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Slace had arrived at the main gate of the knight kingdom where the entrance was, the sun already rising; it did in fact take a full night to get there.
Slace had to wait in quite the hefty line; he was irritated, of course, but he stayed calm. All of the people in the lines seemed to be fighters. It made sense considering the fact the knight kingdom was a place of sparring; the knight kingdom people loved to fight and spar, and they were quite proficient in it also. The downside being that they weren't that good at magic, only knowing basic enhancement magic.
Slace stayed in the line until he saw something; each of these fighters were either giving money to the front or showing identification.
"Of course… there's a fee to get in."
He got out of the line; he thought about killing the gate guards and everyone else there, but he knew if he did that it would just cause more trouble, so he decided not to.
Slace looked around the kingdom from the outside; it was heavily guarded, but he had quite the plan. Slace knew two other types of magic aside from fire and earth. These two types of magic only came specifically from the kingdom he was born in, the kingdom he was planning to get revenge for. Dark and light magic.
Slace went to a tree somewhat away from the line and entrance of the knight kingdom; if anyone saw him do this, they would instantly try to capture him.
"I think I still have the hang of this ability."
Slace used his dark magic and instantly fell into the shadow under the tree.
He fell into an upside-down altered dimension, a reflective mirror-like floor, and shadows everywhere on it. The sky and surroundings were pitch black, but there was no darkness.
"The Shade world."
Slace simply walked over to some figures' shadows of the people in the line, staying exactly on one of the figures' shadows, following carefully behind. Once on a shadow, a single misstep off of it could knock him out of the dimension.
Eventually, after some time, Slace got into the kingdom through the figure's shadow, carefully slipping out of the shadow and ending up back in the real world, walking back quietly so the person didn't notice them. Surprisingly, the person Slace chose had quite a weak sense for someone's presence, so the person didn't even notice Slace.
Slace then muttered, showing some disappointment. Maybe it was because this fighter was so weak. Why would you go into the kingdom of fighting as a weakling?
"Pathetic…"
————
Slace was walking through the knight kingdom. Lots of citizens of the knight kingdom were sparring; he had expected that, but they were mostly sparring away from the majority of the public that weren't fighting, who were simply doing their jobs. Slace remembered this kingdom, a dictatorship, a restricted kingdom with citizens who loved to fight, at least most of them.
Slace kept walking through this medieval imperial-like kingdom; in truth, it looked the most normal compared to the rest of the kingdoms. Other than the sparring, he also noticed guards everywhere and people getting punished in public for not doing their jobs, shackled bodies, and tomato juice splattered all over their faces.
Slace held the most hatred for the knight kingdom; it was a restricted kingdom, their citizens being on task for gruelling hours every day and barely getting paid anything. The citizens couldn't even leave the kingdom. The only people in this kingdom who had freedoms were the knights and royals; it absolutely revolted Slace to the core that they could treat their citizens like this without any sympathy. It reminded him of how merciless they were when they destroyed his kingdom.
That's why he also knew why the citizens fought so much; it was tradition to fight in the knight kingdom. Most people would think that the citizens enjoyed it, but in truth most of them were just fighting to become knights so that they could at least have some type of freedom, a cruel method that actually worked to make strong warriors but was still morally wrong to Slace.
On the way, aside from seeing citizens exhaustingly working or being punished, he also heard of an event going on; it seemed like those brawlers from earlier came today to participate in a colosseum event, which is usually always a fight to the death. Slace didn't care for the event that much, though.
Slace finally found a library, and it was open, so he decided to walk into the library. Slace noticed that it was awfully quiet. He had expected the people in here to be fighting, but they were just sitting down and reading or looking at books—all of the people were either knights or high-class citizens, considering the poor only had time to work and sleep.
Slace didn't pay much attention to it though as he walked up to the librarian at the front, and before the librarian could speak, he then asked a question.
"Do you have any books related to magic and history?"
The librarian got a notebook, opened the book and put on her reading glasses while reading the book. The librarian was quite old, so her sight was slightly impaired.
"Yes, we do have one about both, but..."
