Arcane Committee, small conference room.
A new round of voting had begun.
"Why is it Henry again?"
Quite a few people stared at the results of the latest round, utterly bewildered.
But it only took a little thought to understand what had happened.
The legendary mage Antonia had exercised his privilege.
He thought Henry showed promise and wanted to give him a little help.
Everyone had their own opinions, however, and a legendary mage's word was not necessarily law.
After some thought, they simply filled in a few other names.
For those whose own candidates had already been eliminated, who won the Morningstar Award no longer mattered.
Who could not win it, however, mattered a great deal.
Seeing that brat win would hurt even more than not winning myself!
Flip the table!
Thus, when the third round of voting ended, Antonia discovered, helplessly, that Henry had once again been squeezed out by his competitors.
Henry's biggest rival, along with Gallo, had both received a good number of inexplicable votes.
As for Roland, he had likewise profited from their infighting and once again brought up the rear.
Antonia considered it for a while, then finally decided to give up on Henry and arrange for another promising candidate to take his place.
By the look of things, the Runes School's Morningstar Award winner would be either this candidate or Gallo.
As for Roland, he still did not think much of his chances.
Everyone had harbored ulterior motives and voted wildly in the earlier rounds, but at the final moment, they would come to their senses.
And at that critical juncture, the neutral voting bloc would be crucial. The votes of those absent from the meeting would also be tallied then.
Roland could not possibly profit from the chaos yet again.
"Runes School