Immediately upon re-entering the waiting room where the other hopeful participants were, Lone frowned.

He could see Sophie trying her best to not reach for her swords as three men and two women surrounded her and mocked her.

While she was dressed in her full plate, she had chosen not to wear her helmet since it could get rather stuffy, particularly inside. A mistake, it would seem.

"Hey! Open your eyes! Lemme see those lifeless fuckers again!"

"Hahaha, how's she gonna fight when she can't even see?"

"Oi, do you think she'd die if we just grabbed her and tossed her in some random place? Like, wouldn't she definitely get lost?"

"That's a great idea! But I also kinda wanna see her after she gets her ass kicked by the examiners..."

"She reeks of magic. There’s no way someone can be that beautiful without something fishy going on in the background. She must be using illusion magic or something. Make-up's one thing, but magic? Pathetic."

Sophie took a deep breath before she said a single word, “Leave.”

"Okay, okay, we promise to leave you alone if you show us your eyes one more time, right, guys?"

"Yeah."

"Of course."

"I swear on the Primals."

"That or come back to my place and let me unravel that magic of yours...."

Sophie turned her head to glance at Lone who was swiftly approaching her and the group. The next moment, one of the women grabbed her by her hair and tossed her onto the floor.

“How dare y-”

“Let me handle this. I’d rather we didn’t walk out of here as wanted murders, ‘kay?” Lone whispered to her as he helped her up and dusted her off.

There was fury on her face and a deep bloodlust radiated out of her, washing over Lone, chilling him to the bone "You are lucky we can see sense right now. Do as you must before heads roll."

Smiling weakly, Lone helped Sophie back to her seat before he turned and sighed deeply. “One question, are you nobles?”

The leading man of the five-person group sneered. “Of course we are. To think though that not only would we have to educate a helpless cripple, but also be forced to communicate with an animal… What had Milindo come to these days?”

Lone chuckled. “No wonder this kingdom is a backwater shithole whose strongest person is only an SS-ranker. I bet you idiots die damn-near instantly from your misplaced superiority when you cross the border. Ah, can you even cross the border? Authoritarian dictatorship and whatnot.”

“How dare you besmirch the king and the dukes!” one of the men yelled. “Know your place, you peasant!”

Lone laughed loudly at that. “I’m the peasant? Maybe technically, but the tone you're using… You do realise we’re both adventurers right?”

He reached to his neck and showed his copper plate. “Just like you, we’re near the bottom of the barrel of our respective societies however, the difference is, my barrel has a divine as its lid. Yours has… mere mortals.”

That comment earned a few stifled laughs from the seated participants that hadn't bothered helping Sophie, not that she really needed help, only restraint which she demonstrated magnificently.

Lone had struck a chord it would seem, judging by the fist that was rapidly approaching his face.

'I can dodge it, but let's not,' Lone decided internally as he let himself get struck.

His head rocked slightly, but less than a second later, he looked none the worse for wear as he stared calmly at the man who had hit him.

"Wow, that was fuckin’ weak. Anyway, that counts as you attacking an adventurer without justifiable provocation, right? Would I even get in trouble if I murdered you right here and right now?" Lone asked curiously.

A bystander just waiting for her turn to be tested spoke up. “Nah, the guild would agree with you. Cunt punched you ‘cause you told ‘im the truth. If you lashed out you might get reprimanded but legal bother? A fine at the worst, probably nothing though. No one with a brain between their ears wants to evoke Grand Guildmaster Sarah’s wrath.”

Lone looked over at the woman and noticed the silver plate hanging around her neck. ‘Ah, a fellow adventurer. An experienced and trusted too to be a silver plate.’

“Well, gentlemen, ladies. There you have it. So, you’ve got two choices. Stay put and die or fuck off and live. I’ll be honest, I kinda want you to choose option one, especially you,” Lone said as he pointed at the woman who had assaulted Sophie. “No one yanks my girlfriend’s hair but me.”

Lone saw Sophie blushing a bit and heard her sigh but neither of those things stopped him from grinning a little.

