Free Web NovelChapter 96: Day 2
On the second day of the tournament week, the streets in the capital were buzzing. People from outside traveled to Loogam just for the yearly tournament week.
Despite the masses of people, there was a peaceful atmosphere.
When the guests went through the countless stalls, offering souvenirs and food, they looked up at the blue sky.
Even though it was still bright, fireworks were launched into the sky.
Those fireworks indicated the official start of the tournament.
"It’s finally beginning, huh? Are you nervo-"
Sylvia attempted to tease Lily, who stood beside her, but Lily was not listening as she looked to the front with a confident smile.
"Heh..." Sylvia huffed proudly.
The two girls were currently on the battleground of the arena, which was built just for the tournament week by the academy’s top earth mages.
The arena had the same structure as the one on the training grounds.
The differences were only that this arena was in the open with the blue sky above them and that it was much larger, fitting more people in the stands.
There was also a main and a smaller back entrance on the north and south sides.
And above the main entrance was a separate lounge, which only VIP guests had access to. As it was surrounded by walls and a roof, no one could see, who was sitting there.
Across the VIP lounge, above the back entrance, was another lounger, which was smaller. However, no one knew for whom that room was designed, not even the VIP guests.
The students did not know, who those VIP guests were, but some were speculating that royalties from other nations gathered in that lounge.
Now, the students, who were participating in the promotion tournament, were lined up on the ground, facing the same direction.
Among those students, some were still tired from yesterday’s opening ball, while others were brimming with excitement.
In front of that crowd was Lucio, who greeted the students and the guests.
Meanwhile, Mika was sitting in the crowd near the main entrance.
It was his first day outside, after being officially discharged from the tower.
He looked at the flyer he was given at the entrance.
[That’s the tournament bracket, right?]
"Yes." Mika replied quietly.
It was said that the bracket was only revealed starting today in order to assure fairness among the participants. This plan enabled the fights to be fair without prior planning or sabotaging.
Roughly 120 people were taking part in this tournament, meaning that were will be seven rounds until the winner will be decided.
The rules were simple: A traditional one versus one. Students were allowed to use everything. Magic, physical attacks and weapons, including relics if they possessed one.
Everything was allowed as long as no third party interfered.
A winner will be decided if the opponent is deemed unable to fight, admits defeat or if the time limit of 10 minutes is reached.
"Still, this is pretty huge..." Mika remarked softly with a nervous grin.
He went through the flyer again.
Aside from the rules, bracket and timetable, the rewards were listed there as well.
According to the flyer, students, who exceed the jury’s expectations, will be granted the right to change classes.
The jury consisted of the first-year teachers: Cindy Werensten, Erwin Linster and Ralph Arma.
However, the reward was only for those in the red, silver and black classes.
Many people were wondering, why white-class students would participate in this tournament as they could not move up any further, but besides the promotion reward, there was something else.
In addition to the promotion, the winner of the entire tournament will be granted an additional prize.
And especially this year’s prize caught everyone’s attention.
"The right to test one’s compatibility with one of the 66 relics..." Mika read out.
Usually, most relics choose their wielders, when they were born or when they reached a certain stage in their lives. But some relics did not choose their wielder and rather waited for the right person to choose them.
Mika sighed in confusion.
"Belian didn’t want to participate as he didn’t see anyone worthy of fighting... Harik had his own circumstances... And Rachel thought that her personal problem would hinder her from participating..." Mika mentioned his friends’ reasons for not taking part.
The deadline for declaring one’s participation was two weeks before the tournament week’s start.
If it was not for the deadline, then maybe Belian and Rachel would have changed their minds and registered themselves for the tournament. But there was no way for them to know what could have happened in the last two weeks beforehand.
Now, the three white class students helped out with the security around the arena. At first, Rachel made a fuss about wanting to see the tournament with Mika earlier this morning, but Belian and Harik dragged her to the security as she had already given her word that she would help out.
[That Rachel girl truly took a liking to you, huh?]
"I guess, ’liking’ is an understatement..." Mika responded exhausted.
It appeared to him that she never wanted to leave his side.
"Well, it’s better for her to join the security. After all, everyone will feel more at ease with an additional white class students patrolling the area." freewebnøvel.coɱ
Mika’s eyes narrowed.
During his time in the tower, he heard from everyone, including Lisa, that the security would have it the worst while the tournament was airing.
Based on what he learned from them, since a couple of years ago, multiple strange cases were taking place during the tournament.
Many students from the previous years stated that they felt weird as if their magic was sucked out of them. Victims were mostly strong students and it happened on the third and fourth day of the tournament week.
Still, the most shocking for Mika was to hear about cases, where strong students mysteriously died.
The way they died ranged from getting stabbed, choked and beaten up to getting beheaded, poisoned and the like.
However, it was not their way of dying which was shocking, but the fact that every victim’s eye pupils turned brown, which was a sign for people, who did not have magic.
But based on that information alone, the culprit could not be found. Even until today.
"It’s kind of unsettling, knowing that a serial killer is among us..." Mika muttered with an indifferent expression as he watched the students on the ground.
The students left the field one after another until only eight people were left. Amongst them was also Lily.
As those eight people distanced themselves from each other in pairs, a sphere started to engulf the battleground. The sphere was transparent and was reaching the same height as the arena.
"Is that Mr. Arma’s relic?" Mika wondered.
"Yes. He put up a sphere around the fighting students to protect the guests from wild attacks."
"?"
It was Sylvia, who answered his question.
She sat down beside him.
"Sylvia? What are you doing here?"
"Didn’t you check the timetable?" she said, following up with an insulting sigh.
"..."
He read the flyer again.
The first round consisted of 64 matches. As it was not possible to hold them all at the same time, the first round was separated into multiple parts.
Therefore, only four matches will be held simultaneously and after a short break the next four matches will start.
There will be a longer break after the first round is over and before the second round will start.
Mika’s eyes searched for Sylvia’s name on the bracket.
"I see. Your match is right before the long break, right?"
"Yes."
She nodded her head.
"Hm? It seems like Gerard’s match is at the same time as yours, Sylvia."
"Is that so? Well, I hope that you won’t neglect my match too much."
She heaved a teasing sigh while grinning.
"Yeah, yeah. I promise I won’t." Mika replied half-heartedly.
Mika shifted his gaze towards Lily, who took up her fighting stance.
Her first opponent is a student from the silver class.
"A silver student, huh? Without sounding mean, but as long as the student isn’t at least an A-rank, the match will be pretty boring." Sylvia remarked with a smile.
"What are you talking about? Isn’t Lily still a B-rank?"
Sylvia waved her index finger in front of Mika’s confused face.
"I was by her side for the entire time you were away. I know better than anyone else what she’s capable of. And I’m telling you, everyone who’s below an A-rank won’t cut it." she explained confidently.
Mika turned his face back to the match.
[Even I am intrigued as to how much that girl grew.]
A faint smile crept onto Mika’s face.
"Still... Will it be enough..." Mika wondered without changing his expression.
"Did you say something?" Sylvia asked.
"Hey, Sylvia."
His eyes were still glued to the match.
"When I’m not by her side..."
The matches started a few moments ago, but Lily was already dominating.
"...could you stay close to her..."
Her opponent, who was a D-rank, was admitting defeat after seeing the sheer difference between him and Lily.
"...and protect her?"
