Raphtalia was just standing there in a daze, staring at Nadia as she swam around.

“Stop just standing there! You want to die?!”

This wasn’t an opponent that we could finish off in one blow, you know!

“Ra—Shigaraki! Let’s do this!”

I tried to get her on board, but Raphtalia was in a complete stupor and had let her guard down entirely for some reason.

“Big sis!”

Filo tried getting her attention, too, but it was useless.

“Here I come!”

Nadia readied her harpoon, accelerated even more, and shot straight at us to deliver her attack. I jumped out in front to protect Raphtalia and put out multiple shields in front of us. Just as I was about to cast Shooting Star Shield . . .

“Sadeena?”

Chapter Seventeen: Farce

Chapter Seventeen: Farce

Huh? Raphtalia . . . was talking to Nadia? Nadia was closing in at a ridiculous speed, but when Raphtalia spoke to her, she came to a sudden halt directly in front of us.

“Oh?”

The audience broke out into a commotion upon seeing Nadia stop.

Hold on . . . Sadeena was supposed to be the fisher from Raphtalia’s village, right? The incredibly strong fisher that was . . . a therianthrope . . . They’d said an aquatic therianthrope, right? All of the details were matching up! Did that mean Nadia was actually Sadeena?! No way, a coincidence that huge—

“It really is you, isn’t it, Sadeena? What are you doing here in a place like this?!”

Raphtalia loosened her equipment to reveal her ears and tail.

“Hmm . . . I’m surprised at how big you’ve gotten, but you must be little Raphtalia, right?”

“Yes, it’s me, Sadeena.”

A coincidence that huge . . . was possible, apparently. This was a good thing, right? One of Raphtalia’s fellow villagers was standing right here in front of our eyes, after all. Nadia, or rather Sadeena, stared at me hard for a moment and then cocked her head to the side, like she was trying to figure something out. Then she smiled cheerfully for some reason.

“This sure is a surprise, isn’t it? Do me a favor and pretend like we’re fighting so we can talk for a bit, will you?”

“Sure.”

“So why are you here fighting in this tournament?”

Sadeena changed her target and came after me with her harpoon, pretending like we were struggling with each other. Raphtalia and Filo rushed in swinging, as if to engage in close combat, and then acted like they had been parried and thrown back.

“We needed to get our hands on some money quickly so that we could purchase the village children. We’re currently rebuilding the territory where the village used to be.”

Raphtalia spoke quietly as she explained the situation to Sadeena. The way everyone was looking at us was really starting to bother me. Up until just a few moments ago it had been all-out warfare, and now we were just kind of poking back and forth at each other.