Unruly Summon Chapter 49: Arena (Patreon)

"I've arranged for you to participate in tonight's melee," said Minoru. "I gave you the false name of Alex. It's a free-for-all with three other participants. Two bandits, both guilty of killing women and children, and one rapist. I thought the free-for-all would be a safer start, because if you find yourself unable to deal a finishing blow, you can get out of it by fighting defensively and letting the others kill each other."

I nodded nervously, doing my best to ignore the fact that she'd just listed out the people I would need to kill to survive the evening. Unless I chickened out, like she suggested. Or maybe I could chicken out even earlier, and just not enter the arena at all.

"Won't the bandits group up?" asked Wendy, sounding completely unbothered by the thought of a battle to the death.

"No chance. It'll be the opposite; they're from different gangs who competed over territory. Lots of bad blood between them."

"That'll leave Thomas against the rapist, then. Sure he can handle killing someone who hasn't killed in turn?"

"Oh, believe me, he has," spat Minoru.

"Huh? But you said..."

"I know what I said, and legally it's true that he's never taken a life, but believe me that when I asked for the worst offenders they could find, they over-delivered. The fiend was a soldier in our army. He was part of the occupying forces stationed in Greenstone, one of the towns in the Chiral Plains. He went into heat there, and rather than sticking to protocol and occupying himself with another demon from his unit, he decided it would be fun to kidnap half a dozen human girls from an orphanage. He locked himself into an empty house with them overnight. Two of them committed suicide the next day."

Mary backed away, looking pale.

"Shit," said Wendy, who was suddenly a lot more bothered. "Thomas? Make that bastard suffer."

Mary didn't even comment on her language.

I nodded wordlessly for a second time, but this time the nervousness was replaced by an empty coldness. I would never be able to understand how people could be so cruel. It didn't help that the story had revealed yet another way in which Christine had lied to me, either.

Nor had it escaped my notice how easily Minoru had rearranged the arena schedule for me. Despite her description of ranks putting her only a single step above the rank-and-file, she was pulling a lot of authority from somewhere. Her superiors obviously considered her mission important.

Another thing that hadn't escaped my notice was that she hadn't named a single one of the offenders; giving them names would have humanised them in a small way, forcing me to think of them as people. She really wanted me to succeed.

I drifted over to the window of our inn room. All five of us were sharing, mostly because there wasn't any good way to split us into groups. Stephanie was hanging around, looking as zombie-like as usual, not having reacted at all to Minoru's description. Wendy recovered from her disgust quickly, flopping over onto her bed. Mary looked less happy, while Minoru simply watched intently.

And outside the window was a demon city. Walking through it earlier, the mood had been heavily subdued, which I wasn't surprised by. This close to the border, I'd assumed trade would be an important part of its economy, and indeed, the town seemed to contain more than its share of inns and stores. Many of the stores—signs proudly proclaiming human wares—were shuttered. All trade with the human kingdom had ceased, and it was likely to take some time to get going again.

Economic issues aside, it was all just so... normal. The residents may be equipped with slightly more fluff, and have a fashion sense that displayed a lot more skin, but as a whole, the city wasn't that much different from Odimere.

"When does it start?" I asked.

"You need to be there in half an hour."

"What?!"

"If I gave you lots of notice, you would have just sat around stewing and working yourself into a panic."

"I'm panicking now! I need to get changed. Where's my armour?!"

"You don't need to change; you can't use your own equipment. You'll get clothes and light armour at the arena."

"Right..." I agreed. That made sense. Besides, whatever the rules of the arena, if I was trying to not stand out, wearing my own armour was probably a bad idea. Although it was standard army issue, so it wasn't as if it identified me personally. "Urk. I hate this, and I hate the fact I actually intend to do it even more. Let's just get going."

"Uh..." murmured Minoru, peering at Stephanie. "It would be best to minimise the amount of time spent outdoors with her. Given her condition, she, uh... stands out. Walking down the street is one thing, because people won't see her for any length of time, but you probably don't want her at the arena. Remember, those collars are banned here, and while I can get you some leeway, there are limits. I can't let you parade one around so openly."

