Lord of Charm

"I just got an update, the five academies will stay to watch the last bracket, thus, the usual ceremony held after the intermediate brackets will be postponed until after the older bracket."

Steve announced to the crowd the last developments that took place. Normally, there would be one ceremony after the intermediate bracket in which the five academies picked the ones that piqued their interest, and another ceremony at the end in which the rest of the forces from the empire gave offers to the rest of the participants.

"However, let me give you the normal explanation that's usually given at this point. There are three ranks of forces in the empire: gold, silver, and bronze."

He gave everyone a few moments to digest his words before continuing.

"The bronze-rank forces have at least 5 expert mages, while silver forces have at least one true magus. Remember, even in a bronze-rank force you have a far better chance to advance to the expert mage phase compared to staying in the kingdom."

He emphasized the last part to prevent the participants from looking down on the bronze forces; they still had much more resources and knowledge than anyone in the kingdom could offer, perhaps other than the royal family.

"As for gold-rank organizations, there are only 9 of them in the empire. Although there are nine, only 5 are here today to recruit you, and those are the 5 academies I've mentioned before. Each one of them has a grand magus as its head or as an honored member."

Seeing the hopeful expressions of all the contestants he felt obligated to pour cold water on them lest they will lose their opportunity when getting an offer from a lower rank force.

"Normally they only take one person each or even less. Getting an invitation from a bronze-rank or a silver-rank force is an option you must not let go."

He then remembered one last thing he should've mentioned before finishing his explanation.

"As for unranked forces, they will not participate in the ceremony, but they might invite you if you didn't join any force after the ceremony. Good night everyone, see you tomorrow for the final bracket!"

Everyone started leaving the colosseum gradually and Gale and his group did the same. Upon reaching home, Shana repeated her warning to Gale and went to her room.

Tonight, it was Violet's turn to pout while watching Dion and Jay take Gale's arms and follow him to his room. Since she had to fight tomorrow, she couldn't join them.

"By the way, did you also make a fortune out of your 1000 gold through the gambling system?"

Gale asked the girls. Because he only placed his bets after the drawings were done and didn't bet on the first bracket, his profits weren't high and he only had 5000 gold. Lena in comparison had 76,000 after she placed her 40,000 on Dion's win with a 1:1.9 ratio.

He wasn't sure how much gold he'd need in the empire, but 5,000 sounded too little ever since he heard about Lena's wealth.

"Yup! I got 21,000 gold now."

Dion lost a few of her bets and she also wasn't as bold as Lena with some of her bets, so her profits were significantly lower. However, it was still more than four times than Gale's.

"Hehe, I made 91,000 gold! I placed my bet on Dion's win before the draws!"

Jay giggled victoriously when seeing Gale's and Dion's gapes.

"If you send Dion away and let me have you all for myself tonight, I will give you 5,000 gold. How about that, dear?"

She smiled seductively and moved her fingers on Gale's bare chest.

"Hey, that's not fair!"

Dion protested against the offer.

*SLAP*

A red handprint decorated Jay's butt as she took a sharp breath from the sudden slap.

"Since when am I a prostitute?"

Gale rolled his eyes at Jay and rolled to kiss Dion to make a stand against selling himself for gold.

Time flies when you have fun, and the morning arrived quickly. Everyone got up early and they headed back to the colosseum for the older bracket.

"Good morning everybody, today is the last day we get to watch thrilling fights between mages, and this time not only the best geniuses participate, but all of them are experienced and powerful!"

Steve greeted the excited crowd and called the fighters to draw numbers for the fights.

Gale and the girls sat in Shana's booth on the top floor as always, except for Lena and Violet who participated in the bracket.

"I have to remind you that this tournament we have an exception never seen before – the Miyena Kingdom sent a participant younger than the bracket's age limit. We never had this situation before, and the judges decided to allow her to participate! A 24-year-old mage in the bracket for 36-45!"

Steve updated the crowd about Lena's participation in the bracket and the crowd wore confused expressions. They couldn't understand why the kingdom wasted their chance to get second place in the young bracket for such a risky gamble.

"Did you guys place all your money on Lena?"

"Obviously."

Everyone in Shana's booth nodded in agreement. The ratio was 1:15 for betting on Lena's victory, and all of them believed it was practically free money.

"Haha, the gambling house from the empire doesn't know whom they're dealing with."

Jay laughed happily and everyone joined. Gale even placed all of Lena's gold at her request, and they'd all have a fortune by the end of the day.

"It's good that you believe in one another, but you must be responsible for your money. It wasn't easy for me to give you so much gold, and I might not be able to give you more if you lose it."

Shana cleared her throat and said with the tone of a responsible adult, making everyone's expressions turn weird.

"Don't pretend you didn't multiply your wealth a few times in the last two days, and don't pretend you didn't place all your money on Lena."

Jay pointed out mercilessly Shana's hypocrisy and Shana diverted her eyes back to the arena to avoid meeting everyone's gazes.

"The draws are over, let's see the results!"