"What do you think now, father?" Ameria asked. "Thanks to all this, Zaos will never be truly loyal to the royal family. Are you happy with the results of your schemes?"

"No, but I wouldn't have made things different even I knew things would end this way," Dalyor said. "You are too young to understand this, Ameria, but we didn't keep the kingdom in pace for over two thousand years, relying only on a legend. Someday, you will understand why I did this. Even Laiex could understand it."

"I hope that someday I will be able to do it… otherwise, I will never find in my heart a reason to forgive you for treating a dear friend as a pawn," Ameria said.

Ameria, for many years, had been a pretty selfish kid, but she grew up splendidly over the last few years. The king also recognized that Zaos played a role in that transformation. Still, he couldn't help but planned things as they went that way. As it turns out, Zaos assumptions were correct. The king was using the tournament to make Drannor more famous. Since he was a young hero, his fame would also solidify the royal family's position even more for the next decades. While he still had some decades ahead of him, Dalyor wasn't growing stronger or younger, and he could tell that some difficult times were approaching, and his kingdom needed that kind of symbol to survive for yet another thousand years.

"Don't worry, Your Majesty," Laiex said. "I will talk to him and convince Zaos that this was for the best."

"I am sure he will listen to you… after all you did to his mother," Ameria said.

Ameria also noticed the semblance between Nyana and Laiex the other day. While Zaos's little sister grew more girlish over the years, it was hard to miss that expression of her that was like a softened copy of Laiex. She also immediately understood why Zaos didn't want Nyana getting involved with other nobles. After all, they would discover that she was an illegitimate child.

She had a hard time looking at Zaos in the eye, knowing all that, but in the end, even that meeting wasn't something she had planned since she had been avoiding him in order not to hurt his feelings by telling or hiding that kind of thing. After all, her father forbade her from telling. Even though she lost a lot of respect for her father, she still couldn't go against his orders.

Maybe they had the kingdom in mind when they plotted all that, but they didn't have the moral high ground to tell Ameria even to shut up since she was completely right. Upon noticing that, Ameria sighed… she could only hope that rule a kingdom of that size. She won't need to rely on that kind of thing. Otherwise, she couldn't see herself sitting on the throne for long.

---- ----

After the little show he pulled off, Zaos didn't calm down a single bit. Only after a while, he got a bit calmer since he could see the results of his actions. The next five warriors that he had to fight didn't even show up at the arena when they were called. They had given up, so Zaos was declared the winner.

"It is quite refreshing to see his plans not going as planned," Zaos said and then smiled.

In any case, that wouldn't last for so long. Only the most rough-looking soldiers and mercenaries were left, and Zaos could tell that they were quite something else. Particularly, a tall, black-haired woman who was armed with a short sword and yellow breastplate looked particularly strong. Zaos didn't know if it was due to her presence alone or due to her equipment that emitted a certain level of magic energy. She also looked quite beautiful, even though she had some scars here and there. 

"Sir Drannor and Lady Melisse, please, present yourselves in the arena," The narrator said.

The black-haired woman got up and then went to the arena. Zaos wasn't the type who memorizes the names of strangers, but he felt like memorizing her for some reason. In any case, that would be an interesting battle since Drannor had yet to show his true skills.

"Fight!" The narrator said.

As expected, Drannor was the first one to move. Even though the opponent was a woman, he wasn't the type who underestimates his enemies, and he did well in attacking first because he felt his spear almost flying away from his hands when Melisse blocked the attack. As expected, that sword of hers was a magic weapon…

Magic weapons weren't forbidden. Besides, Drannor was actually using the spear Zaos gave him four years ago, but he had yet to show how fast he could be with that one. After reflecting on the attack, Melisse tried to hit Drannor's neck with the tip of her short sword, but he jumped backward and escaped the attack. That was the first time that Drannor's fight didn't end in the blink of an eye, so Zaos couldn't help but feel impressed. The woman was probably in her twenties, so the difference in experience couldn't be that large.

Melisse went to the total offensive as she tried to stab Drannor, but he dodged all of her stabs by doing quick backward steps. He didn't have much of the other choice because he didn't want to deal with the annoying effect of her weapon.

Eventually, Drannor retreated so much that his back touched the walls of the arena, and then Melisse went to a big swing since he wouldn't have the chance to retreat, but much to her surprise, Drannor had waited for that. He let her short sword hit the armor on his left shoulder as he dashed forward and attacked her stomach with the butt of his spear. In the end, he didn't want to kill her, but much to Drannor's surprise, his attack didn't cause any damage. That being said, a small piece of Melisse's yellow breastplate fell on the ground and turned into dust.