The fight came to an end in a very anticlimactic manner. Two Wanderers, exhausted to their limits, relied on just their physical strength to exchange blows with each other, displaying their skills for everyone in the Arena to see. Once, twice, thrice, they kept clashing without backing down, until they could not clash anymore. Not because they were hurt or had decided a winner. But because they could not swing their swords anymore.

  Ameria was fine. At least she still had some of her Spirit Power left. Alnea though… The splitting headache, one of his oldest friends, had come knocking on his doors even before he had begun his last exchange with Ameria. Exhausting his physical strength in the subsequent exchange did not help him in dealing with the headache either. He was so exhausted, that even moving felt like a chore. Or at least that seemed to be the case, until he saw the three girls waving at him from a corner of the Arena.

  “…Although I hate to admit it, but I can no longer continue our fight,” Alnea said, letting out a sigh, only to feel a huge boulder roll off of his chest, bringing a wide smile to his face. “You win this time, Ameria.”

  “…No,” Ameria said, shaking her head. “I did not win.”

  “Don’t you still have some Spirit Power left?”

  “I do.”

  “There, you have it,” Alnea said, shrugging his shoulders. “There is no need to patronise me, Ameria. I am not so immature that I cannot even accept a loss.”

  “…Are you a girl? Why do you like to talk so much nonsense?” America said, scratching her head in annoyance. “I do have some Spirit Power left, but do you think I can use it in my condition? Besides, after the fight we had, deciding a winner does not seem so important anymore.”

  “…That’s something I can agree on. Not the girl part, of course.”

  “…I am really starting to doubt it now.”

  Alnea chuckled at the woman’s grin, before turning towards the guard in the distance.

  “Hey, did you hear that?”

  The guard nodded in response, and returned to the stage.

  “Let me confirm this once again. Both of you are agreeing to end your battle in a tie?”

  “That’s right.”

  “We are.”

  You do know that a tie means that you will not be rewarded anything? Even the fees you paid to use the Arena will not be returned.”

  “That’s common sense, right?”

  “…As long as the Arena does not ask us to pay for damaging its stage.”

  “…You do not have to worry about the stage,” the guard said after a brief moment of silence. “Since you both agree on ending your battle in a tie, then I declare the free battle to be over.”

  “…Direct, as always,” Alnea mumbled, before turning towards Ameria. “Both of us are exhausted, and I have a couple of things to do in the city. How about we meet in a few days?”

  “…That sounds like a good idea. Unfortunately, I will be leaving the city in a few days.”

  “So soon?” Alnea said, with his brows furrowing into a frown. “I do not know about your rank in the three Halls, or your performance in the Black Desert Trial, but I do know that your rank in the Arena is not enough for you to rush towards the inner city.”

  “That’s true.”

  “Then…”

  “Some things are out of your control, are they not?” Ameria said, shaking her head.

  “…Do you need help?”

  “…Not for the moment, no. Maybe in the future. But first, you have to get stronger. After all, whether or not you would be able to help me would depend on whether you are strong enough or not. With your current strength, that cannot even defeat me, do you think that you can help me?”

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  “…I did not use all of my strength, you know?”

  “Neither did I.”

  “…Let’s leave our strength aside for the moment. We just became friends today, and you are already leaving the city? We don’t even know anything about each other.”

  “Our battle has already told me everything about you that I need to know. Of course, I would have still liked spending more time with you, and get to know you better. But like I said earlier, there are things that we just cannot control. Unless we are strong enough to create our own Fate. Or gain Goddess Faein’s favour. Unfortunately, I do not fall in any of those categories. And neither do you.”

  “…Is it your clan’s arrangement?”

  “Smart,” Ameria said, nodding in satisfaction. “But that’s not all. The Lost City… It is going to experience some changes in the near future. Changes that would not be favourable to people like me, who are not of the Lightning Region. Though, even without those changes, I would have had to leave sooner or later. Or do you really think that the local Orthodoxies would allow Wanderers from other Regions to take advantage of the resources in their Region?”

