The words stung a little.
But Betty couldn't argue with the logic.
They were here for money.
If she stepped into the ring a second ti, not a single challenger would bother paying to line up after her.
"Hmph. Fine. You have a point."
Yesterday's run had already set the tone.
Today the knights had their preparations locked in quickly.
Watching Betty, the very Great Spirit who'd handed them their own backsides the night before, take a seat up in the stands instead of the arena floor, the gathered knights let out a collective exhale.
Not that they stood a real chance against Gojo, but the shadow from yesterday had bitten deep.
"Everyone ready?"
"Clock's about right. Let's get this going."
Gojo waved an easy hand at the assembled knights, his grin loose, betraying nothing in the way of nerves.
A knight stepped out from the ranks, dropped a Holy Gold Coin into the pouch set off to the side, and planted himself in front of Gojo. Sword raised in salute.
Gojo gave a polite nod back. But behind the sunglasses, his gaze wasn't on the man in front of him. It had drifted to the viewing stands.
Betty wasn't alone up there. Several other figures had settled in alongside her.
Two of them he recognized on sight. Crusch Karsten and Anastasia Hoshin, both familiar from the previous loop.
The wrinkle this ti was a third guest.
Priscilla. The sa Priscilla who'd gone toe to toe with Felt at the conference.
That was new. Last run, she hadn't bothered to show.
Was it the White Whale, or the Sin Archbishops, that finally got her off her throne?
He slid his gaze back, turning the question over in his head.
"Challenger, begin!"
Marcos' voice cut in from the edge of the ring.
The knight in front of him barked and launched forward.
Gojo, mid-thought about Priscilla, looked up in ti to see a blade coming down toward his head.
"Sorry. Got a bit distracted."
"Next one, please."
He lifted his gaze, a brilliant smile spreading across his face as he said it.
The knight hadn't even registered what was happening before so unseen force caught him, lifted him off his feet, and flung him clean across the arena.
The heavy armor he'd worn specifically for this challenge might as well have been paper.
In front of Gojo, it made no difference. He was a rag doll.
A wet, tallic crunch echoed as the armor hit the ground.
One strike.
That was all.
The knight lay flat, unmoving.
"Relax, I pulled the hit. He'll live."
Gojo smiled and glanced over his shoulder. "Felix, your colleague needs patching up. Chop chop."
"ow, really now. Don't order around like it's the natural order of things, ow."
Felix groused, half under his breath, and shot a look at Crusch.
A small nod from her, and he started down toward the arena floor.
Not that he was actually obeying Gojo's command. This was just the job. As a mber of the knight order, Felix's primary role ca down to keeping the rest of them alive and nding.
"Next."
Marcos glanced at Felix, tone flat.
With Felix on hand, short of outright death, nothing was fatal. And the challenger was pulling his strikes on purpose. No reason to hesitate.
Another knight ca forward, charging Gojo at full speed.
"How dull. I didn't co all this way to watch sothing so tedious."
Priscilla's fan flicked back and forth, her eyes half-lidded with disdain as she watched from above.
"Princess, don't rush it."
"A play saves its biggest act for the end. Sa idea."
Al scratched at his helt and offered it with a shrug.
"I've no appetite for wasting my ti. Tell him to skip to the good part."
"Princess, even if you say that, it's not sothing I can deliver."
"Then go down there yourself. Surely you can scrape together enough entertainnt to amuse ."
"Cutting the line in a knight order ring, I'd probably get beaten to death."
"I'll arrange a nice tomb for you."
Priscilla kept bantering with Al while, a few seats over, Anastasia and Crusch kept their focus squarely on Gojo.
The man was an unknown quantity, and that alone made everyone in the stands interested.
Especially with that ability of his. Untouchable. Whatever it was, nothing seed to reach him.
"Julius. With your eye, can you see anything?"
"My apologies, Lady Anastasia."
Julius' voice carried genuine regret. "I haven't been able to pick anything out."
"Is that so. A curious power indeed. Not magic. Doesn't quite read as a Divine Protection either. Could it fall under an Authority?"
"Yet he's the one who just wiped out a handful of people tied to the Witch Cult. Real mystery, this man."
Crusch kept her eyes locked on Gojo but said nothing, working through her own thoughts.
Down in the ring, the fights kept rolling.
Dozens had already been dispatched in the short span since they'd started. It was like swatting flies. Each one lasted a single swing before getting cleared off the sand, with nothing resembling a real counter.
Marcos watched it happen. He'd braced himself for this outco, but watching his n folded up one after another still pulled his expression tight.
He couldn't voice a complaint. He himself was one of Gojo's losses.
"Commander Marcos, quick question. Those bounties on the White Whale and the Sin Archbishops. The paperwork sorted yet? Any idea on the total?"
Gojo, between swings, had ti to toss the question over his shoulder.
"The process is nearly finished. Combined, the bounty should total around a thousand Holy Gold Coins."
"A thousand? That's it?"
The number left him genuinely stumped.
No wonder nobody had touched those bounties. The pot was a joke.
A whole kingdom dangling that kind of pocket change. It was clear they'd never intended to put real weight behind the hunt. Just a gesture.
For that payout, anyone competent enough to claim it wouldn't bother. Anyone tempted by it couldn't deliver.
A dead loop by design.
