Tears streamed down Lucas's face. He was deeply moved by what he had just witnessed.
He didn't know whether Aurola had ever told Alberia about her past, but ever since he had become Alberia, the Minister of Education had never mentioned anything about it. Because of that, Lucas had no idea what exactly had happened to the ministers' in her past.
At first, all he had been able to understand from watching the match was the overwhelming emotion shared by the two fighters, and the fact that Agratà was desperately trying to save her teacher from herself. That alone had already moved him deeply.
But it hadn't been quite enough to bring tears to his eyes.
The moment Agratà mentioned Aurola's brother, however, Lucas immediately began to understand what had probably happened in Aurola's past.
And at that point, he understood the meaning of all the signs of fatigue coming from Aurola, and tears began flowing freely down his cheeks.
Shortly after the death of his little sister, Lucas himself had fallen into a mental state very similar to the one Aurola had been trapped in until only moments ago.
Back then, he hadn't known what else to do. He knew that his sister's dream had been to become an astronaut—a classic dream for a young child who, in all likelihood, wouldn't even have held on to it until adolescence.
Even so, Lucas had decided that he would try to fulfill that dream in her place, despite having no real interest in space himself.
At the time, it had felt as though he had no choice.
He had believed it was the only way to deal with the guilt.
So he shut himself inside his home for days at a time, trying to figure out everything he thought he would need to study to become an astronaut while ignoring almost everything unrelated to that goal.
As a result, his grades dropped in every subject he considered useless for becoming an astronaut.
But worse than that, he had isolated himself almost completely from everyone outside his family, spending practically every hour he didn't have to be at school locked inside his room.
'But thanks to my parents help—even though I can't deny that I still feel quite a lot of guilt even now—I managed to move forward…' Lucas thought.
Unfortunately, judging from everything he had just heard, Aurola probably hadn't been nearly as fortunate.
'It's incredible that she managed to keep living with that state of mind for literally hundreds of years… Elves really are incredible…'
Even though the last of his tears still hadn't dried, Lucas smiled faintly.
"But it looks like luck finally came your way too," he whispered as he watched the two elves continue embracing, even though one of them was now unconscious.
For him this had undoubtedly been the most emotionally intense match of the tournament so far.
Applause suddenly poured down from the stands.
Even Agratà's fans were cheering for Aurola's victory, because everyone understood who the true winner of that match had been.
And Aurola herself couldn't have agreed more.
Taking extreme care not to cause any additional pain to her student—who, in her heart, had already become her new master—Aurola shifted her grip from the embrace and gently lifted Agratà into a princess carry.
"I'll take her to the infirmary. She deserves that much," Aurola told Pinusal.
The ancient referee gave her a silent nod.
Then the Minister of Education slowly made her way toward one of the arena gates, carefully controlling every step so that Agratà's already terrible injuries wouldn't be worsened.
As she walked, Aurola couldn't help noticing the incredibly happy smile still resting on her unconscious student's face.
That expression made her say something she had wanted to save until Agratà woke up.
But she simply couldn't resist.
"Thank you, Agratà. Thank you for saving me from myself."
Still, it wasn't as though she had lost the chance to say it properly.
Aurola fully intended to be beside Agratà when she woke up so she could tell her those exact words all over again.
And so, the participants of the fifth round finally left the arena.
Around five minutes passed, giving the audience enough time to calm down after such an emotionally overwhelming match and allowing the staff to repair the numerous holes in the arena caused by the two practitioners of the Falling Leaf style.
Then Chiacchera returned to the center of the arena.
"Ladies and gentlemen! I hope all of you enjoyed that tear-jerking battle between teacher and student! I admit that even I got a little misty-eyed for a moment!"
As always, Chiacchera spoke in her exaggerated, theatrical voice.
"But I'm almost certain that the match we're about to witness will have a completely different atmosphere…"
She suddenly placed one hand behind her ear as though trying to hear the audience more clearly.
Then she stayed in that position for several seconds.
"What? Why?" Chiacchera said, clearly pretending to be surprised.
"It seems obvious to me!!!! After all, as I hope all of you remember, our next participants are these two!!!"
With that excited shout, Chiacchera dramatically extended one arm toward the left side of the arena.
One of the gates there began to open.
"Entering from the left side, we have the healing phoenix of our kingdom and today's third minister! The woman who perfectly demonstrated her magnificent healing magic during her first preliminary match—Heve Flamente!!!"
The white-haired elf stepped into the arena wearing her sterile white clothing.
Her expression was as emotionless and robotic as ever.
Immediately afterward, Chiacchera swept her arm toward the opposite side, and one of the gates on the right side began to open.
"And from the right comes the current highest-ranking adventurer the Guild of Leore and a member of the Hero's Party! In his first match the day before yesterday, although he showed respect for his opponent and gave him several opportunities to surrender, he practically tortured the poor man until finally deciding to end things with a single finishing blow that knocked him unconscious!"
Chiacchera paused dramatically.
"And that is probably exactly why his next opponent decided not to show up at all the following day! As all of you already know, this adventurer is none other than Enea Draghi!!!"
From the open gate emerged the young man dressed in black robes, whose appearance looked almost futuristic by this world's standards.
A small, excited smile rested on his lips, while his eyes remained fixed entirely on his opponent.
"There you have it! There's absolutely no doubt that a clash between two people this completely different will have a very different atmosphere from the sad, yet strangely sweet, encounter between teacher and student that we just witnessed!!!"
