Chapter 613: The Grand First-Year Combat Festival: Late Reactions

"Seriously?"

A young noble boy muttered in frustration as he stared at the Holographic Screen.

The image displayed on the screen showed Diane Bergwyn and Ezra Ashenlocke sitting close to each other in the First-Year seating section.

The boy’s expression twisted.

"Sir Ezra Ashenlocke is with another Flower yet again?!"

Several people nearby heard him.

"What the hell is with him and always having moments with my dearest Flowers?"

Another young man leaned forward, staring at the screen as if he had personally been betrayed.

"Hey, I just thought of something funny. What if he ends up marrying all the Flowers?"

The person beside him immediately turned his head.

"That thought will get a lot of people killed, you know."

"What a Player."

"Ashenlockes better begin dropping statements about Willow Derlis and Diane Bergwyn."

"And especially the Mother of them all... Lady Vera Ashenlocke."

"It should have been me!! Not him!!!"

Another voice came from somewhere behind them.

"I don’t know, but they look so cute together."

A young lady smiled while watching the screen.

The man beside her looked as though his soul had just been struck.

"Lady, please stop delivering silent daggers into my heart."

Then another spectator suddenly pointed toward the screen.

"Wait, isn’t that the Wax Light of Burn?"

"What the hell is that Coward doing with them?"

"Wouldn’t want Lady Diane Bergwyn getting infected by his cowardice."

"It’s a good thing Ezra Ashenlocke lost. Otherwise, I wonder what would have happened if he faced Lady Vera Ashenlocke."

Thousands of voices amongst the Hundred of thousands of people erupted throughout the arena.

They came from different sections, overlapping until it became difficult to tell who had started which conversation.

All of them were talking about the same two people seated in the First-Year section.

Diane noticed herself on the Holographic Screen.

She also noticed the countless eyes that had turned toward her.

For a moment, she simply looked at the screen with her half-close light-blue eyes.

Then she looked toward the spectators.

Diane raised one hand.

She gave the crowd a lazy wave.

That was all.

She did not look embarrassed.

She did not try to explain anything.

She did not even seem interested in the attention.

Instead, Diane reached into her space bag and took out her sleeping eye cover.

She placed it over her eyes.

Then she leaned back down and returned to sleep peacefully on Ezra’s shoulder as if the entire arena had nothing to do with her.

Ezra remained seated comfortably.

He looked at Diane for a moment before turning toward Cyrus.

"Where were we?"

His tone carried no concern for the attention surrounding them.

Cyrus blinked.

He stared at Ezra.

Then he remembered exactly who he was dealing with.

Ezra Ashenlocke.

And Diane Bergwyn.

Of course.

"Why am I even surprised? It’s a normal reaction for you and her."

Cyrus relaxed again.

Ezra looked at him.

"You are the same."

His tone remained direct.

"You are basically getting dragged into the conversation, yet you aren’t reacting."

Ezra’s expression stayed as plain as ever.

Cyrus stared at him for a moment.

Then...

"Haha... Haha... Haha..."

He laughed while scratching the back of his scarlet hair.

The two continued talking peacefully despite the fact that they could clearly hear people discussing them from different directions throughout the arena.

It was almost strange.

The crowd was talking about them.

The Holographic Screens were showing them.

People were pointing in their direction.

Yet Ezra and Cyrus simply continued their conversation as though none of it mattered.

The First-Year students seated around them watched for a while.

Many of them eventually reached the same conclusion.

We don’t even look surprised anymore.

Several of them could only smile helplessly.

Ever since their school life at the Royal Academy had begun, they had already witnessed too many strange encounters involving Ezra and several of the Flowers in their year.

There had been the Welcome Ball.

Then the date between Ezra and Vera Ashenlocke.

There was the time he had spoken alone with all five Flowers in their year at the same time.

His study time with Willow Derlis.

The incident between him and Willow Derlis during their match.

The shopping trip with Vera Ashenlocke.

And now...

Diane Bergwyn was sleeping peacefully on Ezra’s shoulder.

At this point, the First-Year students had seen enough that another scene involving Ezra and one of the Flowers no longer felt particularly shocking.

It was almost becoming normal.

Almost.

That did not mean nobody felt jealous.

Because they did.

Quite a few of them, I mean a lot of them were probably burning with envy while sitting in their seats.

But most kept those emotions to themselves.

There was little point in shouting about it when Ezra himself did not seem to care.

At the High-Power seating section, the conversation had also shifted toward the sleeping Diane.

"So, that’s where little Diane went."

The Queen sounded surprised as she looked toward the First-Year section.

"It seems she just came to watch Vera’s fight, but is still too sleepy, Your Highness."

Willow replied calmly while lowering her head.

The Queen continued looking at the screen.

"This is quite fun."

A playful smile appeared on her face.

She first looked toward the two Duchesses of Bergwyn.

Then her gaze moved toward the two Duchesses of Ashenlocke.

"So, when will I be getting the engagement invitation?"

The question came with a playful smile.

The First Duchess of Bergwyn opened her light-blue hand fan and held it before the lower half of her face.

"Your Highness, the marriage of a Flower like my daughter is quite an important matter. We can’t allow a random situation caused by Diane’s impulsiveness to lead people astray."

Her smile remained elegant, though the fan hid part of her expression.

