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There was no mistaking the fighting spirit that brimmed in Iris's voice.
The trouble was that, hearing Iris speak that way, both Elise and Lyra had the sudden urge to cover their faces, for it was rather like looking at their own younger selves.
All the more so given that the two of them knew Luke secretly held three Seven-Star cards, and who could say what other tricks he had tucked away besides. In that moment, the pair looked toward Iris with a trace of sympathy, which left Iris thoroughly baffled, an odd, prickling sensation creeping over her.
"Look, students from beyond the Region!" Just as Iris was about to ask what was the matter, a commotion broke out nearby.
Drawn by the exclamation, Luke's group turned their eyes toward it, and Lyra took the chance to explain. "The Four Great Academies share a common policy. None of them admits only Card Master students from their own Region. They take in students from across the whole nation."
"Take Celestial Academy, for instance. Each cohort is majority Eastern Region, but it also admits students from the other three Regions, and even students from beyond the Ancient Kingdom entirely."
"Is that so?" Luke nodded in understanding. The universities of his past life had operated under similar policies, so it was easy enough to grasp.
"The four academies compete, yes, but where the training of Card Masters is concerned, none of them turns away a single candidate who's passed the exam." Iris picked up the thread, and then her gaze caught on the newly arrived teams. "Hm? Those outfits look like they belong to Dragon's Valley."
"I didn't expect Dragon's Valley to send new students to Celestial Academy this year." The Card Masters who'd stirred the commotion numbered only a hundred or so, but that already exceeded a tenth of Celestial Academy's cohort, given that the Academy admitted at most a thousand students per year.
These hundred-odd split into distinct camps, clustering together according to the affiliation each of them belonged to.
And the most striking among them was a pair of near-identical sisters in strikingly matched attire, sisters who hailed from Dragon's Valley.
Both wore fitted gowns of matching cut, patterned with violet orchids and lotus blossoms, the long trains drawn in and gathered at the waist. Delicate floral collars edged their sleeves, their crystal-pink lips curving in lovely arcs, jade earrings hung with dark tassels swaying gently in the passing breeze.
Pale gauze gowns bordered in silver, water-lily veils faint at the waist. Set against their faces, though, it was the two sisters' figures that more readily seized the gazes of everyone in the plaza.
Dragon's Valley fell short of the Ancient Kingdom, and of many other nations besides, in both territory and population, yet its overall strength was downright absurd. Even a power as mighty as the Ancient Kingdom didn't dare look down on Dragon's Valley.
In the present era, there existed three Card Masters of the Supreme Realm, each belonging to a different nation, and those three nations stood as the mightiest of the Magic Card Civilization's current age. Ranked just beneath the Ancient Kingdom and the other two super-nations was Dragon's Valley, with every other nation falling a further tier below it.
The reason was that Dragon's Valley possessed a great many Undying Realm Card Masters, revered as the Nine Great Dragon Lords. To hold so many Undying Realm powerhouses was a terrifying thing indeed, and it was precisely this that made Dragon's Valley a superpower ranked just below the Ancient Kingdom.
"According to what my father once mentioned," Elise said, "to temper its younger generation, Dragon's Valley struck a pact with the Ancient Kingdom, under which each of the Four Great Academies admits two of Dragon's Valley's Card Masters."
"If I'm not mistaken, those two are Dragon's Valley's Violet and Viola sisters." Roland had once brought the matter up to Elise in passing.
At Elise's explanation, the others let out a murmur of wonder. Dragon's Valley's Card Masters were, after all, quite the rare sight.
"Rumor has it that Dragon's Valley's Card Masters craft almost exclusively dragon-related card spirits, and their decks seldom hold anything but dragon cards. If that rumor holds true, then those two very likely possess no small number of dragon cards themselves." Gazing at the pair of sisters from Dragon's Valley, Luke mused quietly to himself. Though I do wonder how the dragon cards they hold would stack up against my Red-Eyes Black Dragon and the projection body of Timaeus.
Dragon-species cards stood at the very apex of every race, formidable enough to take on ten foes single-handed, which naturally let them suppress the overwhelming majority of non-dragon-family cards. This, too, was the path Dragon's Valley had always honed itself along.
As if sensing the gazes from Luke's group, the two dragon-maidens turned toward them, silver vertical-slit pupils flashing in their eyes. And in the next moment, the pair started walking straight in the direction of Luke's group, to the shock of everyone watching.
"Ugh, why that direction again? That direction has to be cursed." Much as Iris had earlier, plenty of onlookers had already recognized the two as Dragon's Valley students, but this move of theirs came as a shock all the same.
Even Luke and the rest of his group could see it plainly. The two sisters were indeed heading straight for them. Elise and Lyra were left bewildered. So they're actually coming for us.
Don't tell me this Luke is secretly some hidden final boss? Luke couldn't help a stir of self-aware amusement. Why does everyone act as though they know him?
"Uh, is there something you need?" Feeling the resentful gazes converging on him from every side, along with the jealous, green-eyed stares aimed at his back from the orbit of the four beauties, Luke's head gave a dull throb. He'd only just declared the two sisters weren't looking for him, and reality had slapped him across the face on the spot.
The plain fact was that Luke genuinely had no idea why the two dragon-maidens were approaching.