On the day of the start of the tournament, Aion woke up feeling like his body was being crushed. It looked like he exaggerated too much in the last few weeks when it came to training. However, he only found his mother crushing him with a bear hug when he woke up.
"Mom… I need to get up," Aion said after sighing.
Artemisia still was sleeping, so she didn't hear anything, but she sure looked happy, like when people were hugging pillow while having a good dream. Aion soon was going to need a bed for himself, but he had been delaying that since his mother didn't have many sources of happiness in her life. She had been in that house for ten years, and she never had the chance to step outside… it was time to end all that.
"Where do you get this much strength from such thin arms?" Aion asked while he was moving away from his mother's arms.
Despite his hard work and how much he punished his body over the years, Aion still grew up a lot. He was only ten, but he was already 1.6 meters tall. Back on Earth, he was 1.8 meters tall, so he was confident and satisfied in reaching that… it would be troublesome if he became even taller and slower.
"I am too, too old to sleep on the same bed as my mom… hopefully, she won't be unreasonable about this in the future," Aion thought. "Regardless, the tournament starts at noon, but I won't be able to relax until then. My inns should be making a lot of money, so checking them might become a problem…"
Aion decided to take some fresh air in the garden before breakfast. Much to his surprise, he saw his brothers there talking with their sisters. It was complicated to approach them since Aion still rarely talked with the sisters, but at least they didn't look at him with eyes full of scorn.
"It has been a while… you have grown more than us," Henri said.
"So, you guys came in the middle of the night to join the tournament…" Aion crossed his arms and then said. "Can't say that I am surprised. Just don't try too hard and get hurt in the process."
"You look confident," Philip said. "I only want to test my skills since I know that I can't defeat father."
"If any of us become his opponent so early in the tournament, that would be really bad," Elio said.
"I think it would be fun if we could show a good fight against him in front of a huge number of people," Georges added.
Aion was already certain that his brothers wouldn't defeat him in a serious fight… they had no ambition of winning. Moreover, while they had new weapons, they didn't prepare as much as Aion for the tournament. His last three years had the sole goal of winning that.
In any case, Aion wished that he didn't have to fight them. They will use real weapons, and while some healers will be around to prevent deaths, accidents can still happen in such situations.
Aion talked with his brothers until breakfast, and while they invited him to walk around the capital and enjoy the week of holidays, he refused since the sisters would be with them. It would be bad to get in the way since they couldn't see each other often.
"Aion, I know it is too late to convince you otherwise, but don't go too far on this tournament," Artemisia said while they were having breakfast.
"Don't worry, mom," Aion said. "I will easily win. I can do it even using a single arm."
"When did you get so confident?" Artemisia asked and then sighed. "There are a lot of strong people in this world, not many of them are in this kingdom, but even so, you can also lose to experience and to someone smart."
"I am considering all that when I say that I will win," Aion said. "If things get dicey, I also have my trump card."
"As long as you use that to return in one piece…" Artemisia said.
If Aion was too confident, his mother had nothing but worries. Regardless, any last-hour training would only tire Aion out, so he took a nap until noon and had lunch. The life of a lazy bum wasn't so bad… When enjoyed now and then.
After lunch, Aion equipped the light armor that he had asked a blacksmith to forge for him. Since he was growing, he made it so that he could adjust the size. It ended up being a bit showing since it was dark blue and red and had some golden parts… the blacksmith got carried away since Aion found some good materials, and even though he kept his identity hidden, that guy still figured out that he was rich.
"You look so cool, Aion!" Artemisia said.
"Armors are made to protect, not to make someone look cool," Aion said. "Even without one I am already cool enough."
"Perhaps we shouldn't help your ego grow more than already is…" Artemisia said.
"Well, I will probably only return at night since I will study my opponents after the matches," Aion said. "See you later, mom."
"Don't get hurt, okay?" Artemisia asked. "Don't be too mean to your opponents, don't be rude to them. Be respectful to the audience. And…"
Artemisia stayed like that for a while, and Aion listened to every single thing. Eventually, he left while his eardrums were throbbing a bit, and then he saw a lot of people heading to the east side of the city, where an arena had been built for the event. Aion's aura changed as soon he found the place…