a级黑粗大硬长爽猛出猛进

I don\'t get it… This should be the amateur leagues right? Why are there even more people as compared to the crowd from before?

The slave girl that had been guiding us all this while turned back and smiled at me as though she knew exactly what I was thinking about.

"For this particular event, there are open bets amongst the crowd as well as official brokers who would be facilitating bets and odds after watching the preliminary fights earlier. Some investors might even be looking for potential recruits or even new slave trainers to invest in."

I see…

I also realised that she explained that to us because the other contestants were also clearly wondering the same thing as me with how they were looking around the place.

One of them turned to her, "New slave trainers? But we aren\'t…"

The slave girl smiled and gestured to her, "You\'re not. But the others are."

Ah, right. I wasn\'t really paying attention to the other winners but there were some of them that were clearly people who had brought actual slaves along to this competition.

I mean… It\'s kind of obvious when the leader was dressed in nice clothes unsuitable for combat while the slaves were the only ones dressed for combat.

Eh? Why did so many of them suddenly turn to look at me? Do I have something on my face?

Oh wait… No, no, no… I\'m one of you guys too! I\'m not a slave trainer!

Ugh… I didn\'t even realise that I match that description until now…

Oh whatever, I doubt anyone would approach me because of that anyway… And even if they did, it doesn\'t really matter.

Another announcer stepped up onto the stage and his magically enhanced voice echoed around the arena.

"Good evening dear guests! It\'s now the moment you\'ve been waiting for! May I present to you today\'s batch of up and coming slave trainers and their slaves!"

That was our cue to step onto the stage and we arranged ourselves into columns where the leaders stood at the front with their team behind them.

Several slaves then came up after us holding boards that had our team\'s number written on them to stand at the very back of each team.

That was when an uproar spread across the arena.

"What the hell?! Why is the payout on that team so damn low?!"

"This must be a joke right?"

"I bet they got the numbers mixed up!"

"What kind of odds are these?!"

"How can that team have a one point zero, zero, one odds?! I need to bet one thousand Creas just to get one Crea if they win?! This is bullshit!"

Oh wow, I wonder which team has those betting odds?

Kidding, I already knew they were talking about us since I expected something like this after we made such a big killing in the preliminary matches.

I mean… We bet on ourselves for every round so in total we took back more than twenty thousand Creas in total from betting on ourselves after all. I would be more surprised if we were still getting good returns on our odds.

It took a while for the audience to calm down, ignoring the fact that there were still a few who were obviously still dissatisfied at the odds but could not do anything about it.

I could even hear the cries coming from some of them saying that they should have just gone to the preliminaries instead.

And once they calmed down, some of them started to question why my odds were so skewed. A few even guessed that I may have been planted by the organisers for some reason.

The announcer quickly regained control over the crowd by speaking again, "Ladies and gentlemen! The tournament shall begin shortly! For those interested in making a bet on who would be the winner, the betting pool will remain open until the start of the final round so there is no need to rush! For the very first round, we shall be having team number eight and team number twenty four remain here!"

The rest of us made our way down the stage and back to the waiting room again.

I noticed that there were still a number of slaves remaining inside the room and a few of the contestants immediately approached them and started to get frisky again.

Wow, really? Well… It\'s your choice I guess…

I then realised there was a new board that had been placed near the door where it wasn\'t there before.

We went to look at it only to realise that it was the matchups for the tournament that we would be participating in. At the very top were teams eight and twenty four while our team was all the way at the bottom and matched with team eleven.

Assuming that the competition will start from the teams at the top and work downwards, we would be the last one to go up into the arena.

I wonder if they did that intentionally so that the audience wouldn\'t be able to see how strong we were and make bets on the others instead?

What\'s more, going by this matchup, we would only need to fight one team before we were in the finals. I wonder if this was arranged on purpose because I was here or have they done this all the time here?

Then again… Not like it really matters to me.

I was about to head towards our previous spot when one of the parties approached us, the leader being a small female Yoblin who barely reached my waist in height.

The first thing I noticed was that she was wearing clothes that basically outed her as a merchant instead of a Mercenary so she must be one of the new slave trainers that chose to participate in this tournament to make a name for herself.

The five collared members behind her must be actual slaves instead of temporary slaves like the others.

"Hello there… Can we talk?"

I tilted my head slightly at her, "Sure? What do you need?"

She poked her fingers together, "I was wondering… If it would be possible for us to come to an agreement?"

"What kind of agreement?"

"We\'ll make a bet on ourselves to win and you let us win our match. Whatever we win in our bet we\'ll give it to you in compensation."

"Err… No thanks," I answered her immediately.

She blinked before pursing her lips, "May I know why? We\'re not asking you to just let us win, we are willing to put on a show to make it seem like we did everything we could to win."

"Ah, it\'s not about that, I\'m just more interested in the prizes than money."

"Does that mean… You\'re intending to win the tournament to get the attention of investors for your slave trading?"

I waved my hand quickly, "No, no, no… I know how it looks like but I\'m not actually a slave trainer. I\'m just a noble who is participating in the tournament with my combat maids, nothing more."

Geez, even just saying that felt a little gratuitous…

"I… I see… I suppose I can\'t convince you with money then?"

I shook my head, "I\'m afraid not."

"In that case… What can I do to convince you to let us win?"

"Honestly? Nothing, really…"

"Ugh… I understand… I apologise for taking your time. If… If it\'s not too much to ask, could I request that your sla-- I mean… Your combat maids go a little bit easier on us during the match?"

I turned to look at my companions who were standing behind me the entire time.

Katsuki gave a slight bow, "We shall at least give them several chances to showcase their strengths, Mistress."

I turned back to her, "Well… You heard her."

"Thank you, that\'s all that I ask for."

She then left with her group who had remained silent the entire time.

"Would this be alright?" I asked.

Lisa giggled, "Are you worried that she would bear a grudge against us or something, my Mistress?"

"Err… That\'s part of it… Though I\'m more concerned that we might ruin her life or something."

Odeta huffed, "If that was a problem, then just get stronger! How can she participate in a competition and ask her opponent to go easy on her? That doesn\'t make sense at all! You give your all in a fight and if your opponent is better, you learn from them and try again!!"

Katsuki then raised her hand slightly, "You also do not need to worry about this ruining her chances, Mistress."

"Eh? Why not?"

"Because this slave exhibition continues for the entire week and there will be new tournaments held each day that she can enter. There are no rules against someone entering the tournament more than once."

"Eh? Wait a minute… Doesn\'t that mean we could just enter again tomorrow and then win again?"

"Ah… My apologies, Mistress. Only the winners of each day are prohibited from participating in the tournament again."

Oh… I suppose that makes sense…

Although now I realise that I found a money making exploit… I could just lose in the finals and then come back tomorrow and win all my bets before losing again in the finals. Then just keep repeating that until the end of the event for maximum profits!

…

Yeah, I\'m not gonna bother with that. Too troublesome…

I\'m not even here for the money anyway so yeah, let\'s just win and go home~