The Author's POV

Elven tear.

Some might call it a miracle drug. The item was something that the elves were highly famous for. It could practically heal all diseases regardless of their seriousness.

It could even bring back someone from the brink of death. That was how effective the elven tears were.

But of course, just like the name suggested, it could only be created by the elves, and even then, it wasn't like they could easily make them.

In fact, it was quite hard for them to make. Perhaps in the past, back when they still had the world tree at their disposal, creating miraculous elixirs like the elven tears might have been easy. But that was then, and this was now.

Times had changed, and each elven tear was incredibly valuable.

So valuable that it had created great havoc in the human domain once upon a time when someone managed to get their hands on one elven tear and decided to sell it.

At that time, it was sold to an anonymous bidder for a tremendous price of 2 billion U.

"I need it."

Sitting on his bed, Hein leaned forward and rested both of his arms on his legs.

'I need to get that elixir at all cost.'

A determined looked flashed across his handsome face as his fists clenched tightly.

Remembering the troubles his father had gone through while he was injured while trying to provide for both him and his siblings, an inexplicable feeling arose within Hein, prompting him to clench his fists even more tightly.

"According to what Ren said, the top ten winners will have the possibility of requesting any reward."

The prize didn't necessarily have to be the elven tears. There were many other items that were more valuable than the tears up for grabs for the winners, but for Hein, the tears were priceless.

He couldn't care less for the other prizes.

'Can I do it?'

Worry flashed across his eyes as he thought about the upcoming tournament.

He knew his limits, and he knew that he wasn't strong enough to be first. If Ren participated, he may as well kiss the chances of getting first place goodbye.

But tenth?

'I have to do it.'

After all the training that he had done in Henlour, Hein had confidence in his abilities. He no longer thought that the others were as scary as he once thought.

"Hm?"

Blinking a couple of times, Hein suddenly turned his head towards the right side of the room.

"Oh no."

Standing up from his bed, he rushed towards a particular wooden desk where a shield rested on top. A small black smudge appeared by the side of the shield.

"How did you get dirty again?"

Taking out a handkerchief from his dimensional space, Hein wiped the small smudge that was on top of his shield.

This clean freak attitude was something that he had developed back in Henlour when he was scolded by Malvil for not being careful enough with his shield.

'If I ever see a smudge on that shield, I will not give you a shield! Treat it as if it's your most prized possession! It's fine if it breaks from fighting a lot, but if you show me just how much you don't care about your shield, why should you bother asking to have one made for you?'

Those words deeply resonated with Hein, who understood the intent behind Malvil's words.

As such, from that point on, Hein literally did as Malvil said and treated his shield as though it was his baby.

And just like now, whenever the shield got dirty, Hein would immediately stop whatever he was doing and clean the shield.

His behavior annoyed Ava quite a bit as she would look at him the same way Angelica would look at Ren.

just

another one over

to the side, Hein wiped another part of the

***

"Are you okay?"

I called my

Emma after Kevin revealed to her the possibility

could also not be

"What do you mean?"

Kevin to raise both hands to try to calm her

where your father came from. But, I wasn't lying when I said that there were a couple of humans from the dwarven

"…Okay."

head, Emma thought of something before

"I don't understand."

Emma from the opposite side, Kevin

was trying to say. If that was her father, why didn't he greet her and instead just look at her from

idea as to why, but it wasn't like he could share it with

just increase her

staring at the tranquil, blue sky,

be here. Emma did say that her father was in

part of the group, he must be aware of the fact that

yet, it meant that he was planning something. As such, after

itself, he

ever since the

along those lines, Kevin's lips curled

are you

his thoughts was Emma who had recovered somewhat from

Kevin shook

"Nothing to worry about."

a smile on his face, he extended his hand

say we

head and checking

got a couple of hours before

a good

her hand and grabbing Kevin's, Emma slowly sat up

***

once we managed to get back to our residences, his previous rage had

overlooked the entirety of the city from above, I took a deep breath of the

'This is nice.'

stuffy, the air here was incredibly

a couple of your friends. Why didn't you

next to me was Waylan who also gazed into the distance with a serene

you didn't need to hold back from seeing

head, Waylan crossed

are you holding yourself back from

"I'm not."

the mask off of it, I locked my

want to meet them,

"Couldn't?"

"Mhm."

to go meet them. I really

just

Aaron.

was in the

originally expected to see myself going crazy at the sight of him but, surprisingly, I was able to

if the same could be said for

was sure about, it was the fact that the anger inside of my heart

same time, the feelings

been shocked, and he would either prepare some sort of scheme to try to kill me again or become wary of me who had come back from the

to him

allow