Chapter 41: The Return of the Real Deal (5)
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Chapter 41: The Return of the Real Deal (5)
The news spread like wildfire. Henry’s final battle became the talk of Vivaldi, as the owner of Million Gold had given the event all the publicity it needed.
‘He’s doing a good job.’
The larger the crowd, the better. The more people there were, the larger the returns would be, and in return, the amount Henry would receive will also rise exponentially.
The match was set to begin after lunch. After enjoying the sumptuous room service, Henry slowly began to make his preparations. Right after Henry had finished his lunch, Ten stopped by to check in on Henry.
“How are you feeling, Sir Henry?”
“Good.”
“That’s great.”
“What are the odds so far?”
“1:110 or so.”
“It seems that everyone is pinning their hopes on King.”
“Well, this is a gambling city. If there is a game where one can consistently win money, there’s no doubt people are gonna be attracted to it.”
It was rare to see anyone take huge risks on an underdog in a game with a highly probable outcome, no matter how much money could be made from it. Especially for a match of this caliber, between Henry and King. King had yet to taste even a single defeat, and was the sole Sword Master in the Sword Clash arena.
With a smile on his face, Henry said, “I would also like to place some bets on myself before we begin, is that fine?”
“Is that a declaration of your self-confidence? I like it.”
Participating players could not bet on their opponents, due to concerns about match-fixing.
However, players were welcome to bet on themselves so long as they had the will to win. A contestant could bet as much as they wanted on themselves.
“Then shall we begin?”
With his preparations complete, Henry set off to the stadium with Ten.
The match was held in the middle of the city. Million Gold had rented out the entire central square to create a stage. Surrounding the stage were several reception desks, for accepting bets.
“As I said, I am going to place some bets.”
“Please, go ahead.”
Ten readily allowed Henry to bet. Deep inside, he was laughing gleefully. No matter how much of a rising star Henry was, Ten had never heard of a Learner-class swordsman defeating a Sword Master.
The receptionist recognized Henry and greeted him courteously. “Oh, if it isn’t you, Sir Henry. What are you doing here?”
“I am here to make a bet on this match as well.”
“You are placing a bet as well, Sir Henry? You understand that participating fighters can only place bets on themselves, right?”
“Of course. I’m here to bet on myself.”
“How much would you like to bet?”
“One hundred thousand gold.”
“Excuse me?”
“I am betting one hundred thousand gold on myself.”
“Y-you’re kidding, right?”
The receptionist’s eyes rolled backward in shock, like that of a rabbit’s.
“I brought a subspace pouch with me. Please take the money.”
Occasionally, big players from the gambling scene would turn up and bet large sums of money as part of their financial strategy, but usually, the bets would be on the fighter most likely to win. The receptionist hurriedly counted Henry’s platinum coins together with the other staff.
“Confirmed. It’s exactly one hundred thousand gold. This is your receipt.”
Henry took the receipt from the receptionist, smirking to himself as if he had won a prize. He thought to himself, ‘This piece of paper will become the ticket to shaking up the very foundation of Vivaldi. Although I’m pretty sure Million Gold doesn’t actually have that much money.’
If Henry won, he could receive a payout of over ten million gold, including his own prize from the battle. However, there was not one single entity that could possess ten million gold in cash. Even Henry had never had that much money in his previous life. Nevertheless, there was a simple reason why he had bet such an absurd amount.
‘If I remember correctly, Ten had the largest amount of Colt Iron.’
Colt Iron. One of the rarest metals in the world, which could only be mined from the depths of the sea. It was one of the hardest metals in the world, and the only metal that could amplify one’s mana. Crucially, because of its immense value, its circulation was restricted by the empire and only very few organizations could legally trade it.
‘I’m not sure how you got your hands on it, Ten, but at the end of the day, it’ll be mine.’
Henry wanted to craft his own personalized weapons with the Colt Iron. There was no other metal that suited Henry as well as Colt Iron, after all.
Having finished placing his bet, Henry climbed onto the massive stage.
“Whoaaaaaaaaa!”
Seeing the immense crowd, Henry wondered if everyone in Vivaldi had gathered for the match. It was indeed not much of an exaggeration to say so. Henry was used to being the center of such attention, though. It was how he had always lived.
‘He looks pretty ordinary.’ Henry thought to himself, looking over at King. He was curious as to how such an ordinary-looking person held such an arrogant nickname.
The referee stepped between Henry and King. “Special rules apply to defending champions, and injuries will not disqualify fighters. Other than that, the rules remain the same. We will now begin.”
