"So, how does this segment of the tournament work, exactly?" Titanyana was not open to conversation at the moment, neither were Wall and Len for that matter, leaving only the group of men responsible for the levee to keep him occupied. "On a side note, where should I put these? We aren't going to be eating them."

The biggest of the three, an enforcer based on the mask he wore, was the first to speak. "Just throw it over the edge. It'll get cleaned up at the end of the day."

Don's eyebrow shot up. He wasn't what you would consider environmentally conscious, but it went against his idea of basic human principles to discard something so toxic in plain sight. All the enforcer did in response was gesture with his head to the side. Donovan obliged, when in Rome, do as Romans do, right?

Or would it be the Sanctum now? If that was the case, what were the people who resided in the Sanctum called? Sanctites? Sancs? That one sounded like the currency, though maybe to a world without languages it didn't really matter. Whatever the case, Donovan didn't want to think about it. He was a soldier, pilot, and commander, not a linguist. Either Diana or Arc would have to handle that, though it might be more fitting to ask the Arboreal Maiden.

"Just a word of advice, bring your own food in the future. The stuff we have here is passable, better than the vendors, but I wouldn't exactly call it 'cuisine'." He looked at the pile with a modicum of disgust, how Don could tell through the mask was beyond him. "You are in the barracks, right? I'm sure the cooks would prepare something for you if you asked politely."

Don recalled the events of the morning, how he had eaten breakfast and granted them the day off. They would be going out for dinner in celebration of Titanyana's successes, or in commiseration of her defeats. Before he had done so (and received a much welcome round of celebration) Gretts looked like there was something she wished to say. Ultimately she didn't interrupt, but he had a feeling it had to do with this very subject. He wondered if she just wanted him to learn the hard way.

"I'll keep that in mind." Donovan nodded as a means to shake away the questions forming in his head, he had a great many of them, new ones coming all the time, but he knew now was not the time and place for most of them. "Still, as long they are better than whatever those were, I'll manage."

"Will you now? Well, it isn't my place to judge. You wanted to know how this tournament works, right?"

"That was my first question, yes."

The enforcer looked towards one of the others, an older man who wore clothing very similar to those working in the barracks.

"I suppose this is the sort of thing I am here for. Very well, I shall explain."

"From the beginning, if you could. This is my first time attending this event." Donovan interjected, he wanted to make sure he learned as much as possible. "My name's Donovan Strauss, by the way. I'm her squad leader."

"By 'her' I assume you refer to Lady Strapper, Sir Donovan?"

Donovan thought it was obvious, but maybe he thought Len looked like a girl? Regardless, being snarky would get him nowhere. "Yes. She is my squire, teacher, and second in command. It's a complicated relationship, but we get along."

"I see . . . that is indeed quite the strange arrangement, though it is not my place to judge. I am sure you have your reasons. Anyways, you may be aware of this, but the tournament consists of 256 individual participants, two from each of the 128 sub-tournaments. There are eight rounds, however unlike the sub-tournaments the participants are not eliminated. In fact, each and every person is guaranteed eight matches unless something makes this physically impossible, such as someone withdrawing or becoming otherwise incapacitated."

Donovan nodded along. This was good. Titanyana could lose a few matches before she won anything and he would still ultimately have something to work with as reference.

"Of course, there is a 'winner's' bracket, where only those who have yet to lose sit. Progressing further up this ladder before your first loss will promise better rewards, part of your prize being which round you are dropped from that bracket. All brackets below the winner's are determined by the number of losses you have accrued up to that point. In the end, only first and last places are decided with any level of clarity, though it is not uncommon for duels between the loser of the final winner's duel and the winner of the final first loss' duel to be granted to clarify second and third place, even if the reward does not change."

A pride thing then. True, it wouldn't feel nice to be ranked someone who had the same record as you if you didn't have the chance to fight, and he was more than certain that the pride of these nobles would not allow such a thing to come to pass.

"If possible, the tournament will be arranged so that no two individuals from the same army will be matched against each other. If that cannot be arranged, then no two individuals from the same division will fight each other, and so on down to the squad, until there simply isn't any chance for them not to fight each other. Lord Trebar's squad has been the source of a few such incidents. I can recall at least one tournament where four of their squad managed to make it to the semi-finals."

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Trebar was just sounding more and more impressive, wasn't he? Actually, now that he thought about it, had Donovan even met his entire squad? He hadn't, even if his squad was of the minimum required size of five, then he still hadn't met his final member.

"Ah, speaking of, despite me being a part of the second army, I am quite embarrassed to not know how many members his squad is."

