Chapter 115: The Mock Duels (Part-1) (1/2)
[Oi! You forgot to show me the magic Black taught you!]
Don’t blame it on me, you forgot to ask.
[…]
[Well then, I am asking now. Show it to me.]
How? Maya is walking in front of me…
[She won’t notice, do it!]
No, she definitely will.
[Tch…]
It’s the next day and right now, I am walking to the school together with Maya. Well, not exactly together, she’s striding in front of me, trying to increase the distance between us.
Normally, she prefers to leave the house way before I do, but today, Layla got a little late in preparing the breakfast (last night was pretty exhausting) and thus, both of us had to leave together.
[By the way, what are you planning to do with Maya? She gave you a deadline to prove your innocence, right?]
Yeah, around 13 days left to do that…
[Hmm… Why don’t you and Layla just explain everything to her? She might listen to Layla— after all, Maya’s angry because she thinks you’re cheating on Layla, right?]
No, it’s more complicated than that. After giving this a thought, I think the major part of her anger comes from the fact that she likes me (or used to anyway) and feels betrayed. Also, if you’ve forgotten, I already told her that Layla knows about everything.
[Well, what are you going to do then?]
To be honest, I don’t really care about the deadline. Maya threatened to convince Layla of my guilt, but I cannot see that happening— Layla trusts me a lot and she even knows everything about my system now.
What I am actually worried about is Maya doing something reckless after this deadline. I read her thoughts earlier using my skill and they genuinely scared me.
[We definitely don’t want that…]
No, we don’t. And to prevent that from happening, I have thought of a plan to calm her anger and make her see the truth. There are two steps to it— first, I need to regain a favorable image in her mind so that she eases up to what I want to tell her, and second, I will need Layla and Rebecca’s help to explain her about my situation.
Only then there is a chance that Maya might understand…
[Hmm… Good plan. So, what are you going to do for the first step? How will you regain a favorable image?]
I haven’t figured that out yet…
[…]
“What is this?”
Suddenly, Maya’s voice distracts me.
Oh, we’ve reached the school, I didn’t notice… Wait…
Maya is inside the school gate already, looking sideways with a surprised expression on her face. A little confused, I also enter through the gate and turn around to look in the direction she’s looking.
“What the…?”
Covering more than three fourth area of our school grounds is a huge, circular structure. Its walls are painted white and blue, looking strikingly beautiful.
“Jacob, come here! And bring that girl as well!”
Standing in front of what looks like the entrance of this structure, Miss Laura calls me out while waving her hand. In awe, we walk closer to her, eyes still set upon the structure.
“You’re late, almost everyone is already inside. Get going now,” Miss Laura says once we reach her, gesturing at the entrance.
“What is this building?” Maya asks.
“A stadium for the tournament, of course. You will be having your mock duels here,” She answers.
“Now go on, Principal Winde is about to give his speech.”
…
How the fuck did they build such a huge stadium in less than a day!?
[Magic, duh.]
I know that much, but still…
Maya and I walk through the entrance and start climbing the stairs leading to the top of the stadium. Miss Laura also follows behind, probably because no other student will show up anymore.
“Wow…”
From inside, the stadium is exactly like a… Stadium. There is a closed, rectangular area of the ground in the middle with rows of tiered seats surrounding it.
What makes this stadium impressive is that it’s nearly as big as the ones I’ve seen on T.V.— even though there are not enough students to fill up all the seats. Most of the crowd is saturated in the front, leaving almost all of the back seats empty.
Hmm… Why is it so big?
Immediately, Miss Laura leaves for the special seats reserved for the teachers and the important people from other races. Maya also spots her friends and jogs towards them, leaving me standing alone.
Now, where are those two—
…
Leo and Ryan are sitting on the front-most seats, chatting to each other excitedly. Even looking from this far away, I can tell that they haven’t saved me a seat.
Bastards…
“Don’t even think about going to the front unless somebody has saved you a seat. It’s too crowded.”
Suddenly, a somewhat familiar voice comes from beside me, making me jump.
Riley is sitting there with her legs outstretched leisurely, resting them on top of the seat in front of her.
“What, you didn’t notice me?” she asks with a grin, looking at my startled expression.