“Yup. I sang them a lullaby and they started saying they couldn’t eat any more.”

What a stereotypical dream . . .

“What about you, Raphtalia, did you have any problems? I found out that coliseum tournament participants apparently get targeted for attacks.”

“Huh? Oh, so that’s what that was? I did cut a few people down to protect myself . . .”

So she had already taken care of it. She had beaten them at their own game. I guess our match tomorrow would be a win by default. Even so, cut them down? I was a bit worried about the path Raphtalia was headed down.

“Did you polish them off?”

“That makes it sound so violent . . . I only injured them. They should be able to move again after two or three days.”

I had to wonder about that. After all, Raphtalia had grown up to be pretty tough.

“What about you, Mr. Naofumi?”

“Me? Umm . . . Someone I met at the tavern warned me to watch out for ambushes if I wanted to advance in the tournament. I didn’t really get any good info other than that. How did things go with you, Rishia?”

“Huh? Me?! Umm, I managed to get a look at some documents related to matches in the underground coliseum.”

“Oh . . .”

We could probably use that info to check which opponents to watch out for, like high-profile fighters that were always winning.

“There are all kinds of fighters, it seems, but there is one in particular competing in this tournament that we need to watch out for. If we end up facing this fighter, it’s almost certain to be a difficult battle.”

“Difficult doesn’t mean impossible, right?”

“Umm, right . . .”

Rishia had seen the kinds of battles we had faced with her own eyes. The underground coliseum tournaments might show you just how formidable people could be, but surely that was child’s play compared to something as dreadful as the Spirit Tortoise. Not to mention, having seen Kizuna, Glass, and their crew in action made even the strongest people seem weak. That’s the kind of company we had been doing battle alongside, so I sure wasn’t afraid.

“So? Who is the fighter?”

“Umm . . . The one we need to watch out for is a person who fights alone—even in team battle tournaments—and almost always wins, or at least places near the top. There was one other similar fighter, but that one isn’t participating in this tournament.”

Taking on a team battle tournament by yourself . . . Just what kind of hero was this? Maybe one of the seven star heroes was secretly participating in the underground coliseums? It was possible. Honestly, I wouldn’t have been surprised if one of the other three holy heroes that had gone missing showed up in the tournament.

“So? Who is it?”

“Umm . . . The person goes by the ring name Nadia, apparently.”