Scarlet

“I want to reroll,” I grumble as I sit in my chair inside of my private booth while crossing my arms and glaring at the brackets like that will change the free pass that I got making me skip the third round. “This is unfair.”

“I’m pretty sure most people would be wanting the free pass, not complaining about it…” Allen mutters as he looks at me from his seat next to me with an amused look on his face, the man having randomly come by to visit at some point. Unlike the others who are all keeping their distance so that I can ‘focus on the tournament.’

“That’s exactly what Tar said,” I mutter, not turning my glare away from the brackets.

We watch the battles going on in the arena for a few minutes in silence before Allen eventually asks, “So your reality warp moved your heart? Or did it give you another one?”

I glance at him before focusing on the battle again and answering, “I got a second heart.”

“Impressive,” Allen says, but I keep focusing on the battle.

It is rather impressive. Or it would be, if it was actually my reality warp that did it.

Reality warps often change more than just the exterior of a person’s body, a fact that some people apparently don’t realize. They can shift around the interior or even give them new organs, both ones that are normally in a humans and ones that aren’t. Just that it’s rarer for that sort of thing to happen. Especially for a second heart.

But in reality, it was my awakening as a demon that gave me a second heart. Not my reality warp.

I glance at him for a second before focusing on the battle again.

Now’s not the time to tell him. Especially not in a magical reality.

I’ll just stick to telling him about my heritage after the Class V Fracture.

Anyways, the third round lasts for three hours, following which the fourth round will begin after an hour long break. And the fourth round will have already narrowed down the competition to just thirty-seven participants. A much smaller number than the original two hundred and ninety one.

I can’t help but feel bad for whoever had to organize the tournament though. Because 291 competitors is not a simple number to separate into brackets.

Hence why over half the rounds have a free pass given to one participant at random. Like the one I got this round that I would very much like to give to someone else so that I can fight some more, but that’s not allowed.

Unfortunately.

I let out a sigh before resting my cheek up against my hand, my elbow resting on the chair’s armrest.

Just where did that tanuki run off to anyways? He just vanished out of nowhere at some point not too long after the brackets for the third tournament were announced.

At least when he’s around I can fill the time by peppering him with questions.

“By the way, Cynthia wants us to take you out to dinner tonight to celebrate if you make it into the fifth round,” Allen suddenly says, making me glance over at him for a second before turning my attention back to the screen. Before I can mutter an okay to that though, he adds, “And she was looking to buy you a dress to celebrate in.”

My head jerks back to look at him as horror fills my eyes and I immediately say, “Denied. I am not going.”

He immediately begins laughing at that before shaking his head and saying, “Yeah, I thought that’d be your answer.” He then looks at me and winks as he adds, “Don’t worry. Don’t tell Cynthia this, but you don’t have to wear the dress she picks out. Just come in whatever you want to wear.”

I let out a sigh of relief at that while relaxing. “Thank you.”

Allen chuckles while reaching over and patting me on the head, his hand grazing my ears in the process and making me stiffen up while moving my head away.

“Oh, right,” he mutters, “the ears. Sorry about that.”

I narrow my eyes at him for a second until I realize it truly was an honest mistake and I focus on the arena again.

It’s nice to have someone who doesn’t care at all about my ears. And Tar said that there are ways to lower the sensitivity of my ears, so that’s good.

Apparently the sensitivity of my ears physically is tied to how strong I currently have my hearing. So when I eventually learn to control my hearing and lower it, I’ll be able to lower the physical sensitivity of my actual ears themselves.

Which is a must have, since they could be an actual problem in combat. Especially after I lose my human ears.

No one wants to be beaten by a dog whistle after all.

Unless I get pain diffusion to a high enough level that I don’t feel it anymore that is. Then I’ll be fine either way.

Actually, that makes me want to train pain diffusion more.

“Please don’t go mutilating yourself,” Tar suddenly says, having apparently returned from where he went.

Now why would I ever do that?

“You… whatever,” Tar mutters, sounding slightly exasperated. “Anyways, I got some news. You’ve probably already guessed this by now, but all of the Knights are contracted to royal fae. So the human faction of the fae just got together and had a meeting where they shared some intel amongst themselves. Intel that I normally wouldn’t be able to tell you but can now because of this meeting.”

My eyes widen at that.

Yeah, I kind of guessed that the Knights must be contracted to fae royalty. But what does this meeting have to do with what you can and can’t tell me?

“Well, normally I can’t tell you the whereabouts of other humans or demons without their permission, and this meeting gave me the permission to tell you some of that for a particular moment in time,” Tar says, sounding rather happy about that.

That’s good. Let me guess though, this moment in time is the start of the Class V Fracture?

“Yep,” Tar says while appearing in my lap and briefly startling Allen. “White, Black, and Blue will all be in the capital city, Terra, at the start of the Class V Fracture, which will also be in the capital. Meanwhile Red and Purple will be on the front lines against the demons from Demon Isle. At the same time, various other Class IV and Class V Guardians will be moving to the city before the Class V Fracture takes place to keep it defended and make sure to contain as much of the Class V Fracture as possible within the city. And there will be an evacuation of the city during the two weeks prior to the Fracture’s predicted opening.”

Oh, wow. That’s a lot.

Good to know that there will be an evacuation at least. I’m pretty sure a single Class V demon can shatter a building’s shield in just a single punch after all, so the Fracture will spread to the rest of the city almost instantly after forming.

Although Class V Fractures are different from others. Because there aren’t any non-sapient Class V demons, Class V Fractures also have Class III and IV demons in them, with only about a hundred or so noble demons, and a couple clan noble demons at most.

Or at least, that’s what was taught in demonology this last semester happened in the last Class V Fractures.

Come to think of it, did this prediction come from Purple?

Tar doesn’t say anything for a few seconds before shaking his head and answering, “No. I can’t tell you who it came from.”

My eyes widen.

It wasn’t Purple? Huh.

That’s a surprise.

Wonder who made the prediction then?