Chapter 102: Runner-Up

Chapter 102: Chapter 102: Runner-Up

Time waits for no one.

Before Jeremy could even figure out how to act flawlessly in front of his two nominal parents, the day of the inter-department tournament’s grand finale arrived.

The moment he set foot in the competition area, a pink cotton ball darted straight out of the Linnea department’s private waiting area, blocking his path.

Lomita planted her hands on her hips, her chin jutting out, her whole being radiating pride as if she had just won herself: "Not bad. I knew you would win."

Anyone who didn’t know better would think this little girl was the godmother of his entire team.

Jeremy looked down at the top of the head that was a good deal shorter than his, reaching out to poke the ahoge sticking straight up: "As long as I didn’t disappoint your expectations, that’s good."

Lomita huffed a few times, reaching out to smack that fingertip away, then didn’t even bother to dodge: "Hey, by the way, tomorrow is a holiday, are you going back to the capital or the western territory?"

Jeremy’s answer had never changed: "The capital."

Lomita tilted her head, calculating for about three seconds, then clapped her hands, deciding immediately: "Then I’ll stay in the capital too. I’ll come find you to play when the time comes."

"Alright." The corners of Jeremy’s lips curled up in a very faint arc.

From behind, a clear, flat, rippless voice suddenly rang out: "Jeremy?"

He turned sideways to look.

The person arriving was Asaro.

Raphael stood next to her. The two clearly had just bumped into each other by chance at the entrance; the distance between them was wide enough to fit two more people, as if an invisible wall had been erected between them that both tacitly agreed not to cross.

Asaro suffered from prosopagnosia and severe myopia. She leisurely took out her magic contact lenses and put them in, blinking twice to sharpen her vision, confirming she hadn’t recognized the wrong person before greeting: "Long time no see."

Almost simultaneously, Raphael’s voice also rang out beside her: "Jeremy, good morning."

Jeremy gave a slight nod, replying succinctly: "Long time no see. Good morning."

The four teammates standing behind him simultaneously fell silent, maintaining the posture of outsiders witnessing their captain’s tangled web of relationships. Lucius raised an eyebrow, his gaze sweeping from Asaro to Raphael before settling on the back of Jeremy’s neck, the smile on his lips fading a few degrees.

Asaro’s gaze swept over Jeremy and the four people behind him, her tone as flat as reading a report: "I didn’t expect you guys to actually make it this far. Far beyond my expectations. I thought you would lose miserably, so I didn’t have any expectations."

Hearing this, Lomita bristled instantly, jumping forward to shield Jeremy: "Don’t look down on others! He... ahem, they were already very strong to begin with, what’s so strange about winning a few more matches?"

Asaro was one meter seventy-nine; she had to lower her eyes quite a bit to see the pink cotton ball puffing its cheeks in front of her. She observed for exactly one second, then turned to ask Jeremy in a voice so sincere it sounded like she was offering condolences: "Since when did you become friends with this explosive cotton ball?"

"You! What do you mean by that?" Lomita was so furious even her sideburns stood on end.

"We’ve been friends for a long time." Jeremy placed a hand on the little girl’s shoulder, patting it twice to soothe her, taking the opportunity to pull her behind him before looking up straight at Asaro. "Also, regarding things like predicted outcomes, I think it would be better if classmate Asaro didn’t jump to conclusions so casually."

"Alright. If you don’t want to hear it, I won’t say it next time." Asaro truly harbored no malice when she spoke. Her gaze flicked over the pink cotton ball peeking out from behind Jeremy’s arm, making a face at her, and the corner of her mouth twitched slightly. Since when did this brat, who flared up at the drop of a hat, become so childish?

She ignored Lomita, continuing to speak to Jeremy: "Your winning to stand here is one of the few things I looked forward to. This time facing off, I hope you can still bring me some surprises."

"...Surprises or not, I can’t guarantee. We will go all out." Honestly, Jeremy was extremely unwilling to answer this kind of question again.

From the start of the semester until now, among the opponents he had faced, a good seventy percent were the belligerent type; the moment a fight ended, they started counting down to the next rematch.

But among all of them, Asaro was absolutely the craziest.

If they clashed right in the opening match, the level of crazy would only double.

Jeremy silently prayed that the draw would fall on literally anyone else, as long as it wasn’t the team led by Asaro.

Amidst the bustling noise, the random draw process officially began.

Luck was also a part of strength.

The first round had one slot granted a bye, and the Lunar Eclipse Team drew exactly that slot. Lucius gave a very soft whistle, while Leon snorted, serving as their expressions of emotion.

The remaining four teams finished their pairings.

Class 509’s Genius Team from the Omnia department faced the Sinking Star Team led by Raphael from the Zenith department.

The Astraea department’s Crimson Wolf Team met the Linnea department’s Wind and Rain Team — the exact same pairing that had clashed in the freshman tournament.

Crimson Wolf’s captain was Fino; Wind and Rain’s captain was Lomita.

Last time, the one stepping out of the arena in a victor’s posture was Wind and Rain.

But this time, Fino’s realm was slightly higher than Lomita’s, and the rest of the members had also leveled up. The match dragged on relentlessly in a tug-of-war for every inch of the arena, and finally, Crimson Wolf won by a hair with exactly one last breath of magic power.

On the other side, the Genius Team — the lineup that had crushed Lunar Eclipse in round two — fell from their horses at the hands of the Sinking Star Team.

The exclusive ability of someone holding a top-ten Holy Covenant was truly terrifying to an absurd degree. Raphael’s skill could not only tear space but also came with a double-layered barrier effect that slowed the flow of time within its coverage area.

Its name was [Stagnant Time Domain].

It could be said that to take down a tough opponent like the Genius Team, that ability alone claimed full half the credit.

The combined match time of the two pairings consumed nearly three hours.

The two winning teams, along with the team granted the bye, would proceed to draw lots for the next pairing. The pairing happened instantly after the match ended, without a single second of halftime rest.

In the second round, Sinking Star drew the bye. Lunar Eclipse faced Crimson Wolf.

Crimson Wolf had just crawled out of an incredibly draining match; their magic power was scraped to the bottom, their condition far from peak. Lunar Eclipse won this match.

Not a single person voiced complaints about unfairness. Academy competitions were inherently designed this way — the ability to distribute and control magic power was also a part of performance, perhaps even the most core aspect.

And the Lunar Eclipse Team — having just won due to their opponent’s exhaustion — was also not granted half a minute of grace. Before the dust on the arena settled, before the sweat on the backs of their necks dried, they were shoved straight into a face-off with the Sinking Star Team, who was at their absolute peak condition.

The result was almost pre-written.

Holding out for nearly an hour, under a combat intensity pushed to its absolute limit, the magic barrier in Phoenix’s sea of consciousness unexpectedly shattered. He broke through, hitting the Intermediate Stage, One-Star mark right in the middle of the arena; the undead scepter in his hand flared with a cold blue halo that swallowed three square meters of the stone floor.

But this match, ultimately, still closed with a defeat.

In the inter-department tournament’s grand finale, the Lunar Eclipse Team halted at the runner-up position.

The stands that day gathered almost all the students from the five major departments. The dramatic intensity of the consecutive matches pushed the heat index on the school’s internal forum to its weekly peak; analysis posts piled up so fast the system had to load-balance.

Almost no one expected that the team labeled as trash could dig up such a result.

What was shaken wasn’t just the prejudice against low-ranking Inscriptions.

The majority’s impression of Jeremy had also been rewritten from scratch.

From a gloomy, moody young master whom everyone tacitly avoided in the corridors, he had become a demonic talent leading his entire team to pierce through the encirclement.