Since the matches for the tournament would start at noon, I had plenty of time to prepare myself. I ate breakfast and exercised. Afterwards, I took a bath.

What happened last night hadn’t escaped my mind but I had other priorities for the time being. Although, I did tell Risa about it. Not to boast but she praised me, and told me to investigate it when the tournament was over. Yes, it felt good and I got a significant boost in my motivation, which I badly needed today.

I wore the suit Feim gave me when we went to the palace before. Afterwards, we went to our ride, which was the magnificent coach, and made our way to the palace.

As we go our way, we saw a flock of people surging their way to the palace as if zombies in search of brains. They must have wanted a piece of the action. Couldn't really blame them though, the Wilden Tournament only happened once a year, it was another a must-see event.

But how will they see the action when nobles are the only one allowed in the arena?

When we reached the palace, I saw that they were letting people in. They had security checking the belongings of people. As we passed through, our coach was checked, too. Unlike last time, even after checking William’s face, they still search and checked the entire coach. After letting us through, we went to the far most back of the palace, where the Arena magnificently stood.

Many coaches were parked near the Arena. Each of them had their own distinct emblems and designs. It was quite a rare sight to see, as most nobles didn’t congregate often.

Lindwal parked the coach and escorted the horses to the royal stable. As we entered, we were greeted by luxury and wealth.

Unlike the Arena in the North District, the Arena behind the palace had been spoiled with riches. It had its own lobby where the affluent nobles could chat and have a tea. The tournament must have been like a tea party for them with competition for their name.

I separated from Feim and William, who had to put on their mask and socialize with the nobles, and made my way to the dressing room. Being luxurious, each participant had their own room. Well, that was a win for me.

As I made my way, I saw some of the participant. I didn’t recognize any of them, or I couldn’t look at them properly because I had locked my eyes to someone.

Galbero…

He walked past me without even looking at me. I clenched my fist tightly but I managed to hold myself back.

Now’s not the time. Stick to the plan. I told myself as I continued walking.

*

I changed into my battle clothes. The attire I wore was pretty much the same. Almost all of my armor was made of leather in order to make myself lighter. William also provided me with another set of high-quality daggers. The daggers were dangerously sharp and could cut one’s flesh as effortlessly as cutting a paper with a brand-new scissor.

“Hmmm…” I weighed in my choice of weapon. Objectively speaking, the new daggers were better in every way. The hilt was made of new and polished leather while my old one had been battered by countless fights. The new dagger’s blade was sharp and it was as light as if my hand barely held anything.

But there was another part of me that wanted to use the old one.

How can I explain it? I’d be lying if I said there’s no sentimental value but that’s not the main reason. I felt as if the old daggers were my partners. I’d used them ever since I first got them and had been using them till now. Not using them in this match and opting to choose the new ones might give me a disadvantage as I wasn’t used to them.

After debating with what seemed like a trivial thing, I chose my old weapons. I want to defeat him with the ‘me’ that have come this far. After being looked down upon to the point that they wanted to get rid of me for the simple reason of seeing me as a weak person, I was very eager to act some revenge upon them. Losing this match wasn’t an option.

After minutes of contemplating, I went to the main lobby. There, I found all the participants wearing their armors and weapons proudly. In the corner of my eye, I noticed Elis, who was cheerfully waving at me.

“Are you having a wondrous day, Terrin?” Elis asked.

“Thanks to you, I’m having a day,” I then bowed respectfully. “But seriously, thank you very much. I’ll be sure to return the favor someday.”

“My,” she smiled seductively. “I shall wait with high expectations.”

“By the way,” I innocently asked. “What were you doing there in the first place?”

“Nothing much really,” she shrugged. “I wanted to see the event, only to find it very boring then I saw you with your friends. I followed you a bit and when I saw you separate with your friends, I could finally disturb you. Then I saw you fighting someone, so I waited to see how good you are and then the rest is history.”

“Well, I guess that was just a great coincidence. But don’t you have your own friends to, as you said, disturb…?”

She covered half of her face with her fan and looked all around being flustered. “O-Of course, I have friends to disturb…”

She doesn’t have friends…I mean, it’s not bad to be alone, right? Yeah, no.

Must be because of her upbringing. Nobles were usually prideful people, so being friends with commoners were frowned upon and befriending children from another house must have also been quite complicated.

“Anyway, Good luck to your matches…” She hurriedly ran away.

“Good luck to you, too…”

The host then explained the rules for the tournament;

All types of weapon and legal magic were allowed. But only one primary choice of weapon. A win could only happen if the opponent conceded, was knocked out, stepped out of the stage, or if the referee concluded the match to be over. Any kind of cheating, bribery or blackmailing would result in an immediate disqualification and/or lost.

