"In many nations, especially human-majority ones, gladiatorial combat had been outlawed for a good while now, as many opponents to the practice decried it as an unnecessary cruelty and a wanton excess.

Yet in many other nations, especially the three dwarven kingdoms and the Elmaiya Empire, the tradition remained strong, and the gladiatorial fights remained one of the most popular forms of entertainment to this day and age.

That said, deathmatches between people had been forbidden even in these nations, with an exception to the ancient dwarven tradition of trial by combat, where one may contest a judicial ruling by a duel to the death.

The use of champions to represent the parties involved were allowed, but generally frowned upon, unless one of the sides involved was the royal family who used a champion by tradition. While very rare, these death duels ended up being one of the most sought-out spectacles when they were on the card." - from a lecture by Garth Wainwrought, Dean of the Levain Institute for Higher Learning.

Two weeks after Cal's meeting with Orloff, she had brought the whole group to the central area's colosseum. The structure was one that garnered whispers of awe at its mere sight, especially from the younger members of the group, and it was well deserved.

Even larger by half than the colosseum in Paradise, the dwarven kingdom's underground arena was located near the center of the central district, not far away from the royal castle, even.

Despite its truly massive size, the colosseum was packed to the brim that day, and from what Cal learned, the tickets to that evening's fight had long been sold out since before their arrival to the region.

It was not an issue because Orloff had given them an invitation though, one that had a young receptionist personally guide them to his personal balcony in the noble's section of the seating area.

There they found the Braumeister already waiting with a smile, the balcony more than large enough to accommodate their whole party with room to spare, and already heavily stocked with snacks and refreshments.

In all honesty, the invitation had come as a bit of a surprise to Cal. She had brought Kino and Kyara - the rest would not have been able to buy his brew due to lack of money - over to Orloff's place to buy some of his personal brews three days after her first visit, and it was when they were about to depart that Orloff gave them the invitation.

"Oho. You raised some fine disciples," commented Orloff after he took a look at the youngsters. Cal had seated herself next to him by then. "Those three are directly handled by yourself I assume? Their progress is very impressive for their ages."

"They are, yes. I'm quite proud of them," replied Cal with some pride. As a rot affinity archmage, it wasn't that hard for Orloff to notice the mana emanating from her students, since she hadn't taught them how to rein those in yet. That usually came with experience, and as her students went, at the moment they had no real need to do so anyway.

Mages of the same or related affinity also tend to be more sensitive to the mana of others with the affinity. Rot and Blood were somewhat related, both being derivatives of the water affinity, so it was hard for the old dwarf to not notice her students to begin with.

As Cal looked around the colosseum, she saw seating areas that were packed to the brim, all the way to the standing sections. Both locals and tourists - easy to tell when they were from other races - sat and talked to each other with excitement as they waited for the spectacle to begin.

Cal understood why, as amongst the listed events for that night was a rare trial by combat, slated for the very end of the evening. She was familiar with the concept, a rarely used dwarven tradition to contest a court's decision.

Most viewed it as a desperate last-ditch effort, and when the one who requested it was clearly guilty, they would be stigmatized even if they won the trial. Not that they managed to do it often. Typically, since the royal family represented the law, the trial was against an executor appointed by them, unless it happened to be a trial between two private parties.

The royal family's executors had never lost a single trial in recorded history.

More often than not, the executor would be a member of the royal family itself, usually a prince or princess who had no succession rights, and had instead devoted their lives to a martial path.

For the populace, the symbolic value of the royal family defending the laws they represented was obvious. From an outside perspective, the tradition seemed odd, a way to overturn a verdict of the dwarven judicial system, which was known for its fairness.

Yet in practice, they served as both a warning to lawbreakers, and a form of public execution as well. After all, the most dangerous criminals were basically never captured alive due to the difficulties of the task, and as such, those that called for these trials might be infamous, yet were not the most dangerous.

Cal herself was rather ambivalent to the practice. She understood well the deterrent value of making such executions a public spectacle, as it would help spread the example and warning far more effectively.

Al-Shan itself had gone through a series of such executions after the civil war, as the usurper's captured supporters were publicly executed, often to cheering crowds. Cal herself had personally executed some of them, though it was not a task she savored.

Her students clearly had no such qualms with the planned spectacle, though, and discussed it with some excitement. Ognar and Giselle had even heard of the party who had demanded the trial, as the man in question had apparently been wanted in the Union as well, prior to their days at the institute.

As they chatted and enjoyed themselves, an announcer below officially started the events, and their eyes turned to the arena floor.