"MATCH 1, START!"
At the signal, two students of the Arks Royal Academy dashed at each other. They were part of the Warrior Division and they brought their weapons forward in an attempt to break their opponent's protective enchantment. One was using a spear while the other a great sword. From a distance it looked like the Great Sword-wielding student had the advantage, repelling each stab, sweep, and strike of his opponent, but it was the exact opposite. The student using the spear was much more nimble than his counterpart and he led the other student around by the nose. It wasn't until the great sword-wielding student was exhausted did his opponent finally rush in to deal the finishing blow and knocking him out of the stage while also breaking his armor's protective enchantment.
"MATCH 1! Winner, Alanta Silverclaw!"
The winner raised a fist in celebration and walked off the stage while the other student who lost was carried away by the Student Council's healing unit towards the infirmary. The Little Kings were currently in one of the smaller stadiums in the academy and observing the Dueling Tournament's matches. That's right. The Dueling Tournament had officially started.
While the entire party was seated together inside a private room on the upper floors of the stadium, they didn't escape the attention of the other students in the stadium. It was just yesterday when an announcement came that 6 individuals had now qualified to hold the moniker of Kings in Arks Royal Academy. These 6 individuals were the very same ones that won the first segment of the tournament and were now observing the matches in stadium 03.
"Hey look... isn't that Cecil and his party, the Little Kings?"
"Yeah, that's them alright."
"They're all seeded participants, so why are they here?"
"Not sure, but I hear the Little Kings recently acquired a new member!"
"Really? Do you know who it is?"
"Not sure, I only heard that the person was a girl and she was a total hottie!"
"Damn! So that means the newest member of the Little Kings will be participating in a match in stadium 3 then?"
"Most likely! It's the only plausible reason why all 6 members of Little Kings would even be here!"
"By the way, have you guys heard of the King titles those 6 have?"
"It wasn't part of the announcement, but I guess the Academy's holding off until they get a better grasp of their characteristics before giving them a proper title, but I heard Ainz Bernstein already has his title! He's apparently the Elemental King."
"Elemental King?"
"Yeah, I mean, he's probably the only one in the academy that specializes in all 4 major elements!"
Ainz, who was seated beside Cecil, was currently empowering his hearing with mana and eavesdropping on all the gossip going on around the stadium. After he heard his name and his title being discussed, he immediately puffed up his chest and a stupid grin was plastered onto his face. Elizabeth, who was beside him, quickly jabbed the boy in the gut with her elbow and stopped him from looking any more foolish than he already was.
"UGH!"
"Tsk, get over it already. Stop being such a disgrace!" Eli scolded.
"But!"
"No buts!"
"..."
Lucia grinned when she saw how Elizabeth handled the chuuni. His overly hyped up mood was beginning to annoy her and she was also about to give him a piece of her mind, but her friend beat her to it.
"At least learn some modesty, Ainz. There's no good in strutting around on your high horse like that, you'll only attract the ire of the students to us!" Lucia said with a scornful look.
"Tsk, you're all just jealous because I got mine first!" Ainz rebutted.
"...that just means the teachers didn't put in too much thought when giving out your title," Fina offhandedly said.
Her words cut like a knife into Ainz's pride and ego. He opened his mouth to rebuke the little girl, but no words could come out.
"Ouch... that's gotta hurt," Velicia snickered.
Cecil only smiled wryly when he heard their exchange. Today they were together at stadium 03 in order to watch Yuna's match. She was scheduled to fight in the 4th match of the morning and there would be another match in the evening. The tournament only started a couple of hours ago, so currently only the first match of the day had started.
There were a total of 5 smaller stadiums that surrounded the main stadium where the assemblies normally took place in. Each smaller stadium hosted 1 bracket matches while the main stadium hosted 5 bracket matches at the same time. Since over half of the entire student body was participating in the tournament, they had to separate the brackets into the stadiums and start each match simultaneously to quicken the pace. The National tournament was starting in another 2 weeks so that had to be quick about this.
The Academy planned to finish the Dueling tournament in a week, so the remaining week would be used to cultivate and train the selected students for the National Tournament using the Accelerated Time Formation. This was an opportunity for the participating students so they gave their all in the tournament. Even the first match was quite high end.
There were only 2nd to 4th year students participating, no other first year students other than Cecil's party were qualified to join the tournament. The majority of students were those of the 3rd and 4th year, while only a select few who boasted great talent were from the 2nd year. The rest of the non-qualifying students had a 1 week break from classes because of the tournament.
