Chương 131: Chapter 128: The selection tournament
After putting yet another b*tch girl in her place (the karen), Chris grabbed Fleur's hand and led her to the counter that was the place they had to check-in. After they were done with the formalities, the two left way they came. No one moved an inch until they were gone, even though Chris had long stopped using any magic.
Right before leaving, Chris once again made eye contact with Louise, who instantly flinched and lowered her gaze, even though he hadn't used any magic. Nodding in satisfaction, Chris turned around and left with Fleur.
"...Wow."
The whole time, Fleur was in awe. No matter how she thought about it, Chris didn't seem to be the type of person who'd suffer from problems as mundane as someone spreading false rumors about him. Though she still very much wanted to know how he'll handle it any crazy, stupid, and pitiful person actually dares to try it.
When they reached the seating area, they found Amelie still waiting for them.
"So now, tell me, who is he?" She asked, pointing at Chris.
Fleur smiled, "Oh, l haven't introduced you to yet, have I? Chris, this is Amelie Dumont, my best friend, and Amelie, this is Chris Martin, the one I told you about." They were in a hurry earlier so she couldn't do this earlier.
Amelie became surprised. He's the Chris Martin who's been changing her Fleur this whole time?! No wonder Fleur straight up ignored her earlier. Amelie already became hostile to Chris from the start.
Fleur naturally knew that her friend thought badly of Chris, but what can she do? Amelie seems to become angrier every time she tries to defend Chris.
Chris on the other naturally smiled extended his hand, "Hi Amelie, it is nice to meet you. Fleur has told me a lot about you." he said, lying through his teeth. Fleur and he hadn't become so close that they'll talk about their friends. Fleur had, at most, mentioned her a few times in her sentences, that's all. But since this girl might be the only genuine friend of Fleur, he decided to be polite.
"?!?!"
Amelie had always been a shy and introverted girl. So, upon being directly addressed by an ikeman like Chris, she was already out of her comfort zone, and upon hearing his words, she got Flustered. "W-What? She actually talked about me? Fleur did?" Fleur had always been aloof and haughty. She had never directly praised her at all!
Fleur on the other hand now looked at Chris like was scum. She was also angry with Amelie. That girl had been criticizing Fleur for believing Chris's words and being brainwashed by him. And right now? The girl fell into Chris's lies in his first sentence.
Fleur scoffed. 'Who's the gullible one now?' She thought inwardly.
After that, Chris left the two girls to catch up and went alone to find his family.
"Let's see... where did they go?" He muttered as he searched through the crowd.
At this moment, he got a call from Nyxie through his bond, and he looked in her general direction. His gaze landed on what seemed to be the VIP area of the arena. He found a very tall woman sitting on a big throne like seat, along with the minister of Magic Firmin and the teaching faculties. And there, to his surprise, he found his family and the Delacours seated as well. Esmée was waving at him along with Nyxie was sitting in her lap.
When he went there, a few Aurors stopped him, so Durant had to signal them to f*ck off. When he eventually reach his family, everyone had noticed him.
The minister Gustave Firmin, whom Chris had met about two times smiled at him in a way that reminded him of Dumbledore. And the Giant Woman, who must be Olympe Maxime studied him curiously.
"Durant, Camille, this must your missing child, isn't he?" She asked his parents. Chris supposed they must be close since Olympe had once taught them both when she wasn't the Headmistress, but a Headteacher. Upon her asking, everyone in the VIP area naturally paid attention. The emergence of the Heir of Martin and Laurant had created quite the stir among the french in the summer.
Durant nodded, Camille smiled as she introduced Chris formally to everyone, "Yes, that's him. Our firstborn and our Heir, Chris Laurant-Martin."
Chris gracefully did a french curtsey, "A pleasure to make your acquaintance." Maxime and a few teachers nodded, Chris then greeted the minister separately by calling him uncle before taking a seat. Firmin himself had once asked Chris to call him uncle Firmin, and he was only doing it now. Chris... this calculative guy should go into politics.
He ignored his own seat and lifted Esmée and then sat down with Esmée and Nyxie in his lap.
At this moment, a beautiful mature lady who seemed to be in her forties walked into the middle of the arena. She was wearing a Beauxbatons teacher's robe and had some kind of badge on her chest.
Putting her wand to her throat, she said, "A very Merry Christmas to everyone present here. I'm Felice Daniel, the Headteacher of Beauxbatons." Her voice was very melodious and she was very enthusiastic.
She received an equally enthusiastic applause from the students as well.
