With a clear sky, the first day of the Tournament of Heroes began with the completion of the King's oath. Early that morning, fireworks created from magical blasts resounded over the arena while the people flocked to obtain a seat. Everyone, from the peasantry to the nobility was filled with excitement for the event.
The Royal Family and nobles from the Sternbild Kingdom and abroad were all gathered in private rooms set aside for their use, all pleasantly sharing idle conversation as they watched how the matches progressed. The festival is roughly two days long and will last until tomorrow.
Today is more like the preliminary round of the tournament as the participants who are defeated today will be unable to join the fights tomorrow. Since the first match is a battle royale, I decided to watch it because it was something that seemed interesting to me.
With a large number of people all confined in a small area, it was quite the show with dramatic moments that caused great cheers of excitement from the spectators. When a participant that was thought to be strong got defeated, their reaction was even larger.
There was also a lot of betting going on with an unexpected number of gamblers taking major risks betting on the popular contestants. Though I can easily tell from afar that they will lose. Right now, I'm in the stands for the nobles, acting as the Princess' personal bodyguard.
Though I thought I'd have to change my clothes before entering the room, but since I was working and had the advantage of carrying a divine blessing, I gained the permission to enter with my usual attire. I could already feel the stares from those around me, and while there were a few that were quite hostile, there were actually many that were friendly.
However, as expected, those from other countries, nobles from the Kingdom, as well as the Princess' very own older brother, sisters, and younger brothers were all able to interact with each other with only subtle emotions mixed in.
Since I'm free to eat the dishes, filled with fresh fruits and other high quality food, I felt quite happy with myself. However, after I ate a full platter of food by myself, the Boy Knight scolded me, so I restrained myself after that.
I comfortably observed the entire venue whose temperature was being kept constant with the use of a magical item. As I continued to guard the Tomboy Princess in such a fine place, I expressed my gratitude. However, because the other members could only sit in the general audience seats and not the nobles area, I had to stay fully alert during my job as a bodyguard.
Even though I could just idle, I'm not going to. Afterwards, as night approached, all the scheduled events ended without incident. At night, with the 64 main participants advancing to the main battle, the spectators began to move in groups towards the Royal Capital.
With stalls selling food and playing re-enactments of the competition continuing late into the evening, the night of the festival was far more crowded than usual.
While the nobles and Royal family were attending a dinner party in the night crowd, their minds were filled with dark intentions. As that was the case, I unfortunately was the bodyguard for the Princess and wasn't able to participate in the festival myself.
Instead, I instructed the other members to enjoy themselves. Since I attended with Kanami-chan, we really stood out. While occasionally talking with the Princess as I guarded her from behind, the First Queen appeared with a glass of wine in hand.
You all remember the one, the very same Queen who is religiously obsessed. Due to the relationship between the Queen and the Princess being mother and daughter, they laughed with each other often, so that was fine. However, it was when the Queen occasionally glanced at me while they were chatting that sent a shiver running down my spine as she whispered something in the ear of the Princess.
If I were to describe it, her eyes were the eyes of someone that wanted their target to notice the attention. After seeing the Tomboy Princess with a happy smile that was obviously reflecting something eerie, I suddenly had a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. It was unexpected, but the First Queen left without anything happening.
It seemed like she was busy greeting and negotiating with the members of the Royal Family from other countries. There weren't any problems that arose after that and I returned to the Amber Palace some time later. After confirming that Auro and Argento, who had been enjoying themselves with the other members had returned to the Amber Palace and were already asleep, I decided to enjoy the moon together with Kanami-chan while having a small portion of alcohol.
Although I had a bit of food and a few glasses of alcohol during my escort duty, it was far from enough. The temperature gradually fell, but it was the perfect time for some expensive strong alcohol from the dungeon to warm up. There wasn't any conversation as we both just quietly drank some alcohol in the moonlight.
Soon after, the date's atmosphere began to change, and we crawled into bed. After the competition, I'll probably be busy with a great many things.