Perhaps it was his unwavering confidence, or maybe the support of a silver plate was what did it, regardless, the nobles left without saying another word.

Lone shook his head. “Not even a ‘sorry’? Why are these people in charge again?”

Regardless, he thanked the woman who had spoken up for him then left with Sophie.

Once they were a fair distance away from the building, Lone crouched down while he leaned against a random house's wall. He held his forehead and sighed.

"Skipping town is looking more and more attractive by the minute..." he muttered.

He didn’t want to break any laws really so for now, staying and relying on the guild seemed like the more reasonable course of action.

However, if not only him but even Soph and Sophie would be discriminated against… Well, he just saw no reason to stick around really.

During his interaction with those young nobles he had gained several notifications, so Lone chose to look at them now to distract himself somewhat.

Sophie watched him with a complex expression strewn across her face. Clearly, she wanted to say something to him but was struggling to find the right words.

Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Persuasion] has levelled up! It is now Intermediate Level 1. Passive Skill: Persuasion Naturally makes everything that the host says 15% [+10%] more believable and also entices the host's listeners to trust the host's words by 15% [+10%] more. Cost: N/A Mastery: Intermediate Level 2 Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Persuasion] has levelled up! It is now Intermediate Level 2.

"Well, at least I got something out of that beyond personal satisfaction," Lone muttered, "Definitely a really useful skill, but still, not the most helpful thing in the world right now."

Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Acting] has levelled up! It is now Intermediate Level 9. Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Acting] has levelled up! It is now Intermediate Level 10. Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Acting] has levelled up! It is now Advanced Level 1. Passive Skill: Acting

Naturally makes everything that the host does which does not align with their personality or motives 30% [+15%] more believable.

[New!] When acting, there is a 5% chance for the host's audience to become immersed in the host's act, increasing the likelihood of them believing it by 50%, regardless of how unbelievable or exaggerated the act may be.

Cost: N/A Mastery: Advanced Level 1

"Well, I can't really turn my nose up at a new effect, but boy is the wind blown out of my sails," Lone said a bit sadly as he straightened his back and cracked his neck.

"Just these two skills, huh? So I guess Bluffing isn't a skill? Coercion, bluffing, intimidation, and all of that kinda shit must fall under the Persuasion skill, huh? I wonder why Acting has its own skill then," Lone said absentmindedly as he pulled up the skill's information.

Sophie raised an eyebrow. “You were bluffing?”

Lone smiled very wryly. "Yes? I dunno. I don’t think I’d have murdered them. I mean, I was super pissed. Who just grabs a gorgeous young woman’s hair and tosses her like that? I definitely would have kicked their teeth out if they kept pushing. Gotta use those adventurer privileges, right?"

Sophie looked at him with her dead, grey eyes long and hard before she grabbed his shoulder and forced him onto his feet.

“Hmm?” he said in a questioning tone.

She frowned before she got on her tiptoes and gave him a kiss. She then muttered, “You are too tall. Also, that was wholly from us, not because Soph asked it of us.”

Lone, despite all of the new stresses being added to his life as of late, smiled from ear to ear. “Did me saving the damsel in distress finally crack your hard exterior to reveal the gooey love hidden within?”

Sophie rolled her eyes. “Think what you will. A prince needs a reward for services rendered, no? Regardless, what are we to do now with the rest of our day?”

Lone didn’t try to push his luck and instead answered honestly. "Well… I was thinking we’d grab a snack, then head to the library. I wanna look up some info on this tourney. Thoughts?"

Sophie scoffed, "Boring. Soph can accompany you. Farewell."

"Fuck," Lone audibly swore as he and Soph sat in an abandoned corner in the library.

He scratched his head roughly and pulled on his hair a little bit in frustration. "'Duke Henry Malik personally enforces all capital offences, and in the past century, under his watchful gaze, not a single person has escaped death under the justified laws of the kingdom'? What fucking bullshit is this? I mean, I am happy performing in the tournament but skipping town isn’t even an option anymore if things get worse."

