Almekia Kingdom
60. Jasper - 2nd Round Tournament

The expected second round of the tournament has arrived. In this round the plan will be held a one-on-one gear match.

At 10:00 am the three of us left the inn and walked casually to the city hall, unlike the preliminary round which required us to leave for the hall early in the morning to queue for registration. Before leaving, of course Zircon had warned us to breakfast and replenish energy reserves a lot. In addition he also gives a little tips and tricks on what we have to do for the gear fight.

Arriving at the tournament building we headed straight to the front office to confirm the arrival to the tournament officials. "Zircon, Jasper and Saphir" Zircon represented us greeting the officers.

"alright. You guys checked in. Please wait until there is a further announcement about the schedule and your match opponents."

"Ok," Zircon replied briefly to take us away from the crowd.

"We were not told to bring each gear. So it is likely that the fight will use standard gear from the committee" Zircon told the two of us.

"No problem. I have often practiced using standard gear" I replied optimistically.

"What about you, Saphir?" Ask Zircon

"Ehm..never hehe," replied Saphir lightly. "But take it easy I can definitely control it." He added as he realized the anxiety on my face and Zircon at once.

"You two don't have to push yourself." This time Zircon said in a very serious tone.

"I don't want you to get hurt, so if you feel like you can't win a fight just give up. Just let me fight as much as I can to win this tournament"

"But you can't push yourself either, Zirc. You also have to be careful" I replied a little unsettled, there's no way I'd let him carry the burden of winning this tournament alone.

"You forgot I beat you all out?" His answer was half ridiculing and teasing me. Ever since the matter with Diamond and my exams were over, I felt Zircon being a little carefree than before. More fun and communicative to talk to.

And on our run, he was inevitably our leader after we parted ways with Opal and Platinum. Inevitably he is the one who has to decide what we should and should not do. He is responsible for our safety.

This happened naturally, of course, because he was more experienced living outside the palace than me and Saphir who never went out of the palace. And it was this that demanded him to speak more than usual.

"I want to go to the toilet for a while, you guys stay here, don't go anywhere" she told us before walking over to the toilet.

"About we can go back to the palace, can't we?" saphir asked suddenly in a sad tone.

I could see there was a deep longing in his eyes. Maybe he misses his mother, his father, his brother, his house and all the things he has left in the palace. Makes me feel so guilty about getting him into this big deal again. The thorny issue that should not involve women like her and Platina.

"of course. We'll all be home after it's over" I replied trying to convince her. Though far from the bottom of my heart, I myself am not sure how the end of our escape will be. Whether we can still go home or not, whether we will be able to survive or not.

"Did you still have strange visions and dreams, Jez?" ask Saphir to investigate.

"Eh? No. gabe. Maybe it's because my mind gets preoccupied with the matter of this tournament." I was a little surprised to realize that some days I never once had a shadow or a dream again.

"Don't you feel weird? Why is it that only after here do you have those dreams and visions?"

"It seems that because of the location of the incident in this city. That vision I usually get if I happen to pass somewhere. The same place I see today. And that place was also visited by a man who looked like me, my father." I tried to explain my theory.

"Hemmm makes sense too."

"I think vision is like memories. A memory of the past that has happened. And somehow my father's memories can be embedded in my head."

"Then what about your dreams? Is that real?"

"It seems like it's also real even though I can't explain the theory or prove the truth. But the fact that my father was even up to his last moment with the gear, as your mother said, is further corroborating that what I saw was a past event."

"It's crazy...But it's amazing" Saphir commented.

"You're right. It is sad to know this reality. But on the other hand I also feel very lucky to know and see for myself what has really happened."

"Some of the mystery has been solved, there are only a few more that we will ask directly to Obsidian's uncle. We can also ask the truth of your dreams and visions to him." Saphir sounded even more excited.

"You're right, we just need to fight in the tournament this time." I justify his words.

"We can do it." he replied steadily.

Our conversation came to a halt when we saw Zircon walking towards us with quick strides and super serious faces. He always had a serious face every day, but this time he was much more serious.

"Opal. I met him" replied Zircon.

"What's? So Opal is alive? Thank goodness!" Sapphire reacted with pleasure to hear it.

"How is he doing?" I was not calm to see Zircon with his serious face. He should have put on a happy face after knowing Opal was alive.

"He's fine physically. But he doesn't look free, even he acts like he doesn't know me. There were two men escorting her, maybe she didn't want to make them suspicious..."

"Platin...What about Platinum?" Saphir again cut off Zircon's talk.

"Opal had sent me a short telepathy, he said that he would attend this tournament as a representative of Ruby. And he also said that Platina was in captivity...Well chances are he's being threatened with using Platina to take part in this tournament." This time neither I nor Saphir could only listen without being able to react or speak.

I can't imagine what Opal and Platina have experienced after parting ways with us, are they okay? Are they suffering? Were they tortured?

Terrible thoughts flashed in my brain. The guilt came back to haunt me. Well after all they suffered because I. I was the one who made all my friends experience all this. Because it's for my personal interest...

Shortly thereafter the super large screen in the middle of the hall lit up. Appears to a tournament organizer holding a microphone

"Good day everyone! How are you all doing? Are you excited to join this tournament?" He started greeting everyone who had been waiting in the hall from earlier.

Boisterous cheers instantly sounded throughout the room in response. Everyone present was very excited and excited to welcome him.

"The next fight will be done using gear. But the gear will be provided by the committee for starters. Only later in the semifinal round to add to the excitement of participants allowed to wear their personal gear!"

Other large screens sprung up along the hall walls, revealing a fairly wide gear ground, a super-large square-shaped podium and bounded by the surrounding iron bars. A super-thick wall of concrete stands solidly as high as approximately 7 meters around the arena of the match, about 5 meters from the podium. Well maybe this security is expected to withstand the attack and explosion of the gear fight later.

"Every participant is expected to enter the quarantine room after this. To do some preparation related to the match schedule. For the match scheme we will explain after this. And do not forget I remind you all do not forget to place a bet to choose who your champion is. Get a variety of interesting prizes if you manage to guess it correctly!"

Shouts, cheers and applause grew louder. So this is the main goal? A wager? Of course the savage people in this area must have really enjoyed betting and watching this life-staking fight.

It is fitting that this tournament is so in demand and can be held every year. Must be because of this betting money.

Group A

Ferries vs Ruby 1

Sapphire vs Jack

Jasper vs David

Jade (auto win)

Grub B

Simone (auto win)

Yuna vs Ruby 2

Zircon vs Victor's

Valeria vs Jose

Then the match scheme is displayed, the names of 2 tournament participants are juxtaposed with their respective opponents. Only 2 names got no opponents, Simone and Jade.

Maybe because Simone was the tournament champion last year, but who is this Jade? Why did he get the privilege? If I remember this Jade was the man who broke through the queue at the time of the preliminary round registration.

"Thank God we don't have to meet at the start of the game" Zircon said after observing the screen. Then without further ado he took us both to the participant quarantine room.

..._______#_______...

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