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Chapter 22

The festival had started.

Everyone drink! Sing! They celebrated loudly, just as they pleased.

“They aren’t even using the stage that I made.”

I had worked so hard. But no one was even looking at it.

“It’s always like this during the day. Things don’t really get started until it’s night.”

The brother of the loser siblings, in other words, Saifo, said as he approached.

“But the night is when people test their strength. A stage made of logs would easily break!”

“Probably. Are you going to join this year, Golan?”

“Of course, not. I already have to fight all of the time. Why should I have to fight during a celebration as well!”

Every year, people would test their strength on the stage at night.

It was like an arm-wrestling tournament, and people competed to see who was the strongest.

It didn’t matter if you won or you lost. People would generally start fighting after it, and the stage would be destroyed. It was said that the stage was originally made to be used during the day, and people started fighting at night as a way of breaking it.

“Now that I think about it, I’ve never seen any shows on stage during the day.”

That had been its original purpose.

“I’ve never seen any either. I mean, I don’t think they’ve been doing them for the past several decades?”

“What?”

Wasn’t it supposed to be the main event?

By the way, this festival’s official name was ‘Lesser Demon King Melvis’s Foundation Festival.’

They used to put on a stage play about the foundation of this country. It was something that every town and village was supposed to do. But in our village, we just built the stage and called it a day.

Is that really fine?

“Isn’t this a festival that has thousands of years of history?”

“I think so. After all, King Melvis is immortal.”

Melvis was once the subordinate of Lesser High King Yamato. He was a Great Demon King back then. 

However, he was cursed during the battle against the Celestial World, and most of his power was taken away. Or such were the rumors.

No one knew for sure.

After all, Lesser Demon King Melvis was in the middle of a very long sleep.

“You know about the three who fought beside Lord Yamato, don’t you?”

I nodded. Of course, I did.

If anything, it was a wonder that a meathead like Saifo remembered it.

“Zardan the Madman, Melvis the Immortal, Bargman the Dragon King. All of them had the power of a Great Demon King.”

“Yes. But Zardan died in battle, and King Bargman died of old age.”

“So Melvis is the only one who remains. And he is still asleep.”

Nearly 4,000 years had passed since Lesser High King Yamato had fought against the Celestial World.

As an Elder Vampire, it was unknown just how long Melvis could live, but his name remained on the Tablet of Control.

Dragon King Bargman had been a unique being among the Turtle Dragon clan, and he had lived for thousands of years. Still, he wasn’t immortal, and he had died a thousand years ago.

No one knew what tribe Zardan belonged to. There were no records of that left.

Some said he was a Giant. Most likely an advanced type of Hecatoncheir.

As for Melvis, the curse had reduced his power. And now he had fallen to the lowly position of a Lesser Demon King.

As the curse was still active, it was said that it must have been an attack that the Holy King unleashed in exchange for his life.

After all, Melvis had continued to sleep ever since then.

As many were already drinking during the day, the village returned to its peaceful state by the time that the sun went down.

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    The rest of the chapter:

    All the loud people had collapsed. They would only groan if you kicked them, and they were likely to stay that way until morning.

    “So, I guess its time for the tests of strength. I have high expectations for you, Golan.”

    Saifo said as he came over.

    “Weren’t you listening to me, you loser! I’m not going to do it.”

    “Don’t worry. I thought you might say that, so I signed up for you.”

    Beka said with a smile as she appeared on my other side.

    “You did what? Damn you two. You can’t just do that without asking!”

    “Well, you were so busy setting up the stage. So my sister was trying to be helpful.”

    As always, they just couldn’t help themselves.

    I should have broken their legs and rolled them away.

    As for the test of strength on the stage, it was kind of like Sumo wrestling, where you started off by grabbing each other.

    You were allowed to punch and kick, but you would lose if you fell off of the stage. So it would be difficult to do any of that.

    As soon as you heard the signal, the pushing began.

    To be blunt, this whole thing was really just about how much mana you had. And so it was too much for me.

    “…Still, I guess I can’t run away.”

    A Commander who signs up but then disappears…

    It won’t be good for my future if people thought I ran away. Especially since I had low mana.

    However, I couldn’t see how I would win, even if I entered.

    “After all, it’s purely a battle of strength…”

    There wasn’t a lot of space for skill and technique to come into play.

    “There seem to be about 20…”

    I looked at the participants that had gathered, and they all looked strong.

    These were those who had jobs and therefore could not go to war.

    They were some of the strongest in the village and had plenty of experience.

    Every one of them on the stage was strong. And now they were going to compete. It was ridiculous.

    Apparently, they were going to choose who went against who, and they were currently waiting.

    Everyone was flexing their muscles or stretching. It was quite embarrassing to watch.

    (I know. I’ll take advantage of their meatheaded nature and finish this all at once.)

    And so I got up onto the stage and moved to the front.

    “All of you. Are you really satisfied, repeating these petty little fights over and over again?”

    I shouted loudly. Everyone fell quiet. I had succeeded in getting their attention.

    “I’ll fight all of you! If you have the courage, come and fight me!”

    The crowd roared. …They were saying something.

    As for those on the stage…they seemed enthusiastic.

    It would be one against twenty. It seemed hopeless, but it actually made things easier for me.

    (Because it meant that we didn’t start in a grapple.)

    I turned around and they all held their fists up.

    And so it would begin.

    Aikido, judo, jujutsu…karate, boxing, wrestling.

    Not just the skills I had learned up until now. But also the skills I had seen on television.

    Ever since I was reincarnated into an ogre, I’ve been training so that I could enact them.

    With this body, I wasn’t just imitating, but I was not able to make those moves a reality.

    “Come at me!!”

    And then they all jumped forward at once. Hey, I thought we were going one at a time?
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