Chapter 442 441   - Tournament Day　　The day's finally here...it's almost time for the tournament to begin. Well, in fifteen minutes time, to be specific. Today's the 5th of July, the start of the inaugural edition of the World Combat Championship...I couldn't think of a particularly creative name for it, so yeah, I just went with something simple and literal.

　　The stadium in which the tournament was to take place had only finished construction two days ago, and was easily the biggest one in this world, by a fair amount at that. It had a capacity of around a hundred thousand people, and the fighting arena was much bigger than any other too.

　　It was at capacity, and to make up for the fact that we couldn't fit everyone who was interested in this tournament into the stadium, we decided to implement a certain experimental spell that I'd had Az work on.

　　I'd asked him to try it out months ago, but he still hadn't fully figured it out. That said, he'd figured it out just well enough to pull this off. Specifically, I'd asked him to make a spell that would let people video call each other over long distances.

　　If the Call spell, which transfers sound, was possible, then surely one that transfers visual information is also possible. And, as it turns out, it is...Elina had created such a spell before, but we soon found that it didn't work over long distances, it had a range limit of around five kilometers or so, so it kinda got shelved and we all sorta forgot about it for a while.

　　Az had recently managed to figure out how to increase the range of Call spells drastically, so I decided to make the request. And he did it. Az had figured out how to pull it off, transferring video over extremely long distances, though only one-way.

　　In other words, he'd effectively invented live streaming in this world. He was still working on trying to figure how to make it a two-way spell, so that the 'video call'-like function I requested could be implemented. Apparently, increasing a spell's range is an incredibly complicated process.

　　Az had made a ton of copies of what we were calling the Live Stream spell, and we sold them to the other nations, letting those that couldn't secure a seat in the stadium watch the tournament.

　　The way this spell works is, as I understand it, by recording something and then transferring that information to a receiver spell, which is what we sold to the other nations.

　　The recording spell works even if the receiver spells aren't active, and once the receiver spells are activated by their users, a complex, square barrier is formed in front of the spot where they activated the spell from, which then displays the images that the recording spell records.

　　Honestly, I'm surprised that the initial Video Call spell that Elina invented with Az's help isn't in more widespread use. I've stopped spying on the Rustlands with my invisible monsters, but even before that, I never saw that spell being used for anything other than the same way a Call spell is used.

　　And, of course, I never saw any improvements made to it. I do remember Elina complaining about how complex and difficult it was to implement, but I thought for sure that she'd have made some improvements at some point.

　　Well, I guess the fact that she didn't have knowledge of technology from my old world is a part of that. During the time Az was working on my request, he asked me and other Reincarnators a ton of questions about technology and how stuff like this worked back in our old worlds.magic　　And the more questions he asked and the better he understood it, the faster his progress started to get. If he'd been a Reincarnator himself, this world would be advancing by leaps and bounds. And, well, I suppose that it already is.

　　When I first arrived in this world, it was backwards in a lot of ways, but it had some inventions that seemed a bit advanced...mechanical fans and the plumbing in bathrooms are the first that come to mind. In hindsight, Reincarnators were probably responsible for those inventions.

　　Additionally, vehicles don't exist in this world, unless you count horse-drawn carriages, but we're now starting to invent what's basically pseudo-modern technology from the worlds we Reincarnators came from. But, then, with the improvements in teleportation spells, this world really doesn't need vehicles.

　　This world is going to advance much, much differently to the way my old world did, likely an unintentional side effect of there being so many people with their past memories intact. I have to say, I'm quite fascinated to see how quickly this world evolves in the coming years, the future should be pretty interesting.

　　Anyway, getting back to the present, we've got a packed stadium here, with spectators from all over this world. Not just people from the four nations, but also some of the residents of the independent trade centers too.

　　I was currently up in the VIP section of the stadium, along with the leaders of the other nations. Namely, Sylvar and Bell, the Earth Sage Siterra, Cusana Bronztan and Agatha Silvland. Regarding the latter two, something quite remarkable had happened in the Rustlands...

　　"So, then the king-...or rather, former king...-no longer has any authority at all?" I remarked in amusement.

　　"Yeah, Cusana was elected as president of the nation, and I got the seat of vice president. The members of the operating government were also democratically elected. Ocroed did campaign, of course, but he didn't do a very good job, so hardly got any votes. He still lives in the castle, but he's basically just a freeloader now," Replied Agatha with a grin.

　　"It a bit tasteless to find amusement in this," Sighed Cusana with a shake of her head, before admitting wryly, "But I suppose that I do understand that notion."

　　"I'm just surprised he agreed to such a drastic overhaul of the nation's leadership in the first place," I responded in amusement.

　　"Well, the Rustlands had always prided itself on the fact that it puts its people first, so he didn't really have a choice without making himself look bad," Pointed out Agatha.

　　"Such drama and complications, why can't you humans just get along?" Sighed Bell with a shake of her head.

　　"That was kinda racist, you know," Replied Agatha jokingly.

　　"Hm? What does that mean?" Inquired Bell with a confused tilt of her head.　　"It's a term for discrimination based on someone's race," Sylvar informed her.

　　"Oh, I see. My apologies, it was not my intention to offend anyone by my comment," Apologized Bell.

　　"Huh? No, don't worry about it, it was just a joke," Responded Agatha awkwardly.

　　"I must say, this is quite pleasant. All our nations are allied, the lack of presence of an enemy feels...liberating. There was a constant sense of anxiety before this peace was established, and I certainly do not miss it," Chimed in Siterra.

　　"Indeed, the way things had been going, I shudder to imagine how many more corpses would have piled up had we not established peace," Cusana nodded in agreement.

　　"Well, luck is definitely a part of it...particularly regarding each of our respective nations' leaderships. Had a more close-minded person been chosen to lead Idyll, we might not have been able to form an alliance. If Ocroed Rustlands had decided to act on his grudge against me, the same could have been said about the Rustlands. We're lucky that all of us had this in common; all of us had grown tired of the constant bloodshed," I surmised objectively.

　　"Yeah, and it's not like all the grudges and animosity that resulted from the war have simply disappeared, but the majority of people in this world understand that continuing the cycle of war and hatred wasn't going to help things. A lot of people lost their loved ones...so why opt for the path that would result in even more loved ones being lost?" Added Sylvar.

　　"That's, uh, a kinda cold way of putting it, but you're right. Everyone's just sick of seeing dead bodies stack up in the several thousands after each and every conflict," Said Agatha despondently.

　　Huh, this conversation is getting political and kinda depressing. I then glanced at the time, seeing an opportunity to change to subject...

　　"Hey, we're just a couple of minutes away from the start of the tournament. The first match is Krasp, a Halfling from Idyll, versus Cusnai from the Rustlands-," I began.

　　"Ah, actually, our nation has a different name now. We are the Democratic Republic of Rustlands," Interrupted Cusana, before adding, "Well, we have not officially renamed it yet, but we will soon."

　　"Yeah, we figured that, since all the other nations from a few years ago are gone now, we should change the name of the Rustlands as a symbol of our resolve to move forward and move on from the past," Explained Agatha, "What do you think?"

　　And we're right back to political...well, it's fine, there's just a minute before the tournament kicks off, here's hoping it goes well...

　　_____________________________________________

　　Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Don't forget to vote, and feel free to leave a comment, I appreciate any and all feedback and criticism!

　　Also, check out my Instagram account @aimdaqs for posts relating to this book.

　　Join the Discord server, I plan to tease upcoming chapters and future story arcs here, and you can also discuss or ask me any questions about the story and characters. Use the invite link to join:

　　https://discord.gg/sRbx9VbTVP