“Muuuuu~!” Meldie said while covering her face with her hands.
Xero just smiled with pity and patted her head trying to console her which only made it worse.
At this time a knight walked in, “Lord Null, young master’s friend, Univa Crost is here, along with her…” The knight coughed, “... her esteemed noble father.” The knight said with some trembling fear.
“Old Dragon Crost is here? Well since son-in-law saved his girl maybe he wants to thank him.” Francis said.
Nil stood up and went to greet the two who had come. Even so he was quite startled the people that were coming to his family.
Soon the three entered and Marquess Cross was surprised to find Francis casually drinking ale here. “Donima, what a surprise.” He said.
“Old Dragon, it’s been a while, you’ve grown white hairs even though you’re so young.” he said openly.
“It is what happens when one has such a large family clan to run as well as a large territory to manage.” he said.
“That is true, all I have is my stores and my well trained managers that keep things running smoothly.” He laughed, “So what have you come for?” while grabbing an empty mug and filling with ale from one of the barrels he brought and handed it to the Marquess.
He took it and took a sip before he lightened up and began to drink more and sighed, “Ah~! Donima Firm dwarven winter wheat ale, you sure brought some good stuff.” He said and sat down while gesturing to for Univa to go over to the other two and allowed them to chit chat while he took care of ‘business’.
“So, what brings you here?” He asked refilling and taking a sip.
“Of course, it’s to talk about the engagement of my little girl with the boy here?” he laughed shamelessly.
The Marquess almost snorted out the ale in his mouth as he looked at the halfling with narrowed eyes. “How interesting, I also have ‘business’ with the boy.” He said.
“Eh?!” The three children and Nil exclaimed together.
The two girls looked at each other and blushed heavily while Xero and Nil were flabbergast.
“W-wait, y-you both want to marry your daughters to my son?!” Nil asked in utter shock.
Who were these two, one was the man at the head of one of the largest Merchant Firm on the continent while the other was the head of the family of Red Fire Dragons, the Red Dragon King Everson Crost. He only has 4 children and Univa is the 3rd daughter. He had 3 daughters and 1 son who was Rufus. With this small number of children even a busy noble would care greatly about the noble status and his face when deciding who to marry their children to but most of all such nobles still cared and dotted on their children.
“Actually, I, somewhat, already caused quite a bit of trouble for your son.” the Marquess said laughing wryly before explaining what happened. From the first moment when he stepped in, the noble aura was gone because of the presence of the Donima family head, these two were both men of equal status making him more open. Unlike how he talked with the nobles, here he seemed more reclusive mainly because he had moved too far ahead.
“S-so I have to fight and if I win I am engaged with Univa, even after that I have ‘protect’ that right?!” Xero said completely and utterly amazed by how shameless this old man was to do something like this without even arranging the marriage with him and his father and doing it all on his own whim as soon as he ‘thought’ Univa liked him.
While Nil and Xero were in awe by the shamelessness and the girls were blushing even harder as the topic never changed from marriage, Francis was laughing hard. “Old Dragon, you really are a piece of work.” he was rolling around like a kid before getting up, “But I like this, I really like this. The boy doesn’t fight much and his prey are normally within a small range but he doesn’t fight many humans besides a few low ranking knights and instructors that hold back. His potential is being held back, he needs situations like with the Wyrm where he learned to greatly utilize minion linking.” He said.
“T-there is nothing to keep master from rejecting these two! Right master!?” Ashley suddenly barged into the room hugging her master after hearing everything.
“Of course we know that, in marriage there is always a Dowry.” the Marquess said and held his chin in thought. “Besides just the money and jewelry, I will gift your family the dragon core of a Snow Wyvern, five demon cores with the sealed souls of demonic Drakes still inside, and 3 magic blades.” He said.
Ashley pouted, “I can make magic blades for master out of plain dirt let alone dragon scale or bone. I can even make Ego swords and making minions for master.” Ashley said.
The Marquess just smiled, “those aren’t for him, this is a Dowry for the family, the blades would go to his father and the other two son’s while the five demon cores can go to you.” He said.
Ashley was still hugging him out of jealousy when Francis suddenly but in.
“I think I will join in the fun. Boyo, when the time comes for your duel, the entire city will know that you are fighting for the hand of my and this old dragon’s little girl in one duel. Don’t let them down now, as for my Dowry, I will set up a branch Firm on your city as well all cities that are managed by your family once your father or you rank above rank 3 and can command a region and several cities under you.” He laughed and narrowed his eyes, “Don’t you dare thrown in the towel, I already got all the information on your skills and strengths so I know when you are going at it full strength or not.” he said with a threatening aura. “Only the boy I accept for my daughter will be allowed to hold her hand.” He said and drank his ale before laughing as the aura completely vanished.
Xero was trembling, it was the turn of the two girls to pity him now. He actually felt so depressed that Meldie patted his head in return to try and cheer him up.
Of course he could do nothing against these two, after all one had the strongest merchant firm and millions of gold coin in his pocket and had hundreds of hidden experts in the Radiance empire while the other was a Rank 6 with a bloodline that always has dragon familiars. What could he do except accept his fate.