Iron swords were distributed to each fighter. The referee’s hand swiped between the two fighters, who each took a step back.
Then, at that moment...
‘Mm?’
Henry’s body suddenly felt heavy, and his vision blurred. It was as if he was suddenly having a terrible migraine.
‘Magic?’
It was definitely magic. It was a kind of debuff magic that was designed to incapacitate an opponent.
‘I see. So this was your secret to remaining undefeated?’
It hadn’t taken King very long to take the top spot in Sword Clash, only about one or two years. In addition, King had Million Gold as his sponsor. Still, Henry had not expected that King had been maintaining his position as champion in this way.
‘The special injury rule must be to silence his opponents.’
As long as King’s challengers were gotten rid of, his ridiculous secret would remain safe. Now that Henry knew, he began to feel for the magic of the hidden wizards.
‘At most a 3rd Circle... yeah, no matter how much money you guys have, you would never be able to buy out a proper mage.’
The higher the wizard’s circle, the more you could rely on them to get things done. However, there was no mage in the empire who would have abandoned their honor for money to do some mere arena match-fixing.?
As his vision blurred even more, Henry stomped his foot and cast a spell.
Thud.
“Return.”
It was one of the powers that all wizards possessed, a powerful defense magic that deflected spells back at their caster.
“Kurgh!”
As a result, the two wizards who were secretly casting magic from afar collapsed on the spot, coughing up blood. The deflected magic had struck them in their hearts—the source of their magical power. Thanks to this, Henry’s body lightened up again and his vision was restored. Henry then cast his magic buffs.
Thud.
As he did this, Aura slowly began to form on King’s blade. However, something was off.
‘Mm?’
Despite purportedly being a Sword Master, King’s Aura was substantially lacking. Henry carefully examined King’s Aura and noticed that it wasn’t that of a Sword Master.
‘Even the fighter himself is a fake?’
Although it was close, King’s Aura was ultimately not a Sword Master’s. In fact, based on his aura, Henry figured that the man could only be a top-notch Sword Expert at best.
Henry had seen numerous Sword Masters in his previous life. In addition, he had seen numerous Sword Experts who were much more skilled than those that he had witnessed during his time at the Caliburn Fortress.
‘Your scheme ends here.’
Henry had even cut through Hugo’s sword once, despite him being a part of Captain Iselan’s personally picked special task force.
With a simple magic buff and a light swing of his sword, Henry destroyed King’s iron sword, a sword that was stained with lies and deceit.
* * *
Having become the new King, Henry’s name was chanted throughout the city the entire day. Not everyone was in the mood to celebrate, though. There were an overwhelming number of people who had betted on King. Amongst them was Ten, the owner of Million Gold.
“W-what? What did you just say?”
“Henry bet one hundred thousand gold on himself right before the match.”
“O-one hundred thousand gold?”
“Yes.”
King’s defeat had been so shocking that it was only now that Ten finally heard of Henry’s bet.
“W-wait a minute. What about the odds? What were the odds? How much exactly do we have to repay him?”
In front of their flustered owner, the staff hurriedly tried to calculate the total sum.
“Since the odds were 1:112, including the prize money... it comes to 11,237,800 gold.”
“W-what? No!”
Roughly eleven million. Hearing such an astronomical number, Ten lost strength in his legs and collapsed into his seat, his hands trembling. All of his assets added up to around one million gold. How could he ever repay over ten million?
There was only one way to resolve this problem.
“H-Henry. We have to kill that bastard.”
“You’re going to kill who?”
At that exact moment, Henry appeared from the darkness with two wizards in custody. They were the wizards who had been hired by Ten for match-fixing purposes, the ones who had used debuff magic on Henry.
“Y-you!” Ten stammered.
As Henry pushed the two wizards in front of Ten, he said, “Repeat what you just said.”
Ten was left speechless. The existence of the wizards was top secret, known only to a select few executives, including Ten and King.
He jumped up from his seat and hurriedly shouted, “E-everyone, out!”
“Master, what is the matter?”
“I said, everyone out! I need to speak to Sir Henry personally.”
“Should’ve done that from the beginning.”
At Ten’s orders, all the staff rushed out of the room. Finally, only Henry, Ten, and the two wizards Henry had captured were left.
“W-what brings you here?” asked Ten. He pretended to be calm, but he could not hide his trembling voice.
“Let’s get straight to business. I’m here to collect my due. Just pay me what I’m owed and I’ll pretend I didn’t hear the part where you said you were going to kill me.”