  “…Though I want to know what kind of changes you are talking about—

  “That, I cannot tell you,” America said, raising her hands to show her helplessness. “The city’s council would not let me. They told me about the change only to serve as a warning, not to publicise their new policy. Sharing this information with you is already bordering on the line of breaking the rules. Anymore, and… You do not have to worry too much though. The change should not affect you much. Probably. Unless you make an enemy out of the entire Lost City.”

  “…I have no intention of making an enemy out of the entire Lost City. Unless they force me, that is.”

  “As expected of the man dedicated to Protecting.”

  “…As I was saying, though the changes you talked about intrigue me, I am more concerned about what you said later. If the local Orthodoxies would not allow you to enter the inner city, then why did they allow you to even enter the city at all?”

  “Because the resources of the outer the city are not that unique,” Ameria said, shrugging her shoulders. “Not to mention that I also paid the price to enter the Lost City. And I am not talking about the Oren Stones you gave at the entrance of the city. But that price can only allow me to enter the outer city. The inner city… it is different. It is related to the legacy of the Lost City. Even if the possibility me inheriting the city’s legacy is small, they cannot afford to take the risk. And so came the unwritten rule that Wanderers who are not from the Lighting Region must not enter the inner city.”

  “…Why have I never heard of this rule before?”

  “Do you understand what unwritten rule means?”

  “…I have someone in my team who is from the Water Region…”

  “Are you talking about the Weina?” Ameria said, nodding her head. “You do not have to worry about her. Her clan is different from others. With the way they create connections… In any case, you just need to know that the unwritten rule does not apply to her clan. As long as she has the ability, she can even take away the legacy of the Lost City.”

  “…It seems like I was worrying for nothing,” Alnea said, smiling wryly at himself.

  “That, I cannot argue with. Although you are strong, you do keep on yammering like girls.”

  “Hey!”

  “…You two… If you are done, then can you leave the stage? The Arena needs to prepare it for the next battle.”

  “…It looks like we need to leave.”

  “We can try to stay, but then we might have to face the guard.”

  “…Maybe, if we were in our peak condition, then I could have thought about it. But now…”

  “Will we meet again?”

  “If Goddess Faein favours us…”

  “…Or we grow strong enough to create our Fate, right?”

  “…You may act like a girl, but you do have what it takes to stand up when it matters,” Ameria said with a chuckle. “See you later, Alnea.”

  “…See you later, Ameria.”

  Nodding one last time with a smile, Alnea walked away from the stage, and boarded his personal platform, before willing it move towards the girls waving at him in the distance. On his way, he kept thinking about turning around to glance at his new friend, but never acted on his thoughts. They had already made an agreement. If he still kept on clinging to her, would he not prove to her that he was, indeed, acting like a girl?

  Besides, he was sure that Ameria would not turn around to look back at him either. That was just how she was. Or at least, how he thought she was. He still did not know anything about her. But that was how friends were supposed to be made, were they not? Without any tricks or conspiracies. A pure friendship that was made just on the basis of feelings.

  Then again, maybe their friendship was not as pure as he thought it was. Though Ameria had offered to become a friend first, he was sure that she had done so only because of the strength that he had shown. Had he not fought her equally, without deciding any winner for over an hour, she probably would not even have given him a second look. But those things were no longer important.

  Maybe Ameria had some ulterior motives in becoming his friend, like asking for his help. So what? Everyone had a hint of selfishness within their Heart. Even Alnea. Maybe more so than anyone he knew. With such a selfish Heart, who was he to criticise others about their selfishness? Especially so, if their selfishness did not hurt anyone. She did not even ask him to help her right away. Or do anything for that matter. She just asked him to become stronger. Was that wrong? Was—

  Who was he trying to explain his thoughts to? Who was he trying to convince? He had already taken her as his friend, so why was he hesitating? Creating her own fate… If that was what she wanted to do, then he would help her create her own Fate. Because she was his friend. And he was Alnea Oathkeeper, the man who lived for the people he took his Oaths for. And a little for himself.