Chapter 85.4: Idle Talk – Rank Matches (Last part)
Rank 1 Yve vs Rank 2 Cubero.
If we could describe this confrontation in one phrase……It would be ‘the usual’.
It was always these two in the first and second place.
“Looks like it’ll be boring as always.”
“………snt………er.”
“It doesn’t matter, is what she said.”
Facing Cubero was Yve of the Ten Great. But for some reason, there was another maid by her side.
Her name was Luna. And was commonly known as the 「Interpreter」.
She wasn’t beautiful nor cute, but she wasn’t ugly either, she had an ordinary face. Her hair was normal, so was her body and her voice; she was a maid with no distinctive characteristics.
However, her true identity was that of the best assassin in the 『Yve Squad』, Yukari’s treasured assassination unit. But with that said, no assassination had been carried out yet. Still, her ‘surveillance ability’ was remarkable. It was her the one who found the surviving member of the R6, Besaid, and also the one to set up the capture of the leader of the assassination unit under the Third Knight Order’s Captain Djarum, Tender.
And so, she only held one characteristic quirk. That was, she didn’t show “cowardice”. It was not an exaggeration to say she even lacked the concept of fear.
It was because of this. And mostly by chance, that she got to opportunity to speak with the Captain, Yve, who was feared by most of the maids. In this way, Luna learned that Yve’s real identity was that of “a girl who’s simply silent, expressionless, shy, withdrawn, and poor-spoken”. Being known as the White Demon or the Assassin Puppet Doll, she simply wanted to get along with everyone else if possible. Luna was struck by her captain’s commendable and noble spirit, and since then, working as an interpreter for Yve, she’d been trying to stay close to her as much as possible to help her communicate with others.
“…………oo.”
“I’m sorry, too, is what she said.”
“O-okay.”
However, Luna being Luna wasn’t without fault either.
She herself was also bad at communicating.
By adding “-is what she said” at the end of her sentences and devoting herself to the job of the interpreter, she somehow manages to speak properly……however, she usually never makes eye contact with people and rarely talks to others; as soon as the work of the day is over, she goes back to her room and talks to her pet spider. A perfect example of a person of the shadows.
……be……re.”
“I’ll be in your care, is what she said.”
“……Yeah. Me too.”
This was quite the peculiar matching of two people who were bad at communicating. Apparently, all the maid had become accustomed to this scene, but Cubero was still not used to it.
After their greeting and the two bow to each other, they took their distance and faced against one another. With her role complete, Luna left for the spectators’ row.
Muttering to himself “Why do all of our servants have one or two quirks?”, Cubero voiced his worries as a butler while loosely holding his fist. For him, it was 【Martial Arts】 as usual.
Yve, on the other hand. She took a standing posture with both her arms dropping sloppily. At the tip of her white fingers was “something invisible” that sometimes reflected a gleam. That’s right, she was a user of 【Thread Manipulation】 acknowledged by Yukari.
“Well then……”
Assuming a fighting pose, Cubero slowly approached. As for Yve, she eventually shook her hand softly.
……These two had the worst compatibility.
【Martial Arts】 was a close distance type of skill. Approach, then attack. It was that simple and straightforward skill.
【Thread Manipulation】 however, was a short-range type of skill. It was a multipurpose skill with which you could attack from a distance and at a wide range, furthermore, it could also handle close-quarters combat.
“That is, a bit hard to evade!! ”
A thread stretched in the space between the two――And Cubero approached this invisible attack with hesitation, an intuition born from experience.
The skill that Yve activated was 《Gold Thread Manipulation》. This was a skill that released threads like tentacles to a radius of about four meters around oneself, restraining any opponent who touched it.
“Ha! ”
Using 《Lance Martial Arts》, Cubero kicked the thread that was about to entangle him, shredding it. Against threads, a kick was better than a punch. Since they’ve fought against each other many times, he gradually learned how to deal with it.
“…………”
Following that, Yve silently attacked Cubero using 《Lance Thread Manipulation》. Quickly evading the attack with a step back, Cubero returned to his initial position. Afterward, swiftly activating 《Gold Thread Manipulation》 once again, Yve created a territory.
