King Nortvan's words seemed to freeze time throughout the coliseum. The air, previously hot with the tension of battle, suddenly felt hollow. Thousands of people in the stands, as well as the elite participants in the center of the arena, were shocked to their cores to discover that the four representatives from the Garveon Kingdom were not merely ordinary students, but adventurers holding the highest title.
However, amidst that shock, the human mind's inability to accept such a reality began to spark immense denial and doubt.
"S-Rank?!" shouted Zania from the Lasc'ar team line, her shrill voice breaking the silence. She stared toward the VIP stands with a look of disbelief. "Your Majesty King Nortvan, with all due respect, are you truly serious with your words? The four of them are S-Rank adventurers?"
"That is utterly impossible!" chimed in Mazect Trovis, the leader of the Altoria Kingdom team, known for his intelligence. He shook his head hard, entirely rejecting the logic. "It is completely nonsensical for an academy student who has just entered their first year to reach the S-Rank! Even veteran knights who have risked their lives for decades have a very hard time reaching A-Rank!"
Hearing the doubts openly shouted by the kingdom representatives, King Nortvan did not reply with anger. The host ruler merely stared straight at the Garveon Kingdom team, who were still standing calmly in the middle of the arena.
"Kazien Altavis!" called King Nortvan with a deep, echoing voice full of authority. "Please, you and your three fiancés, show your adventurer license cards to the host so that everyone here can see the truth with their own eyes!"
The king's loud declaration felt like a second bolt of lightning striking the tournament arena in broad daylight.
The audience's focus, which had previously been fixed on the debate regarding adventurer ranks, suddenly shifted entirely to one specific phrase that had just been uttered by King Nortvan: "your three fiancés."
They had not misheard. The King of the Larkvood Kingdom had just mentioned that the Garveon Kingdom team leader had three fiancés, who were none other than his own three team members. Furthermore, an undeniable physical fact was clearly displayed in the arena: the four handsome youths were all men.
"What?!"
"Wait, fiancés? His three team members are the fiancés of Duke Altavis's son?!"
Shocked murmurs and shrieks of disbelief immediately exploded from the spectator stands like a beehive hit by a stone. Not only were the thousands of eyes in an uproar, but Kazien and his three fiancés were also deeply surprised in the center of the arena.
Kazien looked up, gazing toward the VIP stands with slightly widened eyes. He truly did not expect the host king to know the details of the romantic relationship between them.
"How do you know about our personal relationship, Your Majesty?" Kazien asked, his tone sounding shocked yet still maintaining his politeness. "I feel that during our time in the capital of this kingdom, we haven't spoken the slightest bit about our adventurer ranks, let alone the status of our relationship to the public."
King Nortvan rested both elbows on top of the stands' railing.
"I learned the truth of your ranks from the conversation of your own family sitting beside me!" King Nortvan answered, pointing toward the row where Duke Elgard and King Nalvon sat. "As for the details of your romantic relationship... I found out directly from the griffon monster who is currently in the plaza outside the academy! He is the one who told me everything with great pride!"
Hearing the king's honest answer, Kazien could only let out a long sigh and massage the bridge of his nose. He glanced briefly at Alvin, Allen, and Arken, who also looked resigned. Kazien absolutely could not deny everything that had just come out of King Nortvan's mouth.
The entire sequence of events today had truly gone outside of his plans and had never even crossed his mind before.
Kazien lowered his hand, then raised his face to look around. His sapphire blue gaze now turned very calm and authoritative.
"That is correct!" Kazien admitted in a loud and firm voice, confessing everything before thousands of people. "What His Majesty the King of this kingdom said is one hundred percent true. My three beloved fiancés and I are indeed a group of S-Rank adventurers!"
The murmurs in the stands grew louder, but Kazien ignored them and continued speaking.
"However, that title does not negate the fact that right now, the four of us are still first-year academy students from the Garveon Kingdom!" Kazien continued. "We came here and participated in this tournament purely on the recommendation of our academy's Dean."
Kazien paused for a moment, letting his words sink into everyone's minds, before finally dropping a striking sentence.
