Manli stepped off the train and immediately felt the festive atmosphere of The Capital.
Yes, it was the quinquennial national competition again, where all the Churches had gathered their Apprentices to The Capital in the name of the royal family for a month-long combat tournament.
This brought back memories to Manli of when she was younger; back then, her brother was still alive. He was a senior student at the Church of the War God and had led the senior team of the Church of the War God to a miraculous victory in that competition—wresting the Sydney Victory Cup's four-year ownership from the hands of the Church of Justice.
Such beautiful memories indeed. Back then, all her older brothers and sisters were around, the younger siblings were still little, and her father and mother looked after the home.
