That Time a Bookworm Got Ascended in Tensura

Ch.54 Tournament Begins

Rozemyne's pov: 

Following Hinata to the colosseum did not take long, she seemed to move fairly fast realizing who she was walking with. I was honestly sort of surprised just how fast the other kids could move, Chloe specifically actually seemed to be holding herself back somehow. I primarily used gravity manipulation to make it easier to walk, as it substantially reduced the amount of effort I needed to put into walking around in lower gravity. I wish I had this throughout the rest of my new life, it is simply an objective improvement. 

Hinata walked into the one of the high class entrances, and was escorted up the stairs by a hobgoblin attendant. It was not long before the group of us was up in the highest part of the Colosseum, there were many people in high positions of powers I had seen the night before filing into this and getting their own seats. Though the area Hinata was on her way toward was the place the demon lords were sitting, near king Gazel and for some reason King Drum of Blumund. I suspected this was purely because of his good relationship with Rimuru. In the distance I could see Florencia, Charlotte, Wilfried, and little Melchior. 

The first thing I asked, "Should I take off my disguise now?" I questioned while looking around and realizing I looked a little out of place, I was still in noble clothing under the coat  from earlier. Though it felt weird, and sort of itchy, it was not as comfortable as the outfit I had worn the night before. I hoped to get more of those outfits, made especially for me. I thought it may have something to do with my skills, though. 

Hinata looked back to me and nodded, "Yes, Tuuli should leave to change as well. We should have the time for that." She was very nonchalant about all of this. "Please watch the others for me, I'll be back with Tuuli." After this both her and Tuuli went back down the stairs and I was left alone with the other kids, though I sort of did not mind. 

I took off my coat and mask, and proceeded to carefully fold them and levitate them behind me in a zero-g bubble, which would follow me around as long as I kept it in mind. I turned to them, and saw Kenya and Alice already trying to wander off the moment Hinata had left. I responded to this, by encasing them too in zero-g bubble that made it impossible to move easily. "Not so fast, she told me to watch you all. Though I am not sure why she knew I could." 

Kenya whined the moment he found himself unable to wander off, "You are just as unfair as Sensei. How do you even do something like this?" He said while trying very hard to swim through the air to get back to the ground, he was sort of bouncing as he'd float to the top of the bubble, before getting a small bit of gravity on his head to push him back down. Afterward he'd hit the ground which would float him up again. 

I sighed, and thought of how I could walk around with them with me. It would look sort of weird now that Hinata wasn't here, as I had none of my retainers with me. So I simply stood in wait at the back of the wall, while keeping watch of them for several minutes.

I had seen Charlotte catch a glance at me, so it seemed like at some point she noticed I was here. A short time after this I saw her whisper to Florencia and gesture in my direction discretely, Florencia spotted me quickly and seemed to nod. Shortly after this I felt a [Thought Communication] come to me, it seemed she had already picked up on how to use it. This made me feel sorry for Sylvester, even if he deserved and earful at time. 'Rozemyne, who are you with? I do not see any of your retainers.' She questioned me immediately with a stern tone, already having a bit of bite to it. 

'Ah-uah.. Sorry. I was left here by Hinata-san, she went to have Tuuli and herself change clothes. She will be back, I have just been trying to stay out of sight until she is back.' I explained after stuttering on my words for a moment, at first. I was fidgeting a bit now, feeling more uncomfortable now than I had before. 

I could not exactly see Florencia's face due to one of the magic circles engraved into the colosseum interfering with my senses, but I could tell she was in some form of exasperation as it leaked through in her thought. 'Please do stay hidden, then. At least until Lady Hinata is back. Also, I'd suggest you try to even think of people with their titles.' Afterward she kept an eye on me herself occasionally.

'I suppose I could try, thank you for not being too angry.' I tried to put forward how grateful I was in the thought I had sent her, as I was sort of worried about getting scolded by Ferdinand after this if I didn't. 

'I'll talk to you about it later.' She replied with a sharp thought that almost visibly caused me to turn pale, despite the fact I wasn't exactly sure my blood pressure could even drop like that. 

It took several minutes for Lady Hinata to arrive again, and I was staring at her once again in her full Holy Knight outfit. I had seen it back several weeks ago when she had first come to Tempest, it was sort of an odd presence to see at first. Though now it felt quite reassuring to have her suited up around me, as if I had a big sister nearby who could beat almost anyone. Standing next to her was Tuuli, now in her outfit from the night before, though it had clearly been cleaned as it smelled like flowers. "You should go to your family, I believe they'd prefer you with them." Hinata said this to me formally, now that we were in more of a public place. 

I nodded and looked to Tuuli, who was already ready to follow me. I made sure to release all the gravity manipulations I had casted as well, as I no longer had to keep an eye on those kids. Though I did hope they wouldn't get in any trouble. Suddenly a thought came to mind as I thought back on them, and their names. 'Were they otherworlders? Wait, is Hinata an otherworlder?' I didn't think on it before, but it seems sort of likely considering how their names sounded. 

