Chapitre 53: Chapter:53 The Competition Begins! pt-1
Chapter:-53
"Erik!....."
Mari waved towards Erik who had just exited the elevator. The man in question wore the school dress with his long hair tied behind his back, gloves covering his palm as always, his chartreuse phosphorescent looking at everyone with a sharp gaze.
Erik and the other participants were invited to attend the welcome party organized by the organizer, every single one of the Nine-schools was expected to attend the party and interact with the other participants.
"You finally decided to grace us with your presence?"
Mari had an annoyed expression on his face as she glared at Erik who had a wry smile on his face. Mayumi and Mari had been waiting for 15 minutes, thinking to themselves about when Erik would decide to show up.
Suzune and Katsuto had refused to attend the part, the former being tired from all the work she had to finish before the competition begins whereas the latter just wanted to have some peace and quiet.
"I apologize for being late, something had come up at the last second and I had to deal with it before I could focus on anything else...…"
"Is everything alright? Sorry, I don't mean to privy...…"
Mayumi wanted to know what was disturbing Erik and directly questioned by reflex, realizing that it wasn't appropriate of her to do so.
"You don't need to worry about it, Mayumi. I consider you and Mari my close friends, you don't need to act reserved when we are together...…"
Erik shook his head, dismissing Mayumi's worries before asking her to speak without reservation whenever they were together.
Mayumi looked toward Erik, who had a small smile on his ever-calm face and nodded her head before averting her eyes.
"I hate to break your lovey-dovey session, but we need to move towards the stage, apparently an announcement is about to be made."
Mari had a smirk on her face as if she had achieved something in her life but what she didn't see was a hand hovering near her waist. Mayumi had a glint in her crimson eyes as she pinched hard on Mari's waist, causing the latter to squirm in pain.
"Ah, Erik! You know Mari, she likes to sprout nonsense here and there...don't mind her!"
Mayumi had a smile on her face as she looked towards Erik, still not letting go of Mari's waist.
"Ouch! Ouch!, Please Mayumi have mercy...! Ouch!"
Mari immediately pleaded to Mayumi to forgive her and let her go but the latter just turned towards her with a smile which in Mari's vision seemed very dangerous.
"Haha...!"
Looking at the shenanigans of his two friends, Erik could help but let out a stifled laugh.
Both Mari and Mayumi stopped their actions and looked towards Erik who was trying hard to control his laughter; Mari sneakily pulled out her cell phone and immediately clicked a high-resolution photo of Erik laughing.
She then proceeds to send the photo to Mayumi as an attachment, adding a small note along with it.
'No need to thank me, I know you wanted this! Also, you can seal this photo to Erik's fan-club, they will surely give you a high amount for this photo of Erik laughing, and this isn't a small event, him laughing his as rare as phoenix tears...!'
It was a known fact that Erik and Katsuto were the two individuals who never showed any other emotions, except their calm face, these mad-lads always wore their game-face even around friends, therefore this was the first time either of them had seen Erik laugh.
Mayumi also took out her cell phone as she received notifications on her lock screen, signifying a message from Mari.
'No! I will add this to my personal collection of photos, you must not share that photo with anyone else or I will come for you, Mari!...'
'You mean you have more of his photos? Have you been secretly clicking photos of Erik!?'
'I-I do-don't kn-know what y-you are talking about!.....'
If Erik was able to read their chats, he would have surely laughed his ass off until one of his kidney stops working due to excessive laughter.
"My my....you both can continue later. Its time for the speech."
Erik forcefully calmed down, wiping the tear from the corner of his eye before walking near the stage, motioning both of his friends to follow him and focus on what was happening.
An old man could be seen standing on top of the stage. Despite being over 90-years old, his sharp, hawk-eye like gaze and booming, clear voice contrasts his aged appearance.
Kudou Retsu was the former head of the Kudou Family, which was one of the Ten Master Clans. He was one of the most important figures from the Ten Master Clans in the 21st century, and until twenty years before AD 2095, was acknowledged to be one of the strongest Magicians in the world.
