Currently enjoying a meal with his squad Sekke was happily talking with all of them when suddenly they heard an announcement.
Sekke stood up making the other look at him questioningly.
"Let's go guys they are about to start the ceremony," said Sekke.
The others stared at Sekke for a while before they focused back on rating and talking amongst themselves.
"...You guys are seriously not thinking about missing this right?" asked Sekke.
"Sekke-kun, just sit down and enjoy the festival. We are going to be at the last spot anyways," said Vanessa.
The others nodded their heads as well agreeing with Vanessa. They have been a part of the squad for quite some time and have attended the festival several times as well. Knowing what the outcome of the ranking was the older members of the Black Bulls didn't feel like going to the center and just decided to continue enjoying the festival.
Sekke just stared at his squad mates who were present at the table without any expression on his face and then just looked away from them.
"...Never thought that you lot of all people will think of the squad like that. Just so you know, we are gonna win this time. Let's go Secre." and started moving towards the place where the ceremony was about to start.
Secre soon started following him and landed on his shoulder.
The other black bulls just stared at Sekke's back for a while before they went back to their business.
"..."
"..."
"..."
"...Fuck! I am gonna go too!! That bastard how dare he look down at his senpai like that!!" yelled Magna as he got up from his seat and ran towards the location.
"Hahaha! I am going as well!! It seems fun!" said Luck with his usual smile as he followed Magna.
"...I am going as well. What kind of friend will I be if I don't trust them? Not to mention that Sekke is my best friend." said Gordon in his usual whisper as he got up from his seat as well.
"I am going too," said Vanessa.
"I am gonna kill him if we don't win for disturbing me while I was looking at Marie's photo," said Gauche in anger.
"La! Wait a minute let me grab all this I am coming as well!" exclaimed Charmy as she started gathering what was left of the food on the table.
Grey got up as well and changed to her real form and ran toward Gauche while hiding her face behind her hands.
Just like that all the black bulls except for Asta, Noelle, Finral, and Yami soon reached the center where the ceremony was about to start and started looking around.
Soon they spotted Sekke standing alone with his hands crossed and walked towards him.
Sekke who felt their ki glanced at them and smiled.
"What happened don't want to enjoy the festival anymore?" asked Sekke.
"Heh! You are gonna need a senpai to take care of you after seeing the results," said Magna.
"Hehe! Sekke let's make a bet! If we win you will fight me! And if we did not I will fight you!" said Luck.
"I truly believe in your words Sekke. I know that we will win this year. After all, I am your best friend." whispered Gauche.
"My drink will taste a lot better if we do win, you know. And if we didn't then you can just drink your sorrows away with me," said Vanessa as she showed two bottles of alcohol.
The others said some words as well hearing which Sekke shook his head helplessly and said, "Heh, just you all wait and see. We will win by such a huge margin that all the people who are gathered here will be left speechless!"
Soon all of them heard a voice making them look up and all of a sudden a cheer erupted in the crowd.
"WIZARD KING!!!!"
"REALLY!!! THE WIZARD KING!!!"
"JULIUS-SAMA!!!"
The crowd went wild when they noticed the Wizard King standing on top of the stage.
"Damn, he is popular," said Sekke.
"Well he is the wizard king, after all, the whole kingdom looks up to him," said Vanessa as she too was excited after Seeing the wizard king.
"This year, I'll be announcing the Magic Knights Squad's achievements myself," said Julius as the crowd once again got excited.
"After the results are announced, the king will also make an appearance, so please look forward to that."
But this time the crowd turned silent for a while.
"Damn...that's harsh," said Sekke as clearly felt how excited the people were to see the king.
A moment later the crowd once again started cheering for the wizard king totally ignoring the announcement that Julius made about the king.
"Now, then...As you all know, our Clover Kingdom has been battling invasion attempts from both the Diamond and Spade Kingdoms, as well as a new terrorist group called the Eye of the Midnight Sun. The royal capital was attacked, and many lives were lost. I even considered canceling the Star Festival for this year. But it's because of all these events that I wanted to commend the courageous men and women who fought against them, and decided to hold the festival."
As Julius said that, the magic lamps that were floating around the stage started to glow making the stage to now be the main focus.
