322 Chapter 322: Congregation of the Weak (1/2)

”Is this where the banquet is being held?” Lily Liam asked nervously as she stared up at the huge hotel that Quetzalcoatl Academy had booked.

”Looks like it,” Dong Fang Yue Chu assured her with a squeeze of her hand.

”There sure are a lot of people,” Theodore noted, looking around. He was right. There were literally hundreds of students crammed into a single banquet hall. Given that the number wasn't in the thousands, it was obvious that not everyone participating in the national tournament had been invited. I wondered what the basis for invitation was.

After all, Jing Tian Academy had no relation to Quetzalcoatl Academy. Why did they want to invite us?

Well, who cares? Free food! Free food is where it's at!

My friends and I helped ourselves to the finger food and refreshments on the long, white-clothed tables that were lined against walls of grandeur and luxury. Whoever booked the hotel had pulled out all the stops. Was Quetzalcoatl a rich school? I couldn't remember. Not that I cared. I wasn't going to question the sight of free food in front of my eyes.

Harrison Reed, our captain, showed more restraint and dignity. Bu Fan wasn't here at all – the lone wolf pseudo protagonist running off somewhere to do his own thing. Maybe he was in the Hunters Society and was out looking for monsters to exterminate so that he could make an extra bit of cash to buy his Treasure Artifacts or Treasure Tools or whatever. I couldn't care less. Everyone else tagged along, most of the guys in particular searching for free food more than any social reason.

While we ate, more students drifted in. Jing Tian Academy kept to itself in the end, especially since we didn't know anyone else in the room. It would be super-awkward to approach the others, and I noticed that most schools didn't interact much with each other anyway. Everyone was forming small, isolated pockets where students of similar uniforms clustered together. There were of course plenty of exceptions – a student from one academy seeing an old friend from another academy, and then meeting to chat and catch up on old days. It was not unusual for individuals to happen to have friends from other schools.

But by and large, as units of schools, we didn't really mingle.

Just like that, an hour passed. By now, my friends and I had finished our food, and were sipping juice and stuff. We didn't know what else to do.

”Should we…uh, leave?” I asked, scratching my head.

”Not yet,” Harrison told me with a frown. ”There must be a reason why they invited us. And it's not just to give us free food. The main event has yet to arrive.”

”What's the main event?” Cody Crosby asked, confused. Harrison shrugged.

”We'll find out.”

As if on cue, one of the students in a purple and gray uniform stepped forward and ascended a podium that lay in the center along one of the walls in the room. Spreading his hands dramatically, he cleared his throat into a microphone, broadcasting the sound across the banquet room to draw everyone's attention to him.

”Hello, everyone.” He beamed. ”It's so great to see all of you here! I'm very gratified by the number of people who chose to attend our banquet tonight. Welcome! Help yourselves to the food and drinks, and enjoy yourselves tonight!”

”Cheers!” everyone raised their cups and responded enthusiastically.

”I'm Castian from Caliban Academy,” the guy continued. ”It's nice to meet all of you, this close to the tournament!”

”Hey, isn't Castian from Caliban Academy?”

”Isn't the banquet organized by Quetzalcoatl Academy?”

”Yeah…so why is he the one up there?”

”Oh, sorry about that.” Castian rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. ”Although Quetzalcoatl Academy was indeed the ones who organized the banquet and sent the invitations, this is actually co-hosted by both Quetzalcoatl and Caliban Academies.”

He then raised his hand and gestured for us to look around, his lips spreading outward in a sinister smile. I suddenly felt the urge to wipe that smirk off his face.

”Some of you may have already noticed that most of the teams invited to this banquet are ranked below B.”

…huh?

That didn't make sense to me. How were we supposed to know that? Did anyone go around noting the uniforms here and then finding out our ranks? There were quite a lot of schools and uniforms here. But that just sounded so judgemental. I couldn't care less about the ranks of other schools. Hell, that ranking system was stupid to begin with.

”As you all know, we lower-ranked teams are always being oppressed by the higher-ranked ones!”

Castian was getting animated now, his gestures getting more dramatic. The guy should be an actor or something. Even so, it earned the effect that he intended.

”Yeah, that's right! It isn't fair!”

”What right do they have to do that!?”

…what? Seriously? Since when were the so-called lower ranked teams being oppressed by the higher ranked teams? Why had I – and my school – never experienced such an ”oppression” before? Wasn't this just stupid hyperbole?

I raised my hand.

”What do you mean by oppression? What exactly did the higher-ranked teams do to us lower-ranked teams?”

Everyone fell silent and stared at me.

”Oh, shut up!”

”Are you stupid?”

”Can't even see the obvious” What obvious? I didn't see any obvious oppression being done, that was why I was asking about it in the first place.

”Ignore the idiot.”

”Don't talk to idiots. They are not worth our precious time.”

So instead of answering my perfectly valid question, they chose to ignore me and throw insults. Why was I reminded of trolls in the Webnovel forums? Coming in and making hyperbolic statements, and when I challenged them, instead of justifying their viewpoint or explaining themselves, they resorted to insulting me and ignoring my question altogether.

Yeah…such people could be found anywhere.

After pointedly ignoring my question, they returned to raving and ranting.

”Anyone the Lacroix Family likes is definitely suspicious, if you ask me!”

”The Franklin family is definitely scheming something this year!”

The hell was with this bullshit? Just less than a month ago, the Porter family invited all the schools in the south and eastern district to their exchange session, to trade pointers and spar against each other. If anything, they were accommodating and helpful, not oppressive. I was starting to feel furious at the way these guys trash-talked the Great Families when they didn't even know what they were talking about.

”You guys…”

”It's not worth it, Richard.” Harrison placed a hand on my shoulder and held me back, shaking his head. ”Don't bother arguing with them.”