『――そこまでっ! 終始優勢・劣勢が目まぐるしく入れ替わる、実に面白き試合であった! 勝者、ユーミル・ハインド!』
会場から大歓声が浴びせられた。
終了と共に戦闘不能から復帰したワルターがよろよろと立ち上がり、こちらへ戻ってくる。
そしてユーミルは――
「私達の勝ちだな」
「くっ......」
膝を着いたままのヘルシャに向かって勝ち誇ってみせる。
ワルターが慌ててヘルシャを助け起こそうと駆け寄るが、俺は腕を出してそれを止めた。
「師匠......?」
「まあ、ここは大人しく見てろって」
悔しそうに歯噛みするヘルシャに向かって、ユーミルが手を差し出す。
呆気に取られた様子でそれを見詰めるヘルシャ。
その反射的に出してしまったらしき手を強引に掴むと、ユーミルはそのまま力を込めて立ち上がらせる。
「......だが、最後のは良い魔法だった。私はお前が使ったああいう派手な魔法、好きだぞ」
「......!」
唐突な言葉に、戸惑った様子ながらもヘルシャは満更でもなさそうだ。
慌てて居住まいを正すと、胸を張ってそれに答える。
の魔法ですもの! 力強く、美しい炎......だからこそ、誰にも負けるはずがないと思っていましたのに......貴女の剣技も粗雑でしたけれど、その力強さだけは認めて差し上げますわ」
「フン、言ってくれる。ほら、さっさと観客に応えてやらないか! お前達に拍手を送っているぞ」
俺達への歓声が収まった後は、ユーミルがヘルシャを助け起こすのを見て観客が健闘を称える拍手を送っている。
それにヘルシャが堂々と、ワルターが遠慮がちに手を上げて応えた。
その最中、スススッとワルターがこちらに寄って話し掛けてくる。
「し、師匠......! 師匠の言った通りに、何とかなりましたね! ただ、その、何と言ったらいいか......」
「アレだろ? まるで河原で殴り合った後の男達を見ているみたいな。お前、中々やるじゃないか......お前こそ......みたいな。見てるこっちが
「......うん。まあどっちも喧嘩っ早いけど、さっぱりした性格をしているからな。どんな形になるにせよ、後は引かないと思っていたのさ」
なるほど......と呟いて、ワルターが俺の横に並んだまま歩き出す。
そのままユーミル、ヘルシャに続いて俺達も舞台を後にした。
終わったら跡を濁さずに速やかに去るのが、闘技場のルールである。
「ということは、つまりお二人とも性格が男らしいということですか?」
「おいおい、あの二人の前ではそれ絶対に言うなよ。殴られるぞ。あと、どっちかって言うと男らしいじゃなくて、漢らしいの方が正解だと思う」
「え? どう違うんですか?」
「後者の方がより精神性を表している......気がする」
見た目はしっかり美少女しているからな、二人とも。
いや、見た目って意味ではこの場に美少女は三人居るか......事実は別として。
だからワルター、お前がそういう疑問を口にすると性別の概念が何から何まで怪しくなるからやめてほしい。
男らしさって何だ? という、答えの出ない迷路に入ってしまいそうになるから。
次の準決勝が始まるまでには休憩時間がある。
プレイヤーによっては一度ログアウトしたりしているが、席を取られる恐れがあるので大多数はそのまま留まっているように見受けられる。
俺達の場合は席が別なのでその心配は無いが、全員が雑談をしながらログアウトせずに揃っていた。
「あ、お二人とも。まずは準決勝進出、おめでとうでござる」
「「おめでとうございまーす!」」
席に戻るなりトビとリコリスちゃん、サイネリアちゃんが祝福の言葉を掛けてくれた。
やや照れくさい気分になりながらも「ありがとう」と言ってユーミルとそれぞれの席に座る。
したので?」
「先にヘルシャとワルターを席まで送ってきた。それで、二人と一緒に座ってたのは全員があいつらのギルド員だったんだけど」
「うむ。中々に異様なギルドだったぞ!」
軽い挨拶をしてきたのだが、俺達がヘルシャとワルターを下したことで恨んでいるようなプレイヤーは居なかったので悪い人達ではないのだろう。
ただ、ユーミルが言う通りおかしいことは確かで。
「異様......それはどんなだい? まさか構成員が全員執事服・メイド服とか?」
ミツヨシさんの推測は当たらずとも遠からず。
びっちり十人で席を埋め尽くしていた彼等は、ヘルシャが戻ってきた瞬間立ち上がり――
「「「お疲れ様でした、お嬢様!!」」」
と声を揃えて頭を下げつつ、労いの挨拶をしてきたのである。
後ろの席に座るプレイヤー達が少し居心地悪そうにしていたのが印象的だった。
「あれはギルドの仲間というよりも、もはや部下だな?」
「そうだなあ。並列じゃなくて、完全に上下関係だったよな」
「ええと......お嬢様と、しもべ達......?」
シエスタちゃんがボソッと発した一言は本質を突いていると思う。
そう、あれは「お嬢様」の為の組織だ。
しもべ達が支える、ヘルシャを中心に回っているギルド。
それがあの『シリウス』ということになるのだろう。
「とまあ中々に強烈なギルドだったけど、次の試合はそのままあっちの席で俺達を応援してくれるってさ」
「けれどアイツ、事もあろうに帰りがけにハインドを自分のギルドに引き抜こうとしてきたぞ? リィズ、後であっちに向かって塩を撒いておくのだ、塩を!」
「......つまりまた敵ですか。ユーミルさんの言う通りにするのは癪ですが、良いでしょう。後でたっぷりと塩を撒いておきます。何なら、目の前に行って直接投げつけて来てやりますよ」
「じょ、冗談だよね......? まさか本当にはやらないよね?」
セレーネさんが心配しているが、恐らく大丈夫だろう、
TBの塩は割合高価で貴重品だし、ギルド内で持っているのは俺だけだ。
ユーミルは所持金0のはずだし、リィズもそんなことのためにわざわざ買いに行ったりはしないだろう。
そんな他愛ない話をしながら時間を潰していると、再び場内の騒めきが大きくなってくる。
予定時間が近付き、出場者と皇帝陛下が舞台の上に登場すると歓声が更に大きくなった。
「お、出た出たアルベルト。彼のせいでインターバルが予定よりも長くなっているとは思わないか? 運営泣かせだねえ、本当」
「まあ、兄貴だけ極端に試合時間が短いでござるからなぁ。さすがに準決勝でござるし、今回は多少苦戦するでござろう」
もう観客も慣れてきたようで、期待通りの展開にむしろ大盛り上がりだ。
ヒポポタマス・ファルケコンビも、残念ながらアルベルトを止められなかった。
『むう......この試合の内容に関しては、敢えて何も語るまい。勝者、傭兵アルベルト・フィリア! ......続けて、準決勝第二試合を執り行う! 四名の出場者、舞台へ!』
「はっやいなぁ......もう出番かよ。ユーミル、行こう」
「ゆっくりしている時間もないな。やれやれ......」
ヘルシャとワルターの席に行ってから戻ってきたので、インターバルが長くても俺達はあまり休憩出来なかったが......準決勝のために、再び舞台へと向かった。
{-That's the end of the match! It was an interesting match where the team with the upper hand kept switching all the time! The winners are Yumir and Hind!}  (Emperor)
