Chapter 209: The Headhunting Houses (2/2)
“I don’t know… I also don’t know what plans Teacher Carter has come up with. However, regardless of what arrangements he’s made, there are definitely reasons behind them.”
“Seeing you so full of confidence, I feel like you believe that you can even defeat Dragon Breath Academy’s team if you face them.”
“Of course. To begin with, our goal was to become the champions of the national tournament.”
“That wasn’t just a motto?”
“Of course not. From the start, we planned on trying our hardest to defeat everyone and become the champions.”
Ivan, Ferguillo, and the rest gossiped amongst themselves as they walked with Ayrin towards the arena.
“Eh?”
When they were about a block away from the Arena of Fire and Blood, Ayrin, Ferguillo, and the rest simultaneously saw an arcane team exit from one of the hotels and head directly towards them. It looked like the team had been waiting for quite some time.
The arcane team was comprised of four people. Each of them wore an extremely peculiar hooded robe. The robes were dark-green, and the hoods covered their entire heads. Even more strange was that these robes seemed to have camouflaging abilities. As they approached, the colour of the outer layer of the robes began to continuously change to match the colour of their surroundings.
“Excuse me, you are Ayrin from Holy Dawn Academy’s team, right?”
The four stopped just before Ayrin and the rest. Afterwards, the tallest amongst the four spoke towards Ayrin with some difficulty. Based on how he spoke, it seemed like he didn’t speak the common language of Doraster very often, as he wasn’t very proficient with it.
As he spoke, the four all raised their heads, allowing Ayrin and the rest to clearly see the masks they wore.
The team of four was comprised of three boys and one girl who seemed to be about the same age as Ayrin and his group. Their skin seemed to be quite rough, as if they all spent every day exposed to the wind and sun.
However, what caused shock to flash through the eyes of Ayrin and the rest was that while the skin of these four people were covered in strange dark brown splotches, there was a patch of natural, silvery white skin on their foreheads in the shape of a perfect crescent moon.
“I am Ayrin. Are you all an arcane team from the Kingdom of Doa?” Their unique appearance caused Ayrin to be dazed for several seconds before replying.
“We are not from Doa.” The tallest boy, who seemed to be captain, shook his head. Afterwards, he slightly bowed out of politeness and introduced himself and his team, “We are an arcane team from House Eclipse Moon.” As he bowed, the crescent moon-shaped mark on his head seemed to slightly glow.
“House Eclipse Moon’s arcane team?” Ivan, Charlotte, and the others all trembled. Even Ferguillo’s always calm expression changed.
“What is it?” Ayrin quietly asked Charlotte after feeling the atmosphere abruptly change.
“House Eclipse Moon is an ancient family from a forest at the westernmost edge of the Kingdom of Eiche. They are the mortal enemies of House Roland. Beginning from childhood, members of both houses will kill members of the other house. It’s to the point where they consider each other’s territories hunting grounds. For their coming of age ceremonies, they are required to acquire ten skulls of people from the other house. Thus, although both houses reproduce quite well, they have always maintained a population of less than one thousand,” Charlotte quickly explained to Ayrin in an extremely miniscule voice. “The arcane masters which come out of these two houses are ones which have known killing since birth… they are killers with immense combat and killing experience. The girl called Megan on Golden Stag Academy’s team is from House Roland. It is rumoured that her hands have been drenched in the blood of countless people.”
“These two enemy houses require the skulls of ten people from the other house for their coming of age ceremony?” Ayrin couldn’t help but gulp a breath of cold air as he suddenly felt the four people facing him become a little bit scarier.
“Correct. Moreover, House Eclipse Moon is mainly filled with male arcane masters. Female arcane masters usually don’t have much status. For this arcane team to contain a female means that this female is incredibly strong,” Charlotte continued. She couldn’t help but also measure up the female arcane master, who was the shortest of the four.
As if the female arcane master had suddenly felt something, she looked at Charlotte. A silvery white light abruptly shot out from within her pupils, causing Charlotte’s breathing to unconsciously stop.
“They are mortal enemies of Megan’s house… that means they are here to deal with Megan then?” Ayrin looked at the extremely prudent female arcane master, then couldn’t help but ask, “So why have you all come looking for me?”