Nick did plan for the people to know of the triple duel that will take place today, but he didn’t think his little stunt was known by this many. His surprise turned into a deep shock when after visiting few alchemy shops on the way they finally arrived at the arena and a huge crowd was gathered at the entrance trying to get into the spectator seats. The arena was larger than the one in Aurora, but a bit smaller than in Olava. Still, it could house few thousand spectators and from the looks of it many will have to stay outside.

What Nick didn’t consider was how much the people were tired and bored of the long winter and thirsted for some action other than simply drinking in taverns and now, when something finally happened, no one cared about this bit of cold. Men and women wore their thickest fur coats, grabbed a flagon of alcohol to warm them up and hurried to the arena. For some reason the news of this battle spread like a wildfire and currently Nick and YunYun could only watch the crowd in disbelief.

“Are you … are you gonna be alright?” She whispered.

“This is not Olava’s arena, don’t worry.” Nick smiled back, “And who knows, may be even my duel is not the main event here today.

Nick turned out to be wrong. This was not only the main, but also the only event today. He was soon told why.

A guard fought his way through the crowd and ran over.

“Are you Nick?” He asked a question he already knew the answer to.

“Yup. What’s up?” Nick smiled back.

Guard was startled by the casual attitude, but quickly collected himself.

“Please follow me. I’ll lead you to the arena. Of course, outside the battle you are allowed to have an assistant, so your … ehm … both of you can enter.” Soldier said.

Then he looked around if no one was eavesdropping and whispered, “I really admire your courage. Although it was stupid for you to disrespect our traditions, going up against the three crazy brothers is something only a real man can brave. If you manage to hold on for five or even ten minutes, you’ll earn the respect of everyone in the spectator seats, even the emperor!”

“The emperor? What does this have to do with him? Why would he come?” Nick’s vision almost blurred from shock.

“Of course, he will come. It’s … we don’t have time, follow me!” Guard said and then shouted at the crowd near the entrance to open the way and the people immediately complied. From the looks of it they were the ones who came too late and taking a peak at the contender who dared to accept the challenge was the only entertainment they would get. Of course, they will get to see him again when he will get carried out few minutes later on stretchers, but no one would probably recognize this person by then.

When they entered, Nick’s and YunYun’s shock multiplied. The seats were full and as soon as the first person noticed them, everyone started to ‘boo’. There were many Qi masters there and they didn’t shy off to infuse the Qi in their ‘booing’ as well thus the sound was simply thundering and probably echoed to the outskirts of the capital.

“We made a mess.” YunYun turned to Nick and smiled a sad, but beautiful smile.

“Don’t worry. You know me, I’ll be fine.” He hugged her and proceeded to the center. To the spectators it looked like he was saying his last farewells to his beloved and they all instinctively fell silent. Even the grin on the three faces in the center of arena disappeared.

But Nick felt completely different, in fact he felt like flying. She said ‘we made a mess’ instead of ‘you made a mess’ and for some reason he felt almost as blissful as during their dual Qi cultivation. This girl not only considered herself his wife the way most usually do, but she fully wanted to be part of his life – part of all the good and bad that happened. Nick couldn’t define how he felt, but it was amazing feeling. May be because they practiced together that much, but with her he felt complete and, in fact, now wished she could come along and smack these fat lumps together with him.

Looking around at the busy spectator seats brought back a lot of memories from Olava, except this was his first time to step in arena that was covered in a thin layer of snow. Judging from the piles of snow at arena walls below the spectator seats, once could see that lately it had snowed a lot and earlier in the morning locals had to spend quite a lot of effort to clean this place.

‘Luckily this is not a life and death battle, it would be a shame to paint this place in red.’ Nick though to himself while slowly walking to the center to meet his three opponents.

“You came.” Oliver stated the obvious.

The three looked just like yesterday, except their eyes were less glassy and red. They still wore the same thick fur coats and held the same double axes, although there was an attendant nearby who had a large wooden club with him which was obviously intended to be used in today’s fight. The club was in a size of a man’s leg, but it felt only natural if any of the three big men wielded it.

“You didn’t think I would let the three of you off after you broke the door to our room, did you?” Nick grinned back.

The three brothers stared at him for few seconds and then burst into a loud laughter. Audience didn’t hear their conversation, therefore was confused, but soon they attention was diverted.

“His majesty, emperor Ivar Alpin!” One of the arena masters loudly announced and the whole crowd instantly stood up and went silent.

A tall and burly elderly man with a long gray hair, that was coming out from under his white fur hat and fell down his shoulders, and similarly gray beard, well in his sixties, may be even older, dressed in a thick white fur coat entered the spectator seats. He was followed by a lady of large stature and similar age to his, dressed in a similar coat except in a hooded one. Nick couldn’t discern her facial features from the angle she was currently at, but he had to admit she was definitely a strong person and for some reason she left even deeper impression on him than the emperor.

