Feeling a slight trembling in her surroundings, Yvette’s eyelids trembled before it slowly opened. As she strenuously forced herself to rise her body and examine her surroundings, her memory resurfaced and remembered that they were on their way to the tournament arena when she fell unconscious halfway there.

But when she looked towards where she was leaning her head on, she realized that she has been lying on her mother’s lap.

Usually, when such a thing happened, Yvette would have quickly apologized for her thoughtless actions. But when she thought about her head lying quietly on her mother’s lap, she dazedly reached touched her cheek which lied there and felt a foreign warm feeling in her chest.

Noticing her actions, Esfir warmly smiled as happiness filled her heart. From all the interaction they had done. Though Yvette acted as if she was close to them, Esfir knew that she still kept a distance against everyone else, putting her feelings in isolation.

But from her current actions which differed from how she usually acted, she thought that a slight change might have happened to her.

Meanwhile, Daiyu who sat across them spectated all that happened. But as if she did not notice all that happened, she was still as quiet as ever.

When Esfir was about to approach Yvette, a knock suddenly sounded from outside the carriage followed by the voice of the coach.

“Misses, we have arrived.”

When the knock sounded, Yvette already came back to her senses and picked up and wore the veil which seemed to have fallen when she fell asleep. Seeing Yvette return to her usual calm self, Esfir knew her chance was now gone and sighed. Though she knew she could not blame the coach for his ignorant actions, she still sent a silent glare to where the coach should be beyond the wall before leading Yvette and Daiyu out of the carriage.

Meanwhile, the coach who was still sitting at the front seat of the carriage suddenly felt a deep sense of coldness and shuddered. When he looked left and right, he saw that nothing seemed out of place and could only sit silently in confusion, attributing the event as hallucinations.

Stepping out of the carriage, Yvette saw that the festiveness of the city did not seem to have subsided. Instead, the closer they are to the arena, the surrounding people seemed to be increasingly excited.

Watching the excited sea of people surging into the entrance of the arena which is built just like a colosseum, Yvette felt a slight ache on her head. Before, she was able to smoothly go through the city smoothly because she was more focused on her brother who led her around. But now that she took a clear look at the sea of people, a sense of discomfort overcame her until she finally managed to ignore the crowd.

At that moment, she heard Esfir calling out to her. Looking towards where her voice came from, she saw that everyone but her and Daiyu had already went to another entrance of the arena that was still closed. Seeing this, she took Daiyu and went towards them.

Once she arrived, she noticed that the surrounding people all seemed to be those of high status with either wealth or power. The crowd there could be divided into two categories, the first being those who came as a big group like her, which hinted that they may be a governor of a city, while the other being those that are either alone or in a small group who seemed to be people with either high status or power. She also noticed that many who fell into the latter category has symbols woven on their clothes, signifying that they are a part of a sect or organization.

By the time she finished observing the surrounding people, the closed gate opened with a rumbling sound and a man stepped out of the entrance.

The man has average looks with no notable features. But the fact that he could still keep calm even after being the focus of all those people proved that he is not an ordinary person.

“Dearest guests, please come in. The servants inside shall be guiding you to your respective spectator rooms.” Saying that, the man bowed his waist and stepped to the side to give them way.

Seeing this, no one said anything and passed by the man as they entered the arena.

But as Yvette was about to pass by the man, she slightly turned her head and nodded, faintly whispering to him, “Please keep up the good work.” Before walking away with Daiyu close behind.

Moments later, the man raised his head and stared intently at Yvette’s fading silhouette with gleaming eyes before once again closing the gates of the arena.

When the guests walked deep into the corridor, a line of servants appeared before them with bowed heads, seemingly waiting for them all this time. Then, the servants all approached a group of guests which they were assigned them before leading them to their respective room.

As the servant assigned to the group from Stellar City led them to their room, she further explained that she will be acting as their guide until the tournament is over. By the time she finished her explanation, they already arrived before their room.

Inside, the room is only filled with a single row of seats facing a glass wall. Though the room did not seem luxurious at first glance, when Yvette looked down from the glass wall at the normal spectator seat outside, she saw people crowding around each other with sweat constantly trickling down their faces. Seeing this, she realized that to have a room all for themselves is already quite a luxurious treatment.

Looking out of the glass wall, one could have a clear look at the surrounding spectators and the competition area underneath. And near the room, numerous glass walled rooms that cannot be seen through from the outside are placed at different locations. Even so, each of the rooms are all of the same height. But higher up the glass walled rooms, one small room could be seen placed at the highest position of the arena. At first glance, the room could be clearly seen through. Yet when anyone tries to peer into the room, the features of everyone within the room would seem to distort, causing them to be unrecognizable.

When Yvette took a seat between Esfir and Bahram, she noticed that Behnam was not with them. Confused, she was about to inquire his whereabouts. But at that moment, she heard a voice which resounded throughout the whole arena.

“Participants of the tournament, please enter the arena.”

Following those words, a stream of people appeared from one of the entrances within the arena.

