( The next day, Terra Nova Online )
Leo failed to gain any useful information by hanging out around the area that the West Duke Family controlled in the Capital.
Instead, he spent a few hours filled with anxiety where him and Ben had to constantly run from one place to another to avoid being detected by strong individuals that Ben deemed to be a threat.
In the end, it turned out to be a stealth exercise more than an actual information gathering exercise, however, Leo was still happy with how things turned out as shadowing Ben under such circumstances helped him learn a lot.
Although he walked into the North Park Arena, completely unaware of the type of conditions he was going to have to fight in, Leo felt confident in making it onto the quarterfinals regardless.
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( Within the warm-up room )
Only Leo and his opponent Jerome were present within the North Park Arena warm up room today as they were the only contestants scheduled to fight here today.
Of the 16 contestants now left in the round of 16. 12 were humans while 4 were from the myriad different species in the Empire.
The support for humans compared to non-humans was overwhelming as although the Empire was called 'Unity Empire', Leo could notice the underlying racial tensions the longer he stayed within society.
Humans were a majority in the empire and the bias they held towards non-humans was visible.
The vice-versa was also true as the non-human species also seemed to hate humans with a passion.
Although this was currently an era of peace, Leo felt like he would not be too surprised if one of the non-human factions rose up in rebellion against the Emperor in the future, as beneath the facade of unity, there was no real bonding between the myriad different species.
Of the 12 human candidates, only 4 were from open qualification while the other 8 came from royal academies and were some form of royalty, with Jerome also belonging to such a faction.
Apart from Luke who was a player and an exception to the rule, the other 7 academy candidates were all high nobility, being sons of either counts, viscounts or Duke's, with Jerome being the most prestigious candidate this year as the son of the West Duke Family.
While he wasn't as formidable a fighter as his bloodline would make him seem, the only advice that Ben gave Leo while dealing with someone of his stature was to not unnecessarily humiliate him or kill him, as according to Ben, while he could get away with killing the son of a non-human King, the four major Duke families were the strongest political faction in the Empire after the Emperor.
While the West Duke was known to be an honorable and just warrior, if it was a matter of his son's life and death, Ben wasn't sure if he would make the rational choice of sparing his opponent considering that killing wasn't mandatory to win in this grand tournament.
"So you're the infamous open candidate, the crowd favorite to win this year…." Jerome said, as he extended his hand for Leo to shake in the warm-up room as the two of them waited for the match official to show up.
"It's a pleasure to meet the West Duke's son" Leo replied, as he kept his arrogance in check and gave a decent reply to Jerome, unlike his usual personality.
"Oh? You actually shook my hand? So you're not as arrogant as rumors make you seem" Jerome said, as Leo did not reply to this jibe.
"Well, I'm not confident in beating you in this round, according to my father I'm nowhere near your level as a fighter…." Jerome said as Leo chuckled silently under his mask.
"But I'll try my best to beat you," Jerome said, shrugging his shoulder.
"I wish you the best of luck" Leo said, as Jerome chuckled, covering his eyes.
"Well, I'm only fighting in this grand tournament for the pride of my family and I've done a good enough job by reaching the round of 16.
But while I might not be able to beat you in this round, I disagree with my father's assessment that you're winning this tournament all the way.
I think you may advance to the semi finals or even the finals, however, my best friend SkyLion will definitely win it all" Jerome said, as a genuine smile formed underneath Leo's mask when he heard his opponent say these words.
"I've met him…. He seems like a good fighter" Leo said humbly as Jerome chuckled out loud.
" I wanted to recruit him into my faction so badly, but I was too late.
The other reason behind why my father sent me to the royal knight academy was to recruit talent, however, I failed in getting the best….." Jerome admitted candidly as Leo laughed a dry laugh.
"Well, my dad seems to have high hopes for you…. So if you can beat me here today, I'll consider offering you a nice post in my army.
What do you say?" Jerome asked, as he offered Leo a position in his army.
"I'm flattered that the West Duke thinks highly of me, and yes, I will try my best to beat you today.
However, as far as the question of me joining your army is concerned, let's talk about it after I win the grand tournament" Leo replied, as some of his natural cockiness inadvertently came out.
"Hahahaha, that's the infamous Boss I've been hearing about" Jerome said sportingly, as he did not take Leo's words for pointless arrogance and instead took it with mirth.
"You're an interesting guy, young Duke Jerome" Leo complimented as he genuinely found the easy going attitude of Jerome Crowhead to be praiseworthy.
In this day and age where nobles seemed to have ego's larger than mountain peaks, Jerome seemed like a humble guy who was very grounded in his opinion of himself.
A rare but necessary virtue within those who hoped to lead the masses someday.
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/// A/N - This is a bonus chapter for hitting the power stones target, good job everyone! ///