Chapter 171: Chapter 171

The next few fights went by largely without surprises. Nolan just barely managed to pull through once more, defeating his opponent just moments before collapsing himself. Sylph’s next round was a stark contrast to Nolan’s – she won with a single blow, striking down a student from Greenvalley.

Mark evidently took that as a challenge. When he was called up for his fight, he didn’t move once after he landed. He sat there for nearly a minute, deflecting every spell his opponent threw, before walking over and throwing the other kid off the stage.

Elania, Eve, and Viv all won their fights handily as well. Before long, the second round of the tournament was done. The stage started shift once more, and the announcer let everyone know that the quarterfinals of the tournament would be starting later that day.

The crowd wasn’t particularly pleased with having to wait, but he managed to tide them over by promising that the final arena would be something far more exciting than anything else they’d ever seen.

One of the people working for Kingsfront entered the viewing room once the announcer had finished speaking.

“I’d like to congratulate you all,” the man said, bowing. “Not losing a single student up until the quarterfinals is truly impressive. Both of your schools should be proud.”

“Thank you,” Nolan said, rubbing his eyes. His hair was messy and the green armor covering his body was slightly askew. “Kingsfront has been very kind to us. Truly, no other mage college could have handled it as well as you have.”

The man stood straight, beaming with pride. “Your words are kind. You are certain to be shocked by the next round, though. I have come to let you know that the next five hours are yours to do with as you please. If you venture into any of property owned by Kingsfront, all food and drinks will be provided free of cost. We do request that you avoid fighting with the other students, though. Any injuries will result in disqualification.”

“Thank you for your kindness,” Viv said, inclining her head.

The man bowed, then swept out of the room.

“It’s a miracle you didn’t go to Kingsfront,” Viv said, turning to Nolan. “You’ve got a silver tongue. You would have fit right in.”

“Like you’re one to talk,” Mark said, stretching his arms and yawning. “Goldsilk has more nobles than any college other than Kingsfront.”

Damien nudged Syph with his foot. “You want to go see what food they have?”

“I was about to suggest the same,” Sylph said. They rose to their feet.

“What about you guys?” Damien asked.

“I’ll be staying here,” Mark said. “I want to see what they do to the arena, and food is food. The stuff here will be just as good as anything in a restaurant.”

“I’ll stay as well,” Nolan decided. He slumped back in his chair and rubbed his eyes. “I need to get some sleep if I’m going to have the slightest chance of doing anything in the quarterfinals. This should be the end of the run for me, but I’d at least like to put on a good showing.”

Eve tugged on Viv’s shirt sleeve. The tall blonde tilted her head, then shrugged. “We might as well. It’ll be interesting to check out more of Kingsfront.”

“I’m going to stay here,” Elania said, plopping down in a chair and glaring at Mark. He ignored her.

“You want to come with us?” Viv asked as the four walked out of the arena.

“Fine with me,” Sylph said. Damien nodded and they fell in behind the Goldsilk students.

The group walked down the large road and deeper into the Kingsfront campus. Other students flooded out from the arena and the dull roar of excited chatter filled the air. Viv and Eve walked at a brisk pace, not even pausing to peer at the expensive buildings as they passed.

They reached a road lined on either side by densely packed stores. Despite it being little more than a glorified alley, students and faculty bustled from door to door, chatting and eating eagerly. Several bore bags stuffed full of everything from groceries to weapons.

“This is Kingsfront’s Market Street,” Viv explained, keeping to the right side of the road and shoving through the crowd. “As you can tell, it’s busy. This is where the good restaurants are. Supposedly.”

Even as she spoke, she didn’t pause to look at the building’s names once. She pressed onwards until they reached a dingy hole in the wall. The door was old and worn, the orange windows matted with dirt and stains. A lone lantern hung above the entrance, swaying in the breeze.

“This is the place,” Viv said.