The Second Duchess of Bergwyn narrowed her eyes slightly.

"Speaking like she’s your real daughter."

The First Duchess looked toward her.

"She’s the daughter of our husband, the Duke. So yes, even though I’m not the one who gave birth to her, she’s still my own daughter."

She placed one hand against her chest.

Her voice remained calm and proper.

The Queen looked between the two Duchesses.

"Eh... So, what do you mean? Ezra Ashenlocke is not worthy of the Flower of Berg?"

Her voice was quiet.

Yet there was something authoritative behind her gaze.

The First Duchess immediately lowered her head.

"Your Majesty, the Queen, I mean that Diane will surely attract the attention of many gentlemen, so we cannot make any decisions yet."

The Queen continued watching her.

The First Duchess kept her posture composed.

She was clearly choosing her words carefully.

The Second Duchess, however, seemed much more relaxed.

"Well, if the Ashenlocke child wants to request for marriage, then I will happily place it among the incoming marriage letters for my daughters’ hand."

She smiled.

"At least, it means we might get the blood of a talented inventor in our family."

The Queen’s eyes brightened.

"Oh, that’s quite interesting."

A faint excited smile appeared on her face.

She turned toward the Duchesses of Ashenlocke and the Duke of Bergwyn.

"What do you think, Duchesses of Ash and Duke of Berg? You’ve been silent for a while now."

Regina and Hailey exchanged glances.

There was a small awkwardness between them.

They had no idea what was going on in Ezra’s personal life.

How could they say much about a child they barely knew beyond what had already become public?

Ezra was a rising Young Craftsman.

He was also the child who had secretly delivered the Judgment Order against his own Family after revealing how they had treated him poorly to the whole Kingdom.

There were many things about his life that they simply did not know.

As for the Duke of Bergwyn, he saw no reason to participate in the Queen’s playful teasing.

He remained silent, simply ignoring the question.

The Queen looked at them for another moment.

"Hmmm... No fun."

She straightened her posture again.

At the same moment, movement began on the fight platform.

The repairs were finally complete.

The Craft-based Royal Academy Staff had restored the battlefield enough for the final announcement to take place.

The large cracks had been covered.

The destroyed sections had been repaired.

The remaining heat had been cooled.

The staff members began leaving the platform.

Patrick West walked calmly onto the restored platform.

Professor Kent Preacher also followed beside him.

Patrick stopped near the center.

He looked across the enormous arena.

Then he raised his voice.

"My fellow Britannians!!"

His voice blasted through the arena speakers.

"YEAHHHHHHHH!!!"

The crowd answered immediately.

Young children and teenagers were among the loudest.

Many stood from their seats and waved their hands in excitement.

Some were still holding merchandise and banners.

Others simply shouted as loudly as they could.

Patrick looked around at them with a smile.

"We have finally come to an end of this lovely Combat Festival."

His voice became slightly sad.

It almost sounded as though he genuinely did not want the event to end.

Some of the spectators who had been cheering slowly settled back into their seats.

There was a similar feeling among them.

The Combat Festival had lasted long enough for everyone to become so invested in it.

There had been battles.

Unexpected victories.

Defeats.

New Alchemical abilities.

New weapons.

And now it is coming to an end.

Professor Kent looked toward Patrick.

"Well, everything has a beginning and an end."

His tone was calm.

Patrick nodded.

"Yes, it does."

He took a breath.

Then his expression changed.

The sadness disappeared.

"So, basically, here’s the announcement for today."

The crowd immediately became attentive again.

Patrick raised his hand.

"Tomorrow will be the day of the Award and closing Ceremony of the festival, and also the display of the full ranking list of the Royal Academy’s Top First-Year Students!!"

His voice rose.

The crowd exploded again.

"Yeahhhhhh!!!"

"This is what I have been waiting for!!"

"We all know who is number one and number two."

"I wonder who will rank Number Three, between Lady Diane Bergwyn and Ezra Ashenlocke?"

"I’m so excited for tomorrow!!"

The excitement returned almost instantly.

People began discussing the possible ranking again.

Some shouted Vera’s name.

Others discussed Diane and Ezra.

Some were already trying to guess how the Academy would arrange the remaining positions.

Patrick allowed the noise to continue for a moment before Professor Kent spoke.

"Well, the other Years’ rankings will be released too, but that’s only for them to know. We don’t care about them. My First Years are the main characters."

The arena went silent for half a second.

Then laughter erupted from several sections.

Professor Kent could already feel the glares coming from the seating sections of the Third Years and Second Years.

He glanced toward them.

Some students were staring directly at him.

Others looked offended.

A few simply shook their heads.

Several adult spectators laughed as well, finding his words amusing.

Kent did not seem bothered.

Patrick shook his head slightly before raising his voice again.

"Okay, my fellow Britannians, this concludes today’s Combat Festival! Let’s meet tomorrow to end this Festival and fully celebrate Britannia’s finest Young Alchemists!!"

The crowd answered with another wave of cheers.

Patrick smiled.

"Good day, Britannians!!"

His voice echoed throughout the arena.

And with those final words, the Grand First-Year Combat Festival finally came to an end.

The battles were over.

The results had been decided.

But tomorrow would reveal something the entire Royal Academy had been waiting for.

The rankings.