Chapter 181.

PART 1.

On the flying ship, there is a meeting going on. Unfortunately, it is not about an awesome invasion (which is never awesome), or some awesome defense. Instead, it is about a school team speaking with their coach, who is explaining the competition to them.

“The league is held in Albion this year. it is an island nation, known for its stuffiness, nice and proper behavior, and looking down upon the rest of Europa.” Said Dimitri.

“That is not useful info.” Said Avinash, and the team nodded along.

“Anyway!” Dimitri is flustered for losing his cool in front of these kids. “The matches will be held between five duelists from each team, and whichever team wins more duels will be the winner. Also, every team must face a school at least once.”

“Finally, some useful info.” Commented Hatori.

“Keep talking like that, and I’ll make you a captain.” Threatened Dimitri.

“You’re the most awesome coach. You always give good info.” Hatori did a quick turnaround.

The team looked at Hatori in shock, and even the coach was shocked by such a quick turnaround. “Anyway, our schedule is like this: first, we will face Magical Girl Academy. it is an academy that consists of female-only students. After that, we will face Vinland Academy. Followed by Kemet Academy, and then East-Asian Academy.”

The team roared after hearing the name. only Hatori remained quiet. Looks like the Subcontinental Academy has a rivalry with the East-Asian Academy. Dimitri continued to explain the schedule after the sudden excitement passed. “The final match is with the Europa Academy. Have you done research on these opponents?”

“Yes, we did.” They all answered.

“Very well. I hear by declare this meeting to be done.” Said Dimitri, and they all left to rest until they landed in Albion, which would happen fifteen hours later.

PART 2.

Since it is still time for the ship to reach Albion, everyone is resting and relaxing. Hatori is working on his modifications. more specifically, he is modifying his runes to let him sense the surroundings through air pressure. It won’t be as good as some animals, but it will give him an additional edge. He also adds some final runes to keep his hair at the same size, no more need for getting a haircut, the amount of money Hatori has saved as a result is quite staggering.

Savings aside, he also added some runes to sense through hair, like the whiskers of a cat. Once he is done, and the symbols stop floating around him, he gets up from his meditative pose and starts to stretch his body.

Josh walks in after Hatori is done. “Going to sleep?” he asked.

“Yeah, that’ll be the final time to relax. So, I’m taking full advantage of it,” said Josh, and lies down on his bed.

“You go ahead.” Said Hatori. he plans to stay awake for an hour more, and then he too will go to sleep.

Hatori thinks of asking Josh about his modification, and whether he needs any help with the runes for it or not, but he decides not to ask about that. they’re not young, Josh probably has a good setup by this point, and he likely does not need his help to maintain it, or in adding and removing things.

PART 3.

The ship lands and the team walks out. Hatori feels the sun on his face. “Wait, how come we arrived in the daytime?” asked Hatori.

“Ah, we waited to land until the sunrise, to make sure you won’t suffer much from the lag.” Explained Dimitri.

“So that is what took us so long.” Realized Josh. After all, he knows the maximum speed of this ship, it shouldn’t have taken them this long to come here, even at half-speed.

A man walks up to them, and asks, “Are you the Subcontinental team?” At their nod, he continues. “My name is Brent. On behalf of the king of Albion, I would like to welcome you to Londinium.”

“Thank you for your hospitality.” They said together, including Hatori. they made him practice.

“A ride is waiting for you to take you to your hotel. Please follow me.” said the man, and they started following him.

Once they are in the car, Hatori notes the difference between the cars of Zeko and Munshi and this one. the latter two are Homes on Wheels, but this one is not. he also wonders where did they got this one. Hatori has not heard about any car manufacturing on this side of the world, despite being here for ten years.

“Londinium. That sounds like a tongue twister to me,” commented Hatori after trying the name of the city.

“It is one of the simplest city names in the world,” said Dimitri as a counter. “Besides, it is not like that the cities of the Subcontinent are easier to pronounce.”

“Point.” agreed Hatori.

Once they reach their destination, they encounter reporters, who are trying to ask them questions. “Say nothing, just wave to them,” Dimitri whispered to them. they did as he said, and soon enough the reporters left them.

They enter the hotel. While Dimitri handles the arrangements for them, the students go inside to explore things. “Wow. We’ve got so many rooms!” said Hatori.

“Look how big the suite is!” said Shin, looking at so many doors, and deciding which one to open first.

“Tell you what, we boys take two rooms each, and Ravina and Daphne can have a room for themselves.” Said Avinash, “And the coach can have that room, closer to the entrance.”

“Makes sense to me,” said Praduman, and they all go put their stuff in their respective rooms. Hatori is bunking with Shin, while Josh is with Tom. Avinash is with Praduman, and Ravina and Daphne have a room of their own.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

“Seriously, stop it already.” Said Josh. “Aren’t you two have ever been to a hotel before?”

