Richard stood outside the door to his father's office. He'd rushed over quickly after waking up in the arena infirmary, despite the request of the healers to stay and make sure he was fully recovered. On any other day, Richard would have dreaded reporting a failure to his father. The old duke had never beat Richard or even raised his voice, but the look of utter disappointment, and the subsequent dismissal, left Richard believing he'd prefer to have the man yell at him. Today though, Richard was just tired. Tired of the schemes, the shady plots, the rigged games, and all of his father's attempts to gain power and controlling nature.

Richard entered the room, not bothering to close the door behind him, he didn't plan to stay long. He moved to stand in front of the desk, ignoring both chairs that faced his father.

Duke Valches sat at his desk, looking over stacks of documents and letters. He did not greet Richard, his eyes never moving from the papers in front of him. The sound of the duke's pen on the page filled the small space, while the light of the setting sun made the room somewhat gloomy.

"I lost," Richard's voice was soft, lacking any energy to go along with his report.

"I am aware." Duke Valches did not look up to respond. Instead of dismissing Richard as usual, he continued speaking, "I am moving to have the varten that intervened imprisoned, on the grounds that he assaulted a noble. Even if the one he shoved is a noble in name only, I should get the charges to go through." The old duke still did not make eye contact with his son. Instead, he picked up another document from the stack on his desk. "Even if that doesn't work, I am making moves to accuse your opponent of being an assassin. However, I doubt I'll convince the courts that he merely joined the tournament to kill a lower noble. I'll be looking into other ways to remove him from the hero's party while I work the assassin route."

Richard could barely think, the words of his father had left him stunned. While His schemes had often been less than harmless, they had never outright destroyed someone's life. Richard tried to find something to say but only managed a single word.

"Why?"

"While it's a small chance, having the varten imprisoned may allow me to overturn the tournament results. As for the masked man, if he disappears for some reason, the spot at the hero's side will open up. As the runner up of the tournament, you will be the first choice to fill it."

"No. Why are you so dedicated to getting me in the hero's party?" Richard's voice shook slightly while he spoke.

"We have discussed this." Duke Valches said while signing the document he had previously grabbed. "Having you at the side of the hero will allow us to direct the hero's actions so that they reflect better on our family."

Richard found a small bit of courage to voice the questions that now burned in his mind. "Is that really worth all of this? Is a modicum of power or influence really worth destroying the lives of two innocent men?"

The old duke finally looked up from his desk at the question, making eye contact with Richard.

"Yes."

The reply of the duke cut into Richard's mind, leaving him without a way to respond.

Richard had always known that his father's pursuit of power was changing him. After the death of Richard's mother, the duke's attempts to gain rapport with the other nobles had grown increasingly more desperate. Richard could handle the cheating, the lying, and even stealing at the command of his father. But, this was the first time his father's actions had left Richard feeling sick. He knew if he stayed, it wouldn't be the last.

Richard turned and started walking out the door, fully intending to leave without a word.

"Where are you going? we still have plans to discuss." Richard was halfway out the door when his father's commanding tone had stopped him.

Turning only his head to look at his father, Richard responded with the one thing he'd never been able to say to the other man.

"No, we don't. I am done helping you. If you can't see why then you're further gone than I thought."

Richard did not wait for a response, closing the door behind him with his parting words.

"What do you mean I'm banned from the arena?" Draet said with more than a little irritation. "I did what you paid me to do. I stopped any interference with the fights. I..."

The owner of the arena, a human of eastern descent, named Joh-al, had stopped Draet's barrage of words by holding up his hand to get Draets attention. "I know. You didn't do anything wrong, and your one of my best fighters. That is why I am banning you." Joh-al said.

Draet's face contorted into visible confusion at the statement. "What? Explain."

"You know I try to stay up to date with how things are moving in the city?" Joh-al said, to which Draet nodded. "Well, some disturbing things are happening right now. I don't know who, but someone is trying to get you thrown in jail."

"FOR WHAT?" Draet bellowed, his face displaying his anger clearly.

"They seem to want to twist the events so that you are charged with assaulting a noble." Joh-al held his hand up to stop Draet from yelling again. "I know you saved the man's life, they probably know that as well. But, what matters is how they can spin the story."

The anger in draet faded slightly before being overtaken by another round of confusion. "What does that have to do with banning me?" Draet said, tilting his head to the side.

"Draet, I sometimes wonder how you got this far, being such a box of rocks. I am banning you so I can tell anyone who comes looking for you that I have no idea where you went, but I am warning you that someone is going to try and get you arrested." Joh-al said.

The look of confusion didn't fade from Draet's face. He didn't understand the logic of his employer.

Joh-al seeing his explanation fail to clear anything up continued speaking. "Draet, I am warning you so that you can leave the city before you are declared a criminal. I am banning you from the arena so that I can say I know nothing about you leaving, and if they find out that you've been banned, they won't doubt your reason for leaving. Does that clear things up?"

"I think so," Draet said, placing a hand on his chin. "So, I should leave the city?"

"hah," Joh-al sighed at the words of his former best fighter. "Yes. By the end of the day, if you can. I wou.ld suggest leaving the country as well."

Draet nodded and rose from his seat to leave. Before making it out the door, he turned to Joh-al to say one last thing. "Thank you for everything." With the end of his sentence, Draet closed the door and moved to collect his things from the arena dorms.

Explanation of the world and its inhabitants'

Demon King

Contrary to popular belief, a Demon King is not actually a being from another plane of existence. A Demon King is an individual who unites many of the Cursed and Neutral races under a single banner against the Blessed races. The individual strength of past Demon Kings' has fluctuated dramatically. Some only united 3 or 4 races, while others had much greater success in building their armies.

The rise of a Demon King is suspected to be responsible for the Hero war that left significant gaps in available historical records. We cannot confirm this theory because of the lack of surviving texts from the time surrounding the war.

The most famous of all the past Demon Kings' is the first. Who, we believe, brought all the Cursed and Neutral races under his rule and many of the Blessed Races. The first Demon King is the only known individual to have slain a god.