Chapter 15: The Tournament
The battle to determine the king of the nation was finally underway. The town of the royal capital was abuzz with excitement. After all, this event only took place once every thirty years. The main street leading from the castle to the coliseum in the center of town, where the tournament would be held, had been decorated and filled with stalls of all kinds.
Since this was an event to decide the king of a superpower nation, many guests from all over the world had come to see the results. Some of their faces were very familiar to Ruri; Arman and Celestine had traveled all the way from the Nation of the Beast King.
“Hey, how’s it going?” Arman greeted.
“Hello, I’m doing just fine,” Ruri replied, “and I wound up making the hot spring I mentioned before.”
“Well, that’s great news! I think I’ll go take a dip later, then.”
As Ruri and Arman engaged in a peaceful chat, Celestine stepped forward and looked at Ruri as if she had something to say. She glared daggers at Ruri, and Ruri braced herself.
“Word has it you’re making wedding arrangements. I’m curious as to when that happened,” said Celestine.
“How do you know that?” Ruri uttered, wondering who could have told her.
“Master Jade’s aide took the effort to send me quite the detailed letter about it.”
“Argh! Agate-saaan!”
All of the aides knew that Celestine was madly in love with Jade, so there had been no need to make what was essentially a declaration of war against her. Why had they told her? Ruri wished that Agate had considered the potential damage before pulling a stunt like this.
“No, you see, I still haven’t given him my answer. Agate-san and the others are moving things along on their own...”
“You know good and well you could say no if you wanted!”
“Um, well, yeah,” Ruri stammered, unable to deny that fact.
Ruri didn’t necessarily hate what was going on, and she wasn’t going to put any serious effort into stopping the elders’ rampage. Though things were developing at a bewildering pace, she hadn’t said “no” to any of it.
Celestine suddenly pinched and pulled at Ruri’s cheeks.
“Eowch!” Ruri said, her enunciation slightly slurred.
“You’re saying you’re trying to steal Master Jade from me. I’m letting you off easy, so take it in stride.”
“That’s unfair...”
“Unfair? That should be my line! You coming in as some late contender to steal Master Jade away from me is the definition of unfair!” Celestine cried, squeezing Ruri’s cheeks even harder.
“Eowch! Ewoch!”
Celestine finally let go, and Ruri rubbed her afflicted cheeks in relief.
“But I’m left with no other option now that things have turned out this way,” Celestine said. It had almost sounded like she was giving up on Jade, but that wasn’t the case. “I will try my best to annul the marriage before the ceremony is ever held!”
“Oh...okay...”
Now that Jade had given Ruri his dragonheart, it wouldn’t matter what Celestine did at this juncture. Also, the elders and, more importantly, Jade, were trying everything in their power to convince Ruri to say yes. But even if Ruri were to tell Celestine that, Celestine would get angry, so Ruri instead kept it to herself.
“Okay, you two keep playing nice. I’ll be back. Got a certain someone that needs a little killing,” Arman suddenly spat out and walked off.
“Certain someone?” Ruri repeated.
“He must mean the previous Beast King,” Celestine clarified. “He is here, is he not?”
“Oh, yes, he is, but are you sure we shouldn’t stop him? He said he’s going to kill him.” Ruri saw that Arman’s face was stone cold, and he looked dead set on making someone deceased.
“I don’t see the problem. I’m sure Master Arman comprehends where he is right now, after all,” Celestine explained.
“I assume they don’t get along?” Ruri asked.
“I’ve personally never met him, but the previous Beast King was apparently quite the wild and unpredictable character. He left Master Arman with a fair share of quandaries. Although he may not look it, Master Arman is very much a man of reason. He took on all of the problems that his predecessor had left behind, so he must be aching to give the man a piece of his mind.”
“Huh, you don’t say...” Ruri marveled, figuring there were some things she couldn’t understand since she had no idea what happened back in those days.
“All that aside, I would appreciate it if you would tell me more about this hot spring you built.”
Celestine changed subjects, now interested in the new hot spring. They continued to walk, and Ruri proceeded to tell her about how she built a hot spring with the spirit’s help, hired a man from the Nation of the Beast King to design the facilities, and employed the children from the slums to help operate it.