"You want me to leave her here alone?"

"I could stay with her?" volunteered Mary.

"If it's the collar that's the problem, it's a shame we can't just remove it for a bit..." I said, not really wanting to leave the two most defenceless members of our group alone. Wendy certainly wouldn't agree to stay back with them and miss my fight.

"Yeah, that would just leave her as a complete zombie," said Wendy, which I already knew, given that we'd tried it. The moment it was removed, she stopped following me around, and wouldn't react even to a direct order. She simply stood there, unmoving, until we put the collar back on. If we didn't, she'd presumably continue to stand around until she fell over from exhaustion.

"Mary was okay when she removed hers."

"She wasn't so badly broken, and it was only for a few seconds."

"Drat. We really need to find a way to deal with Stephanie."

"We've been over this before," said Wendy. "I suggested you give her away."

"But even that doesn't work. In the Ricousian Kingdom, the king would have her killed. Here, her collar is illegal, but removing it would leave her completely vegetative."

With the way she still wasn't responding to the conversation, even though it was entirely about her, it was hard to imagine her being more unresponsive.

"For now, just give her a scarf to wear," suggested Wendy. "Not really the local fashion, but demons will be able to smell she's human, so I'm sure she could get away with it. And order her to smile."

"It wouldn't hide it from anyone with active mana sight, but it would from the general public," responded Minoru when I looked to her for confirmation. "Good enough to hide her in the arena stands somewhere."

"Fine, let's do that then. And Stephanie, smile."

The corners of her mouth twisted up in a completely unnatural way.

"... and stop smiling," I added.

"Yeah. That was ten times worse," agreed Wendy.

Mary repurposed my cravat as a scarf—because of course she had packed it—and did her best to make Stephanie look human.

"Okay. Now we're ready to go," said Minoru, which reminded me where we were going. With the debate over Stephanie, I'd managed to forget for a scant few seconds.

As we walked through the city, questions over whether I was doing the right thing gave way to nervousness, and as the arena came into view—a tall, circular construction surrounded by crowds—nervousness evolved into nausea.

"Something smells nice," said Mary.

... Of course. Because this was entertainment, and the masses needed food. Now that I paid attention, I could see that the crowds were mostly formed into queues, rows of stalls set up at the base of the arena walls.

"Want anything?" asked Minoru.

"... No thanks," said Mary, glancing at me and obviously being considerate.

"Yes please!" said Wendy, because of course she did.

Minoru giggled and ran ahead, pushing in front of a queue and flashing something at the stall keeper. She handed something over to him—presumably coins—and by the time we caught up, she was holding four skewers of roasted vegetables.

"No meat?" asked Wendy.

"As if a public stall would be selling something that expensive," said Minoru. "Besides, I gave you all the money I had for expenses, remember?"

"Oh well. Thanks," said Wendy, biting off what looked like a chunk of pepper.

"Thank you very much," said Mary, taking hers.

Stephanie, of course, didn't say thank you. Nor did she take the skewer, despite Minoru shoving it in her face.

"Take it and eat it once you get to your seat," I whispered, and she finally reacted.

"You didn't get one for Thomas?" asked Wendy through a mouthful of pepper, when Minoru bit into the remaining skewer herself.

"From the colour of his face, I didn't think it was a great idea," answered Minoru, being equally unladylike.

"Yeah, I agree completely," I said, wondering if it was possible to die of trepidation. I certainly wasn't in the mood to be eating anything.

We continued walking, Minoru leading us under the vast stone arches that held up the outer edges of the bowl-shaped structure. Rather than following the crowds, she turned off towards a quieter door, a muscular, dog-headed demon standing in front of it with crossed arms.

"You're going the wrong way, little missy," he said to Minoru as we approached.

"No I'm not. This is Alex; he's in the first fight tonight."

First? There was more than one?

