I Became a Gladiator in the World of Gender Reversal

37 – Breaking the Illusion-8

“It must have been him…”

Standing on top of the ring, I was looking at my enemy’s face.

She looked like a young lady. When I first saw it, I couldn’t even think of it as a gladiator’s appearance, and that is still the case now.

Rapier. It is a long, pointed sword held in one hand.

Holding it in her right hand and posing in a stylish way, she looked more like a modern duelist than a gladiator.

There was no proper armor. It’s just a dress that’s close to a formal dress that’s only slightly exposed.

“Waaa!!!”

The shouts that I thought would have diminished a bit with my defeat, showed no sign of that at all.

The crowds that filled this vast Colosseum were still cheering me on.

“Hmm…”

“The player who came out this time is… Evan! He is the only man in this Coliseum, including the audience seats!”

As the voice of the host, amplified by magic, rang through the Colosseum, the shouts grew louder.

“Although he was narrowly defeated in the last fight, he was a gladiator who showed tremendous fighting spirit and skill even then!”

It was excessive packaging. I wanted to refute it, but thinking about it, I couldn’t help but pack it as a weak gladiator.

All you have to do is win. You just have to fight and win to prove that the packaging wasn’t a lie.

“And that opponent… She went uphill from a young age and personally defeated bandits and bullies who stood in her way! The second daughter of the Ivrea family, who had a reputation as a master of dueling in the social world! This is Miss Florence Ivrea! “

Her cheers were heard in her ears as she managed to cheer her up, although it was far less than what she poured out on me.

“Ji, are you really Yvrea?”

“No, some kind of aristocrat comes out to fight… Usually at that age, don’t you go out to meet men?”

“It’s a bit different, but I met a guy anyway…”

However, no matter who the opponent was, there was no reason for me to be shaken. Like Dana said, as long as I’m a man, there’s no reason to worry about the other person’s status.

“Then the game… Let’s begin!”

The fight has begun. I took a few steps forward and observed her posture.

She is in a bent position, slightly extending one leg forward.

“Hmm…”

I had to stop and position her from a farther distance than I thought.

Longer than expected. The rapier is a stabbing weapon, and even the tip of the sword can deliver an effective blow.

“I heard that you enjoy sword fighting. But… In a place like this, aren’t you lonely?”

“…Suddenly?”

Concentration is broken. Desperately analyzing her, I relaxed for a moment at the words of her gladiator in her blonde drilled hair.

“Certainly, depending on his taste, there may be men who enjoy this rough place, but isn’t it a difficult place to find a decent woman?”

There was no reason to say this. Looking at her face for a while and anticipating my intentions, I came up with the most likely interpretation. It was psychological warfare.

I knew that there were times when the gladiators engaged in psychological warfare with each other if they weren’t on good terms or if they were too close.

“…Aha.”

This, too, would be a kind of trash talking. Because men in this world had a tendency to twist things around or listen to them.

Perhaps the gladiator in front of me spoke to her thinking that I would feel ‘like a normal man’ by her words.

“Hmm…”

So this might contain the meaning of provocation against me. Since the narrator was a beautiful young gladiator, you will hear this straight away.

So it’s kind of like, ‘You used your fist and got kicked out of Selam, so you’re stuck among gladiators with low status and no money?’ It seemed like an indirect accusation was thrown.

In that case, I had to respond coolly. Since it was a joke anyway, I thought it would be okay if I stopped talking.

“Well, how is it? There are so many women here.”

I took her a few steps back to increase the distance between her and her, then looked back at her audience and waved her sword.

“Kyaaa!!!”

I felt like a celebrity. A deafening scream filled the arena.

Everyone must have been listening to her conversations that I told her and she told me.

I don’t know what kind of magic they used, but when I was in the audience, I could hear gladiators fighting and talking.

While looking at the audience, I glanced sideways to see Florence’s reaction.

I thought that if I exposed her gaps a little, she would pounce on me. However, she did not move.

“But… I don’t think he’s someone you can seriously date.”

“…”

I frowned a little.

Florence naturally posed, but she didn’t seem to have any intention of stabbing me.

