After my painful match with Sirius I woke up in the infirmary of the oh so familiar Colonus hospital. My body has been wrapped in bandages despite the fact that I felt my wounds were healed via healing magic. Even though I don’t feel injured anymore, I still feel extremely lethargic, like I’ve just eaten a large fulfilling dinner and don’t have the will to move. I suppose that is the side effect of using the entirety of your aura in 10 minutes.

I’ve been placed within the same infirmary as Ryder as I see him lying in a bed near me already awake and examining one of his bombs. It seems that Nerva has won her match against Basilisk’s Gaze. I was able to catch a few glimpses of the match through a magical recording of the tournament, and even saw how beat up I was during my match. Looking at that I feel like I may have revealed a bit too much about my fighting style, pretty much every tactic I commonly rely on was used in that fight. Due to that I’ve received several letters of “declarations of victory” from people I’m assuming are the other fighters of the tournament. About 15 letters lie by my bedside table detailing specific ways in which people say they can beat me. It's all stuff like “I have access to the earth element so it beats your wind abilities,” or “I have an ability that lets me perfectly counter your swordsmanship.” It's been quite an amusing time reading these pieces of trash. Little do these people know I’m in no state to fight and I have no intention of doing so as soon as I’m able. Armstrong will have to throw me out another window if he wants me to fight again. I took out one of our rival guild's strongest fighters so I feel like I have every right to relax for a day or two. For now I am going to relax in this hospital and chill with Ryder.

“So Will how does it feel to have won your first tournament match?” Ryder questioned.

First and last hopefully.

“It felt good to win, but no one told me it would be so painful and tiring. I feel like I’d pass out if I were to get out of this bed,” I responded.

“Yeah it can feel like that, I remember the first time I got disqualified from the tournament.”

“First time? This isn’t the only time you’ve been disqualified?”

“I actually participated once before, a few years ago when they did a battle royale version of the tournament where even fledglings could participate. Azura and I were still a part of Zefren’s guild at the time,” Ryder revealed.

“Let me guess, you got disqualified because you endangered the audience again?” I assumed.

With Ryder involved in the tournament, I can barely see an outcome where he doesn’t get disqualified.

“Nah, it wasn’t that. That year’s tournament was special, they held it in a gigantic floating arena in the sky. I got disqualified for engaging in friendly fire. My bombs destroyed a fair bit of the arena, and sent quite a few allies plummeting to the ground. The guild leader pulled me out, because I was apparently, ‘bad for team synergy’ and stuff like that,” he complained.

It’s a bit difficult to argue with that decision, I remember numerous times where Ryder almost blew us up in an attack.

Suddenly my little bonding session was interrupted as someone entered the infirmary carrying a box.

“Delivery for the first hero and Ryder!” a familiar voice says.

I turn to see who it is and a familiar pants obsessed knight stands before me carrying a few pizza boxes.

“Manchester?! And you're delivering… pizzas?” I say partially confused.

“Indeed, I am here with the pizza, also congratulations for winning your first match!” Manchester commended.

“Thanks, but I didn’t order any pizza, did you Ryder?”

“Nope! I’ll take it though,” Ryder says as he begins digging into the pizza.

I begin to reach around my bedside table to see if I have any gold on me before being stopped by Manchester.

“No need my boy! These are on the house, courtesy of my brother’s restaurant,” he noted.

“Your brother owns a restaurant, also there’s more?”

Two more familiar faces come through the door both carrying a stack of pizzas. One of which makes me tense up.

“Yep and one in every flavor,” Scylla announced.

“I seriously doubt Will is going to be able to eat all of these, your brother went overboard,” Elisa remarked.

“Then we shall eat them all together, nothing like a jovial meal with friends to rejuvenate one’s spirits,” Manchester says as he pulls up a chair near my bed.

The long black haired girl and pale white haired girl lay the numerous pizza boxes on the floor before sitting down in nearby chairs.

True to their word there really is a different pizza in each of those boxes, each with differing assortments of toppings. We each start digging into a box and consuming the pizzas. One thing to note was that they were all pant shaped which reminds me of something.

“Wait a minute I feel like I’ve eaten this place’s food before,” I began.

“In fact you have. My brother’s restaurant is called Wranglers, I remember seeing you a few weeks ago with that monk you recently fought in the tournament. It was rush hour so I didn’t get the chance to say hello,” Manchester stated.

“Their food may seem off putting at first, but it's really good,” Scylla complimented.