The demon guard peered at me appraisingly. "Well, if some scrawny human wants to get himself killed, who am I to argue? He can pass, but only him. Straight down the corridor, third door on the right, and you'll be called when it's time. Help yourself to the refreshments."

"The shared waiting room?" asked Minoru. "Fair enough. Not what I expected, or I'd have warned him, but not a problem."

... What? Shared? I had to spend time with my opponents before I killed them?!

"Have fun," said Wendy, at which Mary gave her a sharp poke in the back. "Ouch!"

I cracked a small smile, suspecting that Wendy's flippancy was actually her attempt at being considerate, rather than the complete lack of empathy that Mary obviously suspected. "Stephanie, follow Mary and listen to her orders," I told her, and thankfully the zombie princess didn't try following me when I stepped through the door.

Third door on the right sounded like such a simple instruction, but when I needed to concentrate simply to get one foot in front of another, counting proved quite difficult. I almost stepped past it, but my attention was caught by the sounds of revelry within. Given what I was here for, it seemed rather misplaced, and the noise certainly involved more than three people.

It also all cut out when I pushed the door open, and fourteen demons turned to stare at me.

"Who the heck are you?" asked one. "You don't have a staff badge, but all tonight's competitors are here already."

Another one sniffed. "He's human!" she exclaimed.

The stares grew more intense.

"There's four single matches and a three on three group battle. Where are they going to fit a human into that?"

"Maybe he's in the first match?"

The stares intensified further.

For my part, I found it hard to be intimidated. If anything, I was relieved. There was no way any of these people were the ones I would be fighting. I'd already commented that this place reminded me of Odimere, and that demons were little different from humans. That made these people simple to figure out: the room I'd walked into was full of slayers.

There was a towering bear-man with a sword taller than I was strapped to his back and a cat-girl hanging off each arm. If he named himself James, I would have been completely unsurprised. One of the girls and a couple of others were in demonic mage robes, which were very much like human robes, except made of fabric so thin I could see through it. A couple of the others had bows. There was a general abundance of leather and steel. They were lacking healers, but even in a three against three match, there wasn't really space for one. And from the way they talked about the first match as special, and didn't appear worried they were about to die, their matches were obviously more friendly than mine.

"Nice to meet you," I said. "The name's Alex, and I am indeed in the first match."

The sniffer grinned. "You can sound brave all you want, but you ain't fooling anyone. I can smell the sweat pouring off you."

"Yeah, dunno how you're still standing upright," smirked another. "Kudos for managing it though."

"Sure you don't want to back out?" asked a third. "If you're here, rather than a cell, it's not like you're compelled to take part. What's so important that you'd travel to demon territory and risk your life for it?"

"I heard there's a war criminal up today," said the sniffer. "Dunno what he did, but I'll hazard a guess he's the one Alex is here for. My name's Kalnar, by the way."

Amusingly, they were mistaken not only about the reason for my being here, but also the reason for my nerves. It was a rather convenient mistake, though, as well as being believable, so I didn't want to spoil it.

"He raped a bunch of girls," I answered, to add more fuel to their misunderstanding.

"Oh? You're too young for any of them to be yours. A sister, perhaps?"

I remained silent.

"Well, I won't push. If it makes you feel better, go for it."

"No, don't listen to him," said one of the girls hanging off not-James's arms. "Go home. You're a kid, and he's a trained soldier. The execution matches are not games. You will die out there. Perhaps it was a sister, perhaps it was someone else, but whoever it was, ask yourself if throwing your life away would make her happy."

I smiled despite myself. "Thanks," I said, and I meant it. Here was a demon, days after a war had ended, being considerate.

The door opened again before she could say anything else. "Alex?" called a rabbit-girl in a high-cut sparkly leotard. "Would you follow me, please?"

I spared the buffet a glance as I left. Still no meat, but it was nonetheless well stocked. But even if I hadn't been distracted by the chat, I was still in no state to eat. I imagined I wouldn't be in a better state afterwards, either. But, after doing this in a few cities, who knew? Perhaps I'll have grown numb.