"Some welcoming ceremony, huh? Any more, and you'd think this was just for us."

The pair walked straight forward in a matching stride. Azure and amber eyes glided about the arena surrounding them.

From the inside, Kyoya likened it to a totally different building. Its space for fighting on its own outclassed that of Monadt's training grounds threefold; a completely circular expanse of seasoned earth defined a history holding many a clash to its name.

Several lines in the ground indicated the borders of the arena, with two marks in the center of the battleground being clear starting points. Seating in the tens of thousands, set 360 degrees, lined several dozen rows up and outward, nearly reaching the top of the structure's surrounding wall.

There was seldom a spot without an occupant.

"The whole thing is called the Legends Festival. Something tells me that's the point."

At the upper center of the wall furthest from them, a flattened section with large, unsurprisingly gold-plated chairs indicated the royal family's seats. At the edge of the platform, a sort of desk fit with magic circles in front of two more chairs finished their area.

He spotted Altar, Alexandria, and Ryder quickly enough. The latter he assumed to be more of an honored guest, as she sat at one of the desk's two spots. Although, there were new faces among them.

More specifically, there were two.

One was a woman nearly identical to Alexandria, with the same skin tone and apparent visual style. However, she appeared overall sharper, wearing a rose-gold cloak over full armor to the collarbone, and stood a good head taller. Her hair was a darker silver than the Princess's, more towards a cold-tempered steel, and was set in a bowed ponytail.

Despite not being able to make out an eye color from the distance, Kyoya figured from Lyric's looking his way that this was someone she'd mentioned before.

"I'll take it that's this 'Solitaire'?"

"Bingo. Believe me when I say she's even more of a handful than her sister; they're only separated by two years, but she doesn't let that stop her from being about as tough as they come."

"I'll remember to save some respect for the meet-and-greet, then... Y'know, you're great at talking people up, especially if there's room for them to loom over me."

The second addition to the Miscreant's list of pending meetings was a younger man, sitting next to Ryder at that second spot. Yet, younger definitely didn't mean much in terms of height.

He wore a mixed set of armor, namely greaves, gauntlets, and a jagged steel pauldron on the left shoulder. On his head was traditional knight's helmet with the visor covering the upper half of his face, but its bottom half was removed to clearly show his mouth and chin.

This man towered over even Altar; at full height, he easily reached past seven feet tall, and still boasted moderate bulk. Similarly to Solitaire, he stood with crossed arms, casting an ever-imposing look to the approaching Legends.

If Kyoya's first viewing of the King was intimidating, whoever this was blew that out of the water.

"And that giant would be executor Rory Alberick. He's known around here for being one of the best commentators that the dueling face has ever seen, but off the job, he cleans up Altaire's streets... peacefully. The guy's actually not much of a fighter, but he loves watching it, for whatever reason."

"Talk about a relief..." The boy breathed a sigh at that, resting a bit easier knowing that at least one gaze bearing down on him wasn't one to fear.

"If that's enough to get you worked up, I wouldn't be excited. Stand straight; we're about to be put on the spot."

As the King rose to his height from the throne, the cheer and chatter quickly died out.

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

"Welcome, friends and family of Altaire! I do hope that you've rested well from your travels to our Kingdom, and that the time you've committed to this journey is time spent good and well. I'm certain that we've waited plenty long for our opening ceremony, so now that they've arrived, please extend your welcome to Lyric Seraphim of the Defiant, and Kyoya Miskrit: the Blue Devil!"

Kyoya could've doubled over from either the jolt of pain from that word or from the embarrassment alone at that title being thrown out into the world... Alas, it had been done, and there was no changing it.

Just as quickly as it went, the roar of applause returned with a vengeance. Alexandria situated herself next to Ryder, bringing the number of active commentators up to three. Then, a pair of voices sounded off from the desk before her.

He blinked in something like confusion at that podium; they were actually using those magic circles as some kind of speaker, broadcasting voice across the entirety of the arena.