She smiled, mischievously taking out a ticket from her pocket.
"I've been looking for a fighter to take up for the tournament. You see, every year fighters come here—"
Slace got annoyed; he already knew about this tournament, he just wanted the book.
"Yes, I know already; you want me to participate in it, I suppose?"
A tournament happened every year in the knight kingdom; knight kingdom citizens with the most public appeal would be chosen to pick a fighter and make them come to the knight kingdom to participate in the tournament. The prize changed every year.
The librarian then spoke again, happy that Slace caught on.
"Yes, you don't seem like you come from here, and with that sword by your side, you must be a fighter, so… what do you say?"
Slace responded coldly.
"Well, there's no point in participating; a book isn't worth that much anyways…"
Slace then turned around, walking away, but the librarian spoke before he could leave.
"This system is flawed, and I could see how you wouldn't want to participate, but if you win, I'll give you half of the prize money."
Slace stopped in his tracks; it was a hassle to participate, but it would be worth it. After all, he was in dire need of money. He then asked, clearly interested now.
"How much?"
The librarian slid the ticket closer to the edge of the desk as she spoke with a greedy smirk.
"About 10 whole bags of gold."
Slace then walked over to the front again, swiping the ticket from the desk and asking the librarian a question.
"What time?"
The librarian replied. Looking at a clock
"Right at Noon."
Slace left with the ticket, not even saying thank you, as he thought to himself,
"I need to find somewhere to sleep then…"
——-
Slace had left the library as he noticed a huge crowd of people doing something; almost everyone in the kingdom was. He decided to follow them.
The crowd finally stopped. Slace was around 5 '6-5' 7 (167.64cm-170.18cm), so he had to push his way through to the front to see what was happening.
Slace's face became filled with bitter rage, but he held it in, calming himself down.
"Sloane… The knight king…"
There was the knight king on a higher platform near the castle, walking out with a bunch of guards around him. There were also a huge number of children, all about 12-13, on the platform as well. Slace knew what this was.
"Selection…"
This was a mandatory event; every citizen of the kingdom had to come even if they had work.
One of the guard knights then stepped forward, speaking for Sloane. Sloane didn't like to speak all that much for some reason. The guard knight spoke loudly, yelling.
"TODAY IS SELECTION DAY! TO DETERMINE WHICH OF THE CURRENT GENERATION WILL BECOME KNIGHTS OR WORKERS!"
Everyone clapped and yelled in cheers, parents there cheering for their children; of course, they were hoping the children would get the knight role.
Slace had come here once as a teenager, and he knew that this event happened every year: children of 12-13 would be presented and chosen by the knight king, whether they were to become a knight or worker.
Sloane walked forward towards the children; he was quite graceful in the way he walked even though you couldn't tell his appearance with how he always wore knight armour and donned a helmet.
Sloane took a moment to look, instantly telling the children's potential and current strengths as he pointed at 12 of them, signalling for them to come over. Those children quickly followed, going over to Sloane.
Those 12 were chosen to be knights out of the hundreds of children on that platform.
The guard knight who spoke earlier then walked up, speaking loudly.
"THESE 12 CHILDREN HAVE BEEN CHOSEN TO BE KNIGHTS OF THE KINGDOM!"
The families of those 12 children were very ecstatic because of the knight role; those families would instantly fall into high-class status.
But the children who came back who weren't chosen were sad and came back to angry families, disappointed families, or very sad families. Despite how everyone tried to become a knight and fought all the time, if you weren't chosen for it in this event, there was a low chance you would become one later in life; that's how far Sloane could look into one's potential for strength.
Slace hated this system, forcing someone into a position. He knew the people of this kingdom were bitter, but compared to the knight king's power, they could do nothing but remain slaves to the kingdom. Slace clenched his fist so hard it started to bleed; he never wanted to see a kingdom end up or end up worse than his kingdom did. He then murmured seethingly.
"Count your days, Sloane... you'll die by my blade one day."
Slace then left the crowd of people walking away.
3.1
Slace decided to sleep in either a tree or bush since he didn't have the cash to afford a room at a hotel or inn.
