Editing Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume5 Chapter7 (section)

===Part 1===
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The hall was filled with nervousness and excitement.

A large amount of spectators from every country in the continent had gathered in the hall.

Mixed in with the influential nobles and princess maidens from every country in the continent's training facilities, were girls wearing the Areishia Academy school uniform.

The Blade Dance competitors assembled above an altar in the center.

Because the audience was comprised of the nobility, there was no unsightly jeering.

It seemed like there were fans of the elementalists, so each appearance of the representing teams was followed by high-pitched cheering.

"Milady, please do you best~!"

"I will believe in and await milady's victory! Glory to the Laurenfrost!"

At the front of the spectators were Carol and Mireille waving a white banner.

"J-Jeez, those two......that's embarrassing!"

Rinslet blushed and hid behind Kamito.

"Kamito, stay vigilant. You are attracting a lot of attention."

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"Yeah, got it."

At Ellis' words, Kamito surveyed the area and felt many gazes upon him.

Other than Leonora, it seemed that Muir whom they'd fought yesterday was also here.

(It doesn't appear that they know I've lost Est yet......)

If they did know of Kamito's situation, they wouldn't be looking at him vigilantly but instead with the look of a falcon eyeing its prey.

"Fufu, Kamito is popular."

Fianna said teasingly.

Besides Team Inferno, twenty-three teams had gathered.

Even within them, Dracunia's Knights of the Dragon Emperor had an overwhelming presence.

Around the leader, Leonora, elite elementalists assembled. The Knights of the Dragon Emperor were a military unit with rigid rules. All of the members stood straight up without moving.

Kamito's eyes met with Leonora's.

Those red eyes were incomparable to when they'd met at the library yesterday.

Chills ran down his spine for an instant.

It was like the feeling of being stared at by a giant predator.

"—Dracunia's Dragon Knights training is high quality. Even excluding Leonora, they seem to have no openings."

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Ellis noted as she analyzed the enemy teams.

"Yes, if we leave aside Team Inferno, they are one of the favorites to win. There are also other teams to be wary of."

Claire said that in a whisper and Fianna and Rinslet also turned their heads in his direction.

"First, there are the two representatives from the same academy as us, Team Wyvern and Team Cernunnos. On top of that, the druid girl has an overwhelming advantage outdoors. There's a chance she'll incite all the magical beasts in the forest to attack us."

Moreover, they had already experienced a severe loss during practice against that druid girl. There were certainly opponents he didn't want to have to fight.

Then Claire turned her gaze upon the team that wore foreign outfits.

"They're Quina Empire's prided Four Gods. They're a team that specializes in battle tactics."

Quina Empire was a large country located on the eastern part of the continent. It had a completely different culture compared to the western countries like Ordesia.

"The white-haired one is their ace, Shao Fu. She uses the divine beast spirit White Tiger."

"Four Gods? Even though there are five people?"

"The fifth is probably the one that controls the Four Gods."

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Answering Kamito, Claire moved her gaze to the group that was wearing white holy garments.

"Those are the Holy Kingdom of Lugia's Sacred Spirit Knights. The ace is the runner-up from last time, Luminaris the Paladin."

"Geh!?"

Kamito slipped out a surprised yelp at that name.

"Kamito-san, did something happen?"

"N-No, it's nothing......"

Kamito quickly shook his head at the puzzled Rinslet's question.

(I'm sure she was the holy spirit user. Because it was a bad match with Restia's darkness attribute, the fight was quite harsh.)

Holding the Blade Dance after only three years was extremely rare. It usually took decades and sometimes only happened once in a hundred years.

Because of the age restrictions on eligible princess maidens, crossing blades with the same opponent should never happen, but it seems this time was a case filled with special occurrences.

"She's nineteen so she's the oldest one at this Blade Dance. It seems that she swore to defeat Ren Ashbell to restore her honor."

"I-I see......"

"Kamito-kun, you're making quite a sour face."

Fianna teased the bitter-faced Kamito.

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"Next is the Principality of Rossvale's Rupture Division. Their ace is Milla Bassett, the youngest this time at thirteen years old. Though they're an emerging nation that gained independence from the Holy Kingdom of Lugia only within the last few decades, their elementalists are said to be top-class."

"—And them?"

Kamito looked towards the team that had been glaring in their direction since a while ago.

"The representatives from the Kingdom of Balstan. They're under the direct control of the royalty."

"Why are they glaring at us?"

"Umm......that's probably because of me."

Claire said so like it was hard for her. <!--with difficulty.-->

"What do you mean?"

"Remember, it's because I slapped their prince yesterday—"

"......Ahh, I see."

Kamito finally remembered.

The crown prince of the Kingdom of Balstan. The prince that had acted out of interest and tried to kiss Claire.

"So it's because you embarrassed them."

"It's good enough if that crown prince understands with his body!"

For some reason, Rinslet was more angry than Claire.

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"The Kingdom of Balstan's royalty may have ordered them to take revenge. Sorry, I carelessly created this mess."

"No, if Claire hadn't done anything back then, I would have."

"......Eh? Um, that means......"

As Claire's face went red.

A commotion started near the entrance of the great shrine.

"—So they've finally come."