119 William and Esmund

The splooshing and whooshing sound could be heard as the portal reactivated in the room. A leg stepped out, after which, the person's whole body walked out; it was none other than Allen.

Back to the small bedroom, he spotted James lying down on the bed playfully swinging his feet at the air while reciting something.

"A familiar name of common.

A familial tie to summon.

Responsibility on hold.

Their deaths shall be their only toll.

The praises from the republics.

The marches from the ruled kingdom.

Unjailed from the light tyrants' flicks.

So nevermore to ways of some.

Inheritance! Inheritance!

The old forefathers' duties.

Dignity shall be its stance.

Ever woe to cowards of worries.

Majesty, Highness, Royalty.

Monarch, Distinguished, Scholars.

Army, Magicians, Alchemists.

Duties one in all, all in one."

Finishing the poem, James pondered, "Now what's for the next stanza?"

"I never read nor heard that poem before, did you make it yourself?" Allen interjected.

"Who's that!?" Startled by the sudden question, James sat up in a fast manner, glancing around him he eventually saw Allen.

"It's just you, mister." James calmed down then answered, "Yes, I made it myself, mister."

"What are your inspirations for making that poem?" Allen asked.

"Nothing, I just made it out of the bottle." James shrugged.

"You are going to compose the fifth stanza, right?" Allen asked.

"Yes." The kid nodded, "But I don't know where to start, there are so many topics to choose from."

"Why not about magic?" Allen suggested.

"About magic?" James looked up the ceiling into deep thought, then he gazed back to Allen and said, "That's a good idea. Thank you, mister!"

Allen answered with a nod and sat by the table and watched the projection.

The projection was currently showing the massive crowd within the arena, spectating another yet larger projection, where it was showing the leaderboards of the top 10 contestant who had the most points.

The names on the #10 up to the #1 were seemingly immutable as the competitors were gradually gaining points at an even rate, with the #10 having 150,000 points.

Suddenly, a new name replaced the person at #10, and it didn't take much longer and it surpassed the #9 and #8.

The crowd went wild at the sight!

***

Esmund smiled and thought, 'Gavin finally caught up. He better not disappoint us alchemists here in the eastern region.'

The newly-entered contestant was none other than Gavin!

"Who is this Gavin Libban Rae?" William asked as he read the name being showed on the projection.

"One of our brightest talents in this generation, good sir!" Esmund was all smiles while talking to William.

"Really sir?" A faint glint shimmered on Esmund's eyes but it immediately disappeared as he hastily added, "Ehem, against the main branch I can, but never the Ministry of Alchemy."

He excitedly added, "If you want good sir, I will tell you more of the talents in my..." However, William interrupted him, "I already investigated what should be investigated."

Then William's voice became quieter yet colder, "I hope there isn't a single maltreatment within the ranks of your branch's apprentices, is there one Sir Esmund?" He glanced with a gold gaze from the corner of his eyes.

William: "You know very well the consequences for failure of that basic non-maltreatment directive."

Meanwhile, Esmund nodded seriously but still managed to crack out a polite smile, "If you are referring to that little trivial that occurred a few years ago Sir William, it has been taken care of."

William maintained his cold eyes towards Esmund until he looked back to the giant projection.

Esmund then also turned his look away back to the projection, 'This mortal is audacious and arrogant.'

Esmund: 'William, I presume. You are really connected with Allen, but you are the same as he is.'.

William: 'Hiding your true colors, eh. Your smiling face is no different from an ugly cheap leather bounding.'

Esmund: 'I'll make sure you will taste your own medicine.'

William: 'You will surely get a slap of your own thick book cover one day.'

While they were conversing with themselves inside their thoughts, the spectators cheered louder as Gavin took the #1 spot!

***

"Senior brother is still competitive like before." Allen said.

"Senior brother? Who's your senior brother, mister?" With a curious look, James interjected.

Allen: "Gavin."

"Senior-Apprentice Brother Gavin is your senior brother? Wait, you entered Alchem Town before?" James became more curious.

Why did James say 'senior apprentice brother' instead of 'senior brother'? Because when it came to their membership in the branch, Gavin is a distinguished talent and one of the top apprentices.

Top apprentices, meanwhile, could still call their fellow top apprentices like the plain 'senior or junior brother or sister' because they had the same apprenticeship.

"Yes." He nodded.

"Why haven't I heard of you before?" Suddenly, a thought struck the kid, "Oh yeah! I haven't asked your name yet mister!"

After a short pause, Allen said, "My name is..." However, his sentence was discontinued as another loud scream of the crowd pierced their ears.

***

"Dorothy? It's that woman from Ikkleshan in the central region?" William raised his eyebrows. "She came all the way down here to participate in the tournament?"

"She's a talented alchemist from the main branch on par with Gavin." Esmund said.

Inwardly, the small branch-leader said, 'This is a chance for Alchem Town. If Gavin beats that woman from the main branch, me and the whole town will be more known in the circle of alchemists everywhere.'

Her name was an eagle, flying up through the rankings until she managed to catch up behind Gavin.

Nevertheless, the eagle wasn't soaring high enough and her score couldn't catch up to Gavin's, staying right behind on his tail.