“It… doesn’t look like what I was expecting,” Damien admitted, squinting at the window. Try as he might, it was impossible to make anything out behind it.

Viv pushed the door open. A warm, inviting smell wafted out from within the room as golden yellow light spilled out. The inside of the building was nothing like its exterior. Circular wooden tables had been arranged in a row along the wall. The seats around them were beautifully carved and padded with red cushions.

Several well dressed waiters ferried food from a door in the side of the building to the tables, taking orders and carrying glasses with polished practice. At the back end of the room was a tight stairwell that ran up into the ceiling.

A good number of people were seated around the tables. Almost all of them wore Kingsfront colors. While the four took in the scenery, a waitress approached them with a polite smile.

“Are you competitors in the intramural tournament?” she asked.

“We are,” Viv said. “I’d heard great things about this location, so I wanted to visit while I was in the area.”

“Of course,” the waitress said. “I can get you a room on the second floor. If you’d follow me, please.”

She grabbed several menus from a pile behind a counter, then led them up the stairwell. The second floor was almost identical to the first, except there were more tables. She brought them to the side of the building that looked down over the alleys, right beside a large window.

It was perfectly clear, granting everyone a view of the energetic alley beneath them. The waitress pulled one of the extra chairs away and laid the menus on the table. She gave them a small bow. “I will return in five minutes to get your orders.”

Viv and Eve sat down with their backs facing the window. Damien pulled a chair out for Sylph and then took the one beside it, picking up a menu and scanning through it. He breathed a small sigh of relief. The menu items were all largely normal and easily pronounceable, unlike the ones at the restaurant Whisp had brought them to.

He scanned through all the items, but his eyes kept going back to the buttermilk pancakes. Eventually, he gave up. There was nothing wrong with sticking with what he knew was good.

“Try something new,” Henry said. “Get the waffles.”

Waffles are just crunchy pancakes.

“Then crunch it up. Besides, I can read your thoughts, doofus. You’re already thinking that your mom’s pancakes are going to be better than whatever they serve you here.”

Bah, fine. Just stop talking right now, the Goldsilk girls are going to realize that I’m talking to myself.

Right on cue, Sylph nudged him in the leg with her knee. He gave a miniscule nod and set his menu down.

“How’d you know about this place?” Damien asked.

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“I’ve been to Kingsfront before,” Viv replied, putting down her own menu. “One of my brothers goes here.”

“Is he–”

“No.” Viv shook her head. “He’s not in the tournament. He ranked fifth.”

“That’s unfortunate,” Sylph said. “I guess it’s good that you won’t have to fight your brother.”

“In a way,” Viv agreed. “But the finals this year are going to be brutal. I can tell already. If we can make it past quarterfinals, we’ll be lucky. Between all of you at Blackmist, Mountain Hall, and the Kingsfront students, this is the most dangerous tournament I’ve ever fought in.”

“You’ve got some talent yourself,” Sylph pointed out. “You’ve managed to avoid showing too many of your cards. None of you have used more than a combat manifestation, but I’m certain that you’ve got a full one.”

Viv winced. “How do you know?”

“Call it instinct,” Sylph replied, a tiny grin pulling at her lips. “I won’t press. We’ve got our secrets. I’m looking forward to meeting one of you in the tournament.”

“Speaking of you guys, is it rude to ask why there are only three of you?” Damien asked. “Everyone else has four members.”

“We’ve got four as well, actually,” Viv replied. “Our fourth member just isn’t here right now.”

“Fair enough,” Damien said. “And, for the record, I’m also excited to fight against you. Elania has quite the temper on her. Honestly, I’m hoping she goes up against Mark. I can tell she’s seething to.”

“She doesn’t hide her emotions well,” Viv admitted. “And she’d like nothing more than to go up against him. You’ve got quite a strange group, you know. Most of the other colleges have some similarities within their representatives, but you four are almost on completely different pages. Mark is like a wild monster, Nolan is a polite noble, and then there are the two of you. You communicate almost wordlessly. That isn’t a common level of bond between students.”

