The woman entered receiving the gazes from everyone in the hall. She wore a black dress showing her enormous mounds. Her golden hair was complemented with a golden tiara on top of it.
She was probably in her early forties but she still looks elegant as her beauty was proving that she was still winning the battle against time.
She dropped her gaze on the crowd below. But once her gaze locked onto mine I could almost see her lips rising a bit. But that was probably my imagination. She walked near her chair as the royal knights bowed then she sat down.
"Now before we begin our party I would like to say something first. As you all probably still remember we promised a gift from the representatives of every country to the one that beats the wyvern in the second round."
The crowd started murmuring again but when I realized that they were starting to talk about me a cold sweat was running down my back.
"I would like the young warrior Asura Shirogami to come over here."
Well having all that audience looking at you and being expected to stand in front of royalty is bound to make someone nervous…
The platform that the guy was standing on was hanged a bit more than 8 meters in the air. With only the walls close to it, the only way for someone to reach there would be by magic or by doing this.
I put some strength on my legs and jumped diagonally toward a pillar that was close to the platform then bounced off the pillar and landed on the platform next to the commentator.
The man looked shocked and was taken aback by what I just did. Some of the guests looked tense and some knights were even having their hands on their weapons and were agitated.
Then the commentator said in a bit of a surprised tone
"Euhh…when I asked you to come over here I meant for you to show yourself so I could bring you to where you would receive your gifts…and getting this close to a lord of a country is bound to get you in trouble lad."
Everyone heard this and some even started to chuckle while I turned red from embarrassment.
I thought that he meant it as a test to see if I could get onto his platform but I misunderstood.
He pointed toward a table that held three small chests.
The table was near the seat where the Chairman Ryoka Gaz was seated.
Because the platform I was standing on was a bit higher than the second floor of the hall I had to jump back down toward the table.
I swiftly jumped down the platform and landed near the table.
Then a young man came and started by opening the first chest.
"The first gift from the country of Astora is an Orichalcum ring with golden encryptions. It can make the wearer blend in with the environment if it was fuelled with a small amount of mana. It can prove to be a handy artifact for a young mage to help him escape from sticky situations…or perhaps to peek on girls bathrooms."
Even if cheers and sounds of admiration were heard from the nobles, some sounds of disgust were made by the girls in the hall and clearly, a few of them were having a bad impression of me…I never chose this ability god damn it it's an effing gift and I won't be using it to peek on girls…probably.
The announcer then said.
"Then again the next gift is from the country of Alikh, this one is an ash wyvern egg and will be handed to Alsa"
The young man pulled an ashen colored egg from the small chest, it was the size of a small chicken egg and I thought that that was a joke when he said that this was an ash wyvern's egg. But once he had it in his right hand it grew back to its normal enormous size.
He dragged back his hand toward the chest and once his hand was on top of it the egg became small again then he replaced it there.
"The next gift is from Albion it is a Monster core that came from another King class Wyvern. An emerald one that is."
I unconsciously said out loud
"Huh? Isn't this mine?"
The lord exclaiming said
"What do you mean that this is yours, young lad. I was told that this core was given to a renowned chef as a gift for pleasing some young noble's tasting buds. Are you saying that you are that young noble?"
I answered looking back at him
"Well I am no noble, but that core is mine I was the one that hunted the emerald wyvern that used to have it"
I could almost feel the disbelief that was drawn on the announcer's face when he said
"Are you saying that you hunted a king class wyvern before…young man, I do not take lightly to men who lie directly to my face so this will be your first and last chance to take back the nonsense you are spewing. Even if you did beat that ash wyvern as I have said it was suppressed and could not have exerted its full power. Who do you think I am, kid?"
I felt a tone of contempt coming from the man when he asked that but before I could answer a young maiden came to my defense. It was Yuna when she spoke out loud the whole hall turned to look at her.
Some mesmerized by that beauty and some in doubt of the words she uttered.
"Why is it so hard to believe that he did manage to beat a king class wyvern?"
The announcer turned and faced Yuna then answered her.
"Young lady…I do not take kindly to liars. And saying that one man…no one kid managed to beat a king class sacred beast is nothing but a lie…I would not doubt the words of an elder if it was him that said that he beat it…even one of the seven heavenly demons of Albion can manage to take down a king class sacred beast alone that I can be certain of…but a no-name kid not related to nobility took the liberty and said that he is at the level of those masters…that is something I would not let slide…his claims are questionable."
Then another person intervened one that I never thought I would have to. It was the Queen of Astarte. Queen Elianor lamina. He voice resounded through the hall and made everyone pay attention to her. It was not loud but was clear. She said
"The kid does not look like a liar…but why not test if what he is saying is true…I am indeed interested to see if he did manage to beat a king class sacred beast."
Before the announcer could say a thing I felt a surge of killing intent that was aimed at me…something extraordinary it could even match the one that Master could exert when he gets serious. And it was coming from the queen's direction.
In an instant, my Hyper-recognition skill activated and I felt the slowing of time.
People mouths were moving slowly and sounds were hollowed.
I saw that the queen while even under the effect of the hyper recognition effect moved her hand with an enormous speed.
A small dagger-like item was thrown in my direction. The speed was unparalleled but I could still see it coming my way. So at first, I decided to dodge it using Shunpo but I feared one thing. If the audience knows of this ability I might be disadvantaged. One other thing was that if I do dodge the dagger will hit the young man that was presenting the gifts to me earlier.
I used almost all of my natural mana and coated my right hand with a thick layer of mana-clad
Reinforcing my right hand with stone skin and using soul barrier as I saw that the dagger had a small glowing aura around it so it probably was coated with magic.
The impact resounded through the hall as I managed to barely hold the dagger by its hilt from piercing my heart.
The strength that was behind that throw was enormous…I even felt some heat coming from the blade. The blow made me slide back half a meter damaging the wooden floor I was standing on. I even felt my hand grow numb…
She then said
" I See…the kid does not lie…he is even capable of stopping one of my daggers throws…Ha ha-ha-ha, Young Asura that dagger is my gift to you, take good care of it. It was my first hunting weapon."
After she said that I took a look at the dagger at my hand… it looked plain nothing too fancy with a leather strap covering its pommel the blade was chipped and a bit blunted yet it had a strange feeling to it…it still looked sharp. I bowed to the Queen expressing my thanks.
This thing must have held great sentimental value to the queen and giving it to me should be an honor so I will have to take it without expressing my opinion on how lame it looked.
The announcer said.
"A kid this young was able not only to see the throw from queen Elianor but even stop to…I will have to express my apologies, young lad…it seems you are indeed capable of the things you said"
Then a little girl intervened with a loud enough voice for everyone to hear.
"OH, so Alsa has someone of this caliber…why did you not send him earlier you would have probably been able to prevent that humiliation you received earlier."
It was the little girl from Astarte as her taunting were heard by everyone I saw that Vessma who was attending to some maters before was now seething with rage.
The young girl added.
"You probably have thought that if you could save this young man until the last round you would be able to score some points…like some trump card ha-ha-ha…sorry to disappoint you but there are even stronger monsters in our team and two of them are even stronger than me…"
At the end of her words, anyone who was paying attention felt a thrill as this little girl who achieved enormous deeds alone just stated that there is someone stronger than her in her team and two of them never the less…I have to admit that I am starting to get the jitters.
The announcer interrupted saying.
"Well this is interesting…to say the least now we can be certain to say that tomorrow will be something to wait for. As for now let the Party Begin."