133 The weight on the shoulders
Luke, Alexis, and Shiro had to form a line to each deliver their bottle of Elixir. All three bottles were exactly alike, both in shapes, compositions, contents, and even the corks that capped them were similar.
“Are you part of a Clan or something?” Mikaela asked as she greeted Nathalia first.
The young Strogueher shivered a little before she spoke, and her voice barely came out when she took courage. She had never been in the presence of a Sensory Mage and had only read about them in history books.
“No… we’re just friends.”
“It’s okay, you guys are lucky to get this far together.” Sensorial removed the cork from Nathalia’s bottle, put her nose in the mouth of the bottle, looked a little closer, and finally concluded, “It’s perfect. You’ve passed… Stay here on the side, and I’ll talk to all of you at once later.”
Next, Mikaela meticulously analyzed the contents in Shiro’s bottle as well and approved it. When at last it was Luke’s turn, he placed the glass bottle on the table and said nothing.
The compositions of the previous two Elixirs were exactly the same, as was this third bottle, so it wasn’t hard for Mikaela to assume that the Strogueher’s hired someone who made the Elixirs, because she highly doubted it could have been any of the three participants present.
The Sensory looked at the half-beast, noticed how calm and inexpressive Luke was, and decided to test him a little more than the others.
“Insufficient… you didn’t pass.” She said seriously as she stared him in the eye, after quickly analyzing his Elixir.
Luke didn’t doubt that Manilyn might have sabotaged him, but he also wouldn’t faithfully believe a strange person just because she was powerful.
“Do you want to drink to test it?” spoke Luke, looking into Mikaela’s eyes.
The three guards, who were at the rear of the Sensory Magician’s table, suddenly raised their spears and aimed at Luke’s neck, who didn’t move a muscle and continued staring. To them, the half-beast’s response sounded like a threat.
Nathalia summoned her Pansperm spear and Shiro stepped forward.
Mikaela pushed the wooden chair away as she slowly stood up, her hands resting on the table. “Put down your weapons.”
All the guards lowered their spears and returned to their upright positions, as did Luke’s friends.
“Do you even know what the Elixir of Flamel is capable of~?” She asked, leaning forward slightly.
“I know, but it seems your watchdogs don’t, do they? Otherwise, they wouldn’t have aimed their spears at my neck.”
Sitting back down in her chair, Mikaela Åkerman confessed in her mellow voice, “I liked you… You have courage, you are shrewd, and there is no doubt that you are strong. You passed the Second Phase…”
The woman then called Nathalia and Shiro with her index finger, asking them to come closer. As the two came closer, she slapped her right hand and a book appeared on the table.
The three competitors were surprised by this but did not express any feelings at the time. The most that happened was that Shiro raised his eyebrows.
“First, I need each of you three to sign your name or title here on this page,” Mikaela said as she tapped a page in the center of the book with her right index finger.
The sheet of the page was not blank, and although Luke was not able to read anything perfectly, and Nathalia recognized only a few surnames, Shiro was amazed when he read the names on the list.
‘Nebezial, Hanemiya Sallow, Kiririn Sallow, Adven, The Previous… These are competitors from previous years… Who the hell would submit to that twice?’ Shiro had never experienced such pressure before, not even in the Landford tests.
‘It’s only those people who have shown up so far, but since we have a little over two hours until the deadline, I think the rest should show up soon.
It was scary for Luke’s group to see that there were already more than ten names on the list because the three contestants who now represented the Stroguehers worked so hard to get all the ingredients, and it almost took the whole previous day.
‘Was the clue about the library a trap or a blessing for those who went there?’ Nathalia wondered.
“Come on… what are you waiting for?” Mikaela asked because none of the three competitors had the initiative to take the writing quill and dip it in the ink.
Unbelievably, Luke was the first to pick up the quill. He carefully dipped the tip of the object in the ink, waited for the excess to drain off, and then placed it on the paper. Finally, he managed to write not his name, but a title: Half-Wolf.
Shiro and Nathalia were proud to see that Luke was not afraid to make a mistake, and when they went to sign, they saw that all the letters were legible and even slightly pretty. Unlike Luke, they both put their real first and last names.
After that, Mikaela checked the names and was satisfied.
“Are you guys sure you want these names announced to the public?” She asked, looking at Luke.
None of the three hesitated, because they had plenty of time to think while they were writing.
“If that’s the way you guys want it, fine. The Playoffs will begin at eight o’clock tonight, and the only rest will be between one battle and another. The announcement will happen as soon as the Second-Round deadline is over… The city will stop to watch you at the Municipal Arena, so be there in advance, and if you want to say goodbye to the people you love, there’s still time…”
The ride back to the Strogueher estate was silent. The trot of the horses pulling the trio’s wagon was muffled by the many thoughts going through the three of them.
Nathalia had never wanted to participate in a competition like this and thought that just fighting monsters would be enough to prove her worth, but now she was having to fight humans as well. She still wasn’t sure if she could kill a person, who has a past, present, and future.
Another who never expected to participate in the Tournament of Legends was Shiro, who almost went into depression when the Landfords were killed, but continued his life and found a home alongside the Strogueher. Shiro was not competing for him now, he was competing out of gratitude to Ayumi and Nathalia, and also out of feeling guilty for having ‘abandoned’ Luke, Meredith, and Matthew…
Luke Lange was another whose thoughts going through his head at that moment were more like a storm than anything else. Phase One and Phase Two had been quiet and hadn’t drawn any attention to him, and he hadn’t seen that coming. This meant that now he had to do well in the Playoffs to get any attention, even after coming very close to dying in the First Round.