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.

and Kevin's matches, and two, they were all still riled up at Ren's words,

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

thing that everyone was focusing on at the moment, it was Kevin's potential match

butt of the jokes to all humans as they all replayed the last

Click—!

off the television and sat back in his

*Puff*

last words during the tournament, Smallsnake's face

trying to piss all of

had Ren's last words provoked the other races, but

back and bite him in

*Puff*

"Ugh."

head started to hurt. Massaging his forehead with his hand, Smallsnake lamented over his luck. "Just why do you always

*Puff*

"Can you stop?"

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

*Puff*

not a single moment when Leopold didn't stop smoking. At this point, Smallsnake questioned whether his lungs were made out

smoked was simply

*Puff*

puff of the cigar, Leopold

help it. I'm just making up for the time when I

back in Issanor, Leopold's body shivered.

"You—"

else, the door of the warehouse opened and Ava, Hein, and Ryan entered the office

noticed that they all had a haggard and tired

Clank—!

"...Hey."

"Hey Smallsnake."

"mhh..."

up with you

face. Halting her footsteps a couple of meters away from Smallsnake, Ava sat down on

"Family, that's what happened."

said, as Hein and Ryan similarly sat down next to her. They all had

with her hand, Ava

matter how much I tried to leave they

look at Smallsnake, Ava continued

The

"Same for me."

sympathetic look

was the same....I-I wish I could

need to ask to understand why he looked the way he did. Given how doting and protective his mother was,

coming to him. Especially since he had

back on his chair, Smallsnake

have all settled down

returned to the human

through such hardships back in Henlour, this was

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

***

taking out the mask of Dolos, I quickly changed

soon spotted a familiar figure and sat

"When is your match?"

Amanda gave me a cold

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

"Ah, it's me."

I used my regular

stand up and proceeded

grabbed onto

"Hold up, it's me!"

"Let go."

icy hue began to sprout out of her

mouth twitched when