"Master… I can sense multiple curse presence around…" Baobao mentally communicated to Eli as she stood with the delegates in the Colosseum.
"Can you estimate how many there are?" Eli's heart grew cold the moment she heard the news from Baobao.
It seems like the enemies and curse users were still able to find a way to infiltrate the Empire. Though she and Kayden had already expected that the detecting device could not perfectly detect the presence of curse magic, the reliability rate was still close to ninety-eight percent.
"Not too many… Probably around ten, some of them were just faint presence but three of them were quite strong…" Baobao replied with uncertainty. "And they were all concentrated in one direction."
"Could you tell precisely where these three presences are right now?" Eli's eyes remained calm, but her mind was already buzzing with alertness.
"I could sense them all at the top floor, thirty-six degrees."
As soon as Eli heard the location, her head immediately moved to look in that direction. The top floor is where all the foreign envoys were seated.
Though she could no longer see who they were with her naked eye, she still stared in their direction.
But in order to make it not obvious, her gaze did not linger in that direction, and slowly turned her head as if she was looking at her surroundings in the most natural manner.
Outwardly she may look like a person who was calmly looking at the vast crowd, but she was already calculating in her mind the exact position of the cubicle where the three presences are located.
"Thanks, Baobao. Tell me if there are any other suspicious presences around. I'll report this immediately to Mishael and Leon once the ceremony is done." Eli thanked Baobao.
"On it, master…" Baobao replied before cutting off their mental communication.
–
Meanwhile, on the balcony, Crown Prince Renon's eyes flickered in interest when he saw Eli's eyes suddenly looking in their direction.
But not even a second has passed when he figured out that Eli's unfocused gaze scanned not only his balcony but the other ones.
'For a minute… I thought that she was looking at me…' His deep purple eyes glimmered cunningly before he resumed his lazy posture on his chair and watched the rest of the proceedings.
It was not only he who noticed Eli looking in their direction, at the far corner of Crown Prince Renon's cubicle but there were also two hooded mages who appeared to be attentive standing with the knights to guard the Crown Prince.
There was a mysterious air emanating from their seemingly low-key figures however, because of the lack of reaction and movement, the other noblemen in the room soon treated them as bodyguards.
But if one looked closely, their eyes were also focused on Eli's direction, particularly at the line of Imperial Women standing beside her. There was a deep sense of hatred in their eyes, which caused the colors of their irises to change.
–
After the ceremony, there was a three-hour intermission before the elimination stages started in the second half of the day.
Eli thought that she could use this time to look for the organizers in charge of arranging the rooms on the top floor.
However on second thought, asking for the layout definitely raised suspicions, for those who were on the top floors were definitely the leaders' representatives to spectate the tournament.
And so she decided to course her inquiry to Grandpa Reuben and Uncle Bramwell.
"Oh, Eli! You made the right choice to tell this matter to us instead." Uncle Bramwell smiled at Eli, feeling relieved that she did not act on her own but instead sought the help of the elders before making any moves.
"Here is the approved layout of the Colosseum's top floor, attached in the list of the envoys assigned to each cubicle. However, of course, we would not know if they would somehow keep insisting to take a cubicle of their liking." Uncle Bramwell immediately gave Eli the information.
"Alright, thank you, Uncle… Thank you, Grandpa. I'll contact Mishael and Leon about the matter too. But do not worry, I'll ask big brother Nathan to accompany me just in case.
"Good girl, go ahead. Just remember, this matter is quite a delicate one. We cannot let the enemy know that we are already aware of their presence." Grandpa Reuben warned Eli worriedly.
"Okay grandpa, I will also pass your word to them." With that, Eli bade them farewell and immediately moved to contact Mishael and Leon secretly.
Since they have detected multiple curse users in the crowd, she is tasked to inform the representative of the Imperial Family and the Temple. Therefore, she had to report to Leon and Mishael as they were the chosen representatives of the two parties.
"I'll be back before the start of the preliminary rounds…" Eli affectionately hugged Grandpa Ben and Uncle Bramwell as she said goodbye.
Without delaying any further, she came back to her own office in the Research Branch, activated the isolation barriers, and immediately called Leon and Mishael.
Explaining her findings, the two immediately understood.
"Alright, we will investigate," Mishael replied with a tone of assurance.
"Let our site handle the situation, I'll send a roaming blade to get the documents from Grandmaster Reuben to you. Just focus on the Tournament and rest assured." Leon also seconded.
"Alright, I will… Thank you." Eli did as they suggested and agreed to their words. In fact, this was the best course of action, to act normally before they figured out the enemy's intention.
Leon and Mishael also know enough not to raise the alarm of the public by suddenly sending more reinforcements to the venue. This will also unnecessarily send a signal to the enemy to be more sneaky and hidden on their watch.
Eli just sincerely prayed that Leon and Mishael's forces will be able to figure out the enemy's plans and apprehend them before these people would make a move to kill people's lives.
Just thinking about how many young people were here in the Colosseum, Eli's hair stood on end. These are thousands of young people, not to mention, the most talented ones!
The Empire must protect them at all costs!
Deciding that in her heart, she took a deep breath and refocused herself. There's still half an hour before the preliminary round starts. She had to reunite with Dean Athena and the rest to support Lainie and Desmond on their rounds.
Since Eli's team was in the Academic Division, the Preliminary round was carried out on the Farauld Magic Institute's Campus instead.
The Colosseum, however, would be the main location for the Magic division where a lot of fighting and duels would happen.
After a walk from the Research Branch to the Academic Branch, Eli's eyes turned wide in nostalgia and amazement.
The volume of the people around was overwhelming, there were countless teacher-student groups around, using the remaining time to encourage the delegates and keep them from being nervous.
It was like when Eli participated in a lot of competitions back then… Only that, this scene is a large-scale musical competition. She could not help but feel her heart pumping with fighting spirit.
"Councilor Eli! Here!" Dean Athena spotted Eli who was looking around to locate them. She raised her hands and waved at Eli.
Eli greeted everyone. In the group, only hers, Queen Tehila, Queen Lucia and Princess Evelyn's students were around waiting for her in the crowd.
"Let's go…Her Highnesses were already seated inside." Dean Athena looked at everyone and guided them to their waiting rooms.
The preliminary rounds were divided according to their instruments and clusters. Except for the composer's competition, everyone had a nervous expression on their faces, which made their mentors a little helpless.
"Aiyooo… I told you, this is just the preliminary round, how could you let yourself be affected by nervousness.." Queen Tehila patted her protegee, Raya who was holding her violin while visibly shaking.
"I-i saw the contenders from the Vanderford Empire rehearsing earlier… They… they were scarily good!" Raya appeared to be losing her confidence and will to fight.
"Their intonation is so accurate… even the distribution of their bow and the projection of their sound… it was so good… One look and I knew that they picked up the violin and studied it for years!"
"How are we supposed to beat them, who were only trained for a few months…" She continued to mumble.
The rest of the music group was also affected by her actions. Raya was the most outspoken and fearless in the group, so seeing her act like she already lost the fight also planted a seed of doubt in Hailey and Marrie.
Eli sighed, it seemed like she had to speak up once again.
But before she was able to open her mouth, Desmond, her student, and also Raya's older brother, stepped forward and looked at Raya with a stern expression.
"Wake up! Why are you beating yourself up with the thought of not being able to defeat them? Don't you remember our mentor's words? From the start, they did not ask us to join to win, they chose us to fight and hold our chin up to proudly represent our Institute and Empire!"
