The Return Of The Exiled Villain-Chapter 250: Sword Festival (III)
After the visit to the Magic Tower, both of them finally headed towards the main event of the festival, which was, without any doubt, the competition between the academies.
At the entry point, they separated from each other, going towards the section of each respective class.
When Gray reached his seat, he was immediately met with Maelis, who patted the seat next to her with a wide grin.
"You’re finally here~"
She grabbed his arm, stuffing it between her breasts while leaning close to him.
Gray didn’t bother to say anything and instead took a look around. The three other respective academies were already integrated into their spot.
The Gloria Academy occupied the eastern visitor section, their banner deep burgundy with a silver inscription mark at its center.
From there... Gray couldn’t see any familiar faces.
The Circle of Light Academy was in the western section, their banner white with a single circular inscription at the center that caught the arena lighting and returned it slightly differently from every angle.
Their students were quiet, but all of them were almost wearing priestly clothes. Their official weapon was either a staff or a mace, but some students do use a sword.
And finally, the Wild Academy had the southern section, their banner a deep earthen brown with no inscription work, just the color and the weave of it.
Their students looked different from the others, as they had some kind of wild demeanour, almost as if they were raised in a forest instead of a proper city.
Gray looked at each section for exactly long enough.
Swish!
The lights suddenly changed as a single focused beam of inscription light hit the central stage, and the noise of several thousand people compressed into something lower and more anticipatory as a figure stepped into it.
The announcer was a tall man in formal academy dress, carrying the particular energy of someone who had been doing this for years and still genuinely enjoyed it.
He spread his arms.
"WELCOME!"
His voice carried through the entire arena without effort.
"TO THE FORTY-THIRD SWORD FESTIVAL!!!"
The arena responded.
The noise was immediate and enormous, rising from every tier simultaneously, clapping and shouting random nonsense that Gray didn’t bother to hear.
The announcer let the noise run for a long moment before raising one hand, and the crowd instantly compressed back down.
"Tonight, we welcome our distinguished guests from across the kingdom’s finest institutions of sword cultivation!" His voice moved through the arena with clean, theatrical precision.
"From the capital, practitioners of the blade’s highest traditions—"
He turned toward the eastern section.
"THE GLORIA ACADEMY!!!"
The Gloria section responded with composed, coordinated acknowledgment, their students rising briefly in a unified motion before returning to their seats.
"From the eastern sanctum, bearers of the luminous path—"
"THE CIRCLE OF LIGHT ACADEMY!!!"
The Circle of Light section rose quietly and sat quietly, and the arena noise around them was genuine regardless.
"And from the southern reaches, untamed and unmatched—"
The announcer’s voice carried something different on this one. A specific energy.
"THE WILD ACADEMY!!!"
The Wild Academy section didn’t cheer.
Instead... they widely shouted, almost like some kind of war cry.
Gray’s eyes twitched at this as he recalled the setting of the Wild Academy.
Their training consists of creating the "heart of the beast", a supernatural ability that allows their bodies to push past their limits.
In return, they would lose a bit of their conscience, but it was more than enough for them to be able to make conscious decisions, at least, mid-fight.
The announcer waited for the noise to settle.
"And of course..." His voice warmed by a degree. "Your hosts. Your home. The pride of this institution and the reason forty-two previous festivals have been worth attending—"
Every student in the arena understood what was coming.
"THE CLEMENTINE SWORD AND MAGIC ACADEMY!!!"
"OHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOO!"
Considerably louder than every other academy.
Several of their students were already on their feet, and one had produced a banner from somewhere that he was waving with committed enthusiasm.
The announcer rode the noise with the practiced ease of someone who had been waiting for it and knew exactly when it would peak and when it would begin to drop.
He raised both hands as it descended.
"Now..." His voice dropped to something more dramatic.
"To the festival itself."
The field below the stage changed.
The inscription arrays along the arena floor activated in sequence, and the air above the central field shimmered and compressed into a three-dimensional projection that rose twenty meters above the stage and was visible from every tier simultaneously.
It showed a dungeon entrance.
"The Sword Festival’s first phase is beast hunting!"
The projection zoomed inward, showing layered dungeon corridors, mapped and labeled.
"Our hosting staff has prepared a dedicated dungeon realm for this occasion. Within it, beast populations have been cultivated specifically for this event. Every beast carries a numbered soul seal upon its death, confirming the kill and attributing it to the hunter."
The projection shifted to show the seal system, small luminous markers appearing on illustrated beast silhouettes.
"Every participating student from all five academies will enter simultaneously," he paused slighly before raising four fingers.
"Four hundred and seventy-three participants. One dungeon."
The arena responded to that number with a low, collective sound.
"The first one hundred and fifty students to accumulate confirmed kills will advance to the second phase." He let that sit for exactly the right amount of time.
"The remaining three hundred and twenty-three go home."
The projection above the stage shifted, displaying the dungeon’s internal map one final time before dissolving entirely, leaving only the portal itself, now fully active, its surface the particular non-color of a threshold between one space and another.
"The seal system will track and confirm every kill in real time. Rankings will be displayed on the arena board throughout the phase." He gestured toward the large inscription board above the eastern tier, currently blank.
"Family names, academy affiliation, kill count. Everyone in this arena will watch you work."
"No pressure."
Scattered laughter from the crowd.
"PARTICIPANTS. TO THE FIELD."
He shouted as the participants started descending from their seats. Surprisingly, Lyra was also going to participate.
She walked down and waved at Gray with a happy smile, to which Gray also waved back.
"Mhmph..."
Maelis, on his side, snorted at his actions.
She simply adjusted her grip on his arm and looked at the field.
The inscription board above the eastern tier flickered once.
Then the ranking display initialized, four hundred and seventy-three empty slots arranged in a live column, waiting.
The announcer’s voice came from above one final time.
"BEGIN!!!"
All of them disappeared into the portal.
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[Seraph’s POV]
Phew...
Cold air... this dungeon is pretty cold, huh.
I exhaled once and looked around.
It was a forest or something similar to it.
The trees were real enough, tall and dark with thick roots breaking through the ground in uneven ridges.
The canopy above was dense enough that the sky couldn’t be seen.
Around me, the only thing I could actually see was trees for some reason, so I opted to go simply forward.
The beasts were obviously going to use the trees as a hiding spot or simply as an object of movement, so I needed to be extra careful with that.
Crack!
A branch suddenly snapped, causing me to turn my head around... There was a small bump on the ground.
An underground creature, huh?
The question was... is this creature curious about my presence, or is it hunting me?
To answer that, I kept walking forward, and the creature followed me, so I got my answer in that instant and unsheathed my sword.
It took about six seconds.
The beast came out of the undergrowth fast and low, four-legged, scaled across the back and shoulders, mouth already open.
Bigger than I expected, considering how small that bump was.
The size of a large dog but heavier, its legs driving it forward with the kind of committed force that meant it wasn’t planning to stop.
Swish!
I enveloped my sword with qi and swung it at the creature.
Splat!
It was directly cut in half, its split parts falling depressingly into the ground. I looked down at it before feeling a strange energy streaming through the air.
I should have gotten points for killing this beast.
After confirming this, I decided to rush forward and find more creatures since only the people who killed the most would qualify.
And my goal was to obviously win this competition.
Only then...
I’d have that "item’.
However... I need to be careful about this since Professor Ellen told me that actual demons were hunting for me.
I don’t exactly remember possessing something that precious on me... and I doubt that they’ll try to kill a future threat.
If that was the case... Gray would’ve probably been dead a long time ago.
...I miss those old times.
