Lawson gazed at Blake in curiosity. He was curious why Blake gave out such a reaction.
"What happened?"
"Kuhum... Nothing. I was just surprised."
Why though?
Lawson's face portrayed his exact feeling. However, Blake didn't care about that as he merely turned his head to Iliana who was watching them in mild curiosity.
"It is an honor to meet the Blood Demon Of The Battlefield." Iliana bowed her head when Blake's gaze landed upon her. As expected, she knew who was Blake. "I am Iliana, Sir. Nice to meet you!"
"Ah, yes..." Blake was a bit taken aback by Iliana's soldier like attitude. "Kuhum. If I may know, who is this Basil Pacifer you are referring to?" As the question was rather unexpected, Iliana looked at Blake with mild curiosity.
"I believe he is from your Stardust Magic Academy, Sir." At this, the situation became awkward. While Lawson was looking at the exchange between the two, Blake was looking at Iliana uncertainly.
"Are you sure he is really Basil Pacifer."
"Yes, sir! According to the registered name, he is Basil Pacifer."
Blake smiled awkwardly and Iliana looked at him in confusion. Surely, Iliana didn't ask him what happened as she returned her gaze back to Lawson.
"How many participants passed the Selection Stage?" Lawson asked Iliana. "37 participants in Solo Category and 18 teams in Group Category," Iliana answered sternly. Lawson hummed in contemplation. It was less than he had expected.
"How many are the fallen?" Finally, the one million gold question was asked. Blake set his eyes on Iliana attentively. He didn't want to miss how many young people the world had lost in the tournament. "128 people fell in Solo Category, and 30 teams or 150 people fell in Group Category."
Blake's face turned unpleasant. He didn't like the number he had just heard. Out of the 640 academy students participating in the tournament, 278 of them had lost their lives. It was more than a third of the total participants.
Such an early death was normal in his time. However, back then had been different than now. They didn't have to risk their lives living in the battlefield anymore. Compared to his time, the current time was peaceful despite the existing dispute.
'Unfortunate, it's unfortunate,' Blake thought to himself. Dying in a tournament was really wasteful. The flowers wilt even before they bloom.
"Can you list me the five top scorer?"
"Yes, Sir! From the first to the fifth, they are Basil Pacifer, Kinsey, Jackson, Belen Kingsbury, and Kimberley Bulmer."
"There are two commoners in the top five. Unexpected."
Lawson nodded his head in appreciation. Although this tournament cost too many lives, at least the purpose of the Selection Stage was realized. They managed to dig some gold out of the dirt.
Lawson threw his head at Blake and bitterly smiled. Blake wasn't amused. His expression didn't indicate anything. Lawson knew very what Blake was thinking. However, he couldn't do anything about that.
That was just how this world worked. The strong ones had the last say in anything. What could he, a mere Vice Headmaster do? Nothing. He just had to nod his head and proceed to do what he was asked.
He was no longer young. Although he agreed with Blake that the rule was a little bit far-fetched, he couldn't just spit that at the face of his higher ups. He was confident in his power, however a Kingdom chasing his arse would definitely mark his end.
"Is that all the report, Iliana?"
"Actually, there is some feedback from the participants who managed to survive the Selection Stage, but failed in it."
"Oh, feedback? Hit me."
"'The top five scorers are lunatic,' they said."
This time, Blake who had been motionless since then, spoke up.
"What do you mean by lunatic?" Iliana turned at Blake and said straightly, "It means the amount of people they killed was enormous. For example, Basil Pacifer has reportedly killed 13 people. However, the participants claimed he had killed more."
"..."
Blake took a pondering look. He hadn't expected Basil to be that fierce —
'Well, he is that Basil after all.'
— or not.
He had seen how Basil trained himself for the past months. Per Basil's request, he had provided Basil a private place to train himself. Blake was quite curious how Basil trained himself, and he had watched him once.
To say that he had been surprised would be an understatement. He had been bewildered, shocked, and mind-blown. The harsh training he had seen Basil had done had been enough to make him respect Basil even more.
The sheer tenacity, and focus Basil gave in his every training had been fascinating to look at. Still, he was a bit shaken. After all, Basil had really killed that many people even though he could do it without killing — he was sure of it.
"What about the other scorers? What makes them a lunatic?"
"About that, may I just show you the recording of the Selection Stage?"
"That is preferable."
Unlike the tournament, the Selection Stage wasn't showed to the public. The audiences were only notified with the new rules and nothing more. Therefore, Blake didn't have any idea on what had happened while the Selection Stage had been ongoing.
Iliana took out a Visual Orb and set it down on Lawson's desk. Soon, a recorded scene was played. Each of the men's eyes were planted on it. None of them wanted to miss even a single details.
