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Chapter 385: Dark Demon, the Mastermind Behind the Scenes
"Next, let's welcome the seventh-place contestant."
Slightly bending down, Senior Sister Judy smiled and nodded at Dark, revealing a flash of whiteness under her neck.
Dark didn't let his eyes wander, remaining calm and collected.
Senior Sister Judy turned around and introduced him to the audience, "To be honest, before the results came out, I couldn't picture how a first-year student would be able to win a qualifying spot amidst a pool of second and third-year students, but contestant Dark Demon has flawlessly presented this scene to me. I think the audience here will similarly never forget the wonderful performance he and his magical spirits have shown us. Now, it's my turn to give him a short introduction."
True to her words, this introduction was indeed very short.
Basically, Senior Sister Judy only read out all the awards Dark had received since the start of school and made no mention of his family background.
Most of the time, a student’s family background would assist them in their path in life, but sometimes, it might also bring unnecessary troubles.
The academy obviously didn’t wish to carry over those things into the competition.
In the first place, becoming an excellent magister would be enough to rival or even surpass the status of half of the nobles.
So, the audience only needed to know that they were students of Noble House.
After finishing the introduction, Senior Sister Judy turned around and blinked at him. "Dark Demon, do you have anything to say to everyone?"
Dark gave a slight nod, then took a step forward and took the microphone from Senior Sister Judy's hand. Looking at the tens of thousands of spectators in the auditorium, he said, "Happy Easter."
Then, he returned the microphone to Senior Sister Judy.
But as Senior Sister Judy grabbed the microphone, she simultaneously held down his fingers with her slender fingers, making it impossible for him to step back.
Thereupon, Judy, who should have moved on to the next contestant, blinked hard and asked, "Is there anything else you want to say?"
Falling into silence, Dark's gaze promptly drifted towards Mary Bond beside him.
But Senior Sister Mary stood straight as a ramrod, her eyes fixedly staring ahead.
With a press of her fingers, Senior Sister Judy pushed the microphone back into Dark's hand and whispered, "This is your first time on the stage, try to make a deeper impression on the audience."
Only then did Dark adjust his expression and loudly proclaim, "This year is my first time spending Easter in the academy, so I participated in planning this Easter Duel Festival in hopes that we can bring joy to more people through dueling."
Afterwards, he handed the microphone back to Senior Sister Judy again.
Senior Sister Judy was stunned for a second, but she quickly took the microphone and immediately said, "I never imagined that this Easter Duel Festival was actually planned by Dark. The preliminary battle royale really brought me a lot of excitement, and watching the duels truly made me feel happy. I think everyone in the audience probably feels the same way as I do. So, let us thank Dark Demon for bringing us such a wonderful and fun duel festival!"
A thunderous applause broke in an instant!
Regardless of whether or not Dark could win more victories in the subsequent duels, the impression he left on the audience was already deep enough.
Especially when Easter egg figurines started becoming popular—more and more people would probably remember his name.
It was an impression that had nothing to do with his family background—be it the Demon family, the Duke's son, or so on—and belonged solely to him.
No matter good or bad.
……
It wasn't until the applause stopped did Senior Sister Judy at last move on to introduce Mary Bond who came in eighth place.
Soon after, Senior Sister Mary proved to Dark that what she told him wasn't a deception.
She, too, only said a simple "Happy Easter" to the audience.
……
Hitherto, the introduction of the sixteen qualifying contestants was succinctly wrapped up.
Senior Sister Judy waited until they successively left the stage before starting to announce the rules of the main round.
Since the rules of the main round were very simple, there was no need to repeat any unnecessary details.
Dark followed the seniors into the passage for contestants. Then, the fourth to sixth year students continued to move forward, while the first to third year students all stopped at the entrance of the passage.
Among eight contestants, there were five third years, two second years, and one first year.
But it seemed that the students of the same year didn't have a close relationship.
Even fellow third-year Noble House students Mike Irving and Stuart Fawn had nothing to talk about.
