Chapter 46: Aftermath

The rest of the proceedings took place per usual tradition, and Leon as the winner, received the award of the first place, a rather big trophy.

While, Leon had won the tournament, that was the last thing being spoken of. By the time he left the arena, it already felt like the least important thing that had happened.

The moment the entire thing ended, the academy seemed to forget how to stay quiet.

Students gathered in groups across the grounds, talking about the fight all about. Some argued about Aaron’s performance, but most were discussing the two undead that Leon had revealed at the last moment; and yet, a few were already trying to figure out what kind of Summoner could maintain three summons at once without breaking a sweat.

The same question kept coming up.

"How did he hide three summons this entire time?"

"I don’t know. I thought he only had the Skeleton Swordsman."

"Three summons at once... Isn’t that supposed to be incredibly difficult?"

"And that second one. What was it? Some kind of desert warrior or something?"

"Brooo, whatever it was, it moved fast."

"Bro you get itttt. Did you see the way they surrounded Aaron? That was insane!"

"Right? Don’t get me wrong, the guy’s a beast already, keeping up with his Grade 3 summon neck to neck, but man that Leon is a DEMON! FUCK!"

Leon heard pieces of the conversations as he walked past, heading out.

Most of them didn’t even notice him, and for him, that was probably for the best. He had already spent enough time for one day being stared at.

The strangest part was how quickly everything had changed. A few weeks ago, most students who knew his name knew it for the wrong reasons. Now, people were talking about him like he had always been someone worth watching all along... society...

As for Leon, he wasn’t sure how he felt about that.

’At least they’re not laughing.’ He thought to himself with a weak laugh. Even though he knew very well human nature, this was his first time being at the receiving end after all. Though, all the days leading up to this day had made him a bit more used to it.

The teachers weren’t much quieter either.

In one of the faculty rooms, several instructors had gathered around a table, discussing the tournament while the results were still fresh.

"Three whole summons."

"Believe me, I couldn’t believe it when it happened."

"Did you identify the second type?"

"Not really, looked like some kind of Egyptian inspired thingy."

"Desert Skirmisher, I believe so. Grade 2 or so."

"And the Swordsman?"

"That thing? I don’t know who said it was a Grade 1, perhaps the deveices were broken or something, but that thing is at least a Grade 3."

"Undead aren’t the most common monsters, especially not the higher Grade ones. It makes sense no one identified it correctly until now."

"Then the question isn’t whether the summons are strong. The question is how he managed to maintain all three."

Nobody answered that part immediately, as they all genuinely wondered how it was possible.

Then one of them finally spoke. "Perhaps his energy capacity is unusually high? That’s the only way to explain it."

"Perhaps."

"But we don’t know that yet."

"No."

"And I heard he handed over the cores he brought from the dungeon he cleared too. I think that’s the best possibility. He just might have an insane energy pool."

The room fell quiet again.

"He was involved in a dungeon? When did this session start again? How many months has it been?"

"You didn’t hear? Well I guess it wasn’t a big deal back then who was involved. It was a green dungeon."

"True. But handing over the cores... does he not even intend to cultivate his summons?"

"He’s name is Leon Carter for a reason, you know? Getting a higher Grade monster core is not a big deal for him... you wouldn’t understand."

"I’m so jealoussss... the guy’s rich, talented, and actually very good looking too."

"Hey stop it. We have enough trouble already with you and all the female staff, leave the youngster alone." Someone teased.

"That’s not funny, Quan, you punk."

"Honestly, what rank does that make him now?"

"Mmm... True. Easily Rank 4 at the very least."

Their conversations continued, slowly spreading and getting deeper. They had more questions than answers, and that was exactly why Leon had become so interesting. Slowly, he went past just a talented student, he became an unknown variable.

Outside the academy, the story was already beginning to spread too.

At first it was only local posts from students and student discussions online, but it didn’t take long before people outside the academy began sharing clips and comments about the final.

The final itself had been covered by a local news station, but that wasn’t a limitation, it became perhaps, one of their best publicity for the month, and maybe the year.

.

Grand-Phoenix Academy Tournament Final — Leon Carter reveals multiple summons.

.

Three undead summons?

.

Unknown Summoner defeats Aaron Grey in the finals.

.

They alone had the official coverage and several other articles online about the fight, leveraging every possible means as much as they could.

The information moved quickly and soon reached Sun City also.

Now, most people outside Sun City had no reason to know Leon Carter as the failed heir people inside the city remembered. To them, he was simply a young Summoner who had won a major academy tournament while revealing unusual prowess.

That alone was enough to make people curious.

Some called him a rising prodigy, while others were more cautious. A few argued that one tournament wasn’t enough to determine how strong he really was, as having multiple summons, while great, didn’t always mean soaring the skies. But regardless of how people interpreted it, his name was spreading.

Inside Sun City however, the case was very different, as everyone who knew of the past Leon Carter could only describe the situation before their faces as not just one, but a herd of Pigs transversing the nine skies with the wings of Eagles.

...

While he was still dealing with the tournament staff, Leon’s phone rang.

He didn’t want to pick at first, but pulling out his phone, he saw that it was Alice.