[Vol. 7] Chapter 257: Resonance
“Uh, Lenka, are you… okay? Did the competition wear you out too much? Maybe you should go rest for a bit?”
Even Zi, who was the first to feel something strange in the air, hadn’t expected her vague sense of unease to be backed up by someone else. After all, this ability she inherited from one side of her family, called [Fate Pulse], only had about a 1% chance of giving her a gut feeling before something that could greatly affect her destiny happened. Most of the time, it just made her look like she was joking around…
Even so, this girl named Zi always chose to trust her instincts just in case, and whenever she had a feeling like this, she would immediately warn her teammates and prepare for the worst. But truth be told, not a single one of her warnings had ever come true so far. People had heard “the wolf is coming” too many times… even she had started to lose confidence in herself.
The most unbelievable part was, Lenka actually agreed with her? That same Lenka Dorgon who, in the [Experimental Class], was known as the only person whose intelligence could match that of a literal rock? Was that really possible!?
“Uh… I didn’t really use that much magic just now… My head’s still pretty clear…”
Even though she said that, Lenka clearly looked confused too. It was obvious that what she said earlier hadn’t come from her own thinking. It felt more like she was unintentionally influenced by some outside force. Almost like… they were in sync, or resonating somehow. It was just that the other person was far more powerful, and had slightly affected her in a moment when her guard was down.
That said, Lenka didn’t actually dislike the feeling. In fact, the presence she had just now briefly connected with… it gave her a strange sense of familiarity.
It felt just like…
“…Sister Light? Is that you?”
“Huh?”
Zi, who was standing right in front of the dragonkin girl in real life, tilted her head in confusion. Lenka quickly realized what she’d just said out loud, and immediately stopped her muttering. She shook her head.
“No, no, it’s nothing! I must’ve spaced out for a second. But anyway, since Zi has that special ability, and she gave us a warning, I think it’s better for all of us to stay alert, just in case.”
“You actually believe she has some kind of prophecy power…?”
Yogg let out a helpless sigh as he replied, but Lenka suddenly looked serious and firmly mentioned someone she had just thought of, someone she trusted.
“If Sister Light were here, she would’ve done the same thing too, wouldn’t she?”
“Eh? That’s… okay, fair enough.”
And so, with a few members of the [Experimental Class] raising their guard just a little, and Yogg, who acted as their shield, moving a bit closer to the teacher ahead, the award ceremony began. Compared to the exciting matches earlier, it felt a bit dull.
Because of the limited space and the difficulty of keeping everything organized, Sainz couldn’t let all the teachers and students from each academy come on stage. Even Lenka, who was on the host team, only had a few teammates with her, Yogg, Qiqi, Zi, and a few others who had done especially well in the tournament, along with Priscilla, who represented the [Experimental Class] of Sainz.
As for the larger groups, they were all seated in the special viewing areas, watching from afar. Sure, standing on stage to accept an award was a bit troublesome. But for these students, it was a huge honor. You could even say it was something they’d benefit from for the rest of their lives.
After all, right now, this place had the eyes of almost every major power in the world on it. School might just be one part of a person’s journey through life, but getting noticed by leaders of powerful nations during an event like this, that was the kind of opportunity that could change everything.
Even someone like Lenka could understand that, so of course she wouldn’t turn it down.
With that thought, she tiptoed a little and secretly glanced to the side.
The Holy Academy of the Holy Empire was standing not far from them. The one who led their team was none other than the famous Judgment Saintess, Frederica Cecilia. As the top representative of the Holy Empire at this tournament, she always appeared in public as the leader of her group. She also seemed to get along pretty well with Sister Violet and the people from Sainz. Even though she was said to be the best fighter among the three saintesses, she treated others with surprising kindness.
Honestly, Lenka had always liked her. That also included the two angel sisters from the Holy Empire who had helped her out earlier. Lenka had placed them all on her personal “people I can trust” list.
But strangely, those two angel ladies, who seemed to be pretty close to Sister Violet, didn’t show up at all today. They hadn’t appeared on stage, and weren’t even seen in the Holy Empire’s seating area. Lenka thought that was odd. On such an important day, important people like them definitely shouldn’t be missing.
Coincidentally, the royal princess from Frederick Royal Academy, whose team won the championship, also didn’t come to the ceremony due to feeling unwell. Instead, an older man named Shutak came out to give the speech on her behalf. He was the same guy who, along with another bad man, had falsely accused Lenka back at that strange hotel. Even though Lenka didn’t say anything out loud, she still held a bit of a grudge.
Watching that man speak on stage as the champion team’s representative, going on and on with all those formal words about the empire and the princess’s achievements, Lenka couldn’t help but stick out her tongue in her mind.
What a mean old man.
The most important part of the award ceremony, the announcement of the final rankings, was already over. The prizes, provided by Sainz and various nations, had just been formally handed out to the winning teams. What was left was just some polite speeches, which Lenka didn’t really care about. While hiding her small body in the crowd, her thoughts began to drift to something else.
Not long ago, during the busy tournament period, Sister Violet had taken her and Sister Light into the [Morst Underground Labyrinth] for a special kind of training.
Even now, Lenka still remembered it clearly. Deep in the frozen lands, there were terrifying monsters that made her shiver just by looking at them. But for some reason, they didn’t attack.
Instead, they just let the big fluffy golden beast carry them forward like it was a walk in the park. Those mutated monsters that had attacked tournament players earlier were also nowhere to be seen. What she thought would be a dangerous adventure turned out to be surprisingly smooth and easy.
To be honest, the whole experience had shocked her so much that she even started to feel a kind of respect, or even fear toward Sister Violet, who had arranged this training.
In the end, they stopped in front of a giant gate, so big it was hard to believe, and for some reason, it gave Lenka a strange feeling of warmth and closeness, like it was familiar. And there, she saw the first real dragon of her life, a [Frost and Arcane Dragon].
The sight of it flying down from the sky scared Lenka half to death.
But the Frost Dragon didn’t attack. Instead, it quietly watched from the side, almost like a guardian. The training began in this strange and unbelievable place.
Every day, all kinds of monsters would come out of that huge gate. It was as if they were being ordered to appear. They never attacked the Frost Dragon, Sister Violet, or Lenka. But they only went after Sister Light. That was the purpose of the training: for her to fight and defeat every single monster that came through the gate. In other words, it was a fight to the death.
Lenka could tell, even though the monsters weren’t very smart, they were extremely fierce when attacking Sister Light. No matter how many were defeated, more would always appear, wave after wave. The battle went on day and night, with no time to rest.