"Now, then. Let us welcome them...Our nine Magic Knights Squad captains, whom we hold in the highest esteem." said Julius.
Just as he said that the Captains walked onto the stage making the crowd's excitement soar through the roof.
"As expected, our squad captain is not there..." muttered Sekke.
"Hah! Ain't your squad captain irresponsible..."
Hearing the familiar voice all of them turned around and saw Yami standing near them with a passed-out Charlotte on his shoulder.
Yami looked at them and blinked his eyes for a while and continued speaking, "...which is a great and manly thing to do. It shows that he doesn't get pushed around by others."
Seeing the shameless man say all that the squad stared at him for a while before they focused back on the stage.
Julius soon started introducing all the captains that were present on the stage.
"Tch...that demon lioness is back," said Yami as he puffed his cigarette.
"You scared of her?" asked Sekke.
"You should be too," replied Yami.
This made all of them including Sekke widen their eyes in surprise.
For the older members, they cannot imagine a scenario where their captain will lose.
And as for Sekke, he never thought that Yami will actually admit it. Since according to Sekke, Yami was a man who even in a situation where he is about to die will just say that he is about to surpass his limit and beat the shit out of the opponent.
"Though, things might be different now compared to the last time we fought since I have surpassed my limits several times," said Yami as the thought of provoking a lioness came to his mind.
Hearing that Sekke smirked. That's the Yami that he knows....and unconsciously respects.
Yami tried to test the water and aimed some killing intent at the new Crimson Lions captain.
------------------
'Ha! Such a pain in the butt. Why the hell did I accept to be the captain?!' thought Meroleona Vermilion. As she started at the crowd who was intently looking at her and the other captains.
Suddenly she felt some killing intent and she immediately glared in the direction where it came from.
She then noticed a familiar face, a foolish man who tried to test his luck and agitated her.
'So you think that you are better now?!' thought Mereoleona as she fired back her own killing intent at the man who tried to challenge her.
'Alright! Challenge accepted.'
-------------------
Yami smirked seeing that Meroleona noticed him but his face immediately turned pale when he saw her glare which was accompanied by her killing intent.
"Fu*k...I am gonna die," said Yami as he immediately stopped releasing his killing intent.
"...So how was it?" asked Sekke.
Yami looked at Sekke with a calm look on his face and breathed out some smoke.
"Alright, dumbass. When that reaper comes knocking on our door to take my life. The two of us will face it together." said Yami with a serious look on his face.
"...No thanks, deal with your reaper on your own."
"If I am gonna die I am taking you with me," said Yami.
"I am gonna run away," said Sekke.
"Heh, like you can outrun that lioness." mocked Yami.
"Who said that I have to outrun her? I only need to outrun you," replied Sekke.
"... Stop being a coward and face the challenge like a man," said Yami.
"Use that on Asta, your words are useless on the great dark lord," said Sekke as he smirked.
"You-"
"Shhh, they are starting," said Vanessa making the two of them stop.
"Well, anyway...let's announce the ranking."
Just as those words escaped Julius's mouth the crowd started discussing amongst themselves about who is gonna take the first place.
A white glow appeared in front of Julius which made all the people excited.
All the black bulls except for Yami were looking at Julius with anticipatory looks. They didn't think much about the competition, but after hearing Sekke's words all of them had some hope.
Sekke was looking intently at the glowing magic screen and despite being quite calm on the outside, he was actually the most nervous one amongst the black bulls.
"In the first place..." said Julius and then paused.
Sekke and the rest of the black bulls gulped in nervousness while Yami just took a puff of his cigarette.
"...The Black Bulls!" declared Julius.
And immediately the whole surrounding turned silent.
Everyone's eyes widened not even expecting this outcome, but all of them soon snapped out of their thoughts when they heard a yell.
"FUCK YEAH!!! LET'S FUCKING GOOOOOO!!!" yelled Sekke out loud as the rest of the black bulls cheered along with him as well.
Hearing their yell the rest of the people glanced at them not sure about what to do.
But amongst the crowd, some people who recognized them, or more accurately recognized someone.
Soon cheers started to erupt from various places in the crowd making the older members of the squad surprised by the response.
Sekke however was not surprised, rather he was excited. There was a reason why most of the missions that he took consisted of helping the people or saving a town or village rather than exterminating magic beasts or doing reconnaissance or protecting the border.