While he was thinking he bumped into someone as he simply stepped back, but the person he bumped into fell to the ground with a gasping sound coming from their mouth.
Slace looked down at them, noticing that it was a female and that it was the person with the weak sense for people's presences earlier when he first got into the kingdom.
Slace moved over to her, kneeling down, bringing out his hand, and helping her up, although despite helping her, he spoke like he was irritated by her.
"You should be more careful next time with that weak presence of yours; I wasn't even able to sense you."
She instantly bowed multiple times, apologizing, which just annoyed Slace further, but then she stopped bowing, looking up at Slace with a big optimistic grin.
"Thank you for helping me so much! My name is Nao; what's yours?"
"My name is Ecals."
Since he had decided to lie about his name, he had assumed this woman was participating in the tournament because she was one of the fighters in the line earlier, so it would be best to lie about his name with her and at the tournament later. Although Slace was bad with coming up with names.
She took Slace's hand without permission, giving him a rash handshake as she let go, asking more questions that Slace thought were unnecessary as he thought to himself, "I hate talkative people."
"So why are you here?"
"To participate in the tournament." Slace responded.
Nao's eyes lit up with excitement, like stars in the night sky.
"You're also participating! What a coincidence!"
Nao balled her fist and lifted it up high with a confident smirk and determined look in her eyes.
"I've been dreaming of participating in this tournament for years! I won't lose! Got that?!"
Slace simply nodded; he actually believed she couldn't fight with such a weak presence, but maybe she had something up her sleeve.
She brought his fist back down, putting her hands behind her back and leaning forward towards Slace but not super close to him as she looked up at him, having a knowing smirk.
"So Ecals, no offence, but looking at your worn-down clothes and appearance, I can tell you must be pretty broke… would you want to stay at my place? I'm buying a room at the local inn nearby."
Slace didn't really trust people, but he hadn't slept in an actual bed for 6 years now; the chambers didn't have beds when he was there, and he just couldn't pass up an actual bed for once.
"Sure, as long as I get to sleep in a bed."
Nao nodded, assuring that he would be able to as she went forward, leading the way.
"Then come along; let's go before it gets dark!"
————-
They both got in the inn room, and a bath had already been brewed by the staff; the staff even got new clothes for Slace, actually clean, neat ones, but still suitable for fighting. Nao had insisted that Slace have a bath first, so there he was in the bath, sighing from relief. He hadn't had a bath in years because of the chambers and thus just felt amazing.
Slace then got out later, drying himself with a towel, feeling completely refreshed as he got his new clothes on. Looking in the mirror for a slight second.
Slace didn't really care about his looks, but he did want to see how much he had changed.
Slace was handsome before despite not bathing and having huge eye bags, stress marks and rough greasy hair.
Basically now he looked even better; although he still has eye bags and stress marks, the eye bags were still there but less.
His hair was soft and smooth now, although it was definitely longer than it was before now because all the knots were gone.
"I like the new hair, I guess."
Slace then grabbed a bucket and took the old water out, changing it with new water as he looked around before moving his hand towards the new bathwater, using his Endlands flames on it for a split second.
If he had used it for any longer, the water would've boiled, but now it was the perfect heat for Nao.
Slace walked out of the bathroom looking at Nao, who was lying in bed reading a book; he then spoke.
"The bath is brewed for you; I have fire magic, so you don't have to wait…"
Nao got off the bed, putting her book away, and with a gracious smile, thanked Slace, commenting on his new look, smirking.
"You look way better all clean now; it's a good thing I let you stay here tonight."
She then went into the bathroom, ready to bathe, shutting the door.
The compliment didn't even faze Slace as he simply lay down on the bed, falling asleep instantly.
————-
Morning had risen, and Slace woke up pretty early; there was Nao sleeping right beside him, Slace commented.
"She can wake up on her own; if she's late, that's not my fault."
There was still a lot of time to wait, so Slace simply got out of bed, got his shoes on, grabbed his blade, and left the inn room.
"Bye Nao, let's see if we meet each other in the tournament later."
And with that, Slace left the inn.