Chapter Fifty-Three: The Day of the Fight
AN: Hey everyone kind of a announcement here regarding the patreon. I have started a new basically a series called Oneshot it's a series I will be doing for patrons only where I write about a character in a famous anime/game scenario and they live through it, for the first chapter I placed a character inside the world of attack on titan during Erwins charge against the beast titan. If you are interested in this or just wish to support me and my efforts please check out the patreon, it's only a dollar and you can leave at anytime no issue.
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There was a spectacle in the streets of the capital of Volaria, streamers and fireworks, which Mae of course brought to the public, were going off, as well as street performers entertaining the crowds of people who had come to see the fight in the coliseum.
It was a day of celebration. It was the day that their beloved princess, Lucilia Aria Caelum, would finally get married. Nearly every competitor had a fandom behind them, and there were even betting odds on who would win.
Ren, of course, was the least popular in both fandom and betting, as many saw him as nothing more than an outsider vying for their princesses' affection. Some even protested his being allowed to participate in the event itself, complaints, of course, that nobody listened to.
The Coliseum had a similar design to that of the Roman Coliseum on Earth; it was made as a circular building with areas on the sides that one could travel through.
At the center of the arena were weapons laid out—just about anything you could think of—swords, axes, knives, and even more, leaving tons of options at the disposal of the participants.
The Coliseum's crowd started to fill the seats, with every member of the audience filled with anticipation.
It was then that an announcer stepped forward on a hovering platform.
"Ladies and gentlemen, tonight we gather to see thirteen warriors battle it out in the arena, all for the right to marry our very own Lucilia Aria Caelum. Sadly, at the end of the day, only one of these young men will remain; the rest will no longer be with us and will only live on in our memories. Now before the main event, we have some preliminaries for all of you."
The announcer pointed at one of the gates opening, and inside the gate were five people, all in chains and in ragged clothing, walking out, covering their eyes from the sunlight, showing everyone they had not seen the sun in a long time.
"These five men have been arrested and charged with being part of the insurrection; these five in particular were part of an operation to assassinate the head of the royal household of Kaldo. So by this wish, he decided that the punishment for these five would be death by his choice of method. His choice being, by golem."
Soon the gate across from them opened up, and a behemoth made of rock and stone with glowing orange eyes walked outside of the gate.
Ren, who was sitting in one of the backrooms with Scarlet, Lily, Eleonora, Serenity,Tyler, Sakura, Ashastha, Sthora, and even Laelli, was watching the event on a monitor.
"What the hell is that?" Tyler said, looking at the screen.
"It's massive..." Eleonora said.
"That is a golem." a voice said, walking through the door.
It was Aurelia dressed in her formal royal attire, which was a long purple dress.
"These five men have been arrested and charged with being part of the insurrection; these five in particular were part of an operation to assassinate the head of the royal household of Kaldo. So by this wish, he decided that the punishment for these five would be death by his choice of method. His choice being, by golem."
Soon the gate across from them opened up, and a behemoth made of rock and stone with glowing orange eyes walked outside of the gate.
Ren, who was sitting in one of the backrooms with Scarlet, Lily, Eleonora, Tyler, Sakura, Ashastha, Sthora, and even Laelli, was watching the event on a monitor.
"What the hell is that?" Tyler said, looking at the screen.
"It's massive..." Eleonora said.
"That is a golem." a voice said, walking through the door.
It was Aurelia dressed in her formal royal attire, which was a long purple dress.
Ren smiled upon hearing that. "Yeah, that's my Lucilia, all right."
"Hey, so getting back on topic, what's a golem?" Sthora asked.
"A golem is a being brought forth by magic and is used in wars and even constructing cities; it was, I guess, in a word, a "gift" from another planet. Their new ruler saw us coming and sent the Emperor this in order to keep us away from his planet. He left a pretty convincing threat that he would unleash thousands of those on us if we interfered with his planet." Aurelia explained.
"Really?"
"Yeah, that boy actually kind of looks like you, Ren, just with purple eyes instead of green." Aurelia said.
"Huh..." Ren replied.
Ren looked back onto the screen and saw the golem immediately crush the five prisoners without hesitation or a single thought of mercy, much to the crowd's cheers.
"There will be a few more fights before yours, appetizers for the main course if it were." Aurelia said. "Now Ren, me, and Lucilia will be sitting near the throne box on the right side of the arena next to our brothers, sisters, mothers, and...him. I promise you that you have our full support."
Ren stood up and looked Aurelia in the eyes. "Thank you, Aurelia...Im going to need it."
Aurelia smiled at Ren with a hint of guilt. After all, there was nothing she could do to stop this fight; the emperor controlled everything from here on out. Unless Ren wins, then things could become quite chaotic.
Aurelia then looked at everyone else in the room "You guys have VIP rooms dedicated to you alone on the left side of the arena; ask my guard here, Duma. He will take you to the suites, where there will be free food and drink. Don't worry, I have already had everything in that room tested; it's completely safe."
"Thank you, Aurelia." Scarlet was the first to say it, followed by everyone else.
Scarlet then turned to Ren and asked him a very important question that he needed someone to ask "Are you okay?"
Everyone in the room noticed it but didn't want to say anything; however, Scarlet, who knew him the best out of everyone in the room, asked it after seeing his eyes beat around, his palms shaking and sweating, and him not being able to stop tapping his foot. He was anxious and very anxious at that.
After Ren heard the question, he didn't know what to say, but instead he smiled "That easy to read, am I?"
Scarlet sighed and sat down next to him "I didn't have to; it's very obvious to anyone with a set of working eyes."
Ashastha sat behind him and put her hand on Ren's shoulder "You should allow yourself to freely speak around us; everyone in this room cares about you, Ren."
Lily was the next to say something "Please, Ren, just talk about how you feel right now."
Ren grabbed Ashastha's hand that was on his shoulder. "Honestly, I know I've killed before, but that was in war, but this...I know I'm doing this for Lucilia, and I will do it, but...at the end of the day, for most of these people, this is nothing more than killing for sport; I just don't know how to feel about that."
"Ren..." Sthora said.
"It's not about sport."
Ren turned his head to the voice speaking, and it was Eleonora, who was looking at Ren with the kindest eyes.
"This isn't a sport, maybe to some of the audience members, but to you, this is a fight for your life and for your future. So what if the crowd cheers or boos? They are nothing. This is about you and Lucilia's future; anything else doesn't matter at all. Focus solely on that."
Ren was shocked at what she said because, in reality, she was right. Yes, to the audience, this may be a sport or a celebration of something, but to him, he was fighting for his future with the woman he loves, and absolutely nothing was going to get in the way of that.
"Thank you, Eleonora." Ren said, his eyes now filled with determination.
Eleonora smiled softly, seeing Ren find new motivation. "It's no problem, Ren; we may not be on Eternity anymore, but that doesn't mean I stopped being your squad captain."
"Speaking of the Eternity, how do you think Captain Aurora and Lena are doing?" Tyler asked.
*On the UNS Eternity, Captain's Quarters*
Aurora was sitting in the quarters of her ship, looking at the files she had of everyone who was transferring to her ship. She had a lot of holes to fill, so she asked around other ships and in the reserve corps for anyone willing to transfer, and she got a decent amount of transfers onto her ship. It was also almost time for another recruiting cycle from some of the smaller military schools, meaning they could also get some new blood into their ranks.
However, her attention always focused on two photos she had on her nightstand: one of her best friends who had passed away years ago, and one new one she printed out, her best friend's son, Ren, who was now M.I.A. under her watch.
"I'm so sorry, you two..."
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