My first viewing of the Rising Dragon Cup was going to be from the VIP seating area. No, seriously, how did it even come to this? After the situation with Rebel, I had looked around the slum with Poro-kun and Risel-kun, then made a visit to the Explorer Association or the marketplace located at Olympus's outskirts. I was simply wandering wherever the wind of my heart led me to. Unlike the empty husk that was a noble district, filled with more of morbid air than breath of life, the  commoner district and slums were brimming with the strong spirit of people, each one trying to pave a better path for themselves. I was like a fish finally finding its ocean, and just the thought of visiting a guest house filled with exhaustion, so I considered visiting the tournament by myself and decided to buy the ticket from a scalper place. Albeit, I was forced to return when Justin-senpai found me, who had been very well aware of my behavior pattern. I did notice some pursuers on my tail, seemingly the search team for me, but would you know, Wind Magic was quite a cheat to play hide 'n seek. I tried to dodge him, but alas, there was a reason why he was my senior. "Found~ you~, Allen~! Man, you're a sneaky one, having fun by yourself! Alright, time to head back." I was trying out a mysterious fried meat dish in a restaurant—I learned about this place from Poro-kun, and it was actually my favourite type of place with a set meal—when Justin-senpai took custody of me. He pushed me to return to the guest house, following just off my side and behind like I was a criminal that had been escorted. Then, back at the guest house, "—What! Did! I! Say! About! Not! Disappearing! On! Yours! Own it! Allen-san! This isn't Yuglia, and every movement is under radar! And you just ignored my warning!" I was subjected to half an hour of sermon from Purim-senpai, who had been waiting for me. I barely saved my skin after making an earnest apology, receiving my freedom—a short-lived one, and was immediately beheld by Mujikka-sensei. "My heart was at my throat all this time, Allen Rovenne-kun... Atleast, I am glad you're safe... You need to look after yourself better, haven't I taught you that?" Her sermon continued for little under an hour, which I, again, escaped by making an earnest apology. After exhausting myself with all that listening, I finally gained my right to visit my room, but was soon summoned by Randy-san. And boy, his sermon continues for a long, long time. And he was more suffocating than anyone else. He hugged with tears streaming down his cheeks, preaching some incomprehensible garble like "You should learn to treasure yourself more. Do you have any idea how heartbroken Cecilia would be if harm befell you? Have more selfless spirit, think of the Yuglia, think of its people~!" And it was an never-ending one! I barely found myself an excuse that I ought to report His Majesty about the Dragreid ordeal. It wasn't until late night that I finally found myself alone. It was such an awful day. Seriously, why must I have to go through that?! ...Haa, oh well. Everything got me so tired I drifted into my dreamland as soon as I jumped in the embrace of the mattress. The next day at dawn, I had just opened the day, hoping for a walk when I received a prompt greeting from Mujikka-sensei, "Hey, Allen Rovenne-kun. Feel like going out?" She had that gloomy smile tugging on her lips as if she hadn't slept for the whole night. Then I noticed handcuffs in her hand, and reflexively shut the door. Anyway, somehow the one I had imagined to be my allies put me at the centre of a flawless encirclement, and under their circle of protection, I entered the venue for the Rising Dragon Cup. As their coach, I had thought I would be joining the participants in the waiting room, but no, I was instead put into the custody of royal knights and made to stand beside Randy-san who was there to be the bodyguard of His Majesty. I had felt like protesting why was I, a provisional knight, suddenly put into this important duty? But the vibe in the room told me it would be a futile move, and unadvisable. And so, here I was, in the epicentre of VIP seats. Right before me was the King of Yuglia Kingdom—Patrick Arthur Yuglia. In his adjacent seats were the Emperor of Rosemieur Empire—Raul La Rosemieur, and the important delegates, as well as their escorts, of other nations. The air in the room was tingling with sparks. I put on a glazed expression, and shifted my gaze to a young lady peddling beer in the distant general audience stand, listening to her silver bell-like melodious voice. With the passage of time, the armored dolls randomly popped up. The dolls were a tool to measure the might of a spell. Rudolf Austin, the freshmen representative from Yuglia Kingdom, chart through the disordered track, shooting down the measurement mana tools placed across the course with fireballs, bringing them one by one. A mana luminous display above quantified the might of every spell casted by Dol's magic. "What the heck! Did that machine just read 824? Yuglia's freshmen representative is quite lacking this time, eh?" "Hey, don't say that. I mean..... Well, we all know the representative was supposed to be the president of Magi Research Club, who's rumoured to possess a greater mana organ." "Ah, there was that too, yeah. Heard he's... quite in predicament after that incident. ...But even then, it's quite surprising he's the representative." "Hmm, well, that's indeed so. He's certainly not as impressive as 3rd year Purim Testy or 2nd year Martin Gabananty. The spell casting speed and control seems on par, but which one of the participants doesn't train in that—" "Dol~! Make a break!!" Just as the general audience stand was filled with such snarky gossips, a strange voice, thick in an accent, shouted in cheer, seemingly to dispel the gloom. The individual matches in the Rising Dragon Cup, also seen as the festivals for young mages, were played out in the shooting the target format, a contrast to duel style, one versus one Rising Star Cup. As the mages dominance lied in their ranged capabilities, the challenges compromises of bringing down as many as target as possible in a narrowly arranged obstacle course. And as far as practical matches, they're almost non-existence. They're played the next day, with three-people team participating in a battle royal and vying to come as the best. Of course, this was also seen as proxy war of participating nations, so practical experience weren't completely obsolete here. But, that was a matter of  another day, first day was still about individual matches. They would begin with testing out