Book 2. The Grand Gathering. Chapter 11. The Banquet. (Part II)

Once Lamuel got up on the scene, he waited patiently for the clamor which the appearance of Sinra and his companions caused to die down, then spoke up loudly.

“I greet you again, my dear nephews and nieces, here at the Grand Gathering! Today, out of the fifty-three of you, fifteen decided to attend our banquet. Usually, it would mean that up to forty-five representatives would be allowed to participate in the contest for the great monetary prizes, but as most of you surely have learned by now, this year’s tournaments will be slightly different,” he brought up as a formality; that change had been announced to public six days ago already. There was no way anyone could still not have heard about it.

“Not only are we going to have the representative spots opened to the disciples of various martial schools from all over the country, we will also be making the remaining spots out of the two hundred and fifty-six available to everyone and anyone, as long as he or she is below the age of thirteen,” he informed, revealing yet another thing quite a few of his nephews and nieces have already come to ask him about in private.

Although six days wasn’t a lot of time, those of the Royal Children who had a chance went to seek out talented youths who already belong to some kind of a martial school with the intention of recruiting them for this event… alas, all the disciples of the Red Dragon School who were approached refused straight out, just as the disciples of the Twin Phoenix and Fire Serpent Schools.

For some reason, not only the Red Dragon School but also the other two Great Martial Schools refused to allow their disciples to join the Grand Tournament. For many of the Royal Children it was a true enigma, but some of them, like Sauras or Eleonora, had a few correct guesses as to why those schools decided to act in such a way.

“Without dilly-dallying any longer, allow me to pick my three favorites to win just like every four years,” Lamuel said with a smile. Usually, he would have made a long speech which summed up everything major and of importance that had happened in the last four years of the contest before getting to this part, but with how heated the competition became, he wasn’t brave enough to risk offending any of those three largest camps.

“My third pick this year is the seventh Prince, Prince Sinra,” Lamuel declared with an acted-out smile, but couldn’t help looking nervously in Sauras’s direction. Out of everyone, it was Sauras who was most displeased with him letting Sinra do as he liked; even though he had an excuse of being pressured by Great Masters, Lamuel still had a feeling that Sauras would remember this incident for a very long time.

“We’re the third pick?” Laien said with a sneer, his not-so-loud voice naturally carrying itself throughout the great hall in the current silence. By the looks of it, this uncle of Sinra’s either didn’t know how strong he and Anatis were, or believed the pupils of other Royal Children to be stronger.

“It’s all only so you can introduce yourselves to everyone, so stop complaining and come,” Sinra spoke amicably, giving his uncle some face.

“Fine, fine,” Laien said with a sigh and followed Sinra onto the scene with Siana and everyone.

“It still stings a bit not to be included,” Eleonora said quietly. The past years, it had been she and her camp that always took the ‘third place’ in this unofficial ranking created by their uncle, but now Sinra beat her to it. The only reason she wasn’t too bitter about it was because Anna had convinced her to throw her support behind Sinra, as to have a realistic chance of getting someone she liked to take the crown and not end up getting killed by her eldest brother.

“You’ve always been a sore loser, Princess,” Anna said with a smile, glancing at this rowdy pupil of hers.

“Isn’t that why we got to the point where we are?” Eleonora replied with a quiet chuckle. She had always been incredibly stubborn and had always hated to lose, but weren’t these her best traits?

“It is,” Anna confirmed with a laugh and allowed this brief exchange to end there.

“Ekhm,” Lamuel coughed awkwardly. “In the second place I chose to pick the second Princess, Princess Finella,” he declared straightforwardly, very much used to saying this sentence.

Finella wrinkled her nose just a little in response to her uncle’s words. Second again… second Princess, second behind Sauras, second to Elononra’s playful charm… she really hated being second, but somehow, no matter how hard she tried, she never could come out on the top.

“Eh, let’s go,” she said with a slight sigh, leading Carkan, Bernar, Laura and one other boy and a girl onto the scene.

“And my first pick,” Lamuel said after a brief while and glanced in Sauras’s direction. “First Prince, Sauras,” he revealed the obvious, having been favoring Sauras since the very beginning of this competition many decades ago when the Fist Prince was still a young child.