The venue was filled with cheers.
At the same time the match ended, Walter recovered from his KO'd status and stood up while staggering, then he returned to where we were.
Then Yumir...
[It's our win.]  (Yumir)
[Kuh...]  (Herrscha)
She boasted about her win to Herrscha, who was still kneeling.
Walter tried to rush over to Herrscha to help her out in a panic, but I stopped him by reaching out with my arm.
[Master...?]  (Walter)
[Well, in cases like these just wait and watch.]  (Hind)
Yumir held out her hand towards Herrscha, who was grinding her teeth in frustration.
Herrscha was taken aback by such an action and just stared at her.
After being forced to grasp the hand that was extended to her, Yumir put in strength and helped her stand up.
[...However, that was a good spell at the end. I love flashy spells like the ones you used.]  (Yumir)
[...!!]  (Herrscha)
At the sudden words, Herrscha looked quite surprised but she didn't seem to hate it.
She fixed her posture in a hurry, stuck out her chest and replied.
[T-That goes without saying! It's my magic after all! The flame is strong, beautiful...that's why, even though I thought that it wouldn't lose to anyone...your sword skills might be crude, but I'll at least admit that you are strong.]  (Herrscha)
[Fun, you sure can talk. Come on, you should give a response to the audience! There are people that are clapping for you too.]  (Yumir)
After the cheers for us died down, the audience started cheering when they saw Yumir helped Herscha.
Then Herrscha raised her hand in a dignified manner while Walter did so shily.
While doing that, Walter sneakily approached me and said.
[M-Master...! It was as master said, it worked out somehow! It's just that...eh, how should I say this...]  (Walter)
[You mean that right? It's like one of those scenes with men beating each other besides a riverbed.
[Well, they are both quick to anger and are simple minded after all. No matter how it would have ended, I thought that it would end well in the end.]  (Hind)
"I see...", while murmuring that, Walter started walking next to me.
Like that, we followed Yumir and Herrscha and left the stage behind us.
To leave the area quickly after the match is over is a rule of the arena.
[So to sum it up, both of their personalities are like those of boys?]  (Walter)
[Wait wait, you definitely can't say that in front of both of them you hear me? They will beat you up. Besides, if we were to be more specific, rather than being boyish, I believe it would be more correct to say that they are like men.]  (Hind)
[Eh? What's the difference?]  (Walter)
[I have the feeling...the latter one matches their personality better.]  (Hind)
I mean, both of them look like beautiful girls on the outside after all.
No, in a sense, you could say that there are 3 beautiful girls right here...but the reality is quite different.
That's why, Walter, I'd prefer if you didn't act as if you didn't understand, because the concept of gender will start getting weird when you do.