"Initially, I firmly rejected the offer." Kazien admitted honestly, with no intention of hiding his reasons. "But my three fiancés wanted to set foot in a new place. It was due to their considerations and wishes that I finally decided to participate and spare some time for this tournament."
Kazien stared sharply at the participants from other kingdoms who had been doubting him.
"If not for the request from the three of them, I would never have been willing to waste my time and agree to participate in this tournament!"
Kazien's honest and blunt confession was like a double-edged sword. On one hand, he confirmed all the facts. On the other hand, his overly casual tone hinted at an invisible insult.
It was not only his honesty about his same-sex relationship status that irritated most of the conservative nobles in the stands, but rather his way of speaking, which seemed to treat the prestigious academy tournament held with such difficulty every year as nothing more than a playground to fill their vacation time.
"What did you say?!" exclaimed a middle-aged female spectator from the high-class nobility of the Larkvood Kingdom. Standing up from her seat in the stands not far from the arena, she was unable to accept Kazien's words. "Are you and your Altavis family underestimating this grand annual academy tournament? Do you think this sacred place is an amusement park for you and your lovers?!"
Zap!
Before the shouting noblewoman could even take a breath to hurl her next insult, a gust of cold wind suddenly hit her face. Kazien was already standing right in front of her, atop the guardrail of the stands, looking down at her.
Everyone in the surrounding stands gasped and stepped back in panic. They were shocked beyond belief to see the movement of an Altavis descendant who could shift places with such absurd speed, completely undetectable by their eyes or their mana sensitivity.
"You say I'm underestimating it?" Kazien spoke, his voice sounding very soft and deep, yet filled with an absolute intimidating pressure that instantly turned the woman before him pale and violently trembling. "I merely spoke to express the truth honestly, and you so easily accuse me of underestimating it? Does my face right now look like a cheap braggart to you?"
Kazien stared intently right into the eyes of the noblewoman, who had now lost all her courage.
"Let me show you, and everyone in this coliseum... the real reason why the Altavis family has had no interest in participating in a tournament of this level for the last seventy years!"
Zap!
Kazien's figure disappeared from the woman's sight, leaving a trail of bone-chilling wind. In the next second, he was calmly setting foot back in the middle of the arena.
The silvery-white-haired youth closed his eyes for a moment, then slowly raised his right hand high into the air.
Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack!
The incredibly loud and terrifying sound of cracking ice echoed in rapid succession from where Kazien stood. Instantly, an explosion of bluish-white mana swept across the entire surface of the arena like a tidal wave. The hard ground, layered with magical barriers, along with the whole coliseum, froze completely in the blink of an eye.
The temperature inside the tournament arena, which had been warm from the scorching sun, suddenly plummeted drastically to the freezing point. The air turned into a cold white mist. Thousands of spectators in the stands simultaneously hugged themselves, shivering from the cold as their breaths turned into icy vapor.
Everyone who had previously doubted the strength of the Garveon team now sat frozen in silence. Their mouths were locked shut by terror. This included the five participating teams from the other kingdoms. They could only stand trembling, watching their battle arena turn into an eternal hell of ice with just one very simple swing of Kazien's hand.
However, amidst that freezing and soul-gripping tense atmosphere, the situation was suddenly worsened by an anomaly from the sky.
A giant shadow blocked out the sunlight, followed by other shadows darting swiftly. As soon as the thousands of people in the stands looked up with what little courage they had left, mass panic became inevitable.
Dozens of winged monsters with giant eagle heads and lion bodies were hovering fiercely in the sky, circling the open airspace above the Larkvood academy arena.
Seeing a flock of high-level monsters suddenly flying in the capital's sky, panicked screams began to echo from several corners of the stands, thinking that wild monsters were invading to slaughter them amidst the chaos.
However, before anyone could act to fire magic shots into the air, an incredibly deep, booming baritone voice, full of absolute threatening aura, echoed from the sky.
"Master Kazien!" shouted Lidaz, his voice sweeping over the entire coliseum. "Are there insolent enemies down there who dare to attack and provoke your wrath?!"