That night, almost none of the contestants slept. They searched high and low in the city searching for the treasure or even a hint of it. However everyone came up empty handed.
When the next morning rolled around, some portions of the city were drowned in chaos as fire and smoke alike rose into the sky. The small castle in the distance seemed completely undisturbed though.
Contestants were starting to get desperate to be the first to get the treasure, so they started to get more reckless.
As such, the guards and the contestants were constantly getting in to fights, leaving the streets stained in blood. The citizens locked their doors and closed up their windows. No sane citizens were in the streets anymore, instead it was just the two warring factions.
Auclair sat calmly on a roof and watched the sun slowly rise into the sky. It had been a long time since he had been able to see a sunrise.
Once it had risen enough, he smiled slightly before standing.
'I'd be fun to eat it, but I'm a long way from that… But I can't help but feel I'm forgetting something.'
He pondered for a moment before shaking his head and stepping off the roof. He landed on the cobble street with a quiet clack.
He started walking around and found dozens of veiled stares coming from the buildings. He ignored the stares and casually began searching for guards.
Auclair was one of the few contestants who didn't bother with clues. If this was a game, the king surely had it, especially given the setting. If it was a game taking place in a real world, it was still undoubtedly the king.
All the clues pointed to it, so why even bother looking for it until later. Auclair instead hunted down the guards to steal their hearts. He could very slowly feel his body recovering, but nothing would truly happen until he could use magic.
Without magic he wouldn't be able to repair the crack in his core. Without the crack in his core fixed, he'd just slowly lose the power he obtained.
As Auclair thought that, he saw another contestant enter the street from an alley. The two locked eyes for a moment.
"Thanks for kicking me." They suddenly said.
"Oh, it's you." Auclair turned, "Yeah, yeah. Good luck on the trial."
Auclair dismissed him immediately.
"Huh?"
Norman ran after Auclair.
"That's it? Don't you want to team up? I don't have any teammates and you don't seem to either."
"I'm alright alone."
"Oh." Norman stopped, and mumbled, "Nobody ever wants to team up with me."
Auclair stopped and sighed.
'Is he really trying to guilt trip me?'
Auclair glanced behind him to find Norman sulking against a building with pouted lips.
'Shame it won't work.'
Auclair kept walking before shouting, "Just head to the execution. That's where the treasure will be."
"I know that though." Norman sighed.
"Well, do it anyway." Auclair replied as he turned into an alleyway and disappeared.
'Tsk. Puppy eyes don't work on him. Maybe he'll team up with me at the execution.'
Norman thought with a smile. He had headed to the alley he had told Auclair to head down hoping to eventually find him in that direction.
Instead what he found were obvious signs of battle. Until now, he had thought Auclair was captured, but he was happy he wasn't. He didn't really want to participate in the games, but the champion's wish was so alluring.
There were so many things he could do with it. But he already had something in mind.
Around noon, Auclair was standing over a pair of bodies. Neither had tasty nor nutritious hearts, so Auclair just hid them in an alley.
Auclair scratched his neck in confusion.
'That first guy I killed must've been really strong.'
Besides that one giant man, who was completely armored, Auclair hadn't fought anyone who survived a single hit. Everybody else was so weak.
As he thought that, a large bell could be heard throughout the city and it's outskirts.
There was one other thing Auclair had done last night, and that was find out where it was. After finding the location, he realized he didn't know when it was taking place. The town criers said it was at the city square, but not when.
But after asking some guards politely, he found out it'd be soon after the noon bell tolled.
So Auclair began heading out, choosing to head to the rooftops and go from there. The city was tightly packed so jumping from building to building was rather easy for him.
In no time, he arrived. In the square, there was a massive tower behind a large water fountain, both seemed to have a considerable amount of money pumped into them. Then were the gallows in front.
He found what seemed to be all the nearby citizens cheering at the gallows and the executioner on it. There were guards stationed everywhere, and among each group there seemed to be a giant knights like before.
Auclair eyes widened. He had killed the previous giant and inspected his face to make sure it wasn't a literal giant. But instead it was a just a regular man. Now he was doubting himself.
'Are they just giant younglings? Have their appearances become more mature at a smaller age since when I was sealed?'
