Combat Maid Harem

'That Thug of a kid needs to learn the immensity of the world,' the old man thought.

"Only get one. Hey! Why are you taking two!"

The old man smacked the little kid in front of him, who sneakily grabbed two from the fish bowl.

"S-Sorry!"

The little guy was scared and scurried off. Then after several more, it was finally Lawrend's children's turn. Inferno took one and looked at its contents.

18

"Next."

Lawrend's children got the following numbers.

Veronica: 214

Nephilim: 127

Eina: 94

Hanz: 185

Law: 129

Courage: 58

Zio: 285

Straw: 253

They returned to Lawrend's side and waited for everyone to get their own numbers.

The old man opened his mouth again, "Everyone now got their numbers. The competition will go as follows, 1 and 2 will duel, then 3 and 4, and so on until 299 and 300. Once that is done, 300 and 1 will duel, and then 2 and 3. You can imagine what I'm trying to say. Those that don't win any of their duels will be eliminated."

They needed to win at least one match of the two. Losing wasn't an option, as there was no chance of making a comeback if they did.

"That's unfair! What if I get matched with powerful opponents!" a relatively young kid raised his hand with a look of injustice on his face.

"Don't worry. That won't happen," the old man replied and smiled mysteriously.

The kid was stunned and didn't know what to say in reply.

"Anyone else?" the old man looked around.

"What happens if we lose twice?"

"You're eliminated."

"Isn't it possible that everyone can lose one and win one?" Inferno asked.

"Ohoho. You're smart. Correct, but it's impossible."

The old man was impressed by Inferno's acuteness, but it was impossible to have 300 immature kids listen to an order. At some point, one of them would cause chaos and ultimately lead to others getting eliminated.

Inferno glanced at his half-siblings, and they understood what they had to do. Fortunately, they weren't matched against each other.

"Begin. 1 and 2."

The old man didn't wait for other questions and urged the match to start.

The huge flat area was the size of a soccer/football field. The ground was solidified to absorb attacks below the Earth Mage level. It was more than enough for the Younger Generation Competition.

Number 1 was about two to three-years-old, and Number two wasn't that far off. They were both True Mages and immediately went ahead to throw Beginner Mage spells at each other.

Lawrend, after seeing this, realized that the old man purposely manipulated the strips of paper. Something that should be impossible to do was done by him. After all, the contenders grabbed a slip of paper randomly by shuffling the contents of the fish bowl.

"Huh…"

Lawrend noticed something odd as he observed the old man using his elemental eyes. He seemed to be a Divine Earth Mage, but Lawrend could sense that something was off. It made him suspect the identity of this old man.

He trusted his elemental eyes, so he was confused about why something seemed off.

Lawrend couldn't observe anything else, so he stopped. But just as he was about to look away, the old man turned in his direction and faintly smiled before looking away.

"Don't tell me he is a Heaven Mage?" Lawrend guessed.

It was the only logical explanation he could think of.

"Father-in-law is he..?" Lawrend asked.

Paeia turned to Lawrend and shook his head. "You will learn his identity later."

Without elaborating further, Paeia ignored him.

"..."

Paeia's reaction only affirmed to Lawrend that the old man was a Heaven Mage.

The question was how could the old man hide his level from him. The Pillar Heaven Mage wasn't able to do that when he met him. Could it be that he was wrong?

Lawrend only got more confused the more he thought about it.

The matches were fairly straightforward. The one who used up the most mana lost most of the time. The young kids lacked battle experience, so all they could do was tire each other out. But sometimes, they would defeat their opponent with a single move.

Inferno was the greatest example. He didn't let his opponent cast his spell before he was thrown back by a flaming wall. It wasn't even a few seconds, but he had already defeated him.

His performance drew the interest of the crowd. It was rare for kids of his age to defeat each other so easily.

The matches continued for three days. Lawrend's children easily defeated their opponents. Even the cute Eina fiercely threw her opponent out of the fighting area.

This naturally made a lot of people interested in Lawrend. Rumors and gossip about his exploits spread to the crowd.

The story of how he killed two City-Generals spread like wildfire. What was more confusing to everyone was how the Ignis Clan never sent anyone to punish him. The rumors regarding his origin only got wilder and wilder.

In one instance, someone suspected that Lawrend was the son of one of the ancestors. Many scoffed at the idea, but when they found out about Lawrend's bloodline purity, they couldn't deny the idea, no matter how absurd it sounded.

Thus, no one had a clear idea of who and what Lawrend was. Many rumors conflicted with each other.

Lawrend didn't care about the rumors spread about him. The matches were pretty boring for him. He was just here to accompany his children.

He spent most of the time staring at the morning sun and occasionally watching the sunset.

At the moment, he sat under a tree with his back against the trunk. His maids weren't with him as he was alone. He instructed them to let him be since he wanted to use this time to try to get an epiphany again.

The sun slowly fell below the horizon directly in front of him. He could see the faint outline of the flaming wall surrounding the phoenix garden.

"The sun rises, and it also sets… A cycle of life and death…."