Interduchy Tournament

The Interduchy Tournament (領地対抗戦, ryouchi taikou-sen) is an annual event held at each school term at the Royal Academy. Its main event is a tournament of ditter matches between apprentice knights; however, it also includes other events such as socializing and research presented by apprentice scholars.

The Interduchy Tournament takes place the day before the Royal Academy's graduation ceremony, so it is considered a celebratory event. Rozemyne reflects that it feels like a "sports festival or a cultural festival".

It is the only time adults (besides attendants) are allowed to visit the Royal Academy during the school term, and a rare instance where many powerful nobles gather outside the Archduke Conference. The Aubs of each territory, as well as the ruler of Yurgenschmidt, are all in attendance. Other nobles may visit if they are the relative or escort partner of a graduating student.

Spoiler from Part 4 Volume 7 The area surrounding the training field on which the ditter matches are taking place is used not only for spectating the matches, but also for the socializing and research presentations. The available space is divided up between the duchies and marked out with red lines on the floor. Each duchy will then decorate their respective spots with cloth in their duchy colour and bring in furnishing to accomodate their guests. The size and placements of the spots depends on the duchy rankings, with higher-ranking duchies being granted areas both bigger in size and positioned so that they grant the best view of the ditter field.

In previous years, the ditter matches at the tournament were played using treasure-stealing ditter rules. However, due to the loss of manpower following the Sovereignty civil war, students began playing the faster and simpler version of speed ditter. While treasure-stealing ditter was played outside the buildings over the entirety of the royal academy grounds, with the duchies' gathering spots acting as the home-bases, the speed ditter tournament takes place on the largest of the knight's building's biggest training grounds.

Performance in the Interduchy Tournament has a huge influence on whether a student is chosen to join the Sovereignty, as well as their position in their home duchy after coming of age. Lesser duchies and those with fewer nobles are at a disadvantage, since they have no choice but to use all their players rather than their best players.

Spoiler from Part 4 Volume 7 Unlike the treasure stealing ditter of the past, at speed ditter only a single duchy at a time enters the field to fight a single feybeast while the time to the beast's defeat is measured. The matches are split in two cours, with a pause in the middle to allow the visiting nobles and students to eat dinner. Unlike most other affairs, the order in which the duchies compete is not determined by duchy rank, but rather by the rankings the duchies' students achived in a series of mock-battles held during their classes. The order goes from lowest scoring duchy to highest.

The feybeasts to be fought are summoned by a professor determined by drawing lots. To minimize the chance of unfair meddling, it is made sure that no duchy supervisor will be chosen to summon the feybeast for their own duchy. However if the luck of the draw is on their side, professors are still able to slightly interfere with the competition by summoning particularly difficult to or time-consuming to defeat feybeasts if they happen to be selected to summon the beast of a rival duchy. This is however limited, since there is only a select list of feybeasts that can be summoned at the tournament. Furthermore the professor is clearly visible while summoning the beast, which further limits the options of subterfuge.

Spoiler from Part 4 Volume 7
 * In Rozemyne's first year at the Royal Academy, Ehrenfest finished in eleventh place at the ditter section of the Interduchy Tournament. (Historically, it ranked around fourteenth.)
 * In Rozemyne's second year, Ehrenfest managed to come in sixth at the pre-tournament mockbattles, ahead of the greater duchy of Ahrensbach despite being four places behind them in duchy ranking. However they had the bad luck of Professor Fraularm - the dormitory supervisor of Ahrensbach - winning the lot-drawing for their ditter match and she summoned a Hundertteilung. Despite the admirable performance of the students, the nature of the summoned feybeast meant that Ehrenfest scored below their actual capabilities due to Fraularms meddling.

During the tournament, Professors, scholars and apprentice scholars showcase their research from the past year. Since Rozemyne's entry into the Royal Academy, Ehrenfest's research topics have included:

Spoiler from Part 4 Volume 7
 * Rozemyne's first year
 * A model of a drivable highbeast (shumil design).
 * Professor Hirschur's and Ferdinand's research into the magic circles on Schwartz and Weiss.
 * Research on crest-adorned schtappes
 * Rozemyne's second year
 * Joint research of Rozemyne, Ferdinand and Hartmut into the mechanics of blessing-granting prayers from the Bible, presented under Hartmut's name.

The Interduchy Tournament is seen as a time to socialize and gather information on new trends and fashions. Because it takes place at the end of winter, shortly before the Archduke Conference in spring, nobles can gauge interest and form the foundation for business deals that will be solidified later.

The primary duty of apprentice attendants is to serve visitors who visit their home duchy's representatives, push trends and "lavish guests with excellent hospitality". However, lesser duchies rarely have visitors, making it harder for their attendants to demonstrate their skills.


 * In Rozemyne's first year at the Royal Academy, Ehrenfest's apprentice attendants recieved a "middling but respectable" appraisal for their hosting skills.

Another important part of the interduchy tournament is the presentation of honour students and the first-in-class. The latter are even personally congratulated by the king himself.