【Ding!】
【Goddess of Fate’s Guidance:
Do not reject Alicia Ascart’s request tonight.】
“…”
Do not reject Alicia’s request tonight? Hm?
Looking at the System notification that abruptly came in, Roel’s mind was filled with question marks. He suddenly felt a little uncertain about following the Goddess of Fate’s Guidance.
There had been nothing particularly problematic about the suggestions made by the Goddess of Fate thus far, but the same couldn’t be said about this one. It was still fresh in his mind how Alicia proposed for them to take a bath together not too long ago. What if she were to make such a suggestion once more?
There was no way Roel could possibly accept that.
It troubled him just to think about it.
His eyes drifted over to the spectator stand, where a red-haired woman and a white-haired girl sat next to each other. He noticed Alicia waving happily at him, and he waved back at her.
Forget it, no point worrying about it now. I’ll just see how it goes.
The Goddess of Fate’s Guidance had already proven its effectiveness by this point. He decided not to think too much about it for now.
The medic quickly led him out of the colosseum toward a medical examination room. He didn’t have any injuries since his substitution magic tool was still intact, so he was allowed to leave after a quick examination.
As soon as he walked out of the medical examination room, he was welcomed by the warm applause of his faction members. The first thing he learned was that the payout for his victory had risen to an incredible level.
Selina was the one who had clinched first place in their preliminary round group, and the chosen terrain, Forest of Eternal Night, was highly advantageous to her. In contrast, Roel had avoided revealing Artasia’s powers in the last two rounds. All of these factors led the crowd into believing that it was already a decided match, so they rushed to place their bets on Selina.
As a result, the payout for Roel’s victory shot all the way up to 3.15 by the time the fight began.
It was so skewed that Roel was dumbfounded when he heard about it. One must know that the usual payout for a seeded challenger like him was around 1.3. That was also the reason why he chose to bet on the duration of the duel instead of his own victory.
He wasn’t confident about maneuvering the technicalities when dealing with Selina, so he got Alicia to buy on his victory instead. Ironically, it ended up maximizing his profit instead.
Just like that, he successfully increased his capital to over 100,000 gold coins. At this rate, he might just be able to repay Charlotte before the end of the Challenger Cup!
After resting for a while, Roel chose not to return to the academy right away. He stayed in the colosseum to watch the subsequent matches, hoping to gather some information on his competitors.
The tournament had already proceeded in the top 32, but none of Roel’s friends and the transfer students had been eliminated yet. Even the weakest Paul was able to survive two rounds through summoning overpowered weapons and armor.
Paul was lucky to encounter an Origin Level 5 transcendent in the first round, but his luck ran out in the second round when he was matched with an Origin Level 4 transcendent. Everyone, including Roel, thought that this was the end of Paul’s journey in the tournament.
But, of all places, the terrain chosen as their battlefield ended up being the sea.
Water terrains were usually viewed to be neutral toward all challengers since most people wouldn’t have experience fighting in water. The crowd thought that it would eventually boil down to a battle of sheer power.
Yet, with a simple switch of armor, Paul gained the ability to freely maneuver around the terrain as if he was in his own home turf. Through his advantages in mobility, he was able to kite his opponent and slowly wear him down till death.
Such a dramatic turnaround amazed the crowd. It further drove in the notion of how important the terrain was in a battle. That was probably part of the reason why everyone rushed to place their bets on Selina when it came to Roel’s battle.
Roel could only say that Paul was incredibly lucky. This might just be what people commonly call the protagonist’s halo.
In comparison, Geralt had a much tougher time. He managed to survive the last two rounds, but both had been difficult fights for him.
As for Nora, Charlotte, and Lilian, those three basically crushed their opponents, especially Charlotte. Through her expertise in divination, she was able to predict not just the terrain but even her opponent’s weaknesses as well.
It might not be as effective against stronger transcendents, but when it came to opponents of the same Origin Level, her thorough preparations were impossible to deal with.
