“Hey, you—yes you, right? Just one word, please!”

“I heard your alias is Saja; do you intend to become the king of this League and win it all?”

“You're already being talked about as the league’s rising star — how does that feel?”

“Was there a reason you passed through the portal late in the test? Were you deliberately hiding your skill?”

“Was your final appearance an attempt to grab the protagonist's spotlight?”

Oh, please stop—!

Leonardo Blaine wandered through the main stadium building. To be exact, he was being pursued.

Reporters clutching notebooks and pens swarmed him and fired questions. Leonardo, ignoring the intrusive attention, was searching for somewhere to hide. He covered his face tightly with someone’s discarded hat and a cloth that had been rolling on the floor, kept silent like a vow, and scolded inwardly.

Get lost, you people!

He wanted to shove them all aside and run. But there were too many passing spectators, so he could only dodge this way and that.

“Ah!”

He glanced back for just a moment and immediately crashed into someone again. The person he hit stumbled backward with a reflexive cry as if struck by a 9,000-ton warship. Leonardo grabbed the other’s arm, steadied his falling body, and gave a quick nod.

“Sorry.”

The man left a short apology and hurried across. A long line formed behind him. A few curious onlookers even stuck to the person he had bumped and asked what had been said.

The interior of the main stadium building was much larger and more complex than it looked from the outside. The south and east entrances, used mainly by spectators and participants, were clustered with commercial facilities — a crowded, dazzling showcase of extravagance. A sensational rookie wandering such places would inevitably draw attention.

Cornered, Leonardo threaded the labyrinthine corridors and leaned out of a half-open window. Reporters who had crowded up and council staff trying to restrain him each waved their hands and urged him to calm down.

“No, you can’t—!”

“Come down!”

Whether out of concern for the five-floor height or desperation not to lose their scoop was unclear. But the man before them was a powerhouse who had shattered one-meter-thick reinforced concrete with layered wards. Light on his feet, Leonardo stepped onto the railing and, despite the clamoring objections, leapt out like a butterfly.

Photographers who were withdrawing from the ground happened upon the sight and pressed shutters repeatedly, capturing it like motion picture frames. When he landed lightly, the crowd gasped as if witnessing some legendary beast.

Leonardo wanted to sink into the ground from embarrassment but kept his eyes squeezed shut to hide it. He slipped past the reporters and disappeared calmly to one side of the stadium.

The north building served as the main stadium’s operational headquarters — a restricted special zone. A sign reading "No Entry Except Authorized Personnel" hung prominently, but Leonardo had no choice. The persistent tails forced him to duck under a fence and wander through a corridor that had grown quiet.

“Brother, this way. This way!”

A whispering call made him turn his head. Ero, who had been hiding farther down the corridor, gestured. Leonardo wore a complicated expression and ran toward him.

“You managed to dodge them?”

“Don’t say it.”

The two, looking shaken, pressed their backs to the wall and held their breath. They remained silent until the pursuing crowd had moved off in another direction.

After some time, when the sounds had quieted, Leonardo wrapped both hands around the back of his neck. He lowered his head and flopped down onto the floor.

“Damn, I’m going crazy.”

Ero, who had spread a place beside him and sat as well, vented in the same tone.

“I only realized today why the contestants vanish like ghosts after the preliminaries every year... Wow, aren’t those people leeches?”

“Why are they chasing us this hard? Don’t they go home?”

“Well, it’s because you’re attached. If word gets out about the blood feud with the whip and Brother, his ransom will skyrocket.”

Ero pinched his index finger and thumb together and shook them lightly. Leonardo sighed.

“A few of them even guessed my alias.”

“What? At this point, didn’t the council leak it on purpose? To raise the stakes?”

It was an unseemly suspicion, but not entirely impossible.

The reason the two had been chased sprang from the explosion that occurred while crossing the portal. The situation goes back about twenty minutes.

Leonardo, who had briefly looked up at the crowd bubbling with negative fervor for three seconds, suddenly realized his hat had flown off during the fight. He grabbed whatever rolled nearby. Having been exposed so intensely before so ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) many eyes for the first time since the trial that would determine his release, his pulse pounded and his head throbbed.

Realizing there was no shield in front of him after witnessing the scene, his symptoms worsened. The crowd noise that had been audible even before entering the stadium now sounded like thunder tearing the air.

He, who had appeared imposing, instead hid behind a pillar in a blind spot with only his face and head suitably covered. Dizziness and the heat of his body left him disoriented. If two staffers passing by hadn’t suggested he receive treatment, he might have forgotten that his right hand was injured.

About to be moved to special care, Leonardo realized the sadist who had confronted him until the end was nowhere to be seen. Others who had reportedly crossed the portal were being assisted and moved, but the whereabouts of the silver-masked figure were completely unknown.

Later, while receiving treatment in the infirmary with Ero, a League official who had come to see them explained the sequence of events.

“Hello, I’m Sandra, the coordinator for F-group Test Part 1. Thank you both for your efforts in the match.”

Her voice sounded somewhat familiar.

