So many familiar faces.

I saw so many people from the time when I had received my Ice Element here. I remember the girl with red hair, a pair of triplets wearing the similar yellow outfits, a boy whose appearance obviously resembles that of an Egyptian Pharaoh (he could be a prince like me, we could've been buddies!), and... oh nuts.

Someone had caught my eye, it was the dude that with the black jacket. That same dude... who ranted about Fairy Elements being curses at the Element-receiving ceremony, I must had triggered him hard back then, and he must had not made amends with me yet, well it's probably because that we never saw each other again. Until today...

There was a man with him, who is definitely his father due to their striking resemblance, he wore a fiery-orange outfit, and seems to be bound to a wheelchair. "Hey Edward, what a-" Felix's eyes widened when he turned to see where I was looking, "Felix, it's alright." Aisha comforted him, and started to pat her friend on the shoulder.

The dude's cyan eyes suddenly started turning towards us, and his eyes widened, filled with shock, and I can get the message from his glare, 'Really? You? Here? Now?'. I saw his father talk to him, and turned to check out on what the dude was so interested at, he gasped, and called out excitedly. "Claude!"

My brother must had heard him, because he turned to the direction of the call. He called back, "Trad!" and rushed towards him. It seems that these two must have been friends, since both of them were so excited to see each other. They shook hands, and started to chat. "Good day to you! I haven't seen you since the last meeting of the Twelve Protectors!" Trad said, "Yeah! Your legs getting better?" Claude asked. "Oh, it's not getting any better for now. Guess I'm bound to this wheelchair for a few more years."

"Which is why Mother always advised you to see a doctor every month." Trad's son mumbled to his father.

Their loud voices seemed to attract the attention of the crowd as they turned towards them, they stood there, wide-eyed with, joy and excitement. "It's Trad, and Claude..." One of them spoke, "Two of the Twelve Protectors! Right here!" Another one shrieked. "The Twelve Protectors rarely show up in public, why here?" The red-haired girl asked, "They must be here to examine our performances." The Egyptian-Pharaoh clothed boy answered, but I think he's talking to himself than answering her question. "Whoa! We've been waiting for this moment!" One of the triplets spoke, "Let's get their autographs!" The other triplet added.

"And hey! Isn't that Claude's younger brother? Whom the Greek God of the Forge nicknamed him as 'Younger version of the singer Rick Astley' back at the Element-receiving?" The final triplet asked, loudly so that not only the triplet brothers, but the other pedestrians around us could hear him. They all turned their eyes from Claude and Trad to me. I stared at every single one of those people, who are staring back at me with curiosity on their faces. I cleared my throat, I had prepared myself for this moment.

"That's right! It is I, Edward Clifford. Brother of Claude Clifford, the current King of Paxsalam as well as a member of the Twelve Guardians!" I said like a spokesperson, I took off my top hat and bowed to my audience while giving them a pleasant smile. "And would you all be delighted to allow me to sign your autographs too?"

I expected the audience to cheer and beg me to sign their autographs. Instead of doing that, they smiled awkwardly. "He's a cute guy." They all cooed in unison, they all turned their attention back to my brother and Trad and rushed towards them while screaming with joy, while leaving me behind in the dust. My smile slowly fades away into a disappointed frown, I didn't expect people to be not be excited when a literal prince offers to sign their autographs...

"Oh, boy." Claude said, "We should have done it more privately. We're probably drawing lots of attention now..." "Oh, never mind. I'm used to these." Trad replied. The crowd started to talk to each other excitedly, with topics like getting my brother's and Trad's autographs, or fangirling about their heroic deeds. Whoa, I always knew that my brother was famous even outside Paxsalam, but I didn't expect him to be this famous.

"Oh! And Claude, your younger brother is participating right?" "Oh yeah! He's here!" Claude turned to me, and waved at me to come over, my eyes opened wider, Claude must have wanted to introduce me to Trad, and his son... I started to walk confidently towards them, and stood by Claude's side, further from the fellow.

