My Multisystem In Isekai-210 Chapter 210
This was the tradition that was commonplace here. Before the match officially started, the judges would call out the names of the participants of both sides. This exercise brought no joy to the spectators, for it merely confirmed the fact that Shiranui wouldn't be gracing this match with her presence. One could almost see the general discontentment in the air. It was difficult to miss. What could have been the most anticipated match was looking like it was going to be a mediocre performance.
With the steady, graceful stride of a feline, Sabrina took to the stage. Nearly every single pair of eyes in the crowd followed her. She was a strange creature indeed. She had neither the feminine allure of a sensual being, nor the striking presence of a predator. In fact, her physical demeanour contrasted sharply with her new found reputation. Those who hadn't seen her fight before didn't know what to expect when they saw her. There were just too many rumours flying about concerning this young girl.
Almost everyone who saw her at first glance thought the same thing; how could such a nice, simple looking girl pack so much destructive power?
The fact was- there had been nothing destructive about her display the other time. Those who bore witness to her stunning victory had been so wowed that their brains had created a different version of what had truly happened. The only thing they chose to remember was the fact that she had singlehandedly taken down a whole dragon. But they forgot just how aesthetically pleasing her takedown had been. It had been all flowers, petals, roses, and of course- victory.
There wasn't even the usual applause that the crowd often gave the champion of the people. They all just stared at the cute girl with the eerie smile plastered on her lips. The distance Sabrina walked from the entrance to the stage was a relatively short one. But in the eyes of the spectators who were eager to see the girl wonder, it was like an eternity. It was all the time they needed to observe her closely. Maybe they wanted to see if she had grown fangs overnight or something of that nature.
Sabrina finally planted her foot on the stage, and waited for the other side to make their move.
Calista observed the mood in the air. Though she hadn't personally witnessed the cute girl's previous victory, she had heard a ton of gossip about it in the past few hours. Somehow, the cute girl had managed to attain a kind of deity-like fascination. Calista wished she had been there to watch the whole fight so she could gauge the girl's strength by herself. But alas, she couldn't turn back the hands of time. 𝒇𝔯e𝚎𝘄𝑒𝑏𝙣𝑜𝚟𝗲𝑙.c𝘰𝚖
Fortunately, her next card also happened to be someone who had seen Sabrina fight up close. So, she signalled him;
"Zavier, you're up…"
This was the moment he had been waiting for. So, like a trained assassin ready for some 3D action, Zavier stepped forward to run point on this one. 𝗳𝙧𝐞𝚎w𝗲𝚋n𝚘𝙫𝑒𝘭.𝑐om
Calista's decision to bring Zavier up shocked everyone. Protesting like a cartoon character, the ever proactive Nadia began to jump up and down-
"THIS! WAS! NOT! THE! AGREED! PLAN!!"
Her eyes widened in shock, she gaped at Calista hoping for some explanation, or at least, a retraction. Nadia got neither.
Making no attempt whatsoever to dial down her agitation, she continued to pester her lead teacher;
"Miss! My big brother might get hurt!! What's going on?!"
Calista looked at her calmly. "This is what's best for now. Take a breather and relax."
Nadia looked at Calista like she couldn't believe what she was saying. Of course she couldn't relax. Not after she had heard all the horrendous tales flying around concerning this Sabrina girl.
Zavier knew the uproar his presence was causing at this time. Still, he wasn't bothered, not in the least. Still maintaining his new found confidence, he walked majestically to the stage with a smirk on his face. Halfway there, he swerved around and encourage his team mates with a joke;
"Hey miss, if I were to lose, forfeit the match would you? I don't want to see anyone else get hurt again."
Calista wasn't big on humour, but she was able to squeeze one in; "Of course I expect to see you flunk out, but something tells me that would be a very unlikely outcome."
Zavier snickered and proceeded to meet his adversary.
As he got to the centre of the field, a fresh tidal wave of gossip started to erupt from every corner. For the first time, Zavier felt what it was like to be under the heavy glare of thousands of scrutinising eyes. They all bore down on him with judgemental, scorn-filled eyes.
"That damn Merion High School! It's typical of them to deploy the pawn in their midst! They're already planning to use this guy as a sacrificial lamb!"
"It's that haughty boy isn't it? I was beginning to think we'd never get to see him in action…"
"What terrible timing, he's gonna get his ass handed to him! That's for sure!"
The freshmen in the crowd began to jeer at him. This was the perfect opportunity for them to offload their contempt on him without it being misconstrued as targeted hate. They were riled for so many reasons, but mostly because they weren't here to see the typical David versus Goliath match, that was a serious cliche.
An underdog show was too predictable. What they were all thirsty for was to see Shiranui in action. And unfortunately, an inept nonentity was in her place. They booed the hell out of Zavier. It seemed all the freshmen were united against him. All across the stadium, contemptuous jeers rained down on Zavier. Anyone who didn't know Zavier would have assumed that he had either picked a fight with every single freshman, or he had done something unforgivable.
Harry on the other hand was stunned. He just couldn't understand why a seemingly well adjusted boy like Zavier would be at the centre of this kind of verbal assault. What had he done exactly?
Beside him, Galen observed Harry and noted just how surprised he was. Clearly he was having a difficult time tying to figure out what exactly was going on. The hate was so much. However, instead of clearing things up for his protege and the rest of his guests, Galen ended up laughing. Any attentive person would have been able to tell that Galen wasn't joining the crowd to laugh at the boy, the old man was merely laughing because as always, he knew something others didn't.
Part of the reasons why Galen said nothing was because there were some secrets Val had entrusted to him. In more than one way, his hands were tied. All he could do was laugh really.
The princess who was always quick to ask questions was surprisingly indifferent about this strange boy. The whole spiteful scene before them was more than enough to generate a stream of questions from Rachel's overly inquisitive mind. But surprisingly, she kept her tongue to herself as well as her observations. She didn't have any questions at the time, but she made a mental note to keep a close eye on Zavier's every move from then.
Although, in that moment she couldn't explain that intuitive feeling. Looking at the young chap, there was nothing striking or noteworthy about it. He looked every inch a simpleton. but she had learned to trust her instincts in situations like this about people. Shiranui was the one whom she had all her cards on- but, when something told her to watch out for Zavier in the future, she held on to it.
Meanwhile, Zavier walked on unperturbed through the valley of the shadow of contempt. He crossed the threshold of his own comfort space and strolled to meet Sabrina across the battlefield. Sabrina who had been watching him closely opened up the banter with a mild joke;
"My, my, my, you're really not that popular around here are you?"
Zavier's thumb suddenly developed a very queer relationship with his nostril. He rubbed his nose awkwardly, and then turned to face the judges with a request that didn't score him any good points amongst the already riled freshmen.
"Distinguished judges…" he began deferentially, "I am not averse to admitting the fact that I am a bit ill-prepared. I hereby solicit your benevolence, and beseech you all to please grant me a little more time to prepare ahead of time…"
In order to be heard properly, Zavier used a simple magic-mechanism to enhance the volume of his voice. The magic loudspeaker worked wonders, and carried his voice across every corner of the arena, making sure not only the judges heard his strange plea, but just about every other spectator present.
"I am aware of the stupendous amount of animosity coming my way from a lot of people here, but in all honesty- I really do not care…" truly, his voice carried no atom of fear, or remorse, or bitterness. It was bland, and devoid of any negative emotions.
"You all probably don't know it, but at first, I was very reluctant to partake in this year's tournament…"
