Chapter 71: Let's Play a Game
"Juan Tyson from the Alchemist Family. It's my pleasure to meet you. Can I know your name?"
Hearing how polite did Juan introduce himself and talked, Greg was quite surprised. Because of the outside, everybody would have thought that he was a merciless fighting machine, but it seems nothing as it looks like.
"Never judge a book by its cover, huh?", thought Greg and after putting his hand out to shake Juan's hand, he said, "Greg Hyde. Nice to meet you too."
As the two started to talk with each other, Joe and the girls slowly walked next to him.
"Hey, Greg, you look amazing! Where did you get that?", asked Mila as she looked at Greg from up to down with a smile.
"Ah, I just got this from a dear friend.", answered Greg and looked at Joe with a thankful expression.
Joe just smiled and didn't say anything, but instead looked at Juan and put his hands out.
"Dia Joseph from the Dia Family. Nice to meet you. You fought really good."
Juan hearing this smiled and shook Joe's hand and said, "Nice to meet you and thanks. And about the sword", said Juan and took out a rusty small sword and continued, "Here, it's yours. I tried to use it the way you did, but I couldn't. What is this?"
"It's a Soul Creature. It can take away it's target's power after physical contact. Unfortunately, you can only use it once, after that it will turn into a normal metal sword. Out of its exceptional sharpness, it will be useless, so you can keep it."
Juan after hearing this nodded and wanted to ask something, but the twins also walked toward them, so decided to ask it later.
Sandra after seeing Joe and Greg looked a bit angry but still introduced herself.
"My name is Sandra and she is my sister Sarah. Nice to meet you."
Greg heard the simple introduction and thought confusedly, "Why does she sound so angry?"
As Greg was thinking about this, suddenly the lights went out, while only one remained lit above a small stage not far away from them.
On it, Cloud's smiling figure could be seen, in his same white outfit and staff in his hand.
"Ladies and Gents, it's my pleasure to see all of you here. I hope the first day of the tournament was an enjoyable moment for all of you.", said Cloud with a smile and continued, "This beautiful night is all about enjoying ourselves to the fullest. But before we start to do so, let me introduce you to tonight's guests."
As he said that, he clapped his hands and another lamp lit up next to him and two figures walked out.
One was the woman that Greg saw on the estrade, she was Mistress of Fortune. She wore clothing, which wasn't too luxurious nor too common. It was perfect for those, who didn't love eye-catching dresses, but still wanted to look good as much as they could.
The other one was the legendary expert, who reached the summit of humanity with his white Soul Stone and legendary Guardian. A lot of people said that he was on the verge of a breakthrough, but all of these were just mere gossips, and there were no shreds of evidence at least not for now.
He wore a black suit, which was similar to Joe's, but with the difference that it had small sewings on it.
Both of their presence made everyone in the hall to instantly feel respect toward them while making the fire in their heart to reach their level someday even bigger.
"I hope after seeing these two will be enough motivation for the remaining days of the tournament, so please enjoy yourselves in this beautiful night to the fullest!"
And just like that, all the lights turned back on, while a piece of pleasurable music started to play in the back.
Seeing that everyone started to go to a table and sit down, Greg looked at Joe and the others and asked, "Let's go and take a seat."
Hearing what Greg said, Joe, Emma, and Mila nodded and started to walk toward a table, while Juan and the twins followed them from behind.
As they walked Sandra looked at Juan and asked with an unsatisfied tone, "Why are we following them? Can't we just go and sit somewhere else?"
Juan hearing this shook his head and said, "Strength and talent always need to be respected, no matter if it's an enemy or friend. And it's not a bad thing to befriend with those two. Of course, if you want you can go and sit somewhere else, I won't stop you."
After looking for a table, Greg finally found a free one. It was a huge, circular-shaped table, with 12 chairs all around it, making it the perfect one for their group to sit.
As the twins and Juan sat down Greg wanted to sit down too, but before he could, he saw as Joe pulled the chair out and helped Mila sit on it comfortably. Seeing him behave like a real gentleman was a very surprising act from him.
Thinking for a while, he looked at Emma who was standing next to him. With a smile, he pulled out the chair before him and gestured at Emma.
"Please have a seat my lady.", said Greg as he looked at her with a gentle smile.
Seeing Greg like that, especially in that suit, Emma's face instantly turned crimson, while her heartbeat quickened, but in the end, she still nodded and sat down slowly.
Seeing this, Greg slowly started pushing the chair under Emma, making her sit on the chair just perfectly.
Seeing the two boys behave like two gentlemen, everyone around them looked at them with awe. Particularly women. Some of them looked at Emma and Mila with awe, but there were a lot who watched them with jealousy.
Sandra seeing this rolled her eyes and looked away, but after looking at Joe and Greg for a second time she said quietly, "Well... They don't look bad..."
After taking his seat, Greg wanted to start a conversation, but suddenly a guy with a girl came walking toward them and stopped before their table.
Both of them were the same age as him. The guy was wearing a royal blue suit with a white shirt under it and a black bow-tie on his neck. He looked quite elegant that's for sure.
On the other hand, the girl was quite unique. She wore a pink dress which was somewhat similar to that of Mila's dress, but with a difference that it was off-shoulder. Also, her clothing was much tighter than that of Mila's, which showed her curves much better.
"Can we sit here?", asked the guy as he looked at Greg and Joe with a smile.
"Sure, no problem.", said Greg and gestured them to sit down.
The guy nodded and after helping the girl to sit down in the same way as Joe and he did, he sat down and said, "My name is Jonathan and she is my sister Laura."
"Nice to meet you, my name is Greg, next to me they are my friends, Emma, Mila and Joe.", said Greg then pointed at the twins, "And they are Sarah, Sandra, and Juan. They are from the Alchemist Family."
Hearing this, Jonathan nodded at Juan and the twins with a smile and turned his gaze back at Greg.
"I watched your fights and what can I say. You were amazing! Especially when you used that move to get behind Juan at the end of the fight. How did you do that?"
Hearing the question, everyone around the table looked at Greg with curiosity.
Seeing so many curious gazes at the same time, Greg smiled awkwardly and scratched his neck. However, just as he wanted to answer, suddenly the light went off again and Cloud appeared on a small stage not far away with Mistress of Fortune next to her.
"Before we start our feast, please let us play a small game. The winner will get a generous reward, so it's definitely worth trying", said Cloud and tapped lightly on the ground with his staff.
In an instant, everyone's card lit up with silver light and suddenly strange symbols on it.
Everyone had different symbols. One had a star, another one had a triangle on it but there was even one who had an animal on the card.
Before Greg, a symbol appeared too, which represented a hand.
As he looked at the hand before him, Cloud continued to talk.
"In this game, the goal will be very easy. In my hand here you can see a pack of cards with the same symbols drawn on them that you have. Next to me, our dear guest will open the pack and will choose two cards and those who have the symbol will come up here. Between those two will it be decided, which one gets the better reward."
As he said that, he handed the pack over Mistress of Fortune and said with an excited expression, "Well then, let's see those lucky ones, shall we?"