Author: M_W Cancer 

Proofreader: M_W Miss Fierce

A few days later, after the ball ended in the Evergreen royal family's castle, the long-awaited competition in the entire Emerald Tree Kingdom, the Emerald Elven Battle Competition, has finally come.

The Emerald Elven Battle Competition would be taking place once again in the capital of the Emerald Tree Kingdom, Emerald City. So as the venue of this year's Emerald Elven Battle Competition, the city was bustling with numerous different activities. 

Festivity can basically be felt whenever one goes in the entire Emerald City, as the territory was decorated to fit perfectly well with the atmosphere of the Emerald Elven Battle Competition.

Countless people, either young, adult, or old, as well as no matter what races of the Celestial World, and from throughout all the cities of the Emerald Tree Kingdom and also the neighboring Kingdoms, roamed around the streets of the Emerald City while feeling excited and eager to watch the start of the Emerald Elven Battle Competition. 

Meanwhile, the security of the Emerald City was further strengthened dozens of times in order to prevent any sort of danger from happening. After all, it could already be expected that aside from the people who came to the Emerald City to watch and enjoy the Emerald Elven Battle Competition, there are also those other people who wanted to use this opportunity to cause chaos and destruction; and yes, those people are exactly the Naughty Elves organization. 

Soldiers patrolled almost every place in the Emerald City, not even sparing the dark alleyways and sewers that used to be ignored before, due to some underhanded dealings done by the soldiers with the bosses who are running illegal activities in those kinds of place.

Despite that, though, those bosses actually don't seem to mind a single thing about this at all. Well, they are obviously totally aware of the fact that going against these soldiers at this time would be the same as offending the ruler of the Emerald Tree Kingdom, the Evergreen royal family. And besides, this situation wouldn't really last that long. Once the Emerald Elven Battle Competition is done, everything would undoubtedly return back to what it used to be previously. 

Of course, that is not truly the main reason for these bosses' actions. As people who have plenty of dealings in the underground world, they naturally aren't that much scared of offending the light, which is the Evergreen royal family. In fact, working in the dark side naturally already made them their enemies. The truth is, the real Leader of the underground world, definitely not Second Prince Elmore, had actually informed them that there is a coming war. 

A war against the most common enemy of either the light, gray, and dark side of the entire Emerald Tree Kingdom.

The Naughty Elves organization! 

Although they are people working in the underground world, that doesn't necessarily mean that they would support the Naughty Elves organization, at least they no longer will after that treacherous action that they have done to them in the past war. 

Remembering that past where they lived an existence even worse than mere slaves, they swear to the Gods of the Celestial World, as in, literally, that they will not go back to that kind of life anymore. 

Also, unlike the Naughty Elves organization that desires to rule the entire Celestial World, they merely want to protect their personal interest in this tiny, tiny corner of the Emerald Tree Kingdom's territory. They seriously don't have that kind of ambitions, such as ruling a world. 

Putting the past and ambition aside, the real Leader of the underground world is actually also a member of the alliance created by the Evergreen royal family.

The real identity of that person is someone Leo had already met. In fact, it wasn't that long ago when they got to know each other. It's exactly that fat attendee, who talks a lot during the meeting and had helped Seventh Prince Elmont elevate the atmosphere when it was very depressing. 

Aside from that fat attendee, there's also a second leader of the underground world, or to be more appropriately, call that person, a partner. 

That partner didn't participate in the meeting nor even the ball, since he likes to live his life in a low-key manner. 

Anyways, this partner of the-fat attendee is also someone that Leo had met in the past, or at least he had encountered that person. It was that Handsome Elf that he had unknowingly saved during the auction at the Elves Secret organization. 

Through the cooperation of both the fat attendee and the Handsome Elf, they created a balance between the light side, gray side, and dark side in the entire Emerald Tree Kingdom with the Evergreen royal family, thus allowing everyone to live in total equilibrium. 

