Reincarnated With The Van Helsing System
chapter-372

After exchanging some more information, Daimon and the girls returned to their room, since the tournament was moved to tomorrow they needed to rest and the previous night wasn't exactly relaxing considering everything that happened.

Before leaving, Daimon pulled the queen aside and gave her Pablo's contact, he already ordered to follow the queen's orders as if it were his, Blaktr was a gold mine of information, but it wasn't useful for him, but for Annete who had to deal with the nobles.

He also handed her the corpse of the Blackfin Duke's shadow, he already inspected it using his methods and besides the fact that the heart was missing, everything else was normal, unfortunately the guy has been dead for a long time so even if he were to use another djinn, he wouldn't get anything out of it.

But that didn't mean it was totally useless, it was a perfect blackmailing material to make the Blackfin Duke spill the beans, which was Annete's specialty.

Of course receiving such a "gift" made the queen be in a happy mood, that and she was really grateful that Daimon got some hints regarding her mother's death.

"You just focus on winning tomorrow, leave the rest to us… also I'll leave Mellie and Daphne in your hands~".

Daimon raised an eyebrow, after the Duchess found out he was now acting as Mellie and Jasmin's bodyguard, she asked the same for her daughter, and honestly there was no reason to refuse, since he was going to watch over her anyway, not to mention the Duchess offered him a good payment, in the form of precious minerals and metals.

Her Dukedom was the territory with the higher number of mines in the Clear Water kingdom, not for anything she dared to go against Triten openly, they needed the resources extracted there.

For Daimon it was a good opportunity maybe he'll find something up to the liking of Disaster, and if not, he'll still get a good gift for Liz, it was a win-win situation, what surprised him is that the queen mentioned Daphne regarding the tournament tomorrow.

Unlike the beast hunt where teaming with other groups was possible, in the tournament that wasn't the case, seeing Daimon's confused expression the queen giggled and then said.

"Ah right, I forgot to tell you, besides the date, there were other adjustments made, since many participants died during the beast hunt and a whole bunch of the ones who survived aren't in a good mind state, the number of members per team increased to decrease the number of rounds, so now the groups will consist in 12 people, I took the liberty of disposing of two of the free spots, hope you don't mind~".

Daimon bitterly smiled, how could he who has lived with the a certain cunning fox girl, not recognize a cunning smile when he saw one, but he just shrugged.

"Aisha, the sisters, the three princesses and me, are the first 8 members so who are the other two?", he asked.

The queen rose two of her pretty fingers as she answered.

"The little maid of Daphne and the daughter of patriarch Underwood, they have a decent level and I saw you getting along with them, so I invited them and both accepted, much to the displease of patriarch Skyfire, so you can expect some more "rivals" besides the crowned prince and the second son of the Blackfin Duke".

"As for the leftover two, you can use them however you see fit, there will be a selection before the tournament starts, so those who don't have a team yet can enter one, unfortunately those kids from the middle ranked noble families that travelled with you and Mellie were taken out of the events by their parents, they survived but suffered some injuries after all".

Without leaving Daimon say anything, the queen disappeared from the dining room, leaving behind a speechless Daimon.

"Rivals huh, well I had to beat them up to win anyway, and those two are certainly decent, since they didn't betray Daphne and Jasmin, even when their lives were at the stake… I guess is time to deal with those two, since Adam is still out of the picture", mumbled Daimon.

Daimon couldn't help but feel there was something off, Adam simply disappeared from the beast hunt, others simply thought he was killed and eaten by some magic beast, but Jasmin saw him vanishing into thin air, and as a system user he wasn't so easy to kill.

Besides that, there was still Marcus and the other people from the galaxies that came with them, who has yet to appear, though they might be at the other side on the first layer of Neptune, where Aleah and the others were trapped.

He was also wondering were did the women from the calamity and light churches were, Scarlet and the others should be with them as well, at the very least he can confirm they are fine since they signed a contract with him which is still in place, the same for Calvin and his other classmates they were with them too, so they should be fine.

…

The rest of the day went uneventful, besides Thea and Marlene stating to sleep with Daimon and the girls, for safety reasons, despite Karmandi and Lina lecturing the Empress, nothing else happened and soon the night came and everyone went to sleep.

After a few hours the Warhammer city became lively and active again, since more than a day has happened after the incident with the pirates and Skelefiends and the king himself made an announcement that the everything was fine now, the citizens returned to their normal routines.

