Chapter 6: Housewarden Meeting
Sometime later, Headmage Crowley and Briar walk into the Mirror Chamber to see the other housewardens. She recognizes Riddle, Kamlin, Azul, and Leona, but is not too familiar with the others. She grows confused to see a tablet. Then again, the last time she has seen the housewardens, she remembers two of them aren't physically present. Briar stands next to Riddle because she knows him from their last encounters. They all remain where they are as Crowley stands close to where the magic mirror is.
Crowley soon announces, " I call to order this meeting of housewardens. Our agenda today concerns the October Spelldrive tournament. Let us begin with the report from the head of the tournament planning committee: Mr. Ashengrotto of Octavinelle house."
Azul, the housewarden of Octavinelle, steps forward and says, "Greetings. I am Azul Ashengrotto, and it is my honor to lead the planning committee. I am pleased to announce that we have fully booked the grounds surrounding the coliseum. All of the kiosk space allotted to both internal organizations and external businesses is now full.
"Sweet! This tournament should be a real lively one, then," Kalim says in excitement.
"All invitations to various royalty have been sent, and public tickets are selling briskly.
And, as in past years, we have received numerous requests to cover the event from both television stations and print media," Azul says.
"Sounds like the whole world will be watching," Kalim says, excited, "Before I was admitted here, I looked forward to receiving my VIP invitation every year. I imagine you got them too, Leona?" and turns to Leona, "We might have run into each other at the tournament when we were kids!"
"Who knows? And also, who cares?" Leona says, bored.
Vil then says, "This year, I'll have to work extra hard on my makeup to make sure I'm shining like a diamond on the new Ultra vision displays. With all the exertion, I'll need to be touching it up constantly!"
Riddle sighs, "... House Pomefiore is the only dorm that regularly calls timeouts to fix their makeup."
"I don't think makeup is really appropriate for sports," Briar softly says.
India, on the tablet, says, "How can you all be so excited to be on TV? Just the idea of it makes me wanna puke."
Azul clears is throat, "As I was saying."
Kalim then says, "Oops, sorry!"
"Now, as soon as your dorms' player rosters are settled, I'll need your registration documents. Any dorm that is even a single day late—" Azul says.
"Will be promptly disqualified, I trust," Riddle says.
"Huh?" Briar says, confused.
"No," Azul replies. "They will be charged a handling fee. Consider it remuneration for rush processing."
"What? Why would anyone want to go through with that? I'm not even sure if that's allowed," Briar questions.
"I have to agree with Ms. Hawthorne. I don't approve of you changing the rules to allow for policy exceptions!" Riddle says.
"And I couldn't be more grateful for it! Ha ha ha!" Kalin says with laughter
Then Crowley says, "Let's try to stay on topic." and continues, "We need to discuss the tournament bracket. I had an idea I'd like to propose.
"And that is...?" Riddle questions.
"It concerns the Diasomnia housewarden," Crowley answers, "I think that we should induct Mr. Draconia into the hall of fame to keep him off the field entirely."
"Say whaaat?!" Kalim asks, shocked.
"Daconia? Does he mean, Malleus Draconia? Isn't he the powerful wizard that Trey and Cater told me about? And one of the most powerful wizards in the world," Briar says in thought.
"What are you on about?" Leona questions with a frown.
Crowley explains, "Ever since Mr. Draconia enrolled here, no dorm has scored even a single point against Diasomnia. Diasomnia regularly scores 100 points per game, with 90% of them being from Mr. Draconia himself."
"90% of his scores out of 100, and just him alone?" Briar says, dumbfounded.
Then turns to Riddle, "Riddle, is that really true?"
"I understand your skepticism, but it is true. I witnessed it myself in my first year attending the school," Riddle answers.
"That's actually very impressive. I was told that he was a powerful wizard, but wow. I didn't expect that," Briar says.
"Now that you mention it, when we had to face them last year, it did feel completely futile," Kalim replies.
"The dude totally breaks the game. It's like he's got cheat codes enabled," Idia adds.
"Amusement is not the only goal of this tournament," Crowley says in a serious tone.
Then explains, "Our hope is that spectators the world over will discover talented new mages. However… Recent matches have been ending without anyone, save Mr. Draconia, casting even a single spell. And that includes his own teammates! And that is a less-than-optimal state of affairs."
"I'm all for it," India answers, "Getting stomped isn't exactly fun for us either."
Briar says in thought, "Talk about being blunt."