While watching it, their face was always stoic. There was no emotion could be detected from their face. By the time the recorded scene was fully played. Both men caressed their beard and hummed quietly.
They are lunatic indeed.
They agreed with how the other participants viewed the top five scorers. Not even them, in their rough youth, had behaved that way.
...
"Why do we have to wait for another twenty minutes? So they could set the arena? What a waste of time!"
Jackson was agitated, he couldn't wait to fight the other participants in the arena. He didn't care about his academy's prestige or whatsoever. What he cared was he got to fight. Making his opponents shed their bloods brought him a thrill.
He liked that very much.
"Tsk. What are you saying? You look eager to kill another people."
"Huh? What are you saying redhead? Aren't you the one who is eager to kill people?'"
"What the hell are you talking about? Did you see I kill people indiscriminately?"
"Bahaha! Your words are funny, because I saw you did just that!"
"Fraud!"
Jackson and Kinsey went back and forth right after that. Both of them were debating on who was the real psychopath. The crowd had long tuned them out as they had deemed the two of them psychopaths.
"Brother Basil! Would you like to eat my sandwich?"
Basil who had been watching the other 36 participants turned his head at Xiu Li. While the others were still tense due to the Selection Stage they had passed, Xiu Li was acting like nothing had happened.
Xiu Li was sitting on the bench properly — a bit too lady-like in his opinion — with a box of sandwiches beside him.
"I thought the people of Han love dumplings more than sandwiches," Basil took a seat and said offhandedly. Xiu Li chuckled a little while scratching his head, "Well... I've been staying in Braxtein Kingdom for three years now. So, my tongue has somehow loved the latter than the former."
Basil hummed shortly as a response. He quickly took a seat and grabbed one of the sandwiches.
Munch.
Gulp.
No one had ever used Magic while eating. However, Xiu Li had just witnessed Basil done that. Like an irresponsible husband to his wife, the food came in and gone, just like that.
"Woah.. that is an amazing Technique, Brother! Can I learn that?!"
Basil was a little bit taken aback by Xiu Li's enthusiasm. Looking at Xiu Li's shining eyes, he couldn't help his mouth from curving upward faintly.
'Finally, someone can understand the profoundness of my godly technique!'
Thus, the meal continued along with Basil teaching the concept of his Godly Eating Technique to Xiu Li.
"Hey.. those two..."
"What?"
"Don't you think they are.. sweet?"
Two guys were talking among themselves while one of them was watching Basil and Xiu Li from afar. Suddenly, one of them spoke offhandedly to the other.
"Dude...? I didn't know you swing that way."
"Don't look at me with that judging eyes! Just imagine them in a girly clothing!"
"Huh? What are you...? Holy cow! Th-they are cute. Oh, no! I can't erase that from my mind!"
"Keep yourself together, Max!"
Thus, the two of them tried their best to erase the image they had been seeing in their minds. Some of the other young men in the room coughed awkwardly as they had too thought about the same thing earlier.
These two bastards! What have you done to our mind?! At least whisper properly among yourselves!
The other young men cursed in their their hearts as their pure mind had been successfully tainted with dirty thoughts about someone from the same gender, because of the two idiotic young men!
"Why are you squirming?" Basil who was looking at the uncomfortable Xiu Li asked in curiosity. Xiu Li smiled awkwardly before saying, "I feel like I'm being violated." Basil merely quirked an eyebrow and offhandedly said, "First time?"
"Eh, what?" They looked into each other's eyes before settling to not pursue the matter any further. The meal was silent until it was finished.
"That was a good meal."
"Thank you for your appreciation."
"Hm."
As they had to wait for another 10 minutes before the tournament started, they had nothing to do anymore. Basil had done observing the participants and Xiu Li had his stomach full already.
"Hmm... If I may know what is your favorite Mythical God, Brother?"
"None."
"Yeah, me too. They are too vulgar for my own taste."
Due to the unbearable silent among them, Xiu Li decided to start a conversation. Luckily, Basil could engage in the conversation much to his surprise. Basil had been exuding "I am a lone-wolf" aura since he had met him after all.
"Then, what is your least favorite Mythical God?"
"Zeus."
"Agree."
No debate happened among the two people. All of them accepted it quickly. Whenever they thought about Zeus, they were instantly reminded with Aquarius. Whenever they thought about Aquarius, they were reminded of themselves.
Aquarius was a pretty boy, just like them. Unfortunately, someday, an insane Mythical God came and took him away because that Mythical God was so charmed by his face he couldn't hold his urge back. Just imagining it made their blood boil.
Thus, the conversation ended. However this time, they had something to do.. They were meditating to improve their control over their power, while determining themselves to kick Zeus' butt if they were to meet him.