The Demon King's Cowardly Vessel

"No way!"

"Screw the gold bars! Arcon-Water Bead?!" 

"Yeah, screw the gold bars! That bead alone is worth more than 100 gold bars!" 

Loud cheers could be heard from the spectators' seats. For them, the nobles especially, they were bored of whatever Atlantis could offer them, and this elimination battle was the only time when they could observe foreign powers and abilities that they had never seen or even heard of before. 

And this was also the time for them to make a quick buck. At the last elimination battle, most of them took notes of the young and strong contenders who would still be of the right age to join the next, well, this, elimination battle. 

So, when they heard about the prize, they were stunned! And some of them quickly sent their friends or servants to summon their bookmakers.

While they were waiting for their bookmakers, some of them started to discuss excitedly among themselves. 

"Arcon-Water Bead! That's a priceless item! My father tried to buy it from King Adam, but he never succeeded!" a young man exclaimed loudly as he stood up in his seat out of excitement. 

"Are you an idiot?! That's one of the items that helped the First King when he built this nation! Of course it can't be sold to anyone! Just because you are rich doesn't mean that you can buy it!" a young lady sneered as she rolled her eyes at the young man earlier.

Another young man nodded as he said, "A bead that is infused with the power of the water, giving its user the ability to control water without the need to have an affinity with water! And we are just going to give it to those people from Earth?! What a waste!" 

"Stupid!" a middle-aged man suddenly interrupted as he glared at those young men around him. "This is why they say that all young people nowadays are shortsighted. All of us can wield water, and we are surrounded by water now, unlike before, so why would we need that bead? Using it to form a good relationship with citizens of a foreign world would be more beneficial to us over the long run!" 

The arena was filled with the murmurs of heated discussion, until…

DONGGGG!

The gong was struck again, causing all those who weren't paying attention to look over at the king and shut up. 

The king smiled, knowing that his prize offer had gotten everyone's attention. Even Presley had a slight surprised expression when he mentioned the prize name earlier. 

No matter who won the elimination battle, the prize would still fall into the hands of the Order, and that was what the king wanted. Presley had helped him a great deal when he was just a prince, so he wanted to find a way to legitimately return the favor. 

After the banquet last night, King Frederic had spent a long time in the treasury before deciding on using the Arcon-Water Bead as an item to impress Presley and further strengthen their relationship.

The Arcon-Water Bead was created by the First King, King Arcon, founder of this great water country and King Frederic's ancestor. Legends had it that thousands of years ago, Atlantis had more land than water. For the Atlanteans, obviously, that was unacceptable. Water gave them life and power, not land. 

In the war among the various clans back then, King Arcon was only a peasant who was recruited into the army as cannon fodder. However, he was born with a tremendous power, and using his knowledge, he managed to become a general and lead an army.

Rumors had it that the First King had made a pact with a traveling demon and infused part of his soul into the bead. However, there was never any proof of it. 

Regardless, after the country was formed, Arcon-Water Bead had been left in the treasury until now. The reason being that, after the death of the First King, the bead's immeasurable power was gone. Anyone else who used it could only wield it minimally. 

King Adam had always regarded the bead as a treasure of the country, but King Frederic thought otherwise. A bead that was useless to them could only be a treasure if they could get something out of it.

Hence, he decided to use it to strengthen the relationship between the Order and the Arconians. 

Nodding at President Presley, the king then turned to the crowd. 

"Let us welcome this year's contestants for the elimination battle!" the king said loudly after the noises had died down. He then started to clap his hands as he looked over at where the members of the Order were sitting, setting off a thunderous applause. 

Those who would be participating walked up onto the arena and stood in the middle of the battle arena as they looked around at the cheering spectators.

"That's Luca! The winner from the last battle! He has grown up a lot, but I can still recognize him!"

"Saville! That's the ice user who lost to Luca!"

"Maris!!! Oh my god! Please marry me, Maris!"

Both male and female, whether they were poor or rich, young or old, or nobles or normal citizens, shouted loudly as they cheered for their favorites.

"Do you think someone would be cheering your name after this?" Cyrus whispered as he leaned against Juin.

Juin shrugged. "Probably… But this is the only chance I would get, so there's no need to care about this."

He really did not care about this at all. Instead, he was slightly worried. Unlike the rest, who were either excited or nervous or scared, Luca looked extremely calm, as if he had no worries about upcoming fights at all. Soren, as usual, followed behind him. 

His situation was like Cyrus. As a "pet", Soren was given the right to stand with Luca on the stage. 

"Is he really that confident of himself?" Juin thought as he tore his gaze away from Luca, focusing instead on the other participants. Saville was, as usual, all high and mighty, looking at people through his nostrils, while Maris was waving at people with a seductive smile and the occasional winks. 

As for Wolfe Sterling… He was still reading a manga at this point, giving no consideration to where he was at or what he was about to do. His twin older brother, Marcel, however, was standing stoically next to him, with his eyes narrowed as he looked at Luca, Saville, and Maris.

He then leaned over and seemed to whisper something to his twin, who merely replied with a nod of his head and a nonchalant wave, as if to say, "I know, don't bother me now…" 

Juin quickly looked around at the spectators' seating areas, and he soon found the Sterling Family, whom all but the father had their foreheads planted in their palms. The patriarch of the Sterling Family merely massaged his glabella as he muttered something inaudible under his breath.