Early the next morning—well, just before the sun reached its highest point—Annie was already wandering along a quiet street in the Watergate City of Priestella.
By now, Emilia and the others had probably gone with Anastasia to a meeting at City Hall. Annie had been invited too, but she hadn't gone along. She wasn't interested in meetings at all, and she didn't care what those people planned to discuss. In the end, she'd just sent Ram and Rem along to see what was going on.
"Hmm-hmm~?"
???(?)????
As for last night's contest, there had never been any suspense for Annie when the red-haired man called Reinhard challenged her. There couldn't have been.
Before the contest began, he'd piled all sorts of blessings on himself as if he were cheating. For example:
The Divine Protection of the Sword Saint, the Divine Protection of Evasion, the Divine Protection of Magic Resistance, the Divine Protection of Fire Resistance, the Divine Protection of Wind Spirits, the Divine Protection of Earth, the Divine Protection of Water Spirits, the Divine Protection of Darkness, the Divine Protection of Light, the Divine Protection of Initiative, the Divine Protection of First Sight, the Divine Protection of Reappearance, the Divine Protection of Nightfall, the Divine Protection of Thunder, the Divine Protection of Poison Resistance, and the Divine Protection of the Phoenix, among many others...
In short, before the actual contest began, he'd ignored everyone's strange looks and frantically stacked one blessing (BUFF) after another to counter her. He'd practically piled on every blessing that could reduce damage from different kinds of magic, improve his own defenses, or increase his own attacks or his enemy's attacks. He was just like some cheating "cheat" in a game.
But unfortunately, the cheater had picked the wrong person to challenge.
His "cheats" were certainly