……

…..

….

….!!

“Hey!”

Bam, Bam! Bam, Bam!

Claude embarrassingly bangs on the door,

He’d been trying to open if for a few minutes now,

“Who keeps locking this door!

Hey!

I hear the music I know you’re up!”

Bam, Bam! Bam, Bam!

….

“What!” the door swing open,

An auburn-haired female stands in a nightgown

“I told you stop locking this door when I leave,”

“I didn’t know you two left, and maybe if you didn’t lose your key, we wouldn’t be having this conversation”

….

She notices our group,

“I don’t want to know,” she turns heading back inside,

“I have nothing to do with this either,” Amelia, Claude’s sister heads in right behind her,

“Sorry about that, where was I again,

Prepare to be ama-”

“-Nice place,” Karina comments already inside,

“How did you…

I didn’t even hear you,”

“Are you guys coming in?” Karina ignoring the boy,

Lyra shoves her way past him, so does Pinoki and Apollo, only I remain standing outside,

“I barley know them myself,” I say noticing his disapproving expression,

“Are you going to let me in or…”

Claude silently steps out of the way, allowing me to walk into the warmly lit ‘institute’ as he’d called it,

Indeed the inside was as amazing as he had hyped it to be, the walls covered with gem encrusted portraits depicting what seems to be the history of this place, a royal-like staircase flows through the room heading to an upstairs that consists of just hallways with doors lined up presumably bedrooms, the warm yellow lights illuminated every corner of the institute, shining down on the magic circle-like floor patterns, though beautiful to look at, they show signs of wear, the whole building does,

Giving the place a homey, lived-in feel.

An enchanting bassline hums throughout the institute,

(I wonder where it’s coming from)

…….

“This is the only room I could find, right now, with more than one bed,” Claude showing us into a spacious room with two beds,

“You can rest up here, in the morning we can discuss ‘business’,” The door closes behind him,

……

“What have we just gotten ourselves into,” Lyra groans,

“Nothing we can’t handle,

Hopefully,”

“Easy for you to say Kage,

You’re the weakest one here~”

……Apollo already dozing off, spread across the entirety of one bed,

“I’m pretty sure, I can beat Lyra,”

“Do not start with me, Kage”

“It was a joke,

Kind of.”

“We can always rob them and sneak out,” Pinoki proposes

“That idea doesn’t sound half bad,” Karina assents

“We are not robbing anyone, if they were planning to do something they would have already,

“Unless they’re waiting for us to sleep to do it” Lyra replies cynically

“I hate that you make a good point,”

..

“Sooo, should we all stay up?” Pinoki queries

“You can sleep if you want, I’m staying up,” Lyra yawns

“You sure you don’t want to take a little nap?” Karina jabs

“I’m good, I just need something to keep me busy,”

“Well~ since it is just us alone in here, how about we-”

“No.”

Lyra and I both cut off the girl,

****

“The average person sees a fight, as an expression of violence,

Both opposing fighters, usually charge at each other, with the goal to unleash the most damage possible,

That isn’t the case here in Sweepstake however,”…

The five of us sit around a large table in the ‘mess hall’ of the institute, listening to Claude as he explains their ‘battle formula’

His sister, Amelia sits quietly by his side, hasn’t said a word to us, ever.

Besides us, only a few other people are here chatting along with each other.

Rays of sunlight streak through the stained-glass windows, the light seeping into the room projects the artistic window, designs along its walls.

… “When the mayor got voted in and created this system, he based it off his experiences as a high-level fighter,

You see in battles of power it is said that the weaker the people who fight are, the longer the battle will last,

So, it’s only logical that a fight between two highly experienced fighters would surprisingly be shorter, because at that level it wouldn’t be a battle of strength, but strategy,

We were taught to think of battle like a chess board, but when two pieces get close enough to each other, instead of attacking, they both play a game of rock paper scissors, the one who moves right wins the fight,

If you move even a little too rushed, your opponent may see what you’re going to play and counter easily,

That’s why you guys got swept, it wasn’t because you were weaker, your opponents just played rock to your scissors,”

“Interesting,” Karina muses,

“What can you tell us about the spiral rings?” I press on curiously

“This?” he shows his ring,

I know it has something to do with the mayor and ummmm,”

“It was created by the mayor,” his sisters speak up,

“You are always so bad at basic knowledge, Claude,”

“Hey, I just explained the entire formula to them,”

“Because that’s all you think about!”

“At least finish explain it to the people,”

“…..

People say the mayor is a ‘crazy’, because of his warp magic that he imbues in all the rings,

Activating them sends you to the nearest challenge dome, where all fights take place, when a battle is over, they automatically send you back to where you were when you initiated it,” Amelia rambles nervously,

“Did everyone get all that?” Pinoki jokes

“I heard enough to know that next time I see that loud, man who kept bragging about being a hunter, I’ll pummel him for sure ,” Lyra states,

“Just because you had it explained to you does not mean you will win,” Karina counters

“If you don’t believe in me, just say so Karina,”

“That’s not what this about,”

“Anyways,” Apollo stopping the two girls form arguing,

“How does this relate to the city being called sweepstake, and well everything else,”

“Simple,” Claude replies,

“It has to do with the one rule he gave us,

Anything can be won, that includes his place as mayor,

But everyone really likes him as mayor, that and he’s impossible to beat so they all moved to next best thing,

Wealth and influence….”

…..

Stomp!

…..

Stomp!

…..

Stomp!

…..

Stomp!

The loud thuds cause Claude to stop talking,

“What is that?” Pinoki speaks as we all look around alarmedly

“Is it an earthquake?”

“No,” Claude points to the mess hall’s doors, that begin to open,

“That is our boss.”