Hey, who'd you bet on?

The Terarialbee Battle Tournament.

A prestigious event counted among the three great tournaments.

Since "anyone can participate," there were many entries from abroad, making it a massive tournament with over 100 participants.

That said, the tournament's prestige meant that only confident fighters with real skills actually bothered to show up.

Unknown contestants sometimes defied expectations and placed high, which made the betting scene incredibly lively too.

Even so. Even so, right?

Of course, many of this nation's strongest fighters participated, and among them, there were a handful called favorites to win. And almost always, one of them took the championship.

In the Coliseum hosting the Terarialbee Battle Tournament, two beastkin were chatting in the standing-room section.

"Yo, who'd you bet on?"

"Our very own Barbaros-sama, obviously."

Barbaros, the white wolf beastkin.

The king who ruled Terarialbee and the strongest man in the nation.

The capital city Teraria-Wan was named after the howl of the White Wolf Clan.

He was naturally the most popular pick in the tournament.

A perennial champion, his payout odds were only about 1.2 times at best.

"But y'know, this time they made the bracket all lopsided as a handicap 'cause Barbaros-sama's way too strong, right?"

"That's what makes it great! We get to watch Barbaros-sama's exploits with our hearts pounding, and it really gets the blood pumping for the cheering!"

"Even so, reverse seeding Barbaros-sama's bracket alone with like 20 consecutive matches is kinda…"

Right. This time, at Barbaros's own request, the tournament had adopted a peculiarly skewed format.

Barbaros alone faced a grueling schedule of 17 consecutive matches. For the first 11 of those, his opponents would face him as their first match, entering with zero fatigue.

It was as if Barbaros considered the first 10 opponents merely a warm-up, with the real tournament only beginning at match 11.

However, every one of them was a skilled fighter who had stormed into this tournament.

Even the mighty Beast King Barbaros might get worn down and lose partway through. That's what people were saying.

"See what I mean? So check out the odds!"

"… Whoa! That's crazy, Barbaros-sama is at 3.2 times! And he's only the second favorite?!"

"First favorite is General Garou."

"General Garou, huh. Still, 2.3 times… Guess it's close."

"Probably."

General Garou of the Black Wolf Clan. Beast King Barbaros's right hand and rival.

If both advanced smoothly, they would meet at Barbaros's 15th match, the quarterfinals.

And that would likely be the de facto championship match, people predicted.

"Well, even Barbaros-sama's gotta find this many consecutive matches exhausting. I'm betting on General Garou."

"No way! Barbaros-sama will pull through for sure!"

"Oh? Then wanna bet? On whether General Garou or Barbaros-sama wins?"

"Sure, loser buys tonight's round?"

"You're on!"

They settled their personal bet and snickered together.

"Still, those 10 people are kinda pitiful, aren't they?"

"Yeah. They're just there to make Barbaros-sama look good."

"… Maybe that's why?"

"Why what?"

Hm? He tilted his head.

"Well, look. Barbaros-sama's opponents up through match 10 all have super low odds, right?"

"Yeah. Around 500 to 900 times."

Bet one silver coin and win, you'd get 5 to 9 gold coins. Ridiculous odds. But they were basically sacrifices to Barbaros, so it made sense.

"But only the first match opponent has 10 times odds."

"Haha! That's gotta be sympathy votes piling up, don't you think?"

"Ah. Especially since it's the opening match. Part of the bets get returned as fight money, right?"

That explanation made sense.

"… But being 8th most popular despite that is actually impressive!"

"Totally. Why don't you buy some too? Let's donate to the cause."

"Hmm, fine. I'll buy just one medium copper coin's worth."

"Same here, just one medium copper coin."

And so they went to purchase their betting slips.

"Let's see, what's the fighter's name? Karina from Fakers? A D-rank adventurer is totally small fry."

"Never heard of 'em. Well, the organizers probably just wanted Barbaros-sama to have an easy win for the first match. You know, being considerate."