Chapter 69: Tournament Day 2 (Part 1)

[So how are you holding up? Nervous about your fight?] - Malaise

[Uwaaa! W-What was that? I didn't catch it...] - Rose

[I was asking if you were nervous about the fight but from the look on your face I'd guess the fight is the last thing on your mind.] - Malaise

Malaise was right of course. After Loki had left last night she'd delivered a stirring speech to her best friend to cheer her up only to be surprised by a sudden kiss. She knew of course that Karen was attracted to women and that she was pretty firmly in her strike zone but the kiss didn't seem to be one filled with such superficial feelings. Instead it seemed more like...

No! No no no! Karen broke up with you remember?!? Sure you never really stopped loving her even after that but you'd accepted that she wasn't into you years ago! Right? Right?!?

These and many other thoughts had raced through her mind the entire night before, causing her to be exhausted once morning came. After Annabelle had let them know of Lady Arbor's condition they'd visited her briefly but it seemed that while they were able to neutralize Karen's slime the damage it had already done would require weeks or even months of rehabilitation and the Dryad, exhausted from the pain she'd been in, was unresponsive to their visit. Rose, even in her distracted and frantic state, had noticed the slight deflation Karen had gone through with the news that she wouldn't be able to apologize to the woman she felt she'd wrongly injured greatly. She could tell that the guilt was still there but it seemed that she was handling it for now.

Which is what led to now with an exhausted and daydreaming Rose that was supposedly preparing for her first battle in this Tournament. By all rights she should have been nervous or at least apprehensive about the coming fight but her focus was almost entirely on her inner turmoil. Logic, for his part, just sighed audibly at his Master's state, annoyed but understanding from the fragmented memories he owned on his side. Luckily it seemed this distraction was doing a world of good in containing Her though so it wasn't all bad news. He just wished his new "Goddess" would pull herself together, but knowing her personality he knew it would take a bit of time for that. Hopefully she get it together before she faced a truly tough opponent though.

[Huh? Oh yeah the fight... I guess I'll just take whatever comes up in stride. It's not like I could have prepared any more than I already ha-] - Rose

[Actually Young Miss I believe I can change that assessment. Here.] - Annabelle

[These are?] - Rose

[Gauntlet's, designed with help from Sherwall as well as Dwarven Artificer's. It was actually meant to be a gift for your upcoming birthday but due to the situation your Parents decided it would be better to treat it as a gift for your return.] - Annabelle

[B-Beautiful!] - Rose

Receiving a pair of metal gauntlets from Annabelle I gasped at the quality of the craftsmanship. Covered in depictions of grape vines as well as our family crest the sleek lines of the gauntlets glimmered brightly in the sunlight that streamed through a small slit in the preparation room's wall. Turning the artistic masterpieces over I noticed that they seemed similar in design to a Goth Loli dress I'd worn previously, looking like they'd fit that dress perfectly in fact. The black and silver highlights seeming to call to her.

Suddenly feeling a premonition of horror that broke through her mesmerized gaze she stiffly turned to see a mischievous grin on the face of her trusted maid. That would normally have stood out to her, instead what drew her eyes was the parcel in her hands that looked suspiciously like said Goth Loli dress.

[No. No no no no no!] - Rose

[Ara Ara is the Young Miss upset with the gift we so desperately went out of our way to design for you? Fufufufu!] - Annabelle

[Ahhhhhh!] - Rose

I'd like to say I put up a good fight against the assault of cute I was subjected to. I'd love to say that. At the very least my perturbed mind no longer focused on anything other than the embarrassment of what I went through, forgetting for at least a little bit my anxiety. One wouldn't have been able to say if that was a certain grinning maid's reason though or if she just enjoyed dressing up her Young Miss.

[Uwu.... Why'd I have to go out like this? I mean yeah it looks adorable but it's so embarrassing...] - Rose

[Umm....? Are we gonna fight now or...?] - Lord Kars de la Forde

[Oh right, well whenever I guess...] - Rose

Rose was a bit shell-shocked from the past few hours. She was sure that when she first was reborn she hated being treated like a dress-up doll with a fiery burning passion. She thought about the first time it had happened and how hard she'd fought against it. But somehow, over the years, she'd come to enjoy the end product more and more and as a consequence while she'd complain about the process she was becoming more and more tolerant of it. She'd even found herself thinking that all the trouble was worth it if she could look this good after it was over. That thought, coming out of nowhere, had caused her to stiffen up in surprise which made it even easier for Annabelle to finish up her presentation. Her appearance immaculate in it's ephemeral beauty.

And then. Just when she'd started to get used to her new outfit she'd been called to the Arena for her match. The long, dark hall had felt fairly typical, reminded her of O*livion actually funny enough. She almost expected some dude wielding a giant green glass hammer to come out of nowhere. What she didn't expect is the crowd, rowdy with excitement from the anticipation of the fights to come, to instantly go silent with her appearance, seemingly mesmerized by her beauty. She didn't realize that however in her mindset and the only thing that came to mind when they went silent like that was that she somehow looked weird, maybe her dress was strange?

