Yoshihara took another puff on his cigarette before flicking his cigarette ash away.
“Perhaps, as you just said, I’m already insane… but why are you telling me all this?”
He wasn’t shaken at all.
Seiji noticed that Yoshihara wasn’t shaken by his words in the slightest. This made Seiji feel as if he was facing against a tremendous iron-solid cliff.
“Someone requested me to,” Seiji replied.
“Who?”
“Who else would care about your life or death?”
Yoshihara widened his eyes slightly.
“You… can also hear her?”
“Just a little.” Seiji sighed. “She worked very hard to ask me, a total stranger, to stop you… You truly can’t reconsider, Yoshihara-san?”
Only now did Yoshihara show his first sign of being shaken.
“I don’t know the story between you and Risa. Nor do I know what Kanzaki told you that made you stubborn to such an extent. All I know is that she wants to stop you and doesn’t want you to die like this!” Seiji continued. “Even if you feel like your life is meaningless, is her wish meaningless as well!?”
Yoshihara’s expression darkened.
“No matter why you’re able to hear her, I’m thankful that you brought me her message, Haruta-san. Still, let’s stop things here. Please don’t tell me anything else. Otherwise, you… might suffer serious harm.” Yoshihara paused for a moment. “You should withdraw from this tournament for the sake of you and your partner. This is the only well-intentioned warning I can give you.”
The assassin turned around and left right after saying that.
Seiji watched him leave, then suddenly noticed something behind him. Seiji turned around to see Saitou appearing around a corner!
Another bad end…? Seiji immediately prepared himself to load at any moment.
“Haruta-san, it would seem that you didn’t want to truly cooperate at all.” Saitou walked over and spoke in his own tone of voice rather than Kanzaki’s. “I’m truly amazed by your courage. You dared to be insincere with that personage.”
Seiji silently remained vigilant as he sensed an aura of danger. Shika also prepared herself for combat.
“Originally, there should have been a punishment for your actions. However, Kanzaki-sama is the magnanimous type who shall allow your foolish transgression.” Saitou walked up to them and continued speaking in a light tone. “Cooperation will be impossible. In fact, the two of you shall be listed as the Revenge Alliance’s targets in the tournament. Please don’t tell anyone else about unnecessary matters… Forgiving your transgression is only for this one time.”
After saying that, Saitou left with an expression of “behave yourselves” as he walked off.
Seiji had thought that he would need to start this timeline over for the third time. However, the demon king was unexpectedly “magnanimous.”
Of course, Seiji didn’t believe that Kanzaki was magnanimous at all. Was Kanzaki sparing Seiji for the time being because of something related to Yoshihara? Or would “dealing” with Seiji on this ship be rather troublesome? Or…
No matter what the reason was, it would seem that Seiji would be able to continue down this second timeline.
Should he continue in this timeline where he had confronted Kanzaki directly, or should he load right now?
Something flashed in Seiji’s eyes as he slowly clenched his right hand into a fist. He decided to remain in this timeline to see how things would turn out.
Ryuuno Izawa and his master Kanna Fujihara arrived on Momozu Island.
Although his master was under too much pressure, caving in to become an idle fish, Izawa believed that she would be able to energize herself.
Soon, they met up with their only expected allies in this tournament, Seiji Haruta and Shika Kagura. However, to their surprise, Seiji immediately tried to seriously convince them to abandon this tournament and withdraw immediately!
“Believe me. This tournament will be incredibly dangerous. You should withdraw now while you still can,” Seiji spoke in a serious tone. “Once this tournament begins, it’ll be impossible to surrender even if you want to.”
“Surrendering from the tournament without even fighting is strictly forbidden by the tournament rules.” Izawa furrowed his eyebrows.
“Even if there’s a severe punishment, that’s still better than facing the threat of death.”
“It’s not only the tournament contract’s punishment. If Master surrenders from the tournament without even fighting, her situation in her family will become much worse than it already is.”
“But this tournament is truly dangerous…”
“Why? If you know something that we don’t, please tell us.”
“Just take a look at the current situation and carefully think about it. You should be able to sense that this tournament isn’t nearly as simple as it appears on the surface.” Seiji sighed. “It’s not that I don’t want to explain, it’s that… it’s inconvenient for me to explain right now.”
