322 Chapter 322: Congregation of the Weak

"Is this where the banquet is being held?" Lily Liam asked nervously as she stared up at the huge hotel that Quetzalcoatl Academy had booked.

"Looks like it," Dong Fang Yue Chu assured her with a squeeze of her hand.

"There sure are a lot of people," Theodore noted, looking around. He was right. There were literally hundreds of students crammed into a single banquet hall. Given that the number wasn't in the thousands, it was obvious that not everyone participating in the national tournament had been invited. I wondered what the basis for invitation was.

After all, Jing Tian Academy had no relation to Quetzalcoatl Academy. Why did they want to invite us?

Well, who cares? Free food! Free food is where it's at!

My friends and I helped ourselves to the finger food and refreshments on the long, white-clothed tables that were lined against walls of grandeur and luxury. Whoever booked the hotel had pulled out all the stops. Was Quetzalcoatl a rich school? I couldn't remember. Not that I cared. I wasn't going to question the sight of free food in front of my eyes.

Harrison Reed, our captain, showed more restraint and dignity. Bu Fan wasn't here at all – the lone wolf pseudo protagonist running off somewhere to do his own thing. Maybe he was in the Hunters Society and was out looking for monsters to exterminate so that he could make an extra bit of cash to buy his Treasure Artifacts or Treasure Tools or whatever. I couldn't care less. Everyone else tagged along, most of the guys in particular searching for free food more than any social reason.

While we ate, more students drifted in. Jing Tian Academy kept to itself in the end, especially since we didn't know anyone else in the room. It would be super-awkward to approach the others, and I noticed that most schools didn't interact much with each other anyway. Everyone was forming small, isolated pockets where students of similar uniforms clustered together. There were of course plenty of exceptions – a student from one academy seeing an old friend from another academy, and then meeting to chat and catch up on old days. It was not unusual for individuals to happen to have friends from other schools.

But by and large, as units of schools, we didn't really mingle.

Just like that, an hour passed. By now, my friends and I had finished our food, and were sipping juice and stuff. We didn't know what else to do.

"Should we…uh, leave?" I asked, scratching my head.

"Not yet," Harrison told me with a frown. "There must be a reason why they invited us. And it's not just to give us free food. The main event has yet to arrive."

"What's the main event?" Cody Crosby asked, confused. Harrison shrugged.

"We'll find out."

As if on cue, one of the students in a purple and gray uniform stepped forward and ascended a podium that lay in the center along one of the walls in the room. Spreading his hands dramatically, he cleared his throat into a microphone, broadcasting the sound across the banquet room to draw everyone's attention to him.

"Hello, everyone." He beamed. "It's so great to see all of you here! I'm very gratified by the number of people who chose to attend our banquet tonight. Welcome! Help yourselves to the food and drinks, and enjoy yourselves tonight!"

"Cheers!" everyone raised their cups and responded enthusiastically.

"I'm Castian from Caliban Academy," the guy continued. "It's nice to meet all of you, this close to the tournament!"

"Hey, isn't Castian from Caliban Academy?"

"Isn't the banquet organized by Quetzalcoatl Academy?"

"Yeah…so why is he the one up there?"

"Oh, sorry about that." Castian rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "Although Quetzalcoatl Academy was indeed the ones who organized the banquet and sent the invitations, this is actually co-hosted by both Quetzalcoatl and Caliban Academies."

He then raised his hand and gestured for us to look around, his lips spreading outward in a sinister smile. I suddenly felt the urge to wipe that smirk off his face.

"Some of you may have already noticed that most of the teams invited to this banquet are ranked below B."

…huh?

That didn't make sense to me. How were we supposed to know that? Did anyone go around noting the uniforms here and then finding out our ranks? There were quite a lot of schools and uniforms here. But that just sounded so judgemental. I couldn't care less about the ranks of other schools. Hell, that ranking system was stupid to begin with.

"As you all know, we lower-ranked teams are always being oppressed by the higher-ranked ones!"