“Yeah all their food is pant shaped, even the salad. How do you make a pant shaped salad?” Elisa exasperated.

“That’s a proprietary secret my dear, can’t let that one get out lest we deal with competitors,” Manchester answered.

I can’t think of any restaurant that would want to copy that formula but I digress.

I open up one box while seeing that Ryder has already devoured half of his pizza.

“This pizza is so good, it's like the flavor is exploding in my mouth,” Ryder mumbled with a slice in his mouth.

Everyone grabs a random pizza box and starts eating the cheesy contents within. I’m pretty sure I’ve eaten this pizza before but it still tastes good nonetheless.

“I must say, I was impressed by your performance in that last fight first hero, you even adopted the appropriate style of dress halfway through the fight,” Manchester applauded.

“Appropriate what?” I said flabbergasted.

“He’s referring to when you ripped off your clothes and finished the fight shirtless,” Scylla clarified.

“Oh right, forgot I did that.”

“You were leagues above your strength level back in Ayana. I must apologize for not helping in that final raid, our squad was dealing with a horde of nasty demons that had been cultivated by that Man of Stone,” Manchester revealed.

Oh yeah, I remember that the man of stone was raising demons. I recall Luther and his squad dealing with that back during the raid.

“Demon attacks are becoming more frequent as of late. The knights’ dungeon subjugation squads are becoming swamped with work,” Elisa mentions.

“It's true, I recently destroyed a dungeon not too long ago,” I say with the thought of my pet slime arising in my head.

“I wonder what exactly is making demon attacks more frequent. I’ve never been much of a book or history guy, but did the prophecy ever say anything about what causes the demon wave?” Ryder chimed in as he finished an entire pizza by himself.

Good question, one that I don’t have the answer to since I’ve never had the chance to read the prophecy myself.

“I’m not a certified historian myself, but from what I’ve heard in rumors and certain books I could find; it has something to do with the dimensional seal that separates the demon world from the human world. It’s apparently getting weaker over time, and the tears in the seal are what the portals to the demon world are,” Scylla revealed.

“That makes sense, I guess,” Ryder says.

“But from the few demons I’ve fought, most of them haven’t been too strong aside from the dungeon bosses. I wonder why the real powerful ones haven’t gone through the portal yet?” I posed.

“It’s most likely the seal that prevents those higher tier demons from passing through. However… hmm, hey wanna know a little secret?” Scylla asks me.

The black haired girl with purple eyes pauses for a bit expecting an answer.

“What secret?”

“I have run into a few real strong demons, but most of them are less than a few months old.”

“So?”

“This is just a theory of mine, but I believe strong demons still in the incubation process can pass through without a problem, so demonic eggs are a real problem,” she revealed.

Demonic eggs huh? It’s lucky that not all demons reproduce via laying an egg or at least I hope not. I lazily try to reach for the last slice of pepperoni pizza in my box, but end up knocking the box over instead. Suddenly a quick flash of light lit up the room as Elisa stood before me holding the pizza box. The ghost knight takes the last slice for herself as she ends up sitting back down.

“It may not be just a theory,” Elisa says while enjoying the pizza she stole from me.

“Indeed we found evidence of hatched eggs lying in the castle when we were assigned to clean up the aftermath of the Ayana castle raid,” Manchester said.

“What kind of crazy people would take demon eggs and try to hatch them here?” Ryder asks.

“I do not know, but that is a conversation for another time. How about we transition to a much lighter conversation topic? Is there anything anyone would like to talk about? Like what they wanted to be when they grew up or life goals,” the pants knight suggests.

“I always wanted to be an adventurer so I could use my bombs, how about you Will?” Ryder asks me.

I’m not sure I could answer that question without the context of my old world, so I’ll just settle for a simple answer.

“I just wanted to live a comfortable life doing whatever I could that I was good at. I didn’t really have anything specific I wanted to do,” I say, readjusting my position in the hospital bed.

“One doesn’t need to have grand aspirations to live their life. I have but a simple childhood dream, establish my own clothing brand,” Manchester says as he rubs his chin staring at the ceiling while visualizing his dream.

“Clothing brand? Selling what?”

“Did you even need to ask?” Elisa says as if the answer were obvious.

The pale knight rolls her eyes as she picks off the pineapple toppings on a pizza with ham.

“Pants, of course!” Scylla chuckled.

“Not just pants, but trousers, slacks, knickers, breeches and britches as well,” he clarified.

“Aren’t those all the same?” I ask.

