Queen's Blade: Return of Amara, Ch 2-e

As Menace and Leina were fighting in the oasis, something else is going on in Gainos...?

Enjoy!

The capital Gainos, city of the Queen.

The city dedicated to Her Majesty the Queen and the site of the final battle of the tournament - when the battle against the queen herself took place. However, even in the preliminary period it was crowded with travelers and tourney participants.

The Queen’s castle was located in the center of its imperial capital, the Great Coliseum.

The castle itself doubled as an area, symbolic of the Queen's Blade regime. Around it, there were markets bustling with plenty of customers - The Bazaar of Hobina.

In a corner crowned the ‘hobby market’, there were shops dealing with products related to Queen’s Blade.

Crystal balls recording images of prominent participants, replicas of the costumes and weapons they used, magic disks that recorded sounds; with such a a variety of goods it was said there was nothing they couldn’t get, giving them the reputation of the best in the continent. 

“Excuse me~”

In one of those stores, a female warrior—familiar to anyone who understood the bare minimum about Queen’s Blade—appeared.

A well-rounded wild elf who sported silver-green bangs with dark hair gathered at the back of her head. Long ears, brown skin, abundant breasts which almost spilled out of her leather armor, swinging with every step.

Even ignoring that she belonged to a rare tribe, there was no doubt that she was a celebrity: the Veteran Mercenary, Echidna.

What was she doing, coming to that store? Only she knew. 

Her outfit was more modest than usual though: not only was she missing the magical snake Keltan around her hips—which caused such an impression on people she got called the ‘snake goddess’—, she wore a loincloth decorated with blue and white stripes hiding her entire waist, up to her buttocks.

“Hans, you there?”

She tapped the wood board laid out in the storefront.

*Knock, knock*, dry sounds echoed inside the store.

“Hey, welcome... what, Echidna?”

A man with a bearded face, presumably the shopkeeper, popped up from inside the store, changing entirely from a business-like voice to a brusque one upon seeing his client.

“ ‘What’? Is that really how you greet me?”

The woman pouted casually placing the black sack she was carrying on the counter. It sounded heavy.

“Carrying this thing all the way back from the desert was so tiring, too.”

“Thanks for your hard work there.”

With a smile on his bearded face, pulled an item from the sack, pulling the cloth wrapping away to reveal a statue. 

“Oooh... nice one.”

He said, carefully inspecting the statue.

“If it’s so nice, I might have to add carry fares.”

“Not a big fan of curry, it’s too spicy.”

*Rattle!*

Hearing what could only be mercifully described as a dad joke, Echidna lost her strength.

“You really are a child, aren’t you? ...Sheesh, think of your age...”

“Nuhahaha, that was a good reaction you made there, too.”

As he laughed, he handed the statue to a clerk in the back of the store.

“So, how was she? The so-called desert princess.”

“Hm~, honestly, I had a good time.”

“The crystal ball showed the preliminary. Ended up runnin’ into a bit of a tough spot, didn’t ya?”

"Well now. As rumored, she had some murderous hand-to-hand techniques. Secret skills of the Amara royal family - lost for centuries, so I had a bit of trouble dealing with it."

The Amara dynasty had been destroyed a long time ago, before even Echidna’s birth hundreds of years ago.

Was the revived Menace truly the same Menace I from the ancient dynasty? The easiest way to confirm the rumors would be by fighting. Plus, the so-called undefeated Echidna had the most fun when faced unknown weapons or skills.

“If she keeps fighting preliminaries, she’s going to become one of the candidates, isn’t she?”

“Oooh, she has the Veteran Mercenary endorsin’ her?”