“Obviously,” Sauras snorted and started walking forward with the twelve years old Alen at his side, with two more youths slightly behind and with the two twin guardians and the black-robed man following unhurriedly in the back.

With the three groups having made their way onto the scene, Lamuel took a deep breath and couldn’t help but glance nervously at the main door to the great hall.

“Finally, I have the pleasure of introducing our special guests…” he began loudly. making sure that his voice reached into the faraway corridor.

The many Royal Children, guardians and youths were all surprised and confused, including the likes of Sauras, the black-robed man, Carkan and even Sinra and Laien. What did Lamuel mean by that? They hadn’t been told anything about any special guests who would possibly attend today’s banquet.

The only one who remained calm and even revealed an amused smile was Injar. who had been requested by those people to arrange the whole thing.

“They really could be as well be father and son; they both simply love to show-off needlessly,” Injar thought to himself as he suppressed a laugh.

Lamuel felt his throat clench when the large door to the great hall opened, but he still forced himself to speak clearly and with a smile.

“The Great Master Rudford of the Red Dragon School.”

“The Grand Elder Roderick of the Red Dragon School.”

“The Great General Vatras of the Red Dragon School.”

One after another, the three grand personas entered the great hall, causing almost everyone present to gasp, hold their breaths, open their eyes wide or even do all of that at once.

So far, almost all of them had thought Sinra was only being given some face by the Red Dragon School as he had managed to become friends with Rudford’s personal disciple. However, seeing all the major powers of the Red Dragon School making an appearance at the royal banquet was more than enough to convince them otherwise.

The seventh Prince, Sinra… actually had the entire Red Dragon School backing him; and openly to boot, too!

They all could only stare as the group casually entered the great hall. Those who had agreed to Sinra’s recent proposal to join forces rejoiced in their hearts, while those who hadn’t were being overwhelmed with great regret.

“Elder brother, Master Roderick, Shei, Kuan, Cran!” Laien thought in excitement, his gaze wandering from one person he could recognize to another.

Rudford showed up in his usual white-crimson clothes. He walked side by side with the white-robed Roderick and the two disciples of the latter, Shei and Kuan following half a step behind them.

Right behind walked the Great General Vatras in his white clothes and with a blood-red cape with a mark of a dragon fluttering on his back. He had a stern, menacing expression on his face and gave off an aura adequate to how he looked. To his left walked a sturdy-looking young woman, while to his right walked a brown-haired young man, Vatras’s own and only son, Cran.

A few seconds after the first group walked in, before the agitation and shock in the great hall could even have had a chance to subside, Laumel’s voice echoed out once again.

“The Great Master Einrah of the Twin Phoenix School.”

“The Great Master Ninrah of the Twin Phoenix School.”

“The Grand Elder Xuan of the Twin Phoenix School.”

The three men came unaccompanied, all of them wearing golden robes with large sigils of Twin Phoenixes on their backs. As they walked, they emanated the air of haughtiness, but out of the three, it definitely was the two brothers who were the most exceptional.

Both of them looked extremely similar; they had very long golden hair and had identical, burning and intense look in their azure eyes. They were surrounded by terrifying auras with powerful killing intent mixed into them, which although wasn’t released by them intentionally.

As the three men passed by the hall, the many Royal Children, their guardians and their pupils began stepping further and further away from the path they were taking. The level of strength the three were giving off was simply too incomprehensible, even for those guardians of the Royal Children.

All of those guardians who until now had yet to see the two Great Masters of the Twin Phoenix School in person were now certain; if these two brothers joined forces, there would be barely anyone in the Sarkcente Kingdom who could match up to them.

When this realization was paired up with the brothers’ reputation for being merciless and vicious, it wasn’t surprising that none of them dared to do as much as look at them in fear of offending the two in any way. Some of the guardians and even some of the Royal Children began bowing their heads, the mere presence of Einrah and Ninrah forcing them to do so!

“Hmph,” the Grand Elder Xuan snickered to himself. As expected, their Twin Phoenix School caused everyone to be much more humbled than the appearance of Rudford’s Red Dragon School.

