Closing his fists and opening them again, Lieren repeated this motion a dozen times and wondered to himself, tilting his head:
'Have I gotten stronger?'
It has been a day and a half since fighting Scorpio and meeting Harita again, all of that time which he has been spending recuperating his broken bones and battered body and collecting mana; who knows when he'll get another moment's respite again?
Looking down with a speculative gaze, he shrugged and looked up, stretched his newly-recovered body and heaved a big sigh, calming himself down with slap in the face.
"…Curious."
Then, he opened the door and went inside. There were various papers, reports, and information about the other families, even those who allegedly chose not to participate.
Of course, all of them had been hoax. There's just no conceivable way that anybody would pass up the once-in-a-lifetime chance to usurp the mightiest military force and rising political power in this godforsaken city. Luckily, with the recent investment of the Exousia famiglia in stealth and information-gathering, courtesy of a certain ghostly girl, the amount of intel gathering at this very room was astounding.
Sadly, those praises only serve as hell for the people actually involved.
"Gah! What is this?! Why did the Silata by such a thing, don't they know that's just a scam?! The buffoons!"
"Hmm… including the recent development, the elimination of one main contestant, and the momentum at which we've been progressing… the chances to win have gone up from point zero seven to point zero six. Nice."
"What's a morning star cannon?"
"Hey, could you get me the recent documents about the Exousia main relatives again? I'm quite curious about something. It's urgent."
"No. You'll just look at Lady Blessen again, anyways. Get back to work."
"I refuse!"
"This girl…"
Approaching a certain table, Lieren conjured mana into a simple stick, felt it waver and collapse, then ultimately shatter into bright sparks, and sighed. With a remorseful look, he picked up a fountain pen lying on the table and used it to poke the hunched figure, dozing off in the middle of work.
With a grumble that reminded him of an oncoming storm, the figure shifted a little and groaned. She complained:
"Five more minutes."
'…Nostalgic.'
Putting the pen down, Lieren picked up a particularly heavy binder of reports and intel… and smacked the lady in the head.
She shifted a little, then went right back to sleep with a light grumble: sturdy as a rock and unruly like the storms.
Looking at the stern sage with apparent reproach, Lieren reached over her and picked up a particularly-suspicious document, and formed a complicated expression.
The contents were very, very interesting.
Looking back at her with approval, he grinned and moved further into the room, where even more stacks of documents and dossiers were gathered like some kind of impenetrable fortress. Behind it sat — straight like an arrow — the familiar stuck-up attendant, flipping through numerous stacks like she was the very air itself. If he didn't know any further, he might have thought that Mysta was leaving afterimages.
Shaking his head at the thought, as well as the oncoming feeling of drowsiness, Lieren just crafted a smile and looked at her with his usual inquisitive expression.
"Hey there, would you mind if I asked something?"
"Yes."
Ignoring her response wholeheartedly, Lieren merely walked over to her side, told an assistant to move aside amicably, and peeked at her work. He pulled out the pendants of Aries and Taurus — the Silata family's representative and his assigned designation respectively.
"What exactly are these? It seems a little too fancy and extravagant to be a welcoming gift or trinket, so…"
Resounding reverberantly from his side sat a blind monk, a walking stick in her slender hand, she said simply:
"It's a proof of participation. Each representative has one, and you can't be a contestant without one. They're not all pendants: there's are plain necklace, bracelet, and even a crown; there's even a hairpin. Bottom line is, you can never let that thing out of your sight, nor can you let go of it in any way. Doing so would be the same as forfeiting the competition. However, as long as you have one of them, then you're still in the game."
"Even if it wasn't the one I started with?"
She nodded.
"Yes. But that would mean allying yourself with another famiglia, one you just killed the chosen contestant of. Also, just as precaution… if another worthy contestant allied with the respective famiglia were to ever grab ahold of your extra trinket, then that would ultimately make them the nascent representative."
He scowled, a little confused.
"But, wouldn't that be against the rules? I mean, if the goal is to eliminate all the other contestants, then shouldn't a feature like that not even exist? What, are we just supposed to kill ten entire famiglias like it's nothing? That's clearly overkill!"
Master Feng shrugged and continued, her undertone indifferent.
"Well, yes, I understand your reasoning clearly. I myself was very confused when I heard of it to. However, there is a out."
Fully turning to her, Lieren listened attentively, his boundless gluttony peaked.
"If all twelve artifacts are in possession of six players simultaneously, then those members are locked in. They cannot be replaced anymore. And the famiglia that had its artifact stolen is forever shamed for it."
Leaning on the back of Mysta's chair, he crossed his arms and formed a rather odd expression.
"And this happens in an instant…"
He snapped his fingers.
"Like that?"
She shook her head, and Lieren affirmed a doubt of his.
'Of course, it couldn't have been that easy.'
"Unfortunately not. Should a situation like that come about, then a whole minute has to pass before the final selection takes place. If the selection is interrupted or tampered with, then it stops. Simple as that."
Lieren nodded, looking down at his two trinkets.
'I guess that means I have to be extra sneaky, huh?'
Taking the Taurus pendant with his left hand, he weighted it, and sighed to himself for no particular reason.
When the door suddenly shot open, revealing a tall dark-skinned giant, Lieren felt his skin crawl for a moment and put on a somber expression
Something terrifying has come about.