On this day, the competition which takes place once every five years officially began. Although the number of people in the Capital increased every time the competition takes place, it’s still as orderly as it always was.
All the Inns in the Capital were all occupied by people who came from different cities to watch the competition. They rarely get the chance to come here since the requirements for entering the Capital are different from the other cities.
Only those who were in the Origin Plane, or above were given free rights to enter. But your identity still needs to be confirmed before entering, this way they can stop those who are not from the empire.
The arena where the competition was going to be held was already almost filled with people, yet more people coming in by the minute. Different groups of people were already conversing.
Two sets of people were in a heated argument.
“Dregs from the Lunar Academy, watch how we put you people in your place in the competition”
“Says the scums who only knows how to sneak attack their opponents”
“Yeah, why don’t you people come at us one on one. We’ll see how tough you are then”
The two sets who were in an argument were clearly students from the Lunar and Starlight Academy respectively. From their conversations, you could infer that one of the students from the Lunar Academy was sneaked attacked by a student from the Starlight Academy.
The surrounding people only watched on with interest, they all knew about what was going on between the two Academies. Even if the Emperor didn’t intervene, the other Academies had no interest in doing so. After all, they all had their own plans.
While the students were still throwing shades at each other, a commotion suddenly drew their attention.
“Look, aren’t those students from the Royal Academy?”
Someone in the crowd recognized the insignia crested on the clothes of youths who just entered the arena.
They all had haughty looks plastered all over their faces. There were six boys and four girls.
“Could it be that the Royal Academy will be participating in the competition this year?”
“Are you crazy, the Royal Academy has never participated in any of the previous competitions, why would they start now?”
“I for one, I’m very suspicious about this year’s competition. I mean, each Academy was usually given a quota of fifteen students. How come it was suddenly increased to twenty-five?”
“I don’t know, and I really don’t care. Those are not things we want to get involved in. The empire and the Academies know what they are doing, all I came here to do is watch some kids beat the crap out of each other, nothing else. You can play detective on your own, I have no interest in dying yet”
The arena was very lively, soon the students from each Academy started coming in together. Each Academy was assigned specific areas in the arena where the instructors and students who are participating in the competition seated.
Because of the conflict between the Lunar and Starlight Academy, when the students from the Lunar Academy entered, they immediately attracted attention from the crowd.
Grey was among the students heading towards the area which was assigned to the Academy. The students from the Lunar Academy all wore the same clothes with a half-moon insignia crested on the left side of their chests.
The Starlight Academy was among the last set to arrive at the arena. Just like the students from the Royal Academy, they all had pride written all over their faces. It was like no other Academy mattered to them.
The area assigned to them was close to the Royal Academy. When they got to their seats, some of their students went over to the area assigned to the Royal Academy. From this, one could see how close their relationship was.
Grey saw a familiar face among the students from the Starlight Academy, Jonas. But on checking closely, he noticed he wasn’t talking with anyone among the group. He was all alone and seated at a corner when they got to their seats. Unlike the Lunar Academy who tries to create a friendly environment for all its students, the system of the Starlight Academy was completely different.
In the Starlight Academy, only strength mattered. Those who are strong can do almost anything without facing any repercussions. They bully those who are weaker than them, with the Academy showing no signs of stopping them. The Academy even found ways to encourage this, they said only the strong deserved respect.
Klaus noticed Grey looking at the students from the Starlight Academy and couldn’t help but get curious.
“Hey buddy, who are you looking at?”
Grey shifted his gaze from that direction before replying.
“Remember Jonas from my city?”
Klaus thought for a while before replying.
“That guy you said was a Fire Elementalist with purple grade talent?”
During the first time Grey came to the Academy, he spoke of Jonas.
Grey nodded before adding.
“He’s among the students who are participating in the competition”
Reynolds looked in the direction of the Starlight Academy with cold eyes
“Those bunch of bastards, they better pray I don’t meet any of them at the competition”
He still remembered when they were attacked by students from the Starlight Academy, if not for Alice being present, they would have died.
A middle-aged man walked into one of the platforms in the arena. He immediately attracted attention from everyone, and they stopped what they were doing and focused on him. They knew he was about to make some announcements about the competition and also tell the participants the rules.
On seeing everyone was focused on him, the middle-aged man immediately started speaking.
“Welcome, everyone, to this year’s competition. Unlike the previous competitions, this one will be a little different. Of the three hundred students participating, the top seventy-five will be taken by the empire for special training. Rewards will be given to the top ten as usual also”
When the guy who said he was suspicious about the competition heard this, he immediately turned to his partner.
“See, I told something was going on”
His partner looked at him with eyes that said ‘Who doesn’t?’
The middle-aged man continued
“So try your best and remember to admit defeat if you know you’re not as strong as your opponent. Once you have incapacitated your opponent, you are not allowed to kill them. You’re all regarded as the future of the empire, so the more geniuses we have, the better for the empire”
“Please distribute the plaques to the students of your Academies. They would all be battling according to the plaque numbers. The first round will consist of one hundred and fifty battles, anyone who successfully makes it to the third round automatically gets a spot for the special training…”
The instructor continued explaining the rules of the competition, after all the plaques were successfully distributed the competition officially began. The first round of the competition would take three days with fifty battles taking place each day.
Grey had a battle the day the competitions started. His opponent was someone from the Ernst Academy, who was at the Sixth stage of the Arcane Plane, which he won easily.
After the battles for the day ended, the group from each Academy all headed towards their residence.
“Grey”
On the way back to their residence, Grey suddenly heard his name. Klaus and Reynolds were with him, so they also looked in the direction the voice came from.
A smile formed on Grey’s face when he saw who it was…
