People were gathered around the stage for the main event of the Star Festival. On the stage, Julius was standing, and seeing the crowd, he began.
"Greetings to you all present here."
*CHEER*
Just as he said that, the crowd roared with passion and howled at the top of their lungs. Seeing it, Julius gave his usual smile and raised a hand in the air, which quietened them down. When their cheers subsided, he continued.
"I would like to begin with the reason for which you and I have gathered here, the reason why Star Festival is celebrated. To rank the magic night squad of the Clover Kingdom based on their yearly performance. The squad with the most stars will be awarded the honor of being the best squad of the year."
"GOLDEN DAWN WILL WIN!!!"
"NAH!! This is the time Silver Eagle will win!! Did you see their performance in defending the Capital?!"
"Whoever wins, Captain Charlotte is the best!"
But ignoring it, Julius began to speak.
"Starting from the ninth position is…"
"BLACK BULLS!!"
"…Aqua Deer with 30 stars!!" When Julius announced it, the murmur of the crowd died down for a second, then it suddenly roared.
"WHAAAT!?"
"IT IS NOT BLACK BULLS THIS TIME!! HOW!!"
"Wait! They will be in 8th position!!"
People muttered in disbelief. But hearing the comments, Julius just smiled in mischief.
"In eighth position is Purple Orca with 32 stars!!!"
Once more, the crowd roared in disbelief, but this time, Julius decided not to dilly-dally any longer.
"At seventh position is Coral Peacock with 42 stars!"
"Sixth position belongs to Green Mantis with 49 stars!"
"Fifth position belongs to Blue Rose with 65 stars!"
As the words kept on being spoken, the crowd's expression continued to fall. Not because the squad they loved was placed lower, but the squad they hated was being placed higher.
Such was the human nature.
And Julius knew it well. He was doing this because he wanted people to realize that the squad Black Bull, the one that they consider useless, has been, in fact, the one that is working the most for their betterment.
"At the Fourth place is…Crimson LIONS with 76 stars!"
"Black Bulls ranked above Crimson Lions!?!? How is that possible?! Is this rigged?"
"Of course, this thing is rigged!"
"That group of filthy commoners led by that outsider ranking above Crimson Lions led by Fuegoleon!" This time, nobles too showed their distaste.
And that made Julius smile even more.
"Ranking 3rd are the Silver Eagles with 93 stars."
"No…"
Then, the realization set in.
"Ranking 2nd are Golden Dawn with 125 stars."
Every voice halted. No one spoke a thing other than Julius because…
"Ranking 1st are Black Bulls with 137 stars."
And that broke the camel's back!
"How?! This is outrageous!"
"Impossible!!"
"WE don't accept it!"
"Those swine cannot surpass Silver Eagle and Golden Dawn even in their dream."
"This is a joke."
Suddenly, everyone started an uproar, nobles in particular, because they thought this was Julius' way of suppressing Nobles and promoting commoners. But Julius did not listen to it at all, and continued to speak, which only made the Nobles feel their fears in increasing magnitude.
"To those who are present here and are against the results or are doubting the trustworthiness of the results, I would like to remind of the dreadful attack on Royal Capital when our Capital was runover by undead, it was Wilhelm, a member of Black Bulls that fought against them with Yuno of Golden Dawn.
When the majority of the Magic Knights in the kingdom were teleported by the enemy's trap, it was Asta and Noelle, members of Black Bulls, along with Leopold, a member of Crimson Lions.
Black Bulls have, on two accounts, engaged in a battle with the heads of Eye of Midnight Sun, and have killed 3 of them. This was also done by their combined effort, along with Wilhelm's, who landed the decisive attack on them, and secured assets that were very important for our kingdom.
Members of Black Bulls, namely Vanessa, Asta, Finral, and Noelle, fought against a Diamond Kingdom invasion on Witch's Forest, which helped us to develop and strengthen our relations with them.
After it was revealed that the leadership of Purple Orca, along with their leader, were traitors, all the Black Bull members worked night and day to find every person responsible for it and punish only the guilty.
