Chapter 58: When the Ugly Duckling Becomes a White Swan
The Crown Cup was special in nature, receiving focused attention from the academy and various parties. Clearly, multiple factions had their eyes on this grand competition, since given Coleman Academy’s prestige, each graduating class’s top performers would inevitably become influential figures of their era. Knowing the names and information of these future heroes certainly couldn’t hurt, and might even lead to some connections.
As one of Coleman’s important competitions, the academy placed considerable emphasis on it, sparing no expense to create over a thousand protective badges to ensure the competition’s fairness and student safety—an expenditure other academies wouldn’t dare imagine.
The competition location was in a secret realm northeast of Coleman City.
The era and creator of this secret realm could no longer be verified, and it was now used by Coleman’s administration as the Crown Cup venue.
For fairness, student teleportation locations were completely random, and defeated students would be forcibly expelled to prevent them from memorizing the realm and returning to map it out.
Quite a crowd had gathered here early, with voices buzzing before the competition even began.
There were instructors and academy guards maintaining order and student safety, senior students who came specifically to watch the excitement, and naturally, the most numerous were the participating freshmen.
Unlike the arena ranking battles, the Crown Cup was mandatory for all freshmen—essentially an entrance examination, with 10% to 20% of new students eliminated from the Crown Cup each year.
Those eliminated weren’t just the bottom ten. Students who entered the secret realm but didn’t act, only hiding without fighting, would likewise be expelled by the academy.
The administration was encouraging students to compete intensely. Want to stay? Then desperately find people to kill and raise your points, or your entire team gets eliminated.
To prevent cowards from exploiting the rules, the academy had “lovingly” added a pursuit mode to prevent enemies from running away.
All these various rules conveyed one message: No running allowed—fight, damn it! You won’t die anyway, so make it bloody!
All freshman teams were gathered here. Having just arrived and been enrolled for only a month, the freshmen’s team formations were obviously somewhat chaotic, with very uneven distribution across professions.
Some teams had nothing but one essential God Child plus all Divine Maidens, while others had no Divine Maidens at all—besides the God Child, their combat personnel consisted only of mages and alchemists.
Teams with balanced professions could develop healthily, but this wasn’t a major problem. Official team assignments would only happen after the Crown Cup ended—until then, all teams were temporary and wouldn’t be filed.
With only ten minutes until the secret realm opened, the anxious students all quieted down, lowering their voices to whisper among themselves.
“Big sister, who are you looking for?”
“Hm? No one.” Seeing Sofia beside her asking, Estride shook her head and withdrew her gaze.
As one of the most striking beauties present, Estride naturally drew many gazes.
“Big sister isn’t looking for that human again, is she?” Seeing this, Sofia spoke in a wheedling tone.
Estride gently rubbed Sofia’s head without speaking, but this clearly couldn’t satisfy the somewhat jealous Sofia.
Sofia huffed inwardly and swept her gaze across the scene following her big sister’s earlier line of sight. She didn’t think there was anyone in this freshman class worth special attention—big sister was already the most dazzling star.
Sofia felt quite indignant and confused. She couldn’t understand why such an excellent big sister would fancy an ordinary male human.
He was just a common human you could find anywhere, someone who’d be completely lost in a crowd, yet he made Your Highness so worried and preoccupied.
This made the possessive Sofia quite sour with jealousy.
Looking at big sister’s expression, she probably didn’t find that human.
Didn’t he come? Well, I heard that after leaving Your Highness, that human couldn’t find any teammates at all. Rather than being embarrassingly eliminated in the Crown Cup, better to leave a good impression and quietly bow out.
If that human had any self-awareness, he’d probably be packing his bags in his dorm right now.
At the scene, everyone had their own thoughts, and more than one person was concerned about Dilin.
“Why isn’t that idiot here yet? Can he make it or not?” John cursed, his words revealing unclear anxiety.
“Five minutes until the competition begins. Please make your final preparations and don’t miss anything. In five minutes, instructors will distribute identity badges, and teams with badges will enter the secret realm in order!” The gray-robed Grand Instructor used amplification magic to convey his voice to everyone present.
“Damn, that bastard isn’t chickening out, is he?” John couldn’t help but swear. With his excellent God Child observational abilities, he still couldn’t sense Dilin’s presence in the crowd, making him lose his composure.