Castian was getting animated now, his gestures getting more dramatic. The guy should be an actor or something. Even so, it earned the effect that he intended.

"Yeah, that's right! It isn't fair!"

"What right do they have to do that!?"

…what? Seriously? Since when were the so-called lower ranked teams being oppressed by the higher ranked teams? Why had I – and my school – never experienced such an "oppression" before? Wasn't this just stupid hyperbole?

I raised my hand.

"What do you mean by oppression? What exactly did the higher-ranked teams do to us lower-ranked teams?"

Everyone fell silent and stared at me.

"Oh, shut up!"

"Are you stupid?"

"Can't even see the obvious" What obvious? I didn't see any obvious oppression being done, that was why I was asking about it in the first place.

"Ignore the idiot."

"Don't talk to idiots. They are not worth our precious time."

So instead of answering my perfectly valid question, they chose to ignore me and throw insults. Why was I reminded of trolls in the Webnovel forums? Coming in and making hyperbolic statements, and when I challenged them, instead of justifying their viewpoint or explaining themselves, they resorted to insulting me and ignoring my question altogether.

Yeah…such people could be found anywhere.

After pointedly ignoring my question, they returned to raving and ranting.

"Anyone the Lacroix Family likes is definitely suspicious, if you ask me!"

"The Franklin family is definitely scheming something this year!"

The hell was with this bullshit? Just less than a month ago, the Porter family invited all the schools in the south and eastern district to their exchange session, to trade pointers and spar against each other. If anything, they were accommodating and helpful, not oppressive. I was starting to feel furious at the way these guys trash-talked the Great Families when they didn't even know what they were talking about.

"You guys…"

"It's not worth it, Richard." Harrison placed a hand on my shoulder and held me back, shaking his head. "Don't bother arguing with them."

"Yeah." Even though Yue Chu was seething, he was able to restrain himself when he saw Harrison's action. "They are just trolls."

"They are brainless idiots, that's what they are," Craig Carlson muttered under his breath, only for Sheila Scarlet to nudge him.

"Relax, everyone." After allowing most of the students here to vent, Castian dramatically raised his hand high into the air.

As everyone fell silent, he theatrically swept his hand across the air, as if trying to include all of us in that single motion. Smiling, he lowered his voice conspiratorially.

"This is why I wish to table a proposition for all of you. It might sound presumptuous and immature, but I believe we should all form a coalition and work together during the qualifiers round! Let's cooperate to defeat the stronger teams together!"

"…I was wondering what kind of suggestion you'll make."

A good-looking guy with blond hair and dressed in a pristine, impeccable blue and white uniform stepped forward with a shake of his head, a sneer curling his lips.

"But it just turns out to be some insidious scheme about plotting behind the backs of other teams. How ridiculous."

He turned away, and his teammates – all of whom were dressed in the same graceful uniforms – joined him with approving nods. It was clear they all agreed with their leader.

"The Aurora Academy will not participate in such a shameless scheme. We are leaving."

"Yeah!"

"I'm with you, Captain!"

We watched them go. Castian looked a bit flustered, but as experienced as he was in public speaking, he didn't let it affect him too much.

"That's all right. This is just an idea from my team, and the team from Quetzalcoatl. We didn't expect everyone to accept it. If any of the other teams disapprove of this plan as well, you are free to leave. We won't hold it against you."

I glanced at Harrison, who had already made his decision. Ever the great leader, he was looking at each and every one of us to ensure that he had our unanimous vote before deciding. When we all nodded with encouraging smiles, he then turned to face Castian.

"I'm sorry, but the Jing Tian Academy team will not be participating in this plan either."

"No worries, my friend." Castian accepted his rejection graciously. As he did everyone else's rejection. There were more than a few academies who didn't seem comfortable with these schemes, and they were among those who didn't follow the mob mentality of condemning big teams without any actual explanation on why they thought they were being oppressed.