"I know many members of Savanaclaw House aspire to play in the Spelldrive pro league.
Savanaclaw House had never landed in less than third place in the history of this school.
And yet in both of the last two years, you've been eliminated in the first round after being matched against Diasomnia House. That's certainly not impressing any recruiters. Thus, this matter of disproportionate performance directly affects your players' future," Crowley says.
"That's kind of harsh," Briar mutters.
"And you're sayin' you expect us to make fools of ourselves on the field again this year?" Leona questions with a frown on his face.
"It certainly brings me no pleasure to suggest it," Crowley says. "Regardless, Mr. Draconia has already agreed to be inducted into the hall of fame. All we need now is the committee's approval."
"So you're sayin' we need a handicap. Listen and listen well, Teach…"Leona says.
Then announces, "Ain't nothin' I hate more than someone tellin' me 'you can't win' before I even begin to fight.
"No, that is not my intention—" Crowley says.
"Then what is?" Leona questions, "First of all, Spelldrive ain't a game about power. It's all about what's up HERE, in your head!"
"I'm pretty sure my head can't beat Malleus's," Kalim says.
Then Leona says, "I don't doubt that. But mine can. Sure, in a battle of brute force, no one's beatin' him. But in a battle of wits—that's a different story."
"Intriguing…" Azul replies.
Then Leona says, "The King of Beasts from the Great Seven won his throne through cunning and persistence. You all should be wrackin' your brains, trying to come up with a way to beat that monster! Whichever team figures that out is gonna be sittin' REAL pretty on the world stage. Are you gonna let a once-in-a-lifetime chance like that get yanked out from under you?"
"For once, Leona is making perfect sense. I agree—this plan is utter nonsense." Vil says, "It reeks of some kind of unconscious bias on your part. And I despise that sort of thing."
Then Riddle says, "I am in complete agreement with Housewarden Vil. As one of the foremost mages here, the last thing I want to do is give up without a fight."
"Don't you wanna see that self-important, stuck-up jerk's crestfallen face get broadcast to the whole world?" Leona questions, "Doesn't the thought of it make you wanna roar?"
Hearing that, Briar says in thought, "Oh my, talk about having a grudge."
Azul chuckles, "Heh heh. That would certainly boost the ratings!"
"Well, I certainly don't want to be on the losing side of this," Kalim says.
India on the other hand, doesn't like the idea, "Seriously? I'm the only one who wants him in the hall of fame?"
Azul turns to Briar and questions, "And what about you, Ms. Hawthorne right? What is your opinion?"
Briar thinks about it a bit and answers, "Well, I don't know much about Malleus, so I'm not sure if I have fully the right to say about it. Still, I don't think it's um right for us to simply give up without trying. Maybe they can still have one chance. If that's what you all wanted, I'll go with it."
Leona feels satisfied about Briar's decision.
Then turns to Crowley, "I think we have our answer. The hall of fame idea is officially shut down."
Crowley sighs and says, "... Fine, fine. But if this year ends up being a repeat of the last two years, he's going in next year for sure."
"That's your call," Leona says.
""Well, that was the last item on today's agenda," Azul says, "Everyone, remember to submit your registrations. Not that I would be upset if it were to slip your mind... Heh heh heh.
"Incidentally, where IS Malleus?" Vil asks, "Did everyone forget to invite him again?"
"Oops!" Kalim and Riddle replies in shock.
Briar cries out in disbelief, "Are you serious? You guys literally forgot?"
Somewhere at the school staircase, two Heartslabyul students are walking down the stairs.
The first student says, "The Spelldrive tournament rosters should be final any day now.
"Have you come up with any flashy new spells?" the second student says.
"You know it!" The first student says, "I already showed one to Professor Crewel and he seemed pretty impressed. I can't wait to show it to Housewar—" Suddenly, he suddenly trips on the stars and begins to fall, "BWAAAAAH?!"
He tumbles down until he reaches the bottom of the staircase."
The student holds his ankle and screams, "Gah! That hurt!"
The second student rushes down and asks, "Hey! What just happened?! Why'd you tumble down the stairs like that?!"
"My ankle... It hurts!" The first student says.
The second student grows worried, "Oh no! We gotta get you to the nurse!"
He then helps his classmate up and takes him to the nurse's office.
Unknown to the two students, someone is standing among the crowd and let out a soft, "Shyeheehee!"
At an unknown location of some yellow surrounding, black blotting ink drips onto the floor and merges together to create a bigger blot.