Which included the festive atmosphere that came along with the most important events of the year, this time it was the turn of the second of the three, the three-art tournament held by the Minister of development, where not only the strong could show their prowess like on the beast hunt, but those who specialized in the art of war and also scholars could shine, it was an event where many commoners had jumped on the stage, since major noble houses recruited those who outstood there, basically it was a way to scout talents, to secure the prosperity of the kingdom.

Daimon and the others woke up and joined the adults at the dining room, Vincent wasn't in a great mood today, since he and the Minister of development didn't get along at all.

"That double faced bastard, trying to cut the budget for the army, but publicly always talking about the greater good for the kingdom", said the Trident Marshal as he softly snorted.

The queen laughed at her uncle, before she turned to see Daimon.

"So, do you have someone in mind for the leftover spots?", she asked, to which Daimon nodded.

"Yes, do you remember the two that surpassed the three favorites before they started counting the extra points, they also come from outside of Neptune, so they are the best option", he said.

The queen made memory and remembered a girl with white hair and another with a mix of blond and black hair.

"Are you sure they'll join you, they have a chance to get the first place as well, not to mention a lot of people are probably going to ask them to join them, including the three favorites, they were among the top after all?", asked the queen.

Daimon smirked in response.

"I'm counting on that", the queen saw that Daimon wasn't saying anything else and she ultimately chose to believe he had a way to bring them over, if not they can just choose someone from the people she knows are trustable anyway.

'That explains why I couldn't keep a trail of those two though, it was as if they vanished, I wonder if all the people from the outside world are full of surprises like them', thought Annete.

She of course kept an eye in the promising participants, but her informants lost track of those two, if Daimon wanted them to join, then they must have their own means to stand out, which would explain why her subordinates couldn't follow them.

Once everyone had finished their breakfast, Vincent guided them out of his mansion, the tournament was going to take place at the territory of the Arcarius family, unlike the Wild Tide Reef property of the Trident Marshal's family, the Calm Tri-lake which was a legacy of the Arcarius family, was located in the Clear Water kingdom, but was only accessible to the Minister of development and those who were close to him, it was a protected area so to speak.

That's why no one objected to the tournament taking place despite they being attacked previously, because the location this time was in the kingdom, not even near the borders, so it should be safe.

Outside of the mansion, there were people already waiting for them, Daimon immediately recognized, the patriarch Underwood from the Bamboo Forest sect and his daughter Cassy, accompanying them was the maid and childhood friend of Daphne, Chris as well as a woman who looked similar to her but older, probably her mother, the security head of the queen, Mina was also with them, she watched over Chris and her mother, by the request of the Duchess.

"If everyone is ready, let's go", said Vincent, the newcomers approached the group and Daimon saw Chris's mother bowing towards the Valas Duchess, and standing behind of her, which explained their relationship, apparently Chris's family is subordinated to the Valas family, but they grow together and act more as friends.

Daphne was happy to see Chris, and Cassy greeted Jasmin, happy to see her friend seemed better than before, with everyone's approval, Vincent tapped his right foot on the ground and then an array light up on the ground around them.

After what happened the prestige of the Trident Marshal took a serious blow, since the array that his family set up in the Wild Tide Reef was corrupted, of course that was only an opinion of those whose statuses didn't grant them access to the information, that said it was Black Beard the one who messed up with the array, in other words one of the only two Stellar ranked rune masters in Neptune.

In any case, all the nobles had their ways to travel, some left earlier and travelled in caravans, others paid to use the spatial arrays the kingdom had at the major cities, and so on.

They didn't take too long to reach their destination, since the territory of the Arcarius family is on the central area of the kingdom, similar to the territory of Vincent's family, as they were the other pillar of this place.

The scenery changed, from the traditional and sturdy but well-designed architecture at Warhammer city, to a more modern approach, focused on efficiency, just by gazing at his surroundings, Daimon could tell why Vincent and the Minister didn't get along, they were like oil and water.

The group immediately drew the attention of the people that were in the vicinity, since this wasn't Vincent's territory, he had to transport to the allowed areas, though he did have a private spot given his status.

With a wave of his hand, Vincent took out a large carriage from his storage ring, one who had the emblem of his family and medals that made everyone know, the Trident Marshal was riding on it.

"Get on, we are in Arc city, that guy will take us to the Calm Tri-lake, once everyone is reunited at the center of the city, I'll take you to the city lord's mansion", said Vincent.

Everyone followed Vincent's instructions and got on the carriage, when Daimon was about to close the door behind him, he felt a few gazes on him but when he turned around there was a lot of people, so he couldn't tell where they originated.

'Let's see who will win this round, scheming bastard and old monster', he thought as he closed the door.