"Name and occ- So sorry ma'am."
Finally getting to the front of the queue, Anastasia was immediately recognized by the lethargic clerk, overworked as always.
"It is fine, what's my starting roster?"
Just like the clerk, Anastasia wasn't happy about the change to this once sacred tournament, but complaining would be unbecoming of her, so she just pressed on with the day which would undoubtedly turn stale.
"You're assigned to waiting room number 3, good luck."
(I don't need luck, I need something to avail this boredom…)
"Thank you, have a good day."
sighing to herself as she went to her assigned waiting room, Anastasia didn't have high hopes for her first 20-ish matches, letting just about anyone join this competition was something she had never agreed with and now suffered for.
Entering her assigned waiting room, Anastasia found the usual suspects, a few aspiring knights, a mix of seasoned and upcoming adventurers, even a few active duty knights met her gaze. Sadly there were also a few charlatans in waiting room #3, some who thought they could just walk in off the street with little training, attitude, talent or equipment and win this sacred tournament… One particularly offensive joker even blew a kiss at her.
(This is why opening up the tournament was a mistake… At best these fuckers just forfeit when they find out they're going up against someone competent, wasting everyones time with unnecessarily bracket fights.)
Worse yet, some of these jokers were diluted enough to actually try and fight someone who clearly outclassed them, leading to tournament accidents and even a few permanent injuries.
(Well, there are at least a few each year, if there weren't, then even more of these pests would swarm to this event and bog it down even further.)
As a knight commander herself, Anastasia saw acts of violence, even tournament fights with rules and restrictions, as something that needed to be respected. That was exactly why she found this yearly tradition so cumbersome, forced to deal with people who disrespected what she and her family had dedicated their very being to.
(So this is what this shit is all about… Perhaps I should've shown up in some kind of faux plate armour, just to scare away all the casuals?)
Sitting in waiting room number 3 for about an hour, Mac started to get a feel for how this tournament thing would go, at least the start of it.
"Contestants Will the adventurer and Dave the knight. Please step forward."
Mac had seen this pattern a few times now, and as the veteran knight and young adventurer stepped forward at their names being mentioned by a clerk, things followed the pattern Mac had observed so far.
"I forfeit."
Sizing up his opponent, the young adventurer immediately made the correct assumption that he stood no chance of beating a knight in single combat and immediately resigned from the tournament. Mac must've been the last person in the room to catch onto this pattern, as most of the other fighters hardly reacted as it continued to play out. Once every 2 to 3 times a clerk appeared in the doorway to summon a pair of fighters they looked somewhat evenly paired and would leave the waiting room for their match, otherwise most of the fights ended before they even started.
"This is some tournament alright… I would've spent my time better doing literally anything else."
"Ha! Ain't that the truth."
Getting a response from the left to his idle musings, Mac turned his attention to the veteran-looking adventurer that cackled in response to his words.
"Are you here because of some sort of bet, or do you just owe coin to the bad sort of people?"
Seeing that Mac was at least interested in fighting with no gear and an unremarkable sword, the veteran adventurer figured he was desperate.
"I guess the closest thing would be that I'm desperate, but to be honest I'm really just here because I'm bored."
Being uncharacteristically honest for once, Mac got a roaring laugh out from the adventurer in response.
"Aha ha ha ha ha! Well I guess you're in for some entertainment then!"
"Contestants Mac, 'diplomat' and Ben the adventurer, please step forward."
Finally Mac's name was called, but as he stood up so did the veteran-looking adventurer he had just talked to.
"Well, it seems like you're in for some entertainment immediately, or do you give up?"
"Nope, bring it."
(There's always a few each year, and of course when this charlatan gets injured the state is going to front his medical costs.)
On the one hand Anastasia was happy to get rid of another charlatan in her group, but on the other hand she was annoyed at her tax being wasted on things like that.
Silently counting the seconds, it wasn't more than a few minutes before Anastasia heard the crowd go wild.