“Well, yeah, but none of them were so luxurious.” Said Hatori, checking out the bathroom.

“In my case, I haven’t seen much luxury.” Said Shin, checking out the balcony.

“Same here,” said Tom.

The door opens, and Dimitri walks in. “I see you have settled in already.” He notes. “Have you made the living arrangements already?” he asked Avinash.

“Yeah, we’ve left the room closer to the entrance for you,” he explained.

Once the coach drops his bags in his room, he walks out and speaks to the team once more. “The tournament will start two days later. in the meantime, you should relax and see the city. The time of training is passed, for now.”

“Actually, is it safe to go out like that?” asked Hatori. when they looked at him, he elaborates. “We could get hunted by the other academies for reducing the competition.”

“A rather brutal way of thinking.” Said Dimitri, “But you would be correct normally. But in this case, you are all protected, as long as you do not cast the first spell.”

“Cool!” said Josh.

PART 5.

After taking a shower, the team is out. they are looking at this new city, and what it has to offer. Hatori has one question in his mind though. “Josh, how are we going to understand what people are saying here?”

Hatori listens to the conversation around him, and the language doesn’t sound like the English of his world. and even if it did, he is way out of practice with it anyway. “Oh, don’t worry about that. do you remember the potions we were given before we left?”

“Yeah?” said Hatori, remembering the strange-tasting potions he had to drink.

“Well, apart from health-related potions, they also gave us a language potion. It would make understanding foreign languages much easier. In just a few conversations, you will be fluent.” Explained Josh.

“How the hell does that even work?” asked Hatori.

“Don’t know, I remember something about activating the language-learning regions of the brain or something. Professor Dhiraj didn’t cover this potion in his class.” Said Josh.

“Are the effects permanent?” asked Hatori.

“Yeah. the best part is, it works with other languages as well,” said Josh.

“That is awesome! Why didn’t they give that potion to me earlier? It would have been so useful while I tried to learn the rune languages!” roared Hatori, attracting some local attention.

“I doubt that studying is the only thing on your mind.” Said Shin, knowing his friend well, and not at all bothered by the scene they were causing.

“Yeah, I also wanted to mock Liang while playing Go with him in Zhongguoan language.” Said Hatori.

“Figures. You have a pretty one-track mind sometimes.” Said Daphne.

“Yeah, I… wait, where did the others go?” asked Hatori, noticing that Praduman, Avinash, Tom, and Shin were missing.

“Told you, one-track mind.” Said Daphne. “Anyway, they left to explore things on their own.”

PART 6.

Avinash left Hatori and his group. He wanted to see the city for himself. Besides, his chatter about the language potion annoyed him.

As someone who harbors an ambition to become the king of his country one day, Avinash is delighted to visit this city. He is looking at everything, and judging how successful these things are. He wants to know whether he can implement these things when he takes over or not. One such example is the tourism. Apparently, the king uses his own castle, turning part of it into a museum, showing the history of the country, and attracting people who pay for the tour.

PART 7.

“Man, I totally forgot we could have lunch at our hotel.” Said Josh.

“Yeah, me too—watch it!” he said, colliding with a boy.

“You should watch—never mind. Sorry.” He said when he looked at the empty eye sockets of Hatori.

“Oy.” Said the companion of this boy, “Aren’t these from the Subcontinental team?”

“Oh yeah! Are you ready to lose this year as well?” the boy receives a slap on the back of his head from his friend. “I mean, nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you too.” Said Daphne.

Ignoring the remark about losing, Hatori asks an important question. “Do you know a place where we can have lunch here?” he asked.

“Sure. Come with me.” said the boy.

“Is it wise?” his friend asked, as the group of Hatori, Josh, Daphne, and Ravina started to follow them.

“Eh, they’ve got girls in their team. they can’t be that bad,” he said.

“We also have girls in our team.” reminds the other boy.

“Good point.” said the other boy.

Once they sit down, they introduce each other. “I’m Lewis Duval. My friend is Wolfgang Weber. we’re from Gallia and Deutschland respectively.”

“France and Germany.” Whispers Daphne to Hatori. they are all aware of Hatori’s issue in recognizing places from this world, so they give him occasional reminders.

Once the subcontinental team introduces themselves, Hatori says the words that he has been itching to say ever since he learned where Lewis is from. “So. Are you ready to surrender before us?” he asked with a smirk.

“Magic dammit! I never surrender. You surrender, your grandfather surrendered, but not me.” Lewis starts to froth from the sheer rage.

“I blame you for this.” Said Wolfgang, glaring at Hatori for triggering his friend like that.

“Guilty as charge.” Agreed Hatori, not expecting such a strong reaction.

Though he is entertained all the same. Hatori needs this entertainment because the local food is a bit bland.