Auclair was simply flabbergasted.
'No, there has to something else at work here. There's no way they're actually giants.'
However, he wasn't sure what could've been. It wasn't demons because the previous giant's heart would've tasted inedible due to a bad karma.
Auclair shoved it to the back of his mind and continued looking around. He spotted that fellow from before in the crowd with his head down. Then he saw even more guards come in from another street.
Behind them followed a long line of men and women all chained together in shackles. However, almost none of them looked frightened about what was to come. And Auclair knew why.
'They're all contestants. If they're like that lady from the line, they'll have magic. Since this is a magic-less world, they'll be able to easily escape. They probably figured the king was nuts and would be coming to oversee the execution.'
Auclair chuckled.
'The king really screwed himself over on this.'
As they started making their way to the gallows, Auclair began to feel a presence sneak up on him. They stopped however when a man stepped out of the large tower.
'So that's the king. Surrounded by guards- no. He's surrounded by soldiers.'
On each side of the king was two gold plated soldiers. They had their helmets on with their visors up as they stared eagle eyed into the crowd, looking for any threats. Auclair could instantly tell just from their composure that they had seen true battles more than once.
The king however, could not compare to his soldiers. He was a feeble man with eyes filled with suspicion. He seemed to be looking everywhere as he clutched his hand in fright.
No amount of makeup could hide his hollow cheeks or scrawny bones. He licked his lips and addressed the people.
"Citizens! These blasphemer's think they can enter our city and steal what's rightfully mine!"
The citizens immediately paused their cheers and focused on the king's language. In the meantime, Auclair felt the presence begin creeping towards him again.
"What's rightfully his?"
"Does that mean the foreigners were right?"
"Is the treasure real?"
The crowd burst out into whispers and gossip. The citizens knew why the contestants were here, destroying their already crumbling city. It was because of some fabled "treasure."
However, they were all poor and stuck in the worst famine in ages. Who in their right mind would horde treasure at a time like this.
"Silence!" The king's loud voice seemed to be the only impressive thing about him.
The same presence was right behind Auclair, creeping ever closer, with not so much as a peep.
"I will not have my own people slander me! Unless… Unless you're spies too… Yes… They must be spies! Guard's seize them!"
The soldier's looked at each other in confusion. They knew their king had gone off the deep end, but so far as to arrest his own citizens? Over nothing as well?
"You know what?! I'm sick of you! I wish King Frederick was still here!"
"Yeah!"
"Go to hell you wicked bastard!"
The crowd started growing rowdy, especially once the guards tried to make some arrests. Auclair could see the chained contestants whispering amongst themselves and coming to a conclusion.
All happening right as the presence was upon Auclair.
Auclair spun around with his heel stuck out. He struck the same lady from the line right in the head and she was sent flying into the roof of the next building over.
"Gwen!" Auclair heard a yelp. Someone from a nearby roof stuck their head out and desperately made his way over to the lady.
At the same time, the citizens started wailing on their oppressors. Hitting them with whatever they could find. The guard's immediately retaliated, using their fist's to subdue people out of fear of their own lives, rather than the king's orders.
Then, all the contestants shackles fell off. Not even with so much as a hint to why. They all began activating various spells and spreading out.
Fire rose into the sky, as lightning struck down. Water flew out and the ground began tearing itself apart.
Upon the pandemonium that broke out all of a sudden, the king's hands separated, revealing a beautiful ring. It seemed to be made out of some sort of a glowing gemstone.
Immediately, a large portion of the contestant's noticed it.
"The king!"
"His finger, there's a ring!"
While not everyone wanted to share the information, they still needed to pass it along to their teammates. Thus resulting in even those who were unaware of it to having an updated goal.
[Take the ring from the fraudulent king.]
"Oh." Auclair smiled at the message. He looked back at the lady who had been smashed into the building and the man prying her out.
"Sis, sis… Are you alright?! Please!"
The man inspected the wound on her head. It seemed severe, but not life threatening.
"I'll kill you, you bastard!"
"Good luck to you then." Auclair grinned before falling backwards off the roof.
The man gently put his sister Gwen down and rushed to where Auclair was standing just moments before. Only to look out at the city square to find it encompassed in complete chaos.