I woke up groggily, blinking in confusion. My vision cleared, revealing white roof and a silver lantern. Evidently, I was laying down. I tried to sit up, but someone grabbed my shoulder and held me down. An older man with brown side-burns and a head full of hair stepped into view.

“Hold on there, champ. You’re not cleared to move yet.” he said gruffly.

Taking slow breaths, I tried to get my bearings.

“W- where am I? What happened to the rest?”

“Now don’t you worry about a thing, young man. We’ve got it covered. To answer your questions, in order: you’re in the Saint Cross Royal hospital, along with your friends. They’re in other rooms, of course. Quite an end of the round, that was.” the man whistles appreciatively.

Right. The tournament, the hive queen. She won, defeated us all, even when we were working together.

“So everyone's alright? Even Arcellus? He was decapitated!”

The man laughs heartily, amused by my question for some reason. After a moment, he calmed down and took up a tone that somewhat resembled professionalism.

“Naturally, they’re fine. There’s nothing a tier 5 healer can’t heal, provided they have enough mana. Well, maybe there are some things, but, at the very least, they can heal wounds inflicted by a tier 4 monster. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be worth the name.”

Something about my incredulous stare must have tipped him off that I wasn’t quite convinced.

He shrugged awkwardly.

“It helps that they were teleported straight to our operating rooms the moment they were wounded, I’ll admit. If the tournament’s safety precautions weren’t as thorough as they are, the consequences would have been more serious.” the doctor explained, before seeming to remember something.

“Oh, right! I wasn’t here to talk about that. Sorry.” he says, rubbing the back of his neck in embarrassment as he half-heartedly apologized.

“You’ve got some strange skills, kid. When we brought you in, your body was already healing itself on its own, the flesh visibly recovering. Even your internal wounds were healing! By the time the healer got here, you had already recovered. It was good that things turned out that way, too, because the diagnostic spell the healer used on you seemed to burn your skin. We only got the message about your affinity afterward. Luckily, that healed, too. Anyway, rest up, kid. In a few hours, we’ll let you go home.” he said, before disappearing from view, uncaring for my opinion on the matter. I sighed. Hopefully, he had spoken the truth and Cerion was alright. Among the other participants, he was the only I really knew, after all.

I picked up hurried footsteps coming down the hallway, in my direction. The doctor stepped back in the view, with a single finger raised and an apologetic smile on his face.

“I forgot to tell you, you came in first! Congratulations, and all that.” he said with a smile, before hurrying off again.

~scene break~

A few hours later, Cerion and I were dismissed from the hospital. He looked fine. In fact, he assured me the wound hadn’t even scarred. I had to admit that the capital’s healers knew their stuff. Hungry and tired, we sought out a small but popular restaurant on the outskirts of the district where the hospital was located. The area was rather affluent, even by the capital’s standards, though something about the overly decorated houses and storefronts seemed superficial to me. They lacked… heart.

The restaurant itself turned out to be much more my style. The owner was an older easterner that had little regard for appearances. And yet, his food tasted heavenly. No clue what was in it, but it tasted good.

Cerion and I returned to our quarters in the guild, several dozen meters underground, perhaps more. Despite the rest I had gotten in the hospital, I felt like a walking corpse. Deciding to get an early night, I slipped under the covers of my bed and fell into a deep sleep.

The next morning, I awoke feeling refreshed and energized. Cerion was already in the living room, reading one of the many papers that were published locally. He looked up as I approached and shoved the issue into my hands as I sat down.

I straightened the paper and looked at the front page.

Dark Knight continues to dominate the competition! Is he a boon or a curse?

Yesterday, the second round of the Tier 2 royal tournament(singles) took place. This reporter is happy to share that he got front row seats to the action. It might have cost a pretty penny, but the spectacle the various competitors put on yesterday was more than worth the coin!

The contestants competed for ‘crowns’, small, localized areas that they had to occupy to earn points, with the twist that insect monsters would attack any who dared to do so. Eventually, crowns would ‘run out’, and the competitors present would be challenged by…

Losing interest, I skimmed to the next paragraph.

As a result of these devious rules, the round was filled with camaraderie and betrayal, as you might expect. Ideals and principles clashed as competitors created all kinds of schemes to pull out ahead. Mercenary-sponsored Karon, for example, tricked a large group of…

Again, I skipped ahead, searching for any mention of myself or Cerion.

A name we can’t forget to mention is, of course, Cerion Rass, son of the well-respected Duke Rass. He gave quite a showing yesterday, leading a courageous band of warriors into battle! Though I must admit, I was a little saddened by the fact that Cerion Rass and Peter Arcellus didn’t ally with each other, seeing as they’re both nobles of our kingdom. And what a team they would have made, fire and water! I hold high hopes for a possible team-up in the future!

Ignoring the reporter’s casual disregard for my friendship with Cerion, I read further ahead.