“If you believe that then there’s much I need to teach,” Manchester says proudly.

“Okay changing topics, we don't need a 4 hour lecture on the distinctions. How about this, if there was a world where everybody could be happy and there was no pain or suffering. You wouldn’t have to struggle. Would you want to live in it?” Scylla inquired.

“It sounds like heaven. Sure I’d like to live in it,” I answered.

“Sure does, a world where I perfect my bomb formulas on the first try sounds nice. However I wouldn’t want that. I enjoy the struggle, I like the process of refining my craft, tinkering and making mistakes so that I can get better,” Ryder says, presenting his own opinion.

“It definitely sounds good, but there has to be a catch right? There’s no way a world like that can really exist,” Elisa claims.

“True, it sounds like wishful thinking,” Manchester adds.

Scylla raises a finger to the air.

“The catch is that the world is kind of like an illusion, but you don’t know it. Maybe one of the four gods would be manipulating things behind the scenes. Would you still want to live in it?” Scylla prods.

“Well my answer doesn’t change,” Ryder says.

I take a moment to think. A world full of happiness, but really all the strings are unknowingly pulled by someone behind the scenes. Is happiness really worth it if it were a lie?

“I-I don’t know. A part of me wants to say no, but when I think of all the terrible things in the world I can’t help but reconsider,” I say undecided.

“Interesting, if you had to choose one or the other what would it be?” Scylla continues as she presses me for an answer.

“If I were forced to choose… maybe not.”

“It seems we're in the same group then Will. I can’t stand the thought of living my life manipulated by someone else. Even if it meant plunging the world into chaos and destruction, I still wouldn't choose it,” Elisa asserted.

“I would choose the world of happiness, there are some things that can’t be achieved no matter how hard we try. It's just human nature to cause conflict and I have seen far too many tragedies to believe that humanity could ever reach such a utopia naturally. Quite the controversial topic, why do you ask Scylla?” Manchester questioned.

“No reason, just a bit of food for thought is all,” she stated.

The mysterious knight sat back in her seat as if she were amused by everyone’s answers.

We go back and forth on a few more topics until we end up finishing all the pizza. At least 15 boxes of pizza were devoured in the blink of an eye.

“Ah nothing like a bit of pizza to revive one’s fighting spirits, it's time we get going. There’ll be a busy night at Wranglers with the first day of the tournament coming to a close. Good luck with the tournament and I bid thee farewell,” Manchester says, giving a quick bow.

“Good luck Will, and watch out for any suspicious individuals. Have a feeling that some crazy fans of the other guilds can get a bit stir crazy waiting in the stands,” Scylla mentions.

“Bye, try not to get so beat up in the next fight,” Elisa says tiredly.

The 3 knights depart, leaving just me and Ryder in the room to rest.

“Ah with the fights over we can finally kick back and rela-”

I’m interrupted as the door swings open and as many guild members from Dragon’s descent flood the infirmary room. The rest of my party and Quincy’s party are present as well although I don’t see Akane and Warren here. They are either busy taking care of the child or security guards banned everyone not from Dragon’s Descent from entering this tiny room.

“Goddamnit!” I cursed.

“Will my boy, glad to see you’re still up and kicking!” Armstrong greeted.

“Can’t you guys read the sign, max occupancy of two,” I say pointing to the sign just above the door.

“Will that sign clearly says twenty five on it,” Remi states.

I open a tiny portal with the feeble amount of energy I have that covers the five from view.

“As I was saying, it says two,” I argued.

Everyone ignores me and fills in the empty space around the room.

“What are you guys here for?” Ryder asks.

“Dragon’s Descent meeting number two,” Armstrong puts out as he pulls up a chair.

“We need to figure out who is fighting whom for the second day. The emperor just released the schedule for the second day,” Jack followed as he lounges back in a chair near the window.

Oh boy, time to prove to everyone how injured and tired I am so I don’t have to fight tomorrow.

“Well as everyone can see I’m in no condition to fight tomorrow since I barely have any aura within me right now. And Ryder is disqualified so I’m not sure why this meeting needs to happen here,” I say logically, surmising my plight to get everyone to leave.

“Hah, true, but you need to be in this meeting just in case something unexpected happens. Not that anyone would happen to be unavailable to fight tomorrow, but it's not impossible you could serve as a possible backup if need be,” Armstrong explained.

