218 – Victors

Fotios did, indeed, win the under-fourteen bracket later that day.

His opponent in the finals had been a young elvish priestess from the Eastern Kingdom. That was exceptional for several reasons, foremost being that healer-type classes could almost never hold their own against an equal-level opponent. It wasn’t even that the healer had possessed a hybrid class suited to one-on-one duels—she’d used standard holy-type spells yet had put up a better fight than anyone else. Sadly including Saffra herself.

Some people were simply monsters in their peer group. Vivi could hardly grumble about that, her being who she was.

Rafael had explained afterward that the elf was a known quantity, though nobody had thought she would place second. The general public’s predictions had shattered thanks to a certain phoenix-boy’s arrival. He’d upset several potential finalists during his climb.

Double elimination would have produced a more accurate final ranking, no doubt, but the city and the Adventurer’s Guild already had their hands full with the tournament. Doubling the total matches was unfeasible.

The second of the age brackets—the one hosting fourteen-to-seventeen-year-olds—had run in tandem with the younger one. Among the participants, Vivi had only Tatiana to root for. She wasn’t especially close to Archmage Aeris’s apprentice, but the girl had seemed pleasant in their interactions and was a pseudo-friend of Isabella’s, with both of the girls studying under the same master. Why wouldn’t Vivi cheer her on?

Surprisingly, though, Tatiana didn’t reach so much as the quarterfinals before getting knocked out—she lost at the top sixteen mark. Vivi estimated the young woman to be on the upper end of mithril, and, given she was an apprentice to one of the greatest living mages, Vivi had expected better results.

Though here I am, Vivi thought, acting like placing top sixteen in a tournament hosted for the entire world isn’t a fantastic performance.

Like always, her standards were warped. By any line of thinking, Tatiana’s result was that of a prodigy. Top sixteen was just a brutally competitive tier.

A dwarf won the older bracket overall, and unlike with Fotios, it wasn’t an upset; the young man was well known to the public, the pride and joy of his enclave back home, and Vivi had sensed during his earlier fights that he would emerge the victor.

That he’d done so without a ridiculous trick like Fotios’s phoenix fire made his achievement almost worth more praise. Except… not really. Fotios’s fire had probably been hard-earned. Not many people stumbled into power like that through happenstance.

Even so, the dwarvish boy’s style, a relentless melee where he wielded an ornate two-handed hammer, had dominated the opposition despite its straightforwardness, winning through technique, strength, and durability with no astounding abilities like phoenix fire to aid him. All counterarguments aside, that was impressive.

With the results decided, the time to hand out prizes arrived.

The royal family oversaw the affair. The Sorceress and Vanguard more generally were the benevolent patrons of the tournament, but she needed only to stand to the side as High Prince Adrian led the ceremony.

Even idling off on the periphery and being gawked at wasn’t her favorite event in the world. Would those stares ever stop? She’d shown her face in public often enough that she’d have thought it would no longer be such a spectacle.

I promise nothing’s changed since the last time you goggled at me…

When her public duties wrapped up, she escorted everyone back to the guildhall. She and Saffra split off toward the dining area, as did many others. Shel, the cook, dipped his head out of the entranceway into the kitchen, saw the incoming crowd, and immediately dove back in. Pots and pans started banging against each other.

Vivi slid into her seat, then stole a look at her apprentice out of the corner of her eye.

Saffra had taken her loss better than Vivi had feared she might, and her gloom had cleared further when Fotios had swept through the rest of the bracket with overwhelming ease. Based on what Vivi had seen of the other fighters, Saffra would have placed in the top eight for sure, and maybe the top four depending on the matchup, had the tournament somehow put everyone perfectly where they deserved to be. Though too hard on herself, Saffra had to have made that evaluation as well. How could she blame herself for losing against the overall victor, much less one who had trounced the competition to such a ridiculous degree?

She’d gotten unlucky.

Thus, the girl wasn’t depressed about her performance, though perhaps she wasn’t in the best mood ever.

“So, what do you want for your prize?” Vivi asked.

Saffra paused, then looked over, confused. “I’m pretty sure I already got it.”

“Not the one from Vanguard to the winners. Your personal reward.”

