Under the warm rays of the morning sun, fireworks exploded in the blue heavenly canvas above Gaora City.
Bands marched through the streets, playing their instrunts and adding even more vibrance to the already lively city.
Today was the much-awaited second day of the Arcana Primis Cup.
While there would be far fewer matches to watch, each one would be much more exciting and featured on the main stage, which was now noticeably larger, as the previously used and now-unneeded minor stages had already been removed.
"H-Hal!" exclaid a white-haired, tan-skinned maiden, prompting Hal to look her way. "G-Good morning!"
Liora ended up feeling dejected yesterday after she tried to invite Hal to dinner, but sadly, no one responded, even after she dared to approach and knock on his hotel room door.
Perhaps he had been tired and gone to bed early, so she chose not to intrude further.
"Oh? Liora! Good morning!" Hal responded with a wide smile and an equally loud voice, not expecting the sudden greeting. "Good luck today!"
Ennya had sohow slept in on such an important day again, so she missed the rather chummy greeting between the two and spared herself the displeasure of witnessing it.
She still arrived just in ti, though, as her master personally ca to her hotel room, disregarding her privacy and waking her up with a sweet and solid knock on the head.
Minutes passed.
The participants’ seats had long been filled, while those for the audience were still being quickly filled.
The organizers had added a few more rows in an attempt to accommodate more onlookers and ensure they had a comfortable viewing experience.
This season of the Arcana Primis Cup was turning out to be quite the banger, after all, and the sponsors were confident that they would more than make back what they invested, thanks to this generation of youngsters.
After a few more minutes, the square was packed.
There seed to be far more people watching today than yesterday, perhaps because of the sudden news of a few promising dark horses erging, particularly Hal Fennec from the Grand Magic Academy.
They wanted to experience the hype and excitent of watching the battles live.
Fortunately, the crowd didn’t have to wait long, as Akari finally arrived at the venue to loud cheers, smiling sweetly and waving energetically at the crowd.
She entered her resting tent for a few minutes to catch her breath before erging and stepping onto the stage amid thunderous cheers and applause from the audience.
The hot and spicy second day of the Arcana Primis Cup was about to begin.
After the mandatory pleasantries, the participant introduction segnt began, sothing Hal hadn’t expected.
It went on for about twenty minutes and turned out to be surprisingly entertaining for the crowd.
Close-up photos of the participants, which no one quite knew how or when the organizers had taken, were displayed on the massive holographic screen along with all the known information about them.
’Hmph, these bastards... isn’t it against the law to take pictures of soone without their consent?’ Hal mused in displeasure.
’But since I look good in this one, I suppose I’ll forgive them... ahh, but don’t I always look good? Should I actually sue them for this?’
Despite digging for information and even begging the Deputy Headmaster and Headmistress of the academy, the organizers failed to obtain much.
As a result, Hal’s description remained vague: "Grand Magic Academy Student, Registered E-ranked Wizard, Summoner."
This sent people’s imaginations running wild, and baseless theories, such as him being the emperor’s bastard son, began to spread without any logical foundation.
The audience was quite pleased to learn all the relevant information about the remaining competitors, as this allowed them to more accurately guess who would advance.
This, in turn, led to more logical and lively debates among them, with so even escalating into personal bets.
The introduction segnt soon ended, and it was finally ti for the exciting match draw portion.
A cart with two moderately sized jars containing the participants’ nas was wheeled onto the center of the main stage.
One jar held the nas of the 1st to 16th seeds, while the other contained those ranked 17th to 32nd.
This setup ensured that upsets could still happen and that the most intense matches would occur in the later stages of the tournant.
Monts later, Akari reached into the first jar and drew the first na: "Donner Rakurai."
"Ohh! Donner Rakurai right off the bat! Please wait as the operator updates the brackets shortly... and... there we go! Now, who will be his opponent? Will the competitor consider himself or herself lucky to have a chance at a massive upset, or unlucky to face such a monstrous young wizard?"
Co-comntator Jhow’s seasoned, vibrant voice echoed across the square, temporarily taking over hosting duties while Akari continued with the na drawing.
The perceived top eight naturally wouldn’t face each other yet and were even placed apart to ensure they wouldn’t et until the quarterfinals.
Ennya was among these individuals despite her age.
Hal, on the other hand, was surprisingly included in the first jar as the 16th seed.
No one knew who had made the bold decision to do this, but it was certainly a masterstroke that added spice to the tournant.
After all, everyone in the top thirty-two was more or less extrely confident in themselves, and most wouldn’t take kindly to an unknown, overhyped student from the Grand Magic Academy being seeded higher than them.
The crafty organizers had just made half the remaining competitors displeased with Hal Fennec.
Felix Dargon and Donner Rakurai were placed on the far edges of the bracket, while the closest to Hal, who was positioned sowhere in the middle, was Vyse, whom he would have to face in the top 16 match.
If he managed an upset, he would take the place of the top sophomore of the Grand Magic Academy and then face the other Magna Prospect, Pierro, in the quarterfinals.
He was quite glad that he wouldn’t have to face Ennya until the semifinals.
However, he would have to defeat all of them if he wanted to succeed in his deal with the Deputy Headmaster and improve his situation.
Hal was also relieved that there would be no consequences for the midget even if he defeated her.
Otherwise, it would have been a real struggle to fight Ennya, and his resolve might have wavered, even if only slightly.
The draws finished around five minutes later.
The final brackets were displayed on a separate, dedicated holographic screen above the comntators’ desk a mont later, as the cart was wheeled off the stage.
Finally, after so tasty appetizers, it was ti for the main course—the championship matches of the Arcana Primis Cup.
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