In a Private Booth somewhere else in the Stadium

Astra watches the final match of the fifth round close up, neither of the participants in the battle being of much interest to her. So before the match even finishes, she turns her attention to her children and their team.

“You know she’s pissed that he surrendered,” the girl going by the title of Mystic Guardian says with a snort, making the others laugh from their place seated a few meters away from her.

“Probably,” her son says, sounding both amused and exasperated at the thought.

From everything she’s heard from her children about the girl – Scarlet Asger – she sounds quite interesting. And quite reckless as well.

Absolutely someone she wants her children to know, but not necessarily someone she wants on their team. Particularly because of how reckless she seems to be.

After a few seconds, Astra shakes her head and focuses on the battle again, just to find it ending with the two students being sent out of the arena.

I shouldn’t think about their friends based on their capabilities. They’re friends. That’s all that matters.

Despite these thoughts, Astra can’t help but subconsciously consider the benefits of her children getting to know Scarlet. Since it would likely give them a boost in both popularity – at least for Emily, considering Michael’s whole ‘being in a team of women’ issue – and connections.

Astra glances at her son at that thought.

If he was building a team, couldn’t he have at least put a guy in it besides himself? Even if I know he’s not like that, and his team knows that… it still doesn’t look good to the public.

Astra sighs again as she realizes that she’d already gone back into that habit. But then she can’t help but narrow her eyes when she hears that damnable Black Knight of Humanity shouting, “Are you all ready for the quarter finals!!!” following which the crowd goes wild for the man and he shouts, “Then let’s seeeee the brackets!!!”

A large black and gold square appears majestically in the air above the stadium showing off ten different students, each with a picture of them framed in a rather extravagant looking frame in the shape of a lion’s head along with some of their basic information such as their capabilities, their magic, Association, university, and so on. All information anyone can get simply by going to the government site and looking them up.

Basically all the information that really matters except for their level, which no one is supposed to know outside of the Guardian themselves and their Instructor if they have one.

And at this point, very few people are actually surprised by the extraordinary capabilities shown by Scarlet on the screen, so there aren’t anywhere near as many reactions from the crowd about it. But despite that, there are still some reactions from those who never bothered to look into the girl or watched the Tower Siege tournament.

I still find it hard to believe despite seeing it with my own eyes…

“And it looks like the first round will beeee….” Black says, playing on the dramatics as a zigzagged line suddenly impacts the screen drawn between Scarlet and Lost. “The Scarlet Wolf versus Lost! A match many, and I mean many people have been looking forward to!!!”

Astra’s eyes widen slightly as she finds herself vaguely surprised that the tournament hosts would pit the two highly popular and powerful Guardians against each other in just the quarter finals instead of the semifinals which she was expecting.

The crowd goes absolutely wild as Black continues, “Starting now, the remaining rounds will be different in various ways!! The rest of the brackets will not be revealed until each match before it is completed, and the semifinal round after the quarter finals will be a free for all until only two students remain!!!”

Interesting. So that’s what they’re going with this year?

Every year they do something different, so no one outside of the tournament hosts know exactly what the semifinals will be for the year.

And the crowd seems to absolutely love this turn of events, even if it’s not much of a solo tournament if they’re allowed to team up in a free for all.

“Let’s see how your teammate does against an offensive mental magic user,” Astra says offhandedly to the team sitting in the room, making them go silent. But despite their silence, she notes a faint look of confidence on their faces. Confidence in their friend. In their teammate.

Or I guess they aren’t really teammates anymore. Wasn’t she going to ascend after this tournament ended?

Astra certainly hopes so. Because regardless of how reckless the girl is, she seems to bring danger to whatever Fracture she enters somehow. Or at least ends up in dangerous situations in them.

And Astra can’t figure out why or how.

Does she just have some sort of skill that affects karma and fate or something? But she uses blood magic, so that shouldn’t be possible.

Her thoughts are interrupted when Black declares, “Now, let’s get this quarter final round underway!!” following which the two girls are sent to an arena that is in the form of the top of a very large tower with fog surrounding it, making the ground around the tower impossible to see. In fact, the fog covers everything all the way up to a couple floors from the top of the tower. Meanwhile the entire magical reality changes to be the middle of the night with a full moon hanging high in the air.

The crowd goes crazy about the battlefield and the sight of the two girls already beginning to prep their skills for the fight on top of the tower as some snow begins to fall around them, along with a faint breeze.

Even Astra can’t help but feel her attention fully drawn into the battle, and she’s one of the seventy or so Class V Guardians in the world. Not one of the Knights, obviously, but still a Class V Guardian in her own right.

This will be very interesting. Very interesting.

Astra glances at the team in the booth before focusing on the battle again when she finds both of her children absolutely focused on the arena as well.

Let’s finally see just how strong the girl is. Because if she can handle even a mental magic combat focused Guardian, then maybe, just maybe… I might consider offering to take her in as an Apprentice.