It only made sense that such a clever strategy could be used as something as nit-picky as a microphone.

Rory was the first to speak. He slammed his hands on the table, leaning so far forward that it was a wonder he didn't fall straight off. When he threw a single hand to point down at them, he did so with absolute fervor.

"Here we have it, everyone! We welcome today as the 951st annual Legends' Festival Dueling Tournament!"

A second flood of excitement flowed through the crowd, the knight sitting back normally. "As most know it, the name's Rory G. Alberick, representing Altaire as your head commentator and peaceful pacifier extraordinaire. Today I'm joined by our go-to analyst Princess Alexandria Albion, and our extra-special guest, the Mechanical Kingdom's very own Steampunk Showstopper, Allison Ryder!"

A very noticeably more intense wave crashed across the stands as Ryder lived down the hype.

"Thanks, Rory, I can't express how much it's a pleasure to be up here and not prepping for my own fight... But, pity parties aside, this year's gonna be a break from the mold—because our reigning champion and resident reincarnation of Hope, little Miss Seraphim, got her hands on a real somebody."

With a vicious leer cast down on a certain Miscreant, she smirked and pointed dead at him. "The blue-topped brawler you see next to her is the one who we've come to know as Kyoya Miskrit, but to Demons, he's the Blue Devil! Let's see what Princess Alexandria has to say for this grudge match like no other!"

Among the roaring spectators, the young miss's voice still managed to make a splash. There was a smidge of hesitance—maybe even a bit of nervousness in her tone, but she didn't seem to have any trouble doing away with it once she got going.

"R-right! Thank you, too, miss Ryder. As for our duelists, Mister Kyoya and Miss Lyric share the same rank as B-Class Reclaimers, with Power Levels of 3,600 and 3,650 respectively."

She adjusted a pair of reading glasses before continuing. "While the Hope specializes in her Air-Water-Thunder mixed Burst, dubbed Storm, Kyoya stays true to one element of azure Fire. From the numbers alone, that should be clue enough of their prowess. What's more, the two of them single-handedly eliminated the Demon that appeared in the courtyard yesterday evening, so we should all be in for a serious show as our opening match."

"Air-Water-Thunder, again... Makes sense she'd be skilled, but three elements is a bit much." The Miscreant cornered a glance at the Seraph, who maintained a stare at their announcers.

Rory quickly tailed her conclusion.

"You heard it from her highness, people! This'll be one you do NOT wanna miss! That said, it wouldn't be all that great of us to draw this introduction out any longer, so how's about we get Miss Solitaire Albion to lay out the duel's rules?"

The Adventurer-Princess stepped forward. There wasn't a place for her at the desk, and it didn't appear that she quite knew of Rory's plan to involve her, either, but nothing about her spoke discomfort.

It came as no surprise that her voice was as sharp as her appearance; it was a mixture of husky and keen, honed enough to seem that she was from a completely different line of family than the soft-spoken Alexandria.

"This duel, like any other official function in the arena, will follow the same format as per the regulation standard. A time limit of fifteen minutes is allowed, and it will start following the conclusion of a 30-foot power-clash. Victory or defeat will be decided once either party is unable to fight further, unless a draw is reached either by time-out or double-elimination."

Kyoya shifted in place at the mention of that distance for their opener. It didn't sound like much of a change at face value, but 20 feet was the standard in Monadt; that extra 10 feet already had him gritting his teeth.

Alas, he shook the thought, instead choosing to burn that bridge when he got to it.

An ever-excited Rory followed up, now raising one hand and pointing toward the sky.

"With the technicalities outta' the way, we here at the commentators' circle say it's high time we got this event going! Duelists, take your positions!"

Kyoya briefly stood still before Lyric turned to face him.

"I'm really looking forward to feeling that fire of yours," she grinned, turning away to walk toward her starting mark. "Don't let me down, 'kay?"

"Didn't plan on it. I'll catch you at the clash."