“Wow, how fast……If we keep like this, it’ll be as boring as usual.”
It was impossible to approach because of this infinite loop, and when he became impatient and made a reckless attack, he would be caught by the threads and be forced to resign. It was the usual pattern.
“However, I have my pride to uphold as a former bandit. If I keep getting caught by you, my manhood will take a hit.”()
Rolling up the sleeves of his butler shirt, Cubero pumped himself up and approached Yve’s territory again.
However, this time he had some measures.
“……ku……”
Yve reacted with a twitch. She felt something sparkle at the feet of Cubero, who had suddenly stopped.
Her eyesight wasn’t great. Therefore, she didn’t know what that was. Still, she was convinced that “something will happen”.
And that, of course, wasn’t just her imagination.
“Wh――!? ”
The spectators raised their voices.
Cubero had activated 【Magic】―― a 《Wind Attribute?Second Form》 spell. The light that sparkled beneath his feet was the magic skill being prepared.
“I recently learned this; you see……”
The Second Form was ranged attack magic.
Coming off from Cubero, a gust of wind blew off Yve’s threads one after the other.
“Here I come.”
Shortly after, Cubero rushed at Yve. Almost as if trying to catch her.
“I apologize in advance for my roughness.”
About two meters in front of her, he leaped, flying through the air. 《Knight Martial Arts》――in other words, a jumping kick.
Losing her posture because of the second form spell of wind, it would seem that Yve wouldn’t be in a state of dodging and would receive the flying kick. Still, not even Yve would be able to guard off this 《Knight Martial Arts》 attack using her 【Thread Manipulation】 at this close of a range.
……Or so Cubero thought.
But the truth was.
It’s not that she wasn’t able to use it. Until now, she just didn’t have the need to use it.
“No way!? ”
Yve offset Cubero’s kick using 《Rook Thread Manipulation》. It was a skill to attack like a whip, with several densely bundled threads.
It was a triple surprise. The surprise that she had mastered such a high-level skill such as Rook, the surprise that she was able to offset his 《Knight Martial Arts》 which was Grade 2, and also, his surprise by the fact that in apparently all the previous Rank Matches, she had been cutting corners.
“I lost, it’s my complete defeat.”
After landing, Cubero declared his loss while being tied up in threads.
The match ended――And the rank, it remained unchanged.
Rank 1 Yve
Rank 2 Cubero
Rank 3 Lilly
Rank 4 El
Rank 5 Champani
Rank 6 Cosmos
Rank 7 Es
Rank 8 Jast
“I thought this time the battles in the top rankings would be rough……But nothing changed much.”
The latest order in the ranking was announced once the battle matches ended.
At the top, Champani beat Cosmos for the 5th place, and Jast of the Ten Great won against the Stable-head Jast for 7th place. Other than that, the positions didn’t change much.
There was one man who turned his sulky face towards the muttering Cubero.
“I just can’t……accept it.”
“Ohh? Ploum. But you didn’t participate, right?”
The stable-hand, Ploum. He was a fourteen-year-old boy who admired Jast and called him Aniki.
So far, he hasn’t participated in the Rank Matches. However, he had a look of dissatisfaction after seeing the Rank results posted.
“It’s about Aniki’s rank. 8th place……Is Sovra-nii-san returns, he will surely fall to 9th.”
“Haaa? Bastard, are you making fun of me? ”
“Y-You’re wrong!! It’s just that……”
Ploum was dissatisfied with the fact that his Aniki was the lowest of The Big Four. But that wasn’t all. Even above him, there were five maids. As someone who said “My Aniki is the coolest in the whole world”, this wasn’t something he could accept.
“……Isn’t it strange that your greatness is determined only by your strength in a fight? ”
However, there was no way he could say such an embarrassing thing.
This was why Ploum was against the system.
His real feelings were “A system in which Aniki can’t be the best is wrong! “, but since he couldn’t say that, this took the form of him criticizing it in a roundabout way.
“Ploum. Are you complaining about Yukari-sama’s decision? ”
“As I said, you’re wrong! But……it’s strange after all, isn’t it? ”
“Wrong, I’m just weak. A great person can fight just as well as he can do his job. That’s simply something I can’t do. The ranking is right.”
