Once inside the bathroom, Daimon undressed and took a quick shower, while he was under the shower, he looked at his shadow before saying.
"Today we'll be up against some opponents, don't act unless their lives are in danger".
Daimon's shadow waved a bit and Rita's head peeked out of it, she then nodded in response.
"Understood young master, I have informed that bonehead as well", said Rita before she returned to Daimon's shadow.
Daimon quickly finished and after drying and dressing again, he left the bathroom, by the time he was out, all the girls were already awake, so he greeted them.
"Good morning you all, get ready so we can leave early".
"Mm", the girls nodded and they all entered the bathroom together, even Thea and Marlene joined.
'I don't understand how can they become close enough to bath together so fast, well it could be a girl's thing, I do remember that on lunch breaks, most of my female classmates back at earth always went in group to the bathroom', thought Daimon.
He then left the bedroom to go to the dining room, to give the girls some space, they had to put on their equipment and they will be a bit tight on space, in the bathroom.
At the dining room, Vincent and the others were already sitting at the table, the queen who was drinking tea greeted Daimon.
"Good morning, are the others not ready yet?", asked Annete as she took a sip of her cup.
"They shouldn't take that long, are the preparations regarding our "conversation" with the Delphini Duke ready?", said Daimon.
Annete softly smiled in response.
"Of course, with uncle and senior Aurora blocking the Minister and that man's senses, I could easily place a little "gift" on him, so we'll know his exact position~".
Naturally, when the Delphini Duke attended the judge's skybox as a guest, the queen used a tracking array on him, it's something she got from the other rune master on the Stellar realm, so unless Black Beard himself or the White Ancestor inspected the Duke personally, then no one would notice it, well maybe besides Daimon and Thea.
The girls didn't take long to join the rest at the table, everyone was now fully equipped, since the fourth round will be different, besides not being able to bring any weapon or equipment above the Half Stellar rank, or any other external mean like scrolls which had spells stored in them, potions and the like, they could use their own personal items, as they were part of their "strength".
Daimon naturally knew the Minister wasn't doing it for their sake, that old sly fox probably got the best equipment available for his family's team, though the same applied to the top four, the commoners would have been at disadvantage, but since they aren't participating anymore no one complained.
'Daimon I can break their weapons right!', said Narasha in an unusual enthusiastic voice, which made Daimon chuckle.
'Sure, you can have some fun but don't overdo it, I need to defeat other sword users for my mission anyway', thought Daimon.
'Mm~', Narasha happily hummed, while Daimon finished his meal, spars didn't count for the mission, the system literally urged him to crush other sword users, not that he cared, since the sword is the most popular weapon, people prefer it to the point of it being called "The king of weapons", so there were a lot of idiots who only swung swords like sticks out there.
Aura personally taught him swordsmanship but she suggested Daimon to also try more weapons, so he learned how to wield other things, not to mention the magic guns, naturally since Narasha was his partner and Disaster is up to the day the best magic weapon he has seen, he has only focused on the sword, but he isn't too fixated on it, with the system he can easily learn to use other weapons, but for that same reason he has to be careful not to divert his focus in weapons that don't go along with his fighting style.
It's the same that happened with his affinities, he has all the basic affinities and a few of the rarer ones like ice or poison for example, but while the affinities are on a high level after hunting magic beasts who had them in the past eight years, he focused on learning spells only of the ones he felt comfortable with.
So that he wouldn't end in the situation of being decent in all and skilled in none, for the time being his limit was around four or five.
Once everyone had their fill, they left the mansion guided by Vincent, since today they were participants, they had to be earlier at the gathering point, Vincent waved his hand and they all disappeared.
A few seconds later they appeared in front of the Minister's mansion, where the other participants were already waiting for them, just like Daimon's team, the four favorites were all using their personal equipment, which was clearly on another lever compared to the ones lent to them for the previous rounds.
Besides them, the members of the four sects from the Elemental Sea were also there, Jasmin and Cassy were participating, they had to show their support, since Aurora came so how could they dare not to show up, when their immediate superior did.
As always Daimon ignored everything and just went straight to occupy his seat, the girls followed him while the adults went to their own area, the sun was only appearing and today's morning was colder than usual.
Daimon felt a mocking gaze falling on him, he slightly turned around and saw Ezequiel glaring at him, while he grabbed his strategist by her waist, the crowned prince was too being surrounded by the three female members in his team, though he didn't pay them too much attention, they were still assigned the closest seats to him.
As for Lance, he didn't seem to be interested in such a thing and instead was sharpening the blade of his spear with the help of his scholar and vice-captain.
Daimon ignored Ezequiel, why would he needed to participate in this petty show off, he was going to crush them all later, that being said, how could Aisha let such a provocation let go unpunished, she smiled and then got up from her seat and before Daimon could react, she sat on his lap.
The other girls were used to see Aisha being close to Daimon so they weren't surprised, and that wasn't all, now that Aisha's seat was free, the Risha sisters both next and behind him, and under Ezequiel's envious eyes they all hold onto Daimon's arms and shoulder respectively.
Unlike him who was grabbing his strategist, the girls in Daimon's team were holding onto him by their own will.
"Tsk, let's see how you lose due to those pretty "flower vases" later", said Ezequiel and then he stopped paying attention to Daimon's group, he could have filled his team with women if he wanted to, but the ones who were available for him weren't skilled enough to be part of his team, besides his strategist.
