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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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“Wow, are there really this many people here?”
I had heard that the competition was not just an event for the two academies, but a festival enjoyed by many people.
However, I hadn’t expected so many people to come.
I had thought the city seemed unusually lively since yesterday, but it turned out people were flocking to watch the competition.
“I feel nauseous.”
“How am I supposed to dance and cheer in front of all these people later?”
“Ugh, Tana, can’t you do it instead?”
Next to me, Eve was covering her mouth with a pale face.
With so many people around, she seemed to be struggling quite a bit, jostled by the crowd.
I wondered how she would manage when it was time for the cheerleading squad.
“Daniel! Over here!”
Rin was calling me from afar.
Next to her, May also had her hands stuffed into her hoodie pockets.
“I’ll be right back.”
“Okay, good luck. Ugh!”
“I think Eve’s the one who needs the most luck…”
Leaving the two behind, I jogged lightly towards Rin and May.
They both had red bands symbolizing Aios tied around their heads, and they seemed to have one for me as well.
“Ah, no thanks.”
“All participants have to wear them, you know? You think we want to wear these?”
Well, knowing May’s personality, she wouldn’t want to wear something like that voluntarily.
I sighed and reached out my hand, but she grabbed my head and forcibly put it on.
“Let’s go, they said the representatives need to get ready.”
“Sigh, how did I end up doing this?”
As I sighed, questioning myself, Rin answered with a smile from beside me.
“We don’t have a choice since everyone else is lying in the hospital, right?”
“I’m injured too, you know.”
I pointed slightly at my broken right hand, but Rin still didn’t lose her smile.
As we headed towards the Aios dugout, we found the dean there, biting his nails nervously.
As soon as he saw me, he smiled brightly and nodded his head vigorously.
“You came! I was really worried you might run away!”
“I said I would come, didn’t I?”
Why are you waiting so anxiously like this?
Someone might think I only tell lies.
“Still, you never know. Sometimes you disappear without saying anything, don’t you?”
I couldn’t refute because I immediately recalled the time I went to the Demon Realm Forest to kill the Tudogs and the recent trip to the royal palace with Tana.
Without bothering to answer, I just let it slide.
Up front, Ares and Arni were tightening each other’s headbands.
“I want to strangle them.”
May, who looked puzzled, chimed in.
“Weren’t we in that kind of mood just now?”
“Absolutely not.”
How can you compare grabbing my head and forcibly stuffing it in with that?
“Ah, the opening ceremony is starting.”
“Aren’t you going, dean?”
As the opening ceremony was about to begin, May asked casually, and the dean shouted that he had been distracted waiting for us and immediately ran off.
“Geez, that’s why he can’t get married.”
May, his neice, muttered while shaking her head.
“He’s not married yet?”
I thought he was quite old.
“He says he’s chosen to be single… but you know, people who can’t get married usually like to say that.”
Feeling that if we continued on this topic, we’d only end up saying bad things about the dean, I didn’t probe any further, and May didn’t offer any more explanations either.
Anyway, after the somewhat boring opening ceremony ended the cheers of the people filled the seats of the massive Bairn Stadium.
Starting with the cheerleading squad revving up, excitement overflowed throughout the stadium.
Today’s commentators were Seria Deloa, a fourth-year student, and another male student from Pales Academy.
They seemed to have been chosen as the faces of the event, and they carried on calmly with the proceedings.
“Yes, the first event is the Golden Ball Capture, where representatives from each year of both academies participate, right?”
I had heard that Seria Deloa’s image had been greatly tarnished because she had wet herself after seeing a ghost in the dormitory, but looking at her now, she seemed to have recovered well.
She had the infamous nickname of “female Ares,” but now that Ares had a girlfriend, it seemed she might have to give up that name.
The handsome boy from Pales smoothly picked up where Seria left off.
“Yes, that’s right. They need to capture the golden ball in the center and bring it back to their own side. One interesting point is that there’s one male and one female representative for the first years, two males and two females for the second years, and so on, increasing with each year.”
“Mana cannot be used, and while it’s an event-style game with no points, it can be seen as a very important match that will set the initial momentum for the competition.”
“Yawn.”
Were they going to broadcast with this tension all day long?
If I want to sleep, I’ll have to go outside the stadium, won’t I?
Meanwhile, the first-years were already getting ready.
I muttered to myself, realizing I hadn’t seen Aios’s first-years before.
“Ah, we lost.”
“They were a bit late to start.”
May and Rin’s disappointed voices reached me as they focused on the game.
Our first-years seemed nervous and started a bit late even after hearing the starting signal, ending without even touching the ball once.
“The twins are out for the second years?”
“Fighting!”
As it was the second year’s turn, familiar faces appeared.
The Mayas family twins were quite famous, so the spectators cheered enthusiastically for the two.