As for Senior Sister Winnie Skadi from Magister House, she straight away took out a palm-sized book, leaned against the wall, and started reading.
She was truly making every second count without a single break.
Dark was actually quite curious about what she was reading. After all, that sort of palm-sized book would usually not be of serious content, but he suppressed his curiosity.
In comparison, the third-year Knight House senior seemed to be quite easy to talk to.
But ultimately, it was still Senior Sister Mary who was easier to talk to.
And thus, Dark asked her, "Senior sister, what should we do next?"
"Wait." Senior Sister Mary held up a finger and curled her lips.
Dark helplessly continued to ask, "So what exactly are we waiting for?"
Mary finally smiled and answered, "What else? Wait to go on stage. Soon, Judy will draw two number tags from a box, and those whose numbers are drawn will directly go up for the duel. Our junior group will be up first, that's why we're all waiting here. I really hope you and I will be drawn next, that way I can get an easy win."
Face turning dark, Dark replied, "I hope so."
Of course, he knew that Senior Sister Mary was joking.
After figuring out the particulars, Dark began estimating the time.
In the preliminary battle royale, he had only used one [Pride III], and he used it right from the beginning.
By now, the approximately one hour CD time had obviously already passed.
Therefore, the magic cards in his deck were all available for use.
"The number of deadly sin cards is too few—this is really quite troublesome. In the early stage of competition, the interval will be very long, so there's no need to worry. But when there aren’t many contestants left, it’ll be quite dangerous."
As a light frown formed on his face, he couldn't help mulling over it.
Standing opposite him, Mike Irving actually wanted to say hello to him, but due to the presence of Stuart Fawn, who was also a member of the Aristocratic History Research Society, it was truly quite untimely for him to try to approach Dark.
In fact, Mike Irving didn’t take this Easter Duel Festival too seriously. The reason he participated in the competition… was to relax.
However, he didn’t expect that Angus Jeffrey had yet to give up on making trouble for Dark, which made things rather difficult for him.
But now that the matter had come to this point, he could only adapt to circumstances.
"How about I just simply lose?"
Mike Irving was racking his brain.
"As long as I lose quick enough, I won't have to worry about running up against him. Bingo! That's it!"
……
On the host podium, unlike what Mary said, Judy didn’t bring out a black box that contained the number tags.
She waved her hand to the back, and the backstage staff immediately carried out a table with eight Easter eggs neatly arranged on top of it.
Judy walked up to the table with a smile, picked up a small hammer from the table, and said to the audience, "Next, I will pick two among these eight Easter eggs, crack them open, and take out the number tags inside to decide the contestants of the first duel. Is everyone ready?"
After giving the audience some time to react, Judy raised the small hammer and shook it, then randomly picked an Easter egg and knocked it hard.
Crack!
The Easter egg completely shattered from top to bottom, revealing a large number tag inside.
Judy picked up the number tag and faced it towards the audience.
She also showed it in the direction of the contestants’ passage.
……
"No. 129… it's actually me?"
Mike Irving instantly perked up.
Next, as long as he lost quickly enough, he could switch roles into a spectator and watch the competition from the ring belt.
He still had Maggie waiting for him below.
"Too bad I failed to hold back during the preliminary battle royale."
Mike Irving continued to look at the host podium, waiting for Judy to crack the second Easter egg.
……
"Contestant No. 129 is Mike Irving, a third-year student from Noble House. It seems that he’ll be the first contestant to appear in the main round. Next, let's continue to announce the second contestant."
Judy once again picked up the small hammer and slammed it down at an Easter egg in the corner.
Crack!
As the Easter egg shattered, she asked the audience, "So, who will be the next contestant? Let me see..."
When she picked up the number tag this time, Judy was obviously a little surprised. She turned her head and glanced at the entrance of the passage, then suddenly turned up her volume and loudly announced, "For the main round of the junior group of this Easter Duel Festival, the first match will be third-year Noble House student Mike Irving versus first-year Noble House student—Dark Demon!"
"F*ck!"
Inside the passage for contestants, as a shudder swept over him, Mike Irving abruptly raised his head to look at Dark opposite him.