Before long, they reached the private booth that had been prepared for guests of honor in the coliseum. Although it was an open-entry tournament and people were flooding into the spectator stands, there was no way key figures such as Ruri and Celestine could sit with the general public. Guests of honor had separate, private seats sectioned off for them.
As Celestine listened to Ruri’s hot spring story, she found herself intrigued by the otherworldly activities that Ruri was describing. The Nation of the Beast King was also lacking in forms of entertainment. She was excited to hear about what other attractions there were.
“But, you see, unlike the people from the Nation of the Beast King, the people here hardly have any interest in hot springs. I have a feeling we’d gain more female customers if I added massages, like the ones I had in the Nation of the Beast King, but there’s no one over here that can teach me how to do them.”
Ruri reminisced on those delightful massages. She really did want to put them into practice in the Nation of the Dragon King as well. However, since she didn’t know the first thing about the technique, she couldn’t teach anyone how to do it, which had made her abandon the idea altogether.
“In that case, shall I show you the technique from the Nation of the Beast King?” Celestine offered.
Ruri was caught off guard by the admittedly tantalizing proposal. Her eyes looked hesitant, but they also sparkled with renewed hope.
“Wait, could you do that?” Ruri asked.
“Yes, in exchange for the otherworldly attractions you’ve made, that is.”
“If that’s all, then it’d be my pleasure!”
“So we have ourselves a deal.”
“Woohoo!”
If Celestine taught her the secret arts of their massages, then she could receive the same treatment she’d had in the Nation of the Beast King every day without needing to go there.
As the excitement overtook her, Arman returned from his visit with Andal. “Looks like the crowd is getting fired up,” he said.
“Welcome back,” greeted Ruri.
“Yes, welcome back. Did your talk with your predecessor go well?” Celestine asked.
Arman sat back in his chair in a huff and clicked his tongue, saying, “I don’t care about that bastard.”
There were marks all over Arman’s face and arms that looked like leftovers from a fight. Either he had challenged Andal and lost or someone had stopped him the hard way. Otherwise, if he had won, he wouldn’t be in such a bad mood now.
Quartz and Agate both entered the booth.
“It’s about to start,” Quartz said.
He was right. A few moments later, fireworks went off, signaling the start of the tournament. The spectators erupted into cheers. Jade then appeared in the middle of the coliseum, and the crowd roared even louder. Seeing the Dragon King, a figure they rarely saw, made their excitement swell. But as soon as Jade raised his hand, the roaring crowd petered out into silence.
Seeing Jade command such awe from the crowd, Ruri clapped her hands and said, “Ooh, Jade-sama looks so kingly!”
“Uh, that’s because he is a king,” Quartz quipped. Albeit, it went in one ear and out the other as Ruri stared at Jade.
Jade began his opening speech. He was some distance away, but despite that, Ruri heard him all the way up in their booth.
“Huh? I can hear his voice?” she muttered. His voice was reaching the back of the wide coliseum clearly. She couldn’t figure out how he was doing that without a loudspeaker.
“He’s using wind magic to carry his voice,” Quartz explained.
“Oh, that makes sense.” It was a perfectly acceptable answer in a world with magic. There seemed to be no need for machines or anything of the sort here.
“And I hereby swear that I will fight honorably and justly in the name of all dragonkin,” said Jade, finishing his speech.
With that, the tournament finally began. The matches were one-on-one. A competitor won by making their opponent admit defeat, or sometimes by referee decision. The rules were rather loose. They simply stated that anything was allowed so long as you didn’t besmirch the good name of the dragonkin. That was a tad unsettling, but the matches went on regardless.
The first one out on the field was a soldier that Ruri was familiar with. He looked a little nervous because it was his first time entering, but that feeling seemingly vanished as soon as the signal sounded to begin. His face looked violent as he clashed swords with his opponent. Every new strike would cause some of the spectators to gasp and others to shout. While it didn’t seem like the crowd could keep up that level of enthusiasm, they only grew more heated with each passing match.
