Chapter 172: An international food war

Chris wanted peace, but the world chose war for him.


He expressionlessly wiped the food out of his face as he slowly turned his head towards the direction where the spell had come from.



There, a few tables ahead, a few fellow participants were standing there, having a sort of standoff or something among themselves.


There were two dudes wearing Russian jerseys who were giving off the bully vibes.

One of them had red-colored hair which was standing out in the crowd since it was like the color of blood while the other one with black hair seemed to be his goon.



They seemed to be having some kind of argument with two Asian fellows whose Jerseys said China.



Or more like, with one Asian guy who was heatedly saying something back to the Russians while the girl was standing a distance away from them, as if not wanting to be involved.


Does that guy think he's a Chinese protagonist? Chris felt a vein rising on his forehead.



The rest of them weren't even aware that the spell had disturbed someone it shouldn't have. 



As Chris watched them, the Russian dude with Crimson hair fired another two spells. And, the Chinese guy did a somersault 360 as he landed back in some sort of kung fu stance.



Chris, who was once again in the line of fire, had had enough. 

'Since I can't eat my food in peace… then no one will,' he decided, drawing his wand.



The two spells were headed his way and Felice the petty woman only put a shield in front of her and Fleur which was fine with Chris. Fleur herself only watched what Chris, the pettiest person here, would do. 



Chris let the two spells Whizz past him and hit the table yet again. Though this time, he cast an invisible spell of his own by covering it with stealth which hit the table along with the other two spells. 



It has to be mentioned that the table still was full of food which Chris had ordered.



*Boom* *SPLAASH*


And… when his spell hit the table, a shockwave spread out, blasting ALL of that food in all directions in a way that everyone within 30 meters got slashed with chunks of food which seemed to be evenly distributed to everyone. 



Except for Chris, Fleur, and Felice. 



”Kisama!” (Japanese)


Curses in different languages were being shouted from all around by people who were peacefully watching the show. 


"Himmeldonnerwetter!” (German) 

”Che, boludo!” (Argentine Spanish) 

”Gay kocken offen yom!” (Yiddish) 

 ”Na mou klaseis ta'rxidia!” (Greek) 

”Jebiesz jeze!” (Polish) 

”Abe Maaderchod!” (Indian)

 


The scarlet hair dude, whose name was Ivan Alyykrov, paled. Because... it at this moment he knew, he fucked up.



"[But… how?!]" He questioned himself. There was no way that the spells he fired could have had such results. 



And only at this moment did he first notice Chris who was smirking at him.

"[Good luck]" Chris mouthed to the guy.



"[Bastard!]" He realized that the guy dared to mock him. 


But at this moment, he heard his friend's scared voice, 

"[I-Ivan…I think we need to run!]"


Ivan didn't get a chance to respond to Chris since the response of the furious people was heading his way in the form of food which was being thrown towards him from one of the affected tables. 

 

This was like a trigger that prompted other people to start throwing their food as well!


Ivan and his friend were mobbed by a hail of food which was coming at them from all directions and a few spells were all mixed in it well, a few which did hit them despite their best attempts at shielding. 


Because… everyone here was a duelist. 



Meanwhile, Chris just pulled some final strings by anonymously blasting off food to the unaffected areas who also began returning the fire towards the areas in which they thought the food came from. 



An all-out food war was on! And in the middle of this, Chris sat back down on his chair and his surrounding area and himself got cleaned up with a wave of his wand. 


He reactivated the magic which would make people ignore him and his surroundings, picked up his fork and knife, and reordered his food which he then started eating while ignoring the surroundings.



Somehow, any food which was coming his way was getting diverted, not even coming close to him.



"How come I'm enjoying the food more now?" He wondered as he looked at the chaos he created in satisfaction. 



Meanwhile, Fleur and Felice, who were still flummoxed by the rapid turn of events, looked at the Chris who had gone back to eating like this was a perfectly comfortable environment for him while they were always on the lookout for when food would be thrown their way.



"You…" Fleur pointed at Chris who was looking around at the scene smugly, "You started this, didn't you?!" She asked suspiciously. 



She didn't see him casting any spells. But!… she knows that look. It means 'prank successful'. 



Chris grinned at Fleur, "Hey! I'm the victim here! You should blame that Red-haired guy who is now, ah… not in any condition to answer," he nodded in satisfaction as he saw that dude and his friend. 


Even the Chinese protagonist wasn't spared. Though that Asian girl seems to have slipped away at the first opportunity 



The hotel staff and the security wizards were struggling to stop all this. 



Chris whistled. 

"Man… I don't think they'll ever use plates which can order unlimited food," No one is of running out of ammunition. Fresh food keeps coming out.



He was now beginning to think that maybe it wasn't a good idea. These people seem to be having too much fun to stop now. Even many of the protectors/ guides who've come with the students are now seriously fighting the food war. 


They need to stop it as soon as possible, but stopping a mob this big is no joke. If they tried force, the situation may become very complicated since the countries may take offense to it. 



Just when he was thinking about this, he suddenly felt it. A magic power so thick that he felt like running away just passed by him, freezing him in place. 



Chris felt the magic restricting his movements mildly, making him unable to move his body. It should have been no big deal and he'd have calmly handled the situation in normal circumstances.


But… as soon as he felt that magic, he was a bit overwhelmed. This magic was… powerful. And it was different from any magic he'd ever felt before. 



It wasn't the spell. The spell was quite weak and easily breakable. No. The thing that made him go crazy was the magic itself. His senses were a bit overloaded after sensing it. 



"What the—"



He instinctively used his own magic to break free of this magic and look around in vigilance, only to realize that everyone in the room had been frozen, even the food was stopped in mid-air. 



