MMORPG: Rise of the Primordial Godsmith

Sensing the judging stares he received from the four, Valyr looked back at them as if he was being wronged. "What? Can't a guy like me accidentally forget something like this from time to time?"

"That's not it." Julian shook his head in response, clarifying what their expressions actually meant. "It's just that… a piece of information like that would have definitely saved us a lot of headache if you told us from the start."

At those words, the four nodded in agreement, their senses still alert for Erika's next move.

Maintaining the same level of vigilance as them, the young man continued to look at the four with a wronged expression.

"If that's the case, then the director should've told with you three beforehand that she intentionally decided to keep Erika here even after the ritual she did," he told them, immediately causing the atmosphere surrounding the five to change.

Whoosh!

In less than an instant, the three arbiters shifted their gazes away from Valyr and towards Lunarossa, looking at her as if she owed them an explanation to the entire thing.

After all, the fact that the director intentionally kept Erika at the tournament rather than transfer her to someplace else beforehand was far more serious compared to what Valyr had done.

The latter was merely something that could aid them in the short term. On the other hand, the former was a piece of information that could have stopped the current scenario from happening in the first place.

"…What do you think is the reason why I kept here?" Ignoring the gazes the three were giving her, Lunarossa looked back at Valyr as she solemnly asked the question.

Briefly glancing at Erika from afar, the young man forced the gears in his mind to turn for a bit before laying down his conjecture. "…Is it not to make sure the audience wouldn't feel like something's amiss?"

"After all, the reputation of the tournament and its organizers is at stake if you do something like that in the middle."

Hearing those words, Julian and the two other arbiters looked at each other for a bit before nodding in agreement, feeling like that the reason made quite a lot of sense.

However, Lunarossa shook her head at the conjecture. "Does my appearance make it look like I care more about my reputation than lives at stake?"

She briefly looked at the young man in slight disappointment. "Think about it for a bit, Ylvar. What else is going on during the tournament?"

"Specifically, away from the confines of the kingdom?"

"…" For a while after that, Valyr remained silent, closing his eyes for a bit as his thoughts mulled over the words she spoke to him.

Then, as if the giant puzzle in his head had finally obtained the piece to complete it, the young man opened his eyes in realization, giving Lunarossa an apologetic look after that.

"…It seems you understand now." Seeing the expression Valyr was giving her, the director's expression eased up as she looked at the three arbiters who were still confused.

"It has something to do with the ongoing war," she told them, allowing the three to get a faint understanding of the actual reasoning behind Lunarossa's bizarre decision.

"Normally, it wouldn't be a problem to have her confined in a secure prison." Lunarossa glanced over them, beginning to sense hints of energy starting to condense around Erika.

"However, there are two issues that stopped me from making that decision."

She raised one of her fingers up. "The first one is the proximity of the kingdom to the battlefield."

"If we were to temporarily place Erika within the kingdom's secure prison until the tournament ends, with her being a spy of the Crimson Cathedral, it wouldn't be surprising if either of the two races found a way to break her out of it."

"After all, we've been ambushed over hundreds of times during the entire span of the war so far. What's the problem of adding another to their list?" she said soon after, causing the four to look back at her in shock.

"The only reason you guys don't know about it is because the empire keeps most of it under wraps."

Giving the four a heads-up regarding the attack Erika was preparing, she continued, "The second reason why I decided to keep Erika here at the tournament is because the empire is too far."

Fortunately, at those words, the four quickly understood what she meant by that.

Though having her at the empire's secure prison would give them to ability to actually not worry about her wreaking havoc anymore, the fact that they would have to transport her to the empire already poses a bit of risk to the matter.

Even with the fact that teleportation constructs were available at pretty much every class guild in the kingdom, the journey there to one of them and to the secure prison itself would already give Erika more than enough time to ask for backup from someone else, running the risk of having a knife constantly pointed at their backs in the future.

"And so, I decided to keep her here for the meantime," concluded Lunarossa, letting out a sigh as she tightly gripped her blade.

"Although it looks like the worst answer to the issue, it's actually the best answer I could come up with at the time."

"For one, if either the orcs or the elves attack the tournament in a bid to set Erika free, it gives the empire the opportunity to go all-out on the war, breaking the balance that has been thus far."

"Other than that, the fact that the empire is presiding over this and other tournaments like these is a great enough deterrent for those who want to stir up the pot to stay away from this."

Lunarossa shook her head once more. "It's a shame that almost none of the powerful beings at the stands offered to help us in this matter."

"In any case…" Infusing a bit of mana into her blade, the director let out a soft exhale as she stared at the furious Erika from afar. "It's not like we'll have to fight Erika to the death."

"As long as we endure for long enough, reinforcements that could actually fight her on even grounds will arrive."

"…And where did you find the time to get that sorted?" asked Valyr in response, getting into position as he looked at Lunarossa in slight disbelief.

"While evacuating the remaining audience, of course," replied the woman as if it was a matter of fact.

"And as for why I haven't told any of you about it from the start…"

"…Let's just say it accidentally slipped from my mind as well."