“What were you thinking when you said that…”

Maybe, my prediction was wrong.

She looked at me with her eyes straight, it was beautiful. But that was it.

This is my job. Standing in the ring, I am sincere.

It’s not just about making money. I didn’t stand on the ring to wave my hand once to the audience, swing my sword moderately, and then go back.

“I don’t have a lot of money from going up, and I must be much more educated than the other girls here. Please allow me to meet you briefly…”

I realized. This is not a provocation.

Florence, the gladiator standing in front of me, is only here to meet me.

Strength goes into the hand holding the sword.

Will she feel resentment for losing to me?

It didn’t seem like it. It seemed that meeting me was more important than winning or losing this fight.

I lost to Marie and couldn’t contain my anger. For several nights, in a fit of rage, he kicked the covers.

“Haa…”

If she beats me, will she feel joy there?

It was not necessarily the winner who had to feel the excitement and joy. Because there were fights where the difference in skills was so great that I couldn’t even feel the excitement.

But, really, if she took it for granted after defeating me for that reason, then it was no big deal.

I felt like I couldn’t stand it. At least because I was serious about sword fighting.

It seemed that there was no need to continue the conversation. I grabbed her sword and her shield and ran towards her.

“You’re reckless!”

Her rapier blocked my advance. Also, the range is long.

“Kuk!”

Her shield blocked her fierce stabs. Her shock wasn’t small, but the shock coming from that thin, pointed blade wasn’t huge.

If you spill it with a shield, it is at a level that can easily be blocked.

“Oh ho ho ho!”

Florence’s laughing sound irritated me. But, it also meant that she could afford to make her laugh even as I blocked her rush of mine.

Her sword, which was light and fast, lacked the amount of impact, but was also quick to retrieve.

Once the rapier was blocked by her shield, she quickly disappeared behind and then again aimed at my leg.

“Kuk!”

The balance is slightly off. However, it was not fatal.

The iron armor he was wearing on his legs was excellent at defending even rapier attacks.

“Ha!”

However, that wasn’t the end either. Her sword, which slightly turned, pierced the gap in her armor again.

“Kuh…”

I also trained to endure pain. I screamed right away and didn’t stop.

However, she backed back just a little bit and couldn’t avoid her stabbing me in the stomach again.

“Suck!”

This was blocked by her armor. The impact could not be prevented, but it was not fatal.

Still, I had no choice but to back down. I stopped charging and took a step back, but her rapier, which took a very slight step forward, aimed at my weak point again.

I slightly bent her wrist and aimed for my hand. It was difficult to slash with a sword or avoid it.

“Chit…”

She raised her arm to the side, blocking the attack with her wrist guard.

It was a shock enough to withstand if it was a shield or breastplate, but it was not a shock enough to withstand with just one arm, even if it was wearing armor. My arm was numb.

Florence’s attack continued without a break.

There is no time to rest. As if being a duelist wasn’t a lie, her spacing control was artistic.

Most of the attacks were blocked by my armor, but nevertheless, if I stabbed four or five times in a row, one of them was able to penetrate the gap in the armor.

No matter how many steps I took, no matter how many steps I ran, Florence’s sword was barely within reach of my body.

Nor was it all about simply keeping a distance. Rather, when I attacked, he took a step forward and seized the opportunity to attack with his rapier.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry! It’s a sword fight… But to make a man’s body bleed…”

Even under that circumstance, Florence did not take sword fighting seriously.

Her interest was not in winning. Her fact that I was a man, that she had hurt me, was more important to her.

“f*ck…”

“Now, you must be wrong!”

She left her rapier and came running towards me without warning.

“…Hold up the sword.”

I backed her up a bit to keep her distance, then I gave her a growl as I stared right at her.

“Yes?”

“Hold straight up. Rapier.”

In fact, you couldn’t say that she was an undesirable person.

If you call it a sword fight, it’s nothing more than a fight. Like me, she might be more of a full-blown human being than a human who is overly obsessed with sword fighting.

Even so, this is the Colosseum. It is a space where people like me should exist.

“Unconditionally… Win.”

She gripped her sword tightly, full of her hostility toward her.