She gave him a firm nod. He regarded her. The sheer composure she exhibited made him feel a little silly. He shook his head.
“Geez... One would think you should be the one who’s nervous right now. You’re up against Cain next, you know? What do you make of it? Do you think you can win?”
“Can I win, you say...” She pondered the question for a few seconds. “If I tell you, I feel like you won’t be able to focus on your next match, so I’m going to keep quiet on that for now.”
“Hmph... Well, I guess you have a point.”
Sain’s victory was far from a done deal. He had no business worrying about Melia right now.
“After all, my maid has advanced to her third match. As her master, I can hardly afford to lose here.”
“That’s the attitude. Go show them what you’re made of.”
“I will!”
Feeling pretty good after his pep talk, Sain made his way to the lecture hall-cum-waiting room, where contestants whose matches were starting soon were readying themselves. Unsurprisingly, there were fewer people than when he came for his first match. Furthermore, whereas the atmosphere had been fairly friendly last time, there was now a silent tension in the air. From here on, the contestants would begin to see each other not as fellow participants, but as rivals. A few students were still chatting with each other, but most of them were meditating or doing warm up stretches.
A total of thirty-two students had entered the magic battle expo. For a school that prided itself on valuing raw skill, that might seem rather low, but that was because the magic battle expo was not limited to the intermediate division. Each division had its own tournament. Though Cain had mentioned during the school assembly that this was a valuable opportunity for students to prove their worth to external organizations, that statement only applied to those who had some worth to prove. Stepping into the ring underprepared and suffering a humiliating defeat would surely have the opposite effect. As a result, intermediate division students who weren’t confident in their abilities tended to err on the side of caution, choosing to wait until the senior division, when they might be better prepared. Due to this trend, the senior division magic battle expo saw nearly a hundred participants every year.
While it was possible to graduate from the academy after the intermediate division and immediately enter the workforce, most students intended to advance to the senior division. Since there was still plenty of schooling left to go, they were rarely in any rush to network or market themselves to potential employers. That kind of thing could wait until they were closer to graduation. Therefore, only a minority of students participated in the magic battle expos of the junior and intermediate divisions. Those who did could largely be split into two categories. They were either the type who was always itching for a fight, or they were exceedingly confident in their own abilities.
The current intermediate division tournament was no different, and its participants were uniform in their excellence. The sixteen who remained after the first set of matches were, therefore, those who already survived a halving of their numbers. From this point on, there would be no easy pickings.
“Hey, loser.”
Sain, who was still trying to get his nerves under control, looked up to find a familiar mop of dark brown hair. He didn’t know the student’s name, but he recognized his face. It was the same guy who’d mocked him when he was registering for the tournament a few days ago.
“Color me surprised. The last thing I expected was to see you in the second round,” he said with a vexing grin.
Unlike last time, his buddies were absent, suggesting that his behavior wasn’t the effect of peer pressure; his disagreeableness came naturally. Sain sighed.
“...What do you want?”
“Huuuh? What, you didn’t check the brackets? Look at who you’re up against next,” the brown-haired student said with a scowl.
Sain examined the tournament chart posted on the wall. His next opponent was someone called Roxas. Though he didn’t know who that was, he put two and two together and figured he was currently staring the fellow in the face.
“I see... So you’re my next opponent.”
“You got it.” Roxas’s grin widened. “You might have fluked your way through your first match, but that’s not gonna work again. I’m gonna beat you down so hard you’ll wish you never stepped into the ring. But hey, don’t blame me, because I warned you. You’re the one who ignored my advice and entered anyway.”
Then, he turned and strutted away, apparently satisfied by the pre-engagement gibe he just delivered. It was a rather aggravating exchange that had completely ruined Sain’s focus, but he had to keep his composure. Roxas might be obnoxious, but he had won his first match. He wasn’t the kind of opponent Sain could defeat by blindly leaning into his anger.
“Seventh match contestants, please get ready!” said a staff member at the entrance of the lecture hall.
“...In a way, I guess this is another trial to overcome,” Sain said to himself as he proceeded toward the arena.
He’d lost track of the number of times he’d been called a loser since coming to this school. Compared to when he’d just arrived, though, he was definitely stronger. The outcome of his first match was undeniable proof of his improvement. His peers, however, didn’t necessarily share the same view. Many of them still saw him as the same bumbling fool they’d known when school first started. He couldn’t just write them all off as a bunch of jerks, either. Not all of them did so out of malice. Many just didn’t know him well enough to think otherwise. Still, if he intended to become the dark knight he was going to have to change their opinion at some point.