Our increase in trade, due to the construction of contraption of train, is only due to Wilhelm, who created the designs for it and shared it with the kingdom.
So, I hope, after listening to all this, you would realize how Black Bulls are worthy of the place that they got."
"…"
This long lecture from Julius finally shut them up.
Commoners, who followed a herd mindset, got swayed by Julius' words, but nobles did not budge from their ideology. The only reason they did not shout it loud was that they did not want to refute Julius in his face in front of everyone, which would hurt their prestige, and would allow rival nobles to take advantage of it, rallying the public's opinion with them.
Many nobles were feeling sour, but no one was feeling as sour as the King himself. Not Wizard King, that is Julius, but King of Black Clover, Augustus Kira Clover XIII.
'Huh? What is wrong with Julius? Why is he supporting that filthy squad? Why is he not rewarding Silver Eagle or Golden Dawn?
And every time he speaks, he keeps taking away attention from me.'
Augustus thought with gritted teeth, sitting on his throne, shooting a glare at Julius.
Then Julius said, "Now, in front of all of you. I would like to honor the rising stars of this year. Magic Knights who performed exceptionally well in serving the Kingdom, and acted as a model Magic Knight should be."
This announcement caused every commoner gathered to feel excitement within their heart, and a deep foreboding in the hearts of nobles and Royals.
Raising his hands wide dramatically, Julius began.
"First is Yuno, the owner of the 4-leaf grimoire wielding Wind Magic, from Golden Dawn!!"
*CLAP CLAP*
Hearing that the person was from Golden Dawn caused the nobles to feel a bit relieved, and the audience to cheer without holding back.
At the announcement, wind picked up speed that caused a few wigs and hats to fly away, and Yuno touched the stage riding those winds, with his hair swaying gently. His calm and detached demeanor, along with him belonging in Golden Dawn, was a huge plus for the ladies, whether commoner or noble.
"Second is Wilhelm Sylvesterus Diluc Rothchilde, another owner of the 4-leaf grimoire wielding Inheritance Magic from Black Bulls."
'Hmm…so this Wilhelm is a noble, huh? Even though he is from the Black Bulls, only a noble can have such power and insight. Everything makes sense.'
Nobles, who heard his name, felt at ease, assuming him to be a noble. This caused them to swallow the hard pill that the person who was credited and praised so much by Julius is actually a noble.
'Good, good, 2 noble-'
*SHATTER*
"Aah!!"
Augustus's thought was stopped in his tracks by the sudden sound of glass breaking, which reverberated all over, causing everyone to take a step back with a yelp, and Augustus to shriek in a humiliating manner.
But nobody commented on that, as their focus was on the fracture in the air, from where a lean figure appeared with long crimson red hair, with well well-defined face with golden slitted eyes. As he floated down, the golden waistband by his side floated down until his foot touched the stage.
And the reception this time was heightened in magnitude.
If Yuno looked like a detached prince of ice standing in a stone-made castle, then Wilhelm looked like a charming prince who one could imagine playing violin on a rainy day.
Something that appealed infinitely more to a noble woman.
"Lastly, Asta, wielder of Anti-Magic, making him the bane of all magic users, also from Black Bull."
"…"
For a while, there was silence. Everyone was expecting Asta to appear just like Wilhelm and Yuno did with a flare, but instead of appearing, all they heard was the sound of someone yelling, getting a bit louder every second.
'Yup, that is Asta.'
'Asta is coming.'
Both Wilhelm and Yuno thought in unison and somehow could feel what the other person thought. In a short duration, the sound of yelling kept on increasing until it started to resemble a siren.
The small figure of Asta started to become visible, who, upon reaching the stage in fright, suddenly stopped himself by summoning his sword from his grimoire.
*HUCK*
*THUCK*
With a flip from the handle, Asta landed on the stage.
"Haahaa, Captain Yami threw me!" He said immediately, at which Yuno replied with an even face.
"He just flicked you, thinking you were an insect."
"Hey!!"
Asta's reception was different than Wilhelm's. His rugged look was popular among some women, but due to his height, that popularity died just as quickly.
