Before long, the morning of January 10, Year 1003 of the Saint Laurent Calendar arrived.
All of Free City had prepared for this day: Lilith had set up magical projections at the Theater, the Square, and the Tavern to broadcast the Gladiator Arena live; the Guard Legion maintained order wherever crowds gathered; and reporters holding Magic Stones filmed beside the makeshift stage.
Annan still wore his Reeves Mage Robe. The only difference was that he had tidied his short black hair a little for the cameras and put on the Black Gemstone Earring he had not worn in ages.
The elimination round would not be as tightly packed as the Auditions or the second round. It would run for seven days, seven hours a day.
That was much easier than a full day of Auditions, but sitting at the judges' table for seven hours would still be an ordeal. Annan had rested long enough, though—even if he always felt busy.
Over those seven days, the 1,000 contestants would take the stage in turn. After the judges offered their comments, the audience would vote, and the 100 contestants with the most votes would advance.
There was no limit on how many votes an audience member could cast. In other words, if you were bored enough, you could give all 1,000 contestants a vote each.
Outside the arena, besides the audiences following the competition around the world, casinos had joined the excitement. They took bets on who would reach the top 100, the top 10, third place, second place, and the championship.
The current favorite was the Wealth Church's Saintess. Some even joked that the whole steak had been cooked just for this sauce. Her odds at the casinos were an absurdly low 1:0.5: if you bet 100 Gold Narls on her