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There was no need to draw random lots to determine the teams. The Bloodwine Spirit automatically split all the tournament participants into Red Team and Blue Team, along with splitting the two teams into two different starting sections of the island.
The tournament participants had some time to prepare before heading to the starting section.
Seiji and Shika were put on the Blue Team.
Seiji contacted Izawa using a spell and learned that he and Kanna were also put on Blue Team. They then decided to meet up and stick together.
The four of them soon met up and swiftly moved to an ordinary abandoned house in the Blue Team’s starting district.
After finishing their preparations, they waited for the battles to begin.
“Sigh… I want to just give up and surrender.” Kanna Fujihara’s head was dropping down as she spoke dispiritedly, still in her state of being an idle fish. “According to what you told me, Seiji, things are going to get pretty bad in this tournament. Shouldn’t I just directly surrender for the sake of protecting my life?”
“Master, please be a bit more spirited. It’s not allowed to surrender without even trying to fight.” Izawa spoke up before Seiji could even respond.
“I don’t like surrendering, either! But didn’t Seiji say that things were really serious!? There’s even a warship! Who the hell knows just how terrible things will become! Perhaps even this entire island will be sunk by bombs!!” Kanna suddenly snapped in anger.
Izawa looked towards Seiji.
“I don’t think so…” Seiji rubbed his chin in contemplation. “This is a pretty large island. Sinking the entire island shouldn’t be that easy.”
“Then it’s also possible that the entire island will be bombarded with bombs or even nukes!”
“In the worst-case scenario… perhaps that’s possible. But before that happens, there should at least be time for us to escape.”
“I don’t want to be like the main character of an action movie, always escaping for my life in the middle of explosions! I’m not someone with the aura of a main character. I’ll die! I’ll definitely die!” Kanna kept waving her hands wildly. “I’ve decided, I’m going to surrender, I’m going to admit defeat right away! No matter what punishment I receive, my life is the most important!!”
“Master…”
“Don’t stop me, Ryuuno! I’ve made up my mind!”
“That lonely flower, standing alone yet not lonely, stubbornly blooming in her beauty…” Izawa suddenly started speaking poetically a line that sounded like it was from some poem.
Kanna’s body instantly froze up.
“Even if she is ignored, disdained, looked down upon by the icy wind, she still has her lonely pride, just like myself…”
“Ahhhh! Stop reading that poem!!”
Kanna made pitiful noises as if she had received a severe mental attack.
“So what if she admires her beauty by herself? Lonely beauty shall never lower its head due to the corrupt vulgarities of life…”
“Ahhhhh grahhhh!!!!”
Kanna clutched her head with both hands and squirmed all around, making strange sounds as if she was breaking down.
Seiji was stunned by the sight, while Shika simply watched calmly.
“This is a poem that my master wrote when she was young.” Izawa paused in his poetry recital and explained, “This poem’s name is—”
“Ahh gahhh shut up!!!”
Kana furiously rushed towards her own Spirit-branded Retainer, yet Izawa stopped her easily by simply pushing down on her head.
“If Master doesn’t become spirited, I shall be forced to continue my poetry recital.”
“Ryuuno!!!”
“On yet another sorrowful autumn…”
“Ahhh I get it I get it stop reciting!!!”
The Fujihara Family young lady was defeated by her own embarrassment.
‘So, ‘necessary measures’ was referring to this? How scary,’ Seiji exclaimed in his mind.
“Actually, I think that it’s well written.” While exclaiming, he decided to pour salt onto Kanna’s wounds.
“Shut up!!!” Kanna was becoming teary-eyed.
Under the threat of this mental attack, Kanna gave up on surrendering the tournament… at least on the surface.
If Kanna truly wanted to surrender, then it wouldn’t have mattered no matter how many old poems of hers Izawa recited out loud.
Actually, Kanna was just venting her emotions, while her loyal Spirit-branded Retainer was cooperating in allowing her to do so.
Everyone fell silent for a moment. That’s when Seiji noticed that something was wrong.
Mist had started spreading everywhere.
Yet, this was no natural weather phenomenon!
The mist swiftly became even thicker, to the point where it limited one’s field of vision. It was impossible to see through even when Seiji used [Astral Vision].
Bright-red cluster amaryllis flowers then started appearing and blooming brilliantly everywhere!
“It’s started…”
At the tournament spectating grounds.
All the hidden cameras’ projections were blocked by gray mist, and it became impossible to spectate the ongoing tournament.
Yet the spectators weren’t surprised by this at all. Many were even happy to see this.
The Messengers faction had taken action! Just as expected.
It didn’t matter at all to the 7321 faction that they couldn’t see anything at all. The important part was to surveil the entire process.
They had finished with their preparations already. It was now time to surveil the process and gather all the valuable information that they could.
As for the tournament participants now stuck within the mist?
Their fates would have to depend on themselves.
The Revenge Alliance.
Daikawa Rota felt the new power gradually increasing within his body. He started laughing loudly from the bottom of his heart. His laughter was supremely delighted and even fanatical.
He now had such strong power that would allow him to accomplish what he wanted to.
His choice hadn’t been wrong.
This new power was real. It would definitely be able to open up a path to the future!
‘If all of this is just me being insane, then allow me to become even more insane.
‘It’s time to overthrow the old and corrupt ruling power, punish those who do evil as they please, and create the order of a new generation!!’
The brand-new future would begin from this moment onwards in this battle.
“Let’s go! Comrades!!” His passionate shouting was like a raging wildfire.
“Ohhhhh!!!” He received a response from his companions that was also like a heated wildfire.
The Bloodwar Alliance.
Shigure Tendo watched a cluster amaryllis flower pop out of the ground and begin to bloom.
Natsuki Shuurin, who had been randomly chosen to be their team leader after Shigure gave up the position, was currently saying something. Shigure didn’t pay her any attention at all.
These bright-red flowers were truly beautiful.
Even if these bright-red flowers symbolized death.
Precisely because these bright-red flowers symbolized death.
Death was just as meaningful as life… although Shigure didn’t really understand what the meaning of either was.
There were many things that Shigure didn’t know or understand. That was because he indeed possessed low intelligence.
However, he was able to feel.
For instance, the cluster amaryllis flowers’ beauty, the mysteriousness of the mist, the emotions of the people around him, the flow of the air, the passing of time…
“Milord Shigure…” an anxious voice spoke up beside him.
Shigure turned around to see Keimi Umetani standing next to him.
“I’m a little afraid…” she whispered in a soft voice. “I feel that something frightening will occur…”
Shigure silently looked at her.
“My mission is to serve Milord… that’s why… even though I know that making such a request is shameless of me… still… If it’s possible… if we really do meet with danger, Milord Shigure… could you please… protect me slightly?”
Weakness, inferiority, fear, expectation, desire…
Shigure sensed all these things from Keimi Umetani.
She hoped to obtain his promise, even if it was only an empty one to be polite. That would help to suppress the anxiety in her heart.
Shigure was never one to make empty promises. That’s why…
“I can’t.”
Keimi’s body stiffened upon hearing such a cold refusal.
“I… I suppose you’re right… Someone like me doesn’t have the right…”
“I can’t ‘slightly’ protect you,” Shigure continued. “That’s because I have no idea just how much ‘slightly’ is for me. However, I understand the concept of ‘with all my power.’ That’s why… I shall protect you with all my power.”
Keimi paused in surprise for a moment as her eyes became teary.
“Thank you.” She sincerely expressed her gratitude.
The next second, someone suddenly screamed!