“But……Aniki……”
When Ploum tried to continue speaking with that pitiful voice, at that moment――The atmosphere in that place changed completely.
“…………ng.”
Raising her hand, Yve said something.
The servants gathered there turned to the interpreter next to her.
“I also think it’s wrong, is what she said.”
There was a commotion.
“……ssi……nk……”
“I haven’t assassinated anyone, nor have I investigated anything, but for some reason, I’m rank 1, is what she said.”
Those were persuasive words.
Everyone nodded saying “That’s true”.
At the same time, a doubt came to their minds. “Then, is Yukari-sama’s way wrong? “, they made sort of face. The answer was no. Everyone present immediately denied it. As far as it concerned them, Yukari was “absolute”, just like Second.
In that case, what’s this strange sense of incongruity? ……At the right time, a person who could solve those doubts everyone held, visited the place.
“The time the next Rank Matches will be held is still to be decided. I’ll inform you later.”
It was Yukari herself. She contacted them unconcerned as if she was doing some office work.
Thinking it was perfect timing, Cubero asked her a question. As expected of the ‘manager’, the coordinator of the servants.
“Yukari-sama. Doubts about the system in which the ranking is determined solely by the interpersonal combat ability have been raised. Could I bother you with your thoughts on this? ”
That was a really smart way to put it. After a deep sigh, Yukari then asked back.
“You don’t get why it’s only about combat power, right? Then, what else do you need other than combat power in the Rank Matches? ”
“……? ”
Question marks floated above the servants’ heads.
Then, a few seconds later. Suddenly noticing their worries, Yukari started speaking.
“I see, I understand now. Do you think that the rank in the Rank Matches is your position as a servant? ”
“Yes.”
“You’re wrong. The order from the Rank Matches is to visualize the individual fighting abilities of each of you, which were unclear until recently, and does not represent the rank of the servants in and of itself.”
“! ”
Surprise spread among the servants. The number of people who had misunderstood this up until now seemed considerable.
“There’s no difference between the servants in the first place. All of you are slaves equally serving under your Master and members of the House Firstest. If I had to say, then there’s a senpai-kouhai relationship between generation zero, one and two.”
“Then, the reason for the Rank Matches is.”
“It indeed serves to rank your combat abilities, but that’s just it, it doesn’t serve any other purpose than that. Ahh, but your evaluation is separated from those ratings, so don’t worry.”
In other words, this was only one metric by which Yukari measured the strength of the servants, and it didn’t directly become the position they held as servants.
……Ohhh.
This was somewhat anticlimactic for the servants.
But even so, this didn’t mean anything would change.
At that moment, a rare visitor appeared.
“――Oh? What’s the matter? Why are you all gathered here?”
“Master! Why would you come to this place? ”
“Eh, nothing in particular, I was just taking a walk.”
Feeling a bit shocked, he placed his hands on his pockets and thought “This is also my home, you know?” in a sulky way. It was their master, Second.
“Huh? What the heck. Ranks? ”
“Yeah. You see, this is……”
Looking at the results posted about the Rank Matches, Second tilted his head.
Then, Yukari briefly explained to Second, who wasn’t aware of the existence of these Rank Matches.
It’s an event to decide the combat abilities of the servants, by having them fight among themselves……
……She explained.
“WHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT――!! ”
Second roared.
A loud voice that he rarely made. Not only Yukari, but the servants were also surprised, unable to move.
――I screwed up!
At that moment, Yukari regretted her thoughtlessness.
Having the servants, who are the property of Second fighting freely and without permission, then ranking them――If one thought carefully, this might’ve been a foolish act.
……I need to apologize. Having decided so, Yukari tried to open her mouth to apologize――
“So, you were keeping this freaking fun thing a secret from me!! Seriously!!! ”
――However, she stopped.
“Next time I’ll also participate! Silvia and Eko will too! Ahh, you want in too, Yukari? ”
“No, allow me to decline.”
“I see! Anyway, be sure to let me know the next time you do it! For sure! ”
And thus.
The Rank Matches became an annual event with official recognition from Second and turned into a specialty of the Firstest Family.