"Trad, this is Edward, my younger brother." Claude said, I decided to wave nervously at Trad, and I'll try my best to not ruin my brother's mood. "Pleasure to meet you, Edward." Trad held his hand out, ready for another handshake, well, what could go wrong? I shook his hand, "It's also, a pleasure to meet you too, Mr. Trad." Trad laughed, "No, no. Just Trad. And here is my son, Gunther."

Oh, Gunther is is his name. The black-jacket boy, now known as Gunther, looked at me, with disgust and fear as if I were an ugly and foul creature, ready to pounce on him and tear him to shreds. But it's a good thing he has a sense of respect, he "Gunther, shake the prince's hand, please." Trad told him, wait, shake his hand!? There's no way I'm doing that! And dear readers, I am really sorry for this sudden outburst. First of all, this is the same fellow who made an angry rant about the Fairy Element, which would frighten my pal Felix, as well as many of the others who wanted to chose the Fairy Element.

Thankfully, I didn't say that out loud, Gunther must have the same thoughts too. Instead of shaking my hand, he stormed off, and went up the stairs. "Gunther! Where're you going?" Trad called out, "Just continue without me, dad." Gunther replied, "I don't want to be late. Just find me whenever you're done signing your fans' autographs." But, it's only nine or something, I wanted to call out. And according to Claude, it doesn't start till twelve. Trad sighed, "Sorry bout that, buddies. He's always been like this, ever since that... traumatic incident."

Great, more climbing to do. I don't know how Trad is able to manage this, since he sits on a wheelchair... but now he did fine thanks to Claude helping him. The crowd was still talking about the two, and it's starting to get irritating now, and know they know me too, and I don't understand why they don't want my autograph.

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It took a while to reach the top, this actually took us thirty-plus minutes just to get to the top, and the sights, were worth it. I did not expect the Games to be so carnival-like... there were stalls all over the place, and the air was filled with the scent of food. "You're here!" Claude called out. "Now, do you see that huge line over there?" There was a huge line of people lining up towards a stall, no wait, it looks more like a counter. "You three must line up to get your numbers." "Numbers?" I asked, "And this line, it might take a few hours for this!" "That's the reason why we came out this early." Claude replied, "And if you want to participate, you have to do it." "He has a point, you know." Felix said as he and Aisha started to follow the line of people, I sighed, and followed them.

It really took a few hours for this. The line was seriously long, and it took at least a minute for one person to have their number with them. And as we took a few steps, which measured at least sixty centimeters and the line barely changed! I almost fell asleep a few times already, and Felix would have to shake me to wake me up (which I would do the same thing when it was Felix's turn to fall asleep).

After maybe one or two hours, it was my turn. Finally, I mentally told myself as I stepped forward to the counter. "Name and surname, please." I heard the person at the counter asked, this should be easy, it's just answering questions. "Edward Clifford." I replied, the person started to write, slowly, like one letter per five seconds. "Age." "Um, thirteen." The person noted that down, "Gender." "Um, I'm a guy?" Dear readers, is my gender that confusing? It's so obvious that I'm a boy. The person ticked a box or something, he then took something that resembles a card and handed it to me. "Next!"

I looked at the card, and the number '11' was written on it. "So, what did you get?" Felix and Aisha rushed to me once they saw me, "An eleven" I replied, "Twenty-three." Felix said, "A hundred and six" Aisha added. "What are the odds?" I asked, "All of us got numbers, but they aren't continuous from the person before us..." Aisha replied, "What do they mean?" "Is it a pattern or something?" Felix wondered. We were so busy getting theories, that we didn't know what was happening around us.

Everyone else was frustrated about the numbers they got too, except for one, who was busy giggling on the fact that the number he got was sixty-nine. Do the numbers mean anything? Is it a sign? Is it edible? "Good morning boys and girls!" We heard a voice spoke. A man was wearing a pair of sunglasses, and was wearing an unbuttoned shirt which exposed his six-packs. "Yeah, the numbers can be confusing. But don't worry! It's not a code for you all to solve!" The man said. "Wait, that guy looks familiar." I said, now, the muscular guy is the one who got my attention, not the '11' card.