“If something bad happens to the four of you, I’m calling cheating on the part of the other guilds. I don’t even have my sword back yet, gotta go get it when the healers are done fixing Sirius’s gut. I ain’t winning a single fight without my weapon, I ain’t no monk.”

“You don’t have to be a monk to win a fight without a weapon, Nerva almost won her fight without one,” Quincy mentioned.

“Yeah but she pulled out her scythe thingy at the end,” I argued.

“I coulda beat up that guy without it, just made it a little easier is all,” Nerva says.

“Regardless of having a weapon or not, if we need you to fight, you’re fighting, that's final,” Armstrong interrupted.

Suddenly Willow comes into the room handing Armstrong a scroll before scurrying out of the packed room.

“Ah yes, our scheduled fights for tomorrow,” Armstrong says.

“Open it up, time to see which guild my boy will be fighting tomorrow,” Jack says with anticipation.

“Oh no I don’t wanna hear this,” Adam whelped.

“Its finally your fucking time to fight. Don’t be a bitch,” Nerva says as she smacks Adam on the back.

Armstrong opens up the scroll to read its contents before reporting the fight order.

“Dragon’s Descent is scheduled to fight against Unicorn’s Wonderland, Griffin’s Nest and Angel’s Folly, and in that order,” he announced.

There are some negative reactions from the people from our guild upon hearing the name Unicorn’s Wonderland. I can’t tell if it's simply due to the name being obnoxious or the people from that guild being more obnoxious.

“So we’re most likely taking on magicians from Oclana, a desert dweller from Atrad and some jungle-raised savage from Zefren,” Jack surmises.

“If these are the general assumptions people have from those states, I wonder what assumptions people have of Dreden. I really have no idea what this state is even known for other than housing the capital,” I muttered.

Springing up at even the slightest opportunity to spout his history knowledge Quincy starts lecturing.

“Heh, allow me to explain then. Founded in 453 AC, the state of Dreden fought its way into existence. Being in the center of the empire, the area was a known battleground between the various states as they all vied for control of the region. Even though the empire existed by this point, the area of Dreden was not under the control of the imperial government or any other state, serving more so as a buffer zone...”

I brought this on myself didn’t I? Vienna save me from this pain. If I could I would open a portal beneath Quincy’s feet right now. He starts to go on like this for 45 seconds until someone cuts in.

“Hey Quincy, really sorry to interrupt but we’re in the middle of a meeting right now, could you like, skip to the most important parts,” Lilith interjected.

Oh thank god, my prayers have been answered. I swear the next time I visit Vienna’s church I will have something to be grateful for. Quincy on the other hand looks like a child who found coal in his stocking on Christmas Day.

“Hmph, it's all important, but for the sake of time I will give a brief version. Dreden’s people are a rowdy bunch, always looking for a fight. To them fighting has evolved from being a necessity to an enjoyment. As home of the capital Colonus, the state is also the empire’s most diverse. Many non-humans call Dreden home as its people don’t care how one looks, but how well they can fight. It houses the largest non-human population excluding the empire’s many immigrant hubs. This makes Dreden an outlier, as most states dislike immigrants,” Quincy lectured.

“Most huh, which states other than Dreden like immigrants?” Nazuko asks as she suddenly appears from beneath my bed like a gremlin.

How the heck do I never notice Nazuko until she speaks? Was she there the whole time?

“Oclana for one. What they value most is magic and anyone with magical talent is welcome there. Speaking of Oclana, since we're fighting them first I’ve decided that you’re going to fight first Quincy,” Armstrong stated.

“Can we talk about this? Adam looks like he really wants to go first,” Quincy points out.

We all look at Adam, but the look on his face suggests anything but excited.

“Wait I-I-I don’t really want-” he begins but gets cutoff by Jack.

“Hah I know you're excited my son, but I agree with Armstrong on this one. Magicians tend to lack a sufficient amount of aura to defend themselves with. If Quincy can close the distance and stick to them, it’ll be a difficult fight for Unicorn’s Wonderland. Not that I doubt that you can win a magician on magician fight, but this gives us the best chance at victory,” Jack says.

Adam sighs in relief hearing that he’s not going first.

“However, since our next opponent after that is Griffin’s Nest they’ll be the perfect opponent for you. Desert dwellers tend to have a resistance against fire or heat spells and they also tend to utilize magic that alters the environment, making it a difficult fight for tamers. With your healing magic you should be able to withstand any magic that inflicts ailments on their opponent,” Jack summarizes.