Lone wanted to throw the thrice-damned book across the room, but that would do nothing beyond vent his upset, so he instead rubbed his temple and thought long and hard.

"Well, for starters, he's a human, but he's been doing this for over a century? How's that possible? Is it because he's an SS-ranker? Does ranking up expand a person's lifespan?" he wondered aloud.

Soph was leaning against the wall with her eyes half-closed, but she slowly rubbed them open and began listening to Lone's ramblings.

"So, at the very least, I need to somehow test my Mental Destruction on an SS-ranker. I can insta-kill up to three ranks above me, so up to D-rank. What about beyond that though? SS-rank is probably a stretch… maybe a powerful C-ranked monster?” He mulled over the matter for a moment.

“That Blue Orc that almost crushed me to death was supposedly at C-rank but there’s no proof of that. It could have just been an old E-ranker, so I was able to kill it with Mental Destruction. If that testing does work, however, then we’re fine. We can just flee from this place and I can kill Duke Malik if he pursues us." Lone stroked his chin and frowned.

"Worst-case scenario, my Mental Destruction doesn't work on someone eight ranks above me, or heavens forbid he’s too resistant to magic damage… Either way, I need to really grind my stats as much as is humanly possible for the next month before the competition, win the fuckin' thing so I'm not killed mid-match, then leave Milindo as soon as our temp citizenship expires." Lone closed his eyes and sighed heavily.

"Either way, I need to go questing and look for powerful monsters, don't I?" Lone leaned his head back and stared up at the ceiling. "There's also that meeting with the Crimson Foxkin Clan's matriarch, Lossa Redtail. I could always ask her for help... maybe. There's still a while before she's supposed to meet me, so it'd be wise to start hunting as much as possible before then regardless of if she will or will not help me."

"All done?" Soph asked softly as she yawned.

Peering outside of the library’s stained-glass windows only to see that the sun was now setting, Lone smiled. "Yeah. Let's head back for today and get some early rest. Sophie and I will be busy all day tomorrow hunting."

Soph wore a warm expression on her face. "Sophie says she's looking forward to it."

"Hahaha, of course she is," Lone replied as he got up and put the book he was reading back where it belonged, after that, he left the library with Soph and returned to the Amberbark Inn.

"I heard you and your friends entered an altercation with a non today, son," a portly man said as he glanced at one of his three children before he cut off a slice of his steak and gleefully shoved it into his mouth.

Shrugging, his son replied, "Yeah. He was nothing more than an arrogant adventurer relying on Divine Persistence’s name, as all of those types do. I let him off with a simple hit to the face, to let him know his place, of course."

"How generous of you," the man's mother - a woman with more make-up than flesh - said with a certain proudness in her voice.

One of his younger siblings raised the courage to ask, "What species was the non? A rare one?"

The portly father reached over the dinner table and smacked the young girl across her head. "What species the beast was hardly matters, Cornithia. What's brought on this sudden interest in nons, hmm? Has professor Lyndon been teaching you some things that he shouldn't have been? Do I need to hire a new personal tutor for you?"

"Please don't, daddy! I was just curious," the girl no older than eight said as she pouted cutely and held the top of her head with both of her tiny palms.

Her mother held the portly man's hand and smiled graciously. "Come now, dear. She's but a child. It's unbecoming of you as a margrave of Milindo to be upset at a child."

"Ahem, right you are, Annabelle. Regardless, Cornithia, I hope this interest in nons was a one-time thing, do you understand?" the margrave said in a stern tone as he pointed the sausage pierced on his fork at his only daughter.

She bobbed her head up and down as she replied, "Yes, daddy!"

The other child - a boy in his teens with apathetic eyes - scowled silently as he ate his peas.

Such a scene wasn’t far from the norm amongst this noble family, nor of others with similar levels of prominence.

After all, why show compassion to lesser beings? It was foolish. Even the Church of the Primals frowned upon beastkin above all other demis.

Margrave Algor was no fool. He could read the writing that was so colourfully painted on his kingdom’s walls. On the walls of most, if not all, human kingdoms, in fact.