Ten couldn’t believe it. Henry, who had started off as a mere Sword Clash participant, now felt like an unclimbable mountain.
“And you’d best not try to pull a fast one. If I don’t get my payout, it won’t be me that’s going to come after you, but the mayor himself.”
“T-the mayor? By mayor, you mean Mayor Vant?”
“I’ve already discussed things with the mayor. So, cut the nonsense and give me my money.”
Henry waved his Black Card as he smiled like the Devil himself. Now that the mayor was involved, there was no way Ten could do anything about his situation anymore.
Having lost everything, Ten spoke frankly, with a hint of desperation. “I don’t have it.”
“What?”
“Even if I were to add up all of my assets, I would only have a little over one million gold. So whether you want to get the mayor involved or not, I don’t have enough.”
“I already know that.”
“...huh?”
“‘Million Gold’ isn’t just a showy name... I already knew from the start that you wouldn’t have that much money. So, how about a proposal?”
“A... proposal?”
“Let’s go to your house first. And... Hey!”
Henry interrupted himself to shout at the two wizards, who hurriedly got up and bowed their heads deeply.
“Don’t you have any sense of honor as wizards? Aren’t you ashamed of yourselves!”
“W-we apologize.”
Henry decided to give them one last chance. “Get lost. If I see you pull shit like this one more time, you’re dead.”
“Y-yes!”
* * *
Ten lived in a huge mansion, worthy of the reputation of Million Gold. Henry sipped his tea leisurely across from Ten, who was sweating nervously.
Ten now spoke to Henry as if he was a Noble. “S-Sir Henry. What is your proposal?”
“How much Colt Iron do you have?” asked Henry.
“What do you mean, Colt Iron?”
“Stop pretending and tell me honestly. I’m here precisely because I know you have Colt Iron stored in your warehouse.”
Ten’s eyes trembled once again. The fact that Ten was in possession of Colt Iron was a fact that only a few imperial officers knew. Unfortunately for Ten, Henry was one of them.
“H-how do you know that?”
“Is that what’s important?”
“N-no!”
“So, how much of it do you have?”
“A-around three hundred kilograms of it.”
“Is that so? Then, out of the 11,237,800 gold that you owe me, I’ll deduct 37,800 gold, on the condition that you hand over all your Colt Iron.”
Colt Iron was more expensive than gold. Still, Henry was being quite generous by deducting so much gold for just three hundred kilograms of Colt Iron.
However, that was all the generosity he had left. After securing the Colt Iron, Henry continued.
“Previously, you mentioned that you have around one million gold in assets, didn’t you? Hand that over to me as well. Then we’ll have around ten million gold left outstanding, right?”
“Yes...”
As Henry continued to settle the outstanding debt between them, Ten’s complexion grew paler.
“For the remaining balance, let’s split up the payment. I’ll give you that much.”
“S-split up?”
“You didn’t think that I would just write off the ten million gold as debt, did you?”
“O-of course not! Of course I was thinking that I should repay you.”
“As you should. Oh, and one more thing! This is a present,” said Henry as he handed Ten a small scroll.
“What is... this?”
“This is a caller scroll.”
“Huh?”
“Aren’t you going to make some money? You don’t have to do things like match-fixing anymore. I’ll take care of that.”
Following chess, Henry had now become the champion of Sword Clash. However, unlike in chess, Henry had no intention of losing his reputation as the Sword Clash champion.
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Chapter 41: The Return of the Real Deal (5)
The news spread like wildfire. Henry’s final battle became the talk of Vivaldi, as the owner of Million Gold had given the event all the publicity it needed.
‘He’s doing a good job.’
The larger the crowd, the better. The more people there were, the larger the returns would be, and in return, the amount Henry would receive will also rise exponentially.
The match was set to begin after lunch. After enjoying the sumptuous room service, Henry slowly began to make his preparations. Right after Henry had finished his lunch, Ten stopped by to check in on Henry.
“How are you feeling, Sir Henry?”
“Good.”
“That’s great.”
“What are the odds so far?”
“1:110 or so.”
“It seems that everyone is pinning their hopes on King.”
“Well, this is a gambling city. If there is a game where one can consistently win money, there’s no doubt people are gonna be attracted to it.”
It was rare to see anyone take huge risks on an underdog in a game with a highly probable outcome, no matter how much money could be made from it. Especially for a match of this caliber, between Henry and King. King had yet to taste even a single defeat, and was the sole Sword Master in the Sword Clash arena.
With a smile on his face, Henry said, “I would also like to place some bets on myself before we begin, is that fine?”
