Thalia…
Fayebel’s expression was that of shock and anger as Alta made fun of her.
“I haven’t seen you in five years and that’s what you say to me? What the hell?!” Fayebel exclaimed, seeming more offended by Alta’s words than having not seen him in so long.
“Oh come on...you only came after me because father said so. Although, I’m a little confused as to why you’re participating in the tournament,” he wondered.
“Well that’s…,” she then looked away, as if embarrassed to say, “Because father said so…”
“Be honest, did you really want to come looking for me? Because if you did, then you probably would have found me way faster.”
“No, not really. I actually enjoyed not having to listen to your whiny voice every day in father’s palace.”
“Yeah well, I think you had a rather disappointing showing this fight, even though you won,” he said as he looked down as he waited for the new contestants to show up for the next match.
“Huh?! What do you mean my fight was disappointing? I think I did fine!”
Alta gave her a side eyed look before saying, “You focused way too much on swordsmanship when you should have tried to overwhelm him with your magic. Also, why didn’t you use your elven shadow magic?”
“I...well, Master Ranni is fighting in the tournament as well and I wanted to show her how well I could fight using her teachings alone. Also, you have a lot of nerve criticizing me on not using my shadow magic when you can’t use it at all. You suck at it!”
“That’s only because my natural magic overwhelms my ability to learn shadow magic. Its too difficult for me to learn.”
She shrugged while giving him a smug smile.
“Shadow magic?! What’s that? Can you teach me how to use it?” Thalia asked with wonder in her eyes as Fayebel looked at Thalia and her eyebrows rose in curiosity.
“Who is this?” she asked.
“Hm? Oh, that’s Thalia. I’m her bodyguard,” he said.
“You? A bodyguard? Why?” she asked.
“Because there is someone going after her and her brother,” he said.
Fayebel then shook her head before asking, “Wait, who hired you? Who are you working for?”
“A man by the name of Marcus Wright, he asked-”
“Marcus Wright?! You’re working for him?!” she exclaimed in disbelief.
The people in the audience looked at her like she was crazy, and upon hearing Marcus’s name, some started to talk among themselves.
“Hey! Keep your damn voice down!” he said with a hushed, but aggressive tone.
Fayebel walked closer to Alta so that she could argue with him with a quieter tone as she asked, “How did you manage to get hired by one of the most powerful people on the planet?”
Alta and Thalia both gave her a confused look and he asked, “What do you know about Marcus Wright?”
“I know that he fought toe to toe against the Archdragon Malthael shortly after he was revived. I also heard from a good friend of mine that Marcus became a dignitary of King Razel of Forrosa. Yet you’re telling me that you work under him? That’s nuts!”
“Whoa, really?! My brother works for a king? That’s so cool!” Thalia said, deeply fascinated by how fantastical it sounded to her.
Hearing of what Marcus was doing made her feel like she was starring in some kind of medieval fantasy story.
Of course, she has already been living in this world for months and had started getting used to life here, but hearing about her brother as if he were some kind of legend in this world made it feel that much more magical.
Fayebel looked at her and Alta with confusion and asked, “You work for him and you’re his little sister, and yet he hasn’t told either of you about this?”
The two of them shook their heads no.
She then shrugged and said, “Oh well… Either way, It doesn’t really matter. I’m going to be bringing you back home to father.”
Alta’s expression then became hardened as he said, “Like hell I am! I don’t want to go back to Alfheim. That place is so boring compared to the human kingdoms.”
“The land of elves is...boring? Really?” Thalia asked.
“Yeah, it is. I could go really deep into detail, but to summarize, war is part of Dark Elven culture, yet we’ve only participated in two of them in the last several centuries. We have nothing to do but constantly practice swordsmanship and magic without any real conflict to use them in. Its like becoming a talented chef in a restaurant without any customers to cook for.”
“Oh...that sounds depressing,” Thalia said.
“To be honest, Alta’s right. Part of me doesn’t want to go back home either, but Father asked me to bring you back and that’s what I’m going to do,” Fayebel said as she crossed her arms.
“B-But...I like spending time with Alta. Why does he have to go back?”
“That’s none of your business kid,” Fayebel said with a look of annoyance.
Alta saw Thalia’s disappointment and said, “Nah, you won’t be able to force me back home. You may have better swordsmanship than me, but I’m still way stronger than you are.”
Fayebel let out an exaggerated fake laugh as she asked, “Oh really? You wanna make a bet?”
