complain. What was wrong with “Yakitori”? Did she not like grilled chicken? It would be easy to remember.

“Mr. Naofumi, that’s a bit mean even for you, don’t you think? Look. Filo doesn’t look very happy now, does she?”

Bah! I guess I had to pick something else if Raphtalia was going to complain.

“Fine. Raphtalia will be . . .”

“Hold on. So my name was something rude, too?”

I guess she didn’t get the tanuki reference and had only been complaining about Filo’s alias.

“Who knows? Filo will be . . . Humming should work.”

She had been a monster called a humming fairy in Kizuna’s world, after all. No one in this world would know that.

“Mr. Naofumi? Are you listening to me?”

“Filo, you can call me master like usual during the matches. Just call Raphtalia big sis.”

“Okaaay!”

Master was just a general title and wouldn’t give away my name.

“Mr. Naofumi!”

Right now, we needed to buy up the slaves from Raphtalia’s village as quickly as possible, so there was no turning back for me, no matter what.

We returned to the village, and it ended up being the day before the coliseum tournament, by the time all of us had gotten fully prepared. Filo spent her time playing with the slaves, and she must have recognized the village as something she wanted to protect, because she was looking forward to fighting now. Raphtalia apparently finished powering up the katana that she got from the dragon emperor materials to a sufficient level.

And now we were on standby in the waiting room at the underground coliseum in Zeltoble. We would be fighting daily from here on out. Until we won the tournament, that is.

The Zeltoble coliseum was inherently secretive, so the careers of the fighters were packed full of fabrications. As a result, I’d heard the odds tended to favor the more well-known fighters. That meant that neither the nobility nor anyone else would be paying any attention to someone like a newcomer hoping to win big. I guess no matter what world you were in, there would still be those extravagant types who didn’t mind losing money, since they didn’t work for it anyway.

“This is our first match. Let’s try not to bring ourselves too much attention.”