“True Griffin’s Nest was a real problem for us last year as one of their combatants changed the arena to one filled with deadly scorpions and poisonous spiders,” Armstrong reminisced.

Adam gulped at the idea of dealing with poisonous insects and started shuddering. Honestly I’ll give him some slack on this one, spiders give me the creeps. If I ever have to fight one in this world I’m going home.

“Opponents that use poison are always pesky to deal with,” Azura commented.

“How did you guys end up winning that one?” Quincy asks.

“We didn’t, someone from Kraken’s Deep ended up defeating that opponent with brute force,” our guild leader says.

Damn I guess when you can’t think of a complex strategy brute force always works.

“So for dealing with Angel’s Folly, Remi will be fighting since she’s the last one who hasn’t fought yet?” I guess.

I hope Remi doesn’t mind me volunteering her to fight as she willingly volunteered to enter the tournament.

“Well , Zefren tends to value strength and doesn't really have any specific gimmicks. It's a grab bag so yes that seems reasonab-” Armstrong began.

“Hold up!”

Nerva stops everyone’s train of thought as a fire literally appears in the center of the infirmary room.

“I wanna fight.”

“But Nerva you’re injured and you need rest. You wouldn't even let the healing mages heal you after your fight,” Adam spoke up.

“F*ck those healing mages! Do I look injured to you?” she asks him.

Adam hesitates to respond despite knowing the answer to that question.

It’s getting so hot in here some of my junk mail from people wanting to fight me starts catching fire.

“Fine, if you really want to fight that badly then go ahead. If we don’t let you go, you're liable to start a fight outside the arena,” Armstrong jokes.

That statement is very true.

“Any objections Remi?” I ask.

“None from me, just make sure you win,” Remi says as she puts out the fire in my pile of mail.

“Hah, there’s no way I’m gonna lose against some brat that grew up in someone’s overgrown front yard,” Nerva boasted.

“Well then it's settled, Nerva will fight after Adam tomorrow. We have the momentum right now, let’s keep it going. Let me hear a ‘go team’” Armstrong demanded.

A very crowded room yells ‘go team’ as some people accidentally hit one another with their congratulatory gestures. Now that the meeting has ended it seems usual Dragon’s Descent behavior is a go now as a fight breaks out. I need to put a stop to this now.

“Go team and you know what, there's something else that also needs to go. Would all of you get the hell out of my infirmary room!” I yell as I reach for Ryder’s cannon and aim it at the crowd.

A quick shuffle of feet and people tripping over each other to avoid getting blown up is what ensues after my threat.

Soon all that is left is my party in the now much more spacious room.

“Were you really about to blow them up?” Lilith asks me as she somehow avoided getting touched in that entire scuffle.

Not that anyone could push over Lilith, the girl is a rock.

“Yes. I even pulled the trigger a few times, but nothing came out,” I tell her.

“Sorry I usually generate the ammo for that with my ability,” Ryder responds.

“Hey Will, what are these?” Remi asks, holding the now wet pile of junk mail.

“Oh those, those are ‘threats’ from the other fighters in the tournament I guess. Basically its mail bragging about how much better of a fighter they are compared to me. They go into great detail on exactly how their ability would counter me. You would have done me a big favor by not putting out that fire,” I answered.

Why people get so much satisfaction bragging about how great they are I will never know. It makes me so mad I wish I could send Nazuko to rob all their valuables, but that might be considered sabotage.

“Hey can I keep some of these? I think I can find a use for some of them,” Remi says.

“Yeah sure, do whatever you want with them, just get them out of my face.”

Remi looks through the letters, somehow making sense of the smudged ink.

“Huh, what’s with this strange letter? It says it's from the Circle of Harmony saying ‘you’re invited’, invited to what?” Remi reads.

“Don’t know, never even heard of that name before. Or at least I don’t remember if I have. Just throw it away, it probably doesn’t mean anything,” I directed.

“I feel like I’ve heard that name somewhere but I just can’t remember it either,” Nazuko says from beneath my bed.

Remi ponders it for a moment before a nurse comes into the room to turn the lights off.

“Lights out, all visitors must leave,” the caretaker tells everyone.

“Alright we can talk with Will and Ryder later, let's give them some time to rest,” Azura says as she pulls Remi away and drags Nazuko out from under the bed. Lilith follows behind the 3 girls as she says good night.

Finally, I get the much deserved rest I craved so badly. My head feels so dizzy with all this tournament stuff going on, but at least I get to enjoy the chaos that will be the 2nd day of the tournament.