“For the F-group, there are issues requiring discussion and review among officials, so the final results announcement may be delayed. I came to inform you of that.”

“Huh...?”

Ero started to point aggressively, then realized it would be rude and hurriedly lowered his hand. Leonardo, watching the recovery of flesh on the back of his hand, raised his head and looked at her.

Sandra smiled and continued.

“Yes. I was the official who explained the rules and the passage notifications before the match. It’s an honor to meet you.”

“What do you mean by needing a review? Does that mean we didn’t actually pass?”

Leonardo’s tone sharpened; he frowned. He had been using polite speech to the staff since his release, but the odd turn of events loosened his usual deference.

Ero looked at him in surprise. Sandra, familiar with key participant details, replied smoothly without any discomfort.

“That’s correct. Seven people in total passed through the last portal, including you two. Of those, five were participants and two were safety staff who were hurriedly dispatched. At the moment you entered the portal, four pass slots remained. In other words, one more participant than allowed was recognized as having passed. We need to determine which four of the final passers are the legitimate qualifiers and which one is the disqualified party.”

Originally, the portal was designed to close immediately once the 26th passer entered, pushing others out. But this group experienced various external pressures during the final confrontation, and more importantly, the portal formed unstably, causing recognition errors, Sandra added.

She bowed and apologized for not taking preemptive measures before the tower collapsed. Who would have expected an ordinary participant to cleave the tower? Leonardo remained silent with a displeased expression.

“The main purpose of this review is to determine the final qualifiers, but we will also discuss the excessive interference by a certain individual and the destruction of terrain and fixtures. Since the League does not restrict combat styles, we cannot say the participant’s actions violated the rules. However, because those actions endangered participants’ safety and affected who could pass, we must consider whether there was intent to manipulate the outcome.”

She did not name the “certain individual,” but Leonardo and Ero both thought of the same person. Knowing that he was the subject of discussion confirmed to them that he was among the five whose final pass status was on hold.

Sandra explained that this particular individual had vanished immediately after passing the portal, making it difficult to obtain testimony and thereby delaying the review.

Leonardo sighed regretfully. He blamed himself for holding back in front of that face.

I should have just blown him away.

“Sandra: We expect to finish the review and discussion within three hours and will notify each participant. In the meantime, please rest in the infirmary or participant waiting area.”

Having given brief guidance, Sandra was about to move on when Leonardo raised a question that had been nagging him through the match.

“Wait, one thing. Earlier, when the portal opened, a dozen or more passed at once—was that also due to recognition error? Originally the calculation works if up to three pass at a time. There’s clearly a problem; why wasn’t the match stopped sooner?”

Sandra listened and smiled pleasantly like a professor pleased with a good question.

“A good point. But apart from the final opening, the portal behaved without issue.”

One of Leonardo’s eyebrows rose.

“It behaved without issue?”

“The League’s rules can only be specified within a limited time before the match, so some parts are left to interpretation. I explained the match format like this: ‘All participants are to head to the stamen tower and pass through the portal that opens only at the tower’s top, then return to the main stadium goal area.’”

Hearing the repeated explanation, Leonardo gave a look that said, 'Is that it?'

“This is simply the requirement to pass through the portal. Subsequent explanations about decisions concern only the ways to open the portal, not the eligibility to pass.”

“......”

“There’s a slight trick in this match’s rules. In the Plarinus stamen tower occupation, we did not explicitly state a limit on the number of people who could pass the portal at once. Instead, by limiting the number of crystals that could be inserted into an ovary per person, we naturally encouraged teams of two to three and thus created a competitive structure that determined winners and losers.

Many early contestants believed that if they lost in that competition, they wouldn’t get another chance to pass. So even when the portal opened, they often watched other teams pass like gentlemen and waited for another chance. But as time passed, impatience grew, competition intensified, and eventually multiple people aimed for the portal simultaneously. There were many cases where a participant passed unexpectedly—just like when the two of you passed.”

Leonardo's mouth dropped at the absurdity.

“So that means... in the end—”

“Yes. Once the portal opens, any number can pass. After that it’s first-come, first-served. We did, however, provide a hint by specifying a number other than a multiple of three as the pass count to account for possible recognition errors, as you mentioned.”

“Wow, brother! I knew I was right!”

Ero claimed he had figured out the rule after listening to four hours of commentary—believe it or not.

“Impressive that you deduced the rule mid-match. The League’s rules relay facts but do not state everything explicitly. The distinction between clearly defined rules and other means, and the ability to doubt the information I provide, will be this League’s variable and another kind of strong player. Consider this a little tip from the match coordinator to you two, who showed excellent performance.”

Sandra, who claimed to have designed the rules herself, placed a hand over her chest and bowed politely. She was about to move to inform other participants when she added as if remembering one more thing.

“Oh, due to the delay in result announcements, the operation will provide a small compensation to participants who experienced inconvenience. The compensation can be used anywhere within the main stadium, but we recommend that you two avoid leaving the controlled area near Gate C as much as possible. A crowd is gathering outside, so for your safety we ask for your cooperation.”