“Is that a declaration of your self-confidence? I like it.”
Participating players could not bet on their opponents, due to concerns about match-fixing.
However, players were welcome to bet on themselves so long as they had the will to win. A contestant could bet as much as they wanted on themselves.
“Then shall we begin?”
With his preparations complete, Henry set off to the stadium with Ten.
The match was held in the middle of the city. Million Gold had rented out the entire central square to create a stage. Surrounding the stage were several reception desks, for accepting bets.
“As I said, I am going to place some bets.”
“Please, go ahead.”
Ten readily allowed Henry to bet. Deep inside, he was laughing gleefully. No matter how much of a rising star Henry was, Ten had never heard of a Learner-class swordsman defeating a Sword Master.
The receptionist recognized Henry and greeted him courteously. “Oh, if it isn’t you, Sir Henry. What are you doing here?”
“I am here to make a bet on this match as well.”
“You are placing a bet as well, Sir Henry? You understand that participating fighters can only place bets on themselves, right?”
“Of course. I’m here to bet on myself.”
“How much would you like to bet?”
“One hundred thousand gold.”
“Excuse me?”
“I am betting one hundred thousand gold on myself.”
“Y-you’re kidding, right?”
The receptionist’s eyes rolled backward in shock, like that of a rabbit’s.
“I brought a subspace pouch with me. Please take the money.”
Occasionally, big players from the gambling scene would turn up and bet large sums of money as part of their financial strategy, but usually, the bets would be on the fighter most likely to win. The receptionist hurriedly counted Henry’s platinum coins together with the other staff.
“Confirmed. It’s exactly one hundred thousand gold. This is your receipt.”
Henry took the receipt from the receptionist, smirking to himself as if he had won a prize. He thought to himself, ‘This piece of paper will become the ticket to shaking up the very foundation of Vivaldi. Although I’m pretty sure Million Gold doesn’t actually have that much money.’
If Henry won, he could receive a payout of over ten million gold, including his own prize from the battle. However, there was not one single entity that could possess ten million gold in cash. Even Henry had never had that much money in his previous life. Nevertheless, there was a simple reason why he had bet such an absurd amount.
‘If I remember correctly, Ten had the largest amount of Colt Iron.’
Colt Iron. One of the rarest metals in the world, which could only be mined from the depths of the sea. It was one of the hardest metals in the world, and the only metal that could amplify one’s mana. Crucially, because of its immense value, its circulation was restricted by the empire and only very few organizations could legally trade it.
‘I’m not sure how you got your hands on it, Ten, but at the end of the day, it’ll be mine.’
Henry wanted to craft his own personalized weapons with the Colt Iron. There was no other metal that suited Henry as well as Colt Iron, after all.
Having finished placing his bet, Henry climbed onto the massive stage.
“Whoaaaaaaaaa!”
Seeing the immense crowd, Henry wondered if everyone in Vivaldi had gathered for the match. It was indeed not much of an exaggeration to say so. Henry was used to being the center of such attention, though. It was how he had always lived.
‘He looks pretty ordinary.’ Henry thought to himself, looking over at King. He was curious as to how such an ordinary-looking person held such an arrogant nickname.
The referee stepped between Henry and King. “Special rules apply to defending champions, and injuries will not disqualify fighters. Other than that, the rules remain the same. We will now begin.”
Iron swords were distributed to each fighter. The referee’s hand swiped between the two fighters, who each took a step back.
Then, at that moment...
‘Mm?’
Henry’s body suddenly felt heavy, and his vision blurred. It was as if he was suddenly having a terrible migraine.
‘Magic?’
It was definitely magic. It was a kind of debuff magic that was designed to incapacitate an opponent.
‘I see. So this was your secret to remaining undefeated?’
It hadn’t taken King very long to take the top spot in Sword Clash, only about one or two years. In addition, King had Million Gold as his sponsor. Still, Henry had not expected that King had been maintaining his position as champion in this way.
‘The special injury rule must be to silence his opponents.’
As long as King’s challengers were gotten rid of, his ridiculous secret would remain safe. Now that Henry knew, he began to feel for the magic of the hidden wizards.
‘At most a 3rd Circle... yeah, no matter how much money you guys have, you would never be able to buy out a proper mage.’
The higher the wizard’s circle, the more you could rely on them to get things done. However, there was no mage in the empire who would have abandoned their honor for money to do some mere arena match-fixing.?
As his vision blurred even more, Henry stomped his foot and cast a spell.
Thud.
