“Like I was saying before you interrupted me,” Luo Yun continued, pretending to not have heard Aleister’s last comment, “I am indeed inviting you to participate in these amateur fights. All you need to do is to train and show up to the designated arena at the scheduled time. Of course, you will also be wearing my branded clothing and merch to help advertise my dojo as much as possible in order to attract customers and gain more revenue—hopefully. After all, I will be in charge of promoting and advertising your fight. The more tickets I manager to sell, the larger both of our payouts will be.”

Aleister nodded. Most of this was within expectations and matched up with what Master said. “All of this seems good, but there has to be a catch.”

“Many catches, including the fact that the arenas you fight in won't be sold out, nor will you have access to the advanced equipment and training you need to succeed,” Jehkad said whilst standing up. “The little blue brat may have tons of money to throw around, but his name holds no value or reputation. Both which money can only buy so much of. What I can offer you is much the same but more and better in everyway imaginable. You will be able to train over at my dojo, which holds many times more fighters and recruits than his. This will allow you to gain more experience in actual combat situations. The amount of money you can earn will also be many times larger than what he can offer you.”

“Ha! The only reason you have more recruits than me is because you seem to have a problem with me and show up everywhere I go,” Luo Yun said in a huff. “Besides, the rules and terms you have to abide by if you join him are strict to an unreasonable degree. And the losing clause means if you lose more than once, you will be discredited and terminated from the deal, becoming nothing more than a journeyman.”

“That should go without saying,” Jehkad said. “Losing doesn’t bring about profit, and once you’ve been defeated that many times, it shows that you aren’t strong enough to stand with the best.”

“Losing can make one many times stronger than before,” Luo Yun said.

“Can it strengthen one? Yes. It may provide more motivation, but what happens if you keep on losing? Will your motivation grow even stronger than before? No. It won’t,” Jehkad argued. “The ones with multiple loses will only end up worthless. You can have all the motivation in the world, but not everyone is cut from the same cloth. In the end, losers will continue to lose because they were born inferior and with less talent. Something training can’t make up for.”

Luo Yun nodded. “Some of the points you made I can agree with. Eventually losing too many times will break a person, but two losses for inexperienced fighters are basically irrelevant. And, this doesn’t take into account for the personality of them either. Don’t tell me you haven’t heard the old tales and stories of figures such as Licnis or Remeri. Both individuals that the world seemed to have given up on, but like the great phoenixes of legend, they rose up from that ash and reshaped the world to suit their own vision.”

“You’re wrong,” Jehkad said. “I did account for them. Licnis was born an ancient Eldarian. The power of Archfey’s flowed through his blood. And Remeri, much like you, was born planetouched, and had a heavensoul. It doesn’t matter if everyone thought the world gave up on them, because it was untrue. The world chose them from the very start. They were born different. Built different. Incomparable to me and—whatever your name is. Unlike us, you will never know what it means to struggle.”

Luo Yun clenched his fists as he furrowed his eyes. Jehkad tossed his jacket to the floor and flexed his muscles after taking a widened stance. Aleister felt the tension in the air, but didn’t know how to intervene without causing himself harm. “How did you two even get into this argument,” he asked, trying to distract them, but his words fell upon deaf ears.

“Any and all physical or intangible destruction done to the inn and its subsequent property will be paid in full by the damaging party,” the bartender said, polishing off a glass. “Oh, and that includes the costs for the table and three tankards Brilnia broke earlier.”

“Fine,” Jehkad said, tossing a bag of coins onto the table. “You can have him, but we’ll see if he can last any amount of time at all.” He picked up his jacket off the floor and walked away.

After watching him leave, Aleister stared at Luo Yun with a wry smile. “So he didn’t want me for some reason? Guess that means I accept your offer by default. And if it is of any consolation, I was going to choose you, anyway.”

Luo Yun relaxed his body and opened up his hands. Aleister felt a wave of heat as this happened. “And why would you have chosen me?” he asked before jumping into the now open seat.

“Well, from what he said, it was clear he was busy managing many other recruits, which means it would be hard for him to dedicate enough time to me. While you might not have as many people to manage and thus allow me to have access to more resources and more negotiation. Oh, and I felt bad for you, especially at the end there, but uh—that was only a small part.”

After a light chuckle, Luo Yun said, “I don’t need your pity.”

“Don’t worry, it wasn’t up for sale in the first place,” Aleister said before going back to eat his pie. “Huh, it’s still hot. That is quite surprising.”

Luo Yun sat there in silence while Aleister continued to eat without saying a word.