With all that being said, I have to admit I hold some reservations over this round's victor, Death Knight Arthur. As ‘The daily Roan’ reported earlier this week, he is a person of interest, if only because of his peculiar circumstances. He won the last category handily with the assistance of his supposed friend, but I’m not sure if he is as simple as he appears. The announcer might have assured us that he holds no similarities to the psychopaths and undead that share his class, but how can they be so sure? For all we know, he could just be very good at hiding his negative traits, fooling Duke Rass’ heir in the process… Is it truly a good idea for us all to welcome this threat to our country? Better to err on the side of caution, I think. That’s just this humble reporter’s opinion, though.

“What kind of person would bother to write this crap…” I muttered.

Exasperated, I chucked the paper back to Cerion. Deciding not to think about it too much, I grabbed some bread and meat and started eating.

“So, what are your thoughts?” Cerion asked hesitantly.

I scoffed.

“It’s a pile of horse shit, that’s what I think. Welcome this threat to our country? I was born here, for Helios’ sake!” I replied, frustrated. “Well, I expected worse, to be honest. At least he didn’t call me a demon or something…”

Cerion chuckled. “If you were a demon, the guy wouldn’t have written about you in the first place. I know his kind. Too cowardly to say a thing to your face, but more than willing to write about you behind your back.”

I nodded, finding myself in agreement with my friend, and resumed enjoying my meal.

~scene break~

A few hours later, I decided to pay a visit to my uncle. Coming and going to and from the palace had become easier as the guards got used to me. Analyzing skills were still being used to make sure I wasn't being impersonated, but it didn’t go further than that.

I joined my uncle in his office and found him bent over, inspecting a document. The pile of documents on his right only increased the pity I felt for him, in that moment. I reaffirmed the promise I had made to myself. No matter how strong I become, how high a tier I reach, I would never become a bureaucrat. Responsibility was for the weak. And the responsible, I supposed.

Uncle Robart looked up from the piece of paper that had held his attention for longer than any piece of paper had the right to, and smiled when he realized who had intruded his office unannounced.

“Arthur! I’m glad you came by to say hello! Marvelous job yesterday, boy. Really shut the competition up with that display. Congratulations on your swift recovery, too, I suppose. Though I never doubted that you would heal as quickly as you did.” he said calmly, closing his pen and putting it into one of his many drawers. I took a seat across from him and asked for some sugar when a servant came in, carrying two cups of tea.

“Thanks, uncle. I won’t lie and say I enjoyed that loss at the end, but I suppose taking first place in the round mollifies me somewhat.” I said with a grimace, recalling that tier 4 monster. Despite my pride, I could admit I wasn’t ready to face monsters of that caliber yet.

My uncle laughed a bit when he noticed my frustration.

“You did well, kid. Don’t tell yourself otherwise. None of you were supposed to outlast those tier 3 creatures, in the first place. That [Sonic Hive Queen] was an improvised measure, made by the organizers. Look on the bright side, you were the last to be defeated!”

I nodded, seeing his point, though I remained slightly bitter. Being confronted with one’s weakness in the grand scheme of things was never a pleasant experience. I knew I was a big fish in a small pond, but the thought that a colossal fish could just jump into my pond and go on a rampage wasn’t a comfortable one.

I pushed this line of thought out of my mind, and placed my focus on more important matters.

“So how many points did I actually have, at the end?” I asked, frowning.

My uncle laughed, finding my lack of knowledge funny, for some reason.

“Is there something on my face?” I asked, frustrated.

“Sorry, kid. It’s just funny that you are probably the last person in the capital to find out how many points you got. It is ironic, you have to admit. Here, the top ten leaderboard.”

Arthur: 14567 points. Peter Arcellus: 12349 points. Emeri Helios: 11789 points. Karon: 10678 points. Cerion Rass: 10347 points. X: 8905 points. Gaius: 8160 points. Reana: 7269 points. John: 6340 points. Uliard: 5734 points.

I gave the list a once-over, noting that Cerion had landed below Karon. Probably because of the mercenary’s glib tongue and large group of followers, that had helped him farm points.

I mentally attached the name ‘Emeri’ to the reserved girl that had wielded spears of light and whistled, impressed by the amount of points she had gathered. If I remembered correctly, the seeded list had described her combat style as ‘lacking AOE skills’, which made her placement even more impressive.

Arcellus’ performance came as no surprise, though the fact that he had less points than me probably meant that he hadn’t been able to monopolize two crowns by himself, as I had.

The only other name that stood out to me beyond the obvious was John’s. Apparently, that guy’s attitude had carried him into the final round. I liked John and was looking forward to facing him in the final round.

“Who is this ‘Reana’ person? Her name seems familiar, for some reason…” I asked my uncle.

“It would, because she is a seeded participant, sponsored by the adventurers’ guild. She uses wood-mana to enlarge and manipulate her wooden weapons.”

“Huh.” I exclaimed. That did ring a bell… I remembered seeing some of her work in that final clash. No doubt, she would be an interesting opponent as well. With this lineup of classers, tomorrow’s finals were sure to be a thrilling series of battles…