Civilization Chronicles: Rise of the Divine Creator

Even with thousands of eyes now focused on him, many of them silently trying to convoy to him what he should say here, Lucas didn’t submit to the pressure and simply declared, "The rules were, whoever touches the outside of the circle first, loses."

Saying so, Lucas smiled and pointed to the left side of the ring, where the Juniors from the Darr Kingdom were standing, "Winner, Zara Trant!"

Immediately, cries of joy and cries of protest erupted, with many from the Rockwell Kingdom side unhappy with Lucas’ judgement.

That, however, didn’t matter to the boy. He would rather suffer a few complaints than embarrass himself publicly by blatantly cheating, especially when he was the one who set up this contest and decided its rules.

"Seems your First Disciple is an honest and upright young man," Talia commented, honestly a little impressed that Lucas hadn’t hesitated to give the match to her side.

Celestina, however, just laughed, "Oh, don’t let his innocent act fool you. Lucas isn’t above cheating to win when it really counts."

Turning to the older red-headed woman sitting next to her, Talia wasn’t quite sure what to make of this statement.

On the one hand, the words Celestina spoke were clearly disparaging her own Disciple’s honour, yet the way she spoke sounded suspiciously like praise rather than condemnation.

Seeing the confused look on the young woman’s face, Celestina laughed even harder before reaching for her glass, one that was filled with redberry soda, and took a sip, enjoying the refreshing coolness, pleasant sweetness, and tantalizing fizziness of the drink.

Still holding the glass, Celestina mused out loud, "I assume Lucas will be participating as the last fighter for our side, yes?"

"How did you know?" Talia, who was certain Celestina was nowhere near the Manor when the match lineup was decided, asked curiously.

This time, however, everyone at the head table from the Rockwell Kingdom laughed instead of just Celestina. All of them were familiar with Lucas and had seen him fight before, so they had a pretty good idea what he was planning when he set up this match.

Reading between the lines, Talia raised her brow ever so slightly, "You’re all that confident he’s going to win?"

"En," Celestina nodded, "It seems he’s taking his role as Christina’s Escort very seriously."

"On a girl’s 16th birthday, her Escort must defend her honour," First Queen Marianne explained the tradition to their guests from the Darr Kingdom.

"Hehe, he really is such a good boy," Cynthia clapped happily, "I want him to call me Mother more and more!"

Knocking the head of her younger marital sister, Marianne ignored this outrageous comment and steered the conversation back to the current situation, "Lucas will undoubtedly make fair judgement calls, but don’t forget, he’s the one who came up with this little game, and he’s the one who set the rules. There’s no way he didn’t plan ahead just in case the final victory came down to him to decide."

"But isn’t that..." Talia began.

"Unfair? Hah," Celestina snickered, "If you ask Lucas that, I’m sure his answer will be ’life isn’t fair’."

.....

Life isn’t fair, Talia chewed on the words for a moment before nodding.

There was, quite possibly, no truer statement about the world they lived in.

Thinking it over again, the fact that Lucas had even given them a chance to win, despite being perfectly capable of cutting off all paths to victory, was already magnanimous enough in Talia’s opinion.

As such, rather than diminishing her opinion of the boy, this little incident only raised her evaluation of Lucas higher.

Whether that was a good thing or a bad thing, only time would tell.

For now, however, Talia was interested in seeing just how Lucas was planning on winning, especially since the last contender from the Darr Kingdom in this sumo match was her son, the young genius of their nation.

She could tell from the outset that Lucas wasn’t ordinary, and everything she had witnessed tonight had only reinforced that idea, but Landon was no pushover either.

Considering the gap in their ages, sizes, and cultivations, Landon should have been the obvious favourite to win, but seeing everyone from the Rockwell Kingdom’s side have absolute confidence Lucas would emerge victorious, Talia decided that the best thing for her to do was observe the match carefully and without any pre-judgements.

.....

"Are you sure you don’t want to forfeit?" Landon asked in a flat, even tone as he observed his much smaller opponent from across the ring.

Lucas, understanding that his opponent wasn’t trying to be condescending and simply spoke in this kind of blunt, dry manner, didn’t take offence; if anything, he actually liked this young man’s frankness.

However, tonight, he wasn’t just representing himself, he was representing his Master and the Rockwell Kingdom, not to mention his Junior Sister’s honour.

Now, to be fair, none of these 3 needed his protection, not Celestina, not the nation, and certainly not Christina. All of them were more than capable of fighting and defending themselves.

In fact, had Christina been the one fighting this final match, victory would be guaranteed.

Landon was a genius, that much Lucas was willing to concede, but his Junior Sister was a monster far beyond the level of a mere genius.

In a one-on-one fight with no holding back, Lucas was certain Christina would trounce Landon, but that was precisely why he had gone to such great lengths to stop her from participating in these matches.

Something about Landon bothered Lucas, especially the way he looked at Christina.

This wasn’t Lucas being jealous or petty about a strong, capable, handsome young man eyeing his... Junior Sister, it was much more important than that.

Landon was afraid of Christina, and you don’t fear someone you think is weaker than you, so somehow, someway, this prince from the Darr Kingdom was able to sense something was off about her.

Lucas wasn’t about to let Landon confirm his suspicions, even if that meant he had to use some slightly underhanded means.

Shaking off these distracting thoughts while physically shaking his head, Lucas smiled back at his opponent, "Thank you for your concern, Your Highness, but I assure you, it’s unnecessary."

Raising his brow ever so slightly, Landon actually cracked a fine smile and nodded, "I was hoping you’d say that."