「We can’t find Dufour and his party too」

「You can’t find Dufour?」

「Yes. We’re going to ask them to help us, but it looks like they’ve left the inn, truly the worst!… What a pathetic thing to do after losing just once!」

It seems that Dufour and his party had quickly left Ulmut after losing to Fran.

While we’re having such a conversation with Naria, a presence suddenly caught my attention. They seem to be watching us from the roof of a nearby building.

(Master?)

『…Urushi, can you check on the fellow on the roof?』

(Woof!)

『Fran will take care the one in the alley over there』

(Okay)

I caught three presences with bloodlust lurking around. But the fact that I can detect them this easily suggests that they are not that skilled.

「Sensei. I somehow felt a strange presence…」

「Shh. I know, so keep talking like before」

「U-understood」

It seems that they really are just a small fry since even Naria can feel their presence.

『Yosh, let’s get them!』

「Nn!」

「Woof!」

With my thunderbolt magic as a signal, Fran and Urushi teleported and immediately caught their respective target.

As I thought, they were not that strong, and were easily defeated by Fran and Urushi.

Naria looks surprised to see Fran, who has suddenly unleashed her magic, came back dragging a person with her.

「Eh? Umm, sensei?」

「 These guys are assassins, maybe」

「M-maybe?」

「Nn. They’re after me」

Naria twitches her face from hearing that. I guess she must think that it was a bit excessive to knock them before confirming it.

For now, we decided to go into an alley to interrogate them.

We healed the guy I paralyzed, intimidate him, break his heart, and then ask him some questions.

「Why did you guys target me?」

「I-it’s a request from someone!」

The assassin blabbed on their request.

As it turned out, he was just a novice assassin hired for cheap by some nobleman.

『Let’s just take them to the adventurer’s guild for now』

(Okay)

I could guess a few reasons for them to target Fran. She is a celebrity after all. It could even be about some kind of illegal betting on the martial arts tournament too.

The possibility of them being a lackey of the other participants who has remained so far is unlikely, but there are endless of other possibilities.

As we dragged the assassins to the Adventurers’ Guild, we found out that there seems to be a commotion here.

To our surprise, we heard that Diaz got attacked too. Could it be that they’re targeting the semifinalist?

「Ara? Fran-chan!」

「Elsa. Here, take them」

「Who are they?」

「Assassins」

「Fran-chan too? Got it! I’ll properly take care of them」

「Nn」

「Put them in jail!」

For some reason, Elsa licked her lips when Fran hands over the assassin and ordered the adventurers to pull them up.

「This is getting serious. We have to send personnel to check on Hiltoria-sama and Neidhart-sama as well…」

「Good luck」

「Having Fran-chan cheering for me gives me a million times more motivation! I’ll do my best!」

But still, this year’s martial arts tournament is sure full of troubles.

Spies from Raidos, undead outbreak, nobles from the Kingdom of Shallus, assassination attempt.

They said they are short on security personnel. I wonder will they be able to handle this situation.

Anyway, we’ll have to rest up for our next match tomorrow.