Chapter 360: Touka's Appearance!
"So I'm saying, Shizuku just came in while I was changing!"
"I saw my little sister collapse, so I walked over to check on her condition!"
Even without Ikki explaining, Luke could roughly guess what had happened.
Among the people here, Ikki himself was probably the only one who did not know that Shizuku loved her own older brother.
However, that was not important.
Luke put on a contemptuous expression and waved the photo displayed on his student handbook.
"Heh. Pervert."
"?!?! I told you, it was a misunderstanding!!!"
…
After teasing him for the first time in a while, Luke, now thoroughly satisfied, finally let Ikki go.
He looked toward Arisuin beside them and asked in slight confusion,
"Is Alice attending the banquet too?"
In theory, the banquet was not open to anyone else.
And although Arisuin had once been a representative competitor, now that he had handed his qualification to Shizuku, he obviously should not be able to participate anymore.
Arisuin's answer also proved this point.
"I can't attend the banquet."
"They won't let anyone who isn't a representative competitor in. But later, there's a gathering for reporters, so I plan to go over there and see if I can get any useful information."
Even after leaving Rebellion, and even though he no longer intended to work as an assassin in the future, Arisuin did not plan to change some of his habits.
Being prepared was never a bad thing.
When Akatsuki Academy attacked Hagun, they used "illusionary form."
Perhaps because the power behind them was this country's ruler, Minister Tsukikage had never intended to truly harm his own citizens.
Even so, the impact was still not small.
It was not only Hagun.
Almost all seven knight academies were affected to varying degrees.
Some competitors withdrew, some transferred their qualifications, and the representative lists that should have been finalized long ago underwent major changes during this period.
Luke, Ikki, and the others had to prepare for the Seven Star Sword Art Festival and had no time to understand all these things, so this task fell to Arisuin.
And conveniently, information gathering could be considered one of his specialties.
While everyone was chatting, a slightly troubled voice came in from outside the door.
"Um, if we don't leave soon, we'll be late for the banquet."
The one who walked in with that voice was a girl.
Like Shizuku, she was wearing a gorgeous dress.
Her huge braid, which was usually tied up, had also been rarely let down and draped over her shoulders.
Hearing the girl's reminder, Luke glanced at the clock beside him, then said somewhat awkwardly,
"Sorry, Touka-senpai. We said we'd go pick you up together, but we started chatting and almost forgot the time…"
"I waited in my room for half a day, and no one came, so I knew this would happen."
Todo Touka sighed.
She gave Luke an annoyed look, but she was not actually angry.
"Luke, as the delegation leader, you should set an example."
"Although this banquet isn't anything especially important, it is still a chance for first-time Seven Star Sword Art Festival competitors like you to meet the others."
"Not a single person capable of becoming a representative competitor is weak. Everyone here is an outstanding knight of the younger generation, so try not to leave them with a bad impression."
Touka was Hagun's student council president.
At the same time, she had also been Hagun's delegation leader during the previous Seven Star Sword Art Festival, so naturally, she understood the role of this kind of pre-tournament banquet.
Touka appearing here did not surprise the others, because they had already been surprised once before this.
When Luke and the others had agreed on a time to gather here, Touka's appearance had been extremely unexpected.
That was right.
Todo Touka, who had originally been defeated by Luke and missed the Seven Star Sword Art Festival, ultimately still became a representative competitor.
Her qualification had been transferred by Toutokubara Kanata.
Considering the special nature of this year's Sword Art Festival, there was no reason to set aside a powerful fighting force like Raikiri.
In truth, according to Kurono's original thoughts, she had hoped for both Toutokubara and Touka to participate.
However, Misogi Utakata had been severely injured during Akatsuki Academy's attack.
As someone with another causality-type ability, his opponent Shinomiya Amane's ability had been far too unreasonable.
To begin with, Misogi Utakata did not have particularly outstanding combat talent, and his physical ability was also quite poor due to the side effects of his ability.
After being injured, he needed a long time to recuperate.
The only people who could take care of Misogi Utakata, who was an orphan, were Toutokubara and Touka, who had grown up with him in the same orphanage.
Because of that, only one of them could participate, while the other had to stay at the hospital.
It was a little regrettable, but the result was still fairly good.
Including Touka, Hagun had a total of five competitors this year.
It looked like they were one person short, but in truth, this was already a lot.
Including Akatsuki Academy, there were eight schools in total, so logically, there should have been forty-eight competitors.
But in reality, there were only thirty-two competitors this year.
After removing Akatsuki Academy's six competitors and Hagun's five, the other six schools only had twenty-one competitors combined, averaging fewer than four people per school.
The video of the attack on Hagun circulating online, along with that miserable battlefield, had scared off quite a few competitors.
This year could be called the year with the fewest competitors in history.
Correspondingly, however, the strength of the competitors was also terrifyingly different from previous years.
A-rank knights.
Five of them in total!
That was right.
Five.
From the information he had obtained from Edelweiss, Luke knew that two people in Akatsuki Academy had hidden their strength.
One was Shinomiya Amane, whom he had already suspected.
Like Luke, he was an irregular Blazer with an S-rank evaluation.
S-rank luck!
The other was Sara Bloodlily.
In Edelweiss's evaluation, her actual combat power far surpassed Ouma's.
She was the true trump card of Rebellion's plan this time.
She was also, in Edelweiss's view, the only competitor with a slight chance of winning against Luke!
…
The hotel chosen as the competitor dormitory had a spacious reception hall on its top floor.
This banquet's venue was there.
Taking the elevator, Luke, Touka, Ikki, and Shizuku headed toward the top floor.
"Speaking of which, why haven't I seen Stella-san?"
As the elevator rose, Touka suddenly asked in some confusion.
After being reminded by her, the Kurogane siblings, who had been "interacting" beside them, also reacted.
"That's true. I feel like Stella hasn't been here since we gathered during the day?"
"Luke, do you know the reason?"
Looking at these people who had only just realized it, Luke could not help feeling sad for Stella.
Such a big person was missing, and they had only discovered it now.
Silently sighing, Luke explained.
"Stella hasn't arrived in Osaka yet."
"Director Kurono informed me about this. Apparently, Stella's training with Nene-sensei is progressing very well, so she plans to come over at the very last moment."
…
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