Take the previous round for example, Charlotte was fighting with a spellcaster known for his huge AOE spells in an urban environment. The spellcaster had a bloodline ability that allowed him to conceal his mana pulsation to a certain extent, making him a frightening sniper.
The spellcaster learned before the battle that Charlotte’s Golden Soul was particularly adept in defense, so he decided to first bide his time to prepare a huge spell to blast through her Golden Soul, clinching the win in a single move.
It would be an understatement to say that things didn’t go the way he expected.
Amidst the hundreds of residences, Charlotte accurately predicted his location and decisively interrupted his spell channeling. From the moment his spell channeling was interrupted, his defeat was already sealed.
Compared to Charlotte’s fanciful plays, Nora and Lilian’s battles were much more monotonous. They would simply crush their opponents with their sheer strength every single time.
As for the transfer students, each of them had their own unique traits.
Of them, the one who stood out the most was Teresa, who defeated her opponent with ease through her Hextongue.
Perhaps out of worry that she would cause excessive damage through extreme words like ‘Die’, she was extremely careful with her choice of words. She would usually spend some time maneuvering around her opponent, slowly chipping off her opponent’s substitution magic tool.
William’s fighting style was more simple, focused mainly on efficiency. He would swiftly close in on his enemy and decide the match in a single slash.
This could very well be the most exciting Challenger Cup ever hosted.
The First Graders, who were allowed to participate due to a special exception, had shown their worth in the tournament, taking over twenty slots in the top hundred. Even when they were now in the top 32, they were still occupying twelve places.
This was an amazing result, to the point that the crowd was starting to dub the current First Graders of Saint Freya Academy as the golden generation. However, Roel knew that the truth was very different.
While the seven transfer students were First Graders in name, the only one who could be truly considered to be a First Grader in terms of age was William.
The education syllabi across different territories in the Sia Continent weren’t standardized. What was taught in the Knight Kingdom’s Saint Fran Academy and Brolne’s Saint Freya Academy were very different, which was why all seven transfer students had no choice but to start as First Graders. Otherwise, Kurt of the Giant Bloodline was already a Third Grader in Saint Fran Academy.
It was really through faking their ages (kind of) that the transfer students stood out so much.
The upper-grade students of Saint Freya Academy were pretty impressive too, such as the Greenrose Ringbearer of the Second Grade, Glint Doran, and the Grayrose Ringbearer of the Fourth Grade, Edward Potter. Of them, Edward Potter was said to be on the verge of a breakthrough to Origin Level 3.
Prior to the enrollment of Roel and the others, these two Ringbearers had always viewed the Purplerose Ringbearer as their de facto leader.
Glint was an Austinean who deeply believed in the Pure Bloodline Theory, so it was only normal for him to become Lilian’s stalwart supporter.
Edward was from a minor country that served as a buffer state to the Austine Empire, so there was no way he would dare to defy the woman who could possibly become the empress of the Austine Empire.
Roel had only met them a couple of times at the Rose Council, so his interactions with them were severely limited.
His impression of Glint was that the man had a screw loose. Glint was a devout believer in the Pureblood Theory, which led to him taking a hostile attitude toward Roel and the others. As for Edward, he appeared to be a cordial person, just that he was often not in the academy so the two of them weren’t able to talk much.
Both of them had advanced into the top 32 as well. Edward, in particular, was in second place of the seeded challenger ranking, and he was able to defeat his previous two opponents pretty easily. The crowd had high hopes for him.
Roel watched the matches after him as a spectator, and the results were as he had expected.
Paul encountered Juliana in the third round.
That crimson-eyed woman had a master-level proficiency of dark magic that far surpassed that of other transcendents of her Origin Level. Aside from that, she was also a highly-skilled warrior, being a native from the Knight Kingdom that worshiped strength. Her choice of weapon was an ominous black greatsword.