“My… personal reward,” she repeated.

“From master to apprentice, for trying her best in the tournament and doing well.”

Saffra stared at her. Then, she reacted in a way Vivi wouldn’t have predicted: the catgirl sighed in exasperation and slumped over with a hand against her forehead. “Hasn’t anyone told you it’s not good to spoil others, Lady Vivi?”

Yes, so they don’t get entitled, she didn’t say aloud. I’m kind of having the opposite issue with you.

“You already shower me with stuff no other apprentice could dream of,” Saffra continued. “What could I ask for on top of that? No, I mean literally: what would I even ask for?”

“Something not related to adventuring or leveling up, for one,” Vivi pointed out. “Clothes? Jewelry?” She doubted Saffra cared about those sorts of things, but she was still a teenager.

Saffra blinked as if the idea hadn’t crossed her mind.

“Or barring that, maybe there’s a city or zone you want to see? A restaurant you want to try? Anything. It doesn’t matter what, but you do have to pick. Or else I will.”

“…you’re threatening an over-the-top gift if I don’t decide on a reasonable one myself?”

Vivi nodded. “That’s exactly the situation.”

“I think you have something backwards there.”

I don’t think I do.

Saffra made a few grumbling noises, but after a moment she seemed to accept her fate. She adopted a thoughtful expression, staring down and tracing the wood grain of the counter with a finger.

“I suppose I could get Isabella something,” she murmured.

Vivi almost facepalmed. Of course. Should she tell Saffra that wasn’t allowed? That she had to pick something for herself? Eventually, she decided to cede the battle. At least she’ll still be asking for something directly, for once.

Such a troublesome apprentice.

***

The next day, the rank-based divisions began. Seeing that there were five of them and that the brackets were preludes and appetizers to the main event, the pools of participants were smaller to ensure speedy completion. Only three days had been allotted to find the champions of each adventuring tier from bronze to orichalcum.

The Sorceress was too important for anyone to expect her to watch each and every match, but Rafael had suggested she drop by on occasion, and be present for the semifinals and above; it would be good for Vanguard’s public image. She didn’t mind fulfilling the request, since the top four fights of each bracket would be interesting on their own merit, regardless of how weak some of them would be level-wise.

Besides that obligation, she had a mostly open schedule. She spent her time diving deeper into her chosen research topics, with an emphasis on turning void energy against divinations—thanks to Mina, she was actually in a bigger rush to crack that problem than before. Vivi needed to figure it out before the open division matches progressed too far.

It’s funny there’s a real, legitimate reason for Vianora’s disguise now, she thought, ruminating over the necromancer’s presence, and the manner in which she and Rafael had decided to handle it.

She also finally got around to toying with a few Fires of Creation experiments. Not because she had a practical need to do so, but because witnessing Fotios’s phoenix-fire had planted an itch inside her.

Since Fotios was participating in the mithril-rank matches, and his opponents weren’t nearly as easy to disregard as those in the youth brackets, she had plenty of opportunities to study his mystical flames with a careful eye. Despite how the Mother of Fire had birthed phoenixes using the Fires of Creation, the two elemental energies weren’t remotely the same by nature—even so, Vivi drew inspiration from scrutinizing the boy’s abilities.

Vanguard’s renovations progressed at a rapid rate during those two days, and Rafael began presenting new-member profiles for her to look through. With everything on her plate, she couldn’t sit down and interview each and every person who joined up; Rafael and others had that covered. Still, he came to her for approvals, and she intended to learn everyone’s names at the very least.

Maybe I could make a spell to help identify all the new faces? It wouldn’t be that hard.

Or maybe that’s a heartless way to go about things.

Just learn them, she thought with a sigh. Magic can’t replace everything.

Suyin had joined the orichalcum-rank bracket, so Vivi made sure to be present for the swordswoman’s matches. A while ago, Suyin had said she might not participate, disliking the concept of restricting fighters to a bracket based on outside criteria like level. All that mattered, she had said, was who came out the victor. But she’d either reevaluated that opinion or been bored enough to step into the ring anyway. Probably, the fights were too tantalizing.

