CHAPTER 178: BEFORE THE TOURNAMENT

The feast had a surprisingly relaxed atmosphere for an event that was meant to celebrate political alliance in the presence of the city’s elite.

Everyone was just eating and chatting among their acquaintances – and that was the case for Calen’s group as well.

They talked about various things but at some point the conversation steered towards the tournament.

"So how does this thing work?" Calen asked. "You said that those who win get the chance to be elected as a member of the round table, so it has to be more complex than a regular ladder set up."

"It really isn’t – but there are several different categories and disciplines, not to mention that anyone who enters the quarter finals is eligible for the elections." Damien explained.

"Quarterfinals seem like a pretty low bar – how many people and categories fo you even have?"

"There are three separate competitions for slightly over fifty candidates, which means that less than half gets a chance to get elected."

"What do you do if the same eight people are quarterfinalist in every category?"

"We’ve done this tournament only a few times and something like that never happened but I think the rules state we have to make an additional competition that doesn’t involve the current winners."

"And what if there’s exactly the number of winners you need for the round table or less, do they just automatically get the position?"

"Actually no, our election process gives gives everyone an opportunity to rank every winner – the last place gets one point and each place higher is one more additional point. All the points are then summed up to get the results of the election, but here’s the kicker – you need a minimum amount of points to for the selection to count."

"So in theory you can come in first place in all the competitions of the tournament and the points and still not get elected?"

"Sure, nothing like that ever happened but it very well could. It’s one of the main reason we have the make up tournaments, to make sure someone does get elected."

"Out of curiosity, what was the lowest score someone got at the election?" Isara questioned.

"Zero – the candidates can’t vote themselves and you can just not put someone in your ranking, then that person simply doesn’t get points from you."

"And there was someone who got left out from the rankings by everyone?"

"Yeah, Gerard was his name – real asshole if you ask me and not that talented either. He managed to become a commander purely because of how long he was in the Order and got to quarterfinals pretty much by luck, then lost his first real fight in five seconds."

"What disciplines do you have? Outside of duelling that is." Cassian inquired.

"We have an aura control competition and a game that tests your strategic thinking – basically everything that is expected of a knight."

"How do you judge aura control? That feels quite... nebulous as a discipline." Elira frowned.

"It’s actually the discipline that always take the most time to design, we can’t repeat the test since then people would train techniques for the tournament rather than their control over aura – last time the competition had the contestants create elaborate shapes in wood using a single aura attack."

"That sounds really fun, what are you doing this time?" Calen asked.

Damien shared a meaningful look with Alison, who nodded almost imperceptibly.

"...I don’t know."

"Why, weren’t you on the temporary round table?"

"I was, but they didn’t share a slthst particularl information with me – because I will be competing myself."

Calen and his companions were only moderately surprised by the news, but Greg froze while Alfred spat out his drink.

"What are you on about?" The youngest knight questioned. "You’ve always said that the responsibilities of a round table member are too much of a hassle."

"I did – but Ally wisely pointed out to me that I’m already doing most of the job for Leon anyway, so I might as well run for the position and get the power as well."

"That’s... a good point actually." Alfred nodded and then added in a mumble. "The capitan doesn’t have those very often."

"What did you say twerp?" Alison’s voice was calm, but her eyes weren’t. "I can show you how good the point of my sword is if you want."

"There’s no need, he always gets his ass whooped." Damien chuckled. "Maybe if we brought Morgan to watch he would have tried his best."

"Going back to your sudden decision to join the tournament..." Alfred interjected to change the topic. "Which disciplines will you compete in?"

"All of them of course – and I intend to win each and every one of them!"

"You know that the you’d have the spot pretty much guaranteed even if you just got to quarterfinals and forfeited, right?"

"Sure, but why in Sun’s name would I do that?"

"To give opportunities to the young...?"

"Alfred, the youngest commander is almost two hundred years old, there are no young people in the command – besides if those youngsters want glory so bad then they should take it themselves, not wait until someone hands it to them."

"Never thought that I would hear someone refer to someone nearing two centuries as young." Elira commented. "Sure, there were people much older than that even before the invasion but I feel like the extended lifespan wasn’t as... common."

"It’s just matter of statistic – before the invasion there might have been tens of thousands of people with unnaturally long lifespans but there were spread among the hundred million people inhabiting the Sun Kingdom. Now the human population is in tens of thousands itself, but there are still thousands of long-lived individuals." Geodor stated.

"And places like the Order and the Fallen Tower are practically producing them." Damien added. "Although it’s worth mentioning that not all those who elongate their life with aura get the same results, in fact many of them die before their hundredth birthday."

"What’s the average age of a knight in the order then?" Elira asked.

"Hundred and twenty, and that’s with the command heavily skewing the numbers AND without counting the recruits. If we take out the command out of the equation, the average would be probably around ninety"

"I mean that’s still well above any city before the invasion, I think even royal guard’s average wasn’t this high." Calen pointed out. "You should be proud of yourself."

"It’s mostly thanks to the hard work of our members, but I can’t deny there was luck involved – we don’t reject any recruits as long as they meet the most basic criteria, it would be foolish to turn down manpower when the world is like this, but it also meant we could get a lot of people who lacked any talent for aura cultivation."

"My father always said there’s no such thing as talent for aura." Cassian said. "The only thing that matters is your tenacity."

"You’re saying that as if perseverance wasn’t a talent in itself."

"Those who lack it are simply weak."

"Whatever you want to call it the fact is that some people are simply not suitable for cultivating aura, and there are times when we do get people like that."

"What do you do with them?"

"Ritually execute them of course."

Their part of the table fell silent and everyone stared at Damien.

"What, I can’t joke now? Man, you guys are boring." He shook his head in disapproval. "In reality we usually offer them some other job at the Order, there are plenty of things other than fighting our organisation has to do."

"And if they don’t take that offer?" Calen asked.

"They are more than welcome to keep trying with aura, it’s not like we’re always right about those things – hell, I can name at least five cases where we deemed someone hopeless only for that person to not only grasp aura but go on to become a renowned knight. Just like Cassian said, tenacity is everything, the offer is more of a test than an actual suggestion."

For the first time since the began the topic of the Order, Sylara entered the conversation.

"Say sir Damien, do you have any favourites among the contestants? Aside from yourself that is."

"Favourites? I haven’t really thought about it but I suppose I know a few people whom I wouldn’t mind having as peers."

"Pray tell who’s on that elite list of yours?"

"I wouldn’t mind working with Patrick and I heard he’s planning on competing."

"I thought his whole deal was that he doesn’t want to work, even more so than you."

"You got it wrong, I don’t want to have responsibilities, he doesn’t want to work – two very different things."

"My question still stands."

"He figured out he’ll be able to make others do the work for him once he’s in the position of power."

"Patrick wants to do the same thing Leon did to you? At least one person learned that lesson on their own." Greg snickered.

"Oh shut up and pour me more ale."

"You can’t even get drunk."

"I don’t give a shit. Pour."