Tuuli from right behind me started releasing an aura as we walked, this notably caught the attention of some of the people who could see it. I didn't really understand her intention with it, but I trusted her not to get us in any trouble. I supposed it might be to give an obvious signal that we weren't an easy target, since there was a big crowd around. Though I questioned who she had learned stuff like that from, 'Perhaps Hakurou? He does spend a lot of time around Rimuru, and Rimuru used to keep his aura completely hidden before Walpurgis.' I thought back on it for a little while before finally getting to Florencia.

I felt the small bit of serenity from the magicules floating around her, as if she was trying to give off a calming presence with just the small aura she was letting out. She had clearly been practicing the last few hours, and it gave me a bit of a surprise on first feeling it up close. It definitely put me at ease, and seemed to have an effect on the kids as well, even moreso than myself. Wilfried seemed to sit very still, as if somehow completely eased at mind. It was a bit unsettling seeing his face be so relaxed, but I tried to ignore it for now. 

I waited for Florencia, and she quickly motioned for me to sit on the opposing side of her. This meant I was taking Charlotte's place, while Charlotte would sit next to me. Wilfried and Melchior were to her other side. I was pretty pleased with the sitting arrangement at first, though Tuuli had to be pretty far away, several feet behind us with some of the other retainers who were here. Luckily it seemed her aura prevented anyone from approaching her abruptly, so perhaps that was her intention? 

Finally sitting there calmly for a few moments allowed me to lose myself in focusing on the platform below, there I saw Soka. She was one of the dragon-newts who looked incredibly human like, with white skin, black hair, and green eyes. Along with a cute red outfit, that looked very similar to something you'd see out of a shonen manga. The only way to tell she was not a human was the small horns sprouting out of her forehead, and when she more conspicuous she sported a pair of reptilian wings and a tail. It had seemed she could hide them otherwise, something I was sure some of the other close to human monsters would love to be able to do. If I could turn my heart back on when I needed to seem more human, I'd certainly like to. 

Soka spent a long time building up the hype for Rimuru, and subtly pushing in advertisements for some of the products in Tempest. I was nearly certain many of the people here were not fully aware of the concept of subliminal advertising, which made them the best candidates to be advertised to. I think I may have even missed a few of the advertisements myself, I did want a bookshelf to put all the written records of these fights on later now. Eventually, after explaining how the brackets would work, with ten fighters all competing in randomized one on one matches. She announced Rimuru would be introducing the competitors, and proudly gestured him down. It was not long before the space next to Soka was bent in on itself and a certain Slime was there, and was handed a microphone to speak with from the dragon-newt. 

"You know, I kept my executives out of this because I did not want too many people from Tempest. Seems like I made the right decision, because it would have probably been an entire roster from Tempest otherwise." Rimuru opened with a joke, and it sort of landed with some nervous laughs from the audience. Many of the non-nobility in the audience seemed sort of scared of Rimuru, for unsurprising reasons. Though it was able to lighten up quickly, as he continued. "So I suppose I'll introduce the two I personally chose to be in first. Sylvester Aub Ehrenfest, who has just became a demi-spirit this very morning, and his brother Sir Ferdinand of Ehrenfest. Both of them have plenty of magicules, you know? It is a perfect time for them to test their new power." It seemed the new subject had sparked a lot of interest from the audience, many whispers and shouts questioning them ensued. It felt as if it was a pandoras box for most of the audience, from the way they were speaking about it. 

It actually did get me interested too, though. I didn't really have any idea of their full skillset, all I had to go off of was magicules. At the moment, I had the most. Though I know Ferdinand had yet to recover fully, so he may outstrip me if given enough time from what I had seen of myself. There is a good chance he'd just fall short, however. I watched more intently and saw the two of them standing next to eachother, Sylvester looking just the slightest bit more comfortable. Ferdinand was still in a form appearing like a child, maybe he'd have to grow naturally. I had noticed despite Tuuli having gotten ever so slightly taller over the past few months, I had not grown virtually at all. The process was either stopped, or was simply happening very slowly. 

Rimuru continued on introducing some competitors I was much less interested in, especially the Masayuki who seemed to get such high praises from the rest of the crowd. It felt as if they like him for some supernatural reason almost, because in my eyes he looked incredibly weak. The way he walked was uncoordinated and the amount of magicules he had was subpar at best, and that was by the standards of the adventurers I had seen. 

Masayuki was apparently a hero in Engrassia as Wilfried was quick to start chattering about, apparently he was supposed to be super fast or something from his name. I ignored that and simply waited for things to start, I was hoping Ferdinand would get to shine here. He didn't really seem to get enough recognition among the nobles from Ehrenfest, they seemed to avoid looking at him even. 

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--2197 words--

--Rozemyne and Tuuli are not effected by the Unique skill [Hero], due to the Unique skills they themselves possess--

(AN: First fight, next chapter. Sorry this one took so long for me to finish, sorta been in a slump and relaxing for the last few days.)