Suyin worked her way up the ranks without strain. It was impressive; the orichalcum bracket wouldn’t be much easier than the first few matches of the open division itself, since there weren’t enough Titled to fill all one hundred and twenty-eight slots.

The disciple of a Sword Saint, Vivi thought. Yxamas Faleryn’s student.

It was obvious in retrospect, and especially the more she watched Suyin fight. She’d known the woman was far ahead of the competition, but hadn’t realized how much so thanks to those ever-skewed standards of hers.

Even though she’s nearly at the bottom of orichalcum, she might take home the gold medal.

Sadly, that outcome didn’t come to pass. Suyin placed second, losing to a scion of the Primogenitor’s Blood who, according to Rafael, would be earning a Title any day now. The level discrepancy had ended up making the difference. Suyin was monstrously talented, but had her limits.

It’s a shame we couldn’t make things perfectly fair, Vivi thought yet again. But a tournament that broke divisions down into fifty-level increments would be absurd. The line had to be drawn somewhere, and five tiers adhering to the standard human adventuring ranks was the obvious one.

Suyin would protest the idea of it being ‘unfair,’ anyway. In her eyes, regardless of level, a fight is a fight.

Vivi took secret pleasure in having an excuse to reward the diligent disciple with handcrafted equipment. Though Xun—Yxamas?—had to be a man of incredible means himself, the Sorceress could bestow gifts to outdo even him. By the way Suyin had stared at the boots and bracelet that the High Prince handed her during the gifting ceremony, Vivi knew the items were well received.

Suyin had stolen a few glances at Vivi during the event, but based on the plain curiosity and reservation in that gaze, it seemed the woman hadn’t figured out that she was Vianora. Not that much had changed on that front, but Vivi feared it might happen by chance. There were plenty of signs, though none so blatant it made discovery inevitable.

The idea’s just too ridiculous to entertain, I guess. Should I tell her myself?

It would be so awkward…

It’d been a few days since she’d spoken with the disciple, and while they might not be friends, they were friendly. Congratulations were in order. She dropped by wearing her elvish disguise once ceremonies had concluded.

Unlike how Vivi sometimes startled Saffra by appearing too suddenly, Suyin—along with Xun striding beside her—glanced over and took in her arrival without faltering.

“Honored Sister,” the disciple said with a bow.

“Vianora,” Xun said, more casually.

“Hello,” she offered back. “I just thought I should drop by and give my congratulations.”

“Tch. You were watching that?” Suyin said, straightening from her bow. “I thought you might be, but still, how embarrassing.”

“Embarrassing?”

“I could have won. I should have.”

Was everyone in Vivi’s life unable to take pride in their outrageous accomplishments? “You were up against someone with a hundred-and-fifty-level advantage, who himself is the most talented of his generation.”

“Excuses. I walked out the loser, and that’s all there is to it.”

Vivi looked at Xun, seeking support. But despite being a doting father, he surprised her by saying, “She’s right. A loss is a loss.”

“But she fought well,” Vivi argued.

Xun rolled his eyes. “And the sun rises from the east. Of course she did. She’s my daughter and my disciple.”

Suyin nodded along as if he’d spoken the most obvious truth in the world.

It was such a strange mix of confidence and refusal to acknowledge her achievements. Vivi sighed.

“Has your research been going well, Honored Sister?” Suyin asked.

“Yes. I have several more spells I need to work into your style, actually. I was wondering if you wanted to resume our training tomorrow, before the tournament begins.”

“Of course,” Suyin replied instantly—with plain eagerness, in fact. “I’ve been contemplating a few improvements which I’d like to share with you.”

Suyin enjoyed their training sessions for her own purposes. Both because she could correct Vivi’s offensively bad sword form, and because, supposedly, she was gaining insight into her own path from the experience. Like many teachers did with their students.

“First thing in the morning?” Vivi suggested.

“The usual time works.”

“I won’t occupy your evening, then. As I said, I just wanted to congratulate you on an excellent showing.” She wasn’t the most expressive person, but she silently challenged either Xun or Suyin to contradict the praise. They didn’t. “Rest up,” she said, waving goodbye. “The real fights begin tomorrow.”