The black greatsword glowed with an undulating red hue that looked as if it was breathing. Paired with Juliana’s crimson eyes and the Knight Kingdom’s unique armored laced skirt, she looked wild yet graceful at the same time.
Much attention had been on her since the preliminary round, and she had gained quite a few fans to date, especially after she had proven that she wasn’t just looks.
Juliana was unlucky that the chosen terrain was the rainforest, where Paul could put his armor, Forest Fae, to good use. The concealment ability of Forest Fae was so powerful that even demonic beasts were unable to sense his presence. So, she turned the shadows in the rainforest into countless little hands and thoroughly combed through the area.
Sure enough, she was able to nab Paul in the end and defeat him.
The sheer control she had over darkness stunned the crowd. Even the distinguished guests at the VIP stand were amazed.
The theories behind using a spell to search for someone over an area were fairly simple, but putting it into practice posed a huge challenge. Often, multiple spellcasters were required to effectively invoke searching spells, but Juliana was able to do it alone with incredible finesse.
The moment she found Paul, she quickly leaped over through Shadow Meld and severed him into two with her greatsword.
Her sharp and smooth movements were truly pleasant to the eye, demonstrating a perfect balance between elegance and lethality. Even Roel was awed as well.
Paul suffered a crushing defeat, but he didn’t receive any criticisms from the crowd. His defeat was inevitable given the massive gap in their prowess, and he had already done well coming this far despite his limitations.
Even the protagonist’s halo wasn’t that almighty as to be able to turn reality on its head. Paul might have been blessed with extraordinary luck that granted him favorable conditions practically every single round, but ultimately, luck wasn’t omnipotent. Juliana had shown that the only thing that could be truly relied on was skills.
It was worth mentioning that after severing Paul into two, Juliana managed to inflict a small cut on Paul through the overwhelming damage she inflicted and acquired a bit of his blood. She gave it a taste and cringed right after.
“Urk. What atrocious flavor is this?”
Juliana frowned in disgust for a moment before turning her eyes toward the spectator stand, where Roel was seated at. Roel interpreted her gesture to be an act of provocation, but he didn’t pay it much heed.
He did eliminate Selina not too long ago, and from the looks of it, Juliana and Selina seemed to be fairly close with each other.
Following Paul’s defeat, the other vice-chief of the Bluerose Faction also slipped up and lost his battle too. However, this was within expectations since Geralt’s opponent was none other than Brittany. His legs had been trembling right from the start of the battle. It would have taken a true miracle for him to win the fight in that state.
Once again, Brittany refreshed Roel’s understanding of how poor a person’s communication skills could get. When she saw how pale Geralt’s complexion was, she uttered classical yandere words.
“I’d rather have you die by my hands…”
“S-sorry?”
Geralt felt like his heart was going to explode from fear when he heard those words. It further reinforced his notion that Brittany was off her rockers, though based on Roel’s understanding of Brittany… she just chose the wrong words to express herself.
Brittany was probably trying to say that it would be safer for him to lose to her since others might fail to control their strength properly and injure Geralt, but miscommunication appeared to be the unique trait of the Valkyrie Bloodline. Her kind intention was mysteriously distorted the moment it was filtered through her mouth.
Under Brittany’s ‘intimidation’, the terrified Geralt swiftly succumbed to his fear and lost tragically.
To be fair, it was unlikely that Geralt would have been able to defeat Brittany even if not for the morale disadvantage. Brittany and her Valkyrie Bloodline were too much for Geralt, who had barely reached Origin Level 4 a few days ago, to handle.
The other fights were pretty standard. Nora and Lilian crushed their enemies, as usual, and Charlotte managed to outlast her opponent by dragging the fight out.
The blindfolded transfer student, Stuart, got eliminated though.
His opponent was an Origin Level 4 foreigner who boasted a wealth of combat experience, and the chosen terrain was a desert. There was nothing special about their battle, just the two of them exchanging fairly normal spells. The opponent ended up winning by a narrow margin, but from the start to the end, Stuart never took off his blindfold.