Seiji could sense that he was being spied upon.
Having Kanna and Izawa retreat from the tournament before it started might provoke a reaction from Kanzaki. Still, Seiji had to try. He was basically testing the limits of what it would take to achieve a bad end.
Something flashed in Izawa’s eyes. Kanna also left her state of being an idle fish as she looked towards Seiji.
“What about yourself?” Kanna spoke up. “You’re telling us to withdraw, but you haven’t mentioned anything about yourself withdrawing from this tournament.”
“…I won’t withdraw.”
“Why’s that? Didn’t you say that this tournament will be incredibly dangerous?”
“Even if it’s incredibly dangerous, I still absolutely have to win.” Seiji clenched his right hand. “There’s also something else…”
“What else?”
“I can’t say.”
Kanna looked directly at him.
“What will happen to you if we withdraw from this tournament right now?”
Seiji remained silent.
“Since this is regarding something secret, you telling us to withdraw from the tournament is basically like revealing the secret… and you’ll pay a price, won’t you?” Kanna continued asking.
“Probably not, if it’s only something to such an extent…”
“I don’t want to be the type who runs away while abandoning my friends. And, things are just as Ryuuno just stated. My family won’t forgive me if I surrender this tournament without even attempting to fight.”
“…You’ll regret it if you join this tournament,” Seiji told her in a low voice.
“Perhaps, but I’ll also regret it if I surrender right now without even trying. Since both outcomes are the same, then I’d rather regret facing danger instead of regretting the fact that I abandoned my friend!” Kanna placed both her hands on her hips. “If it’s you, you’d probably choose the same thing… no, you’ve already chosen, haven’t you?”
Even if there was the risk of a bad end, Seiji still chose to try and convince Kanna and Izawa to withdraw rather than wanting to watch them get into danger.
However, this had a slightly different meaning from the choice that Kanna made… Seiji could only smile wryly at the Fujihara Family daughter who slightly misunderstood his intentions.
“I support my master. Your attempt to convince us to surrender won’t work.” Izawa also expressed his opinion.
“You guys… why don’t you consider for a little more? The danger of dying in this tournament is quite high.”
“Even an otaku like you dares to take the risk. How could a fellow otaku like me possibly back down!” Kanna arched her head proudly.
“If you die, you won’t be able to remain an otaku anymore. You won’t be able to read any more manga or watch any more anime. Nor will you be able to play any more video games.”
“Er…”
“Master, please don’t be shaken just because of words like these.”
“Shush! The scariest thing in life is to be unable to read manga, watch anime, and play video games!!”
“If Master surrenders from the tournament without even fighting, this terrifying event will still happen if you return to your family.”
“That’s… true.” Kanna instantly regained her conviction. “That’s why we absolutely must fight! I shall fight for the sake of being able to remain an otaku forever!!”
Seiji was rendered speechless.
Whatever happened to her earlier speech about fighting for the sake of friendship?
“There’s still some time before the tournament begins. Think things over carefully until then.” That was all that he could tell them.
After the 7321 faction tournament participants arrived, they were surrounded by additional tournament participants from their families and factions’ subordinate families.
Seiji glanced over at them from a distance as something flashed in his eyes.
Should he go over there to talk with them, proposing an alliance against the Revenge Alliance?
If he went over there to talk to them, forget about Shuntou Haruta and the others’ attitudes, the most important one among them was Shigure Tendo.
In the previous timeline, Shigure had gone into a berserk state. He likely killed off all his enemies and teammates before coming to attack Seiji.
Why did this happen? Seiji didn’t know. But judging from this event, Shigure Tendo was highly likely to be the strongest individual in the 7321 faction tournament participants!
The strongest individual in the 7321 faction had a direct blood-related grudge against him. That would make things difficult to negotiate. But in the previous timeline, Shigure Tendo had indicated that he was willing to abandon the grudge in order to break free from the black mist controlling him. Hrm….
It was difficult to analyze whether it would be beneficial or a detriment to go talk to the 7321 faction right now. Plus, Seiji had to worry about Kanzaki spying on him.
After further consideration, Seiji made up his mind.