Woman in White

Haruto's first match became a popular story among the audiences. The people who weren't interested in watching a match between unknown participants were dumbstruck to learn how the match went on.

There's mix reactions between them with one saying Haruto's going to be a dark horse in the tournament while another saying it just a fluke as he's still no match to the favorite participants.

The person mentioned though didn't care what the people were talking about him as he was busy on relaxing himself along with the beauties around him, his very own companions.

"Congrats on your win Haru-tan but it looks like it's not worth celebrating isn't it~?"

Lumina said as Haruto entered the room after he finished changing reluctantly to a normal clothing due to the constant nagging of the girls. The girls were going out to grab some food because they were hungry so it's only the two of them right now.

"Oh my dear princess, I didn't know you're here? Cheering for your handsome future husband? That's so lovely of you. To such wonderful fiancee this esteemed self must made sure to reward her plentifully."

Haruto's face was gleaming brightly seeming like he was extremely moved by Lumina's intention. And then he began to strip his shirt casually.

"Eh?"

The reaction and action Haruto did was very different from Lumina's imagination so her face became dumb.

"W-Why are you stripping your clothes?"

She asked with dubious tone, not concealing her bewilderment and surprise. For some reason, Haruto was acting very strangely today and even for a person on her caliber couldn't comprehend his thought.

"Hm? It's to reward you of course?"

"R-Reward? But... what kind of reward is it?"

"Isn't it obvious? It's sex."

"...."

The esteemed Haruto-san said it with face as if looking at an idiot, he truly thought his actions is completely natural, there's nothing strange at all. In his mind, what other method to reward your wife (candidate) other than spending a passionate session of making love to each other?

Lumi-chan was speechless as she who belonged to the faction of 'lacking knowledge and experience despite her age' obviously wouldn't be able to connect with the esteemed Haruto-san's reasoning.

"Uhh, wait wait wait, I feel like there's something strange here...."

"There's nothing strange at all my dear princess. Oh right, you must be inexperienced at this isn't it? Fear not, for this esteemed self shall kindly and gently guide you to the world of passion and pleasure that heaven itself would pale in comparison." Haruto-san who already stripped to his underwear approached the confused Lumi-chan.

"G-Gently? Y-You're going to be gentle with me...?" Lumi-chan turned meek against today's Haruto-san.

"Yes."

"Y-You're not going to hurt me...?"

"Yes."

"R-Really?"

"Of course."

"Hoee...."

Haruto-san's eyes were so solemn and serious that could make every shonen protagonists ran away in shame as he held Lumina's chin softly. The innocent Lumi-chan received a fatal damage on her poor heart as she began to succumb to the demon's whisper. This scene was the absolute recreation of shoujo manga scene. There's even an illusion of flowers and glitters on the

"T-Then, please take care of m-"

"NOT SO FAST!!"

*BANG!!*

Kaori-san made her entrance with pissed off face but it soon turned to blush seeing Haruto's current appearance. She and the others happened to have a bad feeling by leaving Haruto who still in post-Growth state that's why they hurried back to the room.

It just they never thought this wolf in sheep clothing was trying to lay his hands on another woman already!

"Oh? Isn't this my lovely angel Kaori? Are you going to join the culmination of our loves to each other too?" Haruto looked at her and tilted his head cutely.

"Fueh? W-W-What?" Kaori's face was flushing bright red.

"Alright stop it you idiot, there's no time to play around." Asami hit Haruto's head and reprimanded him.

"Play around!? Oh dear sister, this is the act to prove my love to my women how could you call this playing around?" Haruto was making wronged expression.

"Yes yes, it's ve~ry important and I'm interested too but there's matches to watch." She dragged Haruto outside the room after putting on his clothes. He grumbled, voicing his unwillingness.

The others followed after them with wry smile. Kaori was absentmindedly walking and Selianna woke Lumina up from her stupor. She was going "Are~? What am I doing just now?" with bewildered face. Maybe the act just now was done half-consciously.

Since she's not interested in watching other matches, she went back to the grand hotel Damian assigned for her accessible for nobles only. She offered to let the others stay with her by the will of the name 'Luminette the godly princess' but Haruto's group refused saying they would attract too muh attention.

And they obviously was not comfortable for Lumina to threaten the owner using her name, that's just too much for them.

They made their way to watch other matches because there's also Tram who possibly going to be Haruto's opponent on the third round in line not long after Haruto's match. Finding a good spot, they sit themselves comfortably. That was the seats reserved for tournament participants so there's no problem to watch the match.

The match after Haruto is between two black rank adventurers. They were almost evenly match and the battle only over after a little more than twenty minutes passed. Haruto was bored as hell because there's nothing interesting on the fighters, their level is about the same with his first opponent after all.

Asami though still looking at the match carefully, an evenly match between people were not that often so she wanted to study to improve herself. She maybe a magician but a knowledge to close combat fighting is still necessary in case she needed it. Well, after the tournament was done, the other girls would begin to teach her fighting.