Almost at the same time, Dark also turned to look at him.
The two people's eyes met.
Dark looked rather cordial, whereas Mike Irving heaved a sharp sigh.
He could already feel Stuart Fawn's gloomy gaze on him.
"Is this what they call when it rains, it pours?"
Even if he didn't go all out in this duel, he wouldn't be able to skip his duty.
Unless he really didn't want to continue staying in the Aristocratic History Research Society.
With his past position, he had offended almost all the large clubs during his times in the Aristocratic History Research Society.
Once he quit, he would have nowhere else to go.
"There's no other choice—I can only bite the bullet."
Mike Irving nodded to Dark and took the lead to walk out of the passage.
At this instance, his back looked a little inexplicably heroic.
Just like… a general leaving for battle.
"?"
A small question mark appeared in Dark's mind, full of doubts about Mike Irving's behavior.
This is Easter, what are you acting like that for?
Do you think today is April Fool's Day?
Wait, today is also April Fool's Day—that’s fine then.
Dark straightened his collar and stepped towards the entrance of the passage.
……
As the two contestants appeared one after another, the atmosphere in the audience once again heightened.
Although Dark didn't have much popularity yet, Mike Irving was surprisingly quite popular.
After walking out of the passage, the two contestants walked to opposite sides of the stage under the guidance of the staff.
Since Irving was the first contestant to be selected, he was on the red side, while Dark was on the blue side.
Due to the separation of the two contestants, the audience's attention was subsequently divided.
Mike Irving had his fans, but for casual spectators, they obviously tended to favor the planner of this duel festival.
Most of the audience probably felt that being able to see a planner who was supposed to be behind the scenes personally go up on the duel stage was a very delightful thing.
In short, many people gave this first-year “mastermind behind the scenes” a very warm applause.
Amidst the applause, Dark walked to the bottom of the blue-side contestant’s platform and raised his legs to climb up the stairs.
Speaking of which, this was merely his second time going up the stairs of the contestant platform, but his steps were fairly proficient, with no sense of jerkiness to his movements.
When he got onto the contestant platform, he subconsciously turned his head to where he last saw Senior Sister Pandora and surprisingly found that she was quietly sitting there.
Today, seemingly because she had two "little chubby piggies" with her, the atmosphere around her had become a lot more relaxed, without too many empty seats around.
When Pandora saw him looking over, she slightly raised her hand to her chest and gave him a small wave.
Dark couldn't help smiling.
When he looked away, his smile immediately widened.
Because he was lucky enough to see Alvette and Claire sitting in the utmost front row of the auditorium.
Dark was actually quite surprised by his mother and teacher's attendance.
He originally thought that an Easter competition like this wouldn’t catch their attention, but now it seemed that it wasn't the case.
"Is it because they knew I was going to participate? Or is it because of something else?"
With thoughts revolving in his mind, Dark raised his hand and vigorously waved at them!
Alvette fervently responded at once.
This time, there was no eldest princess to hold down her hand, so she could finally wave as much as she wanted.
Seeing his mother's face again, Dark's heart was filled with warmth.
He still remembered how his mother didn't give him any response the previous time, which made him feel disheartened for a long time.
But no matter how much he missed her, he couldn't show it on the contestant platform.
After Dark finished waving, he turned back and looked at Senior Mike Irving directly opposite him.
He focused his attention back to the duel, raised his hand and pressed it on the card table, and injected his magic energy.
Once the card table was activated, the loudspeaker device subsequently switched on.
Dark gave a slight smile and said, "Senior Irving, long time no see."
……
Mike Irving actually wanted to chat with him, but unfortunately, the environment didn't allow it.
So he only politely responded, "Long time no see, Demon. I didn't expect to meet you in the first match."
Dark shrugged: "I also didn't expect to meet you, senior, in my first formal competition. I learned a lot from our previous street duel."
"Why did you even bring that up..."
Mike Irving facepalmed and turned his gaze to somewhere in the ring belt.