This was in part one of the reasons as to why the nobles despised Daimon, they thought he just chose his teammates due to their appearances, since they have only seen Tessa and Femi outstand in the beast hunt, Mellie was in his team so she didn't count, as for Daphne and Jasmin their teams were "wiped out", and they ended in the top three because Daimon divided his extra points with them, at least that's how people saw it.
Daimon wasn't going to say anything, but he couldn't help but feel angry that Aisha and the others were insulted by Ezequiel, still actions were better than words, so he simply said out loud.
"I'll be eliminating you first, just so you end up in fifth place, regardless of the fact if your team is better than the Arcarius family's one, or not, it's going to be easy since you got your ass handed in the three first rounds".
"What did you say you…", Ezequiel nearly lost it right there, but the doors of the city lord's mansion opened and he had to swallow his anger, because the king was coming and whether he liked it or not, the first princess was in Daimon's team.
There was another person participating in this show off, from within Aisha's shadow, Horals was fuming.
'How does a simpleton dare to show off in front of my young master, young master just give the order and this Horals will capture all the women in his family and offer them to warm your bed', exclaimed the bone general.
Daimon bitterly smiled.
'Have you been talking with Evangeline or something… forget it, my hands are already full with those four and now the possible new three entering the scene, I can already feel a headache coming my way once I return', said Daimon.
'Oh, I understand, of course young master wouldn't even look at normal women, quality over quantity is the way of a conqueror, this Horals applauds young master's wisdom!', said Horals, his eyes were burning in green flame-like battle aura.
Daimon shook his head, Horals's skull was too thick, so his words weren't reaching him, he could feel the gazes of the princesses and the other members of his team, as well as Thea, Vincent, the Duchess, Annete and even Aurora piercing him from all the directions.
After a few minutes everyone had arrived, since today will be the ending of the tournament, the Minister then approached the podium and his voice echoed through the whole area.
"Welcome to the last day of the tournament, esteemed guests and heroes of the young generation, please follow me!".
Without further ado, the portal to the Calm Tri-Lake and everyone went through it, this time Daimon's group followed a different path and ended up in the lakes, while Thea and the others watched them from the skyboxes.
Daimon watched the place in which they ended and he smirked, they were at the center where the three lakes converge and the platforms from the three lakes had joined to form a huge single platform.
'Just as I expected, that old bastard planned to use the effects of the three lakes at the same time, how predictable', he thought.
Now that the five teams were in the single platform that was formed, the Minister descended from the judge's skybox.
"Before I explain in what will consist the fourth round, there maximum number of teams allowed is four and so, one team will be dissolved and its members will be split and join the other four teams, since the champion can't be selected, the team with the lowest rank will be split, Blackfin's family split into four groups of three, we'll sort who will join who".
Ezequiel felt outraged, but before he could complain someone spoke first.
"I refuse, give the three that were supposed to join me to the others", said Daimon.
The Minister frowned.
"Are you sure "champion", there will be a team with two vice-captains and a team with two captains you know?".
Daimon shrugged in response.
"That's better, since everyone in my team is at least at the level of a vice-captain, so now there won't be any excuse the others can use when they lose".
The Minister, the Blackfin Duke, Ezequiel and Walford felt a vein popping on their necks, they were being looked down too much by the silver haired youth.
"Hmph, so be it, don't come crying later, in that case…", before the Minister could continue, another voice interrupted him.
"I don't want them either, split them in two and give them to the others", Lance also rejected Ezequiel teammates.
Which made Daimon smirk.
"You see, no one wants hindrances in their teams, you can give them the fifth place, since that is going to be their result anyway", he said with a disdain filled voice.
The Blackfin Duke broke the corner of his seat by tightening his grip on it, while he gritted his teeth, his family was being insulted by the neo nobles and also the team which was backed by the queen.
The Minister clicked his tongue and then after a couple of seconds he said.
"If that's the case, then the rules will be changed by the champion's petition, the fifth team will remain together, in exchange the difficulty of the stage will increase, is everyone okay with it?".
The crowned prince nodded without a second of hesitation and Walford had no choice but to agree as well, since it would have been a 3v1 situation, Ezequiel's opinion wasn't taken into account at all.
Daimon could feel the hateful gaze of the Minister on him, and he inwardly laughed.
'What, did you think I was going to let you play such an obvious trick, you were going to send that idiot of Ezequiel into my team to cause disruption and then excuse yourself saying "You got a second captain level and still lost", you'll have to do it better than that', he thought.
The Minister loved giving troubles disguised as advantages to others, unfortunately for him, Daimon couldn't be tricked so easily, it also helped that Lance shared the same opinion, since that made the queen and Vincent didn't feel the need to interfere.
And just like that, Daimon won the first clash in this chess game against the Minister, and also made his previous plans crumble by changing the setting, as for the increased difficulty he didn't care, he wasn't bluffing when he said all the girls were at least vice-captain level, in fact besides Lance, the crowned prince and Walford, Daimon was sure that in a 1v1 the girls could defeat everyone else, and even those four shouldn't be able to defeat Aisha, Mellie and Tessa, at most it would be a tie.
The sisters were a bit weaker in the meaning that their maximum output was limited to the time they could maintain their wings not to mention they were still learning to control them, Daphne's ability was formidable but she will lose if she fails the shot, Femi could deal with Ezequiel and probably Walford, but in a rough calculation Lance and the crowned prince would be able to suppress her, as for Chris and Cassy, they weren't at the level of the top four captains yet, it's not that they are weak, but they played support roles in their teams, so battle wasn't their specialty.
That was an objective evaluation, but to be honest, Daimon believed that they could stand up even to the crowned prince, with the correct preparation.