This sight made Esmund pleased to the point he already managed to forget his anger towards William.

***

Watching the projection, Allen said to himself, "Dorothy caught up."

"Senior Apprentice-Sister Dorothy caught up!?" James yelped.

"Eeek!!!" He shrieked in excitement.

"Mister, were you able to qualify for the next round?" James asked.

"Yes." Allen responded.

"What do you need to accomplish to enter the next round, mister?" James continued with his questions.

"40,000 points are needed to pass this round. The book that I answered gave 40 points per finished page and there are 1,000 pages, I should be able to qualify even if I didn't answer the other books." Allen replied.

James: "Why didn't you answer the other books? You could have gotten higher points!"

"The important thing is to pass this round." Allen answered.

Time passed and Gavin's score finally halted at 609,440.

Witnessing this, the audience unanimously clapped their hands and cheered while the die-hard fans of Gavin shouted even louder.

James: "The score stopped? Was he able to finish all the books?"

"It is obvious he wasn't able to the finish the black book, but he finished and correctly answered the other ones." Allen said.

There were four colors of books; black, red, purple, and white. The was only one black book, the number of red books were 20, the purple ones were at 45, and there were only 35 white books; all-in-all there were a total of 101 books.

Each book has 1,000 pages and the points varied from the colors of their covers.

For the single black book, each successfully answered page including of killing the monster would give 40 points, with a total of 40,000 points for the whole book. If the monster isn't killed there would be no points given regardless of the correct answers.

The red books, meanwhile, for each page answered correctly, one would obtain 20 points. Multiplying it with the number of books and pages, 400,000 points were up for grabs.

Purple books, although had the most number, only gave a meager amount of 3 points for each plant. Making it a total of 135,000 points.

While the white books only gave a plummeting amount of 1 point per page. Doing some calculations, all of the white books could give 35,000 points; less than the amount of points of a single black book.

Tallying all the scores up, one could obtain a perfect score of 610,000.

Nevertheless, Dorothy's score showed no signs of stopping and was reaching Gavin's.

The watching crowd, whether inside or outside the arena or within the contestants' rooms, held their breaths.

Esmund ducked his head while tightly holding onto the armrests of his seat, praying that Dorothy's score won't go over Gavin's. Dianne and Rowin were closely paying attention, while Dominic and William wore expressions of placidity.

-crack-

The armrest that Esmund was holding tightly fractured due to the great force he was exerting to it.

The seats they were sitting on were not any ordinary seats found everywhere. They were made from the wood of a medium-quality Mana Parasol Tree and the paddings were sewed from the leaves too, not only it was tough, but it could also refresh and energize whoever sat on it.

But between his grip, it was no different from a plank of brittle wood filled with termites.

A wave of silence then overtook everything.

Esmund's curiosity arose, "What happened?" He muttered.

He rose up his head and looked at the projection.

Gavin's name was still on top of Dorothy's. The latter's points stopped at 586,800!

Invigorated by the result, the branch chief didn't notice that he stood up and began clapping.

***

Meanwhile, in the city's underground array.

"Sir Samuel, the projection was delayed!" One of the cross-legged people reported. "It might be because of energy fluctuations."

"Direct my station to supply power for the projection." Samuel commanded at once.

The reporter nodded and the symbols underneath him flashed and a new vein was created which connected to where Samuel was sitting on.

"Done!"

Samuel closed his eyes and channeled his mana.

***

Back at the arena.

The projection glitched once and turned off, then in a jiffy, Dorothy's name was at the top spot with 609,940 points!

The spectators processed what occurred and when they finally realized the situation, a deafening cheer and claps sounded out, specially from the part of the arena where the watchers from the central region were.

"Junior Sister Dorothy is so awesome!" A middle-aged woman wearing alchemical robes joined the cheers from the group originating from the central region. Although she was cheering for her, she did it in a professional way by clapping the noble's way.

"The people in the Alchem Town branch are showing improvements! Just look at Gavin, they trained an alchemist on par with us with fewer resources." A younger short-haired woman also wearing the standard robes for alchemy clapped.

The short-haired woman added, "It is such a shame that Alchemist Morgan isn't present. He could've beaten junior apprentice sister."

"Thyia, not in a public place." The middle-aged woman said.

Thyia: "Oh, my bad!"

***

On the platform, William also stood up and clapped. Dianne followed him, along with Rowin and Dominic.

Under the guise of the clapping sounds, William was smirking so hard that his mouth was beginning to hurt. With his knowledge, he knew true purpose of Esmund clapping earlier.

Esmund spotted the other's snicker and clapped even harder, occasionally making explosions of unclear soundwaves.

A small rounded gem within his pockets vibrated, prompting him to pull it out and place it to his ear.

"Esmund." A voice called came from the gem.

"Samuel? What is it?" He asked calmly, but it was obviously forced.

Samuel: "Just to inform you, there was a glitch in the projection, but I fixed it immediately."

"Yes, I noticed. You chose a very, very, very great moment to do that." Esmund replied and cut off the communication.

...

Time passed and the sun was now high up the sky.

After Dorothy grabbed the top position, there wasn't anything noteworthy to be of topic and the elimination round was declared to be officially over.