Chapter 39: Prelude to War

  With the instigation of some people, my duel with Shiroyuki Kuroba is set! The time is one month later (I strongly requested it to be one month later), and the location is still the Grand Colosseum! The king, in order to show his dissatisfaction towards me, immediately placed a 100,000 gold coin bet on me losing! However, he soon regretted this decision that didn't go through his brain!

  "Oh! Your Majesty!" Ishihara Kuma spoke with a nauseating tone: "Your wisdom is comparable to that of the gods! We will definitely not disappoint you!"

  "Yes! Your Majesty! I will definitely win!" Shiroyama Jirō was also excited and didn't know east, south, west or north.

  "Your Majesty, since you have enough money to gamble away 100,000 gold coins at will! Then, next year's expenses in the palace will be reduced by 50%!" The queen said coldly.

  According to the regulations of the kingdom, the queen is in charge of the king's private expenses, including the cost of the king's clothing, banquets and entertainment.

  "Oh no! My dear!" The king was about to make excuses

  His mother interrupted him and said: "I want to know if you have any opinions about our family's children?"

  "Oh no! Not at all!" The king hastily said: "I just thought he had a slim chance of winning, so I might as well make a couple of small bets on the side!"

  "Has Kuma Nishihara's odds been decided yet?" His mother didn't respond to him and asked Kuma Nishihara instead.

  "This is it! You win 1 lose 3, I win 1 lose 1.5! Do you think that's fair?" Ishihara Kumaji said with a smile.

  "Alright, I'll give you 1,000 yuan!" After saying that, the mother said to the king: "If you keep being so shortsighted, you will go bankrupt soon!"

  My mother took me away like this! I know she's very angry and the consequences are severe!

  At that time, everyone was shocked by Mother's 1000W brush. Even the king forgot to explain things to the queen!

  "Is she pressing 1000 watts?" The king asked Ishihara Koji

  "It seems so!" Ishihara Kuma also started to feel dizzy!

  "Where did she get so much money? This is enough for two legions' annual military expenses!"

  "Oh! I'm not too sure either!" Ishihara Kuma said with a wry smile

  "Can you really win?" The king began to doubt his own judgment.

  "To be honest, Your Majesty! I'm also starting to lose confidence now!"

  "I will definitely win, Your Majesty can rest assured!" said Ishihara Niwolf firmly.

  "Alright, everyone can go back now. The result will be out tomorrow afternoon!" The king obviously didn't have confidence in him anymore. After all, my mother was known for her shrewd mind, how could she joke about a fortune of 1000W? The more the king thought about it, the less confident he became.

  Back home, my parents took me to see Grandpa. After listening to Mother's account, Grandpa was furious: "Those damned bastards from the Ishihara family are getting more and more outrageous!"

  "Right!" Mom also angrily said: "Xiao Wu! This time you must use 'Angry Dragon's Roar' to shoot that bastard to death!"

  "It's tough!" The poor Taoist said with a heavy heart.

  "Why?" Mom said strangely

  "This time he definitely won't dare to wear the same equipment as last time, I think he'll wear light leather armor and won't ride a horse! After all, the lesson from last time was too profound!" The poor Taoist said dejectedly: "My archery skills aren't that great! As long as he's agile and moves around, he can dodge my attacks!"

  "Oh no! What's going to happen now?" Mother said

  "Bring several more crossbows and use ordinary ones to shoot a few times. When he can't dodge, use the divine artifact to shoot!" Grandfather said.

  "But the Ishihara family is skilled in assassination techniques, I wouldn't put it past him to come up with something like a smoke bomb, and that would be the end of me!"

  "Not bad! What's good to pay attention to?"

  "I'd rather have it this way—"

  The day has finally arrived, I've been looking forward to it for a whole month! The big arena is packed today! As I walk on the road, I can hear people constantly discussing.

  "How can the fifth young master of the Long family agree to not use a scroll?" said passerby A.

  "Didn't he also fail last time?" Passerby B

  "Last time's trick won't work again! I don't believe Ishihara Niou will fall for it once more. This time, the young master is definitely going to lose!"

  "It's not necessarily so, maybe there are other tricks? I believe in him, I bet on him and he wins! Let me tell you, it's because of him that I've won so much money every time!"

  "Hmph! There's always an exception to everything. I bet on the Ishihara family winning. Let's see who has the sharper eyes!"

  I'm not satisfied with this! Why am I always the target of their bets? It's all because of those scoundrels from the Ishihara family. 1 to 3, humph, I'll bet them 100 million too, that's my entire fortune, including this year's military expenses for Father. I've been waiting for this moment. The Ishihara family is really something else, last time they almost lost everything in a bet, our auction house has their stuff almost every day, but they just won't die off. In just one short year, they've recovered. This time, Mother and I will win 60 million from them, let's see if they'll finally go under! Hehe! The national budget for the entire year is only 1.2 billion gold coins, even if he wants to embezzle, he won't be able to find that much money!

  In another rest room of the big arena, Ishihara Kuma II, who had just received the news, was like an ant on a hot pot, saying to Ishihara Niō: "My young master! You mustn't lose this time! If you lose, the whole family will have to go begging for food!"

  "What's wrong, Father? Even if we lose, 3,000 yuan is still affordable for us. Have you forgotten the bets on the other side?" Shi Yuan Erlang asked strangely.

  "Just got the news, someone has bet 1 billion again! But you've only won less than 2 billion before! I must have lost my mind, how could I set such odds?! No! I shouldn't have initiated this duel!" Ishihara Kuma said with utmost regret.

  "Who did it? Isn't this deliberately making things difficult for our family?"

  "I've heard that he's one of Long Wu's bodyguards! Dammit! It seems it's still the Long family behind this. How could they possibly gather so much cash?" Ishihara Kuma said gloomily.

  "Could it be the military expenses of the Qinglong Legion?"

  "I think the Long family's liquid assets are at most 500,000 yuan, and adding the 500,000 yuan for military expenses makes it only 1 million. This should be the stake placed by Princess Ling. But the remaining 1 million is unaccounted for, could it be the old master of the Long family's savings? Are they so confident in winning? You'd better be careful!"

  "I won't lose!" Ishihara said with a grin: "Just watch me, I'll take down that stinky little brat!"

  "I hope so, you win and I'll declare you as the next heir of our household!" Ishihara Kuma said with a fierce tone.

  "Alright! It's settled then! Big brother, you go tell him!"

  "Of course! You just have a good duel then!"

  After some routine nonsense, we officially started our duel!

  My attire remains the same, a suit of formal wear, riding onto the stage with empty hands. Ishihara's armor is a deep black color, likely made from the skin of a level 7 swamp-dwelling magical beast known as 'Giant Fang Venomous Eel', offering excellent defense while being extremely lightweight, although its anti-magic properties are somewhat lacking. He also holds a light shield, which appears to be the same earth-elemental magic shield he used last time, and in his hand is... could it be?! The wind-elemental magic sword that I sold to him! What the... Is he trying to get himself killed?! Upon closer inspection, it seems this sword can still utilize two types of wind-elemental spells: 'Acceleration' and 'Wind Blade'.

  When the poor guy was feeling depressed, he had already started charging with his speed-up technique, but it wasn't very fast. He placed his shield under his chin, apparently afraid of my "Flash" technique and planning to use his shield to cover his eyes at any moment. Suddenly, he saw my hand come out, and in fright, he quickly hid his head under the shield, slowing down his body speed as well. However, he heard a burst of gasps from the surrounding audience, thinking something had changed, and hastily stopped, taking a sneak peek, and was shocked to the point of almost fainting on the spot!