After leaving Scarlett, Acht walked to the hotel. He had a lot on his mind so he threw Scarlett's matter to the back of his head and concentrated on what was about to happen. He needed to sign up for the tournament and also prepare himself.
After that, he reached his room in a few minutes and found Leislet sitting there. She looked at him and saw the small frown on his face. Normally, people won't be able to see that expression on him since he thought he hid it pretty well. But, Leislet wasn't anybody, she knew every part of Acht's face like the back of her hand so she could see easily if he had a problem.
'Did that bitch do anything to him?' She thought as her eyes turned cold. Leaving him alone with Scarlett was something she would've never done if it wasn't an honest request from Acht. She was just way too weak-willed when it comes to that small boy.
"Anything wrong?"
"No, I was just having some thoughts. Anyway, I should sign in to the tournament, right?"
Leislet didn't persist in her questioning since she knew he was capable of dealing with his own problems without her interference. So, she smiled slightly.
"All ready done. Here are the requirements for entering the tournament. They are quite strict, to be honest." She said as she gave him an envelope with a weird metal card inside that had his name and other info about him while also having 'Tournament first Stage contestant' written on top.
He then read the requirement and he was slightly impressed. The number of rules that were put in was huge. It was to the point where it could reduce the number of contestants that wanted to get into almost 2% of the initial number.
Some of the important ones are: the contestant had to be under 20 years of age. The contestant also must have no illegal involvement or police records. It was a stupid way of trying to stop criminals from participating. But, faking documents and other things is as easy as breathing so it was pretty useless...
These were all nothing but a small portion of the rules and Acht took a few minutes to read through it all.
He then asked Leislet.
"How many participants this year?"
"Three thousand participants? That's a lot compared to the requirements." He said.
"Well, the world is vast and people come from all places just for this event. Be ready to see all kinds of exotic fighting styles and weird techniques."
"I know. As I said, it's nothing but a matter of time before I stand alone as the winner."
**************************
"This is weird to see," Acht muttered as he looked around him.
Tens of thousands of people were sitting in the stands looking at him and other contestants who were standing in the arena. The atmosphere was beyond excited as sheers and claps could be heard from every nook and cranny.
This was only the beginning of the tournament yet it was already the center of attention of the whole world. Cameras and helicopters with news reporters were filling the sky.
He then shifted his eyes to the other people around him. They were all nervous and even scared because of this atmosphere. But, in between all of them, there were obviously those who had cocky smiles or cold looks that tried to show that they were different.
'And then we have this girl.' He thought as he looked at the person beside him. Tania also participated in the tournament. He found her walking around and searching for him when he came here.
She was nibbling on a small sandwich nonchalantly as if she wasn't in the middle of the biggest stage in the world.
"You don't seem that bothered with this competition," Acht said with an impressed look.
"Mm.." She nodded with a small voice as she stuck closer to him and continued eating her sandwich.
Then, the voice of the same man that spoke yesterday reached their ears and reverberated in their heads like two big drums.
[Welcome to the group stage of the Mystic Soul Tournament. It is our honor to see all of these young talents appear in this place on such a big day. Now, before we start, a word from Lord Nestern will have a word for you.]
Then, everyone looked at a certain person sitting on a throne-like chair surrounded by all the kings and the important powerhouses of this world. Acht recognized some of them while he never saw the others.
He even caught the glance of Scarlett looking at him from the stands, not even bothering with anything else.
But, he totally ignored her since he had no reason to care about whether she looks at him or not. Their friendship is severed.
The stands became totally silent as they waited for the man to speak. After sitting down quietly like that, he muttered a few words that somehow were loud enough to reach the end of the arena even though he didn't shout or scream.
"Impress me."
Two words were all he said before he returned to his casual demeanor of not caring about anything and everything.
However, as much as these words sounded arrogant, the only thing he garnered from the audience was loud sheers and strong clapping. It was as if he had just given them a priceless treasure with those words.
"Sigh, what a weird bunch." Acht thought while witnessing such a scene.
He was clearly disrespecting everyone present with his words but they still considered it as an amazing thing to do. This was a level of brainwashing that Acht didn't know was possible.
"This isn't something that this world did out of its own accord. The other worlds have hands in this, I'm sure." He muttered calmly.
They were all here to lick the man's boot just so that maybe they could benefit from him. What a stupid thing!
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