As Ajax was working on getting a handle on his anger, something that came much easier to him as he thought about the quality of the first retainer he gained, he was unaware of the issues that the bookies he was angry at were going through.

All of the gambling leaders had been in the arena to watch that match, despite all they had heard about the child prodigy who had been named a noble at the age of sixteen very little was leaked of his actual power outside the academy. To say that their meddling was a success was an understatement as they all watched him crush the beastkin.

It was only once they had gotten back to their offices that the victory turned to ashes in their mouth. All of them had massively profited from the latest fight, so much so that even with some unusually bad outcomes they would still end up with a decent gain by the end of the tournament. There was just one thing that they hadn’t accounted for.

As they looked at the one thing had become clear, nobody would be able to actually stand up to Ajax. Their best chance to minimize their losses there was to give out absurd odds for him to lose and hope to recoup the losses they will have from everyone that was betting on him to win. Their issue however came from the post announcement bets.

While no betting house would allow people to be on the nobles winning in the first round of the tournament, it would be a pure money sink for them, other types of bets were allowed once the noble participant list was made available. To their shock all of them had bets on their books made for Ajax to win the whole tournament, not only that but those bets were many and made in sizable amounts, not enough to draw too much attention but not cheap by any means. Add that on to the high odds that a complete unknown had to win the whole tournament and they could forget about staying in the black, they’d be lucky to even remain open after the tournament ended.

“I wouldn’t worry about those gamblers getting too comfortable.” Alana said after she listened to Ajax complain about the set-up Theron had to endure.

“Oh?” Elija was the most interested in whatever scheme she had cooked up, after the last few months he had started to recognise her talent for strategy.

“I’ve bet almost one thousand gold in total on you winning the whole thing, and this was back when the odds of you doing so were fifty to one.” she said with a smile. “That should get us enough working capital to help us procure any of the more rare items that the customers we gain from the honey sales might request.”

“That is very well executed.” Elija said as he stroked his chin slightly frowning as he thought over the situation. “A bit too excessive but seeing as they meddled with the tournament themselves it’s not something that will result in a backlash.”

“But if this was something that would work, why didn’t you do it as well?” Sam asked the same question Ajax was pondering.

“We weren’t in a position to do it.” Aurora explained. “The only reason why Alana managed to pull it off is because none of her trusted people are widely known yet. Had we tried to do the same thing they would have recognised our people by the first day, or one of the intermediary people we used would sell the plan out.”

“Speaking of retainers, is there anyone else you would want to get?” Tom asked.

The biggest issue their family had when gathering retainers was that none of them were strong enough to try and entice any strong retired adventurers. This left them with two options: either they would slowly build up their retainers over the next century at the fastest, or they would have a strong enough person marry into the family and have them control any unstable retainers they try to get. Needless to say all of them were leaning more towards the first option

“I can’t think o…” Ajax trailed off as he thought of all the teams he had gone into dungeons with over the last few months but none of them would join his house as retainers. “There would be one team.”

“Which one?” Tom asked. “That duel has given me some leeway to use my time and position to help along with recruiting.”

“The Collectors.” Ajax said as he fondly remembered his first delving team.

“The Collectors?” Elija mumbled as he thought he heard the name before. “Yes…, new team…, arrived in the capital in the last year. They were already approached by both house Goldmancer as well as Manashaper.”

“I thought you got along with both of those houses.” Aurora said.

“Yes, it would be a good idea to get them as our retainers.” Tom acknowledged as he thought about it. “ Houses Goldmancer and Manashaper were simply paying out a reward, not only that but they have a very good idea of your fighting style, it would be best if they were to join us.”

They were a solid team with good fundamentals that had already proven they could help them start building up strong retainer force. Not only that but they already knew about Ajax’s prodigious talent and wouldn’t take all that much convincing that their currently weak house was one that will grow quickly.

From there on the tournament continued for Ajax in very much the same way as it started. Everybody he was up against would get bodied in the opening moments of the fight, a mage had attempted to go for a strong shield chant but quickly found out that there wasn’t enough time to set up the shield before Ajax crossed the small distance separating the combatants.

“And he does it again.” the commentator shouted as Ajax had the mage on the ground with a sword point at his neck. “The head of House Hearthbound in truly unstoppable.”

“Not only that but as he is only age seventeen he will be eligible to participate in the tournament for the next ten years as well.” The other commentator picked up. “He will be the first to break the former crown princes’ record of six consecutive victories. Not only that but he might push that record all the way to eleven!”

Whereas the sixth year tournament was only halfway through at this point the first year tournament was almost finished. With Annabeth having claimed one of the final spots, Benedict and Lexi were set to fight for the other.

Benedict knew that this was a fight he wasn’t likely to win. Alexis Manashaper was a gifted and powerful mage, not only that but she was someone who, despite her somewhat aloof persona, was a first class analyst. She might not have had a mind for schemes and strategy like Annabeth but she could take apart a person's fighting style in moments.

Despite all of his hard training Benedict was at a massive disadvantage by having to fight a mage in a straight up duel. Seeing as both fighters would be coming into the fight well rested and with their resources topped up.

From the moment the referee started the match Benedict had the urge to start cursing. The first thing Lexi did was put up a strong wind cocoon around herself to ensure she wouldn’t be taken out by a stray ranged projectile. Not only that but her defensive layers only expanded from there as she created a small moat that she filled with fire around herself in her next two casts before she started peppering Benedict with spells.

For his side Benedict had tried to replicate Ajax’s successful strategy of rushing the mage before they managed to get their defenses up but he was simply not fast enough, he had barely covered half the distance between them before the wind wall as well as the fire ring were put in place.

From there the match simply came down to whether Benedict could outlast Lexi’s remaining mana pool or not. This wasn’t the first time Benedict was faced with this situation in the tournament but there was one big difference between Lexi and every other mage in their class.

Whereas all the other mages in their class had taken to focusing on one, maybe two elements, Lexi had the advantage of having her grandfather teach her his wide repertoire of spells that span across multiple elements. In much the same way Benedict’s family Steelblade had a wide array of weapons that could counter specific elements but Benedict simply couldn’t bring all of them with him.

By the end of the fight Benedicts armor had patches frozen over, scorched black, soaked wet, entirely missing(thanks to a nasty little ball of acid Lexi had thrown at him). What brought him down in the end however had been a shadow spell. By pelting him with all sorts of different elements Lexi had forced him to take a defensive position behind his enchanted tower shield. Benedict hadn’t seen the shadow chains coming before locked around his body letting Lexi walk around his shield and finally end the fight.