Chapter 81

Chapter 81: Tournament Preliminary Round (3)

After the Tournament Preliminary Round.

As soon as I changed out of my Combat Uniform in the Changing Room set aside in the stadium and came out, the waiting-room corridor was crowded with Magic Department classmates who had come to see Karin and Black Magic Department classmates who had come to see Lloyd.

Those two were skilled first-years even within their departments. 

It made sense that classmates from the same departments would come to congratulate them.

It was nothing new, but not a single Holy Magic Department classmate had come to see me. 

I was treated as a real oddball in the Holy Magic Department, after all.

For some reason, it felt as if Lloyd and Karin were looking at me with pity, but that was just my imagination.

In any case, it was just my imagination.

“Then I’ll see you later.”

After parting with the two of them, I headed for the stadium stands.

“With this, we’ve secured a spot in the main tournament without any trouble......”

As long as Lloyd, who handled undead, was on our team, it was better to carefully check the Holy Magic Department students who made it through the preliminaries.

Even among Holy Magic Department students, their primary weapons and combat methods differed from person to person.

I walked with a hand on my chin, sunk deep in thought.

‘Hmmm... which team won the Magic Department Tournament again?’

I had not participated in this tournament in the previous timeline, but it was a tournament on this large a scale.

At the very least, the winning team ought to come to mind......

I was sure the winning team was......

“Damon, we need to talk.”

“......?”

Yulia, who had appeared before I knew it, was glaring at me with a cold face.

“Hey, at least try to control your expression.”

A hollow laugh escaped me on its own.

At this point, I could tell exactly what she was going to say just by looking at her face. 

In truth, there was nothing else for her to talk about.

“I guess teaming up with Lloyd is a pretty big deal from the Holy Empire’s point of view?”

“You understand very well. Brother, from what I heard, you personally recruited Lloyd. What on earth were you thinking, putting together a team like that?”

“What do you think? I put it together to win. Look. We got through the preliminary round without any trouble in the end.”

“Black Magic is Forbidden Magic. The Inquisitors are never going to view this favorably......!”

“You make it sound grand by calling it Forbidden Magic, but in the end, that’s just what your Holy Empire decided, isn’t it? Here at Saengterminum, all it amounts to is being treated as a heretic by people from the Holy Empire.”

“Haah... you know that the majority of Holy Power Awakeners belong to the Holy Empire, do you not?”

After letting out a deep breath, Yulia looked around.

“Look even now. You passed the tournament preliminaries, but not a single Holy Magic Department student came to see you, did they? That is how sensitive an issue it is for us.”

“And that’s supposed to be a big deal?”

“Would it kill you to care at least a little about how others see you?”

“That’s none of my concern. Besides, it’s not like there isn’t a Holy Magic Department student who came to see me at all.”

“Pardon? Who is there?”

“You.”

“...Pardon?”

When I twisted my mouth into a smirk and jerked my chin, Yulia briefly looked as if I had caught her off guard.

“Ah, no, well...... I only came because I was worried. I did not come to congratulate you.”

“Same thing. Why split hairs?”

“They are different, actually. Haah, honestly......”

Yulia’s face creased a little at my shameless attitude, but I found her behavior even harder to understand.

“Are you really fine after hearing that kind of bullshit?”

“Pardon?”

“The Inquisitors who came this time. You heard everything those bastards spouted when they heard you healed Senior Lucia, didn’t you?”

“...Yes, I heard.”

Even at my question, she looked straight at me with a calm expression.

“I think they had enough reason to say what they did. They probably did not know the situation well, and our Holy Order fundamentally does not view Black Magic favorably.”

“Hmm, is that so?”

I slid my gaze aside and saw the figure approaching from behind Yulia stop short.

Just as I thought the timing was terribly coincidental......

“Still......”

After a brief pause, Yulia continued with a gentle smile.

“At the very least, I do not think what I did back then was wrong.”

“...Is that so?”

I let out a faint laugh without meaning to.

You really aren’t a Sacred Mark Successor for nothing.

For now, that mindset is enough, I think.

A little relieved, I turned my gaze toward the figure standing behind Yulia’s back.

“That’s what she says, Senior Lucia.”

“...Huh?”

When Yulia turned her head in bewilderment, Lucia was standing there.

“Uh... Damon, I did save seats in the stadium like you told me to......”

Lucia held two stadium admission tickets as she looked back and forth between Yulia and me.

“Do you two still have more to talk about?”

***

And so the three of us moved to the stadium stands.

The stands were nearly full. 

The sight of countless people watching the matches and talking went beyond mere noise and brought to mind a massive tidal wave.

“Um, Yulia, where is your seat?”

“O-over there. There.”

I looked at Lucia and Yulia as they checked each other’s seats.

“Wow, really? You’re pretty close to us.”

“W-wow, am I? What a coincidence.”

“Are you two putting on a puppet show or something?”

Watching them hold a conversation while frozen stiff was quite a sight.

At my question, the two of them glared at me as though I had wronged them.

“...Do you think we’re like you?”

“We have our positions to consider too, you know?”

Yulia was from the Holy Order, and Lucia was from a branch line of the Four Great Houses.

Since they had gone through an ordeal where killing and saving each other had both been on the table, it was not unreasonable for them to be that awkward.

Still, seeing this made it clear that there was a long way to go.

“Ahem... Yulia, when do your preliminary rounds start?”