“Return.”
It was one of the powers that all wizards possessed, a powerful defense magic that deflected spells back at their caster.
“Kurgh!”
As a result, the two wizards who were secretly casting magic from afar collapsed on the spot, coughing up blood. The deflected magic had struck them in their hearts—the source of their magical power. Thanks to this, Henry’s body lightened up again and his vision was restored. Henry then cast his magic buffs.
Thud.
As he did this, Aura slowly began to form on King’s blade. However, something was off.
‘Mm?’
Despite purportedly being a Sword Master, King’s Aura was substantially lacking. Henry carefully examined King’s Aura and noticed that it wasn’t that of a Sword Master.
‘Even the fighter himself is a fake?’
Although it was close, King’s Aura was ultimately not a Sword Master’s. In fact, based on his aura, Henry figured that the man could only be a top-notch Sword Expert at best.
Henry had seen numerous Sword Masters in his previous life. In addition, he had seen numerous Sword Experts who were much more skilled than those that he had witnessed during his time at the Caliburn Fortress.
‘Your scheme ends here.’
Henry had even cut through Hugo’s sword once, despite him being a part of Captain Iselan’s personally picked special task force.
With a simple magic buff and a light swing of his sword, Henry destroyed King’s iron sword, a sword that was stained with lies and deceit.
* * *
Having become the new King, Henry’s name was chanted throughout the city the entire day. Not everyone was in the mood to celebrate, though. There were an overwhelming number of people who had betted on King. Amongst them was Ten, the owner of Million Gold.
“W-what? What did you just say?”
“Henry bet one hundred thousand gold on himself right before the match.”
“O-one hundred thousand gold?”
“Yes.”
King’s defeat had been so shocking that it was only now that Ten finally heard of Henry’s bet.
“W-wait a minute. What about the odds? What were the odds? How much exactly do we have to repay him?”
In front of their flustered owner, the staff hurriedly tried to calculate the total sum.
“Since the odds were 1:112, including the prize money... it comes to 11,237,800 gold.”
“W-what? No!”
Roughly eleven million. Hearing such an astronomical number, Ten lost strength in his legs and collapsed into his seat, his hands trembling. All of his assets added up to around one million gold. How could he ever repay over ten million?
There was only one way to resolve this problem.
“H-Henry. We have to kill that bastard.”
“You’re going to kill who?”
At that exact moment, Henry appeared from the darkness with two wizards in custody. They were the wizards who had been hired by Ten for match-fixing purposes, the ones who had used debuff magic on Henry.
“Y-you!” Ten stammered.
As Henry pushed the two wizards in front of Ten, he said, “Repeat what you just said.”
Ten was left speechless. The existence of the wizards was top secret, known only to a select few executives, including Ten and King.
He jumped up from his seat and hurriedly shouted, “E-everyone, out!”
“Master, what is the matter?”
“I said, everyone out! I need to speak to Sir Henry personally.”
“Should’ve done that from the beginning.”
At Ten’s orders, all the staff rushed out of the room. Finally, only Henry, Ten, and the two wizards Henry had captured were left.
“W-what brings you here?” asked Ten. He pretended to be calm, but he could not hide his trembling voice.
“Let’s get straight to business. I’m here to collect my due. Just pay me what I’m owed and I’ll pretend I didn’t hear the part where you said you were going to kill me.”
Ten couldn’t believe it. Henry, who had started off as a mere Sword Clash participant, now felt like an unclimbable mountain.
“And you’d best not try to pull a fast one. If I don’t get my payout, it won’t be me that’s going to come after you, but the mayor himself.”
“T-the mayor? By mayor, you mean Mayor Vant?”
“I’ve already discussed things with the mayor. So, cut the nonsense and give me my money.”
Henry waved his Black Card as he smiled like the Devil himself. Now that the mayor was involved, there was no way Ten could do anything about his situation anymore.
Having lost everything, Ten spoke frankly, with a hint of desperation. “I don’t have it.”
“What?”
“Even if I were to add up all of my assets, I would only have a little over one million gold. So whether you want to get the mayor involved or not, I don’t have enough.”
“I already know that.”
“...huh?”
“‘Million Gold’ isn’t just a showy name... I already knew from the start that you wouldn’t have that much money. So, how about a proposal?”
“A... proposal?”
“Let’s go to your house first. And... Hey!”
Henry interrupted himself to shout at the two wizards, who hurriedly got up and bowed their heads deeply.
“Don’t you have any sense of honor as wizards? Aren’t you ashamed of yourselves!”