As a result, the other two second-years from Aios who came out with them were a bit overshadowed, but…
Anyway, as if to prove they weren’t from the Mayas family for nothing, the two showed excellent teamwork and the second years won cleanly.
It was a game where Ben Mayas and Valtory Mayas’s passing play shone.
“Daniel, we have to go.”
“Yawn, alright. Let’s finish this quickly and come back.”
As I followed, yawning, Rin and May heard my words and flinched for a moment, then looked at each other and smiled helplessly.
I wondered why they were acting like that, but before I could ask, we were already standing at the starting line.
The male representatives were me, Ares, and an unknown boy from Class B.
The female representatives were Rin, May, and Arni.
Since it was an event-style game, there were no restrictions on the number of events one could participate in, so students who could be called our main forces were lined up.
On the opposite side, I saw the delinquent Anton Signir and Hendrick, who was connected to the pirates, also getting ready to run.
“What’s that?”
“Is a kid with a broken hand participating?”
“Is that someone who got injured during practice?”
Naturally, the spectators’ gazes turned to my right arm.
Well, of course people would look if someone with a broken hand suddenly appeared in the competition.
“Student, are you really a participant?”
The Pales Academy professor acting as referee approached and asked.
Did he think I had come out on my own without permission?
Our professor standing next to me answered that I was indeed a participant and not to worry, so I was able to let it slide without saying anything.
“Well then, get ready.”
While everyone was taking their positions, only Rin and May were standing blankly.
Seeing this, I heard Arni whispering from the side.
“What are you two doing? Aren’t you going to participate?”
“Haha……”
“Don’t waste your energy unnecessarily.”
Rin laughed awkwardly and May shrugged her shoulders, answering that it was pathetic.
May took a candy out of her pocket, put it in her mouth, and pointed at me with a smile.
“Can you run faster than him?”
Bang!
With the starting sound, I burst forward.
Ares and the Class B boy who started together from both sides were already out of sight.
The Pales students were also running with gritted teeth, but I already had the golden ball in my left hand.
Then I turned my body again and returned to our side.
Passing by Ares and the Class B boy who were running while staring at me blankly, I dropped the ball under our flag.
After a moment of silence, an explosive cheer spread throughout the stadium.
“That’s insane!”
“What was that just now?”
“He finished the game before Pales even reached the center!”
“This year’s Aios students are different!”
Ah, so noisy.
Anyway, since I finished, I just bowed my head briefly to the opposing side and headed to the dugout.
Rin and May, who hadn’t even taken a step from the starting point, joined naturally, smiling.
“You two should at least pretend to participate.”
I said this because I was worried others might look at them badly, but both of them answered with a smile.
“We thought we wouldn’t even have a chance to step up since you said you’d finish quickly.”
“Kya, our husband was so cool just now.”
“Why am I… sigh, let’s not even talk about it.”
I just gave up talking since they didn’t listen no matter how many times I denied it.
In the distance, the dean was jumping up and down in the dugout, gesturing at me.
I just learned that sometimes seeing someone happy can be unpleasant.
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In a spacious tavern behind the massive Bairn Stadium.
It was a place in a corner that people usually didn’t visit much, but today it was bustling.
The competition was being broadcast on one side of the tavern wall through a communication orb, and on the opposite side, a crude mobile blackboard had events and odds written on it.
It was obviously not an ordinary tavern, as burly, rough-looking men were guarding the entrance and also seated inside.
Among them was the ponytailed pirate officer Jesant, drinking beer.
“Kya! Aios’s third years won! The long shot paid off!”
“Hey barkeep, what’s this! That bastard Anton from Pales’s third years can’t even use his strength properly! Did you give us accurate information?”
“Damn those idiots!”
“Who was the bastard who was bragging that Pales would win!”
A bearded man holding a player guide book was about to cause a scene, but he immediately lowered his tail when he met Jesant’s eyes.
That’s right.
This was an illegal gambling den.
And it was quite a large gambling operation centered around the competition between Pales and Aios.
Of course, it was hosted by the pirate Jesant.
It was a mirage-like gambling den that would appear for just the two days of the competition and then disappear.
Just then, a woman wrapped in a robe entered.
Jesant immediately noticed that her bearing exuded nobility, and he wondered if she might be from the kingdom on some kind of crackdown, but…
Thud.
Without hesitation, the woman walked straight to the tavern owner and held out a heavy money pouch.
It looked quite hefty, seemingly not an ordinary amount, but…
Her expressionless face indicated that this wasn’t the end.
Thud thud thud thud.
More and more heavy money pouches kept coming.
In addition, there were accessories that looked like stolen goods – rings, necklaces, jewels.
The woman, who had bet an amount that could shake the entire gambling den, spoke nonchalantly.
“Battle soccer, all on Aios.”
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[BRO I TOLD U THE MAY SHIP IS FOR LIFE, also lol elise probs bettin everything on him]
This is an older chapter
Fixed