Though they seemed disorderly, they all managed to smoothly enter the arena excluding the few unexperienced ones who stumbled a few times from being pushed by others.

Through this, some of the spectators, especially those from the VIP seats, were able to quickly discern those who would potentially be eliminated first.

Once all the participants finally arrived, the voice continued.

“We will now begin the qualifier round of the tournament.” As the voice faded away, a rumbling sound came from the arena and four circular pieces of the ground rose up, each lifting many of the participants with them.

When the circular grounds finally stopped rising and floated there, the voice continued, “For the qualifier round, participants atop the stages must push off or cause other participants to be incapable of battling until only eight participants are left atop each stage. You may all now begin.”

BOOM

At the same time as the word ‘begin’ came out, explosions came from two of the four stages, covering the stages in dust clouds and blowing most of the participants off the stages. But before any of the participants could hit the ground, light covered each and every one of them, bringing them away to safety.

When the dust clouds faded away, it was revealed that the two explosions were caused by two of the participants, leaving only a few participants who were struggling against the aftereffect of the explosion and most others who were still standing there in a daze after they luckily did not get pushed off by the explosion. Surprisingly, neither of the stages have a hint of damage on them even after the explosions.

One of the explosions seemed to have been caused by Behnam who stood in the center of the second stage with him still making a pose of punching the ground.

The other explosion happened atop the first stage. There, a boy with crimson hair and pupils stood arrogantly at the center of the stage while holding a crimson sword which stabbed deeply into the ground.

But instead of looking at the result of their actions, they both looked towards each other and showed a challenging smile. Then, as if understanding each other’s intent, they both started to push off or disable the other participants on their stage starting from those who managed to struggle against the explosion.

Though the struggling participants tried to fight back, none of them managed to truly fight back against the two.

Behnam used simple hits and kicks filled with overwhelming strength to dominate over all his opponents. Meanwhile, the crimson haired boy relied on his nimble footwork to dodge every attack aimed at him and the shockwaves sent out by his sword to suppress his opponents.

By the time the dazed participants returned to their senses, over half of the struggling participants were left. Seeing this, most of them started to attack Behnam and the crimson haired boy in attempt to dominate them with numbers while the smarter ones attacked other weaker participants in hopes that they will be one of the eight last standing participants.

In the end, the fight within the second stage finished first before soon followed by the first stage. Within an hour after the qualifier round began, Behnam and the crimson haired boy dominated all the other participants while the other seven qualifiers of the two stages managed to gain a place by bearing through the first explosion and were fortunate enough to not be targeted early. Though the surrounding spectators all cheered loudly throughout the fight, the fourteen of them only feel gloomy because they knew the ones being cheered on were the two dominators.

By the time the battle within the two other stages finished, two hours had already passed after the fight within the first and second stages ended and the other sixteen participants were determined. Followed by that, the voice which has not spoken for a long time once again appeared.

“The qualifier round has ended. The elimination round shall begin the next day.” Then, all the stages slowly hovered down, returning to their original location within the arena grounds.

As Behnam walked towards where the rest probably are, he took a quick glance towards the crimson haired boy who has been looking at him with a quiet gaze before quickly leaving.

Yvette who has been spectating from the VIP room suddenly felt a tap on her shoulder. Turning her head, she saw that Esfir who tapped her shoulder and everyone else within the room has already stood up in preparation to leave. Following their lead, she also stood up and followed them out of the room.

As they walked through the corridor, they saw all Behnam walking towards them from the distance together with other participants from Stellar City. At the same time, he caught sight of them and lightly waved his hand as he sped up his pace.

Once the participants rejoined them, they all walked out of the arena together. But when they stepped out of the building, Yvette felt a gaze landing on her. Turning to the source, she saw a crimson haired boy staring followed closely by an elderly man who seemed to be his attendant. Though they stood rather far away, she was able to notice that the boy was not really staring towards her, but Behnam who was standing right next to her.

But the moment her gaze landed on the boy, she could feel his gaze moving from Behnam to her. After some time, she quickly lost interest on the boy and turned her head away, leading Daiyu to follow Esfir as they prepared to return to the inn.

Meanwhile, the crimson haired boy finally recovered from his shock and turned towards his attendant.

“Do you think it was a coincidence?” He asked with a grave face.

“No, I believe not.” Said the attendant after a quick pondering, “Her perception must be very acute. Either that or she is actually an elf who are famed for their abundant soul and affinity with nature. From her body build, she must not be very old, so for her perception to be so sharp should be impossible, so I believe she must be an elf, especially so with the veil she used to hide her appearance.”

Hearing his attendant’s discernment, the boy muttered, “I see, that makes sense.” Before gazing thoughtfully towards the direction which the carriages of the Stellar City’s group disappeared in.

Seeing his master deep in thought, the attendant hesitated for a moment before finally whispering, “Prince Cyrus, do you want me to gather information about them?”

“No, there is no need, that would just be rude of me.” Said the boy, Cyrus, after snapping out of his thoughts. Then, without wasting another moment, the boy went towards his carriage, the carriage of the Kirmist imperial family before riding away to the residence of East city’s governor.