"It is a miracle that the Union of Free Nations stood strong for as long as it had so far. One would think to have more than twenty voices each of which wanted to head towards different directions would have soured the alliance long before." - anonymous political analyst.

The next weekend, Cal found herself seated in a rather luxurious balcony on the stadium built within the Institute. The Institute itself regularly used the place for sports competitions in other times, with the place reserved for the annual combat tournaments before summer and winter break. For the students of the institute, it was just another sporting event to enjoy.

"This is quite the spectacle." She said, as she looked at the other occupants of the balcony, among which were Garth as the Institute's Dean, Vark, and Aideen, Fibuela, as well as Salicia all as guests of the dean, since the balcony was the Institute's. All around the stadium were more than twenty other balconies spaced equally at the same height, one for each nation of the Union.

"Many representatives from the union visits during our tournaments." Garth said proudly. "They're looking to poach talents, you see?"

"The unaffiliated students." Fibuela said as she pondered.

"Indeed. Those who aren't yet attached to another nation and showed promise would be poached by generous offers." Confirmed the dean. "It's a bit messy at times even. Just last year representatives from Dazio and Ente got into a fistfight over one promising youth."

"And where did that youth end up?" Chimed Aideen with a smirk.

"Why, he is garnering experience as one of my assistants." Replied the dean with an equally wide grin on his face. "Just because we let them poach doesn't mean we'd give them our share. Harumph!"

"That's the fop who's been a bother to your dear students no?" Salicia asked all of a sudden as she pointed to a distant balcony across the stadium. The one-eyed woman rarely talked much unless talked to, so she must have grown somewhat attached to the students to speak out.

As for how she could see the inhabitants of said balcony when Cal could barely make out human figures with the distances involved, it was due to her magic. Salicia was a space-affinity magus, of only mediocre power. However, the one-eyed woman had developed a method which allowed her to spy on distant places more clearly with her magic. Cal also knew that the woman could similarly send an arrow through a tiny portal where it would reappear closer to its target, likely from a different angle.

It was those seemingly impossible shots that earned her the nickname "Silent Reaper" on the battlefield centuries ago.

"Can you describe them for us?" Aideen asked. "I don't think even Cal can see that far away."

"One fop in really fancy frilly dress with a really punchable face. I think he's the one Giselle described." Salicia said as she squinted and shaded her eye with one hand. "Three males… another four females, all clearly bootlicking sychopants around him. Some old fat fuck who looked like he'd have a heart attack if made to walk around the house…"

Even Garth chuckled when he heard how Salicia described the man who was likely the Iznuguod ambassador, despite the utter breach of decorum. Then again, nobody could hear them from outside the private balcony anyway.

"No personal guards?" Cal asked. "Tall, muscly soldier types, there's four of them that I know of."

"None in sight, why?"

"That's strange… never seen him go around without them before."

*****************************

Cal had placed her doubt about prince Legault of Iznuguod's missing guards aside, for the tournament started soon after. Her attention was pulled from the two dueling students when Garth cursed from besides her, something she had never heard the old dean do before.

"You win." Garth said as he slapped a silver coin to Aideen's outstretched hand. The Unliving woman had a wide, satisfied grin on her face. "Looks like I will need to fire some people tomorrow."

"What's wrong?" Fibuela inquired.

"The matchups got fixed, that's what." Grumbled the old dean, which just made Aideen chuckle some more. "All of your students - even Leila - are matched with Legault or one of his sycophants on the first round. All with advantageous affinity matchups too!"

"Talk about seeking death on their own accord…" Cal muttered. "Those poor fucks don't know what they signed up for, did they?"

"This will be a hilarious show." Aideen concurred. "Better get the booze here Garth, gonna be a show to watch soon!"

**************************

The first of the students to go on stage was Ognar, who stood against one of the prince's female sycophants, a fifth-year student of the Lightning affinity. Ognar looked somewhat nervous as he ascended the stairs to the stage, but when he looked at his opponent, some anger colored his features and he gritted his teeth as he stepped forward.

Traditionally, Void, Lightning, and Fire mages tended to have the greatest advantage when the enemy was a Blood mage. What Legault's group likely never considered however, was that his opponents might come into battle geared with equipment he would not even be able to afford.

A fact that soon made itself clear when the lightning mage cackled triumphantly and launched a lightning bolt to Ognar, only for the young half-orc to lazily block it with his dull, black shield. The bolt fizzled out of existence the moment it contacted the shield, as if it had never existed, much to the bafflement of its caster.

Cal had naturally enchanted her student's weapons and armor with anti-magic enchantments, for high-purity adamant steel was one of the few materials able to support such an enchantment.

The fight soon devolved into a bit of a farce as the lightning mage frantically threw bolt after bolt of lightning, while Ognar casually strolled towards her without a care in the world. He even made a show where he batted away a bolt with his hammer once.

His opponent backed away as she threw lightning with all her might, but soon she was cornered at the edge of the stage, as Ognar loomed menacingly before her.

"I normally don't like to hit women." Said the young half-orc clearly. "But for what you said to Giselle yesterday? I will happily make an exception for you especially."

Before the lightning mage could cry out and yield, Ognar had brutally bashed her face with his shield, which caused an audible crunch and sent the young woman flying out of the stage before she fell into a crumpled heap that clutched her face. His shield bash had broken and deformed her nose and cheeks, and knocked out a good amount of her teeth to boot. Some of the crowd was shocked at the sudden brutality, but many just clapped instead as Ognar raised his arms and bellowed triumphantly.

Cal smirked when she noticed that quite a few students gave the young half-orc a thumbs up. The prince and his sycopants aren't that popular it seemed.

Leila was the next of the group who went up to the stage. She faced against a wind mage, whose swiftness was a hard counter to a magma mage's relatively slower attacks. The wind mage Leila faced focused his magic into winds that pushed him around and made his movements much swifter, which made it nearly impossible for her to touch him with the globs of magma she conjured.

The wind mage did not look like he practiced his offensive spells much, as he instead used his swift movements to close the distance, at which point he pulled out a hefty wooden cudgel with embedded metal knobs. He swung the weapon at Leila's face with both hands as he entered melee range with her.

Leila had not even blinked as the wind mage charged at her, and while it was indeed impossible at that point for her to defend herself with her magic, the same had not applied physically. She unsheathed the Dadao she kept behind her back with both hands and cleaved with all her strength at the incoming cudgel.

The thin blade of high-purity adamant steel parted wood and metal with barely any resistance, and cut through the cudgel with ease before it carried on and severed the wind mage's right arm along with a chunk of his shoulder from his torso. The man screamed in pain and rolled around, his left hand clutched around the wound on his right, as a referee made haste and asked him whether he yielded the fight.

Leila stood proudly with one hand on her waist and the other raised high with her blade in hand as the referee named her the victor and hurried a couple healers to reattach the wind mage's arm.

**************************

"They did well." Aideen said.

Cal nodded in agreement and was about to add her own words when Salicia suddenly shushed them. All the people in the balcony quieted down, before the one-eyed woman signalled to keep their voices down and spoke.

"Garth. Is anyone supposed to be using the corridor right below our balcony at this time?" She asked in a low whisper.

"Huh? No. The corridors within the stadium should be closed and unused other than during entrance and exit."

"There are four or five people down there. They're setting up something now, I can't tell what." Said the one-eyed woman. Her habit from her days as a mercenary assassin had kept her surroundings monitored at all times via her magic. "What do you all say we check it out?"

"Sounds like a good plan to me." Said Aideen with a grin.