Scarlet

Eventually they finally stop staring when Amelia opens her mouth and says, “We don’t have time for this.” Which snaps them all out of the funk they were in. “Do you know what’s going to happen?”

I blink before tilting my head slightly and answering, “A tournament?”

The corner of her mouth quirks slightly at that, showing her amusement. But she answers seriously despite that, “Yes, but do you know how it’ll be handled?”

“Nope,” I answer honestly with a shrug.

Amelia nods her head as if expecting that before looking around us at the rather large gathering of humans and demons floating in the air. Then at the even larger gathering of humans in the capital city.

“Let’s go somewhere else for this,” she finally says after turning her gaze back to me and snapping her fingers, making a bright white shine out from her.

This time, unlike the other times I’ve teleported with her, I can actually sense in a manner what she is doing. And unlike before, the white light doesn’t manage to teleport me, instead vanishing the moment it touches my makeshift Red Plague armor. With my blood devouring the mana in her skill. Which ends up leaving me still floating where I am while Amelia is nowhere to be found.

Well, this is awkward.

“That it is,” Tar comments.

Then silence fills the area for a little bit.

Come to think of it, I haven’t gotten around to checking my new skills. I should do that after she explains everything about how the tournament will work.

“Sounds like a plan,” Tar says right as Amelia reappears in front of me and everyone else with a slight blush on her face.

Good to know that people can’t just teleport me away without my permission anymore at least.

“In all honesty, your makeshift armor, no matter how shabby it looks, is probably the best armor in existence right now,” Tar points out, making me grin slightly. “And that’s including your grandfather’s armor.”

That’s nice to hear.

“Would you mind letting me teleport you?” Amelia asks, sounding just as embarrassed as she looks.

I shake my head, telling her, “No can do. I can’t exactly take off my Red Plague armor right now. Not here.”

She stares for a few seconds. The people around us stare for a few seconds, looking at my armor that looks more like a shabby cloak that covers everything important.

Then more than a few people blush and look away as if realizing what I mean.

“Oh, okay,” Amelia says. Then she hurriedly adds, “Then let’s head to my apartment in the city.”

I nod my head, following which I trail behind Amelia at speeds too fast for the human eye to see to her apartment. So fast that most of the spectators excluding the demons and Guardians likely only saw a blur at most.

Once we reach her apartment, we both sit down on a sofa and she begins to speak, “You don’t have to worry about memorizing all of this or missing anything too important since Oberon said that the exact rules will be explained when it begins, but you should at least know the basics. The tournament will be set place in an alternate universe somewhere else in the void created by King Oberon. It will be split into dozens of different competitions, ranging from intelligence challenging ones, skill, puzzle solving, direct combat, and even competitions directed more at your fae than you yourself. And amongst those competitions there will be ones where killing is allowed and ones where it isn’t. But even amongst those competitions where killing is allowed, competitors can opt to enable an anti-death feature to make it so that they don’t actually die.”

Huh. Not how I envisioned it exactly, but also not too different either.

The anti-death thing is surprising though.

“What, do you think we’d go around killing our food sources for glory or something?” Tar says while going down to my lap, reminding me that some fae do view us as food sources. Since we technically are, considering that their nourishment comes from us killing each other.

Which kind of makes me wonder what’ll happen now that the war is over. But that’s not important right now.

“Each competition gives points for first, second, and third place, with a flat number of points given out for how well the competitor did in the competition. The various competitions also give multipliers based on various aspects, such as the competitor’s age, their level difference compared to the average level in the competition in question, their Class, and so on.” Amelia continues, making me understand that this competition won’t just be a straightforward fight. It’s set up so that the weaker competitors can compete as well. “The tournament will be open for anyone with a contracted fae to spectate in person simply by tagging along with their fae to go see the competition, and it’ll also be broadcast on large screens high in the sky for people on Tartarus and Earth to spectate if they wish. But most importantly, competitors can’t return to Earth or Tartarus until after the tournament is completely over. And the tournament will last a couple months, depending on how long each of the competitions end up taking.”

Oh, wow. It’s also going to take longer than I thought it would.

Wait, is that why King Oberon waited for after the war ended to start this? Or was that a coincidence?

“No, he waited for the war to end so that the tournament won’t have the war hanging over everyone’s heads while they’re competing,” Tar answers while stretching slightly in my lap.

That was nice of him.

Come to think of it, the last tournament I competed in… it was back in my first year at the university. A university I haven’t attended a single class at since.

Yet somehow I managed to graduate. Rather amusing.

Tar snorts at that.

I meet Amelia’s eyes as she adds, “Oh, and the Demon King will be watching with the Fae King.”

Oh, cool. Guess I can see gramps again.

A smile stretches across my face as I think about the tournament.

This might be fun.