Chapter 378: The Seven Star Sword Art Festival Begins!
"People say conflict is evil, for hatred is born from it."
"People say peace is beautiful, for superiority is nurtured by it."
"People say violence is sin, for it harms the innocent."
"People say harmony is good, for it cares for others."
"But even so, people still yearn for strength!"
"The time has come! At this moment, no one will condemn you!"
"Now, the sixty-second Seven Star Sword Art Festival officially begins!!!"
…
After the opening ceremony ended, the matches proceeded in an orderly manner.
The Seven Star Sword Art Festival divided all participating competitors into four groups, namely Blocks A, B, C, and D.
The match order also followed that structure.
Luke had been placed in Block D, so it would still be quite some time before it was his turn to appear.
The Seven Star Sword Art Festival's format arranged one round of matches each day.
In other words, each competitor would only fight once per day.
This could be considered a way to ensure that the competitors had enough time to recover their stamina.
However, the bigger reason was probably television broadcasts and ratings.
At present, the first round of matches had already proceeded to about halfway through.
The next match was the final match of Block B.
Hagun Academy's Crimson Princess, Stella Vermillion.
VS.
Kyomon Academy's Icy Laughter, Tsuruya Mikoto.
This match was also one of the most watched matches of the Seven Star Sword Art Festival's first round.
The appearance of A-rank knight Stella could be said to be something everyone was looking forward to.
And one of the main reasons why this year's Sword Art Festival had received far more attention than previous years was Stella's participation.
However, at this moment when everyone was eagerly waiting under countless gazes, the announcer's almost wailing voice entered everyone's ears.
"T-This is terrible!!!"
"Competitor Stella Vermillion has yet to arrive at the venue! She has not responded to the signal for the match to begin!"
Luke was currently leaning in a certain corner of the audience seating.
He had originally planned to watch the match, but after hearing the announcer's wail, he could not help feeling surprised as well.
Stella was not the kind of person who was unpunctual.
Even if she was immersed in training, she should not have committed a rule-violating act like being late.
This was different from the banquet two days ago.
That time, the operating committee had merely suggested that everyone arrive.
It had not been mandatory.
But being late to a match was a genuine violation of the rules.
Of course, it was not to the extent that Stella's qualification would be revoked.
Because compared to Stella herself and the audience, the organizers and sponsors were clearly even more anxious.
Stella's existence meant ratings.
Revoking her qualification would be equivalent to the officials smashing their own rice bowl.
This year's Sword Art Festival would probably suffer losses to the point of ruin.
However, although her qualification would not be revoked, punishment was unavoidable.
Now, it depended on whether Stella's lateness had a suitable reason.
That would determine whether her punishment would be carried out during the Sword Art Festival or pursued afterward.
The announcer did not make Luke wait too long.
Soon, follow-up information came from the broadcast.
"Ah, just now, the operating committee sent us news."
"Competitor Stella Vermillion has contacted the officials and explained the situation."
"It seems the train she was riding encountered an incident, so she will arrive at the venue late."
"Yaksha Princess is traveling with her and can testify for her, so this should be true."
Hearing this, Luke immediately looked at Edelweiss, who was leaning beside him, and teased with a raised eyebrow,
"Was this their doing?"
That was right.
At present, the one beside Luke was not Ikki and the others, but our beautiful Valkyrie.
After getting a beautiful wife, Luke decisively abandoned his Hagun brothers.
Even though he was the delegation leader, he slipped away alone.
Mm… making his wife happy was the most important thing.
Edelweiss took out Akatsuki Academy's teacher handbook.
After glancing at it, she shook her head at Luke and spoke.
"I haven't received any report on my side… but honestly, I think there's an eighty-percent chance Pierrot was behind it."
After a certain Twelve Apostle met tragedy because of Stella, Edelweiss had become the nominal supervisor of Rebellion's plan this time.
Of course, she herself had no intention of continuing to meddle in this matter.
She had only accepted Akatsuki Academy's teacher handbook out of consideration for Tsukikage-sensei.
For the time being, it could be considered that she had a name registered in the school, but she had never actually used it even once.
The actual highest person in charge of the plan was still Pierrot.
Although he had an obligation to report to Edelweiss, Pierrot also knew that Edelweiss was unwilling to interfere too much in Rebellion's affairs.
Therefore, he usually would not send messages to disturb her.
In any case, even if he sent one, Edelweiss would not reply.
"This time, the hiring conditions Tsukikage-sensei offered Rebellion were extremely generous, so they value this plan quite a lot."
"After all, as a criminal organization targeted by the world, Rebellion does not have an easy time obtaining funds."
"And I also heard that an Apostle specially responsible for gathering money was sent to prison by a certain Sword Emperor, causing two of Rebellion's branches to nearly have their funding chains cut off."
As she spoke, Edelweiss looked at Luke with a trace of a smile.
Luke rubbed his forehead somewhat awkwardly and asked,
"Did I cause you trouble?"
"Not really… The fact that you sent him to prison was actually an indirect trigger for me joining the plan, so I suppose it counts as a good thing."
Edelweiss tilted her head and thought for a moment.
"Would you call it the opportunity that led to our meeting? …And I don't particularly like that Apostle called Smile either."
"Even in Rebellion, there aren't many people extreme to that degree."
At this point, Edelweiss paused.
She seemed to feel that the topic had drifted off course, so after organizing her thoughts, she spoke again.
"Pierrot's authority within Rebellion is not low, which is why he was able to obtain the power to act as the person in charge of this plan."
"What he is best at is using small tricks to reduce obstacles to the plan. Whether they succeed or not is another matter, but he simply likes causing trouble for enemies."
"This time, Crimson Princess being late is almost certainly because he obtained news that she would arrive late, then set things up in advance."
"If he did it, then further news should arrive soon…"
Before Edelweiss could finish speaking, the broadcast rang out once again.
As though responding to her explanation, the announcer shouted in an excited voice,
"A new turn of events has appeared once again!"
"Kyomon Academy's competitor, Icy Laughter, Tsuruya Mikoto, just requested that the operating committee declare her the winner by default!"
"The review process has already begun. Let us look forward to the committee's decision!"
Looking at the "see?" gaze Edelweiss sent him, Luke smiled and did not pay it much mind.
There was no way Stella would be declared defeated by default.
Those sponsors would never agree.
Rather, the name that appeared in the broadcast made Luke a little concerned.
"Is Tsuruya-senpai also one of your people?"
Because of the joint training between Hagun and Kyomon before this Sword Art Festival, Luke had also met this senpai, who had reached the top eight in last year's Sword Art Festival.
"No. She isn't on the personnel list. She was probably used by Pierrot."
Edelweiss gently shook her head.
She actually did not care much about this matter.
In fact, if Luke were not here, Edelweiss probably would not even come watch this so-called Sword Art Festival student fight.
However…
'It's actually quite nice as a date.'
Thinking this, Edelweiss moved the hand that had been holding Luke's the entire time and said,
"Since there's no match to watch, let's go walk around over there."
…
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