"You are part of the second army as well?" The man's attention was drawn to Titanyana, a slight frown growing across his face. "They just keep growing more dominant, don't they? What is this, sixteen individuals from the second army this time around?"

"Sounds about right. There might be one or two more I'm forgetting though." The enforcer, someone privy to the actual roster for the tournament, responded to his colleague.

"Well, I am in no position to change that. Back to your question. From what I remember, Lord Trebar's squad consists of either nine or ten individuals, two of them graduated last year, but I can only remember a single new recruit.

There is, of course, Lord Trebar himself. He is most proficient with a sword, however I have witnessed a few of his duels where he instead opted to use a lance or pair of daggers. He is in the third year, quite young to be as prodigious as he is, and has repeatedly proven to be quite the resourceful commander and combatant. That said, he has lost a few times, though they have always been close matches against his seniors."

So Trebar was the top dog of the academy, or at least he promised to be.

"Then there is Lord Cholst, who some argue to be his second in command. Of course, I don't believe that he is up to the task, but he stands as the second strongest. He wields a lance, only a lance, but he is still quite dangerous. He is faster with it than most of the more proficient sword and dagger users I can recall, which is impressive, that much cannot be denied, however I question whether it might be proving a liability for him now. Much the same as Lord Trebar, he is in his third year, but I have hear rumors that he is considering leaving the academy altogether. They say he finds it to be boring and a waste of effort at times."

So did that mean Donovan managed to face-slam the second strongest person in the second army, probably.

"Lord Kerefel is probably the third strongest of his group, and axe wielder in his fifth year, though I must say his strengths lie in the squad and regiment oriented competitions owing to his ability to deal with multiple people at once. He has managed to place in the two-loss category a number of times in the individual events though, which is impressive. I believe he is participating, is he not?"

"Yep, he should be a sight. It's his last year after all, so he is liable to attend every event he can."

Don hadn't met him yet, but he sounded like someone Wall should meet, maybe he could even learn from him.

"Next strongest is probably the twins, Tabo and Yabo. They hail from the Holifanian Theocracy, the same as Lords Trebar and Kerefel, though they rarely ever compete. Individually they aren't as strong as most others, however I have seen their fights together in the squad competitions. I must say they are mesmerizing. They are second years, so a little bit younger with plenty of room to grow."

"I think Yabo actually made the cut this time around, if only barely."

"Did he now? His brother is probably fuming right now."

They sounded like some interesting characters to Donovan. Twins! Twins that fought together no less! He was certain Diana would call that some sort of trope from one of her books.

"Next is. . . well I don't know her name. I don't think anybody does."

"She doesn't have one last I heard."

"Truly? Well, I suppose it doesn't matter. She only ever fights in the army level competitions, and I cannot say for certain that anybody knows her combat style in spite of her lethality. You shouldn't worry about it though."

That was Nemo.

"Madam Zhoie, rumored to be Lord Trebar's betrothed but I think that is only that, a rumor. Third year, just as Lord Trebar, and has a strange fighting style that uses twin spears. She consistently makes it to the semi-finals, though I understand she is not particularly great at squads. She's probably the most combat crazy of them all despite that. The rumor about her being pledged to Lord Trebar probably came around because he is the only one who can reliably control her, now that I think about it."

"Yeah, some of my buddies got it real bad when her and Cholst had a spat."

"Really now?"

"Oh yeah. Believe it or not it was over what color headbands looked better on the twins, Tabo and Yabo. They didn't get punished because they didn't break any rules, but it was still a pretty scary ordeal for the enforcers involved."

That absolutely sounded like those two. Don could be offered a bet on whether they would fight over food and he would place everything on 'yes' 100% of the time.

"I see. As for the rest, they should be first years. Unfortunately I have not yet had the opportunity to see them in action, and I do not even know how many of them there are. My apologies."

Donovan waved off his bow, polite as it was. "Please, I should be apologizing to you for not having that information. I am part of his army for goodness sake. If anything I should be telling you all about them."

"Ha! I suppose so."

"Heads up gentlemen!" The man sitting by what appeared to be the controls for the levee finally spoke. "We are ready to head to the young lady's first match of the day. Please, try not to fall over the edge while we are airborne. Take a seat if you need to, but I am not liable for any damage that may be caused if you fall."

With a jolt and the creaking of boards, the levee began to lift off from the ground.

"I'm sorry, Lord Strauss, but we must end our conversation here. I am afraid I must act only in the capacity of wait staff from this point forward. I will say that our little talk was most certainly a pleasure though."

"I feel the same. I'll be counting on you to take care of us for today."

"Of course sir, though my priority lies with Lady Strapper."