'Eww…just as expected. The previous one was an exception. This is what a true Black Bull looks like.' Augustus thought with a scrunched-up expression.
As this was going on, someone among the crowd felt resentment amongst them for those on the stage, and that person was none other was Haha!, also known as Sekke.
Hiding in the crowd, he shouted, "Don't be fooled by them. That short boy does not even have magic, and the rest of them are just commoners from a distant place, and all of them are orphans."
This, too, showed a human tendency. People wanted someone from a better position to care about them, instead of someone having similar origins.
Everyone erupted, especially the nobles.
"What? That red-haired person is not a noble?! Then how dare he impersonate a noble! He should not be rewarded, but imprisoned for this crime instead!"
"Yes, yes, he should be imprisoned. He dared fool us into thinking about his origins."
"A boy with no magic is a magic knight? What utter nonsense is this?"
"Golden Dawn took in a commoner among their ranks? I thought those were just baseless rumors."
And such words started to fly around. From the nobles' side, Wilhelm was their prime target since they could not allow a commoner to act like a noble and integrate with them. According to their perspective, this was a dangerous prospect and something that needed to be immediately shut down.
From the commoners' standpoint, Asta was their prime target, and this was based on pure jealousy. They, who could use magic, could not become magic knights, much less earn the honor to be praised by the Wizard King in front of all, then how dare a magicless orphan do it? To them, this was not fair.
As for Yuno, he was just catching strays.
Then suddenly, when the dissent was growing higher and higher, Yuno just raised his hand, which caused his grimoire to float with a green hue around it. Then suddenly…
*WHOOOSSH*
…wind started to pick up speed, and particles of dust, twigs, and small pebbles started to pellet people's faces.
"Sand is in my eye!"
"Aaahhhh!!!"
"Ungyaa!!"
Sound of distress came from everywhere, whether from commoners standing in front of the stage, or nobles sitting in the special places assigned for them.
"Yuno! Stop the wind! There is air under my pants!" Asta shouted over the wind, but instead of stopping the wind, Yuno increased its pace.
"Julius! STOP IT!" Augustus said as he held his crowd with both of his hands to prevent it from taking to air, but Julius ignored it, and remained his eyes on the trio, when suddenly Asta seeing that Yuno was not going to stop, summoned his sword from the grimoire and swung it down at the epicenter of the twister that broke the wind currents.
*WHOOSH*
Once again, the wind that dissipated so quickly knocked some people off their feet. This display of power from Yuno and Asta's demonstration by cutting this magic with a single swing of his sword silenced all the dissenters.
'Wha..t was that…?' Sekke thought as he crouched on the ground, hugging his knee and looking at the people whom he had given the Magic Knight exam, but could not believe his eyes how strong they were now.
But this was not the end of it. Wilhelm, who was standing there, was not exactly having a good day. First, he woke up much later than he usually would. He had to go to a festival that he did not want to. While his time with Noelle was going well, suddenly a wrong topic was touched, bringing hurtful memories of the past, and he said hurtful words to Noelle as well. Then this no-name person from Green Mantis sauntered around and told everyone of his origin in front of all of the nobles, ruining his long-time efforts.
And this pissed him off.
"Regulus…Aurum."
He said it softly, but it still caused the hair on the back of everyone's spine to stand in attention and fright.
*ROAAARRR*
With a thunderous roar like never before, the golden lightning lion shot right up in the air. Mana around it was far too dense for a magical construct, and rising in the air when it looked like a small golden radiant source of light, it started to expand, covering the sky above the heads of everyone at Star Festival.
*THDRRRR*
With the sound of lightning crackling in the air, it exploded, causing everyone to squint their eyes due to the intensity of it. But they were not the only ones affected by it. Air ionized far too much, far too quickly, and the sky that was shining with a soothing moon in the air was replaced by dark clouds that started to pour down all over the place.
But the people did not run for the shelter in the rain, because their eyes were set on Wilhelm, whose well-groomed hair was now wet and covering a good part of his face. But through those hairs, his yellow slitted eyes shone, straight at Sekke, who was feeling relieved. Relief that nobody will know that he had pissed himself in fear.
***
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