As the matches kept going, the contestants were slowly eliminated until the tournament reached the "quarter-finals" phase.
There were eight participants left, and the fights were decided simultaneously instead of one by one.
From the final contestants, all six commanders were still participating, with the other two being Harvey and the sub-commander of the 7th.
Harvey’s quarter-final match was against Commander William from the 1st, which was a pretty good fight since both were fighting to their hearts’ content. Nevertheless, Harvey won after releasing a small tornado that blew William away from the arena.
For his semi-final match, Harvey encountered Commander Sara Storm from the 3rd.
She was one of the strongest in the tournament due to the fact that she could cast magic the fastest. Of course, not as fast as my knights, but still quicker than the others.
During the fight, Harvey got hit by one of Sara’s lightning attacks, which genuinely worried me, thinking that he might lose.
But Harvey didn’t give up, and after standing up again, Sara kept shooting lightning bolts at him as he skillfully dodged them using air magic to amplify his speed.
As he got mere inches away from her, Harvey accumulated a large amount of MP in his hand and pushed Sara by the stomach, releasing a strong wind that launched her out of the arena as if she had been run over by a truck.
The spectators couldn’t believe their eyes. Even the king and queen looked shocked at the events that were unfolding while the supreme commander was visibly seething with the veins on his temple that looked like they were about to burst.
After the other fights were over, the final match of the tournament arrived with two individuals that the spectators hadn’t expected to see.
"Ladies and gentlemen. For the final match of today’s tournament, give it up for Sub-commander Harvey of the 4th and Commander Valentina Embervane from the 7th!" the host exclaimed, making the crowd roar with excitement.
Now that Harvey had reached the final, I could hear the guests talking and how their opinions had changed throughout the tournament. Sёarch* The NovelZone.fun website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.
"I thought the 4th were supposed to be the weakest..." a random man said.
"Do you think they weren’t even trying in the last tournament?"
"Their commander isn’t even competing, and they reached the finals!"
Hearing them made me smirk and rub my chin with pride, but my personal boasting was interrupted by the king.
"Ichiro, you are responsible for this, correct?" he asked, his tone sounding quite severe.
"Do you mean their training?" I asked.
"Training? You are telling me the 4th became this strong with normal training?" the king asked again with urgency.
"Well, yeah. I gave them a routine, and they all followed it, so technically, I didn’t do that much. Their growth is all attributed to their efforts." I replied.
The king smiled. "I see..." he muttered as he seemed to delve into his thoughts.
When the fight commenced, both knights boosted their movements with magic and clashed their swords in an instant, releasing an air shockwave that was felt throughout the arena.
Harvey was more adept at using wind magic, while Valentina had an affinity for fire, making all their attacks that collided much more explosive than usual.
As the battle prolonged, the platform where the two knights fought was surrounded by fire that had spread from their attacks.
They breathed heavily with sweat covering their bodies, and in a final rush, Harvey managed to dodge Valentina’s attack, forcefully pushing her off the ring without the use of magic. A tactic that the commander wasn’t expecting.
As the crowd roared and cheered for the new champion knight, Harvey fell to his knees from exhaustion, so I descended to the arena to quell the flames and get the two contestants up from the ground.
After giving them both a potion to heal up, I returned to the king’s booth so that I could discuss with him something I had been holding up for quite some time.
"Sir, do you see what happens when the knights aren’t deprived of their training?" I asked sarcastically, loud enough for the supreme commander to hear.
"Pardon?" King Leon replied, looking confused.
"Oh, you didn’t know? The knights of the 4th haven’t been trained properly ever since they joined the order." I commented, noticing that the supreme commander Thorne was getting red from anger.
"What do you mean?" the king asked, leaning forward as his interest peaked.
"Well, none of the orders is being trained properly, to be honest, but the 4th wasn’t even getting resources to help them grow, and it was just used as the order to send the commoners..." I explained, making Thorne snap as he interrupted our conversation.
"Your Highness, as nobles, we cannot allow ourselves to mingle with those who were born of common blood. I simply thought having them together would improve their morale..." Thorne explained, his voice sounding a bit desperate.
"Is that right? Is that why you also deprived them of training while saying that commoners shouldn’t be at the same level of strength?" I asked with a cold gaze.
"Well... they shouldn’t! A noble knight should always be more powerful, of course!" he insisted.
However, his statement made me chuckle out loud as I disrespectfully pointed at him.
"Hey, old man, don’t you see all your precious noble knights were defeated by rookies that I trained? Commoners too, might I add." I said, letting out another sarcastic chuckle.
During our confrontation, the king stayed silent, which I thought was pretty wise of him since he used that time to digest all of the information.
"How dare a lowly savage kid from who-knows-where act so disrespectfully around the king and me!?" the supreme commander exclaimed.
"Huh? I don’t really care about your noble customs, to be honest. If you are a good person, then I’ll treat you just as nice... The king is my friend, so if he wants me to call him something else, I don’t mind doing it as a favor." I explained.
"But you tried hard to change the subject. Let me ask you, supreme commander... Could you have defeated sub-commander Harvey? Or better yet, could you have had a chance against the rookies?" I asked mockingly.
"How insolent..." the man muttered, clenching his teeth with frustration.
Turning towards the king, the supreme commander switched his expression into a serious one and kneeled before him.
"Your Highness, this kid is dangerous... I can feel it," he said with an air of reverence that sounded fake.
"Is that what you feel? You do know that Ichiro has drastically improved the lifestyle of our entire kingdom, right?" The king said, his tone sounding severe and cold.
Standing up from his seat and looking down at the supreme commander, who still knelt on the floor, the king addressed him again.
"You know that Ichiro vanquished the devil wanting to take our country, right? Thorne, what have you been doing the past few years...?" King Leon asked, his tone and expression cold and powerful.
I was sitting on the rail, watching the whole scene. And even though the king wasn’t talking to me, I still felt somewhat intimidated, which reminded me of the feeling when I first met my father-in-law from my past life.
The supreme commander stared at the ground with a dumbfounded expression as sweat dripped down his temple and apologized to the king for his words.
Slowly rising up, Thorne glared and approached me, taking off his glove and throwing it against my chest.
"It has gotten to this point. Your Highness, I’ll convince you of my words, so I challenge Ichiro to a duel!" Thorne exclaimed.
However, contrary to the expression he thought I would make, I smiled and said that I would do it with pleasure.
The truth was that this was the perfect scenario since I would be able to demonstrate to the king and the other knights that their supreme commander was nothing but an arrogant noble who believed he was strong.
As soon as I accepted the duel, the word spread around the arena in mere seconds, and before I knew it, the people were chanting for the next fight to begin.
Nevertheless, they were probably going to be disappointed since I didn’t think our duel would be as flashy as the one from Harvey and Valentina, but I felt like if I didn’t give them a show, it would have been kind of lame.
It was a festival, after all, so casting some flashy magic wouldn’t be too much trouble.
Before the fight, we had to set the terms for what would happen to the loser, and with the king as our witness, it would be impossible to break the promise.
"If I win, you will leave our country forever!" the supreme commander exclaimed.
"Alright, and if I win, you will resign from your position and admit that you are just an arrogant noble," I said, crossing my arms and sneering at him to make him even angrier.