B4 - Chapter 42 - Opening Acts

The opening ceremony was brief but entertaining, with several senior students from Tresnia putting together a choreographed magical demonstration. It felt like a weird mix between a dance and a duel, with mighty spells being summoned only to be countered by their match, and the resulting aftermath being a dazzling display for the spectators.

Of course, being Tresnia, this act also had something that possibly only they could create, with the stage transforming throughout the demonstration as various structures, pillars, and foundations were built seemingly out of nowhere. By the end, everyone was impressed, and the performers received a standing ovation as they took their bows.

Hana quickly whispered to the group that this was usually reserved for soon-to-be graduating students, so being chosen to perform felt like quite the honor. After that, each headmaster said a few words to officially start the event, mostly encouragement for the upcoming performers, while also subtly bragging about their own school.

Lily found it a bit strange to suddenly include this in what was supposed to be a celebration, since why would the kids already at the schools care what their opposition had done, unless it was meant to stir envy. However, this time Clarissa answered, who had somehow snuck into sitting with their group before anyone realized.

"It's to gather potential investors since not everyone sends their child to one of the magic schools. The big clans prefer to keep everything in-house, but there's no reason they can't form a temporary partnership with a school. If I'm not mistaken, Regarth has even sold slots into its dungeon on rare occasions."

Each school bragged about what you'd expect: Stremweth mentioned the royals, Kalway the military and knights, Helia diplomacy, Tresnia its growing industry, and lastly, Regarth. Headmaster Fabrelis naturally mentioned the grand dungeon beneath their school and said it was going through another growth phase, meaning untold new possibilities could be revealed when it was done. Needless to say, this revelation shocked everyone, including the Regarth students, but he wasn't done yet.

"We also have had many unique bloodlines gracing the halls of Regarth. Some ancient, some entirely unheard of, and I can only thank our students who are willing to offer what they can to continue the proliferation of magic in our kingdom. I hope everyone will enjoy our performance this year with an open mind."

The audience was shocked and stunned. Not only had Fabrelis revealed this amazing news, but he was outright saying to expect it in the tournament. Some probably saw it as him taunting the other schools, and the reaction was mixed, as he had potentially shown his hand too early. Yet at the same time it had caused excitement; what new bloodline was going to be shown off?

Although Lily's friends glanced at her, she shook her head. The headmaster couldn't possibly be talking only about her, and even in her year, there were many outstanding performers. Hana, with her dual bloodlines; Clarissa, with her Kirin bloodline; Lotte, with her Basilisk; and who knows what else. Some kids were late bloomers, after all, and he might have been talking about older students too, with Rose as another prime example.

[Whether he was talking about you specifically or not, this works to our advantage. Especially with his last remark, I almost wish I could personally thank him for delivering us such a welcome boon.]

Lily thought about it and realized that if people weren't open to seeing new things, they might disregard the glyph she wanted to summon. Whether she liked it or not, she needed them to believe it was somehow part of her bloodline, and not some trick.

I guess only time will tell…

With that, the event officially began, starting things off slowly with the first-year professors. Lotte and the others were escorted away by one of the professors, and the duelists staying behind all wished them good luck as they left.

Then the open area below began to change with all platforms being magically dismantled until an open area was available. Apparently, the first competition was to be Thaumaturgical Agriculture, as they saw Wallace being led out with the other students.

Clarissa took it upon herself to explain that the usual procedure with Thaumaturgical Agriculture competitions was to show off prized crops. However, since Wallace had brought nothing with him, evidently they didn't have much faith in the first years having anything interesting to show, so an alternative method was sought.

The competition was briefly explained, and each student was given a small plot of land to prepare as much as possible within a thirty-minute time limit. They weren't expected to be perfect, only to see who could perform best under pressure and strict time limits.

Once the students were ready, a signal went off, and they rushed to work. As expected, most were earth mages of some sort, so the ground practically flew as they magically churned the soil. However, the exceptions were the most interesting, with one of the boys digging through the ground with a uniquely powerful water spell.