'Oh…well shit.' muttered Chris, who realized that he was the first one in the room to break free. 



He went back to pretending to be a statue, but... as he thought, it was already too late. 

The person who had cast the magic, along with Fleur and Felice had already seen him move.


The only good thing is, that he at least had a wand in hand, so he won't be suspected for wandless magic. 



In the next moment, all the food started to vanish along with all the cutlery. By now many more had broken free of the constraint. Though almost all of them were the guardians of the students like Felice. But, they didn't do anything and just stood there including Felice. They were all intimidated by this show of magical might. 



'Who is this person?!' wondered Chris. This magic was something else. 


At this moment, the magic was lifted and everyone was allowed to move. 

The first thing Chris did was to look around at the caster and everyone else did the same. 



There, he saw a middle-aged man in a muggle-type suit standing at the entrance with a wand in his hand. The man had a receding hairline and a pair of eyes that radiated power and cunning.



The man smiled at everyone, "Ladies and Gentlemen, I apologize for having interrupted your fun, but I must ask you all to stop now. We simply cannot afford to waste any more food," he said in English with a Russian accent.


From the time of the Wizard's council, English has been declared the common language since Merlin was English. So everyone is taught at least a little bit of it in all countries.


When no one seemed to object, the man nodded his head at everyone as he smiled.

"Thanks for your cooperation. I'm Vlad Merputin, the headmaster of Koldovstoretz, the Russian school of witchcraft and Wizardry,"


'Well, that explains it,' thought Chris with small amounts of fear. Because, the leader of the largest Vampire Coven in Russia was currently looking at him. 



He had researched about the guy before coming here. As expected, the most powerful man didn't run for the minister of magic. He instead chose to become the headmaster of Russia's magical school.



Chris didn't meet the man's eyes and fortunately, he didn't try to read his mind. 

This was his first confrontation with Vlad Merputin. 



***



In a large manor which had a lot of guards stationed at many points of the manor, in a hall that seemed to be a throne room, a person was sitting at a throne like seat, with a wine glass in their hand while looking through some papers. 


Their whole body was obscured in the dark, but they had red hair and eyes, more like, it was scarlet, the color of blood. 



The other people in this room had their heads bowed, and they shrunk into themselves, as if they didn't want to bother the person with their presence while they were working.



The room was silent except for the sound of turning of papers, until, the person suddenly looked up from the paperwork and their scarlet eyes, which seemed to glow were focused on the door. 



Because, at this moment, a boy with scarlet hair was brought into this room, looking to be in a miserable state. 



This was, of course, Ivan, the dude who got mobbed a while ago. Even though he was cleaned of food and the spell damage had been healed to the best of the healer's abilities, his state was still quite miserable. 



The red hair person stood up quickly as they approached the boy. And their appearance became visible as they came into light. 


It was a beautiful young woman of indeterminable age. Scarlet hair, scarlet eyes, and scarlet lips that may be been due to lipstick or blood. She also had a pair of sharp canines. 


Her name was Anastasia Alyykrov, the leader of the second-largest Vampire coven in Russia. 


Currently, she had a furious expression on her face as red magic power began to radiate off her in waves, stopping the blood flow of the people in the room. 


"[Who did this?]" She asked in a voice barely above a whisper as she raised her hand towards the boy. Red energy coursed throughout his entire body, healing him. 



This was her only real sibling. Her only family member left alive. And the ones responsible for hurting him… are going to pay. 


The man who brought Ivan in hesitated,

"[Ma'am, it's quite unclear. That was reportedly a large scale fight in the cafeteria of the hotel—]" 



"[Useless!]" The woman frowned; she cut off the man and woke up Ivan. When Ivan slowly woke up, the woman's demeanor seemed to change drastically as she looked at the boy with concern. 


"Ivi, are you alright? What happened to you?" She asked gently, "Can you let big sis see?" 



Ivan was hesitant at first, but he eventually nodded and closed his eyes. Anastasia pulled out a ruby-encrusted wand and put his head. She pulled back a silvery string which was Ivan's memory of the event. 



She went back to her throne and a pensive emerged from the side on her gesture. 


After pouring in the memory, she saw what happened. Unfortunately, Chris's Ignore-me magic doesn't work on memories. He was completely visible through the memory.



The memory started when Ivan fired a spell at an Asian guy who ducked under it to let the spell fly past him. 


 

She saw the spell heading straight towards a table with three people and just as it was about to hit them, the boy with blond hair suddenly turned his head to look at the spell and a chair flew up to intercept it.



'How did that happen?' she frowned. The boy was just too conspicuous, whether it was the small dragon which everyone seemed to ignore or his unnatural movement.



She played the memory again and saw the leg of the blond boy blurring at the last moment which resulted in the chair being kicked up.



'Interesting…' she realized that she might have already found the main culprit, judging by the look the boy gave Ivan.


She played the memory further and saw two spells headed his way. 


She saw the boy easily moved out of the line of fire and point his wand towards the place where the spells were supposed to hit. 


In the next moment, she saw the boy grin as a shockwave emerged from the table, blasting food in all directions. He then turned his head back towards Ivan to say Good luck to him.



It's like he already knew what was going to happen. She further saw him pocketing his wand and dusting of his hands. The guy then sat back down on the table and began eating like nothing was going on at all.



Anastasia pulled out of the memory as she looked back at Ivan. 

"Ivan, I've changed my mind. I think I'll come to watch your dueling tournament after all,"



Ivan was pleasantly surprised, "[Really? But, weren't you busy?]" He asked.



Anastasia smiled at Ivan which showed her sharp canines, "[I'll make time for my lil' brother,]" 



***


 


A.N.: So much for remaining low key ha-ha. It just does not seem Chris's thing, does it? Nor does fate let him remain low key.