The two girls felt sorry for him and apologized for him being pushed to do this.
“It’s not your fault…” He said and looked at the two, “It’s theirs.” he sighed.
The two high ranking men kept enjoying the ale while the children were in dismay at the events to come were Xero would fight while the fate of the two girls would become the trophy.
Chapter 17
One really can’t underestimate the power of a Rank 6 noble or an influential merchant. After they both left the Null manor, it only took the time for the sun to rise once more and the entire Everlight city knew about the engagement challenge and what shocked everyone even more was that the Donima family joined in on it.
Although the nobles in the circle wanting to marry off their son to Univa and make a strong connection to the Crost family, their eyes shined wanting to strongly get their own children to win to connecting with two out of three of the biggest powers in the Radiance empire.
That said, when Chad asked to go so insistently, the nobles of the other houses actually let him do so, it was for two reasons. First they wanted to use him to test out Xero’s strength and to see his own strength to see if they had someone that could win against him if he actually won.
It was made clear, only at the age of sixteen they would marry but until then, the ‘person with the right to marry’ had to protect that right.
As such, after a short discussion, Chad was chosen among the many 12 or 13 year old that could battle with Xero, because it is quite clear that it can only be 1 year older than him and this contestant will be identified by the Crost family identifier to make sure to the age is properly within the range they set up.
This was on day one of course, as for the 6 other days that were left, an amazing scene happened within the 10 km space of the outer city. With almost 20 earth mage of the Donima and 40 earth dragons and their riders from the Crost family, they
combined their power to erect a coliseum, complete with a large plaza with shops, all owned by Donima merchant firm, more than half of them being food stands, while the rest were stalls from other merchants.
The coliseum had a capacity of nearly 2000 people with a VIP platform that can hold around 100 people and maids that would take care of the VIP.
When Xero arrived at the spot, after spending his entire week training with Grunt and Ashley, he was shell shocked.
“Ahahaha! Xero, and here I was thinking I had a complicated relationship!” Void laughed until a fist met his gut.
“Shut up Void, I don’t get what you mean by complicated, you seem quite happy stuffing your face before going to bed just so you can forget it happened in the morning.” Hilda said before crossing her arms but admiring the 30 meter tall circular coliseum that was shining with countless magical formations and symbols showing that it was heavily fortified and would hold up against a battle of level 60s. “I’m just amazed that a, currently, small family like the Null family could attract so much attention.” Hilda said.
The three men from the Null family who have done so chuckled dryly. Until now, only Zip was comfortably avoiding the watchful eyes of the high powers.
Void got the royal family, Nil attracted the attention of two Church orders because of his familiar, Xero attracted the attention of two massively powerful family.
“We should enter soon.” Nil said and they all nodded.
Xero was dressed like a young knight, with some leather and steel armor but it was all thin plate as it was not expected to survive in a fight but it could protect limbs sometimes.
As they walked through the front gate, they found an amazing scene but not in the sense of awe but surprise.
Standing on a 4 meter high pillar with some ten desks around him, a halfling was shouting, “Come one come all to the official Donima Firm’s betting pool! Come bet on the winner! Who shall get our Donima Firm head’s daughter and the Marquess Crost’s 3rd daughter’s hand in marriage!? The defending party from the Lurian Empire, son of the Rank 2 Grand Knight Nil Null, Xero Null or the challenging party, from the Kedoth empire’s Rank 5 Earl Liquivet’s Son, Chad Liquivet! Come and place your bets!” The halfling shouted.
All around were many people betting more and more gold coins to try and rack in quick money.
“Come, come! The defending party, Xero Null, it was identified he has a Devil Familiar and the level is equal at level 27. Don’t be deceived because even as they are, he has a strong ability to summon minions and his minion can handle it’s demon for and fight Level 31 and above level creatures. The defending party, Chad Liquivet, recently grew to Level 31 becoming a Rank 1 knight and his familiar is an Arachnid Ant familiar. With physical strength on par with dragons level 40 his own strength being as good, he was trained for knighthood under his own family. Come and place your bets the winning odds are against the defending party. The odds of the defending party are 6:1 while the challenging party has a 1.5:1 odd.” The halfling on the pillar shouted.
“As expected of the Donima family, any small event turns big with them around.” Hilda said.
Xero looked at the odds when suddenly Nil walked up and pulled out a magic bag, “15,000 gold on the defending party winning all three rounds.” Nil suddenly said.
“Wha!” Xero, Zip and Void said together.
“Father, what are you doing?” Zip asked.
“I am giving my support to my son.” Nil replied firmly.
Hilda laughed, “Yes that’s how it should be, let this pretty lady play as well. 5,000 gold that the boy wins the first round without getting hit once.” She laughed while boldly making the bet.
The people all around were astonished by the bets the two had put out.
