If we were going to compete in the most dangerous of the coliseums, where the outcome was literally a matter of life or death, the consequences of leaving anything to chance were just too great. And there was no way I could compete on my own and expect to win. I was the Shield Hero, after all. All I could do was defend.

I’d approached the old Hengen Muso lady about participating, too, by the way. But she had built a reputation for herself in the coliseums before and had been banned from competing. That old lady’s past was riddled with mysteries.

“As a general rule, they’re elimination tournaments. Assuming the Shield Hero will be participating, I recommend competing as a team. Yes sir.”

“Obviously.”

“In that case, you can enter as a team of three or a team of five.”

Three people . . . I guess that would be me, Raphtalia, and Filo. I wasn’t planning on having Rishia participate in the first place, so that was pretty much the only way to go. I could have Raph-chan sub in for Filo depending on the situation, though.

If we went with five people, I could take Raph-chan and . . . maybe bring Keel or someone else. Even so . . . I wanted to avoid going with five people if possible. Raph-chan wasn’t all that strong, and while Keel and the others had gotten stronger, they still lacked experience. I couldn’t face Raphtalia if something went wrong and they ended up with the kind of injury that would leave a mark.

“Having your subordinates participate in a one-on-one coliseum might be good, too. Yes sir.”

“That’s the thing . . . How competitive is the one-on-one coliseum?”

Raphtalia’s katana was a vassal weapon from another world. I was sure she could win easily, even if it was the coliseum. Umm . . . was it just me? This was starting to feel a lot like the story from a popular old fighting manga where they ended up competing in a coliseum-style fighting tournament.

“The overall stakes and prize money are generally higher for the team competitions. Yes sir.”

“Team competition it is, then. Winning little by little is too much trouble.”

If I could participate, then teaming up with Raphtalia and Filo would be the safest bet . . . as long as the matches didn’t have any strange rules, that is.

“In that case . . . I’ll have you entered into an underground coliseum tournament that will be held soon. Yes sir.”

“Are there any special requirements to enter or anything else we need to worry about?”

“We’ll give the entry a little push to make sure it goes through. Yes sir.”

How dependable. Other than that, we just needed to make sure we didn’t do anything that wasn’t allowed.

“What about the rules? If they’re too complicated or the house takes the winnings or something, then I’m calling this off.”