“Ladies and gentlemen, as you can see his name is a fitting one! The victor of the first round is none other than Devil!”
Loud clapping and cheering welcomed my theatrical bow.
“You may wait in the waiting room or get back to chatting up the hot young lady in the audience! Aurelion is one ugly bastard but his seed produced a sexy mare, that much is certain!” Vex shouted while eyeing Jasmine who in turn gasped with utter shock and reddened in her cheeks.
I shook my head while chuckling. This silver-haired beauty had absolutely no mouth filter. No wonder Black Fang threw a dagger into her throat – if that was her. Also, I had to agree with Vex’s opening statement, I don’t know what sort of brainwork required the seven circle members to land on Vex being the most optimal host candidate for this monumental event.
Even Raika would do better, though maybe the event would only last half as long as intended if things were left to her.
At least Vex happily wore her smoking hot dress, maybe that was it. I imagine not many Veil Walkers wanted to dress like an alluring piece of meat for a crowd of weaklings to ogle them, but she seemingly had no qualms to give about it.
Although I wanted to check out the competition in the waiting room, I couldn’t just leave poor Jasmine as she was – thousands of heads were examining her tomato-red features – so I made my way back to her.
Multiple people asked for autographs, which I didn’t even know was a thing here… But it very clearly was. They handed me their inked pens and asked me to write my name in their books or simple papers, and if that was not available, some asked for me to mark their skin. Yes… all of those who asked me that were females.
“Next up! From the corner of the rats, please welcome July! Kills in the first round? Zero! She is a warrior but she covered behind her alliance’s tanks the whole time. Kills in the second round? One! One wild bunny to eat that is, she didn’t kill any enemies. Then, from the corner of the champs! Wrath is the name! She secured over 70 kills in the first round! That number doesn’t include her Consortium-given teammates who also fell to her blade because they were – allegedly – holding her back! She is a bit off in the head, but that means nothing! Crazies are also welcome in the ranks of the Consortium, which is best evidenced by the fact that my big sis Orianna was still not forced to visit the doctor who specializes in mental complications over her 300 years spent in the ranks of the organization! I still can’t comprehend how this was allowed to happen!”
A plant immediately emerged from the ground and started strangling this eccentric prankster of a woman.
In the meantime, I finally made my way to Jasmine who was busy hiding her face behind her trembling hands.
I plopped down next to her.
“D-d-did you hear that! L-lady Vex said that I was beautiful!” She stammered with utter embarrassment. Of course she would be. This girl was a young merchant, a non-combatant. Vex not only recognized her but even complimented her looks and pointed out that she was flirting with the man of the hour – me. Jasmine came here to have a merry time watching the show but her world was turned upside down as she found herself in the middle of the spotlight.
“Of course I heard, I was standing right next to her. Though, to be fair, she didn’t call you a beautiful woman but a sexy mare…” I joked, which only earned a whimper from her. The poor girl was about to explode from the strong emotions assaulting her heart. I reached out with my arm and grabbed her shoulder which was farther from me in a gesture of support.
In the meantime, I was watching Iris obliterate the woman she was pitted up against. I already suspected it, but my thoughts were confirmed at long last. She did indeed kill her own teammates. Back when we arrived at the first round, numerous losers- I mean older, washed-up combatants were available for selection by those who didn’t have 5 Heralds already. Iris was alone, so she was told to choose five.
Her opponent met a similarly grizzly fate as mine did, though she didn’t do any theatrics like I did. She just killed her and walked away.
“Are you good?” I asked Jasmine while squeezing her shoulder.
“Y-yeah… It’s just, I was so surprised! I was in the middle of eating my popcorn and suddenly a legendary entity started talking about me!” She managed to squirm the words out.
“You can never know what nonsense will come out of that woman’s lips next. She is an enigma.”
She giggled at my words before turning her head toward me, “so all this while Aurelion was right. You were the kind of catch he was hoping for. No wonder you never took him seriously… he is just an old guy who will die soon while you are going to reach heights he could only dream about.”
“True. The faction he’s heading is way too small scale for me, plus I would never feel good about bowing my head to someone I could kill with a flick of my finger.”
“Hehehe. You truly live in a different world… To think someone would say the Gilded Exchange faction is too small scale. You do know they play at least a small part in nearly all transactions that take place in the Winterwood County, right?”
“Jasmine, an entire duchy is too small scale for me. A merchant dude operating in a single county is nothing but a joke. He is only an ant I’ll outgrow within months if I hadn’t already.”
My confident statement caused her to gasp as she blinked at me numerous times. At first with disbelief thinking that I was merely jesting, but when I didn’t offer any further comments she slowly realized that I was being entirely serious.
“To think I was flirting with such a being all this while… Now I feel so foolish.” She murmured.
“Why? In case you didn’t realize, I’m sitting here next to you with my arm comfortably resting on your shoulder. If I didn’t think highly of you I wouldn’t be here. Although I don’t know too much about you, what you’d shown me had piqued my interest.” My statement earned a second round of gasps and rapidly blinking eyelids. In fact, it wasn’t only her who gasped but multiple young girls who were perking their ears while hungrily listening in on our conversation.
They started eyeing Jasmine with incredible envy. I couldn’t help but chuckle at the sight. In a world where your survival wasn’t at all guaranteed, such things as your physical appearance took a heavy backseat – at least when speaking about the criteria the fairer gender evaluated you with. In their minds, I was a young warrior with an extremely bright future and a person who could easily protect them. Even without seeing my face, I was already a homerun victory to them, thus the envy with which they glared at the rather ordinary girl was understandable.
“N-now that you put it like that, I did a good job indeed!” She cheered adorably before glancing at me with big puppy eyes. “Devil, wanna be my husband?”