Author note: I didn't proofread the chapter so it might be horrible :( sorry

As Ares finished his words, a shadow appeared above him.

“Tch. I didn’t expect you to block that. You don’t disapppoint!” Ares parried the blade by pushing it off course, applying force to the flatedge of the blade as it came down on him, only to break his eye contact with Azazil for a second to give her a shooting glare. “Don’t you know you should defeat his disciples before issuing a challenge?”She said giving him a conceited smirk along with one narrowed eye. But she was afraid. Seeing a boy her age perform a seemingly inhuman task frightened her, though she wouldn’t admit it and fell back.

Azazil face-palmed in embarassment. Not because her blade was parried easily, but because she ignored her instincts. ‘Fear was something that could save your life. It would be best not to ignore it.’ He thought angrily. He let out a sigh at yet another lesson he would have to teach these kids.

“Too slow.” Ares said soon after, observing the girl’s forced expression.

Azazil also shot her an annoyed glance and let out a sigh. He had not taken either of them as his disciples, yet they called him master. He didn’t mind as much with Chyrsella, but this girl never followed his directions and forced him to ‘do the right thing.’ Because of her, he was forced into situations where he had to perform charity to appease her sense of justice. He was reminded of that archmage that stole his hard-earned book and released it under his name. He shuddered at the thought of her.

Being reminded of that certain someone, his loss of a fortune, and this girl’s antics, he needed some form of vengeance to quell his petty thoughts. Besides, this one was in dire need of so many practical basics.

Rather than dealing with that himself later on, he decided to let the boy give this one a few lessons as well. He did such a good job with the other one and didn’t kill her, so why not?

Smiling to himself as if he thought of a genius idea, he did what was best. He went along with the situation. The less work he had to do, the better.

“You are right, my disciple.” Azazil said solemnly. Standing face to face with this girl, Ares saw her eyes gleam at the word ‘disciple’ and knew she would be troublesome. He turned his gaze back at Azazil and gave him an annoyed grunt.

As the girl’s eyes were set on Ares, she did not notice the mischievous smile forming on Azazil’s face. He poured himself another cup of wine from the cyan glass bottle on the table. He was ready to see a show as he leaned his chair back and put one of his armored legs on the table before executing the last stage of his plan.

“Prove your worth to me!” Azazil screamed, barely able to contain his snickering.

At her master’s approval, she assumed a similar stance to the girl before, except at a safer distance.

‘She’s a bit better than the other one, at least.’ Ares’s thought.

All of the crowd’s attention was on the two, and many jaws dropped at Ares’s magnificent skill. But their fascination quickly decreased when they saw the spellbook.

“He’s putting on quite a show, this kid, for a one-armed brat.” A man said as he turned to a mage beside him.

“I can’t believe that I almost believed that actually happened. Of course he’s using magic” He said in return, shrugging off such an inconceivable thought.

“I knew it right from the start. No way a kid could be that skilled. Haha!” Another said arms crossed and legs spread at shoulder length.

The excitement in the air was thick and affected everybody. Even the overly bloodthirsty girl had beads of sweat falling from her temple from the pressure. Except for two. Azazil and, to his surprise, Ares. Azazil was impressed once again. To be calm in this situation is not easy, especially with competent adventurers observing and judging.

Ryner gawked at Ares courage and expressed a pride from realizing his true worth first. He knew right from the moment he met him that the boy was special, and picked him up out of pure curiosity. He didn’t sense any animosity from him and seeing him politely apologize to a common child with eyes of humility only confirmed his thoughts.

His intuition told him he was a good kid and he followed it, not to mention Ares looked familiar to a boy had helped a few times during his most unfortunate of moments. It was seeing that kid, even more unfortunate than him, striving to live the best way he could, that bought him to where he was today with his positive outlook on life.

His eyes scanned the room, looking for Effari, wanting to see how she felt about the whole situation. Her eyes were wide open, trying not to miss a single moment. She panted heavily, clutching the cloth near her breasts. Her cheeks weren’t reddened and her face was sweating profusely. This wasn’t like the feeling before… this was something different. Wobbling to keep her balance, she almost fell, only to be caught by a waitress. Seeing what was going on, Ryner smashed the stony silence.

“Take her to my room upstairs!” Seeing the waitresses stunned he screamed. “NOW!” The waitresses snapped out of it and carried her to the stairs. ‘She couldn’t possibly have the same illness as her mother ! ‘ Ryner thought, cursing god for his cruelty. But he thought ahead. The possibility was always there, no matter how small.

He quickly retrieved a little bag from a cabinet in the kitchen and ran upstairs, following after her. “Make sure they don’t break anything, and if they do, put it on their bill!” He screamed at the bartender before leaving. Only the staff diverted their attention from the ensuing match.

But Ares could feel Rachel clutching at his hairs a lot harder than before. Seeing his hands come around her torso, she loosened her grip immediately. Placing her feet on the floor as gently as possible, he kneeled to her. Her face was downtrodden and lost all the personality and glow from before. Ares showed a pained expression. To think he ignored Rachel’s feelings for her sister over greed…

“Go to your sister.” He said warmly after ruffling her hair. He nudged her towards the stairs from the back and tried to focus on the girl in front of him. He noticed she slowly closed the distance without him knowing.

As he was about to begin, he felt a small hand grab on his coat and Rachel looking up to him desperately as if she needed support. Her wide forehead and small tears bought him back to reality.

As much as he wanted the blade, he admitted to himself, the girl was more important. Besides, that wasn’t his original goal in the first place and causing unnecessary trouble wasn’t going to help.

He grabbed the little girl’s hand as she lead him to the stairs. The young girl, seemingly flustered as he walked away from their match, tried to incite his rage, but was only met with failure.

“Coward—“ She yelled at his receding back, only to be interrupted.

“Sirana, stop!” Chyrsella shouted. “He’s not normal!” She cried with a tinge of fear that hurt her own pride.

‘Damn!’ Azazil screamed in his head. His plan to lessen his workload failed. His expression didn't betray his thoughts though, he sipped his wine seemingly without a care in the world, but inside he was hurt. Hurt by the fact that he had to do more work and didn’t even catch the young man’s name. A quiet sigh left his mouth as he suddenly got up.

“Let’s go. I promised your father I’d report to him before we resupply and leave Helgathor.”

“That’s just an excuse to check up on me.” Sirana said thoughtlessly through gritted teeth.

“And that’s perfectly reasonable. He’s your father.” Azazil said sternly. He then turned towards Chyrsella and amended her words indirectly.

“And yours too.” Chyrsella laughed awkwardly at the statement, but knew he meant well.

As they left the Bumbling Bee, all their thoughts were focused on one person, Ares.

*****

“Well, that was anticlimactic.” Everybody said or something similar. So much build up, but no action, left everyone disappointed.

Some thought it was staged by the owner, Ryner.

“That guy’s probably not even Azazil.” Another said, looking at the man leave with two beauties.

“I knew it. No way’d he look that handsome…” A woman purred.

“Finally.” The bartender sighed letting out a deep breath. He was glad they didn’t break anything and continued shining the glass. But his thoughts laid elsewhere, and so did the staff’s.