Part 9: Crazy Promises and Ominous Names

"You know, the last thing you want to hear about a monarch before you meet him is that he's unstable and everyone is worried about him."



"...that's.. not exactly a bad plan, actually. Just by traveling to compete we certainly took care of a lot of monsters."

"There's the possible downside of the stronger adventurers attracting stronger monsters, though."

"I'm not seeing the downside here."



"Wow. That's definitely a name to watch out for."

"He is immensely strong and utterly merciless."




"Wait, WHAT? Who came up with that idea? Hey, Cristo..."

"No. Not in a million years. Not just no, but HELL no."



"That sounds.. like something that I will never, ever feel a need to do."



"This guy must be pretty bad if even the prisoner they mysteriously keep next to the kitchen is afraid of him."



"I think I already know where this is going, but sure."



"You're assuming I'm not in an experimental mood."

"PRINCESS!"

"Geeze, I'm kidding. If I were into girls Cristo might actually have a shot."

"Please enter and win the tournament."

"You know, if my father tried this kind of crap I'd win the tournament myself.."

"Princess Alena, I envy you for being so free."



"Thank you! Somebody else who sees it!"

"You'd think they'd have some kind of vetting process if the winner was supposed to marry the princess."



"Oh great. Listen, I'm not going ba.."



"Huh. Okay, on second thought you're alright with me."

"I have a request. Win the tournament."

"To tell the truth, I'm regretting what I've promised..."

"You mean your decision to let the most dangerous psychopath you could find marry your teenage daughter? That's a pretty good decision to regret. I'll do it, but only because I was planning to anyway."



"Okay, now we're about ready."



"Well, aren't you a funny little.. HEY! Come back here!"



"It's.. like I'm looking at my future.."

"Nah, you'd have to bulk up a lot before that could be your future."



"I'm going to recommend to the king that he hire you to be the head of his security detail, since you seem to be more with it than the rest of the castle guards put together."



"Maybe not, but I think you've probably had enough."



"You're really obsessed with getting rid of this shop, aren't you? I hope you're lucky enough to find someone to buy it from you."



"I know! It's like they didn't even read that sign."



"Last chance, Cristo. Are you sure you don't want to marry the princess?"



"Come to mommy!"



"Oh.. oh god. Is that his spleen?"

"I'm not an expert on anatomy, but I think so."



"I'll keep that in mind."



"You can also throw me a healing spell from here if you want. I'm just saying, since this is a five man gauntlet."



"Necrosaro is the only one who has defeated 5 opponents so far."

"Good luck!"



"Uh.. hi, this feels a bit awkward.."



"That's probably a good idea."



"Oh come on.. a little kid with a weird green shirt, a cape, and a boomerang? What kind of opponent is that?"




"Okay.. a more dangerous one than the martial artist I just fought. Who'd have thought it?"



"It's good to see this isn't a total sausage fest, isn't it? I'm so glad to meet another woman in this thing."



"Although that isn't enough to stop me from making orphans of your children. If you had any."



"I'm starting to feel as though this entire contest was poorly thought out. How are you going to have armored knights and leotard clad magicians in the same bracket?"



"You'd think there'd be some kind of rules here, you know?"




"They even let non-humans compete. What the hell kind of contest is this? If it weren't for Necrosaro, I'd be saving the princess from marrying a yeti."

Incidentally, this is the one fight in the tournament where Alena wouldn't be the best choice even if you could pick who fought. This is a gimmick battle. Three of the four enemies here are fakes. If you target the wrong one they'll all vanish and it'll split again. During the entire battle the real one will be throwing fireballs at you. A multi-target spell would probably solve the entire thing in short order, but.. that's not Alena.



"The final match is next. Call Necrosaro."

"Where is he? Bring Necrosaro now!"

"What? Necrosaro is missing? Hmm..."



"Considering that I'm about out of healing herbs, I'll accept a win by default."



"Uh.. thanks, I guess. And Cristo, it's probably better you weren't in that mess."



"Perhaps you should return home and let him know you're alive and well."

"You know, I think I should. I've pretty well proved my point..."



"Um.. I really was only kidding.."

"Hold on, I could stand to hear a bit more about this."

"What am I saying... please forget what I've said."



"What? Oh, I should have known something like this would happen.."



"You.. can all come out now. It was really nice of you to plan a surprise party, but this is going a bit far.."



"Kitty? How did you get inside?"



"Everybody in the entire castle? How?"

"It seems your father saw more clearly than he knew.."




And so, our second set of characters goes off into the sunset.  Credit to Simply Simon for the fixed image after I prematurely snapped a screenshot and cut off the word journey.