Time passed slowly.
The day of the contest finally arrived.
Moonworm City lacked the arenas commonly found in ordinary grotto cities, but it had a very spacious Spell Practice Ground. As a lawful Wizard City, it occasionally served as a place to settle disputes after unpleasant incidents.
Ruger stayed in the Library, absorbed in his reading. He had initially been quite interested in the ten matches between Wizard Apprentices on the first day, but later could not be bothered to go.
Of course, he could learn everything without setting foot outside.
As the matches progressed, the people in the city who cared about them gradually caught the mood, or perhaps vaguely sensed something. The atmosphere had already ceased to feel like a celebration.
Ruger could sense as much from the servants he encountered.
Defiance and devastation.
In the ten Wizard Apprentice matches on the first day, the Vango Family won four and lost six, with one of their contestants dying.
Death was permitted in this contest.
The first person to die in their own grotto city had been a member of the Vango Family. Clearly, everyone found that difficult to accept.
Ruger heard faint sobbing.
He was choosing his next read among the shelves and followed the sound deeper into the Library.
The sobbing immediately grew quieter.
His undisguised footsteps had disturbed whoever was there.
Just as he had suspected, it was Little One, who often slipped into the Library. The tiny girl was hiding in a corner with a thick, heavy book in her arms, looking troubled, an air of anxious indecision surrounding her.
Ruger raised his hand, then thought better of it and stopped, without casting the Light Spell.
He walked over and stopped a step away from the little girl who sneaked in to read every day,