Chapter 405: Interference, Interference, and Even More Interference!
"I'm truly sorry!"
A middle-aged man bowed deeply at ninety degrees before Luke.
His attitude was completely sincere. The grave expression on his face made it clear that he was willing to compensate Luke for the accident.
This middle-aged man was the driver of the delivery truck that had just hit him.
Luke glanced at the completely crushed front of the truck, then at his slightly torn sleeve from stopping it. He sighed helplessly.
"Just be more careful next time. Today's circumstances are unusual, so I won't pursue the matter."
Luke could tell the driver genuinely intended to compensate him and felt deeply guilty about hitting him.
Even though Luke was completely unharmed, the man still believed he deserved punishment.
Luke was unlikely to misjudge an ordinary person with no mana whatsoever.
So before the driver could say anything else, Luke firmly ended the discussion.
"I'm in a great hurry today and don't have time to waste. The best compensation you can give me is not delaying me any further."
Luke immediately saw through the driver's intentions.
The man clearly planned to call the police, follow the proper procedures, and formally compensate Luke.
For an ordinary traffic-accident victim, meeting such an honest driver would have been extremely fortunate.
People like this were becoming rare. Encountering one could be considered Luke's good luck…
...
As if!
Luke immediately understood that he had encountered such an upright driver precisely because following the proper process would waste an enormous amount of time.
Having prepared himself in advance, Luke had no intention of allowing any unnecessary complications today.
When the driver heard that Luke wanted no compensation, his first reaction was to anxiously reject the idea.
However, Luke ultimately stopped him.
Just before Luke left, the driver hesitated before explaining himself.
"I only received an urgent request to deliver these materials today. They kept pressuring me, and I was running out of time, so I risked taking a shortcut."
"Normally, I would never make such a basic mistake. But just now, I suddenly became strangely dazed."
"By the time I came to my senses, I had already crashed through the wall…"
"I-I've always been healthy, and I didn't feel unwell today, so…"
The driver hesitated several times before gritting his teeth and warning Luke.
"I recognize you. You're one of the famous competitors, right?"
"You Blazers possess strange powers… Maybe… A-Anyway, you should be careful."
After saying this, the driver walked away.
He still needed to deal with the immobilized truck and find some way to explain the situation to his superiors.
Luke was not particularly surprised by his words.
When one coincidence followed another, even ordinary people would begin to suspect something once the coincidences became too excessive.
Even without evidence, they would naturally feel that something was wrong.
With Luke's speed, he could easily have dodged the truck.
However, if he had moved aside, the driver inside the vehicle would have been injured, along with the pedestrians standing in its path.
Perhaps no one would have died, but several people would certainly have been hurt.
So Luke had not dodged.
An impact of that degree could not harm him anyway.
...
After losing some time to the truck incident, Luke finally arrived at the operating committee's office building.
The entire journey was unobstructed, and he soon met Kurono.
The process went so unbelievably smoothly that Luke, who had prepared himself for further delays, felt somewhat confused.
But soon afterward, he realized he had still been too naive.
It had indeed gone smoothly.
Extremely smoothly.
Because Kurono merely exchanged a few words with him before leaving.
That was right. It ended just like that.
Kurono had called Luke over solely to hand him an invitation for the exhibition matches on the final day.
There was more than one invitation.
Besides Luke's invitation, she also needed him to deliver Stella's.
As for why she had made such a small matter sound urgent and forced Luke to personally make the trip…
It was simply because Kurono was extraordinarily busy.
It was not only Kurono. Every teacher and professional Mage-Knight assigned to the Seven Star Sword Art Festival was extremely busy.
She had ended the call quickly because she had no time to chat. She asked Luke to come because she happened to be handling business inside the committee building.
As for what everyone was so busy doing…
Remember the middle-aged driver who had crashed into Luke?
The materials he had been transporting were the reason Kurono and the others were working so frantically.
In the end, this matter was also closely related to Luke.
The truck was carrying construction materials.
That was right.
Kurono, the other Mage-Knights, and the entire operating committee were busy reinforcing the arena and the entire Bay Dome.
Why did it need reinforcement?
Because they believed that if Luke and Stella met in the semifinals or finals, the two might demolish the entire Bay Dome.
Just look at what they had done in the first round.
One had blasted through the dome's facilities, while the other had reduced the arena to scorched earth.
If these two little monsters fought each other, the destruction would not be as simple as one plus one equaling two.
Moreover, two more rounds remained before the semifinals and finals.
Who knew how many times the arena would be destroyed before then?
They decided it would be cheaper to reinforce everything at once rather than repeatedly repairing the damage.
The only way to complete a project of this scale before Luke's match was for Kurono and the others to work without rest.
In Kurono's own words—
"You rotten brat! All you ever do is create more work for me, and you dare complain because I made you come pick something up?!"
"Go back and tell Vermillion, Kurogane, and yourself!"
"If Hagun doesn't sweep the top three this year like Bukyoku did last year, all three of you are repeating the year!"
Luke was confident they could sweep the top three, but he still had some objections to this "threat."
However, looking at Kurono's completely drained appearance, he could only smile awkwardly and swallow his protest.
Otherwise, he feared she might shoot him the moment he opened his mouth.
...
After leaving the building, Luke raised his head and released a long sigh.
He had to admire the power of a high-level force like causality.
Even though he had prepared himself and handled everything efficiently, he still could not avoid having his time wasted.
If this continued until the match began, there really was a slight possibility that he might arrive late.
The instant that thought crossed his mind, a familiar sound rang out once again.
Ring, ring, ring—!
…
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