Chapter 266: The 3rd Mock Battle Tournament
The matches progressed smoothly, and the preliminary rounds were fiercely contested.
The cutoff for advancing was five wins, but out of the ten groups, eight had top players with six wins, making it an extremely close competition.
However, Groups A and G each had a first-place competitor who was completely undefeated, showing overwhelming strength. One of them was Freese-san, who had previously visited here for fun.
A rather eccentric person, but clearly capable—though the matches were close, Freese-san won them all.
Apparently, Freese-san is an old friend of Donnie-san, so advancing past the preliminaries was expected. Still, I hadn’t anticipated such a dominant performance.
The other undefeated competitor was a surprising figure: Shannon-san, who runs a magic shop in the town of Lanzole.
I hadn’t invited them personally, but it seems they heard the rumors and decided to participate. While they called it a commemorative appearance, their ability—graduating at the top of their magical academy—was real, and their use of magic to gain an advantage in combat was simply breathtaking.
Even in close combat, Shannon-san didn’t fall behind, making it hard to understand why they ran a magic shop—they were just that strong.
There was no doubt that these two would make a big impact in tomorrow’s main tournament.
While these two stood out in the preliminaries, there was another competitor who caught my attention.
With five wins and two losses, and by the results of head-to-head matches, this person barely claimed second place in Group A.
This competitor was a boy around Joel-kun’s age, named Harry-kun.
In the first match of the final preliminaries, he was so tense he couldn’t do anything and lost.
From there, he managed to scrape by with victories, and in the final match—now completely relaxed—he faced undefeated Freese-san.
The result was a win for Freese-san, but the match was nearly even.
In fact, it sometimes looked like Harry-kun was pushing the advantage, and considering his age and potential for growth, he could very well become a dark horse.
Joel-kun would also participate in tomorrow’s main tournament, and I was eager to watch the matches of these two young competitors.
With that thought, the first day’s schedule came to an end.
Everything had proceeded according to plan, and I was deeply grateful to Sam-san for managing the event so smoothly.
From here, the group temporarily disbanded, and those who advanced to the next stage would stay in the temporary facilities.
I had also prepared Earth-style cuisine, which would surely please them.
In addition, the large bath facilities would be open. The women’s bath had just been completed, so participants could relax and recover from today’s fatigue.
Although I wondered if it might be too indulgent to let them relax during the tournament, these participants had come specifically for this event and fought through the tough preliminaries, so I wanted to treat them as best as I could.
I also wanted to provide hospitality to Sam-san and the team.
“Thank you for your hard work on the first day. It must have been a challenging day, but tomorrow is the main event, so please take the time to recover fully. It’s a bit early, but from 6 p.m., meals will be served in the event hall. After dinner, the large baths will also be open, so please make use of them.”
After delivering this final greeting, I immediately returned to the kitchen to prepare dinner.
Joel-san, his apprentice, and Jacob-san were handling the cooking diligently, so I took care of seasoning the finished dishes and transporting them.
The villa kitchen had become somewhat cramped, and I wished for a larger cooking space.
The distance to the event hall was also slightly inconvenient, so as I carried the dishes, I found myself thinking about these things while bringing all the food inside.
Although it was a buffet-style setup, there was plenty of food, and I was confident everyone could eat their fill.
The quality spoke for itself, and I was eager to see everyone’s reactions.
Before the scheduled time, everyone had gathered, and I invited them to help themselves buffet-style while giving a brief pre-meal greeting.
With everyone distracted by the delicious smells and presentation, I kept the greeting short.
“Please enjoy without hesitation. Now, let’s eat.”
Following my words, everyone gave their pre-meal thanks and began eating all at once.
It seemed everyone could taste the quality in a single bite, as their eating speed was extraordinary.
“…What is this food? It’s unbelievably delicious! Sato-san, were these ingredients produced here?”
“I’m glad it suits your taste, Sam-san. Not all, but most of the ingredients were harvested from our fields here.”
“You grow such incredible ingredients! Sato-san’s connections don’t seem to come only from being from another world. There were many things here I’d never seen before—I’m glad I had the opportunity to work here.”
“That’s my line. I’m truly grateful that you agreed to help, Sam-san. The large baths will be open after the meal, so please make use of them—you’ll surely be satisfied.”
“If Sato-san says so, I’ll take that as a guarantee. Haha, I’ll definitely make use of them.”
Excited, Sam-san shook my hand and immediately went back for seconds.
Now… I also wanted to talk with Freese-san, Shannon-san, and Harry-kun.
While enjoying the meal myself, I began looking for the three of them, walking through the event hall.