“Even the Twin Phoenix School…!” from up the stage, Finella felt all the blood draining from her face. Just like many else, she had been convinced that whatever support Sinra had, it must have been a shallow one. However, seeing those extremely powerful and influential figures coming in one after another had left her speechless.

Two Great Martial Schools… just like that, in but a little over one week, Sinra had invalidated all her past efforts. Her forte has always been the strength of her supporters, but now…

“You won’t be the most powerful anymore, eh?” Finella couldn’t help but recall Eleonora’s words. She had taken them to be an empty threat, but as it looked… Sinra had really somehow gotten a bunch of ridiculously powerful allies.

“What the…” Carkan shook his head a little, opening and closing his eyes repeatedly as if he wasn’t sure if he wasn’t seeing a nightmare. ‘It won’t matter if they throw some face Sinra’s way’ he said a moment ago… but three Great Masters ended up coming in person, accompanied by their most powerful subordinates.

“How can it be? Did Injar do something again? Did he ask his master to pull some strings?” Carkan gnashed his teeth, refusing to believe that something so major could have happened randomly, without someone as powerful as Injar getting involved and once again, breaking the rules the guardians of Royal Children needed to obey.

In contrast to everyone, Sauras and his two twin guardians watched the unfolding events with relative calm. They had already learned that Red Dragon School and Twin Phoenix School had both mobilized their forces and recalled all their experts from all over the country; it wasn’t hard at all to deduce what those two Great Schools’ intentions were.

“You look just as surprised as I hoped you would,” Rudford pointed out merrily as he approached Laien, then tousled the boy’s hair out of a habit.

“You kept all of you coming a total secret, how could I not be?” Laien laughed, appreciating the surprise. He gave Rudford a wide smile, looking forward to chatting with Cran, Kuan and Shei and meeting Cran’s father for the first time.

An exchange like that was fairly standard for Rudford and Laien, but it still managed to enact a wave of surprised comments in the great hall. After all, barely any people were aware of how strongly Rudford had gotten attached to Laien and vice versa. It was quite shocking to them to see a disciple being so familiar with his master.

“You are spoiling him as much as ever,” Roderick commented with a laugh as everyone from the Red Dragon School’s camp was situating themselves to the left of Sinra’s group.

“What did you expect,” Vatras said with a resigned smirk on his face. “My selfish elder brother is ready to turn the whole country on its head for that boy's sake. I must say I can’t wait to get to know him well and see if he’s truly worth it,” he said wryly, measuring Laien up from head to toe. The next second, he chuckled at the confident, even challenging look the boy was displaying in response.

“No wonder elder brother came to like him, especially if he has the strength and talent to back this kind of behavior.” Vatras laughed silently. It was just like Roderick told him when they met a little less than a year ago; if Rudford were to have had a child with Fianne, then that child would surely have resembled this boy very much.

“So that’s the kid who fought my nephew to a stalemate?” the older of the two brothers, Einrah walked past Anatis, Nila, Sinra and Injar and stopped a step away from Rudford.

The moment Einrah’s gaze laid on him, Laien shivered and just barely forced himself not to take a step back. Although he was used to the powerful aura of Rudford’s and had felt the Wrath of Anatis’s many times when they sparred, the aura of the golden-robed man before him was so savage and ruthless that to him, it seemed as if the air itself was oozing blood.

“So you are Einrah?” Laien asked as his brain connected the fact that the man called Anatis his nephew with reality. Instantly, he recalled the story Anatis had told them; what Einrah did to him and his family… and the shock of standing before Einrah vanished as fast as it appeared, instead being exchanged by a surge of anger and stubbornness.

“Ho,” Einrah smirked and nodded slightly. There weren’t many children capable of resisting the sensation of fear when stood close to them, but just after a few short seconds, the look in Laien’s eyes had changed from a startled one to a strong, decisive one.

“Good, good,” Einrah said with a laugh. He very much appreciated people who were firm and had a strong-willed character. If someone were to ask him, this kid of Rudford’s just made a much better first impression on him than his own nephew, who in his eyes was a natural pushover.