The sixteenth match was Tram's turn to fight against a bulky middle aged man holding giant axe. The two of them was the type to fight with brute strength so they're suitable for each other. Unfortunately, Tram's level was not the same as he's not only depending on his massive strength but he also moved fast.

Once the match begin, he stepped forward to close the distance and swung his huge greatsword, producing a violent airflow that ripples through the void as his slash made a shockwave to blow away his opponent without giving him a chance to retaliate.

It was over with no more than a few seconds as the bearman sheathed back his greatsword to his back and went down the platform. His face remained aloof as if nothing happened.

"He's strong indeed." Rikka nodded.

"Fufu, looks like Haruto-kun can't afford to slack off once he fought with him." Kaori smiled teasingly.

"I'm still bad at judging and comparing other's strength..." Asami tilted her head.

"Tram-san is not just powerful, his speed is also impressive, it makes me so envious..." Fia pouted. Her lack of strength was always a problem in the past after all.

"That greatsword is definitely an Artifact, I can feel it's weight even heavier than my golden sword." Selianna commented.

Her sword is the combination of Sword Art Online Alicization's <Fragrant Olive Sword> and Bleach's <Senbonzakura>. Both of them have similar ability with the former possessed a weight far surpassing the latter, making it more powerful (The heaviness also affected the flower petals). But the latter is more flexible while also possessing Bankai state that she still couldn't use for now. The combination of the two swords makes it the perfect and ideal form of <Senbonzakura>.

"Fumu, this esteemed self is quite excited on testing his strength to such worthy opponent. I'll look forward to our fateful match." Haruto nodded.

The match went on until the twentieth match. Most of them was between ordinary fighters so there's not much to learn as starting from the 17th match, it was belonged to the other section, the one the infamous Lotus was in.

There's a match where the number four, Dyan participated on the eighteenth match. He was a slender intellectual looking wolfman wearing a chinese style martial outfit with a long gray and black staff as his weapon. He used a traditional martial arts similar to shaolin back on earth. The flurry of his staff that thrust and swept at his opponent was extremely fast as if his arms multiplied into eight.

Dyan could defeat his opponent in instant similar to Tram but he deliberately chose not to do so. It wasn't because he's looking down on his opponent, but because he's the tournament's wild cards, he had to give a satisfactory 'performance' for the audiences. The same also goes for the other three wild cards participants.

In Haruto's thought although Dyan is number four but he didn't see Tram being inferior to him, there's no telling which one will win if they fought. He's quite interested on fighting Dyan but unfortunately he had to go past the biggest obstacle in this tournament first, which is as good as impossible.

The second day of the first round is over with the end of the twentieth match. Haruto's group was excitedly talking about the matches they've seen, sharing each other opinions.

The next day was the final day of the first round, it was the day where the arena was most crowded. The reason was very obvious, it was to see the most likely candidate for champion in this tournament that never made appearance outside of her match.

It seemed like her match is on the 28th, nearing the end. But the arena was already full of people arriving early to take a good spot for the seats. Even though the main arena could fit 100.000 people, the number wanting to observe is several times more.

She maybe neither a Semi-Transcendent or a Transcendent but people still regard her extremely high. It was because those kind of existences were very scarce and seldom appeared in public that they're considered as legends. Only Lumina was the exception for this but that was because of her nature.

Time passed and soon it was the end of the 27th match. As soon as the announcer declared the result, the audiences' tension reached the peak.

There's an interval of fifteen minutes between each match to let the participants prepare themselves. This short fifteen minutes felt like countless years due to their anticipation. Haruto's group who was sitting in their previous spot was also making excited expression, they wanted to see the most famous person in the tournament. Even Haruto who was depressing from remembering his insane actions yesterday was brightened up.

[Thank you for the patience of all dear audiences. We will soon begin the 28th match of Tenkaichi Budokai Junior Season. Contestants please enter the stage.]

The audiences were cheering loudly thinking it was finally time. From the stage below, there's an ox beastman making his way to the platform looking like he's about to die from the pressure. He was cursing his bad luck for becoming the number one's opponent. Right now his fate is no more than an extra to sacrifice for the sake of entertainment.

The audiences were not giving a glance at all, they were paying full attention once 'she' appeared on the stage.

"She's taking it too long, will she really appears?"

"Idiot, of course she is! Are you looking down on her!?"

"Hahaha, you fuckers still lack experiences! It's already her habit to appear late, you're going to see it soon..."

....!!

Just as one of the audiences was saying that, the atmosphere around the arena changed in the blink of an eye, silencing the noises immediately.

Their bodies were shivering as they let out breath in the form of cold mist. Glittering snow flakes began to fall along with bountiful white and pale blue fog shrouding the entire arena.

From the sky, a glistening giant white dove was descending right in the middle of the arena platform. No, it's not a real dove, but a person surrounded with extreme cold aura taking a shape of a dove.

She landed on the ground while dispersing the dove shaped white aura to reveal her form. At this moment everyone was thinking the same thing.

Lotus the White Monarch has arrived.