Chapter 730

730: Diaz's Smile

「Diaz.」
「Oh, Fran-kun.」
Diaz, who was still sitting in bed, greeted Fran with a smile. His face seems to have nothing of worry on it, but what's he really thinking behind that?
「Are your wounds all right?」
「Nn… it's healed now.」
「I see. I'm glad to hear that.」
Diaz, the loser, is worried about the health of Fran, the winner.
It is a strange scene, but not an uncommon sight in this tournament where the loser recovers completely via the cradle of time.
Anyways, Fran's wounds have already healed completely. The regeneration-inhibiting effect of Diaz's enchanted sword wore off in a few minutes like I expected. After the match, she regenerated relatively quickly.
I am especially glad that the wound on her nose was healed. In the future, we may need to find a way to counter those abilities that interfere with our healing.
According to Announcer-san, we can get a technique to counteract such interference if we raise the level of our life magic. We might want to do that soon.
On that note, there is one more thing I was wondering about.
『Hey, is it some kind of magical tool or whatnot that allowed you to damage us through Dimension Shift? You don't have to say if you don't want to……』
「I don't mind, Master-kun. It was the effect of my skill.」
『Skill?』
I didn't think Diaz had any space-time skills though?
「Give me an appraisal.」
『Uh, okay.』
I take his word for it and give Diaz an appraisal, but I still don't see any noticeable skills.
『Are you hiding it with Appraisal Obstruction?』
「No, no. That's not it. It's a skill called Slight of Hand.」
『What? Slight of Hand?』
「Yeah. When you level this skill, you gain a minor space-time ability. The effects are really weak, such as teleporting an object from one hand to another or allowing a part of the body to phase through objects.」
Does Slight of Hand really do all that? I thought it was just a skill to perform magic tricks, but apparently it lets you spend mana to perform minor miracles. According to Diaz, he could also use it to counter space-time magic.
While I was talking with Diaz, Fran remained silent. She was listening to us with a slightly downcast look on her face.
After we were done talking, she raises her head with resolve. Looking straight into Diaz's eyes, she opens her mouth.
「……Are you mad at me?」
「No, of course not. I don't know why exactly, but I feel great.」
「……I see.」
Diaz says that in a calm voice and sits up on the bed. He has a relaxed expression on his face.
「You won the bet. I won't be taking revenge on Zelos Reed anymore.」
He then lowers his head to Fran, all the way down.
「Fran-kun, thank you for defeating me.」
His face was down for a few seconds, but when it came back up again, he was wearing a bright smile.
「I really tried my hardest to win. And yet, you still beat me.」
「Nn.」
I know he's telling the truth there. Diaz wasn't holding back at all.
「Maybe I should be more frustrated. But for some reason, I don't feel that way at all……」
「Why?」
「Hmm? I wonder why? I just…… I just don't know. I guess you could say I feel a sense of freedom?」
He's been living for decades with a grudge against the former Beast King, and with the regret of not being able to protect Kiara. If those feelings have been dispelled, even if only a little, it is natural to feel that way. Like a weight has been lifted.
「In my memories, Kiara constantly wore a frown since she was always fighting something or another. But now I get the feeling that she's smiling at me, with a gentle look on her face.」
After saying that, Diaz smiled kindly.
「……You should go now. The next match is about to start, right? It'll be your next opponent, so you should get a good look at them.」
「Nn. Got it. But are you okay? You will fight for third place against the loser.」
「I'll be fine… I've still got my job as guildmaster to do.」
Diaz laughed and sent Fran on her way. They were short on staff right now, so Diaz couldn't afford to spend much time.
As she walked toward the audience, Fran murmured something.
「Diaz was smiling.」
『Yeah.』
「……That's great.」
『Yeah.』
She meant that towards a lot of things. That Diaz didn't come to hate her… that Diaz was liberated from his revenge… that she was able to win the bet… and that Diaz was able to remain smiling…
And for me, I'm glad because it ended with her happy too.
『Come on, let's hurry to the seats. I don't want to miss the next fight.』
「Nn.」
『I hope they still have a seat for us……』
Hilt vs Neidhart. If not for Fran and Diaz, this could have been the finals and no one would bat an eye.
When we showed up at the audience, we were met with stares from all around us. They seemed to be keeping each other in check, although no one attempted to speak to us.
But then, there was a brave soul who shouted out.
「Onee-sama! This way!」
「Kaitly.」
Kaitly had reserved a front row seat for Fran. She made her servant next to her stand up and give up his seat.
We thankfully accepted the seat. It's not we'd be able to get a seat anywhere else if we refused.
The match has not started yet, since it took them a while to fix the stage we blew up.
Right now Hilt had just appeared in the arena. We made it just in time.
『It's going to start soon.』
「Nn!」