Helmut: The Forsaken Child - H.F.C Chapter 394 (Part 1):

The tournament bracket was posted in the square on time and simultaneously delivered to each participant’s room.

“Bad luck.”

Those were the words Helmut spat out as he looked at the bracket.

The opponents he was concerned about were only two, excluding Asuka: Alea and the man presumed to be a holy knight.

In the end, Helmut couldn’t avoid one of those two.

It was fortunate that he hadn’t faced both before the finals.

“Would Charlotte have adjusted the bracket if I had asked her?”

“Not a chance. When it comes to rules like that, she’s terribly strict.”

Alea shook her head in response to Helmut’s question, as if she knew Charlotte better than he did, her own brother.

“Let’s do our best.”

Alea smiled faintly and extended her hand as if she had been waiting for this moment.

Helmut silently stared at her face.

“…It’s still far off. You seem happy, though?”

They would meet in the semifinals. There were still three more matches to go from the round of 32 to the semifinals. Alea quickly shook her head.

“No. But still, you managed to avoid the holy knight, didn’t you?”

The word “avoided” pricked Helmut’s pride. His eyebrows subtly twitched.

“It’s troublesome, not that I’m afraid.”

Facing Alea was the same. He had expected to feel anticipation, but now that it was becoming a reality, he felt both awkward and complicated.

He had always fought with the resolve to cut down his opponent. His battles were closer to life and death.

If an opponent survived, it was because the situation allowed it, or because Helmut had been lenient enough to refrain from delivering a lethal blow.

But Alea was an opponent he couldn’t kill or cut down from the start.

Alea’s composure wasn’t just due to her confidence in her own skills but also because she knew Helmut well.

‘I’m at a disadvantage from the start.’

Even so, he didn’t feel like he would lose. Helmut decided to adjust his mindset calmly.

“We still don’t know how things will turn out.”

Alea’s gaze swept over the bracket. Her eyes then turned to Asuka, who was beside them.

Asuka’s expression was serious as he kept staring at the bracket.

“You’ll meet him sooner than expected, huh?”

If Asuka won his match in the round of 32, he would face that man in the round of 16. It was earlier than anticipated.

Helmut’s gaze also turned to Asuka. He didn’t know much about that guy’s strength, but he knew that Asuka wasn’t in a comfortable situation after making it to the main tournament.

Judging by Asuka’s own skill and the strength of that man, Asuka would need a lot of luck to approach victory.

After a moment of thought, Helmut offered some advice.

“From now on, the matches won’t overlap, so you’ll be able to watch his match in the round of 32.”

“Are you telling me to spy on him?”

“I’m saying you should assess your enemy. If you think you can win without trouble, then you don’t have to.”

If you’re weaker, neglecting to analyze your opponent means you’re not giving it your all.

Asuka frowned and gritted his teeth. He didn’t need to ask to know what Helmut meant.

Elaga, who had hoped that Helmut, Alea, and Asuka would all end up on the same side of the bracket before the finals, looked indifferent now that his wish hadn’t come true.

[Anyway, it’s a martial arts tournament that I’m not entering, right? It’s just a bunch of mediocre people fighting. What’s the point of spying or analyzing?]

Couldn’t he have transformed into a human form like Igrelle and participated in the tournament?

Elaga belatedly realized this and felt regret.

To do that, he would have needed an artifact with transformation magic, which would have to be inspected. But if it were Heike, she could have made an artifact that wouldn’t be detected by those bumbling fools at the mage association.

Unfortunately, Elaga’s artifact didn’t have the function to transform into a human.

[Well, give it your best. There’s not much time left.]

From Elaga’s perspective, humans were weak beings, and demonic beasts were their predators. And Elaga was the king of those beasts.

Because humans, fragile as they were, got rattled and fearful at the slightest thing, Elaga felt it was only proper for a stronger being like himself to show them some consideration.

That was why he went along with Helmut’s and the others’ suggestion to hide his true identity and quietly observe.

Truth be told, Elaga secretly wished something would happen. He had come all this way to the human world; spending his days in dull peace wasn’t what he wanted.

He wanted incidents, chaos, and excitement. Even if he had to fight all of humanity.

Noticing Elaga’s pent-up boredom, Helmut proposed a solution.

“If you’re really bored, should I put you in the dog-fighting arena? Maybe they’d let a big cat join if you asked nicely.”

In return for such “kind consideration,” Helmut’s clothes ended up with four distinct claw marks slashed across them.

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