Bab 308: 308. Preliminary
The Fairy Tail Mages go to a hotel that Ben has booked to rest before the tournament begins. The Event Organizer has prepared a sleeping quarter for every guild, but that is just for the ones that participate. So Ben booked a whole hotel for the other guild members, he has money, after all. This is the power of wealth.
The tournament will start at midnight with the preliminary round as the start. It's still noon now, so Ben takes his family to go around the Royal Capital. He asks his sisters & in-laws, but they refuse and say that he should enjoy the time with his wife & children.
Ben does as they say and walk around the Royal Capital with Mira, Ariel, & Gabriel. Many people recognize them as Fairy Tail Mages and talk about them. But they talk with low voices behind their backs because they don't dare to do it openly.
Still, even with low voices, Ben can hear them clearly with his sensitive ears. He ignores them though because he doesn't care about their trash talk. The best way to shut them up is by showing the result.
Besides, he doesn't want to show something bad to his children by getting angry over trivial things. Getting angry over something like this will be a bad example for his children. He just wants to enjoy his family time too, so there's no need to do something meaningless.
They go around the town and see many things that are new to the children. Well, almost everything is new for 3 y.o kids, so it is exciting for them. They finish their tour when the kids fall asleep and it's almost dark already.
On their way back, they come across someone unexpected. They meet with Sabertooth's Guild Master, Jiemma Orland, in the middle of the street. Ben & Mira just look at him for a moment before walking past him without saying anything.
"Sabertooth is the best Guild, and it will remain that way," says Jiemma all of a sudden.
Ben stops for a moment and says, "Well, if that's what you believed in."
"Tomorrow, Fairy Tail will be destroyed. So enjoy your last happy day," says Jiemma arrogantly.
Ben just smirks hearing that, "I don't know about you, but we always enjoy our days that are full of happiness. You better say those words to yourself. You look like the most unhappy old man in the world, after all."
Without saying another word, Ben leaves Jiemma there. It's too troublesome for them to talk with Jiemma. They just need to wait for the Grand Magic Games to start and prove what they have there.
At night, a few hours before the tournament starts, Fairy Tail holds a meeting. Makarov wants to announce the ones who will participate in this tournament. Everyone is thinking that Makarov will send the S-Class Mages, but he isn't.
"The ones who will participate are Erza Scarlett, Natsu Dragneel, Gray Fullbuster, Gajeel Redfox, and Lucy Heartfilia. Wendy Marvel will be the reserve member," says Makarov.
Everyone is surprised that the only S-Class Mage in the group is Erza. They all questioned why Makarov doesn't send all the S-Class Mages. So Makarov tells them that he & the S-Classes think that this group is the most ideal.
Ben then also adds, "You guys are strong and we believe that you have the best chance to win. Also, weren't you guys the ones who kept talking about joining this tournament? We are just giving you a chance to shine."
Natsu, Gray, Gajeel, & Erza are giggling shyly when they hear that. But Lucy doesn't think the same, "I-I never said I wanted to join the tournament though. Ca-Can I refuse?"
"You can't, it's the Master's order," says Ben.
"R-right," says Lucy dejectedly.
Wendy is the only one who doesn't react because she can see that something is strange from Ben's expression. She has known him for the longest time, so she knows if he does something. Ben realizes this, so he blinks an eye at Wendy as a signal for her to not say anything.
After that, the participating group goes to the lodging that the Organizer has prepared for them. The other guild members are cheering on them and encourage them. They leave after promising to take 1st place in the tournament.
At midnight, the organizer calls every participant to prepare for the preliminaries. The announcer is a Pumpkin-man who gets his hologram projected above the city. Above the pumpkin-man is a massive floating structure and no one knows what it is.
The pumpkin man then announces that there will be 245 participating groups. From 245 teams, only 8 teams will be eligible to pass the preliminary and enter the next round. So the preliminary will be fierce as 245 teams will compete for those 8 spots.
(A.n: The original is 113, but I changed it to show that this is the tournament with the highest number of participants.)
"245?! That means there are almost 1,500 people who participated if we also count the reserves. But it's strange. There's no way Fiore has 245 Legal Guilds, so what's with the number?" asks Lucy.
"The organizer must be up to something. But it doesn't matter, our goal is still the same, winning this tournament," says Erza.
Soon, the pumpkin-man tells the participants to get ready as the preliminary round is about to start. Suddenly, the participants' lodgings start to raise. Then stairs that connect their lodgings to the floating structure which is called the Sky Labyrinth appear.
All teams need to enter the labyrinth and reach the exit. The first 8 teams who find the exit will go to the next round. So it will be a race where no one knows the route. It's quite an exciting start for this tournament.
The preliminary starts and Gajeel immediately grabs his Natsu & Gray before running on the stair despite their protest. Erza then follows him with Lucy in her arms and now they are running fast to the labyrinth.
They enter the Sky Labyrinth shortly after that, and now they can see the structure inside. It is far bigger than they thought and there are many paths made of stairs or bridges. The group talks for a moment and decides to explore the labyrinth first to make a map.
They immediately go after deciding it and it is harder than they thought. Even after running around and trying different paths, they still can't find the exit. It gets harder as the labyrinth is rotating, so they can fall when it flips. But then, they meet other teams that also try to make a map like them.
It makes them think that they can take other teams' maps to complete theirs. So they start targetting other teams to steal their maps. They find some small Guilds' teams like their neighbor, Twilight Ogre to be attacked.
After working hard and defeating many teams, the group finally complete their map. They go to the exit hastily before other teams also find the exit. Too bad though, the pumpkin-man says that they reached the exit as the 7th team. At least they still pass.
The next round starts at day after a few hours of rest. Everyone gathers at Domus Flau, a big arena that will be the main location for the tournament. It was the arena that has been strengthened by Ben & Jura, but it has been modified to look better.
Before the next round starts, the organizer announces the teams that passed the preliminary. They haven't announced it to the public, after all. So they announce it now, starting from the last place.
The 8th place is Scarmiglione Guild which reached the exit sometime after Fairy Tail. The crowd is cheering on them, but they suddenly booed the Fairy Tail team that get the 7th place. It's such a strange thing for them to cheer on the 8th place, but booed the 7th place.
Their guildmates are cheering on them though, and their voices are loud, so they can match the thousands of people's boos. They get surprised when Mavis suddenly appears though. She has returned to Tenrou Island, after all, but she says she is bored, so she comes here.
The next teams then get introduced. 6th place is Quatro Cerberus, 5th place is Mermaid Heel, 4th place is Blue Pegasus, and 3rd place is Lamia Scale. The crowd is already confused now because Lamia Scale that usually 2nd is 3rd.
(A.n: Ben has destroyed Raven Tail, so they aren't here.)
Then they get very surprised when Sabertooth Guild comes out next. Sabertooth is in 2nd place and their arrogant faces are nowhere to be seen now. There's only shame & anger in their expressions because they failed to get 1st place in the preliminary. Everyone is now curious about which team gets 1st place.
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