Angus Jeffrey had his hands clasped and his fingers interlocked, currently looking over with a deep gaze.
Mike Irving sighed in his heart. Soon after, his expression turned solemn as he adjusted his mentality.
Then he said to Dark, "This can barely be considered our second duel. I hope you’ll understand that the one in front of you is Mike Irving, a third-year student of Noble House."
This was almost equivalent to a formal declaration of war.
Dark narrowed his gaze and replied, "Senior, please go all out."
Thereafter, the two sides stopped communicating.
Dark took out the deck he had priorly sorted from his card pouch. There were altogether forty magic cards, which felt thick and heavy in his hand.
Today was different from the past.
As he once again came up to the contestant platform, the strength of his deck was already substantially different.
However, the dueler opposite him was no longer the second-year student Elvis Kevin, but a third-year top student—Mike Irving.
In the street duel on Valentine's Day, although Dark emerged as the final winner, the [Hanging Sword], [Mud Trap], [Triple Bronze Gates] and another armor card that Senior Irving showed at the time were all very powerful magic cards.
At that time, if he didn't pull any tricks and honestly started off by summoning a magical spirit, he might not have been able to win easily.
There was no doubt that Mike Irving should be the strongest dueler he had encountered so far.
Facing an opponent of this level, Dark didn't dare to relax even the slightest bit.
The "go all out" he said to Mike Irving was also a reminder to himself.
"Believe in your own deck!"
……
As Dark put his magic cards into the card slot, the card table started to automatically shuffle them.
Once the contestants from both sides were all ready, the referee's whistle finally sounded.
The words spoken by the commentator to liven up the atmosphere had now been tossed behind.
The entire atmosphere gradually turned serious.
……
[Preparation phase][30s]
The 30-second countdown of the preparation phase simultaneously appeared on the panel of the card table and in the air above the arena.
Dark abruptly reached out to touch the card. After a brief moment of estrangement, he immediately got into the stride due to the familiar texture of the magic card.
The duel this time used the most standard mode.
There was one thing that was quite different from what Dark had expected.
Perhaps, in order to synchronize it with the senior group’s duels and not give the audience a feeling of discrepancy when the matches of the two groups took place in turns, they were also using a fourth level magic ball life barrier with 8,000 points of magic energy value even for the junior group!
There would be a relatively big difference in rhythm between a duel with 8,000 points of magic energy value and a duel with 4,000 points.
Dark had never even experienced a duel with 4,000 points of magic energy value. This large leap required him to adopt a more cautious attitude in order to grasp the details.
"Time to draw cards!"
The 30-second countdown of the preparation phase comprised the two steps of "drawing cards" and "planning".
"1, 2, 3, 4, 5."
Five magic cards were now in his hand.
Dark passed the magic cards to his left hand, spread them out in a fan shape, and quickly scanned them with his eyes.
▼
[Curse Cage: DemiDevimon]
[Pride Ⅲ]
[Pride Ⅰ]
[Meowth]
[Blinking Spell]
▲
"DemiDevimon and [Pride III]!"
The moment he saw these magic cards, Dark couldn't help frowning.
The possibility to start off by summoning [Devimon] had now been opened.
But when facing off against a powerful third-year student, would he be caught in a trap if he directly summoned a second-tier magical spirit?
DemiDevimon occupied a very crucial position in his tactical system.
Be it for [Devimon], [Black Gatomon], as well as the strongest [Bastemon], DemiDevimon was a fundamental part of them.
Once he chose to summon [Devimon], it would mean giving up on [Black Gatomon] and [Bastemon].
If [Devimon] got caught in another trap…
Then, should he start by summoning [Meowth]?
"Doesn't really matter."
"Being evasive is not my style."
……
Tick-tock!
The 30-second countdown passed in the blink of an eye.
The duel had switched into the [Battle Phase].
The same 30-second countdown appeared on the panel and in the sky above the arena.
Dark instantly came to his senses and started summoning at once.
"In the name of Dark Demon, magic summon——DemiDevimon!"
another 3 in 1 chapter
……
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