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The Academy had also opened their gates and allowed the citizens of the Anglaria Kingdom to come watch the tournament. This was the reason why the entire stadium was chock full of people. The only reason why Cecil and everyone else were able to make it into the stadium was because their seats were reserved in the VIP section. It was said that the King himself and many members of the Royal Family had also come to watch the proceedings. The news caused Elizabeth to be a little anxious, but nevertheless the ones who should be anxious wasn't her. It would have to be her two older brothers.
There was also news that the previous Headmaster, who vanished along with her husband, had reemerged and would also be spectating the matches. Lucia was pleasantly surprised hearing this, she wanted to go find her mother and father, but Cecil stopped her and only said that they would come find them later. Their identities as Kings had already given them a high enough profile as it was.
If the people in the academy and city found out that the two were also the children of the previous headmaster... well, Cecil didn't really like the thought of that. It was enough for only the Headmaster to know. No one else, including their friends, had to be privy of this information.
There was a lot riding on these selections and with how important the National Tournament was; all the aristocratic families in the Kingdom had sent representatives to watch, including the family heads of each major family in the Kingdom. The Golden Fox Family, the Dark Moon Clan, the Ironforge Dwarves, the Windstrider Elves, the Whitetail Rabbit clan, even Ainz's family Duke Bernstein's household, and many more prestigious families had come. Many, if not all of their younger generation were enrolled in the academy, so it was important for them all to come and give some emotional support.
Of course, this didn't matter to Cecil, Fina, Lucia, or Yuna. Lucia and Cecil's family wasn't known to many and Fina wasn't even a part of the Kingdom of Anglaria. She was only sent here as a foreign exchange student with Anglaria Kingdom's second young Princess, who was Elizabeth's older sister.
It was the end of the 3rd match in stadium 03 and finally, it was Yuna's turn to go up. The dragon girl walked up gracefully to the stage, many students and spectators 'oohed' and 'ahhed' at her beautiful and unique appearance. She crossed her arms and waited for her dumbstruck opponent that was still standing outside the arena. The referee quickly urged the student to make his way up onto the stage.
"MATCH 4, Yunaria Yukihime vs. Andor Windstrider! START!"
When Yuna's name was said, many of the students were surprised. She had the same last name as Lucia Yukihime, one of the newly crowned Queens. Even the members of her party were surprised to hear this, only Cecil was excluded. This was because of the pact that the two forged. Since Lucia was the Master, while Yuna was the contracted, she had to take the name of her Master as her own. The pact tied the two together as close as—or even closer—than familial bonds. In Cecil's eyes, the bond of two souls was much stronger than the bond between bloodlines. At least, that was his opinion.
Not minding the shocked crowd, Yuna stood in place with her hands crossed. She didn't bother taking out her wand. She just stood there and lazily sized up her opponent. The person she was facing was a half-elf with harpy characteristics. She knew of the Windstrider family. It was the half-elf aristocratic family that had a half harpy bloodline. The members of the house would have both elf and harpy characteristics with either one of them being more dominant than the other.
'They specialize in Wind elements, let's end this quickly.' Yuna pointed a finger at her opponent and sent a tirade of wind bullets at him.
The no-chant magic spell surprised the half-elf and he hastily retreated while defending himself. However, the barrage of wind bullets were too much for him and Yuna's technique easily overwhelmed him. The half-elf was launched flying off the stadium after being hit by multiple wind bullets. Yuna turned around to walk off the stage, but before that she waved her hand, sending a small wind cushion under the blown away half-elf. The wind cushion allowed the half-elf to land softly outside the arena with no further damages done to him.
The stadium immediately burst into a roaring cheer. Although it was a quick and one-sided battle, the graceful execution of the simple technique caused many to cheer. Not to mention the person who won was a beautiful young girl, all the more reason for the many male spectators to cheer. The female spectators were also cheering, and Cecil even heard some of them calling Yuna, 'Big sister', in a reverential manner.
'Woah... so even fanboys and fangirls are present in another world.'
"Let's go and meet up with Yuna, her next match is in the evening so we'll go out and relax for a bit. If any of you have plans then go ahead and see to them. Lucia and I will be waiting at the La'flay until Yuna's evening match."
Everyone nodded. Eli, Velicia, and Ainz separated from the party, leaving only Lucia and Fina next to Cecil.
"Let's go?"
"Hai~Hai~" Lucia cutely exclaimed while raising her hand.
'Where'd she learn that from?'