Chương 9: I Killed You Once

Yuto's heart raced rapidly as he stared up at the audience seats. The seats were empty except for the woman sitting alone in the VIP area, and she had a frightening smile on her face as she looked down at everyone. The situation itself was not so different from the first time Yuto had stood in the Colosseum: everyone here was being forced to fight and entertain an audience of one. But last time, that single person had been Eville. The Crimson Ringmistress was far crueler.

She had promised to spare anyone who entertained her, which meant that those who failed to do so would die. The lives of over a hundred fighters present in the arena today hung on her mood alone. It wasn't just the fighters. She was sitting, relaxing, and swaying her glass, but her red whip kept on moving around. The guards who had been standing at the entrances of the audience seats were captured by the whip and tossed into the arena as well.

"M-Mistress?" Eville said, trembling, but the Ringmistress ignored her. The red eyes did not focus on her at all. The Crimson Ringmistress was watching the Colosseum as a whole. The individual parts, such as Eville, the guards, the fighters from the other leagues, and the Evomon, did not matter to her. Eville shuddered. Not only was she terrified of this woman, but she was excited to be standing on the stage she had created. Her breath quickened, and she began to attack with her hands.

"Aaah!" A fighter who had not yet been aware of what to do under the circumstances was cut apart by a sharp wind, and blood and intestines fell to the floor. The sudden murder made everyone turn around in shock. Eville, however, was beaming up at the Crimson Ringmistress, not at the boy she'd just killed.

"I-I'll entertain you... I'll give you what you want!" If the arrangement that she had been after did not please the Ringmistress enough, then, of course, she should be the one to perform on the stage herself. Eville wanted to see a smile of pleasure on her role model's face. And she was confident she could pull it off. The fighters here were just commoners and people taken from the slums and did not have any contract with a Constellation.

They were insects found just about everywhere across the continent, and because they were so common, nobody would miss them when they were gone. Perhaps they were not even worthy of being called human, since the Constellations didn't care about them. What about Eville, on the other hand? She had been born to a noble house and undergone the ceremony when she turned twelve. A Constellation had chosen her. Not only that, she had been learning magic since she was little.

The chokers were gone now, but that was hardly a problem. She was the most special person in the entire arena. Eville's first kill changed the mood in the Colosseum. The fighters yelled at the top of their lungs and dashed forward at nearby opponents. They had finally understood what they were supposed to do, what they had to do if they wanted to survive. Unless they killed others, they themselves would be killed by the monster sitting up there. Yuto stood still, glaring at the Crimson Ringmistress.

He still had no memories, but he was sure that he had known that woman. He felt a deep hatred for her. He wanted to kill her. He had to kill her.

No, no. I'm not... His head ached badly. Yells and screams filled the air around him, and fighters began to die. In the middle of that violence, Yuto saw a scene that wasn't from the present.

I... already killed her once. He had stood in the world that the monster had created, a hell in which people were forced to kill each other to live on, and he had cut her head off, destroying that hell.

I did that? He couldn't place when this had happened. Was it even the past? Maybe it was the future. The scenes that came to him were fragmented and short. They only confused him even more. He was far too weak to defeat someone like that. He heard a yell from close by. Somebody was trying to kill him as he was lost in thought. Before he could react, Lugil quickly moved in to protect Yuto. It was a fighter from the lower league that Yuto had seen multiple times.

His face was contorted with terror and desperation as he grabbed Lugil by the shoulder.

"Get lost, one-eyed idiot!" the fighter said. The reason he was attacking Yuto was simple. Yuto was the last person he wanted to face in a match, but now he seemed distracted. It was the perfect opportunity. If he tried to fight anyone from the higher leagues, he would only be killed.

"Pull it together!" Garon yelled. He limped over to Yuto and grabbed him by the shoulders. His voice carried concern. Lugil and Garon were protecting him instead of turning on him.

"Why didn't you attack me?" Yuto asked, watching Garon. Garon looked confused by the question and let go of him.

"Why? You're the strongest one among us? Why would we try to fight you?" Garon's answer was simple and extremely reasonable. His leg had not healed yet, and Lugil could only see out of one eye. Even without their injuries, they had more losses on their record than wins. The only people they could fight with any hope of winning were the freshly captured prisoners who had not even been promoted to fighters yet, or the severely wounded. Garon gulped and looked at the others. Love this story?

Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work! Most people thought alike. Plenty of others had chosen an opponent they thought they could defeat and moved in for the kill. Gedrick, whose foot had been cut off by Yuto, was already dying from a broken neck. The fighter who had mortally wounded him was now being choked by another combatant.

"A-a weapon..." Garon stammered.

"We need weapons. Wh-where's your sword?"

"It's in a cabinet in the lobby," Yuto said, calming his racing heart. He had glanced at the bars, which were completely shut. Garon saw this as well, and his face was filled with despair.

"F*ck! Why didn't you bring it with you?" Garon yelled.

"Because I wasn't allowed to," Yuto said calmly. He took several strides forward. Lugil was still struggling with the fighter who had attacked Yuto earlier.

"Thank you," Yuto said, and got between them. All it took was a simple punch aimed precisely at the jaw. The fighter's eyes lost their focus, and he fell to the ground like a rag doll.

