I Just want a Peaceful life

Another week passed since Angus' confrontation with Prince Dietrich and the Alvan United convoy. During this week, King Leon also officially announced the knight competition.

Since the competition was open to the public and commoners, King Leon didn't announce it through a social party like the usual big event but simultaneously spread it through the main cities.

The knight competition will be held in two months, at the end of the third month. It consists of two categories: group battle and individual battle.

Each category is divided into two phases: the preliminary phase and the main phase.

The preliminary phase is a random preliminary battle until there are only 64 participants left. According to the calculation and the total number of participants, each participant may fight two to three battles daily during this phase.

However, Angus knows the hidden rules of this preliminary battle. Though the battle arrangement is stated randomly, it is actually controlled by the judges, who consist of referees and selected experienced combatants. It happens that Angus is also one of these people.

The reason behind these hidden rules is not to create a backdoor way to a particular participant but to avoid some strong participants battling each other and getting eliminated too early.

Moreover, any strong participant also gets privileges like battling less and having more strength. These hidden rules may also bias against those without connection and benefit those with strong connection, especially with the judges.

Still, King Leon believes that if the participants are strong enough, they should be able to reach the main phase easily, even with these setbacks. Otherwise, those participants are just not worthy of entering his eyes and fighting in front of everyone.

The main phase is the start of the main event. The 64 participants will fight inside the specially built-arena while everyone watches. The arena is heavily enchanted and could hold more than 50,000 people. In other words, it is already an honor for anyone to be able to fight at this stage.

Even if they lose in the battle later, they will still attract many people's attention as long as they do not perform too badly. This will definitely be a big achievement and rise in their career as combatants.

The main phase is also a venue for creating a network between participants and others. This is also why King Leon didn't mind if someone used their network and influence to enter the main phase.

It is normal to use influence and network power to connect more with other people. This is also one of the main reasons to establish communication and networks.

During the main phase, Angus and the other jurors could no longer arrange the battle. Any violator would receive heavy punishment from King Leon himself. The participants would fight based on the lottery draw.

Any loser will be eliminated directly while the winner moves towards the next fight. King Leon also prepares some prizes for the participants even if they win.

The last 16 participants will receive a large amount of gold coin prize money and high-grade skills or magic books. The last 8 participants will receive a Miasma Antidote along with Vigo's Power Arm.

The last five participants will receive a high-quality magic item, such as a potion or magic weapon, and they could also earn a high position in the Heart Kingdom military.

The winner will receive an artifact of their choice along with a wish granted by King Leon. Everyone was surprised by the winning prizes, especially the last one. For others, seventh-grade students are legendary people akin to God.

Though, the last winning prize itself is limited since the wish should always protect the interest of the Heart Kingdom. However, granting Baron rank nobility or giving some rare resources is possible.

The same rules are also applied to the group battle. The maximum entry number for group battles is five. In other words, the 1st winner will get five artifacts and five wishes from King Leon as the winning prize. The same thing also applies to the other winning prizes.

This is also the main reason King Leon asked Angus to form a team to win the competition. Granting one wish is different from granting five wishes. It is still too much, even if it is only a monetary prize.

However, King Leon also felt this was the right winning prize to attract everyone, especially the neighboring nations.

With such rules and prizes, everyone is in a frenzy to join the competition. Reaching the last 16 is already worth participating in the competition. Unlike noble-born and those with aristocratic identities, most people couldn't get skills/magic spells.

The commoners and ordinary adventurers can only access skills through their school days. Even then, it is just some ordinary skill or half-complete skill. As for magic spells, they can't find it.

Only those with noble identities or wealthy merchants could get access to skills and spells, especially high-level ones. Although unfair, it is also related to the kingdom's stability and security. Otherwise, there will be many rebellions or riots across the kingdom.

The exciting news of the knight competition is independent of Angus and the others. In contrast, Angus increases everyone's training by beating them up. To make it worse, Millie is also healing faster than before which increases Ian and the others suffering.