The Halfling’s grin grew wider as he saw the money flow out and looked at Xero and raised a brow. Soon his grin turned like a cat. Pointing at Xero he shouted, “Look, the defending party has arrived, you can see for yourself how strong the young ‘prince charming’ is who charmed our Donima firm’s young miss!” The halfling said and at once everyone was focused on Xero.
Many of them tried to size him up but people who did not surpass level 30 into 31 didn’t release any kind of pressure unconsciously making them seem normal until a fight starts.
This was exactly what the Halfling wanted, he wanted more people to look down on Xero while the Donima family knew his real strength. The story of him battling to a standstill a level 41 Wyrm and such a high level strength would not be underestimated.
After the Null made their bet they walked inside and a Crost family knight met up with Xero and took him in.
Outside, many people looked down at him and shook their head as they bet on Chad even if it was a small rate it still increased their money by a small bit. Only a few people put some coin on Xero to make sure they didn’t lose their money.
In case there was an ‘upset victory’.
Within the coliseum, the public was slowly filling up while on the VIP area, it was slowly filling up and to the surprise of the Null’s they were brought here and sat with the Donima and Crost family, since Xero was the main fighter today.
In the field there were captured beasts and warriors battling it out as the opening show. Soon knight groups would come out and battle it out for fame and fortune. Mercenary groups wanting to show their power for fame.
“Ah~! This turned out much smaller than I hoped.” Francis sighed as he looked around. “If it were given a month's time and were in the outside dungeon city there would have been nearly 10 times the space for people and time to set up the preparations.” He sighed.
“I-Isn’t this good enough? This is already a big event.” Nil said sweating.
Francis laughed, “Of course not! Where there is an opportunity for making money, there is no ‘too small’.” He laughed “I also plan to help the boy out, starting tomorrow there will be an event were 12 and 13 year old children will participate in daily tournaments and during the week ends the five winners will battle it out to fight Xero. If they lose though they can’t try for 1 month giving the chance for others. While constantly keeping the highest level pressure on Xero to make sure he never slacks off.” Francis laughs.
The Nulls felt pity for Xero to get this kind of father-in-law that would not only use his own daughter as a trophy but even keep using it over and over again to train him in a ruthless manner like this.
The girls’ in question were watching near the edge of the VIP area where everyone could see them, much to their dismay since they were shy and red faced already since this entire event was because of them and Xero.
Finally after many short battles, Francis stood up and took out a magic item that amplified his voice and sent it all over so that he could be heard at long distance through sound magic.
“Greetings all, the time for the main event has arrived, all betting tables have closed and no more bets shall be taken, all that is left is the result. Each better recieved a ticket so the winners can receive their reward after their bet is concluded. Now onto the main event!” He shouted making the crowd roar and even cause the air to vibrate. There was even a hint of killing intent in the air from the previous battles mixing into the excitement.
“Now, the rules of the competition is as followed, it is a three match battle, all three battles are fought, there is a limit of 15 minutes for each battle unless one side defeats the other side. If the time limit is reached a group of judges, randomly chosen among the nobles here, shall judge the battle and declare the winner. The first battle is a battle of swordsmanship and magic between the two masters. They can only use their own skills and magic, or abilities that affect their body coming from their familiar without using their familiars own ability and magic. This means Aura’s are allowed while buffing magic that a familiar may possess is not as one affects the master passively.” Francis said.
The cheers rang through the coliseum, the first match was a test of skill and strength as well as testing mag
ic casting speed and power.
“The second match is the battle of familiars, they will not have their master’s command, they are following their instincts into combat using their own powers as they wish displaying any and all control of the master aside, which is done by the masters sitting in a special sound isolating magic formation that blocks the mental link between the familiar and master from connecting.” another round to cheers came as the thought of wild and powerful familiars running amuck in battle was another excitement.
“The last battle is 10 minutes after the second battle and is a battle of master and familiar together. All restrictions on using abilities and powers are lifted and everything goes besides killing.” Francis finished. “Now! The defender, honorary rank 1 knight of the Lurian empire, Xero Null!” He said and suddenly on one of the two gates on the arena stage, a large metal cage door opened and from inside, Xero walked out while his stomach clenched under the stares of almost two thousand people. His heart was in his throat.
Ashley felt his anxiety and came out before holding his hand and smiling as they walked out helping him calm down.
“Now on the other corner! The challenger, Rank 1 Knight of the Kedoth empire, Chad Liquivet!” he shouted.
A very loud cheer came from the knights that hailed from that empire. Chad came out raising his arms with confidence. He then turned to Xero while grinning but with a dark expression, he put his thumb on his neck and ran it along it as if saying, “Today you die.”
Xero just breathed deeply trying to find some peace of mind and unsummoned Ashley before walking forward.
A Crost family elder flew down using magic before pulling out several swords or weapons that floated around the elder with his magic. “Choose your weapon.” He said.
The weapons were basic grade steel magic blades. This was a truly fair contest were the weapons were even grade to make sure the strength and skill would not be hidden behind the increased power of the weapon.
“I choose longsword.” Xero said and took a long sword that was double edge and around a meter long, it could be held with one or two hands but he took it in a two handed stance.
The Sword Devil Page 23