"I'm going to find some weapons. So don't die," Yuto said.

"W-weapons? From where? You can't get in through those bars!"

"I'll just take them from others who have them," Yuto said coldly. The fighters that had been gathered here had not been given weapons beforehand, but there were still people in here who were armed—namely the guards who had managed the fighters. They had also been thrown into the arena by the Ringmistress and were now swinging their weapons without hesitation at the same fighters they had once overseen. They were also desperate for survival.

I can't die here today, Yuto thought. He could not accept dying without even remembering who he had been. He couldn't die yet.

There's something I have to do. He had no idea what it was, but he bit his lip and walked onward. He glanced toward someone that he was concerned about—the fox everyone said was crazy. The fox was being attacked by another Evomon—having been a maddened, ruthless killer in every match, it had become the common enemy of all the Evomon. The other creatures did not wish to fight the fox alone, but if they came together, they could kill it. And they were putting that thought into action now.

It did not look easy, however. The fox, true to its reputation, was spewing fire everywhere. Around ten Evomon were teaming up against it, but they could do little more than corner the fox. As absurd as it was, Yuto felt the need to help the fox, but he also knew that getting into a fight between Evomon with no weapons would be suicide.

Those Evomon can never kill the fox. Oddly enough, he felt sure of this, though he had no evidence to support it. The most they could do was to keep the fox from moving around temporarily. It would soon escape them. That was what Yuto believed.

First of all, I need a weapon. He turned away from the fox and walked to a guard he knew well, and even owed him, in a way. It was the same one who had kicked Yuto in the belly after Yuto woke up for the first time in the cell and was confused about where he was. This nameless guard was intent on killing the slaves he had been assigned to. He, too, wanted to live. Jackie was still alive.

He was lying on his stomach beneath the body of a slave boy who had just been killed, his hands covering his mouth as he shook all over. Jackie noticed Yuto walking over. Yuto saw him too. The body on top of Jackie was the boy who had been in the cell for the longest, the one who had kept trying to attack Yuto. Yuto saw the scared eyes of Jackie, and the dead eyes of the slave boy. Yuto's gaze grew somber. Just as the guard's sword was about to fall on top of Jackie, Yuto intervened.

The guard was far better trained than any of the fighters Yuto had fought here so far, but the difference did not seem significant to Yuto. His instincts far surpassed that level of skill. He moved just as the sword began to swing down and grabbed the prison guard's wrist.

"Huh...?" The guard hadn't even noticed that Yuto was approaching him. That was how stealthily he had moved, and how bold the interruption was. Yuto pulled the wrist hard and twisted it. The guard's thick wrist gave way so easily. He dropped the sword, which Yuto snatched up. The pommel slammed into the prison guard's chest.

"Guh!" The guard's mouth fell wide open. Yuto pulled back the sword that he had just grabbed, while the guard was bent over and backing away unsteadily.

"You... You!" The guard was glaring at Yuto with his eyes wide. Yuto didn't say a word and swung the sword. It was a clean cut, but not a deep one, because it didn't have to be. It sliced through precisely a third of the guard's throat. Bloody foam came out of the guard's mouth. He could no longer stand and fell to his knees. The cut had severed an artery. The guard would bleed out quickly.

"Jackie," Yuto said, turning around.

"Don't try anything." Yuto had already told him the same thing once before. Jackie nodded, hands over his mouth.

"Y-you bastard! You must be nuts!" This was the first guard to be killed, and it angered the others greatly. It wasn't that they were loyal to each other, but these fighters were just slaves in the end, and they had no business killing a guard. Not only that, this particular setting had been arranged by the Crimson Ringmistress herself. Slaves were not supposed to be able to fight back like this. Of course, it would draw her attention. That was completely unacceptable. Three guards came together and attacked Yuto.

They would first get rid of this slave who tried to stand out and then kill the rest of the slaves. After that, they would murder Eville, who had created this entire horrible situation. They had no reason to obey her anymore. She was running wild now, attacking not only slaves but Evomon as well. She could use magic and had the protection of a Constellation, but her power was not infinite. Eventually, she would run out of steam. That was when they would kill her, and then...

And then what? thought one of the guards who swung his sword at Yuto. They would need to survive until that point if they wanted to think about what came next. Unless they could survive, planning ahead really wasn't necessary.

Oh.

Then he realized why his thoughts had gone in that direction. Planning had become meaningless. His neck had just been cut, and the light went out of his eyes. Yuto moved past the body as it fell forward, swinging his sword. He cut off another guard's hand. The only reason he didn't go for the neck was that there wasn't an opening. Taking the hand created an opening. But now that he did have a chance to go for the neck, he knew that he didn't have to hurry. A guard without a hand was no longer a threat.

Instead, he dealt with another guard who was attacking from the left. Yuto stepped aside, lightly avoiding the swing, then twirled as he struck. The guard screamed from the cut in his side. In mere moments, one guard was dead, and two more were fatally wounded. He was about to end the lives of the other two when he felt a powerful gaze that made him freeze.

"Hmm." It was the Crimson Ringmistress. She had put down her glass and cupped her chin, watching him.

"There's a strange one among the bunch, isn't there?" she murmured, snickering to herself.