“Mine start tomorrow.”

The preliminary rounds were being held over two days in total, today and tomorrow.

Yulia said she had also come to watch the matches with Viole. 

Since she was a tournament participant too, she wanted to properly check the abilities of the other teams’ members during the preliminary rounds.

“What’s your team number?”

“Hehe, listen and be amazed.”

At my question, Yulia boldly lifted the corners of her mouth.

“The astonishing answer is Team 7, you know?”

“...Team 7?”

Hah, how laughable.

“Team 44 is better than Team 7, obviously.”

“Are you serious?”

“...I prefer getting the bad luck out of the way.”

So the team Yulia and Viole belonged to was Team 7.

Considering Yulia’s abilities, they were one of the strong contenders to win this tournament.

But Team 7, Team 7...... Why does that feel so familiar?

“It’s the lucky number seven, no less. I have a good feeling about it.”

“...Ah.”

Only then did I clearly recall my memories from before my Return to the Past.

‘The Magic Department Tournament? Sword Radiance, you actually bothered entering something that annoying when you were a first-year?’

‘That is because I was diligent. Please do not lump me in with someone whose personality was complete trash. Haah, back then, even our team number was lucky seven, so I thought things would go well......’

Right. 

I did have a conversation like that with Sword Radiance before my Return to the Past, didn’t I?

Now it was starting to come back to me. 

It had taken time to recall because the conversation had been so trivial at the time.

‘Being frustrated because I couldn’t win back then... hehe, thinking about it now, it feels nostalgic. When I was young, I cared quite a lot about things like that......’

‘Oh, you failed to win back then, did you? So much for Sword Radiance’s reputation.’

‘...It was because it was a team event. If it had been an individual match, I would’ve beaten them all.’

‘You know making excuses is pathetic, right?’

‘Damn it, it wasn’t an excuse. In the first place, the other team’s lineup was far too unfair back then.’

As I recalled my conversation with Sword Radiance, I looked around the stands.

‘Someone who wasn’t even a Saengterminum student asked to participate, saying she wanted to check the abilities of the Elves, her kin. Headmaster Levia accepted it too, saying it would motivate the students......’

‘Must’ve been someone famous if they went that far?’

‘Of course. You would know as soon as you heard. Her team was Team 1, too.’

The team that won the Magic Department Tournament in the previous timeline was Team 1.

And if it was the person who caused Yulia’s defeat... she would surely be here in the stadium.

‘...Ha, there she is.’

She was not that far away, so I found her easily.

Ears jutting out to sharp points, the defining trait of an Elf.

Fresh green hair that seemed to hold an entire forest within it, and emerald eyes.

The major difference was that, unlike Karin, who was a Dark Elf, her skin was fair.

On top of that, the many Elves accompanying her showed that she held no ordinary status.

‘No wonder I thought there were more Elves in the stands than expected...... It was because she was here.’

It was a face I knew well.

The Great Forest where the Elves lived also had a chieftain who led them.

And that Elf girl had deep ties to that chieftain.

‘Who was it that participated in the tournament?’

‘It was Elysia, the Elf Chieftain’s daughter.’

Elysia, the Elf Chieftain’s daughter.

In other words, she was the so-called princess of the Elves.

‘I thought she’d still be holed up in the Great Forest. Did she come to Saengterminum around this time to watch the Magic Department Tournament?’

This was a fact even I, a Regressor, had not known.

‘So... that sheltered pointy-ear is going to enter this tournament and raise hell?’

Hah, who says she gets to?

How dare she try to interfere with my grand plan to save the world? 

I needed to teach her what manners were.

After I stared at Elysia with those thoughts for a few seconds......

‘...Hm?’

Her head turned smoothly, and she began looking this way.

‘It feels like she’s looking over here......’

Though there were so many people around that I could not be sure.

‘...Am I imagining it?’

Deciding it was probably just my imagination, I walked toward the reserved seats.

***

“That student came to watch the matches too?”

Elysia narrowed her eyes as she looked at Damon.

“A Holy Magic Department student who teamed up with Karin, one of our kin, and recruited Lloyd, who is from a Direct Line of the Four Great Houses......? Hah, it isn’t even funny.”

“Lady Elysia, we came to Saengterminum to check how much the Elf students who enrolled here have grown. There is no need to concern ourselves with an exiled Dark Elf......”

Elysia silenced the Elf man beside her with a glare.

“I will be the one to judge that. Even if she is a Dark Elf, she is still one of our kin. Am I supposed to just sit by when one of our kin is doing something strange?”

Had they formed that team only to be eliminated immediately, she could have felt somewhat at ease, but the way the battle had unfolded in the arena moments ago could only be called overwhelming.

At this point, it would not be an exaggeration to call Team 44 a strong contender for victory.

A Dark Elf exiled from the Great Forest teams up with a Black Mage of the Dark Empire and seizes victory?

That would look bad for the Elves in several ways.

For Karin, and for herself.

“What did Lady Levia say?”

Elysia had already spoken with the Headmaster and the professors about participating in the tournament as Team 1 with the Elves her age who had come with her.

However, a short while earlier, she had sent someone to make an additional request to the Headmaster.

“They said that changing the members of an already formed team requires every team member’s consent.”

“That is no problem.”

Elysia rose from her seat.

“Thankfully, there are people who reached out to us first.”