Thankfully, the house arrest did not last too long. With the tournament being around the corner, naturally, there is no need for the house arrest.
And so, Ryker walked outside to be greeted by a carriage waiting in front of the mansion. The door opened to reveal Dory, who gave him a smile.
"Come on, get in," she said. Slightly stunned, Ryker did as the princess told, and enter the carriage. Once he did so, he asked, "Do all the competitors get retrieved by a princess?" he teased the blonde.
The princess snorted before replying, "No, but you are special. You are a part of my eldest brother faction. Not to mention both father and uncle have shown some interest towards you, so, there is that,"
"Nice to know I am special," he said before looking out at the window. Dory did not said anything, letting the entire ride to go on with silence.
-x-
When they reached their stop, one of the guard opened the door, with Ryker coming out first, followed by the only daughter of the King.
He helped the princess, the lesson on etiquette still seared in his mind. After he did so, he turned his gaze towards the place of the tournament.
He had expected it to be a lot bigger than the ones he had seen before, with the Birak Capital City being the largest city he had ever seen, for now. But still, even with him putting as much expectation as he did, it still unable to stop him from gapping in awe at the sight of the supposed arena.
"Impressive, isn't?" Dory asked with a cheeky tone, causing his eyes to twitch for a bit before nodding.
"Come," the blonde princess quickly walked ahead of him, "We need to get you to waiting room," the dual-haired man followed, while ignoring the envious gazes of the guards.
-x-
It took them 20 minutes to reach the place, not because of they getting lost, but because the place is so huge, even if they took a straight line to the room, it took them that long to reach there.
As Ryker opened the door, Dory having left him the moment they reached the room, saying something along the line 'I did not want to get involve,', he could see several others already in the room, all of them a part of the Crown Prince's faction.
"Ryker, you arrive early," Lariz asked in surprise, the prince currently wearing a ceremonial robe for the tournament.
His brows arched before he came into a conclusion. He merely nodded while discretely sending a message to the other man. When he receive it, he check it before his eyes bulged for a brief second before he acted normal, looking nothing had surprised him.
"Alright, I will not hold you back anymore. All of you are part of my faction, with specialization in combat. So, you will contribute in getting as high places as possible.
While the rules will be told during the start, as well as the form of the tournament, the King had told me of the requirement to win the tournament, which is to get as many points as possible. What this mean, I am not sure but what I can be sure of is that all of you need to do your best.
That is all the help I can give for you, so try and win this, do you hear me?!"
A loud reply of "Yes, your excellency resounded inside the room,"
"Good, so do your best," the Crown Prince then led them to the arena, though Ryker do feel slightly anxious with the plans of the King for the tournament.
Soon, the representative of the other princes began to show themselves. While they may seem split up, all of the person in the room knew that there is only two camps, the Crown Prince, and everyone else.
So, a tense wait happened in the arena, though most people wish to get it started already. After all with a massive scale tournament as it is, there are many people in the stadium, as they all eager to watch the tournament that could decide who would be the true heir of the Kingdom.
As people began to get bored, the two most important people showed up, the Grand Duke and the King, who seat themselves as the common people looked at the King, as aside from some event, it is hard to see the ruler of the Kingdom unless one is a part of the royalty and nobility.
As the King walked towards his supposed spot, he quickly stood up and began to give a speech.
"All of you are here to watch the tournament that might decide who will rule the Kingdom. However before we can start there will be some rules.
"First, this is a tournament, not a death battle, so any attempt to kill someone will result in the perpetrators, and the prince he was under, to be disqualified of the entire tournament while the prince would find himself being stripped of from the line of succession,"
The King's word send shivers down the princes, realizing the danger of crossing the lines. So, they have to stop most of the plan they have, most of it, concerningly but not to surprisingly, all of it aimed at the dual-haired prodigy.
"Second, the more comprehensive rules..."
And so, the King of Birak Kingdom began to tell the rules of the tournament,
"As the prince had been told before, the competition would be about the overall victory. While the victor of the main tournament would receive a lot of point, if they lost the other part of the tournament, they might lose the race for succession.
Now, there would be several competitions, with the combatant could only participate in one tournament. First, is the main competition, in which each prince would sent their strongest fighters. The prince could send as many as three participants.
The first round would be an elimination round, with the last remaining 4 would continue on the next day, following the standard tournament rule. For the second competition, it would be a team event, that will follow the standard tournament ruled, except it would be for teams.
For the third competitions, it would be about..." and so, the King began to explain the other competitors, stopping at the 10 competitions. As the King finished, telling the different competitions and rules, he then gave one final words.
"And may the best prince won the tournament!" the crowd cheered, excitement can be heard in their voice as they were eager to watcht the matches.