Dallon had brought two young men with him, both looking like they were in their twenties. Because the two of them were attractive themselves, they caught the eyes of the crowd that had gathered to cheer on my brother. They were no doubt thinking to themselves, Who are they? I want to cheer them on. I want to become their fan.
“These are two of the Wingroad competitors from Vanderouge.”
“Oh, the pros!”
They did say they would be coming soon! But...hang on. Was this sport secretly a modeling gig? No, no, maybe it was just a coincidence. There was no way everyone was choosing pilots based on their appearance.
“It’s nice to meet you. I’m Nia Liston.”
“Emue Elan.”
“Name’s Kai. Nice to meet you.”
Oh, no, I was mistaken. Kai wasn’t a young man. That was the voice of a woman. She wasn’t so masculine I would outright say that she was a princely type, but... Hmmm, yeah, she did look like a woman the more I observed her. This type of person always reminded me of Lucida from the Ice Rose Theater Company. I haven’t seen her for a while now. Wonder how she’s doing.
“Neal! Come here for a moment please!” I called my brother away from doing checks on his skiff and introduced him to the two professionals from Vanderouge.
“Welcome! My name is Neal Liston! I’m the captain of this team!”
Whoa, he’s suddenly so excited. It was like he was meeting his role models for the first time.
Apparently, Emue and Kai had come to Altoire now, ahead of the rest of their team, so they could coach the student team. I did think it was a little early for them to be here—the opening ceremony wouldn’t be for another three weeks. They said that the rest of their team would be arriving a week before.
I hadn’t even considered that the student team would need someone to train them, but it made sense. For the past week, they’d been trying to get by with the manuals they’d received.
Neal glanced at me after that quick explanation. “You might have heard that we will be recorded during our training. Is that all right?”
“Don’t worry, we’ve heard,” Emue reassured the worried Neal with a smile. “We came here for the chance to make a name for ourselves and Wingroad, after all. We’d like to use this chance to spread the word. We’d rather you record as much as possible, honestly.”
In other words, this arrangement was of mutual benefit.
“Glad to hear it. In that case, let me introduce my team.”
Their first meeting was amicable at least. They’d probably be fine.
I turned back to the man dispatched by Cedony. “Mr. Dallon, I must thank you for all the support that Cedony Trading has shown the team thus far.”
“I will make sure to tell the master. We must thank you in return for all the lucrative opportunities you have supplied us.”
The billion-kram project and the martial arts tournament must have resulted in large gains for Cedony. By latching on early, they’d gained an unmatched level of authority. So long as they didn’t make any big mistakes, their ventures would be huge successes.
Besides, you really have been a big help to us. Keep earning as much money as you can.
Oh, and about the mystery of Char’s skiff, the professionals were able to solve it at a glance.
“Huh? Isn’t this that early model that accidentally fell into the sea?”
“Hey, you’re right. The way this is shaped here was only on the first model. I guess it somehow drifted all the way to Altoire.”
And that was it. This was the reality of small mysteries. At least it was better than it being smuggled goods.
After that, the first broadcast of the formation flight program was shown on magivision. It was the first program in which Neal was the main focus. The junior crew took a week’s footage and turned it into a single episode explaining what Wingroad was. The important part was to inform people that a sport like this existed, so it didn’t go too in-depth just yet.
The program introduced the five students who would be flying at the opening ceremony and explained that they would be performing a formation flight before the professionals. It showed them practicing, having meetings, and doing maintenance on their skiffs.
There were days that practice was canceled because of rain and so the scene showed each student going off to do their own thing, whether reading the manual or making changes to their skiff. The first episode ended with Emue and Kai arriving from Vanderouge to act as their coaches.
Okay, not bad. It felt like a nice and relaxing program in contrast to all the violent replays of the matches that had been taking over magivision the past few weeks. It might have been missing a bit of excitement, but this was how magivision programs usually were. The tournament was a very intense exception to this.
A week had passed since preliminaries had finished and that left three weeks until the main tournament. The losers’ matches were already halfway done. Depending on the number of people who had signed up, I could’ve seen it taking them the whole three weeks to get through everyone, but at this rate, they’d be done in one more week. In that case, there would be two weeks left until the main tournament once the losers’ rounds were done. That empty time slot would be filled with reruns of old matches, and interviews and events featuring those competing in the next round in order to give the audience a chance to see who they would be cheering for.
It was likely that those of us involved with recordings would only be busy until the losers’ matches were over. The fighters themselves would be given permission to do as they wished for the last free week before the tournament resumed. It would be free time in the truest sense of the word: no recordings, no events, no control from the government. They could spend that time on training or on leisure. They could even choose to work or leave Altoire for a short spell. Of course, they’d be forfeiting their place in the tournament if they didn’t return in time.
After that, well, the tournament would begin once again. I’d have liked to hype up the tournament as much as possible until then, but I had little reason to worry. Altoire was a melting pot of feverish excitement right now. It might get even more passionate over the next few weeks, but I couldn’t see it cooling down, not unless there was a huge incident. Whether we did anything more or not, the crowds would get hyped up and form their own expectations. All we had to do was keep an eye out for anyone that wanted to try and put a damper on things.
“Did you see?! Nia, Nia, did you see?! You did, didn’t you?!”
I didn’t even need her to explain what she was talking about for me to immediately know... I knew, but...
“Are you not a bit early?”
I had been sleeping. Very soundly. Until she came barging in. It was so early that I was sure there were still plenty of other students sleeping too. Reliared had come flying into my room at the crack of dawn.
Ugh, I completely forgot to lock the door.