A hearty looking man bellowed out “1 more minute for the scholar tournament registration.”
While I was sprinting towards the registration I yelled out “I WANT TO REGISTER!”
The man bellowed towards the me “YOU DON’T HAVE THE BEARING OF A SCHOLAR GET OUT!”
I stopped and said “How do you know that I’m not a scholar?”
“Only nobility can read and write and if you were nobility you wouldn’t have to run here.”
“I can prove my nobility.”
“Prove it.”
I drew up the Neverhail house insignia. It was a fox looking up at the moon with a barren land of snow surrounding it.
“That doesn’t look like a noble insignia I have seen you fraud!”
A middle aged man dressed in a black suit walked up to the admission person and said “What’s the ruckus?”
“This fraud here is trying to enter the tournament.”
“I’M NOT A FRAUD!”
The man in black said “Let me see his insignia.”
I showed him and he raised his eyebrow and said “I welcome young master Neverhail to the tournament.”
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The man was obviously stunned. The only reason why I can think that he’s stunned is that the man called me young master. I don’t how high his status is but I assume its relatively high. While I follow him I see book titles that I know from Earth. I ask Emma “Why do I see books from Earth?”
(Because sometimes a book captures a God’s interest and they spread it to other realms.)
“That explains it.”
When we entered a gigantic hall he said “It will be only 5 mins until the competition.”
“What are they judging on?”
“You don’t even know the rules?”
“Nope.”
The man sighed and said “You really are a Neverhail.”
“What is the reputation of my house?”
“A house of Prideful, Forgetful and Talented Kitsune.”
“That seems about right.”
“Anyways in the preliminaries you just need to create a poem that the judges will rate.”
“Oh that’s easy.”
I remember a poem from high school. It should get me pass the preliminaries.
A person sitting near the judges stand announced that the tournament has started. I scanned my competitors. All of them were people in their youth and all of them were focusing trying to write a poem. While I wrote down one of my favorite poems and relaxed. People saw that I wasn’t writing they sneered and went back to writing. Once time finally ran out I saw some people were confident and others had a look of despair. One of the judges said “Come up and show us your poem.”
Multiple people went up and most of them received a 5 or lower. Just when I was starting to lose my patience I was called up. The judges asked me “Are you arrogant or are you really good enough to write for 1 minute and stop writing?”
“I am confident that this is one of the best poems you will ever see.”
The other participants laughed and there were several comments such as “You think that you are some poetry grandmaster or something?”
“Who came up with the proverb ignorance is a blessing? Since it sure isn’t a blessing for this guy.”
There were also other comments but those are the first 2 that I heard.
One of the judges finally had enough and said “ENOUGH LET HIM SHOW US HIS POEM!”
I started to recite my poem.
“Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.”
After I finished reciting my plagiarized poem all of them had their mouths opens. The judges were also shocked. While I was thinking please don’t ask me about my inspiration the judges rated my poem a 10/10. I went back down to my seat and waited for the judges to finish rating the other contestants.