Reincarnated as a Son of the Sword Saint and the Sage

I had been attending the academy for two months since the summer break, and it was currently in the middle of autumn. The summer heat had waned and was gradually replaced by the cold winter breeze.

As expected, the Imperial Capital had been becoming more busy with the upcoming harvest festival. Everyone also had been looking forward to the annual tournament at the arena, and powerful-looking individuals had been passing the gates of the capital, whether they were here to compete or to observe.

Since anybody could join the tournament as long as one had an identity that could be proved by the adventurer's card, there were quite a number of individuals who came here to compete beside the locals.

Some of them were well-known for their strength and reputation, like this famous S-ranked adventurer from the Kingdom of Boulder. There were some who were regulars of the tournament and came to compete again.

As far as I know, I heard that there were quite a number of students who wanted to participate. Apparently, Gauss Groniz, the second son of a margrave and the one who used to court my sister before, was one of them.

But knowing the students' strength, I could say that only a handful of them could pass the preliminary. As for Gauss, he did improve a lot during and after my boot camp, both in levels and skills, so he might fight in the elimination rounds, in my opinion.

But, well, well, well, to our surprise, we did not expect a certain student to join the tournament as well. The news of his sudden participation really spread like wildfire, and he was the one in the talks in our classroom.

"I heard that His Imperial Highness Edward is joining the Imperial Battle Tournament. Do you think he is going to be okay?"

"Have faith in our future emperor, can you? Of course he's going to take the win!"

"—Wanna bet if he can pass the preliminary?"

"—Hell yeah! I heard that there are strong contenders for this year, so His Imperial Highness would not probably make it."

Afternoon in our classroom, Iris and I were listening to the opinions of our classmates in regard to the crown prince's participation. They got mixed reactions to it, but most of them were concerned for his safety and agreed that it would not end well.

"Prince Edward is going to fight, huh?" Iris muttered. "What do you think about his reasons why he wanted to participate, Raphael?"

"I really don't know. Why would I think or care about him in the first place? However, just like everyone else, I also think that his decision is not a good idea at all."

"Yeah, I think so too."

Prince Edward's participation in the tournament was a big surprise not only to the students and teachers of the academy but to the Imperial family and nobility as well. Edward had not told his reasoning so far, but they were trying to convince him to back out as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, Iris and I simply did not care about it, maybe a little bit for the least. I had yet to see the reactions of my sister and Christine, but I could already guess that we were riding in the same boat as well.

Well, actually, I had an idea or two of why Prince Edward did that through my sources, aka Francis and Azrael. From what they said to me, Edward did that as a sort of proving himself to his family and the masses. It sounded ridiculous; that was why everyone was stopping him. But knowing what kind of person the prince was, he might be trying to show off to Edith.

As I was chatting with Iris, a group of classmates of ours walked toward us. A young man then acted as their representative and spoke to us.

"Your Highness Raphael, with all due respect, do you have interest in participating in the tournament like His Imperial Highness Edward did? Everyone knows that you and your sister are the strongest students in the academy. We were just wondering if you would be joining or not..."

Being a royal as well as a powerful combatant myself, I would not be surprised if there were questions like these. It was common knowledge that the Raevender siblings were the most powerful students currently, so many could assume that we had participated in the tournament. But my sister and I already made a decision.

"I am sorry to disappoint you, but neither me nor my sister are going to fight in the tournament. It was just too much of a hassle for us. Would that suffice?"

"That is more than enough, Your Highness. We are sorry for bothering you and Lady Iris."

They all took a bow before they walked away. Once they moved away from us, Iris then grabbed my arm and put her head on my shoulder before she said something uncanny to me in a sweet tone.

"Even if you have joined, Raphael, I would be making a way to make you take the trophy. I will make sure everyone will recognize your grace."

"Um... I don't think I would need that much help if it happens, but I really appreciate it, Iris. There is no need to go that far."

It seemed like I made the right decision not to join. If so, I did not have an idea of what Iris would have done to help me win. The worst I could think was that she would be taking my opponents. But anyway, none of it would be happening, I suppose.

But seriously, I had to admit that I was kind of interested in the tournament. Regardless of whether I was joining or not, I needed to get myself involved with it as I could smell that something was going to happen there.

Even though I told them I would not join the tournament myself, that did not mean that 'I' was not going to participate and fight. They did not know; I had a proxy of myself fighting in the tournament.

"Since I won't be joining, how about watching the matches together?"

"That sounds fun. Yeah, that would be another date for us."

After that, we continued our classes, and then we met up with my sister and her fiancee after class.