"First of all, we'd like to welcome our guests for the event. The minister of magic, Gustave Firmin, who has personally agreed to come and grace us with his presence after making time from his busy schedule." The minister received a polite applause from everyone and Olympe Maxime stood up and personally gave him a gift that was wrapped beautifully.
The Headteacher Felice continued, "And! The next guest is someone completely unexpected! He is the only two-time consecutive winner of the World Dueling Championship!"
Upon hearing this the audience finally noticed the other Chief guest. Durant, who had been under a disguising charm removed it.
"What?!"
"Is he really?!"
"Martin?! For real?!"
The audience began making noise. Durant had, of course been under disguise upto now. Otherwise, upto now, many people would have caused a big commotion.
The Headteacher nodded her head and smiled seeing the crowd's enthusiasm, "Yes, even I couldn't believe it at first...but! It is indeed, DURANT MARTIN!!!"
*CHEERS*
The Arena burst into the loudest noise yet as they confirmed that it was indeed Durant. He had been very popular once, since France only ever won the dueling championship twice consecutively due to him, and then he suddenly announced his retirement from the dueling circuit after Esmée, the second child was born. And after that, you can only ever see him as at the ministry or in the newspapers.
"Mr. Martin has come this time to spectacle the duel of his son, who's also participating in the selection tournament today." said the Headteacher, as Maxime also gave a beautifully wrapped gift to Durant as well.
Everyone's interest was piqued. Son of the World Champion Durant? Now that's something to look forward to. Everyone became interested to know just what capabilities does the son has.
Apparently, this was it for the guests, and the rest of the people in the VIP section weren't mentioned.
Continuing she said, "As everyone knows, Beauxbatons ardently promotes Dueling in both young and older generation as a sport.
Thus, the selection event to select the representative of France in the under 17 Dueling world championship is being hosted at Beauxbatons this year as well."
This received another applause from the students.
"According to Beauxbatons, the younger generation is precious and should be given more attention since it's our future. Thus, we hope this World Championship receives equal, if not more attention from the people of France as the World Championship three years prior!"
The audience cheered to show their agreement. Felice was talking about the over-17 world championship. The main one, where all kinds of experienced adult duelists participate. The last one happened three years prior and France did pretty well in that, even though they didn't win.
And the next one is due not long after this under 17 world championship ends.
"So ladies and gentlemen, and students, without further ado, let's begin!" She announced, and on the scoreboard-type giant screen, various names appeared.
Chris looked at it just to see if he had a match against Fleur or not. It wasn't Fleur, just some random guy whose name he hadn't heard before. Chris of course only knew two students of Beauxbatons, Fleur, and Amelie. So of course he didn't think much about his opponent.
'Just your random pitiful mob opponent.' Was what he thought in his mind.
Felice put the wand on her throat again after everyone had seen the first-round matchups.
"Let me announce the rules once again for those who don't already know.
The first round is what we call rapid elimination. The selection tournament is not an entertainment event. We're selecting the representative of France! So, the participants have to show some real skills, otherwise, they'll be eliminated in the first round even if they won the match against their opponents."
"For the first round, both the participants in would be given a few minutes to duel and show their skills. If we don't see the necessary skills, both are disqualified. Is that clear? For the first match, we have - - -"
And on she went. Chris was busy petting Esmée and Nyxie, both of whom had their eyes closed in contentment. Gabrielle, who got envious also came and sat on the empty seat beside him.
His turn wasn't due until after 18 matches, so he just spent his time alternating his hands between petting Esmée, Gabrielle and Nyxie while watching the matches.
While Chris was busy doing this, Fleur happened to come back at this time after seeing her followers and catching up with Amelie only to see Chris in this in heaven.
'Why only him?!' Even her Gabby is starting to like Chris more now. Fleur walked up to them, lifted Gabrielle and sat down beside Chris while putting Gabrielle in her lap.
Sebastian, who had once again brought his camera with him, clicked their photos at this moment.
The photo somehow looked like that of a couple taking taking care of their children. Sebastian laughed to himself and put away the camera. This man was slowly getting himself a nice collection of blackmail material.
The matches soon started. The contestants were from either fifth or sixth year. And Chris found that most of the matches weren't too good. They were just simple things like one person casting a Shielding charm and the other one hammering right on it break it. Or just exchanging fires turn by turn. Most were directly disqualified by Professor Felice. Only a few contestants we're good.
"Interesting." He muttered as he watched yet another match where both the Duelers were disqualified due to their poor skills.
