Chapter 48 The Power of a Royalblood

The rest of the tournament took place in the afternoon and for Josiah, it was very underwhelming. Reeve didn’t ever recover his condition in time so he had to withdraw, thus causing Josiah to be the winner of the tournament for abandonment.
The overall results of the tournament were as follows:
First Round:
A) Josiah vs Greg — Winner: Josiah
B) Watt vs Lawrence — Winner: Lawrence
C) Ellis vs Douglas — Winner: Douglas
D) Teagan vs Daniel — Winner: Teagan
E) Quinn vs Reeve — Winner: Reeve
F) Brooks vs Dave Johnson — Winner: Dave Johnson
G) Yvonne vs Will — Winner: Yvonne
H) Kyleigh vs Austin — Winner: Austin

Second Round:
1) Josiah vs Lawrence — Winner: Josiah
2) Douglas vs Teagan — Winner: Douglas
3) Reeve vs Dave Johnson — Winner: Reeve
4) Yvonne vs Austin — Winner: Yvonne

Semifinals:
Josiah vs Douglas — Winner: Josiah
Reeve vs Yvonne — Winner: Yvonne

Afternoon:
Third prize. Reeve vs Douglas — Winner: Douglas
Finals. Josiah vs Yvonne — Winner: Josiah

Josiah still doesn’t know whether Yvonne changed her mind over him spotting her treacherous ways on the day before and decided to act like that during the last fight just so he could win like she was doing him a favor, or…
‘Why’d she do that? She was so serious about the tournament. Does she think that is the payment for me not saying anything? I didn’t even want that. I didn’t say anything…’
In the last round, Josiah had a very easy victory. Yvonne just swung her blade parrying his attacks like a normal soldier would but barely fought well enough to justify the second place in the tournament. Josiah struck her with Lenny’s dagger as always and she soon gave up after the staggering effect. There was barely any resistance.
The sixteen participants on the final exam were instructed to wait in their tents until the instructors organized the ending. Josiah saw the opportunity to finally take a nap after such a long period of fighting and wearing armor.
“Sheesh, I’m all dirty. Can’t wait for getting back and taking a bath.” He muttered as he fit his body in the sleeping bag after removing his armor. He bumped into something inside the sleeping bag.
‘What’s this?’
It was a small piece of wood with calligraphy carved in.
‘Did Lenny leave this behind?’
Josiah read the letters:
“Joe.
It’s gotten dangerous to be here so I left.
Don’t forget your promise.
In the reserve, there is an abandoned timber factory, aside building 48. Meet me there and I'll show you I can fight on your side,
Lenny”
“Hum. She’s not in the camp anymore, then…”

After a while, Sargeant Koda called everyone to the burnt circle. He was going to announce the results of the final exam.
The participants were gathered and stood in line, while the sergeant faced them from the middle of the circle. There was a big board, presumably with the results written in, which was covered by a blanket. There were fifteen participants there, only Reeve was missing because he was still not in good shape to stand.
“Listen. These are the results of the final exam, based on the performance of all of you not only in the tournament but over the whole three phases of the exam. In order to come up with this ordering, we analyzed each person’s individual skill, ability to follow orders, the ability to work in a group, and adaptability to the environment.”
Sargeant Koda brought his hand to the blanket.
“The ordering should decide who of you is going to put the hands on the universal bracelet; and also, on which role each of you is going to start as the veteran crew on the next year. Any questions?”
Everyone kept staring silently.
“That being so, I present you the results.”
People started reading the results, and the expression on some of them, especially Josiah, was of disappointment.
‘That’s bullsh*t.’ Watt commented. He was at Josiah’s side.
‘Well… I didn’t expect anything less.’
The order of classification shown on the board was as follows:

16 – Kyleigh
15 – Quinn
14 – Teagan
13 – Ellis
12 – Watt
11 – Greg
10 – Daniel
9 – Lawrence
8 – Yvonne
7 – Austin
6 – Brooks
5 – Will
4 – Josiah
3 – Dave Johnson
2 – Douglas
1 – Reeve

“C’mon! I lost to f*cking Greg? That can’t be right! What about my great performance in the first phase?”
“Maybe everybody else had a great performance in the first phase? We were the only sixteen who made it to the top, after all.”
“And you’re defending them!?”
“No… No, I’m not.”
Josiah too was still trying to interpret what those results meant.
‘It makes sense that I and Yvonne got dragged down because of our horrible performance in the second phase. Since I must have drawn the superior’s attention so much that I even managed to make it to fifth somehow, but she didn’t have the same luck. Now for Reeve to be in the first place… For starters, he had to absent from two fights in the tournament. Not only that but he also didn’t manage to rescue his hostage on the second phase and was even trying to ditch him to the beast in order to save his own ass! What is Sergeant Koda thinking?’
Josiah noticed that one of the instructors was talking to someone he never saw before, next to the tent. Probably a superior. A man in his sixties, with a round face and a very picturesque mustache. He had a dark, red armor, similar to the one The magistrate wore, and the whole region of his chest was full of medals.
‘Actually… I know exactly what he is thinking… Reeve is still the nephew of the lieutenant, after all. This kind of thing used to happen back in my world. I remember getting a degree in chemistry and losing the job application to some random guy because he had connections… Well… Silly me to think that sort of thing wouldn’t happen here.’
Josiah glanced secretly at Yvonne. She also didn’t seem so frustrated. She was probably also expecting it.
“Now!” Sergeant Koda clapped his hands loudly once. “We are going to distribute the prizes. As promised, the first place is granted the universal bracelet and the honorable badge. I would welcome Major Santz…” Koda nodded at the new guy on the red armor “…and invite him fro the honor of personally delivering the items to the first place, but as you know, soldier Reeve is in a bad shape.”
‘So that’s a Major. That’s not the lieutenant. I guess bringing Reeve’s uncle here would make the things too obvious.’ Josiah thought.
“…Proceeding: The first five places are going to star on the next year’s team as Corporal, and the first three are eligible to take the Officer test right away. In the first place, soldier Reeve already has the Officer title. All of you who survived the first phase also are welcomed at a spot on the new crew of the first year as well, as veteran soldiers.”
“Nice!” Watt said.
‘The words used are the same, but in this world, the ranks on the hierarchy are pretty mixed up if compared to the ones I was accustomed to…’ Josiah observed.
There was a bit more of a speech and later, the soldiers were ordered to rest for forty minutes before dismounting the camp and returning back to the 288.
“Congratulations, Mr. Corporal.” Watt said to Josiah.
“Yeah, they called up to the fifth place... I wasn’t anticipating that. What about you? Are you going to join for good starting next year?”
Watt shrugged.
“Guess so. We didn’t pass through this whole thing for nothing, heh? Haha!”
Watt pat on Josiah’s back and went to his tent.
‘The results were so weird, It’s almost like they were willing that I took the spot and therefore granted me a place as well.’ Josiah felt within. ‘Either way… I’m glad I could put my hands on a higher rank right away. Starting next year, I begin my journey to scaling up on this system…’
‘Now… Next night when I get back to the reserve, I have some business to attend to with Lenny.’