In the heart of the ancient realm, where magic flowed like veins of liquid, Motherland stood –a colossal
citadel carved from the bones of a forgotten god. Its spires pierced the sky, each one representing a
different kingdom, a distinct power. The Tournament of Rookies was about to begin, and the air buzzed
with anticipation.
Representing Forgemire was Kael, the Flamebringer. A seasoned fire mage rookie who earned his title
from levelling a city in hopes of defending, the most promising rookie of the seventh, formally known as
Forgemire, the land swordsmiths. Soldiers of Forgemire can be characterised by their black uniform with a touch of crimson stripes.
From crystalline spires, the Kaldarians descended. Their skin shimmered like facets of gemstones. Mikaela H. Winterstone represented them. She is a well-recognised rookie in Kaldaria, and also a powerful ice magic user. Her ice magic is second to none in Kaldaria.
The ten kingdoms have sent their best of the best. The kingdoms that have gathered here are Nexaria,
Lichtford, Galadrielle, Kaldaria, Forgemire, Motherland, Evesdale, Throkia, Euryo, and Sylvia.
The tournament will have three rounds, where one rookie will be named the best of the best, and
possibly get the chance of ranking up and improving his or her status.
The first round will be a test of intelligence gathering. A seasoned soldiers and a future leader must
have the power to analyse and make decisions based on little details that they have. The ten rookies
will be assigned a unit of twelve people. Amongst the group, they must select a leader and the
opposing group must guess the leader of the other group and eliminate them.
A person can only guess once, and if they make an incorrect choice, they lose this round and get
eliminated.
These rules were shouted out to the rookies as they picked their balls from the overseer's hat. Those who
picked the same colour would go against each other.
Kael picked blue, Mikaela picked red.
Mikaela looked at Kael with disappointment in her eyes, like she had been refused what she deserved,
but Kael ignored her. Her face was too much for him to bare.
The overseer of the round shouted, "BLUE."
Kael stepped up, and a rookie from Lichtford also stepped up. His uniform was royal blue with a touch of gold. As he walked towards the overseer, same as Kael, his face remained calm and hard to read. Kael
couldn't help but to be intimidated by this young fellow. The ten rookies have never met each other
before, they know nothing about each other, nor do they know their magical attributes.
The young man looked at Kael and introduced himself. "I am Zick Szkisch, from the kingdom of Lichtford. I hope you do not cry after I beat your ass."
He had an accent, which made him less intimidating the more he spoke. Kael smiled at him and shook his
hand.
The overseer, formally known as Neith in the military, interrupted their ass-kissing moment, "Well, shall
we begin?"
Twenty-four soldiers from the intelligence appeared out of nowhere the moment she raised her finger.
"These are my soldiers. Each of you will take twelve," she said.
"Additionally, eleven of them are impartial and they will not betray you in favour of the other team so
good luck."
After she said these words, the same thought came to Kael and Zick's minds:
Only eleven? Then one of them is a spy and they will give me the identity of their group's leader without
a second thought. So we cannot trust our own teammates with the identity of the leader.
Kael also thought to himself. "If what I initially thought is true, then I cannot trust the intel that comes from the supposed 'imposter'. If eleven are faithful to me, I can order them to disguise as a fake and send them to the other team to name a fake leader."
These rules were designed by Neith, a master of intelligence gathering. Those who cannot win a guessing game are more than pathetic.
The two teams gathered in different spots to discuss their respective strategies to overcome the other.
Kael, surrounded by twelve people whom he cannot trust, came forward and announced himself as the
leader. His unit held their breaths, without words, their eyes spoke of disapproval.
"Is he oblivious to the fact that there is an imposter among us?" one of them thought to herself.
One of his unit members walked up to Neith and gave her a piece of paper.
Zick in his unit, talked to his members one by one in private. He was obviously naming all of them leaders
of the unit. After speaking to them in private, his unit member walked to Neith to give her a piece of
paper.
Neith compared the two papers and smirked. "Are we ready to make our guesses?"
Kael walked up to Neith and without hesitation, he named Zick as the leader of his team.
Neith asked for reasoning behind his guess and his response was, "He seems like the self-centred person who wouldn't trust others but himself."
Noelle was laughing at the chamber of commanders. The commanders are skilled at this type of mind
games, they knew the leaders before the leaders were selected.
Neith looked at Kael with disappointment unable to hide itself on her face. "That is your reasoning?"
"Yes," he replied.
"Okay then, Zick, it is your turn."
Zick confidently named Kael as the leader of his group. His reasoning was, "The spy in Kael's unit relayed the information to me by winking four times from her direction. I trusted him because a spy would have to relay information in a way that no one else would notice. After all, a good spy blends in."
Neith approved of Zick's reasoning about spies relaying information in a perplexing manner. "Those are some impressive deductions but you are wrong. The leader of Kael's unit was Mei, the girl who brought the paper to me."
Zick was devastated. "That is impossible, he named himself as the leader."
"Yes, he did but he did not write it down. A spy can also be fed shit to eat, they will not always relay
correct information…"
Zick interrupted Neith, "I can also argue that the girl changed the name of the leader on paper."
"I already told you that they were impartial, obviously Kael named her in private, perhaps without
talking. That's how you were able to communicate with your spy, isn't it?"
"Y-yes but…"
"Get out of my face, you lost. Kael moves to the second round. In the end he was correct in naming you as the leader. It seems like he read you like a book the moment you started yapping."
Kael moves to the second round of the tournament with a twist of events. Noelle was laughing at how his
training paid off. A spy is only as good as you want it to be.