"Bea—"
Leonardo, who was about to call out her name inadvertently, firmly blocked his own mouth with his palm. When he immediately looked around, attention was gradually focusing this way. Naturally so, since it was a rare scene of a woman in attire completely unsuited to the league beating up a man much larger than herself.
"Wow, what's with that woman?"
"That concept is no joke."
Sure enough, passing participants chimed in one by one. Leonardo, frozen while grasping the situation, wondered whether he should stop the ally who had suddenly appeared.
That bizarre skull ornament that seemed like it could summon Satan, along with the dress at the height of splendor, was clearly the attire Beatrice always insisted on. Though he didn't know where she had been hiding until now, from the circumstances it seemed she had stepped forward because of him... but the problem was his anxiety that if he acted familiar here, he might be caught up in the center of attention again.
"What do you think you're doing there?"
"Fighting outside the arena is prohibited!"
Just then, the league operations staff who had been controlling the crowd noticed the commotion and warned from a distance. However, Beatrice didn't stop. With an expression that said she had caught them perfectly, she only focused on assaulting the man by swinging the doll like a boomerang. Her movements of spreading her legs shoulder-width apart and swinging her arms showed this wasn't her first or second time.
Since she was someone who didn't welcome the midday sunlight, the hollow gleam in her eyes covered by the wide hat brim shone particularly hysterically today.
"Th-this crazy woman!"
The man who had suddenly become an official weakling before everyone desperately tried to resist, but as if the doll contained rocks, each time the woman struck down, he repeatedly collapsed helplessly under the heavy impact. Then, a mediator appeared before them.
"Hey, Belle."
A massive build large enough to swallow the shadows of both causing the disturbance. A figure who had caught the slender wrist wielding the weapon stopped Beatrice.
"Want to be eliminated before even getting to the preliminaries? Do it in moderation."
"That bastard keeps yapping! I'm replacing Leo, mmph!"
A rough, crude palm blocked red lips contrasting with pale skin. Beatrice's cheeks distorted concavely. Even so, for company accompanying a gorgeous lady, it was quite rough handling.
"Don't cause a commotion. You didn't come to interfere."
"Aagh, you idiot! You're ruining all my makeup!"
Leonardo, hearing his name inadvertently in passing, hid his shock and stepped back several paces. The massive build's identity was Gillian. Another Libertas business partner, the man of monstrous strength who loved wine.
'Why is that guy here too?'
Meeting two welcome faces in an unexpected place, Leonardo inwardly feared several more might pop out following. Though he hadn't thought his business partners would leave league matters entirely to him alone, acting so openly was also unexpected. He wanted to immediately drag them away and demand what intention they had for revealing themselves in a public place and what their purpose was.
However, instead the league operations staff who had barely made it through the crowd asked the three entangled people about the situation.
"What happened?"
Worried the beaten man might say something foolish, Gillian appropriately struck first.
"Ah, this one kept glancing at her skirt and spouting nonsense about showing skills or whatever, so our Belle got angry. Though striking first was wrong, isn't the guy who couldn't control his tongue also at fault? What disgraceful behavior in a sacred arena."
"No, that's not—!"
"What, the man did something to deserve being hit."
"Why act like that after coming all the way to the test?"
"His brain must be between his legs."
At the shameless social tactic, public opinion quickly turned away from the man. Calling him trash, calling him a perverted bastard. Those who left comments one by one sent cold glares and dispersed.
"What nonsense, it's not true! How does that even become that!"
The man, looking around with a dazed expression, shouted as if wronged. He immediately grabbed the operations staff and appealed. However, they too looked at the man with distasteful gazes before soon squeezing between him and the woman called 'Belle' to keep an appropriate distance.
One of the operations staff asked Gillian, who was relatively reasonable, again.
"Thank you for the explanation. Is there no additional damage?"
"Yes, well. We're fine. As you can see, this young lady has quite a fiery personality."
"Then that's fortunate. There will be no disadvantages, but could you please state the participant numbers and league aliases issued at registration? You two are together, right?"
"Why that?"
It was Beatrice who asked back sharply. Her displeasure was clearly evident even without saying so in words. The official, sensing difficult energy from the short answer, responded calmly as if worried about provoking her.
"Since it's our job to grasp and handle issues between participants inside and outside the arena. We ask for your cooperation."
Gillian grabbed Beatrice's shoulder and pulled her back as if telling her not to step forward. Then he answered with a hearty smile.
"This one is Belle, participant number D67-314. Do you need mine too?"
"Yes, we'd appreciate it if you'd tell us."
Around then, Gillian's eyes rolled sideways briefly. The end of his gaze directed toward Leonardo, who stood behind a pillar watching the situation.
Gillian's eyes folded long, then he blinked one eyelid quickly. Though a brief moment, it was an unmistakably clear signal to Leonardo. That they had come to help him for their purpose.
"I'm participant number D67-808. Alias is Beast."
Leonardo raised his palm to rub his face. The participants assembled here today had gathered to compete in the Part 2 test match. In other words, appearing openly with participant numbers and aliases meant they had already passed the previous Part 1 match.
'These bastards don't even share information anymore.'
Though they couldn't meet face-to-face due to their respective work, there would have been sufficient ways to convey words. The fact he hadn't known until now meant they had deliberately hidden their participation. Somehow it felt like the baggage 5 and 6 he had tried to avoid had finally been added.
'Of anyone else, Beatrice is hard to control. She's too conspicuous too.'
Should he at least be grateful that Gillian came along to play the sedative role? Leonardo swallowed the sigh trying to burst out.
"We'll handle this person appropriately after a few questions. Please don't step forward directly next time and report to the operations side."
The league operations staff left a simple greeting, then helped up the sprawled man and took him somewhere. The other man who appeared to be with him looked around blankly on both sides, then ran helter-skelter the moment he made eye contact with Beatrice. It was a flight as if he'd seen a mad dog.
After the situation appropriately subsided and they watched their retreating figures, Gillian scowled deeply. Soon with a fierce face, he drove away the focused attention and tapped Beatrice's forearm.
"I told you not to step forward on your own."
"Annoying, Morbang's clothes got dirty."
"You're the one who did that."
Beatrice adjusted her hat as if nothing had happened, then picked up the doll and hugged it tightly to her chest. Since Morbang was much taller, his drooping feet were already dragging on the ground. The shoes clumsily stitched together were thoroughly dirtied with dust and bloodstains.
"Judy said she won't remove stains anymore."
"Don't say the kids' names here. Do it one more time and I'll just knock you out and drag you around?"
"How can you say such violent things to a lady? As expected of a beast."
When the two were bickering, a shadow that had been loitering nearby slyly poked its head in. It approached toward the two obviously extraordinary people, clapping hands.
"Kya, beautiful lady, reliable big brother—. I saw that cool appearance of subduing the ruffian well!"
Leonardo doubted his eyes, then his ears for a moment. It was a familiar voice and fawning manner of speaking.
"If it's okay, would you like to join hands with us? Having more collaborators is more advantageous until the main tournament!"
Additionally, it was something he had heard many times somewhere. The meaningless pistol attached at the waist, the footwork that looked completely light, turned around as is.
Ero, smiling broadly, waved his hand vigorously at Leonardo.
"Isn't that right, big brother?"