The Author's POV

Upper echelon area.

"Hahahahaha!"

A boisterous laugh resounded across the platform as Gervis slapped the side of the chair and helplessly held onto his stomach, trying his best to contain his laughter.

However, as he recalled Ren's actions, his laugh only became louder.

It took a couple of minutes for him to finally calm down, and when he did, wiping the side of his eyes, he commented.

"This is great!"

Even though Ren's words were extremely arrogant and offensive, Gervis didn't take them to heart. He was all too familiar with him and knew he probably had his reasons for whatever he did.

Also, dwarves weren't particularly known for their combat prowess so he wasn't offended at all.

Calming himself down, Gervis stroked his beard and turned to look at Brutus who was wordlessly sitting on his seat.

"You saw that right?"

"...Yes."

Brutus unperturbedly replied.

"His words aren't wrong."

"Oh?"

Gervis showed a look of surprise. He didn't expect such an answer from him.

"You really think that there isn't anyone else worth fighting?"

"Khrr...khrr...correct."

With a deep and unfathomable look on his face, Brutus calmly nodded his head.

"After he defeated Kimor...khrr...khrr...the victor of the tournament had already been decided. What is said is true. There isn't anyone that is worth fighting."

Gervis's eyes squinted when he heard Brutus's words, but he decided to stay silent.

There was no point in him saying anything else as he too somewhat agreed with what he said.

As the two were conversing, the elven queen had a weird look on her face. Even though she wasn't particularly offended by what Ren did, she was not entirely pleased. After all, he had humiliated Vaalyun in front of the whole world.

He was supposed to be the best prodigy that the elves could offer. At an age that was similar to that of Ren in human years, he had already broken through to rank. He was supposed to be a generational talent that was rarely seen, yet he had been completely overshadowed and even turned into the butt of the jokes for those that were watching.

"Sigh."

Still, it wasn't like she could do anything about it. Given her status, if she did something, it would look bad on the whole race. Not that she was planning on doing anything in the first place.

To her, this was a good opportunity to humble Vaalyun a notch. He had become a little bit too arrogant for his own good. If this humiliation served to calm him down a bit, then the queen could turn a blind eye to what happened.

Furthermore, Amanda had already told her about the Xurin fruit. Even though she was still unclear about whether it was real or not, if that was truly the Xurin fruit that could cure Natasha, Amanda's mother, then she owed him a big favor.

Whatever was happening to Vaalyun, the queen could only pretend to have noticed.

"..."

The only one of the four that didn't show any reaction to Ren's victory was Octavious who quietly gazed toward the arena with an indifferent look on his face.

There was no visible change in his expression as he looked at the arena, however, if one looked closely, they might be able to see a more resolute look on his face.

He had finally made up his mind.

***

After Ren left, the excitement over the next few matches died down a little.

for this, one, the matches were not as tense as Ren's and Kevin's matches, and two, they were

sixteen and so the top contenders had not fought yet, but in their hearts, everyone already knew that

was Kevin's potential match with Vaalyun, who was now synonymously known as Vacuum throughout the whole

to him, he had become the butt of the jokes to all humans as they all replayed the last moment when

Click—!

off the television and sat back in

*Puff*

during the tournament, Smallsnake's

he trying to piss all

other races, but he had done it in a way that pretty much maximized

at the moment could only pray that this incident wouldn't come back and bite him in the

*Puff*

"Ugh."

started to hurt. Massaging his forehead with his hand, Smallsnake lamented over

*Puff*

"Can you stop?"

right. There, with his legs on the table and holding onto a massive cigar, Smallsnake watched as Leopold repeatedly took big puffs of the

*Puff*

a single moment when Leopold didn't stop smoking. At this point, Smallsnake questioned whether his lungs were made out of smoke or were even still

Leopold smoked was simply too

*Puff*

of the

making up for the time when I

days when he couldn't smoke back in Issanor, Leopold's body shivered.

"You—"

before Smallsnake could say anything else, the door of the warehouse opened and Ava, Hein, and Ryan entered

noticed that they

Clank—!

"...Hey."

"Hey Smallsnake."

"mhh..."

up with

footsteps a couple of meters

"Family, that's what happened."

tiredly said, as Hein and Ryan similarly sat down next

face with her hand, Ava

since coming back, no matter how much I tried to

to look at

matters worse, my family has already alerted the whole neighborhood about the fact that I participated in the tournament! The moment I came back, all I did was spend countless hours greeting strangers who I have never seen before in my

"Same for me."

with a sympathetic look on

father was the same....I-I wish I could have my time returned to

a little bit of pity for them. Turning his head to look at Ryan, he didn't even need to ask to understand why he looked the way he did.

coming to him. Especially since he had been annoying him

his chair,

I'm glad that you have all settled down

a while since everyone had returned to the human domain, and

in Henlour, this was a well-deserved rest

as half of the people here were already famous. If they took into account Ren, who was probably the most famous human at the moment, then Smallsnake could already guess how grim the future was looking for him and the

***

the mask of Dolos, I quickly changed my face and clothes before heading back

spotted a familiar

"When is your match?"

me a cold look before

about why she ignored him, but then I realized why. Smiling, I

"Ah, it's me."

used

to stand up and proceeded to

grabbed onto

"Hold up, it's me!"

"Let go."

coldly said. An icy hue began

mouth twitched when I saw