"Wait, that's Owen Adamson!" Aisha said, mostly to herself, "Whoa, three of the Twelve Protectors in one day? And, look at those abs..."

Aisha, along with many other female contestants were staring at Owen's muscular body, many of them were starting to blush and giggle at the sight of it. Owen smiled at us, which caused most of the girls to giggle and some of them to faint out of joy. "Now! Please remain calm, and all of you, please follow me!" All of us, which includes about two hundred people, followed Owen across the stalls.

And he led us to a harbor for a huge lake, I mean like, it's probably the largest surface of water I had seen for now, it stretches for kilometers, and by the look of it, it seems pretty deep. And in the middle of the lake stood a tower, at least fifteen meters tall, and in front of the tower, stood three seating filled with people, all facing towards the tower. There were many yachts waiting at the harbor, and Owen instructed us to board the yachts, they were moving quite slowly, but there were still some people who still got seasick, wait, does seasickness only works at seas and oceans or does it work on any body of water?

The tower looks way bigger up close to it, and since there were so many participants, we will have to wait for another round to get up there. And from up there, it looks like we're hundreds of meters above the ground. The tower was now filled with hundreds of us, and despite us being separated into lines, it doesn't make me comfortable. Owen stood in front of all of us, he was holding a microphone, he held it close to his mouth, and spoke, with an ear-shattering voice.

"Good afternoon! Ladies and gentlemen! Boys and girls! I'm your host, Owen Adamson from the Twelve Protectors, and I would proudly announce, that it's time for this month's Magician Games!" It must be connected to some loudspeakers, no wonder my ears were about to explode. "Now, are you all ready for the first game!?" The crowd cheered and roared, which was equally loud as Owen's voice. "And I'll also be featuring our special guests," Lights shone onto two figures, they seemed to have their own special seats as it was located indoors. "My comrades, Trad and Claude from the Twelve Protectors!" The crowd cheered even louder at the sight of my brother and his ally.

Owen turned to us, and spoke with his loudspeaker. "All right participants! Now here's your first task. Introducing, The Drop! In order to move on to the next task, all of you will fall from this tower!" What? We have to jump off this tower?! But that's suicide! And I don't think the lake can break our fall... Everyone had must have the same idea, we all stood there, staring at Owen and trying to comprehend on what he was saying. "Nope!" Owen said, as if he were reading our thoughts, "You guys are not going to die. We had prepared a special enchantment that will save you from your fall." Me, along with many others, sighed in relief. "Now, here's the thing, all you guys will have to do, is to use your magical positions to break your fall, or to prevent the enchantments from activating, and failing to do so, and you're out! Understand?"

We nodded as an answer, but I don't think everyone has the guts to do it. "And, for your numbers, they represent you for this game! Now I'm going to call out a random number, like... one-hundred-and-seventy-nine! Step right up!" A fellow with a pretty, please forgive me... ridiculous haircut stood out from his line. "Alright kid, now I would like you step on this plank." There was a board, about two meters wide, hanging above the lake, and it leads straight down. The fellow stood on the plank as ordered, "You ready?" Owen asked, the fellow didn't respond, he just stood there, staring at Owen blankly. "It's okay, kid. You'll do fine." Owen promised, "Now, on the count of five!"

Everyone began to chant. "Five!"

"Four!"

"Three!"

"Two!"

"One!"

Owen raised his staff, with the head of a bat, and aimed it at the plank. A shadow pit formed under the plank, and the board was consumed by the shadow, leaving the poor dude suspending in midair, which didn't last long as he was sent falling into the lake, screaming like a girl as it happened.

All of us rushed towards the edge to see check on the boy. The boy used his staff to create some violent thunder-shocks, but sadly, they didn't do anything to break the dude's fall, the boy was only a few centimeters above the lake's surface before the enchantments kicked in, it caused the dude to suspend in the air (again), but after a millisecond, he fell into the lake with a splash. Owen stared at the boy with sympathy, possibly due to the fact that he had jinxed the fellow. "Number one-hundred-and-seventy-nine, you're out!" He then turned to us, "Next up!"

I gulped in shock, this is going to be more trickier than I thought...