(Another quick washout…)
Shutting her eyes to hopefully make the day pass a little faster, Anastasia wasn't surprised when a clerk burst through the door a little after.
"Anyone in here a healer!? We have a guy from your group that's bleeding badly from his face."
(The face? Really?)
Everyone knew that going for anything above the chest in a tournament of all things was bad taste, so as a knight Anastasia felt like she had to say something to the victor.
Only it wasn't the adventurer Anastasia had expected walking back into the waiting room.
Getting back into the waiting room, Mac was met with a few shocked faces. Given the still shocked clerk who had rushed past him to look for a healer, he could guess what happened.
(I just broke his nose, what's the big deal?)
Sitting back down in the waiting room, Mac felt a few eyes on him, but it seemed most people quickly came to the conclusion that what had just happened was nothing more than a fluke.
(Continue to underestimate me at your own peril.)
Getting through the tournament easily or with hard fought battles didn't really matter to Mac, as long as he got to request an audience with the king or the high council he would have made successful first contact.
"Is there still blood on my face?"
Noticing a knight continuing to stare at him, Mac tried to strike up a conversation, but as she just straight up ignored him Mac figured he had offended her somehow.
(Stuck up… Well, at least she's pretty when acting offended too.)
The knight in question was the same one who had stared at him before, she looked around 30, had long straight golden blond hair tied up into a ponytail and bright blue eyes. Judging by the quality of the full plate armor she was wearing (her chest piece even had a centre mounted jewel for some reason) she was definitely: 1, high ranking. 2 a noble. or 3 all of the above.
(I guess I'll get to talk to her if she's going to persist in the tournament.)
Before Mac could further admire the knight she was called out to fight, but at least he learned her name for when she (hopefully) returned.
(Anastasia, huh?... Seems like she's got a temper.)
While Mac still somewhat remembered what he had joined the tournament for, he had started to enjoy himself fighting with a sword for once and the logical parts of his brain were starting to shut down.
(I wonder if she'll continue being so arrogant if I break a few bones, or just bust up her nose?)
"Contestant Mac and Simon, knight, please step forward."
(All in time, I guess.)
Over the next few hours Anastasia became increasingly unsettled as one of the charlatans in the group continued leaving for fights and returning intact. Worse yet, every time he fought the crowd went wild enough for her to hear all the way from the waiting room.
After weeding most of the charlatans and jokers with fights within the same group, the first real half of the fights in the tournament saw different groups facing off against each other, with multiple fights taking place at the same time. Sadly Anastasia hadn't gotten to fight at the same time as the charlatan who called himself a diplomat so she could get a chance to figure out what his deal was.
"I feel like you keep staring at me."
With the slowly dwindling amount of contestants in the waiting room, Mac had an increasingly hard time ignoring the knight that kept staring at her.
"You beat Simon and returned here in no time at all, how are you cheating?"
The knight's tone was sharp, but Mac figured there was something wrong with him as he felt it was slightly inciting.
"Womp fucking womp."
However, being straight up insulted Mac didn't really feel like he owed the knight a proper response.
"Yeah, that's about the level of dialogue I expected from a 'diplomat'."
"Expecting a flowery dialog when opening up with an offence is like shiting in your own hand and expecting people to want to shake them. Hello, my name is Mac and I'm here to petition your queen or high council to open up diplomatic channels."
Remembering he needed to play nice to actually open up a diplomatic channel mid sentence, Mac stopped shy of the extremely horrendous things he wanted to say and introduced himself.
(Fuck…)
As a woman of her station, Anastasia knew she couldn't ignore Mac in the 1 in a million chance he was telling the truth.
(Well, if he's lying then he's impersonating a diplomatic officer and that's a crime I can flog him for.)
Impersonating a diplomat was the type of serious crime that got handled by black bagging people, and throwing them back out onto the street with body and mind broken to dissuade others from doing the same.