When the emperor arrived at his seat he raised his hand to gather everyone’s attention.

“Today I got a report there is someone in the capital who openly challenged our traditions!” Emperor said in a deep booming voice echoing around arena and probably several blocks away as well, “There are some things you can’t make fun of and there are things that you can’t ignore. It is about the honor of our people! From young to old it is our honor that we respect and cherish the most! Today in the middle of this arena stands the perpetrator, but he is still a youth and his deed is not unforgivable, therefore it won’t be a fight to the death. But! It will be about the honor and respect! Begin!”

The audience burst in cheers and passionately applauded and to Nick it was a pleasant change to what he experienced in Olava. These people loved their emperor from the bottom of their hearts and it didn’t matter that emperor in his speech, in fact, didn’t say anything noteworthy – he said it with passion and touched the most important ‘buttons’ of his people – honor, tradition and the need to protect those. This guy was incredibly smart emperor and Nick immediately felt deep respect for him.

With the audience cheering and waving two of the three brothers went aside and only the most hot headed one, Oscar, was left standing in front of Nick after he took the large wooden club from his assistant.

“Your imperial majesty, may I say something before we start?” Suddenly Nick said and spectators fell silent in confusion. This was not how the things normally went. Did the kid want to ask for forgiveness and beg the opponents to be merciful? This was beyond embarrassing.

But while thousands in the audience were confused, few, including the emperor were not. Despite the loud noise, the blond kid’s voice could be clearly heard, albeit not as loud as emperor’s a moment earlier.

‘This kid is not simple!’ Emperor squinted his eyes.

But out loud he said, “Speak!”

Already judging from the Qi application in his voice, to any present experienced Qi master it was clear that this young one was not a fool, but an expert himself. And him being so young, meant it was basically impossible to be a fool. One thing was to punish some random punk who didn’t know his place, but it was totally another case if an expert stood before you. Of course, you would respect him enough and listen to what he says.

“Thank you, your imperial majesty!” Nick slightly bowed and continued, “We came to Falun looking for information and yesterday, just after arriving, we entered a tavern, not too far from here. We were introduced to these fine men and told that they were the most resourceful people in the capital, besides the emperor, of course. And it proved to be correct since they managed to find us only few minutes after we left!”

At this moment the crowd giggled and most of the previous tension suddenly disappeared, but Nick continued.

“When we entered that tavern, we ordered water while everyone else drank beer!” To emperor’s big surprise Nick chose this moment to make a longer theatrical pause, but the crowd that was previously easing up to him suddenly started to grow furious.

Then finally Nick said, “The bartender couldn’t know that I have a health condition and simply can’t drink alcohol, therefore he set us up and used the people who almost became our friends to become a weapon in his hands and now I have to duel them!”

The emotions of the spectators kept changing by Nick’s every sentence and most didn’t really know what to think.

“But it’s fine! Even though I was not born in this beautiful city, I respect the traditions of the northern people and would gladly duel these men! Because this is the way of your tradition!”

Immediately cheers and applause broke out almost as loud as after the emperor’s speech.

‘Take that you stinky bartender. That will teach you how to be mean to young boys!’ Nick grinned to himself knowing well that the guy will definitely get his punishment – if not from his three opponents, than from other citizens.

‘This kid! If he still can walk after this, I can’t let him leave the capital before finding out his true intentions!’ Emperor thought, ‘With few sentences not only he persuaded the crowd that he respects and loves our traditions, he implied he wants to be a friend and he became a heroic victim everyone will feel for. The three lumps in the arena probably won’t even use their full force! How devious!’

Emperor looked at his wife next to him while she looked back at the same time and each saw light surprise in the eyes of other. Both barely visibly nodded and turned back to arena. For a couple that has been together so long sometimes there was no need for words to understand each other.

“Ok, let’s go then.” Nick smiled at the inwardly conflicted Oscar and did some simple movements to warm up, “Let us have a good duel!”

Oliver was hot headed, but not an idiot and became Qi master long before Nick was born. Even though he understood clearly what and why Nick said, he wasn’t going to let him off.

“Just because you said those things, I won’t go easy on you.” He said.

“I expect nothing less. Otherwise I would loose all my respect towards you.” Nick smiled back. Even though the man said so, this has long become a friendly duel.

“Uhm … where is your weapon?” Oscar asked in confusion.

“Oh, sorry, here!” Nick said and pulled out a thirty centimeter long wooden stick from his boot and waved it around. Seeing this the spectators burst in a hysterical laughter.

Oscar furrowed his brows, “Do you think this is a joke?”

Nick looked back seriously and asked, “Can you kill a man with this wooden stick?”

“Alright! Let’s go!” Oscar immediately understood what he meant. Indeed, for an expert anything could become a deadly weapon and from the Qi application in Nick’s voice earlier he already knew that the young boy in front of him was one.