ROUNDS PASSED
The Emberheart Lord stood from his seat. By his side, there was another throne, one of a man who looked almost identical to him. However, this man wasn't an Emberheart, but instead a Moonstone, lord of the Kairo Bubble. Their similar looks were the first thing Leonel took note of, because he hadn't actually expected that they would be related. From everything he had heard, he thought that they...
'Wait. Spirituals construct their own bodies, don't they? So could it be a coincidence? Or did they both use similar methods of construction...? Or, did they do it on purpose? But why?"
Behind the Emberheart Lord there was Lyra. She sat there in silence, not saying a word. And, behind the Moonstone Lord, there was a young man who was equally as silent.
It was hard to grasp anything from these people, but he heard from the chatter of the crowd that the young man's name was Thalion Moonstone.
Leonel didn't pay much attention to the Gathering of Kingdoms, but with his memory, when he saw something it was hard to forget... unless it was as densely packed as the information in the Life Tablet, that is.
He remembered that Thalion's name was on the final top 100 rankings. Lyra was barely in the top 30, just edging in. But Thalion had been just outside the top 10. In fact, he and Rowan had been neck and neck.
This was actually a great feat.
Although the rankings seemed to be for Mortal Races alone, given the fact existences like the White Spectral Tiger and Owlan Descendants had participated, it was obvious that the Demi-Gods participated as well at least in name.
Of course, those participants had such thin bloodlines that they were considered to be Mortals as well. But that didn't stop them from dominating much of the top 100.
These Pure Blooded Spirituals, however, were truly Mortal, and as such, ranking so high underlined an exceptional level of genius and hard work.
Thalion was without a doubt amongst this group.
Of course, in terms of sheer value, it was hard to say who was better between the two of them. That was because Lyra, obviously, spent a lot of her time on Force Pill Crafting. It was only natural her combat prowess lagged behind.
"Hello, everyone," the Emberheart Lord smiled, his handsome, beard countenance warming the hearts of the audience. "I welcome you all. I will keep my statement brief.
"I know that there are many of you wondering what is going on here, worry not. I only want to show off a bit as the Lord of this small world of ours. We have lived in harmony regardless of Race for a very long time now, and I want to display our finer qualities to our visitors today.
"Those who perform well will be rewarded. Please welcome one of my Lord Guards, Alderian."
An older gentleman garbed in what looked like leather elven armor to Leonel's eyes, right down to the leaf embroidery, stepped forward with a bow strapped to his back.
However, what was the most interesting about this wasn't his armor or his bow, instead it was his aura.
He was very much human.
"Line up!" Alderian barked.
His voice echoed with such a boom that the stadium quaked.
As the Emberheart Lord sat down, he chuckled.
"Alderian, take it easy on them. I've chosen untrained humans for a reason."
"Yes, your Lordship!"
Even in response, Alderian's voice was still booming. He was every bit the military mannered man, and very quickly his approach in the eyes of everyone went from overbearing to just natural.
Leonel's eyes narrowed. The group of humans that were called forward filed together.
Leonel realized now that they were all actually quite young, but not too young. None of them were teenagers, but none of them were middle-aged or even in their thirties yet.
He had seen the list, but he had no way of deciphering this until this very moment. Well... unless he had taken his time to follow the herald and his guards around.
This obviously knocked one idea off the table. They weren't here to genocide all the humans, or else why bother to only call forward a small demographic pie within them?
But just the same, that idea never made sense to begin with. If they knew where all the humans were located, why not just send assassins?
Even if a world was prejudiced, they wouldn't just outright kill a large group of people by their Race alone. That wouldn't sit right with anyone and that would make them look weak.
Leonel leaned back, reclining a bit in seats that were quite expensive. By his side, there was Aina and his brothers. Well... aside from Joel who had gone down there.
No one seemed to notice that their numbers had a plus one. Either that, or they didn't care.
Joel, Savahn, and the other humans lined up.
Alderian's voice boomed and another line of Half-Spirituals appeared.
Leonel raised an eyebrow. Where had they come from? And why form a census of humans, but not extend the same toward the Half-Spirituals. Yuri obviously wasn't down there, she was sitting beside Aina.This text is property of Nô/velD/rama.Org.
The two women looked nervous, because much like Leonel, they had their own questions.
None of this made sense. If they wanted to hold an exchange of Humans and Spirituals to show the harmony of the world, why pick untrained humans?
'Are they untrained?' Leonel thought, his eyes narrowing. 'If they have such detailed censuses, then they surely know Savahn participated in the Gathering of Kingdoms, and though she didn't make it anywhere near the Penultimate Round or Finals, she still passed the Preliminaries.
'Could it be that they didn't just pick out youngish experts, but also ones that performed well in the Gathering of Kingdoms?'
Leonel's brows shot up.
"Arion. Passed the Preliminary Round of the Gathering of Kingdoms on his second bout. Come forward."
A young man with a stern face stepped forward, his face still steeped in confusion much like the rest.