How could they not be overjoyed at a development that would have benefited from any outcome? If Mel were defeated, the twenty people with whom they shared the same ward would return to the mud at the bottom of the pit where they had come from. If the miracle does happen and Mel gets the right to live in the Near Circle, it's still the worst-case scenario for the survivors.
Regardless, everyone except the Tenth Ward would profit from it. Even the students of the First Ward, who had just been trained in two words by Mel, were able to laugh and have fun among themselves. It was usual for these to happen; what was abnormal was that Mel and the Tenth Ward students did not show the slightest sign of uneasiness.