Chiacchera concluded her introduction with tremendous excitement in her voice.
Luvrio smiled broadly.
"Finally, I get to watch a match involving the boy who managed to stop Fortore… I have to admit, I was pretty disappointed that I couldn't watch his match on the first day," he said, clearly full of enthusiasm and interest.
Cesare glanced toward Luvrio before replying.
"Hmm. I'm sure this will definitely be an interesting match, Mr. Luvrio. But if what I saw from Minister Heve during her previous two matches is everything she's capable of, then I'm sorry to say she doesn't stand much of a chance against Enea."
"Heve definitely hasn't shown everything she can do in this tournament yet. But even if she had, I still think defeating that kid would be extremely difficult for her," a female voice suddenly added.
"Aislyra, you're finally back," Sequoria said as she looked toward her youngest daughter.
"It took me longer than I expected because—"
Aislyra abruptly stopped speaking the instant she saw her sister's face.
"What happened, Your Majesty?! Who dared make you cry?!!"
The girl's voice thundered with pure fury as she immediately glared at everyone else in the room.
Her gaze eventually settled on Cesare.
"Hero Cesare, was it you?!"
Of everyone present, he was apparently the only person Aislyra believed might actually have done something capable of making her sister cry.
Lucas immediately placed one hand on Aislyra's shoulder while wiping the remaining tears from his eyes.
"No, Aislyra, you misunderstood. Nobody made me cry. It was the match we just watched," he explained quickly.
"The match we just watched…" Aislyra repeated, calming down almost immediately.
Then she began thinking.
"…So the match between Aurola and Agratà…"
Her eyes suddenly widened.
"DAMN IT! I MISSED THE MATCH BETWEEN AUROLA AND AGRATÀ!!!"
Then, much more quietly, she muttered to herself, "I knew I shouldn't have spent so much time in the infirmary with Emeralda…"
Slowly, she turned her head toward Katerina.
"Katerina, how was the match between Aurola and Agratà?" she asked seriously.
Katerina replied in her usual extraordinarily calm voice.
"Fighting isn't my primary occupation, so I'm not entirely sure why you're asking me for my opinion. But if you truly want it, I'll gladly tell you, Lady Aislyra."
She paused briefly.
"The match was magnificent, both visually and, above all, emotionally. Minister Agratà gave everything she had, and even though she didn't technically win the match, she undoubtedly won the war."
Katerina continued without changing her expression.
"Minister Aurola was certainly not outdone. She responded almost perfectly, practically flawlessly, to every attack and counterattack her opponent used, sustaining very little damage throughout the entire match despite clearly being in a less-than-perfect state of mind."
"Damn… It sounds like it really was an incredible match," Aislyra muttered with disappointment and a trace of irritation. "Not that I expected anything less from a fight between Aurola and Agratà…"
She fell silent for a few seconds before sinking back into her seat.
"Well, at least I made it back in time for another match I really wanted to watch, even though I have a feeling this one is going to be pretty one-sided."
Her eyes fixed on the minister and the young adventurer.
Enea and Heve faced one another at the center of the arena.
"Is there anything either of you would like to say before the match begins?" Pinusal asked.
"No," Enea replied simply.
Heve tilted her head slightly.
"So you aren't advising me to surrender, Enea Draghi? Considering your first-round match, I assumed that would be the logical course of action for you."
Her voice remained mostly robotic, but this time it wasn't completely devoid of emotion.
There was a faint trace of curiosity within it.
"Well… precisely because of my first match, I thought I'd already made my intentions clear enough," Enea replied. "I didn't see much point in repeating the same speech before every single match. As you might say, Minister Heve, it wouldn't be logical."
He smiled faintly.
"So obviously, everything I told Orlando applies to you as well."
Then the smile on his face became slightly more interested.
"But if I'm completely honest, there's another reason I didn't repeat myself. I've actually been looking forward to this match. I'm pretty interested in fighting you."
He looked directly at Heve.
"You know, this is probably obvious, but for a sadist like me, fighting someone capable of regenerating tends to sound pretty entertaining."
He spoke with complete sincerity.
"You're right. Repeating yourself would indeed have been illogical," Heve answered. "I apologize for wasting your time. If you prefer, we can begin immediately."
Despite the apology, her voice remained almost entirely robotic.
"No. Since we've already started talking, there's something I wanted to ask you too," Enea said.
His gaze locked directly onto hers.
"Why did you decide to challenge me in the first place, considering how fixated you seem to be on logic and avoiding wasted time? I'm not trying to sound arrogant, but I don't think you have much of a chance of beating me, and I think you realize that too."
There was no noticeable arrogance or sarcasm in his voice.
He seemed genuinely curious.
The minister tilted her head slightly before replying in that same almost robotic tone.
"Yes. I also believe I have very little chance of winning this match."
She paused for only a moment.
"However, I find giving up before even attempting something equally illogical."
The instant he heard those words, an unsettling smile of excitement spread across the brown-haired boy's face.
"I couldn't agree more!" he exclaimed with genuine enthusiasm.
Realizing that the two fighters had finished speaking, Pinusal raised his voice.
"The match will begin on my signal. Are you both ready?"
Enea and Heve nodded.
"All right, then…"
Pinusal prepared to give the signal.
"Ready…"
Both fighters focused entirely on each other.
"Set…"
The arena seemed to fall silent.
"GO!!!"