“Captain, what’s wrong?” A burly man nearby, seeing his captain muttering and cursing before entering the secret realm, was quite confused.
“Ah, nothing, nothing. I’m just talking to myself.” John quickly waved his hands.
Even failure was far better than surrendering without a fight. Dilin, don’t make me look down on you.
John prayed silently.
“How about it, God Child sir? Have you found that wild Divine Maiden?” In a corner of the crowd, Erin smiled.
“Not yet. No domain, no divine authority—I haven’t sensed any Divine Maiden like that present.” The God Child in Erin’s team shook his head.
“Hmph, what’s the rush?” Laro crossed his arms. “If she comes, we’ll be the first to kick her out of the academy. If she doesn’t come, even better—saves us the effort.”
“How can you say not coming is better? Laro.” Erin narrowed her eyes. “Getting an easy addition to our battle record without any effort—it’d be foolish not to take that bargain.”
“Once we’re in the secret realm, we’ll deal with that wild Divine Maiden and her useless God Child first. Then we can perform freely without worrying about elimination. Why wouldn’t we want that?”
“Haha, true. That pair of cripples better show up.” Laro rubbed his hands together with a malicious grin.
The competition start time entered its final countdown.
Estride felt somewhat disappointed and confused.
Perhaps he wouldn’t come.
Was he really going to leave this place? Leave forever…
Just as her thoughts drifted, a platinum-colored warm breeze brushed past her.
Estride was startled and unconsciously looked toward that brilliantly radiant figure, as dazzling as a golden sun. At the same time, she instinctively raised her hand, where the silver moon pattern flickered silently.
Sofia was also stunned, unconsciously overlapping this golden figure with the golden silhouette that had been appearing in her dreams these past days.
The platinum-haired maiden walked through the crowded throng as if strolling through a garden. Reflected in her emerald pupils was only calm composure and tranquility—not this bustling crowd.
“Who is that…”
“Who is this person…”
“Does our school really have such a beauty?”
“She’s really beautiful… Don’t you think she’s even prettier than Princess Estride?”
Wherever the golden-haired maiden carrying a long bundle passed, everyone unconsciously made way, staring in amazement at this girl who elevated the simple act of walking to artistic beauty.
Before they even realized it, instinctive admiration spilled from their lips.
The noisy crowd suddenly fell eerily silent. Though the maiden made no sound—even her footsteps fell as softly as a cat’s—she successfully amazed everyone present.
Finally, the maiden stopped, seemingly oblivious to all the gazes focused on her, and brushed aside the silky strands by her ear.
Her mutton-jade translucent, milky-white skin seemed never to have seen sunlight. Her delicate, small lips were like tender flower buds, her long, thick lashes like two delicate fans. The slight youthful awkwardness of an adolescent girl accentuated her flawless beauty. Her light skirt hem clung to her rounded, slender legs, outlining perfect curves.
She radiated youthful vitality while maintaining soul-stirring charm. Her natural, unadorned beauty was extraordinary, worlds apart from those heavily made-up seductive creatures.
Her platinum hair was braided into countless thin sections, arranged like wheat ears around the back of her head in a princess braid, with the ends falling to her knees, swaying in the wind with the texture of the finest silk, gleaming brilliantly in the sunlight.
Her incomparable beauty made all the proud and pampered Divine Maidens present pale in comparison.
This otherworldly beauty seemed not to belong to the troubled mortal world.
The golden-haired, emerald-eyed maiden stood proudly in the crowd like a noble white swan.
Those commanding beautiful eyes seemed to be searching for someone. Finally, her gaze fell on the dumbstruck Erin, her lips parting to speak words that, though not loud, everyone could hear.
“Please take care of me, student Erin.” Her voice was like a lark soaring through mountain valleys, with lingering echoes.
“She’s Tilisa!” After the maiden walked past Erin, Erin finally realized with shock, pointing at the maiden’s back and speaking words her teammates found hard to believe.
“Erin, you’re joking! You’re saying this great beauty… is that golden-haired ugly duckling?!” Laro looked completely shattered.
That despised ugly duckling had transformed into a magnificent white swan?