The existence of the Naughty Elves organization would undoubtedly affect this equilibrium, that's why they decided to stand together with the Evergreen royal family and fight against them.

It wasn't only the Evergreen royal family and the underground world that had prepared themselves for the war against the Naughty Elves organization, all the Noble Households in the Emerald Tree Kingdom are also long prepared for this battle. 

A considerable amount of soldiers from the Pierce Noble Household, Clarity Noble Household, Nero Noble Household, Beryl Noble Household, Leepa Noble Household, Verdant Noble Household, and Jade Noble Household are long already prepared at the four center cities of the Emerald Tree Kingdom along with hundreds of Flyingboats. As soon as the alarm of war horns is sounded, these reinforcements would immediately embark towards the Emerald City to join the war against the Naughty Elves organization. 

All of these arrangements were just a few of the many countermeasures and plans that they have prepared during the meeting a few days ago. 

Completely unaware of all of these, the citizens of the Emerald Tree Kingdom continued on their journey towards the arena where the Emerald Elven Battle Competition would be held. 

This arena is called the Victory Arena and was located to the southwest outside the Emerald City, specifically just right beside the tall and magnificent Emerald Tree. 

The Victory Arena is so big that it stretches over fifty or so kilometers wide and can allow millions of people to watch any events hosted by this huge arena. It's more or less one-tenth of the size of the territory of the entire Emerald City. 

It was solely of such a reason why the Victory Arena was the first and also the main arena created for the purpose of hosting the Emerald Elven Battle Competition. 

Only with such a huge arena could all the games of the Emerald Elven Battle Competition be played to the fullest potential possible, without any sort of trouble at all! 

Apart from that reason, only the Victory Arena could hope to protect millions of citizens from the war against the Naughty Elves organization once it finally begins. 

The reason for doing that is simply because they don't want the Naughty Elves organization to change any of their plans. 

If they really decided to temporarily postpone the Emerald Elven Battle Competition and do a martial law in order to forbid their citizens from leaving their respective cities instead, then the plan they have long familiarize themselves with and prepared already would all be for naught. This would also cause them to remain passive and could only choose to defend against the attacks of the Naughty Elves organization. 

Rather than doing any of that, it is much better for them to just give exactly what the Naughty Elves organization considered as the best opportunities to launch their attack. Then they will use those so-called opportunities as an advantage for themselves in the war against them. 

Although it is very risky to choose such a move, only through such a risk could they achieve victory with the lowest possible sacrifices. Anyways, they have a lot of contingency plans prepared already, so they really don't have a lot to worry about when doing this risky move. 

In the case of the Victory Arena, despite it being outside the Emerald City, it's at least the place closest to the Emerald Tree. Hence, the citizens watching the Emerald Elven Battle Competition are the most safest and protected.

At this moment inside the Victory Arena, numerous people already occupied over half of the entire spectator stand. They are all screaming and chanting the names of the participants that they have supported for this Emerald Elven Battle Competition. 

"Goooo...! Pierce Noble Household!"

"You can do it girls from the Clarity Noble Household!"

"We love you men of the Nero Noble Household!"

"Red Fist Guild! Ahooo! Ahooo! Ahooo!"

"Mischievous Lion Guild, please show us once more your mischievousness"

Amidst the loud cheers and excitement of the crowd sitting on the spectator stands, the one hundred or so of participants that were qualified to participate in the Emerald Elven Battle Competition slowly made their appearance. 

One of those participants making their appearance in the Victory Arena was the team from the Mischievous Lion Guild that is made up of Leo, along with Cassandra, Elizabeth, Angel, Veronica, Ahmed, Vannessa, Brad, and two others from Commander Vargas' men. 

"Are you guys ready?" Leo asked everyone in his team. 

"More than ready!" Everyone immediately nodded their heads in response.

With a mischievous smile on his face, Leo exclaimed, "Then let's get this on!"