Nadia gave an affirmative response in her usual overly familiar style and then ordered a ridiculous number of drinks, just like last time, before continuing the conversation. Just how much did this woman love her alcohol, anyway?!

“Aahhh!”

Several mercenaries began to approach us, but the drunkard woman, a.k.a. Nadia, waved them away with a casual flick of her hand. She’d said that our fight had gotten us some attention, so maybe they just wanted to ask me some questions.

“Well then, little Rock . . . How about I give you part two of things to watch out for at the tournament, then?”

“Huh?”

You mean there was more?

“Well, it’s really more common sense—it’s not so much a problem that you’ll encounter at every tournament, but it’s something that participants should always be on the lookout for.”

“Oh, I see.”

“It’s an especially prevalent problem for the official coliseums, and you can even get disqualified for it in some cases, you know.”

“Spit it out already, why don’t you?”

Nadia responded by pouring a drink in a stein and passing it over to me. So she wanted me to drink it? Fine . . . whatever. I chugged whatever it was that she had filled the stein with. It was some kind of fruit wine. It even still had some of the fruit left in it. It had infused well, giving the wine a really fruity flavor. I had a feeling I’d drank something like it before.

“Aahh . . . So? Tell me already.”

I placed the empty stein back on the table.

“Hmm . . . Well . . .”

She had really played it up, whatever it was, but she didn’t seem like she was going to talk any time soon.

“Little Rock, you really hold your liquor well, don’t you?”

“It’s the same as water to me. I’ve never been drunk in my life.”

This Nadia woman’s eyes grew wide. She seemed genuinely surprised. What was that reaction supposed to mean?

“Well, then . . . I guess I should tell you, shouldn’t I? But it’ll be easier just to show you, so how about we get out of here and enjoy a little stroll in the night air.”

“What about the matches?”

“The next few matches are all teams that won’t be advancing much further in the tournament. I already checked them out yesterday, so don’t worry about them.”

Hmm . . . Nadia’s intuition had been right about who would win the other night. She might have been right about these, too. Plus, those mercenaries from earlier seemed strangely interested in us and kept glancing over in our direction. I had to admit, it was getting on my nerves. It probably wasn’t a bad idea to just leave the information gathering to the inconspicuous Rishia and head back early, myself. I didn’t think my identity had been revealed, but still . . .