Chapter 1189: Revisiting the Gnome, the Ailintar Illusion

The next morning, Xia Duo went to the Arena with Niya to watch the competition as usual.

The Snow Melting Competition has now entered its final stages, and today is the demonstration of the final event: 【Grand Illusion】.

The reason it is called a "demonstration" rather than a "competition" is that the atmosphere of the matches over the past few days has been far too harmonious; even when the Mages of Illefarn and the Mages of Cormanthyr faced off, no serious incidents occurred.

Recently, there have even been rumors that the Northland Alliance is on the verge of being established, and this year's Snow Melting Competition has already become an important channel for these leading countries of the Alliance to build rapport.

Regarding the specific date for the establishment of the Northland Alliance, Xia Duo had also asked Iolum, but his nominal teacher did not know either, only confirming one point, which was—

Regardless of whether the Alliance is established or not, there will be definitive news before the end of the year.

If nothing unexpected happens, the Northland Alliance should be able to be established.

As for the various parties' disputes over the issue of Demon Summoning, Iolum did not explain too much, only revealing one piece of information: that the Princess also does not approve of researching Demon Summoning.

Upon learning this news, Xia Duo breathed a slight sigh of relief; in Netheril, the Princess's influence is still quite significant.

Although she has distanced herself from worldly affairs after her Ascension to Godhood, it has only been a short time, so her influence will not fade away that quickly.

This time, the issue regarding Demon Summoning should just pass like this.

But from Iolum's rather cryptic answer to this question, Xia Duo could still guess some of the other's thoughts; his nominal teacher seems to approve of researching Demon Summoning, or at least is not that repulsed by it.

In fact, Xia Duo himself is not repulsed by this research either; after all, no matter what, demons are a reality, and with the development of civilization, they will inevitably be encountered in the future.

What he opposes is only conducting such highly dangerous research with little guaranteed benefit in the current situation where absolute safety cannot be ensured.

He has a premonition that this issue might be brought up for discussion again in the future, though the situation then might be different.

……

"Xia Duo, do you think the Netherese side will still have Gnome Mages competing in this year's 【Grand Illusion】 event?"

"I don't know about that; I haven't heard any news in this regard these past few days, but I guess it's very likely not to be Gnome Mages."

"Why?"

"It's simple, for two reasons!"

Xia Duo pointed at the spectator stands inside the Arena, drew a large circle, and then said: "First, today is the 【Grand Illusion】 event, but there is no reserved seating for Gnome Mages in the arena like there was last year.

"Second, the nature of this year's Snow Melting Competition has changed. It doesn't involve as many interests as last year; this year is more like a return to the original essence of the Snow Melting Competition, which is for friendly exchange. In this situation, if you were the one in charge, would you still send out Gnome Mages?"

This is actually similar to various sports events on Earth; if the goal is not to win and it doesn't involve many interests, then why bring in outside help?

Returning to the sport itself is enough.

Xia Duo's answer left Niya stunned for two seconds, but immediately after, she pointed to a short figure that had just appeared not far away and said to Xia Duo:

"Look, what is that!"

Xia Duo looked in the direction Niya was pointing, and it was actually a Gnome dressed as a Spellcaster, and several more Gnomes teleported in behind him. Could he be about to be proven wrong?

"They must be here to watch the competition, right?" Xia Duo said with slight hesitation.

Afterward, he traced his memory, and sure enough, he found the scene of last year's Snow Melting Competition in his memory; the first Gnome to appear was one of the contestants at that time!

The Gnome Illusionist Habulin!

At that time, after Habulin and the other ten Gnome Illusionists won the competition, the Princess even personally announced the acceptance of their families, friends, and kin as Netherese citizens, and promised to make the Yellow Maple Hills their place to multiply and thrive.

Since then, Xia Duo had never heard any news about them, and he did not expect to see Habulin again today.

Looking at it this way, those Gnomes should have already settled down in the Yellow Maple Hills.

According to what the Princess said, these Gnomes are also considered Netherese citizens, so it is reasonable for them to come to watch the competition, but Xia Duo knew that things could not be that simple.

This is like on Earth, if several Black people snuck into a white gathering place, how could it be possible without some special reason?

"Let's keep watching!"

Although the Gnomes appeared in the Arena without reserved seating for them, Xia Duo still insisted on his view that the Netherese side would most likely be entirely human this time.

……

Soon, there was a slight commotion in the area where the Seven Towers Mages were located; several Archmages with management Permission Level seemed to have received some order and began to arrange seats for the Gnome Mages.

Fortunately, only a dozen or so Gnome Mages came this time, so with a little coordination, it was not difficult to squeeze out some spots.

But in fact, those dozen or so Gnome Mages only asked for three seats; Habulin and two other Gnome Mages sat in the seats, while the other Gnome Mages all gathered around them.

Because the spectator stands in the Arena are mainly provided for Spellcasters, they are not crowded together like sports stadiums on Earth; every seat has quite sufficient space around it to maintain the most basic privacy and safety distance between Spellcasters.

Plus, the Gnomes themselves are small in stature, so a dozen or so Gnomes squeezing into three spots did not look out of place.

……

As the representatives of all parties entered, the competition quickly got to the point.

The Netherese side's participants were indeed as Xia Duo guessed: all human, not even including Half-Elves who had basically integrated into human society.

The dozen or so Gnome Mages who had just arrived seemed to really just be here to watch the competition.

As for the competition, the four countries—Illefarn, Netheril, Yierlan, and Cormanthyr—all tacitly demonstrated the scenery of their respective capitals.

Illefarn's capital, Ailintar, is by the river and the sea, with buildings standing in great numbers; it is not that the city was built in the forest, but that the forest was integrated into the city.

A massive Mythallar cluster covers a large area centered on the capital, and even the nearby sea is deeply affected.

As an ancient kingdom that survived the Crown War, although its capital has been baptized by countless fires of war, it still retains a considerable amount of ancient architectural style.

Xia Duo even saw the shadow of Ancient Maelita in it; ten thousand years of time seemed to be condensed in those scenes of Illusion, which could not help but make him develop the idea of taking a trip to Illefarn and Ailintar.

……

Netheril's capital, Seventon—the Snow Melting Competition is currently being held in Seventon, but precisely because of this, all the spectators have a more intuitive comparison.

Strictly speaking, the Illusions of the ten Netherese Mages were not outstanding; they merely restored a portion of most of Seventon's surface buildings, and some were clearly seen to have serious distortion.

But they still won rounds of cheers in the arena; after all, this is Netheril's home turf!

Even though Spellcasters are relatively reserved and only a very small number of people shouted at the top of their lungs, ordinary people don't care about that; opportunities to shout in front of a Great Arcanist are truly rare!