Because of that she even missed the introduction from that Judico guy and her opponent, apparently following some knightly code, didn't try to take advantage of her distraction. Rose shook her head slightly to dispel her circling thoughts and focused on the opponent in front of her. Dressed in full plate-mail and wielding a hammer she nearly choked on her spit when she realized the internet meme she remembered from her previous childhood was literally standing right in front of her. Dude was decked out in metal armor and a giant godsdamn hammer, he couldn't look more like a guy from E*der Sc*olls if he tried. Next he was gonna tell her he used to be an Adventurer like me but then he took an arrow to the knee or something like that. Damn that's a bit funny.

Struggling to keep a smile off her face as she faced off with him she noticed that his aura subtly changed as he got ready to start, he still seemed to be allowing her to ready herself however.

[Well I guess we can start then? Sorry for the wait.] - Rose

[Pay it no mind Lady Amchier, this lowly servant is happy to wait as long as needed for her ladyship to ready herself.] - Lord Kars de la Forde

[Pfft! <cough cough> R-Right...] - Rose

[I take it that you are ready?] - Lord Kars de la Forde

[Y-Yeah.] - Rose

[Well then here I co-!] - Lord Kars de la Forde

[Huh?] - Rose

[Huh?] - Everyone

It was over. In the span of a few seconds the battle had ended and she wasn't quite sure why. It had started like she had expected with her opponent rushing towards her only for her to notice that his speed was far too slow and she, thinking it was some trick, had thrown a light backhand towards the man's left side only for both his armor and body to crumple immediately and instead of dodging like she expected he was instead embedded into the far wall of the Arena, only the barrier keeping him from dying instantly. Even the crowd was in shock from this turn of events, letting out a collective gasp of surprise at the Goth Loli that had just bounced a fully grown man off a wall nearly 100 feet from where she stood. Sure she was large bodied because of her race but she still had a loli body-type so this result was shocking to say the least. Even the Announcer took a few seconds to recover from shock to announce her win as Rose dazedly left the Arena, still in shock over how easy it had been.

[Holy shit Aus- I mean Rose! That was badass! Oh! And those gauntlet's! I want some!] - Karen

[R-Right.] - Rose

[I must apologize Miss Karen I doubt your... body-type would be able to wear most clothing let alone weapons of such weight.] - Annabelle

[Oh damn... I forgot. Well whatever! Anyways that was so freaking awesome! Was that the result of your training?!?] - Karen

[Why don't you calm down you lovebirds, the next fight is coming up so we should probably pay attention.] - Malaise

[Hey Mal! Why'd you interrupt them?!? I wanted to watch some more!] - Veronica

[...interrupted...] - Shade

I didn't know what to do, somehow after winning my first battle with nearly no effort at all I returned to my VIP box to find myself immediately tackled by a purple slime girl. The object of my past affection and my current problem. I didn't know where to look. Before, I'd noticed that she was basically always naked but the nonchalant way she'd held herself in all the time and the mundaneness of seeing a female body had made me mostly ignore it previously. Now however? I couldn't keep my eyes from wandering around in my skull, tracing her curves and the slight swell of her translucent breasts. It was stimulating, overwhelmingly so.

What's worse is that I even saw a flash of a smile on my maid's face out of the corner of my eyes who then called attention to the fact that shed noticed exactly what I was looking at. Blushing red at the thought that I was that transparent I felt my brain overheating when Malaise followed up Annabelle's teasing with her own brand as well. On top of that even Shade joined in with an enthusiastic glimmer in her eyes even as her face stayed expressionless.

[Uwu... A-Anyway who's up next?!?] - Rose

[Right Young Miss, we can certainly gloss right over your wandering eyes. Up next is a Knight by the name of Lance against a preliminary winner named CuCuthain wielding a lance of some kind.] - Annabelle

[Wandering eyes?] - Karen

[I-Ignore them! Why don't we pay attention to the next fighters since one of them will be my opponent!] - Rose

[Sure?] - Karen

[Uwah! It's so cute! I want in!!! OW!] - Veronica

[Down! No interrupting!] - Malaise

[...] - Shade

Feeling a painful tightening in my chest at the cutely tilted head of the slime girl I had long since realized I still had feelings for I barely kept myself from jumping her right then and there. Only the awkwardness of my body stopping me from doing so. I had never felt so grateful for my newfound embarrassment when it came to sex than I did in that moment.

My friends, watching the two of us with warm eyes, whispered among themselves in voices just loud enough for me to catch them and while I had my back to them I heard the hard thud of a book impacting bone and realized that a very common scene was happening right behind me. The knowledge that they were the same as always relaxed me and I just focused on enjoying my time with my slime girl!