Swordmaster's Youngest Son

Chapter 96: The Cosmos Arena (7)

Jin’s battles the next day were not that different from Dante’s.

His opponents were introduced with pretentious names like Hellia’s Demon King or something, but it took only seven seconds to kill them.

Once again, the audience went quiet, and Beradin led the crowd to cheer.

“This year’s arena finalists must be those two.”

“That Jin Grey fellow is incredible, but it’d be hard for the Runcandel provisional flag-bearer… Who are you betting on? Jin Grey? Or Paul Mick?”

“I’m still with Paul Mick. After seeing yesterday’s fight, I contacted the main house and brought all of the money. You should bet on Paul Mick too. He’s a Runcandel. A Runcandel! Who could beat a Runcandel when it comes to the sword?”

“Hm, good point…”

Jin showed off his amazing sword skill, but the nobles in the audience were already certain that Dante was the Runcandel Clan’s provisional flag-bearer. It was no longer just a rumor to them. More and more money accumulated onto Dante’s pool, and not that many bet their money on Jin.

Thanks to Jin, the other contestants naturally became irrelevant. The previous year’s finalists, victors, and veterans—who were supposed to lead the event—seemed underwhelming.

“Dammit. Those kids are making it hard to touch some money this year.”

Most of the contestants were murder enjoyers, but as much as they enjoyed killing, what they wanted most was money.

More than the grand prize of 1000 gold coins for the competitors, receiving a portion of the pool from the host was much more important.

“Should we just kill ‘em off before the rest of the preliminaries? I think we can get ‘em if the veterans band together.”

The distributed prize money for the winner would increase as more bets accumulated on one person. Other’s fortune could only be a pain for the veterans.

“Hold on. Did you not see the One-Eyed Pirates get destroyed? This year’s contest is those kids’ stage. If you want to save your life, you gotta stay out of it.”

“Goddammit…”

Since the veterans’ mood was this sour, the other contestants had to team up amongst themselves.

“Until the end of the preliminaries, let’s fight minimally. That way, we can come back next year and earn money. We can also bully the newbies too.”

The veterans’ plan was to manipulate the victory. They planned to stage ambiguous battles without killing each other. That way, they could guarantee easy money by distributing the bets.

The guide relayed all this information to Cosmos.

“Ha, so they’re plotting something, eh? Bullshitting the fight to bathe in some money…”

“What should we do? If the competition gets boring, then we’ll have some problems next year.”

Hmm!

Cosmos scratched his gold tooth with his index finger and shook his head.

“Change the preliminaries around. Make sure that Paul Mick and Jin Grey don’t awkwardly meet and fight each other in the quarter-finals of something. They have to meet in the finals.”

“Are you sure?”

“The most important part of the show is to give what the audience wants. They want this duel more than the slaughterfest, so it’s all we can do. Instead, make sure they can’t bet anymore, and increase the other guys’ distribution pay.”