"Commander, co on. The White Whale alone costs this country more than that in damages every year, doesn't it? Can't we get the bounty bumped up?"
"That decision isn't mine to make. If you're dissatisfied, you can file a petition with the Council of Wise n."
Marcos' reply was stiff, official, offering Gojo zero wiggle room.
"Tch. Cheap. Really now."
He waved another knight away, armor clanging against the far wall.
"Felix, holding up? Can you keep up with the pile?"
"If you wanted to cut a slice of the challenge fees, I could tolerate a bit of fatigue."
"Not a chance, ow. If I took a cut from you, Felt would be at my door with a knife by nightfall."
Reading the clock, he judged they'd milked this about as far as it would go.
He turned to Marcos. "Let's have the rest co at together."
Today's real payoff wasn't the challenge revenue. It was the candidates in the stands.
Last loop had taught him what to look for. He wanted to see what he could extract from them this ti around.
Marcos didn't argue.
A group assault wasn't exactly a banner mont for a knight order's honor.
But it depended on the opponent.
Against sothing like Gojo, nobody could credibly call it dishonorable.
The remaining knights exchanged looks, and one by one dropped their Holy Gold Coins into the pouch. They fell into squad formations and advanced on him together.
Unfortunately.
However they coordinated, however they tried, they still weren't in his weight class.
The gap wasn't a matter of degree. It was a canyon.
The only difference from the one-on-ones was the pace. This ti he moved fractionally slower.
The knights may as well have been children tripping over themselves. He cleared them without breaking stride.
When the last man hit the floor, Gojo surveyed the scattered wounded and gave a small sigh of sothing like regret.
No more challenges after this, in all likelihood. That well was dry.
He glanced over at Crusch and the others in the stands, gave them a breezy wave, and called up.
"Ladies. Gentleman. None of you want in on the fun?"
"Or we could talk business. Say, what my ability actually is."
Sa script as before, and the reaction from Crusch and Anastasia ran on the sa rails as last ti. The only new variable was Priscilla.
Except this round, he didn't have a specific piece of intel he wanted from them. He went straight for the coins.
The answer would cost them fifty Holy Gold Coins a head.
Anastasia was a sharp-toothed negotiator, but he'd already run this play once. No issue.
When the pouch was one hundred and fifty coins heavier, a satisfied grin settled across his face.
"Gojo, was it? You seem marginally more entertaining than Al here."
"Co serve at my side. Follow , and I..."
No one had seen it coming. The mont the transaction closed, Priscilla pivoted and extended a direct offer.
"Join you?"
"Hmm. Not entirely opposed. But the benefits, what are those, exactly?"
He took it in stride, smile firmly in place.
"Wealth. Power. Or anything else you might want. Take your pick."
Her chin lifted, voice imperious.
"Princess, why is that treatnt not extended to ?"
Al raised a hand, playing wounded.
"Sounds tempting on the surface. But there's nothing concrete behind any of it."
Gojo stretched, then tossed the coin pouch, several hundred pieces heavy, to Betty, who caught it with a resentful look.
"My word is my word. It will be honored, in every particular."
"The world turns around . Your concern is a waste of breath."
"Before I t a certain soone, I might've bought that."
He let the silence hang for a second, studying her unshakable confidence.
"But now, I'm afraid, Miss Priscilla, I won't believe a single word of it."
The world turns around you. Sure.
Not a line anyone sane signed onto.
The refusal wasn't about the scale of the claim. Having seen a witch who'd swallowed half the world and a Reinhard who seed to manifest whatever Divine Protection the mont demanded one, Gojo wasn't quick to laugh off anything, however grandiose.
The issue was specific.
In his ntal ledger, exactly one person cleared that bar. And it wasn't Priscilla.
It was Reinhard.
As the Comnt section liked to put it, Reinhard was fortune's favored son. The sky's own child. The real main character.
If Reinhard didn't qualify as the world turning around soone, nobody did.
Priscilla's pitch didn't have a leg to stand on.
"So. Flattering, but I'll pass. Goodbye~"
He turned Priscilla down cleanly, scooped up Betty, and walked.
Watching him leave, Priscilla's fan kept its rhythm. Her expression didn't flicker.
"Shortsighted fool."
"The princess is, as always, on the money. Question though, would I get that package deal too?"
"One more word out of you and I'll gift you with muteness."
"Princess, cold as ever."
Crusch and the others filtered out as well. Not a loss of a day, exactly. Not a windfall either.
"Hey. That thing you said earlier. Was it serious?"
The Dragon Carriage rolled along the return route. Betty eyed Gojo sideways.
"Hm? What thing?"
He was already sprawled across the seat cushion, bored and half-lting into it.
"About joining that woman's camp."
"Please. I'm not a masochist."
"And besides, at the rate Felt is going, it won't be long before the pile of Holy Gold Coins gets where it needs to be."
"Once it does, we slip out quietly, head over to Kararagi, and live the good life with no worries about food or roof. Why would I go looking for headaches?"
"Plus that woman clearly runs on high-maintenance. Not interested in getting tangled up with her."
"The offer was just a brainwave. Thought we could squeeze a little more out of her before leaving. That was the extent of it."
Betty treated him to an enormous eye roll.
"You have zero right to ever call Felt a money-grubber."
...
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