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.

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

"But?"

like everyone is

stare in my direction, my lips tugged

to participate, go. Do your thing. In fact, use

thing my group had an edge over all the other people their age participating in the tournament was true combat

of experience fighting against demons and the like, but who could proudly say

don't think there

heard that the winners from each respective age range will get

right, there's

my head towards Hein,

remember how I told you that there's a way to

"You don't mean…?"

locked

top prices for the tournament is in fact the elixir that can

and if I didn't recall it wrong,

dwarves favored us, there was a possibility of them giving it to us if

this was a good way to motivate Hein into joining the

to finally let the world

"You're…not joking, right?"

rather weak. Completely different from his

must care a lot

smile before patting him

contract, why would I lie

"I se—"

Click— Click—

then that we heard a clicking sound coming from the side. When we turned our heads, we saw

that I promised you. It's up to you whether you will

will take

resolute looked appeared on Hein's face as

over a year with you guys, I had almost forgotten my one true goal, and that

changed. He gave out an aura of a man who was about to

made

was tying him down, his family, his

I

I'm glad that

Bang—

body crashed against

"Ow."

head, I slowly looked up. It appeared

"Hey, is everything okay?"

was met with no response. Waylan stood motionless in the middle of the streets, prompting me

what in

wrong, I looked in the

"Ah…"

I let out a strange noise, as my

the opposite side of the street, far into the distance,

the reason for my

"…they're here."

***

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

energetic voice rang

crossed the bridge 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 like

look at

she snapped

pictures, Emma put her

was I

was trying to say before, Emma's brows knit, forming

"Ah, right!"

the palm of her left hand, she turned to look at Amanda and Melissa with a challenging look on

I'll show you how much stronger I've gotten during the time

"I'm not fighting."

her

looked at Melissa and muttered

do the

head and staring in Emma's direction, Melissa repeatedly nodded

yup, I can no longer see

a while for Emma to get her comment. Once she did, she shot a

obvious that you can still

talking? Is

"You…"

"Please stop."