Twelve True Seeds

"You did well out there."

Gawain walked out of the exit, only to find a senior waiting for him in the hallway with folded arms. His sword sheath informed him of his house.

"Senior from the Hephaestus house. May I know your name?"

The blue-haired man was much frailer in comparison to himself, and his skin was snow white. This gave him a sickly look, but his lean posture and confident smile were something that stood out more than his features.

"Thomas Maxwell. As for what you did to my student, I will have to thank you for that."

The name didn't ring a bell.

"I aimed to win the duel. Anything else that happened during that was a complete coincidence."

He took no credit for stomping on his opponent's pride.

"That might be true, but it still helped my student realize his faults. For that, I owe you a favor."

Thomas was an upstanding person.

"If you would like to think so, then I can't do anything about it. Still, thank you for using some of your time to congratulate me. Now, if you could excuse me,"

"Sure."

He walked past Thomas. There was probably one more match today to prepare for.

Gawain took a turn and disappeared from the hallway. Thomas continued to stand there in silence, lost in deep thought.

'Perseus House. Celia was able to get her hands on a true prodigy.'

The winner of last year's trials, Thomas Maxwell, had a correct estimate of his potential.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-

"The top four true seeds according to their performances in the first round are,"

One of the officiators was supposed to declare the performance results.

True seeds were positions assigned by the dean according to his opinion on the competitors' performance in the first rounds. 1st to 4th seeds were exempt from fighting in the extra round, while 5th to 12th seeds had to face each other to qualify and get to the next round, where they faced the top four seeds in the quarter-finals.

The first twelve rounds were kind of biased. All the seeded competitors had been put against unseeded ones, which fixed the outcome of 10 duels. The remaining 2 duels were between unseeded competitors.

"Tomoe Yoshinaka (First True Seed) Ares House."

No one thought that this was the wrong decision. The Yoshinaka elder was as calm as ever.

"Hugh Fitton (Second True Seed) Ares House."

One of the true revelations of the competition. just as impressive as his housemate, but slightly rougher in his fighting style.

"Gawain Regina Rolfe (Third True Seed) Perseus House."

Regina covered her mouth with both of her hands. As soon as the officiator took her son's name, she was unable to hold her tears back. The pain of losing her husband at a very young age, countless taunts from a society that questioned her credibility as a mother and a woman, and the childhood that she wished her boys should have had. She knew that this wasn't the end of the tournament, but her name being called out in front of so many noble families was something that she couldn't even have dreamed of.

Godwin gently placed his right hand on her shoulder, expecting it to calm her down. This was the reward for her hard work.

"Thank you, Godwin."

"Arnis Gasper (Fourth True Seed) Ulysses House."

When the last name was announced, everyone that was here to support the houses of Hephaestus and Thanatos realized something.

"No one was able to place in the top four from the top two houses."

A shameful first.

"The rest of the 8 true seeds are.

Timothy Compton (Fifth True Seed) Hephaestus House

Leonard Carrey (Sixth True Seed) Hephaestus House

Marc Alpheus (Seventh True Seed) Thanatos House

Edith Musson (Eight True Seed) Hephaestus House

Aldrich Niels (Ninth True seed) Thanatos house

Margaret Bate (Tenth True Seed) Hephaestus House

Charles Afton (Eleventh True Seed) Ulysses House (Unseeded) "

Joshua Hayes (Twelfth True Seed) Ulysses House (Unseeded)"

The first round has now concluded.