Due to the blindfold issue, many spectators felt that Stuart had held back in the battle. Those who had put their money on Stuart’s victory even started a protest, claiming that it was a conspiracy to steal their money.
Roel was quite perplexed about it too, but he felt that the battle might not necessarily have been staged.
Could it be that Stuart’s eyes aren’t intended for combat?
Such a thought flashed across his mind, but he quickly shrugged it off.
After watching all the battles, the members of the Bluerose Faction returned to the Azure Manor together. The atmosphere wasn’t too bad due to Roel’s successful advancement to the next round, but it was unlikely that they would be celebrating.
It would have been insensitive of them to do so when Paul and Geralt had gotten eliminated.
In fact, Roel even met with them privately in the guest room to talk about it.
Paul and Geralt had realized their own insufficiencies through the tournament and vowed to work even harder than before.
Roel encouraged their determination to become stronger. They themselves needed to become strong in order to stand their ground in this world, and it was likely that he would require their help in the future too.
After the quick chat, Roel finally had some time to himself.
He hadn’t really put much thought into it earlier, but it was weird how Alicia hadn’t returned to the Azure Manor with him today. She had left the colosseum together with Chris before the matches for the day came to an end, and he hadn’t seen her around since then.
Did the Goddess of Fate’s Guidance slip up?
Perplexed, Roel started making his way to the dining room. However, the moment he opened the doors to the dining room, he was met with multiple confetti poppers.
Pop!
“Lord Brother, congratulations on advancing to the next round!”
“Alicia? Miss Chris?”
Roel watched in bewilderment as the magic confetti poppers released a festive rain of colorful ribbons all around.
“We know that the Bluerose Faction won’t be celebrating today because of Paul and Geralt’s elimination, so Alicia and I decided to hold an internal family celebration for you instead. What do you think? Surprised?” Chris explained with a smile.
“I am surprised.”
Touched by their gesture, Roel revealed a gentle smile toward the two of them. Alicia quickly grabbed his hand and pulled him over to the table, which was filled with a huge spread. He couldn’t help but notice that the dishes were a little different from usual.
“How unusual. I’ve never seen these dishes before…”
“We are your chefs for today. I can’t guarantee it’s delicious, but it’s at least a token of our feelings.”
“You prepared all of these?”
“Lord Brother, I made the soup all alone!” exclaimed Alicia as she puffed out her chest proudly.
Roel was taken aback. Looking at the dishes before him, he suddenly felt like an accomplished father whose daughter had suddenly grown up.
When did that little girl who needed to be fed during meals grow into an adult who can now make her own food?
He felt a little tearful thinking about it. To conceal his feelings, he quickly dug into the soup.
“How is it, Lord Brother?”
“It’s delicious!”
“Haa, that’s a relief.”
Roel responded affirmatively like any parents would when trying their child’s cooking for the first time. But as he said those words, he realized that the soup Alicia made was indeed pretty good.
What’s going on? Is this an effect of the Perfect Origin Attribute too?
Roel slurped up over half a bowl of soup within moments.
Alicia was delighted to see how much Roel liked her dish, and Chris couldn’t help but chuckle at the sight too.
“Alicia has been practicing this dish in my kitchen over the last few days. There’s no way it isn’t delicious.”
“I see.”
Roel felt even more moved upon hearing Chris’ words.
To his surprise, the dishes prepared by Chris were excellent too. It was only on further questioning that he learned that Chris had been living alone over the years, and she had been interested in culinary ever since her student years.
“I picked up cooking to impress your father, but I got dumped before I could master it. Count yourself lucky!”
“Is that so? Hahaha.”
Roel laughed awkwardly in response to Chris’ grumble. While he was still feeling moved by all of this, Alicia took this opportunity to grab Roel’s arm and make her request.
“Lord Brother, won’t you allow me to stay with you tonight?”