"I just found out that they have also arranged a massive arena in the great ancient Colosseum during this festival... What do you say, Rio? How about we settle our match today then?"
Walking down the wide streets decorated by the dragon folk, the group was having an amazing time chatting.
The group even bought souvenirs to bring back home.
Rio doesn't really have anyone to give souvenirs to, so he didn't bother buying them; just enjoy the festival yourself now, and that's okay enough.
Even Liam only bought them for Ellie and his other summoned beasts.
Hearing Selain's words, Rio nodded his head and agreed immediately.
The rest of the group has also found out about this matter already, so they weren't much surprised either.
Link and Liam were giving Rio surprised looks when they found out that the princess wanted to be Lia's love rival.
In their opinion, it's already very shocking that Rio, who's such a boring and emotionless person, was even able to get together with Lia.
Link and Liam are both handsome guys who will look good in no matter what they wear; moreover, they both have no shortage of money, and both of them are rich.
Due to this, they have a massive fan club filled with female fans.
Link's fan girls are in fact so jealous of Riya that they might scold her endlessly if they met her somewhere.
Rio also has a fandom, but his fans are mostly those young people with low talent and humble families. He's more of a motivation source for the young, as he was able to reach such great heights despite being from humble origins.
And if you take everything into consideration, even Selain got interested in Rio after finding out that he has insane mastery over sword intent.
Regardless of the situation, Rio isn't really going to get swayed by any other woman anyway.
...
The group walked to the Colosseum, and Selain went over to register her and Rio's names in the reception area.
Link glanced at the giant Colosseum made with ancient-looking architecture and spoke in a curious tone.
"They still have Colosseum's in this day and age? I wonder if gladiator battles still happen here?"
Hearing that question, Liam shook his head and said,
"Nope, this ancient Colosseum is only used during some events and duels; those kinds of bloody battles don't happen here anymore..."
Everyone gave Liam a surprised look after hearing his confident words.
"Well, don't give me that look; there were books in my room that described the general history of various important buildings in the central city..."
"They must have placed those books in your rooms too, but you guys didn't bother reading them at all..."
Only after hearing those words did everyone figure out why Liam knew about this place.
Rio and Lia were busy texting each other on the phone till late at night; Link was busy thinking about various things that the dragon king told him, and Riya was sleeping like a dead log.
None of them had the time to stay up till late at night and read some random books.
Even Liam wouldn't have read those books if not for the fact that he was all alone and had
nothing better to do as there was no Ellie to mess around with him.
"By the way, the books also mentioned that the dragons used to force the dragon men to fight in this Colosseum to death for their own entertainment..."
"But then this practice was banned after the current dragon king ascended to the throne, and this idea was heavily supported by the ruler of drake-nest 'Fenix'..."
"King Idri and Fenix 'The Wise' are the ones who contributed the most in shaping today's peaceful dragon valley... Nearly all dragon folk revere them as 'Heroes' nowadays..."
"They are like legendary beings who you rarely get the chance to meet... and I can't believe I was the only one who didn't get to meet them, and you two seized the chance... ugh..."
"I ended up meeting that drunkard instead..."
Themes is recorded as a heavy drinker in the history books; most of his feats are just how much he can drink and how amazing his summoned beasts are.
There is nothing else.
Liam was envious of Rio and Link, who got to meet awesome people, and only he wasn't able to get that chance.
...
Just when Liam was glaring at Rio and Link with envy, Selain came back and led the group inside.
She handed over a ticket to everyone and said in an excited tone,
"My and Rio's match is going to be held in half an hour; as it's the fourth day of the festival, there aren't many challengers, so we don't have to wait much..."
"If we had arrived here three days ago, we would have had to wait at least six hours to get our turn..."
"All of you guys take these tickets; they have your seat numbers written on them... You can go there and watch the show while we both go and prepare for battle..."
After taking the tickets, the group went over towards the corridor that led to the seats in the audience area.
Rio and Selain, on the other hand, went towards the waiting area.
Walking beside Rio alone, Selain suddenly asked in a curious tone,
"Are you really sure that you will win? I may not look that strong, but withstanding one attack
is still within my abilities, you know..."
Rio just shook his head and replied in a rather vague tone,
"Well, if you are that worried, how about I give you three free attacks first... If you beat me in those three attacks, then it's your win... and I will have only one attack afterwards.. If I didn't beat you in that one attack, it's my loss..."
Selain rolled her eyes at those words.
"Despite the way you look, you are quite arrogant, you know..."
Rio shrugged his shoulders at those words,
"That's not arrogance; it's called confidence... Anyway, even if I lose, your father won't marry you to me... You know that, right?"
Selain sighed at those words and nodded her head reluctantly.
"Yeah, even if I win against you... There's no point in it; my father actually wants me to marry that barbarian Link! Ugh!! What's so good about him!? I like those who know the elegance of
swordsmanship!"
"I really can't fathom what random thoughts go into the head of my father... He doesn't care
about me at all..."
Selain gritted her teeth and spoke in an angry tone.
"You know what... Father only invited Link; he didn't even want to invite the rest of you to the dragon valley. When I asked him why, he said that Link is a talented kid, and he wants me to
marry him..."
"I was very angry about that matter... Truthfully speaking, I haven't talked to my father since that day; he's always doing whatever he wants to; he never listens to what I want..." Selain has liked swordsmanship since childhood, and she wants to be the one to decide her own life partner. Idri's ignorant act of randomly choosing her partner really pissed her off. Selain took action on time and asked Aria to modify the invitation token to invite the whole team, Astra; this way she countered Idri's attempts by brining Riya into the picture.
She was worried that Link might get swayed if the person he's engaged to wasn't around, and thus she invited the rest of the group so that Riya also comes here and counters this
possibility.
As for Rio, she has genuine admiration for him.
Not only did he win the title of champion, he even proved that the person that her father was
caring about wasn't the 'absolute genius' who couldn't be defeated.
"Well, we aren't really destined for each other... That's the conclusion I have come to..."
"But you know, I will not give up; I will find someone whom I can accept; I won't get ordered
around by Father, hmph! He can go and cry in the arms of his favored genius, Link!"
"I do what I want to do!"
Rio also gave Selain a thumbs up to support her decision.
He's not a saint who comes forward to help out any random person. He's not obliged to
sacrifice himself to help out Selain in these circumstances.
All he can do is hope that she will find someone better in the future. Moreover, it's better that Selain has enough self-knowledge; she knows her circumstances and what she needs to do in
the future.
'All matters aside, she will become a great leader in the future, that's for sure...'
Selain is already playing a game of chess against her own father and is countering him quite effectively; there's no doubt that she will become a great ruler one day.
'I guess I will come over to congratulate her one day when she seizes the throne for herself... But that day is still too far away-a few centuries, I guess...'
Rio isn't interested in getting involved in this family conflict; he came to the Dragon Valley as
a guest; there's no point in getting involved in this.
"Well, my well wishes are with you, princess... May you find someone who genuinely likes
you..."
Selain also nodded her head and replied,
"I originally didn't know what was so good about Lia, but truthfully speaking, she's the best person for you... I am just getting in the way... My well wishes are with you two..." Although Rio and Selain didn't establish a relationship, they became great friends after wishing a happy life to each other.
Author's Notes.
Yo! It's your beloved author here!
Question of the day.
Which one would you rather choose to become friends with?
1. Rio (The Tea Addict)
2. Link (The Barbarian)
By the way, don't forget to use those power stones!!