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"Time to set out." The next day, having sent Celestine back to Crescent Moon Land, Luke checked the time and made his way toward the venue where the school ceremony was being held. "Three schools holding the closing ceremony together. As far as I can recall, a spectacle on this scale is a first."
Three schools holding their closing ceremony at once, on top of the Capital Governor attending in person, made the scale of this Ashenvale closing ceremony grander than anything that had come before.
"It really is a sea of people." Gazing at the human tide before him, Luke couldn't help shaking his head. He didn't much dislike lively places, but taking in this sight still called to mind holiday travel back in his past life. There wasn't much difference between the two, in the end.
"Look, Luke's here!"
"Yeah. He hasn't been at school these past few days. I figured he might skip out on this closing ceremony."
"No chance. Ashenvale produced its first Eastern Region exam champion in who knows how many years. Who can say when the next one will come along? Even if Luke didn't want to attend, the school would drag him here by force."
"True. This time around, Luke won our Third High enormous honor, and left First High and Second High in the dust besides. If I were the principal, there's no way I'd pass up a chance to flaunt on this scale."
"My bet is the principal only agreed to hold the joint ceremony with First and Second High so he could show off in front of them once and for all." A youth who didn't show off was wasting his youth, and the saying applied just as well to the older generation.
"Quit going on about showing off all day! I caught some insider word. The real reason the three schools are holding the ceremony jointly is mainly because the Capital Governor's going to attend!"
"What?! The Capital Governor's attending? Oh my mother. I never thought I'd be the one to catch this ceremony. The caliber of it is sky-high. I'm absolutely going to brag my heart out when I get home."
"I only heard it secondhand myself. No idea whether it's true. And even if the Governor really does attend the ceremony, the likes of us won't get anywhere near him."
"If you ask me, if the Governor genuinely attends our three-school ceremony, it's absolutely on account of Luke. Sure, Luke took the exam championship, but there are still plenty of cities ranked above Ashenvale in overall strength."
"Who cares about that? So they're stronger overall than us, so what? The Governor's attending our Ashenvale ceremony, not some other city's."
Luke's arrival drove the already boisterous venue to a fresh peak, with all manner of rumors circulating without pause, until in the end they'd warped into the claim that even Region Governor Lilith would be attending the ceremony, which was absurd in the extreme.
Of course, the overwhelming majority kept an appropriate grip on their sanity and didn't believe such nonsense. The Capital Governor attending was within the realm of possibility, but a Region Governor?
Lilith rarely appeared before the public to begin with, and ever since she'd taken Selene as her student, her appearances had grown so rare they could be counted on one's fingers. Much of the time, people even regarded her as little more than a legend.
The notion of Lilith attending Ashenvale's closing ceremony was preposterous. Even City Lord Victor had laid eyes on Lilith only a handful of times across all these years, let alone ordinary folk like them.
Unless, of course, Luke had become Lilith's student in Selene's wake. In that case, she might conceivably appear at this ceremony.
But that thought flickered up only to be dismissed in short order. Luke was indeed this year's Eastern Region exam champion, but over the years the Eastern Region had produced no telling how many exam champions, and not one of that great number had ever become Lilith's student.
In their hearts, Luke still fell well short of Selene. The renown Selene had carved out over the years was rooted deep in the heart of every ordinary Card Master across the Eastern Region, a goal they all strove toward.
What was more, when Lilith had taken Selene as her student back then, it had shaken the whole of the Ancient Kingdom. If Lilith truly had taken on a second student, then however short the interval, it would absolutely set the entire Kingdom astir all over again. How could things possibly have stayed this quiet? And so almost no one let their thoughts drift in that direction.
It was just a pity that the matter of Lilith's visit to Ashenvale had been known to only a very few from the outset. Even Yvonne Adler and her group had stumbled onto it purely by accident, and had immediately grabbed a bucket and bolted, not daring to breathe a word of it to anyone.
These ordinary students, then, had no way whatsoever of knowing that Lilith had once visited Ashenvale, and had kept Victor, Harrison, and the others on edge for days on end besides.
"Luke, you finally made it." Mark Whitman wormed his way out from some corner or other, then, under the watching eyes of the crowd, began squeezing inward with Luke in tow. "The Governor's already arrived. Let's hurry over."
"This early?" Hearing Mark's words, Luke blanked. He genuinely hadn't expected the Governor to show up so soon. As a rule, weren't figures like that supposed to arrive last?
"Word is the Governor actually has no small number of matters to deal with today." Sweeping a glance around, Mark lowered his voice to explain, the excitement and exhilaration in it impossible to hide. "So although he's come to attend our Ashenvale closing ceremony, he won't be staying long."
"I see." With Mark's explanation, a look of understanding crossed Luke's face. That part, at least, Geoffrey hadn't mentioned to him.
Threading through the crowd, the two of them soon reached the main stage. The first into view, naturally, was the Capital Governor seated in the place of honor, Aldric Ashford, flanked to either side by Victor Ashford, Harrison Cole, and Geoffrey Falk, among the assembled figures.
Beyond them, the only others present were two people: Warren Pike and Bella Hartley.
In this exam, aside from the monster that was Luke, these two had posted the finest results in all of Ashenvale. So, seizing the opportunity, Desmond Crane and Bianca Sterling had thick-skinnedly insisted on keeping the pair at their sides. Even if there was nothing for them to do, they meant to leave at least some impression on the Governor.
Of course, set against Luke, the two simply bore no comparison. All the more so at present, with both Warren Pike and Bella Hartley wearing the look of people who couldn't sit still. Even facing City Lord Victor, they'd grow nervous in spite of themselves, never mind the Capital Governor Aldric, who stood a full tier above Victor.
Before so many great figures, the two felt that managing not to immediately grab a bucket and flee already counted as a respectable showing on their part.
Never mind Warren Pike and Bella Hartley; even the principals Geoffrey, Desmond, and Bianca were sitting bolt upright at the moment, their bearing only marginally more composed than the two students'. After all, one of the men present was Aldric's own grandson, and the other's direct superior was Edmund, a peer of Aldric's. The two of them, at least, were well accustomed to occasions like this.