Since this was her first time attending, Ruri felt a little at odds with the crowd. But that wasn’t the only reason she couldn’t concentrate on the matches. She had completely forgotten what dragonkin training at the castle usually looked like.
At the training grounds, puncturing a hole in someone’s stomach due to lack of restraint was an everyday occurrence; gruesome bloodbaths unfolded on a daily basis. And that was just from training. Now that they were pitted in actual combat to become king, they were fighting one another with even more spirit and motivation.
The battles continued to unfold. Blood sprayed into the air, and the matches resembled more slaughter than sport. Vivid scenes of carnage unfit for the squeamish transpired before Ruri, scenes so graphic and gory that a PG rating didn’t cut it—they needed an R rating. But as she looked out into the crowd, thinking that children shouldn’t be exposed to this, she noticed that there were quite a number of children in attendance. She felt this would be terrible for their emotional development, but they were cheering with the best of them.
“Urgh, I can’t stand to watch this...” Ruri said, not a fan of horror or splatterhouse in the slightest. She slowly looked away and met eyes with Celestine, who was also avoiding looking directly at the action. “Are you all right, Celestine-san?”
“I’ve heard the stories of this competition, but this seems to be a tad too extreme for my tastes,” Celestine replied, looking somewhat pale—understandably so.
“I’d say this is hard to watch for ladies, yes,” Ruri observed. “Then again, the women and children in attendance don’t seem to be bothered by it much.”
“I would assume that people who can’t handle this wouldn’t come in the first place,” Celestine replied. It was either that or they were in such a festive mood after a long stint of nothing that they couldn’t care less about the details.
That was when the loudest cry of the day resounded. Ruri turned her attention back to the venue to see Finn coming out.
“Oh, it’s Finn-san!” Finn was the second favorite out of all the competitors, according to the betting scale. As soon as he made his entrance, a huge wave of cheers erupted as if everyone was awaiting his appearance.
Ruri’s eyes caught a glimpse of someone at the very front of the crowd waving a huge flag and roaring louder than anyone else in the arena—that someone being Ewan.
“Ewan...” she muttered.
Dragonkin soldiers not competing were supposed to be either guarding guests from other nations or guarding the tournament venue, but Ewan had prioritized cheering on Finn. He had put in his request for time off without a second thought and was now supporting his brother with all his might. Ruri was surprised to see that his request had been approved with it being so busy.
Finn performed to his reputation of being second to Jade in skill. His opponent didn’t stand a chance, and Finn landed a quick and easy victory. It was a display of strength distinguished from all the rest.
“Brotheeeeer!” Ewan cried, ecstatic despite it only being his first match. He was acting as if Finn had already taken the tournament.
It was clear that Ewan was happy about his beloved big brother winning, but Ruri thought it would do him good to learn to keep his wits like Finn. Unlike Ewan, Finn was cool and composed from beginning to end. His expression always showed that he was more focused on the goal ahead, not the goal in front of him. Jade was the same way.
As Finn exited the arena and Jade entered, their eyes met for a brief yet tense second. Then Jade fully stepped into the arena, and the audience rained down a chorus of shouts louder than any before.
With speed rivaling Finn’s, Jade felled his opponent with only the sword in his hand. It hadn’t been a bloodbath like the other fights. Instead, Jade had struck his opponent with a beautiful array of swordplay moves that his opponent hadn’t been able to withstand, culminating in their defeat.
Jade and Finn stood above the rest. They deserved every bit of their high betting odds to win the tournament.
“Whoa...” Ruri marveled. She’d never seen Jade fight before. She’d known he was strong since he was Dragon King, but it was entirely different seeing him in action. Her amazement overshadowed her joy for his victory as she stared at him.
Quartz, sitting by her side, noticed this and chuckled. “Your face says that you’ve fallen in love all over again, Ruri.”
“I-I wouldn’t say that... No, I mean, maybe I would, but...” Ruri stammered. He had hit the nail on the head, but she was embarrassed her expression had been so transparent that people could point it out. Ruri wasn’t the only one feeling that way though. Celestine was also blushing at Jade’s valiant form.
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