Squad Selection
For the next few hours, all the matches went smoothly as no one dared to break any rules. No one wanted the previous incident to happen again.
Asta didn't express any shock as he knew what Julian was capable of but one thing that made him confused was why were people shaking with fear as if someone was after their lives when Julian was there in the field as he was not affected in any way.
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" WITH THIS ALL THE FIGHTS ARE OVER. AFTER A SHORT BREAK, EACH OF THE PARTICIPANTS WILL RECEIVE AN OFFER AND WILL COME FORWARD ONE BY ONE AND IF ANY CAPTAIN IS INTERESTED, HE WILL RAISE HIS HAND TO INDICATE THE OFFER. IN CASE MULTIPLE HANDS ARE RAISED, THE PARTICIPANT MAY CHOOSE THE SQUAD "
Julian had dropped the 5 people he captured to the responsible ones for taking action while he stood behind Yami.
"You scared off potential squad members," said Finral.
"Don't worry about it, Black Bulls will forever be the squad of weirdos. "Julian said while Yami heard but didn't comment.
Every contestant was provided with food from the magic knights and given an hour of a break till the captains decided whom to select.
After the break, the announcer started announcing the names of the contestants to come forward.
" no 1 come forward "
"….."
"Number 130 come forward"
It was Annie's turn. She looked at the captains and found 4 hands raised. They were Rill, Dorothy, Charlotte, and Jack. Earing comments of jealousy from others.
After thinking for a few seconds she made the choice, ' aunt Charla, if you managed to retain even some of your nature I know I will be the best under your care '
"I choose the Blue rose, " said Annie making Charlotte smile.
Charlotte from the start and an eye on Annie to take her under her wing. As 90% of her squad members comprising of females, she knows quite a lot of love. She could tell that Annie had a crush on Yuno. Although she sucked at her own relationship, she had secretly helped quite a lot of her members in her love life so she would surely help her too.
…..
..
.
" no 164 come forward"
It was Yuno's turn.
One by one all the captains raised their hands.
" What ! all captains raised their hands!!!!!" someone exclaimed
"For the first time in history, all the captains raised their hands !!!!!"
'Oo seems like the captains are making up for the mistake they did last year by giving up on the four-leaf grimoire wielder. Even the so-called royalty with a pride Nozel is raising his hand too' thought Julian. Yami knew that there is no way in hell Yuno would choose the Black Bulls but still raised his hand to see was reactions of the contestants.
Yuno looked at all the captains and finally the statue of the wizard king.
' I will take the closest path to wizard king '
" I will join the Golden Dawn, " said Yuno…
William smiled but the people standing behind Yuno were unhappy. But they won't go against their captain.
'What is captain thinking taking in a commoner ' thought Alecdora, a core member of Golden Dawn who was standing behind Yuno.
Yuno was a little disappointed that Annie and he could not be in the same squad but he cheered up when he heat Annie say that they could meet in between missions.
" No 165 come forwards "
Asta came forwards and waited but as expected no hands were raised. He failed every test except the combat one. Out of all the people, only his flower died out instead of blooming which was seen as a bad omen.
" no 165 no offers "
Asta was dejected but still asked
" May I know why I didn't receive any offers? "
The captains were silent but Yami stood up.
" That's to be expected. No matter how good are you in combat if your power is unknown nobody wants to do anything with it. The most important thing expected from a magic knight is his magic. "
Yami jumped towards Asta and released his restrained mana pressure. The lights around the entire area darkened with air particles vibrating. All the nearby people fell to their knees gasping for air. This time the fear they felt was many times the ones Julian embedded in them with his mana pressure.
Asta felt like his body was hit with intense gravity trying to make him kneel. One by one people around stared dropping while Asta was still standing. Asta realized that the condition of the people was worse than the time when Julian was on the field.
' So he is unaffected by mana pressure, not totally out of my expectation' thought Julian. Any normal person would have been out cold for a minimum of 3 days after experiencing Yami's mana pressure from so close.
The last time Julian met Asta, he forget to test out of Genjutsu or mana pressure worked on a magic-less person like Asta.
Yami came face to face with Asta and said " You said you wanted to be wizard king right. That means you will defeat every captain present here including me. Now I am standing before you, do you have the guts to say that !?" increasing his voice but inside he was very shocked to see Asta unaffected by his mana pressure.
Asta clenched his fists and said looking him eye to eye like memories of his hard work over the years flashed within his mind.
" Even if I can't join the magic knights today, I will try again every time till I succeed. I will surpass everyone here and become the Wizard King! "
All the pressure around Yami disappeared.
" HAHAHA, You are a Funny kid. JOIN MY SQUAD! I will make you work so hard that you will be begging for mercy ….work hard and someday become the wizard king ." said Yami pointing to Asta
Hearing this every pent up feeling inside Asta exploded in form of tears
" Yes Sir! I will do my best !!!!"
With the magic knight's exam concluded. Some moved a step ahead in their dreams and some still struggled to move ahead but in the end, this magic knight's exams stirred the course of the history of the Clover Kingdom.
On the top of the Wizard King's castle, two people could be seen looking at the selection stadium. The entire castle and the neighboring area were devoid of any noise as if everything was frozen.
"Now that all the seeds are planted, it's time to wait for them to grow into a plant for me," said one of them.