I remained silent and looked away from her. She didn’t seem like someone I needed to waste my time with.

“Oh? Were you watching the match?”

She helped herself to the seat next to me and tried talking to me again, but she must have noticed the leave-me-alone vibes I was sending her way, because after that she didn’t show any further sign of forcing the conversation. But then an audacious grin appeared on her face, and she rested her chin in her hands and began speaking slowly.

“Today’s match goes to little Sasa. Little El hasn’t noticed yet, though.”

“Huh?”

The fighters were named Larsazusa and Elmelo. Sasa must have been some kind of nickname.

“Oh, could you not tell? Little Larsazusa is going to win today.”

From what I had seen, the elephant therianthrope—Elmelo—had been going all out rampaging around, and the panda therianthrope had been forced to go on the offensive. Honestly, taking strength and everything else into account, too, I couldn’t see how the elephant could lose, even if the odds were in favor of the elephant. But then . . .

“Hiyaaaa! Bamboo Claw!”

The panda thrust its claws into the ground while casting a spell and . . . the ground started shaking, and a massive stalk of bamboo shot up straight through the elephant and smashed into the ceiling of the coliseum.

“Gah!”

After a moment, the stalk of bamboo shattered and dissipated into the surrounding air. There was a loud crash and the whole venue shook. The elephant had fallen over onto the floor and lay there absolutely motionless as a pool of blood spread out from under it. Was it dead?

As the thought crossed my mind, a stretcher was brought out and a doctor began treating the elephant as attendants carried him away. Then the referee came over and raised the panda’s hand into the air.

“We have a winner! Larsazusa!”

The spectators cheered loudly, their oohs and aahs echoing throughout the venue. Considering the odds, anyone that bet on the panda would probably be really happy with the outcome. They seemed to be pretty competitive odds, too.

“Nice call.”

They began cleaning up the arena immediately and the panda went back to the waiting room.

“What can I say?”

I’d sensed that the panda recited some kind of magical incantation during the fight, but I’m sure the elephant had been on guard, too. In all actuality, the elephant had gotten off several whammies of its own.

“You didn’t bet on the fight then, did you?”

“Nah, I just came to do a bit of recon—see what this underground coliseum is all about.”

This woman . . . She seemed to know the coliseum pretty well. I got the feeling that it wouldn’t be a bad idea to talk with her a bit.

“Oh? So you’re interested in fighting in the coliseum, then?”

“I guess you could say that. Betting is a secondary goal.”