contender's mana capacity, then in gradual tests, their spell casting speed, power, precision etc value would be quantified. At the end, they would be placed according to the sum of their total score. "Hmph, pathetic! I thought he would be someone amazing when I heard nobody bested Leon Zaitsinger to be chosen as the representative, but lo and behold, what a bogus lie hidden behind the lid of the pot. With a mana capacity of 4000 units, power of spell only hovering at 800, he might as well dig his head inside the soil. Besides, he isn't even handsome—no, just some ordinary person... Damn those Yuglians, They're totally mocking us......" Grayfia scoffed in boredom, but Arichi by her side wore a serious expression as she watched Dol's match. ".........Don't tell me you haven't noticed, Fia. Take a closer look at his score." When she saw Arichi wore a furrowed-brow expression, Grayfia gave Dol's performance another look, then at the display recording his score, and soon even her expression wore a perplexed expression. What caught her eye was how the score  was alternating between the same numbers, as if intentional. "......What is he... Is he doing it out of purpose?" "...It's impossible that he scores the same score out of lucky coincidence. ...if you'd told me to target distant targets with that speed, defeating them while also keeping the fluctuation consistent by one digit, I would have found it absurd." Gradually, more and more whispers emerged out of the crowd speaking of the same oddity, catching up to it. A proper mage would always focus on more stable output than a big bang like one-way training. The knowledge was commonplace among the delegates of each nation too, who had adequate wealth of technicalities, and usually, they would expect the score to fluctuate by 10 or 20 value in a prestigious tournament . Thus, it was no surprise that Dol's score with mere one value fluctuation was a strange sight to behold, and anyone worth their salt should've noticed that. Meanwhile, after sticking to the fire magic until now, Dol began to mix water and earth element spells among his shots. Like climbing down the stairs one at a time, the score went down by 1 value with each subsequent shot. This time, not even the general audience missed what Dol was attempting, and with that comprehension, an awkwardish kind of air fill the venue. "Wha—wait, he is the triple element holder?! But what's even the purpose of doing all that...I can't figure it out." "......The reason eludes me just as well. It's impressive, but it wouldn't earn him a better score after all. A consistency of this level is hardly helpful in the battle..." Next, the descending score began to ascend with the same pace. The last target was brought down by a light bullet, and with that, Dol's performance came to an end. One clap followed, then another, and soon applause poured from all over. But it didn't last long, and soon the rumbling of claps were replaced by the loud buzzing from everyone's whispers. The audience seemed to be looking at each other for a second opinion on how they should evaluate the performance they'd just witnessed, while being clueless themselves. "Ha, haa. He might have some neat tricks, but in actual battle, that wouldn't give him a win. Right, Ari?" Arichi pondered with a thoughtful look on her face, her finger tapping her chin, and then slowly faced her. "No... A control of this caliber isn't something you can dismiss as a neat trick, it's not on the same level. While I have no idea why he might be doing that, there's no doubt his controlling ability surpasses the realm of even prodigious. He has polished his peculiar ability to its finest degree, and he has displayed in a more clearer way than attempting something big. He, Rudolf Austin, seemed to be one of the first students to join the Magic Research Club Allen Rovenne-san had created. Apparently, he's even nicknamed «Ironclad Vice-President» you know?" Arichi paraphrased the details as she glanced at the paper revealing the details about Dol. Grayfia flashed her characteristic canine teeth for a toothy grin. "Ironclad Vice-President? ...Heh, now that's something interesting." Thᴇ link to the origɪn of this information rᴇsts ɪn 𝘯𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭•𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘦•𝘯𝘦𝘵 After putting Grayfia on a side glance, who seemed content at the appearance of a boy with an alias, Arichi trained her on display once again. Time Elpased - 185 second Damage Score (average) - 823 Provisional Ranking - 2nd (Among a total of six candidate) There was a big smile on Dol's expression as he turned to leave the arena with feeble gait, his forehead laden with beads of sweat. It was no surprise. Some may have realised, or maybe not at all, but bringing out an average score of 823 with mana capacity 3800 was tip-toeing at the edge of mana exhaustion. A single wasted shot could've made it impossible to finish his match. Plus, not only had he been going non-stop for a little under three minutes, he was also using multiple elements, while still keeping the score variable in the margin of 1. If that wasn't impressive enough, the last spell surely must have attracted eyes. It might have appeared to be a fireball, but it was a rare Light attribute. To sum it, Rudolf Austin had the talent to manipulate four attributes, with one of them being rare magic, and he had trained in them equally. It was an unthinkable approach, and quite apparent that he had left behind his "common sense" to reach new heights. Arichi was drowning in her thoughts, and Grayfia's shout finally brought out her reverie. "...This is the end of the freshmen student's performance. Are you not going to the waiting room?" "A-ah, yes. Thanks for the reminder, Fia. Let's go." "...You're aiming for the throne, so you really shouldn't concern yourself with some average joe, Ari. In the end, this is the end of the road for those who don't have to make it far. As the chosen one, we just need to show him his place in tomorrow's royal battle, and I bet that's going to be so satisfying. Anyway, it doesn't matter wherever today's charade led him to, but tomorrow we will display his ugly side, Ari." Grayfia enthusiastically nudged at Arichi, who replied with a smile. "...Rest assured, Fia. I have no intention to lose. —Even if it's mere charade." As Arichi said so, she intensely gazed at the VIP audience area, the place where her father was. Allen was there, who was supposed to have gone missing, sitting at the chair arranged to be placed in the middle of her father, and Yuglia's King for some incomprehensible reason.