The Author's POV

"Say, demons are not going to suddenly show up out of nowhere and attack us, right?"

Walking through the city, a rough voice sounded next to me. It was Leopold.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, just that…"

Leopold looked around and lowered his voice.

"I'm kinda tired of dealing with demons, and I was wondering if another situation similar to Henlour might happen."

Oh, it was about that. I nodded.

"Not sure, to be honest. But unlike the dwarves, elves are much better at detecting demons since they are super sensitive to mana, so there's a chance that no such thing will happen."

"…what do you mean?"

"Just like I said, elves are much more sensitive to demonic energy. Therefore, it is a lot easier for them to spot demons. In fact, didn't you notice the barrier before?"

Squinting, Leopold looked behind him.

"The one at the bridge?"

"Yeah, that alone should stop most of the demons."

Had Angelica not worn the special bracelet, she would've easily been found out. Even if she had turned into a ring form there was a chance for her to get spotted.

During The Conference, in the novel, it was because of this that no demons managed to interfere. That being said, never say never.

"That's reassuring."

Leopold finally relaxed and took a deep breath of the fresh air.

Then, his footsteps suddenly halted as he brought his hands closer to his face. A clicking sound repeatedly rang in the air.

Click— Click—

"What are you doing?"

"Ah, shit."

With an embarrassed look, Leopold lowered his hands and scratched the back of his head.

"I was trying to have a smoke, but I forgot we can't do that here."

"…."

Seriously?

Before coming here, I remember expressively reminding Leopold that he couldn't smoke lest he wanted to piss off the elves. I even took away his cigarettes in order to make sure he didn't. He was just that addicted.

Plus, with how nature oriented the elves were, any form of littering or smoking was a big no-no.

"Right, sorry."

Putting the lighter away, Leopold's face scrunched up a little.

Staring at him, I shook my head.

'He's already suffering withdrawal symptoms.'

The last time he smoked was not that long ago, maybe half a day? Just how addicted was he?

Shaking my head, I followed the rest of the group around the city.

Ignoring Leopold's progressively worsening face, we continued our tour of the city.

Most of the city was accessible to us apart from a few places, like the enormous building that stood in the middle of the lake.

Apparently, that place was where the elders held important discussions, and since we were not that important, we could not go there. That was probably where Douglas went.

"I wonder if we're going to be participating in the tournament…" Hein murmured from the side. It was audible enough for everyone present to hear.

"You want to participate?" Ava curiously lifted her head. "From what I've heard, we don't really need to participate."

"We don't," I replied with a nod.

to the others, so, realistically speaking, we don't have to participate,

"But?"

everyone

my

said we couldn't. I mean, if you guys want to participate, go. Do your thing. In fact, use this chance to see how much you

had an edge over all the other people their age participating in the tournament was

against demons and the like, but who could proudly say they had fought a war against a full-on attack from the demons and came out on

don't think

the winners from each respective age range will get quite a

right, there's that

my head towards Hein, I

that there's a way to cure your

"You don't mean…?"

eyes locked onto Hein's, I

the top prices for the tournament is in fact the

recall it wrong, one of them was the elixir that Hein

how much the dwarves favored us, there was a possibility of them giving it to us if we

motivate Hein into

time to finally let the world see

"You're…not joking, right?"

voice sounded rather weak. Completely different from his usual

care a lot about

before patting him on the

signed a contract, why

"I se—"

Click— Click—

a clicking sound coming from the side. When we turned our heads, we saw Leopold with

opportunity that I promised you. It's up to you whether you will grasp it or

will take

looked appeared on Hein's face as his

I had almost forgotten my one true goal, and

said as the air around him changed. He gave out an aura of a man

made up his

long as Hein resolved the one knot that was tying him down, his family, his growth would

was what I was

glad

Bang—

through my speech, my body crashed against something

"Ow."

up. It appeared that I had

"Hey, is everything okay?"

response. Waylan stood motionless in the middle of the streets, prompting

in

wrong, I looked in the direction of where he

"Ah…"

was then that I let out a strange noise, as

the street, far into

that wasn't the reason for

"…they're here."

***

we're going to meet each other during the tournament, I'm going to go all out and

voice

with the group and entering the city, once she got a close look at the place, Emma couldn't hide her excitement, curiously looking at everything

look at

out her phone, she snapped photos of

enough pictures, Emma put

I saying

to say before,

"Ah, right!"

turned

other in the tournament, don't expect me to hold back. I'll show you how much stronger I've gotten during the time we've

"I'm not fighting."

took her glasses out

Emma looked at Melissa and muttered out loud, "Those don't really

the job, it

in Emma's direction, Melissa repeatedly

I can no longer

comment. Once she did, she

that you can

talking? Is someone

"You…"

"Please stop."