It was mostly identical to the tournament rules for the Rookie bracket. But in the third rule, disqualification was put instead of imprisonment or death.

With that in mind, we were put in the stage to be seen by the crowd. The gazes of the crowd made my heart go faster. Damn, it was hard having stage fright.

The inside of the arena looked identical to a theatre except that the stage was viewed in all side. But for the most part, every seat seemed comfortable to seat on and even had their own tables for food and drinks.

Fuyuki, along with the others, comfortably seated at the bottom seats. Earlier, William had given them an invitation so they could enter the Arena without any hassle. I happily waved back at them. I couldn’t help but smile to the silliness of Fuyuki and the presence of others, especially Risa. It gave me a comfortable feeling, like I wasn’t alone in the stage. It helped alleviate my stage fright, which I was thankful for.

Also, are you drinking tea, Takana!? Who are you and what have you done with Takana!?

On the top seats, there were two seats occupying a wide space. I said seats but they were more like grandiose thrones. The other one was unoccupied while the other one was occupied by a pretty woman wearing beautiful clothes and a shiny crown.

It was the Queen.

William, Romero and a woman sat near the Queen. It was probably because of their prominence and influence in the Kingdom.

“Let the games begin!” The Queen’s voice echoed through the Arena. The crowd, which was made up of nobles, clapped. It was nothing compared to the sheer volume of the commoners’ cheers.

“Contestants, on to the stage, please!” The host, surprisingly, held a microphone. I didn’t know there was a microphone in this world, so I was surprised by the sudden loud voice coming out one of the speaker. They must have come from the Borgos.

Soon, I was called to the stage. I walked towards the stage as my opponent and I got called.

“On the left side, a representative from the Borin family, Terrin!” The crowd clapped. Though, it felt like the clapping was forced.

“On the right side, second-born child of the Lili Family, Ame!” The crowd clapped again.

So, she’s my opponent, huh? She’s a mage if I recall. I really could use some water now, though.

I tasted my dry mouth as I remembered what William taught me yesterday.

William had given me a rough estimation of the abilities of all the participants. According to the intel, more than half of the participants were men and the rest were women. Only one of the men used magic while the rest used a physical weapon. The women mostly used magic, including Elis, and a few used bows.

It was safe to assume that my opponents knew what my abilities, too. Nobles took the tournament seriously and were willing to get an advantage, no matter how small. And information about your opponents were by no means a small advantage.

The referee stepped in. “Let the battle begin!”

A small flying object in the shape of box circled around us. It seemed to be…observing us. The flying object kept circling in a moderate pace.

Ignoring the flying object, I quickly dashed towards the woman. Since the stage was wide, there was quite a gap between us. To be able to easily defeat her, I must be able to disrupt her chants.

“Harim, Femel, Min, Shan. Fire Pillar.” Ame used a spell.

From the ground, fire rose at random all around the stage. I saw an incoming fire about to rise but in the nick of time, I managed to side step it. Though, that seemed futile as fire rose wherever I went.

I just gotta hold on. William advised me that the longer the battle, the harder it was for a mage. Mages used their mana to be able to do magic. In essence, mana was like their energy. If they used it too much, they’d get tired.

Ame continued to use her magic while I managed to barely dodge them. I couldn’t get close enough as her magic relentlessly chased me.

I gotta praise her focus, though. Wherever I go, her magic is waiting for me. While Lindwal told me they didn’t have any real battle experience, they still knew what to do with their magic. Being able to afford a good mentor was itself an advantage for them but since every participant here was a noble and had extensive training like Ame, it leveled the playing field.

I threw a dagger near her to miss purposely. It was only to throw her off. Focus was a hard thing to achieve, or at least, it took a lot to achieve it. This was why mages were often on the rear, they had to focus entirely on their magic, leaving them vulnerable to the enemy.

She saw the incoming dagger and managed to dodge it by moving a little to the side. I could see her confusion in her face as she realized that moving wasn’t even necessary. She looked back at me, only to find out I was running towards her.

She used her magic to raise another fire pillar. Unfortunately for me, I wasn’t fast enough. The fire pillar rose, creating a border between me and her, as I ran. Without any hesitation, I ran through the fire pillar. With my speed, I knew I would be able to pass through the fire with little to no burns, and Ame was surprised to see me do it.

I pushed her down the floor and pointed my dagger at her throat.

“Surrender.” I raised my dagger and brought it down…

“I-I Surrender!” Ame frantically screamed.

…Only to fake it, of course. I hope I didn’t frighten her much.

The referee pulled me away from her. After helping her stand, he declared me winner by raising my arm. The flying object earlier came in front of me as if to congratulate me as the crowd clapped normally and pleasantly. It felt nice not hearing someone beside my ear screamed on the top of their lungs.

Well, one down. Don’t you dare lose, Galbero. I have something for you.