As for Wallace, he put up a good fight, practically terraforming his entire plot at once instead of working in small sections. When the time limit hit, it looked like he had made the most progress of anyone, but whether the judges agreed was anyone's guess.

"The winner is Adam from Tresnia!" the announcer finally declared, earning a sigh from Regarth.

The rest of the audience seemed less surprised, as if they had expected it, but Lily and friends were disappointed; they had thought Wallace had done better than the winner. The judges went on to explain that the quality of the winner's field was far above the others, enough to outweigh its size difference by an order of magnitude.

"When it comes to magical crops, quality soil will always beat quantity," Clarissa said, agreeing with the assessment.

After that, the hastily constructed fields were torn apart by the Tresnia construction mages, and a new scene was built in a matter of minutes. This time, various stone pens were built, and when strange cow-like monsters were brought out, the next competition was obvious to all.

Garet was their representative for Beast Handling, and the red-haired boy looked extremely confident as he was face to face with his cow monster. This competition was all about speed: whoever earned their creature's trust fastest and filled a bucket of milk would win. Of course, if no one could fill a bucket, whoever collected the most milk by the time limit would win.

These cow monsters were semi-wild, so the task wasn't impossible for the students, though it still came down to luck, since you never knew whether you had a temperamental animal until it was too late. Of course, with magic at their disposal, other methods existed to complete the task, though they depended on the students taking part. Charm spells, illusions, or even just outright stealing the milk with some kind of long-range telekinesis were all potentially on the table.

When the signal went off, the participating students began their various methods. Some used magic, while others used the provided food and tools to try to earn their beast's affection. Then there was Garet, who did none of those and walked straight up to the monster cow.

"Why do I get a bad feeling…" Arthur murmured.

Garet slapped the cow on its backside, causing the creature to let out a monstrous moo, before it turned to face him and headbutted him. To everyone's shock, Garet also attempted to headbutt the monster cow, but the sheer size difference alone was enough to send him flying backward.

The audience gasped, and someone was already rushing to rescue him, until he held up his arm and waved it around, signaling he was fine. He got up and was grinning like a crazy person before he ran right back to the creature. Probably everyone in the audience wished they could hear what he was saying, because not only did the cow monster not attack him again, but it turned around as if waiting for him to milk it.

"I know Garet said animals like him… But that's strange, right?" Thomas asked.

The group nodded, unable to explain what just happened.

"Did he use a spell to charm it?" Hana asked.

"I didn't see any Mana on him," Lily confirmed.

Nobody had an answer, and as Garet milked his way to an easy victory, he secured an unexpected win for Regarth. Even the judges hadn't expected this win, and the Tresnia student who had just won over their cow monster with a combination of brushing and treats stared in utter disbelief.

"The winner is Garet from Regarth!" the judge eventually announced, after confirming there was no foul play.

{Arakil?}

[What can I say? I suppose animals just love him.]

Lily frowned, but soon realized Arakil wasn't joking. He had no answer to explain Garet's strange animal magnetism.

{I guess it's his bloodline ability.}

[I'm loath to admit that might genuinely be the correct answer in this case.]

After that, they took the animals away, and Garet's cow monster seemed unwilling to leave him, requiring two wranglers to eventually tear it away. Then they cleared the pens, and a more formal stage was quickly built.

When the cauldrons were brought out, it was clear that alchemy was up next, and Lily immediately leaned forward while clenching her hands. When Lotte came out, the whole group sent good vibes her way, even Clarissa. They hoped Lotte could steal the crown Tresnia was already claiming right under their noses.

The cauldrons were set up, and each one was provided a basic flame plate, which meant that it was up to the students to properly control the flame. If Lily was up there, she would've forgone the plate and drawn her own glyph, assuming she was allowed to, but for Lotte she had to use the device.

I guess it's a good thing Lotte was taking extra lessons from Sylwel, since I can't really teach her proper flame control.

