The news of the tournament getting cancelled spread out in the entire sky island. Everyone was talking about this matter.
When Kleo let this news out, it didn’t become a hot topic for a few hours because of his fans fawning over him everywhere, be it offline or online. Only when their talks died down, did people start taking the news of the tournament getting cancelled seriously.
The students present at the Central Plaza hadn’t left yet and were sitting or standing there in groups, discussing the tournament stream. The big screen was still present in front of them and on it was a replay of the tournament getting played.
A few hundred meters from them, a portal opened up and out of it flew Emilia holding Lith by his waist. She flew towards the auditorium and after reaching the entry door of the auditorium, she let go of Lith.
She pushed the door open and walked inside with Lith following behind her. Everyone’s gaze fell on her as he walked and Lith got foreshadowed.
“Get seated, dear.” Emilia turned to Lith and said softly with a smile.
Lith nodded his head and looked for the seats where Ralph and Dennis were. It didn’t take even a second to locate them as they were sitting in the middle of the front row. To Lith’s surprise, the cow was present here too.
Lith walked towards them and saw there being no empty seat. If they went by the order with which they sat last time, it was Lith at one end of the row with Ralph beside him, followed by Dennis. But now, Ralph was sitting on Lith’s seat and the cow was in Ralph’s seat.
“Where am I gonna sit?” Lith asked the three.
Before the three could answer or do anything about the seating, a seat automatically popped up beside Ralph.
The four got confused as to how a seat came so suddenly but like before, they weren’t able to discuss as they got interrupted with Emilia saying,
“Get seated, students. I have some news for you.”
The ‘get seated’ part was for Lith solely but she said it in a generalized manner and covered it up with the next line.
Lith sat beside Ralph on the new seat that was present. He could guess that Emilia was the one who made arrangements for him. He then turned his attention to Emilia.
Emilia looked at Lith and knowing that he was settled, she turned her attention away from him and looked at the crowd in front of her. With all seriousness, Emilia said,
“Children, the tournament is cancelled. Some problems occurred in the Blue Haze World and we had to cancel it.”
The students were all surprised by Emilia’s statement. The tournament was cancelled? Why? What happened? Didn’t they get eliminated by the toppers? Was that not the case? If it’s cancelled, what about their grades? Many questions popped up in their heads.
“I know everyone has a lot of questions. I’ll just answer the most important question’s answer to you. That being about the grades. There was an issue that happened and for it, the academy will take responsibility. This hasn’t happened ever since the foundation of the academy but it will happen now.”
The students and the staff listened to Emilia speak with all seriousness. What responsibility was she talking about? What has never happened since the foundation?
Everyone was curious and they hated the pause Emilia took after saying that. They wanted to know it fast!
“Every first-year student present here in this auditorium, will be given a pa.s.s for this year. n.o.body will be suspended from the academy for failing. This is the responsibility the academy shall take for their mishap.”
Silence…
The entire auditorium went silent as they heard it. They couldn’t believe what was happening and were too shocked to let out a reaction.
Did she say everyone pa.s.sed? It means no need to take exams and work hard? Is this real?
Clap!
Clap!
Clap!
After getting out of their shock, someone from the crowd started letting out slow claps.
Clap!
Clap! Clap!
Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap!
One by one, the students joined in with the clapping and within a few moments every student in the auditorium started clapping.
This was big news!
Everyone was happy and excited knowing this news and many started letting out loud cheers. The silent auditorium was filled with happy noises of the students.
“I can’t believe it! How lucky are we! Hahahahaha!”
“Sheng! Sheng! Sheng! Sheng! Did you hear it! Aha! Aha! Aha! We pa.s.sed ahahahahaha!”
“Stop acting like that.”
Ojas, Ji, and Sheng sitting a few hundred seats behind Lith said to each other. The three were very happy that they pa.s.sed.
They planned so much to be in the top 10 of the tournament; everything they did was so that they would not fail and be kicked out of the academy. But now they didn’t have to put any effort and pa.s.sed this easily. They were very happy.
A few hundred seats behind the trio, Gunther was smiling while looking at Emilia. Though he wasn’t able to help the trio out in any form, at least he got to meet Lith again. It was a good experience for him.
At the third level in the auditorium, in the middle area of the level, students of cla.s.s A-25 sat. Lucas was there too and he was in the middle seat.
‘I just hope those four got the inheritance. I didn’t know such a mishap would occur due to me. I wouldn’t have laid traps had this been the case. Ugh… I just hope the inheritance is with the four.’
Emilia, after a few seconds of letting the students rejoice in happiness, cleared her throat and grabbed everyone’s attention again. She then said looking at the crowd,
“That’s about it for today. The students can leave the auditorium now. Every staff member is to stay behind.”
The staff members wondered why they weren’t allowed to leave but didn’t question Emilia. They helped the students leave the auditorium and then after everyone was gone, they settled themselves back in their seats.
Emilia looked at the auditorium and finding every student to have left, she said to the staff present,
“Now… Let’s talk about the tournament. More precisely, the rigging of the tournament.”
.
.
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…..
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