For some reason, he cast a glance at me. Probably because he remembered me as the guy who raised the stupid question. But rather than a glare of resentment (you know, the stupid cliché of "how dare a mere C-ranked team be this disrespectful!? I'll show you!"), it was one of understanding. More along the lines of "yeah, of course this guy's team wouldn't participate in our schemes, they don't even feel like they had ever been oppressed by the bigger, higher-ranked teams. Lucky bastards."

What, you think every single character in this story exists to find trouble and antagonize me and my team? Come on, let's be more realistic. They had much better things to do than to hold grudges. Castian, in particular, had his hands full scheming against the powerful, high-ranked "A" teams. Where was he going to find the time and energy to carry out his grudge against a random, nobody rank C team from somewhere?

"Are you sure we'll be fine?" Pearl asked nervously when she glanced back at the hotel. "Will they target us as well?"

"We're not the only teams who rejected their proposal," Craig pointed out, gesturing toward the many students who didn't want to participate. They were flowing out of the banquet room and departing to the dorms we had been assigned to by Crowley's Grand Arcane Academy. "Are they going to attack all of us?"

"Not to mention they still have to take care of the higher-ranked teams first. Shouldn't that be their priority instead of getting all offended at rejection, and seeking revenge? Seems counterproductive if they spend too much time and energy taking revenge for our so-called 'disrespect' or refusal to 'give them face' only for them to end up falling to the higher-ranked teams whom they banded together to try and defeat in the first place."

Cody had a legitimate point. Nobody could argue against his logic.

"Yeah, it would be highly stupid for them to fall into infighting, trying to target all the other lower-ranked teams, only for them to have expended all their strength and ending up in no shape to fight the higher-ranked teams," Theodore agreed.

"Yeah, this isn't like a Chinese webnovel where everybody and their mother holds a grudge against the protagonist and his friends for no other reason other than to create contrived cnflicts and forced drama," Sheila added. Everyone stared at her, and she shrugged. "What? Just stating the truth."

"That was supposed to be my line," I complained. She smirked at me.

"Serves you right for being too slow to say it then."

I could muster no reponse to that. Damn. She was right.

"Anyway, let's get back to the dorms. If you don't mind meeting in my room for tonight, we'll discuss strategies for potential scenarios in the qualifiers." Harrison glanced at me. "Richard, you said that it's possible that they might throw us into the wilderness like Instructor Feng Hai did during that training camp about half a year ago?"

"Yeah, that's what I think. I might be mistaken, though."

"No, it's all right." Harrison sook his head. "We don't have any other leads, so any possibility is better than nothing."

"Yosh!" Yue Chu threw his hand up happily. "Let's do this!"

"I second that. Talking about something and speculating what might happen during the qualifiers is better than sitting around doing nothing and completely not knowing what's going to happen. Even if it turns out to be wrong, at least we still have a plan. We can just adjust and alter the plan according to the new scenario."

Theodore was nodding in approval.

"What about Bu Fan?" Pearl asked, raising a hand. "He's not with us right now. Should we contact him and ask him to come too?"

"Knowing him, he probably wouldn't," Lily sighed.

"But I'll send him a message and inform him anyway," Harrison declared, ever the responsible leader. "If he does show up, then all the better. He knows that this will be a team match, and he can't just ditch us. Otherwise, I'll just brief him on the plans when I see him tomorrow."

"Gotcha."

"Before we start the meeting, do you mind if I go to the convenience store?" I raised a hand. "Let's grab some snacks and drinks."

"Great idea!" Sheila agreed enthusiastically.

"I could use a beer," Craig remarked, only for everyone to stare at him.

"No alcohol allowed. We are all underaged minors. It's illegal for us to drink."

"Oh, come on, Captain! Don't be so rigid!" Craig pestered a resolute Harrison. The blond holy mage raised an eyebrow.

"You do realize they'll ask you for proof of age and identity at the store if you try and buy beer, right? Especially while we're still in uniform?"

"Uh…"

Chuckling, the rest of us went ahead to the nearest convenience store – which happened to be a Seven Eleven. I personally hoped that they sold the Calbee pizza-flavored potato chips that I was so fond of, and hopefully some mango juice and mango ice cream. That might be too much to ask, though…