While the idea of beating Mac senseless for his lies didn't quite make up for the pain it was to deal with him, it did somewhat lessen the displeasure Anastasia felt and brought it to a manageable level.
"Well, to do that you would need to win this tournament, and you're not beating me or some of the other knight captains that have joined this year in a fair fight."
"Eh, I've claimed more impressive feats before breakfast. All this about fighting fair and maintaining honor are just excuses for poor performance. I've traveled to a bunch of different countries over the years and most of them get this entire melee combat thing all wrong, it's only about killing the opponent in front of you as quickly and efficiently as possible. Nothing more."
Mac had been to so many worlds where complicated honor systems and chivalry had bogged down the art of just beating the person in front of you until they died, there was no need to overcomplicate it, in Mac's honest opinion. Due to that dreadfully inefficient idea of honor fighting against knights, aspiring knights and people with 'high morals' had been so boring to Mac that he had used the time to order fleet movements and handle procurement.
"Such a barbaric outlook."
"And there it is. Just because you're bad at fighting without clutches doesn't mean my way of fighting is anything less."
Right as Anastasia was about to chastise Mac's primitive worldview, his name was called by a clerk.
"Contestant Mac, your next fight is up."
"Welp, while I would love to continue discussing philosophy with you all day, but I have a tournament to win."
Leaving the knight behind to fight yet another match where he wouldn't need to draw his sword, Mac made sure to blow a kiss as he left.
"... I'm going to enjoy breaking that joker's nose."
"Contestant Anastasia, knight. Step forward."
Right as she was about to start fuming, Anastasia was summoned to her own fight, so she decided to put her energy into that.
"Let's go."
(I might be able to see how he fights if I hurry…)
Although she refused to admit it, Anastasia had at least a passing interest in Mac, or at least just his fighting style.
Hurrying to her fight a bit too fast for a person of her station, Anastasia arrived to find Mac's fight already over and an unconscious contestant taking a forced dirt nap.
"Tch."
Finding herself disappointed that the unlucky sod lying in the dirt didn't last a bit longer, Anastasia realised she was slipping and recentered herself as she was led to her designated fighting area. Her opponent this time around was a veteran adventurer in plate armour like herself, but instead of a shield and sword, this adventurer wielded a two handed greatsword.
"Did you see the fight over there?"
Going easy despite the fact that the fight between them had started, Anastasia felt a strong interest in gathering information about Mac's fighting style. As much as she hated to admit it, there was a non-zero chance she would end up against him in the final.
".... Yeah, it was brutal. Dude didn't even draw his sword, he just rushed forward, avoided the guy's swing then knocked both legs out from beneath him with a kick… If that wasn't enough, he socked him in the jaw mid-air too, I swear I saw a tooth flying at least half the length of the arena."
Perhaps because the fight had been so shocking, the adventurer freely shared what he had seen.
"I know myself, and I know my body. There's no way I'll be able to beat him. You should consider yourself lucky miss knight, being in his group and past the first phase you won't need to face him before the final."
Having seemingly said his piece, the adventurer took a stance as Anastasia also drew her sword from its scabbard attached to her shield.
(... Here we go.)
Centring herself, Anastasia felt the spectators eyes on her and made sure she tuned down her rapidly building bloodlust. There was a thin line between bringing out as much of her power and not appearing like the monster she was, and that itself was the 'art' of fighting in a tournament, at least according to Anastasia.
Stepping forward, Anastasia raised her shield to the front as she kept her sword low behind her.
(Step up.)
Banking on the fact that she had more experience felling people than the adventurer, the knight captain set up for a counter. The adventurer stepped in fast and swung down his two handed sword, but as it hit Anastasia's shield she twisted it and deflected the sword to the side as she swung in her sword.
(Oh, he's at least done this before.)
Seeing the adventurer had retreated behind his sword and was focusing on her sword, Anastasia did her best to hide a cold smile as she simply smashed him in the face with her shield.