Alta paused for a moment, as if to take a moment to think about it before he said, “You know what, I think I will. In fact, lets make a deal. If you really think that you’re so strong, then if you manage to win the next round against the Orc Prince Torrs, then I’ll go with you.”
As if thinking that she has already won, Fayebel smiled and said, “Sounds fair to me. What do you want in exchange if you win though?”
“Hmm...How about...you train Thalia swordsmanship and magic and take some bodyguard shifts-”
“Really?! So if you win, you want me to be Thalia’s master?! That...That sounds…,” The way Fayebel reacting, it almost looked like she was more excited to lose the bet if it meant she could have a student of her own.
As if picking up on what was going on, Alta then said, “Of course, you could always just back out now and tell Father that you couldn’t find me.”
“Gah…! No, wait...I…,” she stuttered.
It was over.
Fayebel was now like a rat in a trap.
The way that Alta constructed this bet, both options, whether winning or losing, are beneficial to her. However, only one option seems to be something that she actively wants to do as opposed to what their father wants them to do.
The real predicament was whether or not Fayebel was willing to throw the fight to lose the bet on purpose, or if she was even strong enough to defeat the orc prince in her next match.
“A-Alright, I’ll take that bet! You’re on!”
As the two of them continued bickering, Thalia noticed the next contestant coming forward out of the hallway and onto the arena floor.
A woman in an outfit that looked like a maid’s uniform decorated with various plates of armor walked onto the field carrying a lance and a shield.
The woman had gorgeous blonde hair, clear white skin, and unusually colored black eyes with yellow irises.
Gomori was her name, as told to them by the announcer.
“Whoa...her eyes look kind of like that Raum woman a few days ago,” Alta pointed out.
“Yeah, and Raum the Raven is quite powerful. Master Ranni told me stories about her and that apparently, Raum has two other siblings. Maybe she is one of them,” Fayebel said, looking at Thalia as she did, as if to convey words of wisdom to a soon to be student.
“If Gomori is as any bit as strong as Raum, then I pity the person who has to fight against her,” Alta chuckled.
For some reason, Thalia felt a mass of anxiety swelling up within her. As if she had a reason to dread this match, but she was forgetting the reason why.
Maybe it had to do with who Gomori was fighting.
Who is she fighting?
She then turned her eyes to the opposite side of the arena to spot the second contestant only to find a man wearing a hood over his head.
It was difficult to make out his appearance but as for the weapons he brought with him, he held a baseball bat with barbed wire in his right hand and a pistol in the other.
“Is that a gun…? I don’t think I’ve seen anyone else in this world with a gun aside from my brother,” Thalia said.
“What’s a gun?” Alta and Fayebel asked her simultaneously.
“Its like a handheld cannon,” she explained, to which both siblings went, “Oh...”
She squinted her eyes to try and get a better look at his face only to see him turn his attention to her directly.
He then reached to pull back his hood just as the announcer’s voice called out his name.
“And facing her is a man hailing from an unknown land, Julian Romano!”
He pulled back his hood and there was no doubt in her mind that it was indeed him.
His eyes focused in on her like a hawk that it took a lot of self control not to look away from him out of fear.
She didn’t want to be afraid of this man if she knew that her brother and Alta were there to protect her, but even so she still had nightmares of her own about the day that he kidnapped her before she was brought to this world.
Every time his face cursed her thoughts, she was reminded of the day that her life was torn apart for her to put back together in this world.
Yet here he is, looking at her as if he wants to tear it all down again.
Failing to push away the fear that came with seeing him, Alta seemed to pick up on something as he said, “Hey, you’re shaking. Are you okay?”
“Huh? I’m...shaking?” she stammered as she looked down at her hands and realized that she was visibly trembling with fear.
When she looked back at Julian, he was smiling at her.
The blood drained from her face as she went pale and said, “I want to leave...now. Please…”
Julian…
It brought him a great amount of joy that after being stuck on this shit hole of a planet, at least he has the satisfaction of seeing little Thalia still being traumatized over the kidnapping.
To him, that event was over a decade ago.
But to Thalia, it was obviously still fresh in her mind as she has only been here a few months.
But this was only the start of what he had in mind for Marcus and his sister.
The time had finally come to do to them what was done to his father.
He’ll beat Marcus into a bloody stain on the ground and make his little cunt of a sister watch.
But all that would have to wait until after Julian has made it past these worthless NPCs.
He looked into the black and yellow eyes of the woman he was about to fight and said, “I’ll make this quick.”