'Looks like I really did make my name out there amongst the people.' thought Sekke.
Julius smiled after seeing the response, he was prepared for harsher comments to flow around but looks like that was not the case, some were not sure what to think about this but many people were excited by the outcome as well.
"The number of stars they accumulated is...an astounding 197" declared Julius as the list of their achievements started to show on the magic display.
This made the black bulls stop breathing for a moment. As they just looked at the astounding number of stars.
"Ca-Captain...weren't we at -50 stars last year?" asked Magna.
"...Holy f*king hell..." said Yami.
"That's a huge- no unbelievable jump from their record of -50 from last year!" declared Julius as the crowd had the same reaction as the rest of the black bulls.
"Oi! Oi! Oi! Is this for real?"
"I am not high, right? Is that reality?"
"What the hell did the man who made the list smoke while calculating?"
"Are we sure that they didn't pay someone to get this kind of results?"
"Oi! The dark lord and his squad don't need to do something like that!"
"Well, it's the dark lord's squad. Just like him, the results are overwhelming."
"Nothing less expected from the dark lord's squad."
Discussion started tapping amongst the crowd not sure what the hell was even going on.
"Ahem Ahem, The Black Bulls did marvelous work this year. Now let's have the member who made the biggest contribution of stars take the stage," said Julius as he glanced at the location where Yami and the rest were standing.
Feeling his gaze, the black bulls immediately moved away from Sekke as a smile appeared on their lips.
"The promising newcomer with two grimoires by his side, Sekke!!!" declared the wizard king as the loud cheer was heard once again.
"Heh, nothing less- Oi, what the hell are you doing?" asked Sekke when he felt his head being held by Yami.
Yami gripped Sekke's head tightly and then used reinforcement magic.
"Oi! Yami-san don't tell me-"
"Like you once said, brat. YEET!!" said Yami as he threw Sekke towards the stage.
Sell who was now in the looked towards the stage where he was about to fall.
His grimoire started flipping as mana gathered near the stage.
[Bronze Creation Magic: Giant's Hand]
A giant hand made of bronze then appeared near him as Sekke landed on it.
The hands then slowly descended on the stage as Sekke jumped off and landed near Julius.
"That was quite the entrance," said Julius.
"Blame Yami-san for it," replied Sekke.
"No no, it was a great entrance," said Julius with a laugh.
He then faced the crowd and started speaking once again.
"Sekke-kun here is an exceptional magic knight. He joined the Black Bulls this year and set the record for the fastest promotion amongst all the magic knights to date, earning the rank of Senior Magic Knight, Third Class. As of now the total stars earned by him alone is 96."
"Reverse Noice," said Vritra.
'Toit.' replied Sekke.
The crowd cheered and congratulated Sekke making the dark lord's smile widen. His effort was finally recognized in front of such a large crowd and this made him quite happy and excited.
"Great job my other half," said Vritra. Being his sacred gear he could feel the waves of happiness that were being released by Sekke and this made him happy for his host as well.
'Thanks, Vritra.' thanked Sekke as right now he felt a bit emotional.
Sekke then continued to stare at the scene in front of him for a while before he closed his eyes with a smile on his face.
'...Vritra, I don't know how to express this...but I am feeling like I might cry...' thought Sekke.
"Heh, this is the result of your hard work. The unwavering will and a mentality to reach the goals that you set for yourself. All these things made you what you are today.....Also, I and that super strong relic sword of yours have a great part to play here but- Are you really crying?!?!"
Sekke who had a huge smile on his face had some tears flowing down his cheek.
"*Sniff**Sniff*...No!" replied Sekke.
"...Who knew our dark lord was such a crybaby," said Vritra as he watched over his host.
Leaving the emotional dark lord aside, Julius soon listed out the rest of the squad ranks and the final list was as follows:
-------------------
1. Black Bulls- 197 stars
2. Golden Dawn- 120 stars
3. Crimson Lions- 106 stars
4. Silver Eagles- 95 stars
5. Blue Rose- 83 stars
6. Green Praying Mantises- 69 stars
7. Coral Peacocks- 67 stars
8. Purple Orcas- 51 stars
9. Aqua Deer- 49 stars
---------------------