What does it mean to be manly? We'll enter a maze where there's no real answer if you do.
There will be a break until the semifinals start.
There are some players that decided to log out for the time being, but the majority stayed here fearing that they would lose their seats.
Since our seats are different, there's no need to worry about that kind of thing, however, all of us didn't log out and were currently chatting.
[Ah, both of you. First of all, congratulations on advancing to the semi-finals.]  (Tobi)
[[Congratulations!!] ]  (Lyco and Sai)
We received those words from Tobi, Lycoris-chan and Cineraria-chan once we returned to our seats.
After replying with a [Thanks]  while feeling embarrassed, I took my seat along with Yumir.
[You sure took your time, did something happen?]  (Tobi)
[We accompanied Herrscha and Walter to their seats first. Then, we found out that all the people seated there were members of their guild.]  (Hind)
[Umu. Their guild was quite peculiar!]  (Yumir)
We only exchanged short greetings, but since it didn't seem like there was anyone that was resenting us for beating Herrscha and Walter, it didn't seem like they were bad people.
It's just that, as Yumir has said, they were certainly weird.
[Peculiar...what do you mean by that? Don't tell me that all of them were wearing butler and maid outfits?]  (Mitsuyoshi)
Mitsuyoshi's guess didn't hit the mark but wasn't that far off either.
All ten of them were seated without leaving any empty seats in between, and the moment Herrscha returned they all stood up and...
[[[Good work out there, ojou-sama!!] ] ] 
They expressed their congratulations like that while bowing their heads.
It was kinda impressive how the players seated behind them only felt a bit uncomfortable.
[Rather than guild mates, they seemed more like subordinates?]  (Yumir)
[You are right. Rather than being seated in a row, it seemed like they were seated in hierarchical order after all.]  (Hind)
[Ehh...an ojou-sama...and her servants...?]  (Siesta)
I think that with those words said by Siesta-chan absent-mindedly, the reality hit me.
That's right, that was a group made for their [Ojou-sama] .
With the servants supporting her, it was a guild revolving around Herrscha.
That was probably what that guild called {Sirius}  was all about.
[Well, they did look like quite the strong guild, but they did say that they would cheer for us in our next match.]  (Hind)
[But that woman, she tried to poach Hind to her guild on our way back you know? Riizu, go over there later and scatter salt over there, salt!!]  (Yumir)
[...so you mean that they are our enemy right? I feel reluctant to do as Yumir-san says, but fine. I'll make sure to scatter plenty of salt later. In that case, how about I go in front of them and throw salt at them directly?]  (Riizu)
[T-That's a joke right...? You are not being serious right?]  (Selene)
It looks like Selene-san is worried but it'll probably be OK.
Salt is quite the expensive material in TB, in our guild, I'm the only one that has some.
Yumir should possess 0 gold and Riizu probably won't go through the trouble of buying some just for that.
We killed some time while talking about such a silly topic and the arena got lively again.
The scheduled time was getting near and when the participants and the Emperor took the stage, big cheers resonated throughout the arena.
[Oh, there he is, Albert. Don't you think that the reason the interval was so long was their fault? The developers must be crying.]  (Hind)
[Well, Aniki is the only one whose matches are extremely short after all. These are the semifinals, they'll probably have a closer match this time.]  (Tobi)However, as if to betray Tobi's expectations, the same thing that happened in the quarterfinals happened in the semifinals.
It seemed like the audience was already used to it, even though it developed as they had expected, they still cheered really loudly.
Even the Hippopotamus and Falke duo was unable to stop Albert.
{Muu...regarding this match, I have nothing to say. The winners are the Mercenary Albert and Philia duo! ....Next up, it's time for the 2nd match of the semifinals! All four participants, head to the stage!}  (Emperor)
[So fast...is it our turn already? Yumir, we are going.]  (Hind)
[Good grief, we don't even have the time to take it easy...]  (Yumir)
We returned after going to Herrscha and Walter's seats, so even if the interval was long, we didn't have much time to rest...in order to fight in the semifinals, we headed towards the stage again.
VRMMO no Shien Shokunin ～Top Player no Shikakenin～
ＶＲＭＭＯの支援職人　～トッププレイヤーの仕掛人～
https://www.novelupdates.com/series/vrmmo-no-shien-shokunin-%ef%bd%9etop-player-no-shikakenin%ef%bd%9e/
Action Adventure Comedy Fantasy Harem Slice of Life
Adventurers Beautiful Female Lead Blacksmith Brother Complex Calm Protagonist Childhood Friends Clan Building Cooking Crafting Curious Protagonist Dense Protagonist Elemental Magic Fantasy Creatures Game Ranking System Gamers Hard-Working Protagonist Healers Level System Love Interest Falls in Love First Love Rivals Male Protagonist Misunderstandings MMORPG Ninjas Possessive Characters Priests Siblings Siblings Not Related by Blood Sword And Magic Virtual Reality Younger Love Interests Younger Sisters
https://ncode.syosetu.com/n4014ds/
二階堂風都