Excited - 48
Bell was a little surprised, though he had expected Marc to be excited about the idea. He smiled.
"Yeah. And this is also a good experience for me and Marc to learn from real combat."
Brea smiled excitedly.
"Ooo, that's a wonderful idea! Sister Noria and I would cheer you all on!"
Noria nodded.
"Mhm. We'll be rooting for you if you three enter the competition."
"Yeah! See, Teacher Juro?? (˵ •̀ ᴗ •́ ˵ ) ✧" Marc exclaimed excitedly.
Juro laughed.
"Fine, fine. We'll join."
..
"Yess!" Marc exclaimed joyfully as he excitedly made his way toward the counter. "Come on, Teacher Juro, let's sign up!"
Juro smiled and followed him to the counter, with the two sisters chuckling at Marc's excitement while Bell simply smiled.
As they reached the counter, the lady behind it greeted Juro. "Is there anything the Adventurer Guild can help you with today, sir?"
Juro smiled and casually pointed his thumb over his shoulder toward the news board.
"We'd like to sign up for the Team Showcase battle."
The lady smiled. "And how many members will be participating?"
"Just us three. Me and these two kids."
"Ooh, quite passionate kids, I see." She glanced at Marc and Bell before looking back at Juro. "But are you sure it'll just be the three of you? The maximum is four, so you can still add one more member."
Juro answered with a confident smile. "It's fine. We'll be able to handle it."
"Yeah!" Marc added with an excited grin.
The lady chuckled at how adorable Marc's enthusiasm was before holding out her hand. "Then I'll need to see your adventurer cards."
Juro, Marc, and Bell each handed their cards to her. She took them and headed toward the back of the guild to register them for the competition.
While they waited at the counter, Brea looked at the three of them with some concern.
"Will the three of you really be fine? It'll be four against three."
Juro simply smiled, but Marc quickly reassured her.
"It's fineee! I've got Teacher Juro and Bell with me. We're gonna be a really strong team! Right?"
He turned toward them with an excited smile.
Juro crossed his arms and nodded. "You got that right."
Bell simply gave a confident smile. "Yeah."
Brea looked at the three of them in slight awe. They were so confident in one another that her worries began to fade.
Noria then spoke up.
"It's fine, Sister Brea. Mister Juro is really strong. He fought off the mages who were trying to capture me."
Brea looked into her sister's eyes and saw the certainty in them. After a moment, she smiled.
"Alright."
Her expression relaxed as she looked back at the three of them, now feeling more confident in their chances.
A little while later, the lady returned to the counter and handed their adventurer cards back to them.
"Here you boys go. And here, take this as well."
She handed them the details for the competition.
Bell took the poster and began reading through it. His eyes soon caught one particular detail.
The battle would begin at 2:50 p.m.
He glanced toward the counter.
"Excuse me, may I ask what time it is right now?"
The lady looked toward the clock before turning back to Bell.
"It's currently 1:10."
Bell nodded.
"Hmm... There's still time to prepare Marc for the fight."
He thanked the lady before turning his attention back to the others.
Brea and Noria were also reading through the competition details with Marc.
"Ooo, so it starts later on," Brea said. "Maybe we can ask Father to join us and watch?"
Bell immediately caught what Brea had said. He quietly listened, his thoughts already moving ahead.
"That'd be really lucky if the king himself actually watches us..."
His eyes remained on the poster as he continued thinking.
"It could help boost our reputation. And if the king is watching, there's bound to be a lot of people who'll want to watch too. That could get us even more recognition."
Noria seemed to like Brea's suggestion, though she gave a small, uncertain smile.
"That'd be nice if Father could join, but he's been a bit busy lately. We can try asking him later."
..
After reading through the details, Juro folded the paper and tucked it into his belt pouch. He then looked down at the kids with a smile.
"Since we still have some time before the competition starts, wanna train?"
He then looked toward the two princesses.
"You two can watch us train too."
All three of them smiled, especially Marc, who excitedly agreed.
"Yeah!"
After Juro paid for the food at the counter, they left the Adventurer Guild together.
As they walked, they continued talking about what they would do before the competition.
"Are we gonna go outside again, Teacher Juro?" Marc asked.
Noria heard his question and looked at him curiously.
"Outside? Why would we need to go outside?"
"To train freely. We did that at the last village we visited."
Brea and Noria smiled at his explanation before Brea answered.
"There's actually a training ground for the royal mages and knights. We could go there and train."
"Woaa, really?! Can we, Teacher Juro?" Marc exclaimed, immediately looking up at Juro.
Juro smiled.
"Yeah, we can."
Marc grinned, and so did the two princesses.
Brea and Noria then tapped their footwear against the ground multiple times, just as they had before, sending the signal to call the royal carriage.
Even though Marc had already seen it happen once, he still couldn't help but admire the way the magic worked.
