Editing Saijaku Muhai no Bahamut:Volume 5 Episode 3 (section)

===Part 1===

The next day, the international tournament──All-Dragon Battle’s first day was finally held.

The place was the Drag-Ride arena nearby the castle.

The scale was even larger than the academy’s practice ground. A great number of citizens and nobles were gathering there.

It was scheduled for three days. In order to limit the Drag-Knights’ fatigue to the minimum, there would be one day of rest in between. The tournament was divided into the first half on the first day and the later half on the second day and it was carried out under special rules.

The tournament this time was a round robin event that was performed by the seven participating countries.

Three battles in the first half, and three battles in the later half. A total of six battles would be carried out by each country.

The competition rule against a country was a maximum of three matches in a battle, the one who was the first to take two victories in two matches won the battle. It was fundamentally based on the rules of the capital’s tournament.

There was two kind of matches, a one-on-one individual battle, and a two-on-two pair battle. The side that settled two wins first would win at that time.

In the case the result was one win and one loss, both camps would choose a member who still hadn’t fought and the last individual battle would decide it.

It was only after all the members had performed once that the team could choose once more between all their members.

Therefore the comprehensive strength of the team was stressed here. It was a system where it would be hard to be victorious by depending on the great effort of a single powerful member.

When the members of the New Kingdom gathered inside the waiting room in the arena, the leader of Syvalles, Celis, stood in front of everyone.

「The three battles today will be against the Ymir Theocracy, Turkimes Confederation, and the Blackened Kingdom. About the first battle against Ymir, I believe we will carry it out without our four Divine Drag-Ride users as arranged.」

「Aa, if I’m not mistaken this is what you called throwing a match right……?」

Tillfur of the Triad who heard that spoke sounding somewhat dejectedly.

「No. It’s what you call a strategic bargaining. Or rather, please don’t bring up the matter that has already been decided from previous discussion again.」

Noct immediately retorted and lightly clapped on Tillfur’s back.

The New Kingdom did end up borrowing Krulcifer who was a prominent Drag-Knight from their allied country Ymir.

Therefore, it was the moral principle of the New Kingdom to not put Krulcifer in the first battle against Ymir, and they also couldn’t show a stance of doing their all to win by investing their other Divine Drag-Ride users.

Because of such reason it was decided to enter the users of general purpose Drag-Rides only against the Ymir Theocracy.

In this aspect, it was the instruction that came from the capital government’s strategic bargaining rather than the selection members themselves, so there was also an implicit understanding part in it.

And then Tillfur was planned to enter the first match, the individual match of this battle.

「But of course, you don’t mind if we actually won this battle right, captain-dono?」

When Sharis said that, Celis nodded with a serious look and,

「Of course. The member’s placement is already decided, but that’s all the restriction imposed on this battle. Please go and win, Tillfur.」

「……Roger!」

Tillfur strongly nodded after a slight hesitation.

「If it’s Tillfur then you will surely win.」

When Lux called out from the side,

「Right, thanks. I’ll do my best for instructor-sama’s sake too okay~」

She laughed jestingly.

「Then, if there is no more questions we will end this talk here. I won’t mind if each of you watch the battle or take a rest by your own decision, but I order all of you to grasp the schedule and return here when it’s time. Understood?」

Everyone nodded at Celis’s words.

At the end Relie who was at the room’s corner stood in front of everyone and gave the concluding speech.

「Everyone──you’ve worked hard the other day. And then, thank you. Today, fight for the sake of this New Kingdom and for the sake of none other but yourself, okay?」

「Yes!」

Everyone raised their voices before breaking up.

And then, thirty minutes later, the All-Dragon Battle finally began.