Nateaser: Reborn As My Love Interest

Princess - Ch. 90

"You're next!"

The double doors flung open to reveal the huge arena. The guards dragged out the losers, but not all of them survived. I shook inside my boots and squeezed the spear, so hard that my fingers lost their color.

"Come on, head in!" The slaver shoved me inside as the crowd was cheering. I barely managed to stop and took a deep breath, before venturing further. I visited one of these places near my home in Sanctuary, but Papa decided to close them long ago.

The matches seemed brutal but I enjoyed them, though participating was a different matter. At least I knew the rules. Beginners bored the audience, so ten or twenty fought a free-for-all. They usually came as slaves, criminals, or volunteers and the winners became proper gladiators.

Those fought proper duels, or maybe team matches, the rest got thrown back into another newbie match if they survived. I assumed the Sea People played by the same rules, because all the doors that led into the arena remained open, and a person stood at every one of them.

"Calm down, Child. Let them kill each other first." I heard the voice in my head. I freaked out the first time she talked to me, but it offered working bits of advice. My seer ability worked similarly, except I saw images in my dreams, and it was up to me to find their meaning.

If I heard a voice instead, then what? I spent the last few days in solitary confinement and prayed more than ever. I trained as much as possible to please Cath, even if they separated us... But alone in a cell, with nobody to talk to, I nearly lost my mind. So I prayed to all the gods that came to mind, and thanks to the single voice who answered, I managed to keep my sanity.

"Okay, keep focused though, don't lose yourself in your thoughts, or someone might sneak up on you." I heard it again, the calm and collected voice of a woman. She often argued with me about how to continue my training, or what to expect in the future.

"Fine, I'm not that stupid, okay?" I mumbled to myself. I held my spear in front of me and looked around with caution. I never trained with the thing, let alone fight. I used the paladin's very hefty falchion for practice, and she also introduced me to hand-to-hand combat. But spears fell far outside of my expertise.

"Don't worry, they gave you a decent weapon." The voice tried to comfort me. My weapon reached far at least, while I pointed it forward, it made me hard to approach. "Correct, now keep your head up."

"You read my mind, or something?" I complained, walking towards the center of the arena. The question felt dumb if I considered that the voice came from inside my mind, but the scale of this place quickly made me forget about her. A huge crowd gathered to fill the elevated grandstand and cheered loudly for the participants.

They sat too far away to see clearly, but I recognized a few newbies' faces from the vast palace garden, the guys that remained until the end like the paladin and me. They weren't the only ones forced to fight for the audience, the arena was full of fighters.

"See, your paladin friend came too, she stands right at the other end." The voice claimed before I spotted her on my own. I concluded that she didn't use my senses even though she lived inside my head. "I'm not inside your head, you stupid girl. And I told you to focus, right?"

"I need to reach her..." I mumbled, unsure if I talked to the voice or myself. I observed the huge, round fighting compartment. Everyone stood near the walls so if I sprinted straight across, reaching the paladin before the others caught me seemed possible. For now, nobody moved. I noticed the bloodthirsty, scared, or bored glances in every direction, then saw a pompous figure rise in one of the balconies and open their arms wide.

"Let the second match of the evening start!" He shouted out into the crowd, and they celebrated. "May we discover a real gem hidden among the beginners this evening!"