Chapter 317: Prelude
"Is there nothing we can do about the crowd size...?" asked Rias, her blue eyes scanning the stands with crossed arms as she contended, "An event like this should have a packed stadium."
"Mmn...it does feel empty..." conceded Vahn, making his way over to join Rias with Grayfia naturally trailing behind him. The oval-shaped field was 200 meters in length and nearly 100 meters wide, with a 50x50m gridded arena in its center, carved from indestructible white quartz. Notably, as it was still fairly early in the day, only seventy or so people had gathered as the remainder were either manning festival stalls or exploring them.
"How about requesting the Tower Administrator to send out invitations or inviting the Sisters to spectate...?" proposed Rias, noting, "That would give us a solid fifteen to twenty thousand people."
"If we did that, some might want to remain after the festival ends," stated Vahn.
"Is that such a bad thing....?" asked Rias, pointing out, "There’s plenty of real estate to go around, and if they’re summoned here in the spirit forms, they could stay until the training room closes without aging. I’m sure that at least a few Ascendees would leap at the opportunity."
"We could even turn this place into a joint training hub for those who wish to further increase their strength outside the Tower," appended Venelana, meeting Grayfia’s silvery gaze as she passed before positioning herself to Vahn’s right.
"I do prefer things being lively..." conceded Vahn, the faces of everyone he left behind flashing across his mind. Those like Sona, Ravel, Tsubaki, and Asia were scheduled to swap out with the pregnant group upon their exit, but others he wouldn’t reunite with until his return. Four years wasn’t that long, so if he gave them the option, he was certain Roxanne, Miu, and many more would choose to stick things out.
Having made up his mind, Vahn nodded and appended, "I suppose there’s no harm in providing people the option. If nothing else, it’s an opportunity to strengthen the Ascendee community."
"Awesome. Do you think you could invite my parents?" asked Korra, having overheard Vahn’s decision alongside everyone else gathered in the lavish, lounge-like viewing box, decorated with a crimson carpet and black, gold-patterned stone walls.
"Of course," responded Vahn, offering a curt nod as Sis, within his mind, hummed, (Just leave it to me). Afterward, a sensation akin to a speaker being turned on but with no sound emanating from it permeated his mind as she began drafting and sending out invitations en masse.
Nodding a second time, Vahn revealed, "The Administrator is sending out invitations as we speak. We should also send out a mass message so that those already here aren’t completely blindsided."
"I’ll send a message through our group chat and contact Sabo so he can inform his people," stated Venelana, materializing her System interface to get to work.