"What in the saint's name?!" Helena scowled at the cacophony. "Eyna said you did special training, and I looked everywhere, but this—"
She waved at the men-at-arms, getting drunk and loud on the remote square.
Then, noticing the floating screen they cheered at, she fell silent.
Seeming like someone with a lot of questions, she could only force out one.
"I-is that—Welf?" she asked, mouth agape and with a slight blush.
"Him, and Count Rolalt's personal champion," Konrad nodded. "It's our great finale for today."
The other fight ended without much fanfare.
Those teams realized they couldn't beat the other, nor did they have to. Konrad used his illusions to lead them out of the maze once they had withdrawn, with minor injuries.
Lily took care of them, but nobody noticed it when a real spectacle was also ongoing.
Welf and Kade did not pull their punches.
People placed bets—and somehow, more and more beer began to flow.
"Why do they fight like that?" Helena's breath hitched with every clash. "They'll kill each other."
Konrad could only laugh at that.
"They're doing their best to—but those are blunt weapons," he said to comfort her.
"So are clubs," the princess protested. "And they can still kill a man."
Fair. Those two wouldn't even need weapons to crush someone's skull.
What would've happened if Rolalt gave his amulet to this brute rather than taking his place?
The thought terrified Konrad like nothing else. He could only win against Welf when he was lucky—and he knew him well. He'd laugh at his dirty tricks and concede.
But Kade seemed tough as nails even after ten minutes of fighting.
If he managed to pull something on him, he would've skinned him alive as a response.
Even the blacksmith struggled to stand up to him—not to mention, he could no longer issue orders to his men. At least the knights knew their job, holding the rest of Kade's party at bay.
Their former leader read the situation well. It was a veteran whose name eluded Konrad.
"Liliske is nearby to heal them if needed," he affirmed with a bit of a delay, also immersed in the fighting. They've split into two distinct halves by now.
One brutal duel that didn't want to end, and a less intense clash between the teams themselves.
The Blood Moons moved fast, staging small-scale hit-and-run attacks.
They'd flank, strike, fall back, regroup, as the knights tried to weather their offensive.
Their weak link might've been a fresh tribal recruit. He did his job well, predicting where the next strike would come from, but stood no chance against them.
Meanwhile, the other party had seasoned warriors acting on their whims and instincts.
Their lone knight tried to rein them in, but their chaotic energy was their greatest strength.
It could not break through the knight's armored wall, but it kept them on their toes.
"I'm still not sold on that girl's abilities," Helena whispered, watching their flurry. "Did she learn healing in Kasserlane? The Church doesn't teach women—"
Konrad scoffed.
"I've no idea where she got her magic from, but she knows her stuff."
He only tore his eyes from the screen to wave around the noisy square.
"Almost a quarter of these men got at one or more broken bones today," he said. "And do they look wounded to you now? And yes, they all participated in this."
"Wait, what?" Her eyes narrowed in disbelief. "You can't heal broken bones like that."
"You go tell her," Konrad laughed. "Or ask the men over there. One came back with seven broken ribs—and look at him laughing and drinking now."
"That's—how?" Helena shook her head. "No, wait. What kind of training is this anyway?!"
All he could do was holler at the question, but his eyes were back on the screen already.
Impossible it might've seemed, but the giants' duel got even more intense.
The fighting in the background almost stopped. Knights and tribesmen stared at their leaders in awe, forgetting about their opponents. Or they might've figured out the illusions already.
Welf knew it from the start, and brute force wouldn't have kept Kade in the game for so long.
"Hmm, I'd better separate the rest of the parties from the main event," Konrad mumbled.
His illusions adjusted, he triggered noises and images to disrupt their low-effort fighting.
The same distractions didn't even reach the blacksmith and the brute.
Their entire world narrowed to the brutal duel between them.
"You set up an arena with magic?" the princess asked, picking up the pieces at her own pace.
"More or less," Konrad nodded, reshaping reality around his men-at-arms. "I'm going to lead the rest out of the maze now, so that the other two can fight to their heart's content."
"Do they know?" Helena pondered, watching the streets bend through the screen.
Which, itself, was also an illusion.
Light that Konrad cloned and redirected for everyone else to see.
"They think they're fighting zombies. Wanted to make sure they'd fight with real intent—but some might've figured it out by now." Which meant he could stop being subtle with his hints.
He summoned Brigida's image right away.
While the real girl was mute, this version yelled at the teams, urging them to leave the area on the shortest path.
"The idea was to give 'em a simple mission, and escalate it from there," Konrad explained.
"You're a terrifying man." Helena shot him a glare. Not like his brother's proposed tournament was any different in his eyes. Less spectacular and more annoying. "And? How did it go?"
"Better than expected," he said with a grin.
But as if to remind him of the cost, his nose began to bleed.
"Ugh, it's time to disable my spells now—I'll only keep the broadcast and their disguise on."
The drain was slow and steady, so he wasn't feeling as dizzy as usual. But it was still taxing.
His mana was low, and the battle royale went on for much longer than he had prepared for.
But seeing this spectacular outcome—
"It was Welf's idea to throw the men into the deep water to make 'em forget their differences and build trust," he noted. "But I couldn't send them to fight goblins in the mines right away."
"So you built this horror scenario." Helena's voice was still a bit judgmental, but also amused.
"It took some effort, but look at them all," he said with a tired smirk. "I only had to pick off two rotten apples before they infected the morale of the rest, and they seem satisfied so far."
"And drunk," the princess pointed out. "How long have they been fighting?"
She seemed concerned. Almost as if she felt something for Welf, too.
"Twenty minutes?" Konrad tried to guess. "Hard to believe they're actual humans at this point."
With so many demons, angels, and dragons around, it was even more difficult for him.
But there was no time to ponder when the duel's fortunes turned so fast. The end was abrupt and unexpected. Welf lost his footing, and Kade gave him no time to recover.
His blunt blade came down on the tribesman with insane force.
The redhead lost his weapon, leaving him with no chance to deflect the strike.
Konrad was gritting his teeth, waiting for his failsafe to kick in, when he realized—
He disabled that, too.