Death, Devotion, Dissonance

The Mage King looked through the room in a slow, discerning manner. Even Endra felt pressured by the gaze, despite knowing he'd be safe. Perhaps it was the same as climbing onto an elephant. Despite knowing its trained extensively, you still can't help but imagine yourself crushed beneath its colossal body.

With himself like that, Endra couldn't blame the others for faltering under the Mage King's pressure. Nobles and commoners alike, everyone looked away or made themselves smaller under it.

But it was nice to see Arza's ever-confident gaze staring back at the Mage King. That too, seemed to interest the Mage King, as he scrutinized Arza the longest. 

As for Endra, he did not really want to garner any attention on himself, so he simply looked away when faced with the death stare.

"This group can skip the preliminaries," the Mage King finally said, pointing at Arza's class.

The 3rd – 5th years of Ankelite that were with them raised their eyebrows a bit, but they nodded in understanding. Arza, Endra and Bella were quite popular in their hometown. And under the Chairman's insistence, Arza's Helm Class also fought some mock fights against their seniors. In a fair fight, Arza's team could hold their own against the 4th years. 

But Arza's class could never hold a candle against the 5th years. There was a big gap between the 4th and 5th years, since during that time, the academy heavily focused on combat excellency. Even Endra's darkness and illusions were countered by illusionists and illuminators from the 5th years. 

Perhaps things would be different if Endra fought with the intent to kill, but the reverse would be true for the enemies. If enough proper mages tried to kill Endra, there was little he could do to fend them off. 

"This group can also skip the preliminaries," the Mage King gestured at Ankelite's 4th years.

It felt nice, receiving special treatment, but Endra wasn't sure how the Mage King decided who got them. 

'Does he have a scouter hidden somewhere? That seems convenient, I want that…'

Endra's hunts for turncoats and otherworlders didn't always go according to plan. The last time he fought, he couldn't completely kill the mage he was ambushing, which lead to Endra having to literally use every lethal spell he could muster to come out on top. 

'I even started to wear talismans on my body in case I get jumped like that randomly…' Endra thought, feeling the paper attached to his sleeve.

"What will we do with the 16-team knockout?" the Dean of the Academy suddenly spoke out.

She sounded almost offended. She did not say it out right, but Endra could tell by her questioning tone that she didn't think much of Ankelite city.

The Mage King however, did not deem the question worthy of answering and left.

Lilix was left flustered, but she calmed herself quickly enough. She turned to Arza and spoke. "Then, your group can do whatever you want for the next three days. I suppose you can still see the preliminary tournament that'll be occurring between the other Helm Classes of your year." 

She then turned towards a younger woman. "Natani, take care of this. I need to be with the Mage King to welcome the next city's students."

"Of course, madame."

The latter nodded and lead Ankelite city's Helm Classes to where they were going to stay. She also introduced the sightseeing spots in Arcvallen, the schedules for the preliminary tournaments that started the next day, and also the taboos and laws they needed to be mindful of in the city.

No flying, no offensive magic, no invisibility, no acting rude to others. She especially focused on the last one, saying that it's best to not risk offending anyone you shouldn't offend, and in the capital of the kingdom, there were a lot of such people. 

Everyone nodded and soon, Endra was left alone in his room, the rest of the class going off somewhere to play. Leanne came in to his room, mumbling a worried complaint after seeing him alone, but he heeded her no mind. She left after chit-chatting a bit, reminding Endra to go outside.

Endra nodded and went to bed. His sleep schedule was still largely fucked. At this point, he was considering giving up on fixing it.

The next morning, Endra and the rest of his class went to check out the prelims. 

Unlike Ankelite city, which had its biggest arena and the Academy in the same building, the capital had its own little Colosseum built. There were seats for audiences, though most of it was empty for now; a betting station; a large food court; some enclosed balconies reserved for VIPS, one of them being reserved for the partipating students who had either no fights or had already finished them. 

The VIP balcony they got was surprisingly large inside, easily fitting the 20 students from Arza's class. 

But when they entered, they found another student inside, looking down the arena. A cleanly dressed boy, scribbling something on a notepad. He briefly glanced at Arza's class and frowned annoyedly.

"This place is only for students who finished their fights," he said and focused on his notes again.

"Also for students who have no fights in the first place," Decatur answered.

The boy's eyes looked back to see Decatur. 

"The young Count, isn't it?" he suddenly said. "Don't you have better things to do than being here?"

"And who are you?" Decatur asked back. "A no name noble? Or worse yet, a commoner who has too big of a mouth on his face?"

The last part seemed to strike something inside the boy, as his hand abruptly stopped moving. 

"Dec, you should stop picking fights with everyone you see," Arza said.

"Says you," Decatur said and found himself a seat.

"Hey, take that back," the boy suddenly spoke up, walking towards Decatur.

"Piss off, random."

"Now, now," Dagan interjected. "Brother we want no trouble," he said to the boy. "We were told our place to sit was here by a woman named Natani, and forgive Decatur for being an ass. It's just how he is."

Decatur glared at Dagan, seemingly wanting to say something, but eventually held it in.

The boy had grown a lot. And with the many talents around him, he had been humbled a lot as well. Endra was almost feeling proud of him.

"You'll regret saying that," the boy spat, but he did go back to his notes.

With the little conflict out of their way, the class got themselves comfortable to see the match occurring below. It was between two cities from the western end of the kingdom, Hespani and Lazil. 

While everyone was focused on the match, Endra turned himself invisible and approached the boy to see what he was writing.