Before long, the royal carriage arrived. They all climbed inside, and the carriage headed straight back toward the castle, where the training ground for the royal mages and knights was located.
During the ride, Marc became unusually quiet.
Bell noticed him thinking deeply and turned toward him.
"What are you thinking so deeply about?"
Marc hesitated for a moment before answering.
"Well... I didn't really learn much attack mana magic, so I'm thinking about how I could help. I don't wanna just have you two fight for me."
Bell smiled.
"I think you fight really well. All you need is just a little more focus, and you'd be good to go."
Juro nodded in agreement.
"Bell's right. You just gotta trust yourself when you're in combat. I should know that better than anyone since I've got the experience." He gave a small laugh. "Hehe."
Marc smiled at the reassurance from both of them.
"Yeah. Alright, I'll work hard!"
Before long, they arrived at the castle gates. Everyone got off the carriage, and the gates opened before them.
They entered the castle grounds and soon made their way inside. Noria and Brea led the way through the castle while Juro, Bell, and Marc followed behind them.
Marc couldn't contain his curiosity for long.
"Teacher Juro! What kind of training are me and Bell gonna do?"
Juro laughed and placed a hand on Marc's head.
"You'll see. It's nothing extravagant or special, but it's a good foundation for training when fighting another person."
Eventually, they arrived at the front doors of the training ground.
Juro pushed the door open.
Beyond it was a wide-open training space. Several training dummies stood throughout the area, while various tools and weapons hung from the walls or were stored inside wooden boxes. Around one corner, there was even an area dedicated to weight training.
Marc's eyes immediately lit up.
"Woaaaa! This is a really huge space!"
He looked left and right, taking in the entire room.
"And the ground is just like outside!"
Bell also looked around the training ground before turning toward Noria.
"I thought this is where the royal mages and knights train. Where are they right now?"
Noria replied, "They're probably on duty, so we have this area to ourselves."
Bell nodded.
Marc, however, was already too excited to stand still. He ran over to Juro with a huge grin.
"Teacher Juro! What do we do now? What magic are we gonna learn? Or maybe a spell?! Wait, are you gonna teach us another form of mana magic?! Do we plan for the competition?! Will all three of us have like, a special magic combo we all do?!"
The questions came one after another, barely giving Juro any time to process them. Sparkles practically radiated from Marc's eyes as his excitement grew with every question.
Brea and Noria stood to the side, watching him with amused smiles as they quietly chuckled.
Juro laughed and raised a hand, gesturing for Marc to slow down.
"Ah! Hehe... sorry, I couldn't contain myself again." Marc took a breath, still smiling. "I'm just really excited! I get to fight together with you two!"
Juro smiled at his enthusiasm.
Marc then thought of another question, this time managing to ask it without immediately firing off another dozen.
"Are we gonna do the mental mana training again? Or the spell-dodge training?"
Juro thought for a moment before shaking his head.
"Hmm... well, not really. They would definitely help, but you usually do those when you still have a couple more days before a fight. So we'll do a different type of training."
"A different type of training?" Marc asked curiously.
"First, let's put our stuff over on that bench. We wouldn't want anything getting damaged, right?"
Bell and Marc nodded before heading over to the bench.
Bell placed his daggers, coin pouch, and the three low-grade mana potions down. Marc placed his Lupan horn, mana crystal, and the wooden figurine beside them.
Marc immediately noticed Bell's potions.
"Woaaa! Bell, are those potions?! Where did you get those?!"
"Oh? You were able to buy some small potions?" Juro asked as well.
Bell nodded.
"I got curious after reading something about potions and thought I might as well buy some. They might come in handy."
Bell then looked toward Marc.
"What about the two gold coins?"
"Oh, I have those two coins kept in the pages of my book, which is in Teacher Juro's jacket."
Bell's gaze slowly shifted toward Juro.
Juro noticed it and awkwardly smiled.
"Waaaattt? I'm not touching itttt."
Marc chuckled before suddenly becoming curious again.
"Wait, Teacher Juro. Why couldn't you just have the book placed in that pouch? Isn't that pouch special?"
"Special pouch?" Brea asked curiously.
Bell briefly explained to Noria and Brea what Marc meant.
Juro smiled.
"Well, the pouch can contain a lot of stuff, but it can't contain things that don't fit the size for it. For example, a whole book. I obviously can't just shove the book in there."
"Oooo, I see." Marc nodded before looking at Juro again. "Don't you need to place your stuff somewhere too, Teacher Juro?"
Juro simply waved his hands.
"Nah. My clothes are actually kinda special too. They don't let things fall off easily."
"Ooo! Is it from the same continent as that pouch?" Marc asked excitedly.
Juro shook his head.
"Nah, it isn't. But I had it custom-made, so it's special for me. Hehe."
Marc nodded, "Ooo."
Juro then clapped his hands together.
"Anyways, alright now. Let's all go to the middle. We'll begin the training!"