Granny Qi contemplated the whole story. “Youngsters these days - behaving like that after a loss! They should be exiled from the city for such behavior. Weren’t they prosecuted at least?”

  “They’re the governor’s son so no…” I said. All I heard was that they were barred from these tournaments in the future as well, but nothing beyond that. That seemed like nothing much beyond a slap on the wrist compared to the outrage the incident had initially caused. Granted, I had only been in this world a short while and wasn’t certain what the appropriate punishment for something like this would be. When I told Granny Qi about it though, it was clear from her expression that this was, indeed, inadequate in her mind.

  Yet another reminder that this world wasn’t that different when compared to Earth, I thought bitterly.

  “Must’ve been the younger one, the older one has more brains than that - or so I’ve heard,” Granny Qi said. “Still, you shouldn’t worry about things like that - people aren’t going to attack you even if you win. And regardless of what position they have - governor’s son or not, don’t hesitate to serve them up on a platter if you’re up against them!”

  I nodded. I hadn’t been worried about that whatsoever, but at least I had given Granny Qi some sort of satisfactory explanation as to why I was kind of off-balance.

  The next day I headed out to my fourth match. Technically speaking, I could’ve just forfeited the next two matches given that I had won and used the time for something else - but I decided against doing something like that. What was I even going to use all that extra time for anyway?

  Not to mention it was a chance to practice more. I had won the last three matches without any issues, but the competition would only get fiercer in the next round.

  Had my victories been just a fluke? There was only one way to resolve both of these issues: to get better, and to reassure myself that I wasn’t just getting lucky.

  To keep on competing!

  My opponent this time was a human and the referee was a lizardman.

  We did the usual ritual of shaking hands and the referee took out a piece of paper that said, “Garden.”

  “Huh-!” both the referee and my opponent let out sounds of shock as I had already started writing.

  The fact that I was already guaranteed to get into the next round meant that I could be more reckless during these matches, and I just decided to go with what first came to mind.

  Back in elementary school, we had a school garden that I had been a part of taking care of. Memories flowed onto the paper - of slowly watching those seeds grow, of hours spent with hands handling soil, of watering plants, of worrying whether they got enough sunlight or not. All of this culminated in the joy of seeing the plants blossom in the spring.

  The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

  I had taken a few of the tomatoes back home, and I remembered my mother making… something with them. Had it been a sandwich? A salad? Or had she just made it into a sauce? Whatever it was, it tasted amazing - that much I did remember.

  I wrote without stopping for even an instant, and as I was done, the bright blue light turned green signifying yet another victory.

  My opponent was struggling - he had barely gotten three paragraphs out, and as he realized that I had already finished he dropped his brush and then pointed a finger at me. “He’s cheating!”

  “Eh?” I said.

  When he had stopped writing, I thought the guy was going to concede. His accusation threw me for a loop, because I knew I hadn’t done anything against the rules.

  “Excuse me?” the referee asked.

  “He started writing without even hesitating!” my opponent said. “That was clearly done on purpose to throw me off!”

  The referee shook his head. “Please do not throw around meaningless accusations. He did not do anything against the rules. Do you wish to concede?”

  The man opened and closed his mouth several times - clearly wanting to say something.

  However, whatever he said next must’ve been nothing more than gibberish in his own language because for once, what I heard matched his lip movements exactly and was not translated into English. Eventually he just said, “...I concede.”

  He shook my hand none too gently afterwards as I wished him luck and thanked him for the match.

  With that, I was done and had changed my mind.

  I was not going to participate in the fifth match, and let the organizers know I was basically conceding that one.

  Competition was good, but this had gotten to the point where it was no longer fun. Sure, winning another round could be seen as being unnecessary given I was given someone else another loss, but there were only going to be sixteen people at most advancing to the next round. If there were more, there’d be extra rounds just to weed other people out.

  So from that point of view I wasn’t really doing much wrong.

  I guess some people wouldn’t see it that way though. Starting out the moment the referee finished the word would no doubt unnerve the other guy - and he likely felt pressured to start his own grimoire as fast as he could, only to find out midway that it wasn’t going as he had planned and was forced to give up.

  Some people would take the fact that I was still playing to win as a sign of me bullying others unnecessarily, and I didn’t want that. Not after what happened yesterday. People can do all sorts of things when they are riled up.

  The grimoire I had made gave a passive ability called [Green Thumb] which I already had a grimoire for, so it was an easy decision to sell it.

  Since I wasn’t going to the fifth match, I now had time to kill that evening. There were plenty of other things I could’ve done, but a lot of them required me to go outside the city walls. And after my experience with the zoo, I didn’t want to go back anywhere near that place.

  Instead I went and saw another play. This one was about a famous romance story in this world, in which a man fell in love with a spirit that resided in a doll. Eventually, the man was going to pass away from an incurable disease, but found a way to turn himself into a doll as well, meaning they ended up together as two magical dolls.

  By the time that was done, the sun was setting already and the only thing to do was to await the next round tomorrow - when things would get serious.