Not only were there the Devils that the Rating Game originated from, there were also Angels, Fallen Angels, Humans, Youkai, and many other races. There were even God-class beings amongst them. With Rias-neesan acting as the [King], the rest of our team included Akeno-san, Koneko-chan, Gasper-kun, our newly added members, and myself. The person who seemed a bit overwhelmed by seeing a crowd of so many other players was — Valerie-san. “There sure are a lot of people.”
“Valerie, don’t leave my side.”
Gasper-kun was tightly holding on to Valerie-san’s hand out of fear that she would get lost if she left his side. Indeed, a new member of ours was Valerie-san. Naturally, she was not participating as one of Rias Gremory’s servant Devils, but as a non-servant member of our team in this tournament. “Oh dear me, there are people everywhere I look.”
The person who spoke was a cloaked girl who had put the edge of her hand against her forehead as she gazed out into the distance. The girl’s white and black streaked hair was tied up above her head. The cloaked girl said to Koneko-chan
“It seems like there are more than a thousand teams participating. If memory serves, it was one thousand and forty five. That said, it seems like not all team members will be present here.”
“Nonetheless, the presence of more people doesn’t make a difference to me.”
The girl revealed a faint smile as she said that. I asked the girl
“Is it your first time at a large event venue like this? —Lint-san.”
“Well, it is the first time for me. After all, I’ve been in the training facilities affiliated with the warriors’ training institution for a long time. No, but there are simply humans humans humans, Devils Devils Devils, Fallen Angels, Angels Angels, and occasionally even Gods? Really, I wonder what is going on here?”
Lint Selzan’s tone was completely light-hearted. The new Gremory Team also had another new member. She had been added in as a [Knight], like me, to fill in for the vacancy that Xenovia had left behind as a sword-wielder. Details aside, both the Church and the Grigori strongly recommended her, so she became a member of our team. By the way, similarly to Valerie, neither of them are members of Rias Gremory’s peerage. At present, they are simply members who have been invited to our team for the sake of the tournament…. Selzan—. If she was introduced to Ise-kun, he would definitely be so surprised to hear that name that he would be left speechless. After all, even I was rather astounded when I heard of it. After meeting her, I could more or less see that person’s shadow. Their frivolous tone was quite similar, but she wasn’t vulgar in comparison to that person. In fact, our team actually has another new member, our other team member…. But it looks like they aren’t here. Well, whatever, I’ll see them when it comes time for the match anyway…. However, according to that person’s temperament, if the opponent isn’t immensely strong, then they may not show up…. At least after having completed the registration of members, there isn’t a problem even if they don’t show up at the opening ceremony…. Speaking of which, the opening ceremony only requires either the [King] or the [Queen] of a team to attend. In our case, almost all of us are attending. Now then, I’ll briefly explain the general outline of this tournament. The first is eligibility for participation. There aren’t any particular restrictions on the participants, and Devils are able to participate in teams that aren’t the peerage they belong to. The only one who is essential for the registration is the core of the team, the [King]. As for the rest of the team members, all they have to do is finalise their registrations before the beginning of a match, and at the same time, changes of team members are also allowed. (Although there seems to be a limit as to the number of members who can be changed at a time), but only the [King] cannot be changed. It is also forbidden for players to participate for two different teams. If this is discovered to have occurred, they will be immediately disqualified. There is also a penalty for the teams that the player belonged to. That is to say, team members can be constantly replaced in this tournament, and new members can also be added to the team. Our team still had some vacancies, and it was not complete. Next are the tournament’s rules for team formation. Like the Rating Games, there are at most one of the [King] and [Queen], there are at most two of the [Rook], [Bishop] and [Knight] roles, while there can be a maximum of eight [Pawn] positions. This caps the maximum number of team members at sixteen. Players are registered according to their respective roles. As mentioned earlier, the composition of a team is not restricted, so the [King] is able to register their players to roles in accordance with their preferences. Although a Devil might have originally been a [Knight], it is also permitted for them to participate as a [Rook] in this tournament. According to the original [Evil Pieces] and the rules of the Rating Game, the value and number of pieces used to turn someone into their servant varies based on their natural qualities and abilities. But, this concept has practically been abolished under the rules of the current tournament. The special characteristics of each of the chess pieces will activate at the beginning of a match. Even for people who aren’t using the Evil Pieces, as long as they are registered as a [Knight], they will gain the characteristic of increased speed at the beginning of a match. As for the Devils who use the Evil Pieces, if they are registered under a different piece from their original, their inherent piece’s characteristics will be overridden by their tournament piece’s characteristics at the beginning of a match. For example, if I were to participate as a [Rook], then I would lose the characteristics of my [Knight] piece during a match, and instead gain the characteristics of a [Rook] piece. This was what I thought were one of the most interesting rules of this competition. Secondly, the concept of a pawn piece’s value had been invalidated in this tournament. Even if a servant originally possessed multiple pieces, it would become equivalent to having one unless they were a God-class being. A simple example would be Kuroka, who possesses two [Bishop] pieces, but according to the rules of this tournament, she is counted as having only one. That’s why it would be possible for Vali to register both Kuroka and Le Fay-san as his bishops. For those who are God-class beings, a single God-class being takes up two of the [Rook], [Knight], or [Bishop] pieces. For those who are regarded as powerful Gods, if they were considered in a one-to-one ratio with others, the competition would become too unbalanced. As such, under most circumstances, one God-class being is considered as being equivalent to two [Rook], [Knight], or [Bishop] pieces.