“W-we apologize.”
Henry decided to give them one last chance. “Get lost. If I see you pull shit like this one more time, you’re dead.”
“Y-yes!”
* * *
Ten lived in a huge mansion, worthy of the reputation of Million Gold. Henry sipped his tea leisurely across from Ten, who was sweating nervously.
Ten now spoke to Henry as if he was a Noble. “S-Sir Henry. What is your proposal?”
“How much Colt Iron do you have?” asked Henry.
“What do you mean, Colt Iron?”
“Stop pretending and tell me honestly. I’m here precisely because I know you have Colt Iron stored in your warehouse.”
Ten’s eyes trembled once again. The fact that Ten was in possession of Colt Iron was a fact that only a few imperial officers knew. Unfortunately for Ten, Henry was one of them.
“H-how do you know that?”
“Is that what’s important?”
“N-no!”
“So, how much of it do you have?”
“A-around three hundred kilograms of it.”
“Is that so? Then, out of the 11,237,800 gold that you owe me, I’ll deduct 37,800 gold, on the condition that you hand over all your Colt Iron.”
Colt Iron was more expensive than gold. Still, Henry was being quite generous by deducting so much gold for just three hundred kilograms of Colt Iron.
However, that was all the generosity he had left. After securing the Colt Iron, Henry continued.
“Previously, you mentioned that you have around one million gold in assets, didn’t you? Hand that over to me as well. Then we’ll have around ten million gold left outstanding, right?”
“Yes...”
As Henry continued to settle the outstanding debt between them, Ten’s complexion grew paler.
“For the remaining balance, let’s split up the payment. I’ll give you that much.”
“S-split up?”
“You didn’t think that I would just write off the ten million gold as debt, did you?”
“O-of course not! Of course I was thinking that I should repay you.”
“As you should. Oh, and one more thing! This is a present,” said Henry as he handed Ten a small scroll.
“What is... this?”
“This is a caller scroll.”
“Huh?”
“Aren’t you going to make some money? You don’t have to do things like match-fixing anymore. I’ll take care of that.”
Following chess, Henry had now become the champion of Sword Clash. However, unlike in chess, Henry had no intention of losing his reputation as the Sword Clash champion.
Chapter 41: The Return of the Real Deal 5 The news spread like wildfire. Henry's final battle became the talk of Vivaldi, as the owner of Million Gold had given the event all the publicity it needed. He's doing a good job.' The larger the crowd, the better. The more people there were, the larger the returns would be, and in return, the amount Henry would receive will also rise exponentially. The match was set to begin after lunch. After enjoying the sumptuous room service, Henry slowly began to make his preparations. Right after Henry had finished his lunch, Ten stopped by to check in on Henry. How are you feeling, Sir Henry? Good. That's great. What are the odds so far? 1:110 or so. It seems that everyone is pinning their hopes on King. Well, this is a gambling city. If there is a game where one can consistently win money, there's no doubt people are gonna be attracted to it. It was rare to see anyone take huge risks on an underdog in a game with a highly probable outcome, no matter how much money could be made from it. Especially for a match of this caliber, between Henry and King. King had yet to taste even a single defeat, and was the sole Sword Master in the Sword Clash arena. With a smile on his face, Henry said, I would also like to place some bets on myself before we begin, is that fine? Is that a declaration of your self-confidence? I like it. Participating players could not bet on their opponents, due to concerns about match-fixing. However, players were welcome to bet on themselves so long as they had the will to win. A contestant could bet as much as they wanted on themselves. Then shall we begin? With his preparations complete, Henry set off to the stadium with Ten. The match was held in the middle of the city. Million Gold had rented out the entire central square to create a stage. Surrounding the stage were several reception desks, for accepting bets. As I said, I am going to place some bets. Please, go ahead. Ten readily allowed Henry to bet. Deep inside, he was laughing gleefully. No matter how much of a rising star Henry was, Ten had never heard of a Learner-class swordsman defeating a Sword Master. The receptionist recognized Henry and greeted him courteously. Oh, if it isn't you, Sir Henry. What are you doing here? I am here to make a bet on this match as well. You are placing a bet as well, Sir Henry? You understand that participating fighters can only place bets on themselves, right? Of course. I'm here to bet on myself. How much would you like to bet? One hundred thousand gold. Excuse me? I am betting one hundred thousand gold on myself. Y-you're kidding, right? The receptionist's eyes rolled backward in shock, like that of a rabbit's. I brought a subspace pouch with me. Please take the money. Occasionally, big players from the gambling scene would turn up and bet large sums of money as part of their financial strategy, but usually, the bets would be on the fighter most likely to win. The