From besides Chris, Fleur, who thought that Chris was being sarcastic about it, explained, "Many contestants just want to participate even if they're not good." Her expression turned disdainful. "Everyone somehow thinks they're very good untill the moment they're defeated. It only gets interesting from second round onwards."
It looked like she was subtly trying to defend her school, explaining that things would be much better when only talented contestants are left in the second round.
Chris had disagree to with her. These lame matches are just as Interesting as the good ones if not more, at least to a person like him.
Just give this guy the permission to do live commentary on these lame matches. The audience would be rolling on the floor laughing in a few minutes. The roasters of his previous world would say this content is gold for them.
Chris gave Fleur a demo, as he did a commentary on the next match.
"Pfft!" Fleur struggled to hold back her laughter but her shoulders were shaking. From either side of them, Appoline and Camille also heard Chris, and they were also laughing silently.
But Chris couldn't continue, because the next match was Fleur's. The audience was definitely excited to see the veela duel. All the male audience and a minority of female audience to be exact. For most boys, her bad reputation only increased her appeal.
It's good that her mother had already warned her about the male reactions to her and she also found out for herself that her mother's words were 100% truth. No male here wants to truly befriend her, the girl who is Fleur Delacour. They all just want to bag the veela.
Fleur didn't react much to the loud cheering and the girls' jeering. In fact, she felt a bit depressed and more determined to prove herself.
"Do your best Fleur. May the force be with you!"
At this moment, she heard Chris wish her good luck his own quirky way, and Fleur suddenly realized! Not all males want the veela! She at least has one person outside her family who's cheering for Fleur the duelist, not for the beautiful veela.
Chris was perhaps, the only male besides her dad and her teacher who can see past her beauty and look at her for who she is. So, a few words of encouragement from him somehow felt incomparably more precious than thousands of audience cheering for her.
After that, everyone else also wished her luck and she also got her good luck kiss from Gabrielle, which topped everything! Fired up, Fleur walked towards the dueling circuit.
Fleur's opponent was a sixth year student boy whose name was Jacques Auclair. He was a from a wealthy Pureblood family. The guy was handsome enough that many girls were cheering for him. In actuality, he was among the best here, since the age limit was 16, and in his heart, he was a Slytherin through and through.
The guy realized that he might not be able to beat Fleur, since he'd seen her duel. But, he still thanked his lucky stars for being matched against Fleur.
Before the match even started, he took out his wand from his holster and fired a spell into the air with a flourish.
A lot of red roses began bursting out of his wand, falling at Fleur's feet. The guy then put his hand on his chest and did a graceful bow.
"I willingly step down from this duel." He announced altruistically, getting a strong reaction from the audience. Smiling at Fleur, the guy left the stage.
"...The f*ck?" Muttered Chris as he looked at this pretentious ponce. For some unknown reason, he had a strong desire to beat this guy up.
"Alright."
He had decided, before leaving, he'd definitely disillusion himself and give this bastard a thorough beating.
Reason? Does he need a reason? He's a bully, bruh. He ain't need no reason. Some people? You can't help but wanna bash their faces in. One was example was Lockhart.
To his even more surprise, both the participants were sent into the next round. The guy was given a second chance!
"This is definitely not fair. I'll need to make it fair by actually going through with what I was thinking earlier." Muttered Chris.
Fleur, who was also quite annoyed by the pretentious guy came back fuming. The act of that guy just now had thoroughly infuriated her. She was fired up and eager to show everyone her capabilities, but instead, the guy surrendered straight away, and still pretended to be benevolent about it, as if he was doing her a favour!
The idiot ponce had no idea that the jealous girls would now spread rumors that she'd used her veela allure to charm the guy into giving up. Life sure wasn't easy for Fleur Delacour.
....
An hour had passed after that, and the first round was over and the next was about to begin. Chris's opponent on the first round, who was a fifth year, had actually given up, saying he was a very big fan of Durant. Chris had called bullshit and tried to persuade the guy, but he was adamant. Dissatisfied, he had to wait for the next round.
Though when the matchups for the next round were announced, Chris couldn't help but grin when he saw the names of his next opponents.
Chris Martin V/S Jacques Auclair (the Roses guy)
If he won the match, there was a chance he'd be matched up against Louise Fontaine (that Karen girl) in the third round, but Chris didn't know that yet.
***
A.N.: Two targets acquired. Command sequence: Absolute Slapping.
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Also, read ahead here, the duels are going to f*cking awesome.
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