Rising Against Fate

Razak smiled when he saw how Raiden's match ended on the screen. Including himself, the waiting room now had four remaining participants.

"Hey, your match is up next, right?" Ren, who was also watching the match, asked.

Even while she was watching the match, she had her headphones on. To ordinary people, that would appear odd, but Razak knew that listening to various sounds and selecting which they want to focus on wasn't a big deal for a sound mage. He was willing to bet that even without listening to the sound, she could understand them just by lip-reading.

"Yes."

His reply was casual as he was not used to giving long responses to unfamiliar people. There were several advantages of replying like that to strangers — one would get to know more about the person while giving out very little about themselves.

"You can think of me as somewhat of a fan of yours. I was surprised by your performance in the first round. Honestly, I never thought a shadow mage would charge straight at any opponent, let alone at someone from the Monku clan."

"Don't you think that was a foolish decision? I could have lost if I hadn't been careful enough."

The reason why he was asking that was apparent. He wanted to know her intention for starting this conversation.

"No, fools are those who lose after a thoughtless decision; those who win despite that are just brave. To your opponent, it may appear foolish, but I, as a spectator, just enjoyed the show."

Razak looked at the time, and there were still around ten minutes left before his match. Usually, they took the participants to the different waiting room approximately five minutes before the match, so he still had some time left.

"What are you talking about, Ren? That was an idiotic move. He just got lucky that his opponent turned out to be even stupider."

Amaya's tone was hasty as she said that. She had been impatiently waiting for her turn since this morning. And by how she spoke, it was evident that these two knew each other.

Daichi, who was sitting in the same row as Razak, looked irritated after hearing that comment. "You are the one who doesn't know what you are talking about. The look in his face was clearly saying that he knew what he was doing."

"Whatever… the look in his face doesn't make that any less foolish."

"That is because you are still a kid. When you grow up, you will understand."

"Am I being insulted because of my height? Just know that I am still sixteen, and I have many years to grow up."

"Heh! Pipsqueak."

Amaya was short, almost invisible in front of Daichi. Her brown hair was the magical trait of the Tsuchi clan. Members of the Monku clan also shared the same magical attribute, which pointed towards the fact that these two clans' origin must be related.

On the other hand, Ren had normal black hair, and pointed ears as her magical trait. Because of her ears, there were times when she was teased as a half-elf. However, the half-elves were just a myth. Realistically, two different races couldn't breed with each other unless genetic science was brought into play.

As the two were busy arguing, Ren continued her conversation with Razak.

"Just ignore her. She has been like this ever since she was little. Anyways, if the two of us win today's match, we will be fighting against each other. You know that, right?"

"I do, and I am looking forward to it."

Ren smiled. "Me too. Maybe then I will be able to find out more about you and your abilities."

"If you ask now, I may be able to tell you more about them."

"It's alright. It would be unfair of me to ask that before the match. Also, you should know that my abilities allow me to do more than just manipulate the sound. I can figure out one's feelings just by hearing their voice."

Razak's eyes widened. For once, he thought he was giving out some of his inner emotions, but then he realized there was a look of confusion on Ren's face.

"That ability does sound very intriguing."

As the two of them were talking, the bald instructor, who was in charge of sending participants of this block to the stage, came in.

"Razak Grace, it's your turn next. Please follow me."

Razak stood up from his chair. When he was about to leave, he heard Ren's voice, so he turned around.

"Looks like I will get to see another interesting match today. See you in the next round."

"I hope I will be able to satisfy your expectations."

After saying that, Razak followed the instructor to another waiting room. He was used to staying alone, and since he had already thought the match through, he just patiently waited.

After around five minutes, the bald instructor came in again. He looked at his trans-pad for 15 seconds continuously to synchronize the entrance and the announcement.

"It's time."

Razak nodded as a response and walked towards the stage. As he entered, a loud cheer was heard from the crowd.

At this point, there were a lot of people impressed by Razak's abilities. There were several factors that contributed to his fame. The first being the fact that he wasn't from any clan; instead, he was just a magician from the general population. If one were to look closely, over eighty percent of the audience was made up of non-magicians.

The other reason was his rank at the entrance exam. Since he was ranked at the bottom, the crowd assumed him to be someone who was climbing his rank from the rock-bottom. And as they say, people are more sympathetic towards heros who starts from zero.

He walked up to the stage and took his position. Standing in front of him was Homura Matsuda, a fire magic-user. He was from the Hono clan, the same clan as Kosuke, who fought against Itsuki in the demonstration match.

"Now, if the participants are ready, let's begin the countdown."

"Three!"

"Two!"

"One!"

"Let the battle begin!"