“Sylph and I have been training together ever since we got to Blackmist,” Damien said. “We’re roommates.”

Viv tilted her head and watched them for a few seconds. Then a tiny smirk played across her face. “Ah. I see now.”

Why does that make me think she doesn’t see at all?

Henry didn’t get a chance to answer. The waitress approached their table, flipping open a small notebook. “Are you all ready to order?”

“I’ll get the eggs benedict,” Viv said, then nodded at Eve. “And she’ll have the steak dinner. Water for both of us, please.”

“Of course,” the waitress replied, then turned her gaze to the other half of the table.

“The waffles, please,” Damien said.

“And pancakes for me,” Sylph added.

“I’ll be back shortly with your food,” the waitress said, collecting their menus and leaving.

“Tell me something,” Viv said, her tone growing somber. “Do you know anything about the second half of the tournament?”

Eve’s eyes widened and she sent a sharp glance at Viv. The taller girl inclined her head imperceptibly, signaling something to Eve.

“A little,” Damien said, interlacing his fingers. He wasn’t about to share any information about Moon. As nice as Goldsilk students were, he didn’t know what they were aiming at. “Why do you ask?”

“There’s going to be an opportunity to get some very powerful artifacts,” Viv said, worry knitting her eyebrows together. “But we aren’t here for that.”

“What do you mean?” Sylph asked.

“We’re here to stop Mountain Hall from getting them,” Viv said. Her hand clenched into a fist. “Especially Bartholomew and Drew.”

“Drew?” Damien frowned. “I assume that’s Mountain Hall’s rank one student?”

“It is. Bartholomew is bad, but Drew is a complete psychopath. He shouldn’t even be allowed to attend a mage college, but he’s such a powerful space mage that people overlook it. He’s a menace that’s crippled multiple people.”

“Seriously?” Damien leaned back in surprise. “How? Healing mages are powerful. They should be able to take care of almost all wounds.”

“It’s not too hard to stich an arm back on, but regrowing one is much more difficult,” Viv said. Her lips thinned. “And not all colleges have good healing mages. If you aren’t wealthy, it can take years to earn enough money to get your injury healed. There are also rumors of Drew killing students, but none of them have been proven.”

“You think he’s going to do something like that during this tournament?” Sylph asked.

“Almost certainly,” Viv spat. “He won’t kill anyone during a fight, but he’s broken his opponents in fights even if they can get healed afterwards. He’s an evil bastard, and the world would be better off without him.”

“You’ve got personal history with him, then,” Damien said.

“Unfortunately,” Viv said. “Elania’s sister is one of the people we suspect he killed. Mountain Hall covered his tracks too well, but she vanished after being seen with him during a competition between our schools. I’m convinced he did it. In addition to keeping him from getting any artifacts during the second half of this tournament, I plan to force him to tell me the truth.”

“Are you asking for our help with this?” Sylph asked.

“No. I don’t expect you to stick your neck out for people you don’t know,” Viv replied. “I’m just warning you of him. You seem nice enough, so I don’t want one of you to go missing during the second half of the tournament.”

This is worrisome. I didn’t think about this much, but when we’re doing the second half of the tournament, the teachers won’t be able to see us, will they? So whatever Moon was talking about… we might not have any help from anyone if things go south.

“Think of it a different way,” Henry said. “If there’s nobody watching, that means I don’t have to cripple myself. We can fight at full power.”

The waitress came back up the stairs, carrying several plates of food. She distributed them before everyone, putting an end to the conversation as everyone dug in. Damien’s waffles had been lathered in cream, syrup, and fresh fruit. He carved off a small piece and popped it into his mouth. It was good, but…

He glanced at Sylph, who was already eyeing him. She’d also taken a bite from her pancakes, but she was making no moves to go for a second. They wordlessly exchanged plates and dug in once more.

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