receptionist hurriedly counted Henry's platinum coins together with the other staff. Confirmed. It's exactly one hundred thousand gold. This is your receipt. Henry took the receipt from the receptionist, smirking to himself as if he had won a prize. He thought to himself, This piece of paper will become the ticket to shaking up the very foundation of Vivaldi. Although I'm pretty sure Million Gold doesn't actually have that much money.' If Henry won, he could receive a payout of over ten million gold, including his own prize from the battle. However, there was not one single entity that could possess ten million gold in cash. Even Henry had never had that much money in his previous life. Nevertheless, there was a simple reason why he had bet such an absurd amount. If I remember correctly, Ten had the largest amount of Colt Iron.' Colt Iron. One of the rarest metals in the world, which could only be mined from the depths of the sea. It was one of the hardest metals in the world, and the only metal that could amplify one's mana. Crucially, because of its immense value, its circulation was restricted by the empire and only very few organizations could legally trade it. I'm not sure how you got your hands on it, Ten, but at the end of the day, it'll be mine.' Henry wanted to craft his own personalized weapons with the Colt Iron. There was no other metal that suited Henry as well as Colt Iron, after all. Having finished placing his bet, Henry climbed onto the massive stage. Whoaaaaaaaaa! Seeing the immense crowd, Henry wondered if everyone in Vivaldi had gathered for the match. It was indeed not much of an exaggeration to say so. Henry was used to being the center of such attention, though. It was how he had always lived. He looks pretty ordinary.' Henry thought to himself, looking over at King. He was curious as to how such an ordinary-looking person held such an arrogant nickname. The referee stepped between Henry and King. Special rules apply to defending champions, and injuries will not disqualify fighters. Other than that, the rules remain the same. We will now begin. Iron swords were distributed to each fighter. The referee's hand swiped between the two fighters, who each took a step back. Then, at that moment... Mm?' Henry's body suddenly felt heavy, and his vision blurred. It was as if he was suddenly having a terrible migraine. Magic?' It was definitely magic. It was a kind of debuff magic that was designed to incapacitate an opponent. I see. So this was your secret to remaining undefeated?' It hadn't taken King very long to take the top spot in Sword Clash, only about one or two years. In addition, King had Million Gold as his sponsor. Still, Henry had not expected that King had been maintaining his position as champion in this way. The special injury rule must be to silence his opponents.' As long as King's challengers were gotten rid of, his ridiculous secret would remain safe. Now that Henry knew, he began to feel for the magic of the hidden wizards. At most a 3rd Circle... yeah, no matter how much money you guys have, you would never be able to buy out a proper mage.' The higher the wizard's circle, the more you could rely on them to get things done. However, there was no mage in the empire who would have abandoned their honor for money to do some mere arena match-fixing.? As his vision blurred even more, Henry stomped his foot and cast a spell. Thud. Return. It was one of the powers that all wizards possessed, a powerful defense magic that deflected spells back at their caster. Kurgh! As a result, the two wizards who were secretly casting magic from afar collapsed on the spot, coughing up blood. The deflected magic had struck them in their heartsthe source of their magical power. Thanks to this, Henry's body lightened up again and his vision was restored. Henry then cast his magic buffs. Thud. As he did this, Aura slowly began to form on King's blade. However, something was off. Mm?' Despite purportedly being a Sword Master, King's Aura was substantially lacking. Henry carefully examined King's Aura and noticed that it wasn't that of a Sword Master. Even the fighter himself is a fake?' Although it was close, King's Aura was ultimately not a Sword Master's. In fact, based on his aura, Henry figured that the man could only be a top-notch Sword Expert at best. Henry had seen numerous Sword Masters in his previous life. In addition, he had seen numerous Sword Experts who were much more skilled than those that he had witnessed during his time at the Caliburn Fortress. Your scheme ends here.' Henry had even cut through Hugo's sword once, despite him being a part of Captain Iselan's personally picked special task force. With a simple magic buff and a light swing of his sword, Henry destroyed King's iron sword, a sword that was stained with lies and deceit. * * * Having become the new King, Henry's name was chanted throughout the city the entire day. Not everyone was in the mood to celebrate, though. There were an overwhelming number of people who had betted on King. Amongst them was Ten, the owner of Million Gold. W-what? What did you just say? Henry bet one hundred thousand gold on himself right before the match. O-one hundred thousand