It turns out Angus didn't just plan to let them enter individual battles but also group battles. In this case, Millie could also show her skill and rise to fame. Although Millie is not an ordinary paper-thin healer, her attacking ability is still limited and too deadly to be used in this friendly competition.

Therefore, Angus could only let her enter a group battle as a healer. However, this also means Ian, Axel, and Mia have shorter rest periods and more fighting during the preliminary phase.

As a result, Angus decides to increase everyone's endurance through more one-sided beating.

"G-give up!! I give up!!" said Axel in a hurry as a giant flaming boulder approached him.

*Snap* At once, the giant flaming boulder stopped in the air before slowly melting into the ground.

"Huft.. Huft… I thought I was going to die." said Axel while slumping on the ground weakly.

"After you heal and rest, we will fight again." said Angus while shaking his head in disappointment.

"Ehhh… No, I can't do it anymore. It's too much. Ian, you also say something to him." said Axel.

"Marko and Filkas are already at their limit. Forcing them to fight more will only hurt their future. However, this is also a good chance to fight without my familiars." said Ian nonchalantly.

"Urgh… I asked the wrong person." said Axel.

Among Angus' friends, Ian may not be the strongest. However, no one could say anything about his hard work and self-discipline. This is also the reason why Ian looks more mature than others.

Still, Angus knows Ian is just preparing himself for the worst possible situation. He can see that all his training is putting himself to the limit while he experiences various deadly situations.

In this case, Angus said nothing about this matter and silently supported his friend. He knew Ian didn't want to experience a hopeless situation, and Angus entirely agreed with his approach.

"Mia, how about…." said Axel while looking at the burning corpse on the ground being healed by Millie.

Seeing Mia's horrible situation, Axel could only release a surrender sigh.

"Forget it. She may challenge Angus to stop killing her when she wakes up." muttered Axel sheepishly.

Axel didn't worry about Mia's life despite turning into a charred corpse. Millie could easily patch her up and revive her with her miraculous skills. Furthermore, Mia also has her own broken natural regeneration as a phoenix.

While accepting his fate of going to another spartan training, a group of wild pigs run in their direction.

"Yay!! Yay!! Piggy!! Piggy!!" exclaimed Anna happily.

"Anna?!" called Jayna gently.

"Ahh… Mommy?!! Look, Anna brings a lot of Porky." replied Anna excitedly while flying towards Jayna.

"Gezz… Anna, how many times I told you not to bring the pigs here. You could just bring them to the kitchen," said Jayna gently as she caught the little troublemaker.

"Ehhh… But, Mommy's pork meat is delicious. Anna loves it." complained Anna.

"Haa… It will take a long time to cook all of them. Mommy could only cook one of them at most." replied Jayna.

"No, Anna wants more." said Anna.

"How many did you want?" asked Jayna.

"Emm… forty? Twelve? What is next after thirty-two?" asked Anna while counting with her finger.

"Hmm… One?" replied Jayna with a gentle smile.

"No way. That's what Mommy said before." argued Anna.

"How about two?" asked Jayna.

"Alright, Anna wants two roasted Porky." said Anna.

'So easy to be fooled.' thought everyone.

"Then, sit tight. Mommy will need time to prepare it." said Jayna.

"Anna will be a good girl. Hmm… Daddy!! What's Daddy doing? Is Daddy playing something?" asked Anna.

"Nahhh… We are not doing anything Anna." said Angus.

"Umm… Nope. Daddy is lying. Daddy must burst the bubble behind Anna's toes." complained Anna while pouting.

"Behind your back, Anna. Anyway, we are really not doing anything and definitely not bursting any bubbles." said Angus while trying to hide the fact they are sparring.

Angus could already imagine the danger when Anna found out about their sparring. One of Anna's hobbies besides pranking and eating food is her love for fighting, especially when she bursts everyone.