This was an area Lily genuinely lacked, as she had never deemed it necessary. Why would she ever bother learning to control an inferior flame when she could create the perfect flame for every occasion? Sylwel had never asked her to, and neither had Camilla, both of whom had fully embraced her glyphs.

One of the students actually asked for his plate to be removed, and when he confidently showed off a ball of flame in his palms, it was obvious he was going to use his own source. Natural fire mages had an innate advantage in alchemy, and it would be foolish not to use it when they could.

The students were then given a set of ingredients and tools, and the goal of their competition was announced. It was a simple competition of whoever could produce the most detox potions within the time limit, with their efficacy being checked during the judging. There were no bonus points for going above and beyond; this was just about raw numbers, which seemed a little biased to the Tresnia students.

If potency was taken into account, then Lotte could have used one of Sylwel's improved formulas, Lily sighed to herself.

But despite all of that, Lotte looked supremely confident, so Lily chose to believe in her friend. Sylwel had called her his secret weapon for a reason, so maybe she had a trick or two up her sleeve that Lily didn't know about.

The signal was given, and the students lit their flames, their cauldrons quickly bubbling from the heat. After that, the students began to differ in their process, either because of personal preference or how they were taught. Some added ingredients as they went, while others portioned out the correct dosages from each batch; Lotte was among the latter, but by Lily's estimation, her portions seemed somewhat off.

She's made larger portions than are needed; what gives?

Then Lotte added extra water to her cauldron and Lily's eyes widened. Lotte was going to batch brew, which was ideal for a competition about quantity, but she didn't have enough ingredients for the amount of liquid she had used.

One of the judges even commented on someone attempting to batch brew, earning quite some praise from the audience, and it seemed that, in an effort to compete, some of the Tresnia students had also switched tactics. Lily frowned when she saw them using the correct portions for a batch brew and silently prayed Lotte would notice and correct herself before it was too late.

Lotte glanced at one of the Tresnia students next to her, and Lily thought her prayer was answered, until Lotte smirked and kept using her strange ratio.

Lotte! What are you doing!? Lily wanted to scream, but on second thought she wondered if this was somehow part of Professor Sylwel's plan.

The brewing continued, and even at this distance Lily could see that Lotte's mixture was far too diluted for a successful batch brew. She began to second-guess her earlier opinion that this was some secret strategy, until Lotte suddenly pulled out an empty vial and did the unthinkable. Lotte bit her thumb and dripped what must have been the tiniest drop of blood into it, before filling the rest of the vial with a solvent, corking it, and shaking it vigorously.

Her mysterious actions weren't unnoticed, and now even more attention was on her. When Lotte finally uncorked the vial and carefully dripped it into the brew, the audience thought she was mad, even though it was somewhat expected. Yet Lily had an even more horrified thought.

Is Sylwel's secret plan to poison the judges!?

Lily's palms grew clammy as she nervously rubbed them on her shirt. The rest of Lotte's brewing went as usual, and she began distributing her first batch of potions before moving straight into the second.

This process continued until they eventually ran out of time and the final tallying of potions was called. By sheer volume, Lotte had won by a landslide since she had pushed her ingredients to create more batches than the others, but the judges had stressed that their efficacy would be tested and her entire batch might be declared null and void.

Detox potions were simple to test, as you could drip them into a murky alchemical solution, which would turn clear if successful. It was effectively a mild liquid poison, and if the detox drop could clear it, it could remove more potent poisons. The judge assigned to Lotte looked doubtful, but continued with the procedure.

However, to the shock of everyone who knew better, the murky solution not only cleared up but did so in an unprecedented amount of time. Wasn't this supposed to be a diluted batch job? Why was it more effective than potions brewed outside a batch brew?

The judge was confused, and as she tested more and more solutions, they all rapidly became crystal clear. Meanwhile, Lotte just stood there with the smuggest of smiles imaginable as Professor Sylwel's secret weapon!