gold? Yes. King's defeat had been so shocking that it was only now that Ten finally heard of Henry's bet. W-wait a minute. What about the odds? What were the odds? How much exactly do we have to repay him? In front of their flustered owner, the staff hurriedly tried to calculate the total sum. Since the odds were 1:112, including the prize money... it comes to 11,237,800 gold. W-what? No! Roughly eleven million. Hearing such an astronomical number, Ten lost strength in his legs and collapsed into his seat, his hands trembling. All of his assets added up to around one million gold. How could he ever repay over ten million? There was only one way to resolve this problem. H-Henry. We have to kill that bastard. You're going to kill who? At that exact moment, Henry appeared from the darkness with two wizards in custody. They were the wizards who had been hired by Ten for match-fixing purposes, the ones who had used debuff magic on Henry. Y-you! Ten stammered. As Henry pushed the two wizards in front of Ten, he said, Repeat what you just said. Ten was left speechless. The existence of the wizards was top secret, known only to a select few executives, including Ten and King. He jumped up from his seat and hurriedly shouted, E-everyone, out! Master, what is the matter? I said, everyone out! I need to speak to Sir Henry personally. Should've done that from the beginning. At Ten's orders, all the staff rushed out of the room. Finally, only Henry, Ten, and the two wizards Henry had captured were left. W-what brings you here? asked Ten. He pretended to be calm, but he could not hide his trembling voice. Let's get straight to business. I'm here to collect my due. Just pay me what I'm owed and I'll pretend I didn't hear the part where you said you were going to kill me. Ten couldn't believe it. Henry, who had started off as a mere Sword Clash participant, now felt like an unclimbable mountain. And you'd best not try to pull a fast one. If I don't get my payout, it won't be me that's going to come after you, but the mayor himself. T-the mayor? By mayor, you mean Mayor Vant? I've already discussed things with the mayor. So, cut the nonsense and give me my money. Henry waved his Black Card as he smiled like the Devil himself. Now that the mayor was involved, there was no way Ten could do anything about his situation anymore. Having lost everything, Ten spoke frankly, with a hint of desperation. I don't have it. What? Even if I were to add up all of my assets, I would only have a little over one million gold. So whether you want to get the mayor involved or not, I don't have enough. I already know that. ...huh? Million Gold' isn't just a showy name... I already knew from the start that you wouldn't have that much money. So, how about a proposal? A... proposal? Let's go to your house first. And... Hey! Henry interrupted himself to shout at the two wizards, who hurriedly got up and bowed their heads deeply. Don't you have any sense of honor as wizards? Aren't you ashamed of yourselves! W-we apologize. Henry decided to give them one last chance. Get lost. If I see you pull shit like this one more time, you're dead. Y-yes! * * * Ten lived in a huge mansion, worthy of the reputation of Million Gold. Henry sipped his tea leisurely across from Ten, who was sweating nervously. Ten now spoke to Henry as if he was a Noble. S-Sir Henry. What is your proposal? How much Colt Iron do you have? asked Henry. What do you mean, Colt Iron? Stop pretending and tell me honestly. I'm here precisely because I know you have Colt Iron stored in your warehouse. Ten's eyes trembled once again. The fact that Ten was in possession of Colt Iron was a fact that only a few imperial officers knew. Unfortunately for Ten, Henry was one of them. H-how do you know that? Is that what's important? N-no! So, how much of it do you have? A-around three hundred kilograms of it. Is that so? Then, out of the 11,237,800 gold that you owe me, I'll deduct 37,800 gold, on the condition that you hand over all your Colt Iron. Colt Iron was more expensive than gold. Still, Henry was being quite generous by deducting so much gold for just three hundred kilograms of Colt Iron. However, that was all the generosity he had left. After securing the Colt Iron, Henry continued. Previously, you mentioned that you have around one million gold in assets, didn't you? Hand that over to me as well. Then we'll have around ten million gold left outstanding, right? Yes... As Henry continued to settle the outstanding debt between them, Ten's complexion grew paler. For the remaining balance, let's split up the payment. I'll give you that much. S-split up? You didn't think that I would just write off the ten million gold as debt, did you? O-of course not! Of course I was thinking that I should repay you. As you should. Oh, and one more thing! This is a present, said Henry as he handed Ten a small scroll. What is... this? This is a caller scroll. Huh? Aren't you going to make some money? You don't have to do things like match-fixing anymore. I'll take care of that. Following chess, Henry had now become the champion of Sword Clash. However, unlike in chess, Henry had no intention of losing his reputation as the Sword Clash champion.
