Free Web NovelChapter 348: Chapter 346: Miss Hilia Is the People’s Choice!
In the following days, the Mage League proceeded smoothly. Both the team and solo competitions completed their first round of eliminations.
At the same time, the crackdown on heretics also achieved impressive progress. The entire Northern Alliance wiped out dozens of heretic bases, captured countless heretics, and freed innumerable innocent civilians who had been trapped.
It wasn’t just the Northern Alliance—other empires launched similar campaigns and uncovered quite a few heretic bases as well.
All sorts of inspiring news kept pouring in. As the activity of heretics gradually died down, people shifted their attention back to the Mage League.
After the first round of eliminations, there would be a short break for several days before the second round—the top 16 to top 8 matches—began.
By now, it was already the end of August.
With the rescue in Gerald Town swiftly completed under Gerard’s high-pressure command, managing to turn the tide and save more than half of the residents’ lives, the incident had also faded from people’s minds with time.
What changed, however, was that the entire Northern Alliance entered a state of martial law, with surprise Purification checks being conducted from time to time to see if any heretics had slipped through the net.
Although regular Purification Skill had little effect against the kind of Magic Power pollution that contained traces of Divine Power from the Polar Blood Alliance, it still served its usual function.
For example, during purification, anyone carrying Demonic Qi would be in intense pain, even if the process was slowed down.
Relying on this, they captured countless suspected heretics and won a complete victory.
As for whether someone had intentionally been contaminated and then sent to prison to be treated as a heretic... well, that was anyone’s guess.
The day before the top 16 to top 8 matches, Hilia found Ashburn to tell him some news.
"Lord Ashburn, the Polar Blood Alliance is about to make a move again."
Ashburn immediately clenched his fists and growled, "Well, well. These sewer rats just won’t behave, huh? Trying to take advantage of a lapse in our guard again—I’ve had enough."
Hilia said, "This time, they might try something new—disguising themselves as contestants."
Ashburn paused for a second, then sneered, "Interesting. Disguised contestants? Do they think we won’t use Purification Skill to check them?"
Hilia said, "They’re going to disguise themselves as several teams. Among them, our opponents are also heretics. I hope, Lord Ashburn, that you won’t arrest them until after we’ve beaten them."
Ashburn raised his brows. "Why?"
"Because we want to defeat them fair and square, so they don’t use it as an excuse."
Ashburn showed a question mark: "?"
Hilia continued, "Thanks to the mole, they already know about me. Our opponents... might deliberately show signs of corruption tomorrow, just so you’ll arrest them and we win by default."
Ashburn looked even more confused. "Are you sure they’ll do that? Are they out of their minds?"
"Who knows, maybe they want to manipulate public opinion or something. Anyway, please, Lord Ashburn—can you wait until after we beat them to arrest them?"
Ashburn nodded, "Alright, let me see who your opponents are tomorrow... a team from a tiny principality? Looks pretty unremarkable. If the heretics are disguising as them, then the original team..."
Hilia said, "It’s not a disguise; they are the heretics. The entire principality’s team is all heretics."
Ashburn: "???"
"Mr. Blake asked me to tell you that he’s already keeping a close eye on those people. He hopes you won’t specifically send anyone over to arrest them now—lest they catch wind and escape. Your only job is to handle the heretic contestants during the match."
Ashburn: "...That old bastard, does he really look down on our Northern Alliance that much?"
Hilia said, "Mr. Blake said not to tell you he looks down on the Northern Alliance. But since you figured it out, I guess it makes no difference if I say it or not."
Ashburn chuckled, rubbing his bald head, "Right, no difference at all. I’ll drop by in a few days to have a nice friendly exchange with your principal."
Hilia grew concerned. "Please don’t get into a fight with the principal, sir—he said you can’t beat him, and he’ll knock your teeth out."
Ashburn slammed the table, "Relax, promise there won’t be a fight."
"That’s good then."
...
Back from her meeting, Hilia went to Mr. Blake. "Principal, as you asked, I told Lord Ashburn everything you said. He seemed pleased."
Blake stroked his beard. "It’s been ages since I’ve sparred with that old friend. My bones are getting rusty, but I can’t just challenge him directly. Still have to wait for him to come to me. Thanks, Hilia."
Hilia blinked, not quite understanding these two, but it was obvious—they seemed to have a pretty good friendship.
So who’s actually stronger?
Hilia remembered how Blake once flattened an entire mountain, and figured he probably had the edge.
But that didn’t really concern her.
Time to focus and get ready for tomorrow’s match!
...
The next day.
Hilia’s match was scheduled second.
If they won, they would face their own school in the next round... Oh wait, that’s off the table. The other Divine Magic Academy team had gone first and been knocked out by their group’s Swiss-system team 3-0.
Such a clean 2-0 too. Ouch, rough.
"Team [Food Chain] from the Beastman Empire—they look pretty strong."
Hilia took note of that.
Although thanks to Rose, she had a unique edge against corruption and the Abyss, against conventional mages she was still only a regular Tier Three, without the Purification Skill buff—who knows if she could hold her own.
Of course, for now, their opponents were the team infiltrated by heretics in disguise.
Hilia looked toward her opponents in the spectator area, where, as team captain, Doris stood up and called out, "It’s our turn! Come on, let’s bury them!"
Hilia rose and followed her team onto the arena.
As soon as she appeared, the entire stadium erupted in cheers.
"Hilia! Hilia! Hilia!"
"Most beautiful contestant Hilia! I love you!"
"It’s Hilia, our savior! She’s basically an angel!"
"Oh my god, she’s adorable! Like a living goddess!"
"Hilia for the win!"
"..."
Roars and cheers exploded all at once. Compared to the scattered claps in the first match, it was a world of difference. Not only was Hilia startled, even the organizers jumped up in shock, thinking the heretics were launching an attack.
Once they realized everyone was just there to cheer for Hilia, they breathed a sigh of relief, sat back down, and mopped the cold sweat from their brows.
A few people even looked around for Ashburn and Sathipheni, and suddenly froze.
"Huh? Where’s Lord Ashburn and Lord Sathipheni? Where did they go?"
"They must be in hiding, standing guard in secret, you dummy."
"Right, haha, makes sense."
Their so-called Lord Ashburn and Sathipheni had long since sprung into secret action. As soon as Hilia came on, they unleashed a thunderstorm, rooting out every disguised heretic contestant. With the clues provided by them and Hilia, they found where the real contestants had been imprisoned and set them free.
Their actions, carried out in secret, had no effect on the Hilia and heretic teams who had already entered the arena by then.
Standing across from Hilia, the other team showed blank expressions, ignoring the cheers, simply staring at Hilia and her team in silence—not even trash-talking beforehand.
Doris frowned as she watched them. "Something’s off with them."
But she couldn’t put her finger on what it was.
Just then, the referee started the countdown.
"10, 9... 2, 1, Start!"