He was the Family Head of the Kudou Family, an elder known as the "Patriarch".
Elder Kudou's mind still retains his keen intellect displayed in his younger years. Being a man who speaks his mind freely, he believes that magic is a means, not the end goal of magicians and that unrelentingly training to raise one's magical power was not enough to become a great magician.
While this flies in the face of ideals the upper echelons of modern magic society seek to uphold, using wit and cunning to demonstrate the validity of his convictions and show that even a thoroughly crafted and executed small-scale magic can be a flexible and agile tool that outshines larger-scaled magic that is used ineffectively.
During his glory days, Kudou Retsu joined the 9th Institute, he underwent strength enhancement measures at the Research Institutes put up by the National Defense Force.
Once hailed as the pinnacle and the craftiest of magicians, Kudou Retsu rose to prominence during the early days of the Ten Master Clans as a soldier within the National Defense Force.
He is a veteran magician of hundred battles and has participated in the military engagements occurring within the East China Seas against the magicians of the Guangdong Army.
After retiring from the military, Elder Kudou has since chaired the committee for the Ten Master Clans and currently remains a magic adviser to the Ministry of National Defense.
When he retired from service in the military, Elder Kudou held the rank of Major General. Back when Kudou was in the service, the rule that the "Ten Master Clans shall not assume high roles in government" had not been established yet.
That was because this rule was put into effect after experiencing a series of circumstances involving Kudou himself that ultimately led to the establishment of this rule.
This old Magician stands near the pinnacle of magical society within the country. His influence in this magical community is enough to shake the foundation of modern magic society.
After this elder, once renowned as one of the strongest, retired from the front lines, he has rarely appeared at public events, but for some reason chooses to appear every year at the Nine Schools Competition.
The mandate placed on Magicians by him and other leaders to create humanoid weapons out of them, caused him to form a belief that in the future there will come a time when a rift will form between Magicians and the rest of humanity.
What he envisions happening as a result of this rift and what his plans are for it are unknown, but for now, he seems to be focusing on gaining support from people with ties to the Yotsuba in order to prevent them from becoming too powerful.
He is considered to be the head of the Japanese Magic Community
Kudou Retsu was one of the people that greatly interested Erik, both of them had similar goals yet vastly different methods of achieving them.
While Retsu uses his influence to revolutionary views to try and change the world, Erik believes in a much more direct approach, for him, other people's opinion means nothing as he already knows of the future that awaits the world.
But that didn't stop him from exchanging views and ideals with worthy individuals, engaging in a philosophical exchange.
"Welcome everyone! I welcome you all to the grand-event, [Nine-schools Competition], you all know me as Patriarch Kudou, I am one of the organizers of this massive competition which was created with the purpose to allow talented youngsters to showcase their talent on the biggest platform within the country...…"
"During the competition, there will be thousands of eyes on all the participants, people from all over the country will be focusing on your performance in the various events...…"
"Magic is a very vague concept, it is considered complex and rigid but magic depends solely on how the magicians use it, the power, scale or rank of the magic doesn't matter but what matters is the proficiency between the spells you perform...…"
"The diversity within magic is what makes a capable magician, not the power one was born with, remember children, no magic is absolute neither is a magician absolute, but the use of their magic, their mastery over it is what makes them invincible...…"
"I am looking forward to seeing the various spells and skills you all have cultivated all this time, especially since we have quite a few talented seeds among us...…"
Retsu concluded his speech as he stepped back on the stage, walking towards the back door to exit the party and let the younglings enjoy the night.
While walking through an alley, he thoughts to himself about the multiple talented individuals he saw while observing the participants.
'Such powerful control over psion is something I haven't seen in years, especially in a youngster. I can't sense his psions at all but the silent pressure emitting from his body is enough to conclude his abilities...…"
'A new era is near, I never thought that the young Saltzman would be this talented in magic! I wonder how strong is his magic...'
'This year's competition would be interesting...'
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(A/N:-Next chapter is directly into the competition...exams going on so no steady release till 12th.)
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État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone