Once we arrived back in Colonus Warren immediately took his car and drove off somewhere claiming that he really needed a drink or something. He definitely needs it considering what he’s going through, but yet for some reason I’ve never seen him actually drunk. As for me I’m currently shirking on my responsibilities by not reporting to the Lords and am currently staying in my own room in the Colonus hospital under the guise of ‘recuperating from injury’ which is still technically true because I still feel the effects of aura exhaustion from my fight with Archer a month ago. For once I’m glad for Azura’s overbearing medical care, as long as it doesn’t require taking her homemade medicines from hell.

The hospital room I’m staying in is dedicated solely to my care and mine alone. It’s completely empty aside from a bed, a small table and two chairs on my left. The white curtains on my right are partially closed letting in a minimal amount of light into the white room. I try to ignore the stack of books on my bedside stand to my left as I consume a few cookies given to me by Nazuko, that she obviously stole judging from the fact that the price tag is still attached to the bag. It seems Vasavir isn’t letting up on my education simply because I’m hospitalized, or maybe he just sees through me, but he isn’t telling the lords anything so it's fine. A book on political science, as well as a history book of military battles, what clearly appears to be an erotic book judging by the cover (haven’t and won’t open that one), and finally a book documenting battles of the Westphalian Grand Skirmish, a yearly tournament that pits fighters from each guild in the empire against one another. Content to wallow in laziness I pull up the white covers by my feet and attempt to take a nap. At that moment a blue haired girl wearing a white robe walks into my room carrying an assortment of medical bottles and salves and places them on the table to my left.

“You know when I suggested you get hospitalized in order to recover from your extreme aura exhaustion, I didn’t think you’d take it seriously,” the blue haired girl comments.

“Ah good morning Azura,” I murmur from under the covers.

I pull down the blanket just a bit to peek at the girl staring at me with a somewhat judging look on her face.

“What’s with that look, I really was in need of rest. What’s wrong with me listening to you for once?” I ask defensively.

“Unlike Warren and Quincy who have to be forced to stay in bed, I think you need to be forced to get out of it. You’ve been here so long that the nurses have placed a placard with your name on it outside this room,” she tells me.

“It hasn’t been that long you're exaggerating, it's only been about one or maybe… twooo weeks,” I unsuredly claim.

“It’s been 16 days. Our fight with Amon was a month and half ago,” Azura states.

“Look I really don’t want to deal with the Lords and their endless bickering. They should probably cancel that parade they’re planning, there’s nothing worth celebrating about that trip to Ayana anyway,” I grumble.

“You can’t run from this forever.”

“I know I’ll leave by the end of the week, just let me stay here for just a little longer. Didn’t we have a deal, I’ll help you test your medicines and I get to lounge here in safety,” I remind her.

“Speaking of medicines, drink this,” she commands as she picks up a glass bottle with a mysterious blue fluid sloshing around inside.

“What is it?”

“A potion I’m testing that enhances one’s hearing, I hope the taste’s not too bitter.”

I take the bottle and chug the ominous fluid in one go. It has a rather thick texture, similar to a slushy.

“Ugh, it has a terrible aftertaste, it's like eating food you regurgitated in your own mouth,” I described.

“Eh that’s not too bad, this one doesn’t have any side effects so it's acceptable. How’s your hearing?” Azura questions.

I focus on my hearing, listening to everything in my surroundings; the crickets chirping in the grass outside, the discussion amongst the doctors and nurses in the hospital, the loud stomping noise of what feels like a giant walking down the hallway to my room.

“I hear… stomping?”

“Stomping?”

The next thing I witness is a very large bearded man wearing a fur vest open the door to my hospital room while drinking from the tankard in his hand.

“This hospital’s drinks are always great, HAHAHA, no wonder you're choosing to reside here my boy!” Armstrong boasts.

“Azura I thought no one’s supposed to know I’m back in Colonus,” I quietly told her.

“It's kind of hard to miss a large floating airship approaching the city, also you're the only one who owns one,” she quietly answers.

“Um I think you have the wrong person, clearly my name is Bill regardless of what that placard outside says,” I say as I put on the glasses and big nose disguise I brought to fool Nazuko into thinking I’m not here.

“Boy aren’t you supposed to put that on before I come into the room, and did you really think that would fool me?” Armstrong asks in a jovial tone.

“Well it fooled Nerva and Nazuko,” I say sulking back into my bed.

“Those two should not be used as a standard for comparison,” Azura asserts.

“I don’t really want to ask, but what are you here for?”

“It’s getting to be that time of year again,” Armstrong begins.

“That... time?”

“The Westphalian Grand Skirmish, I told you about it briefly before your little clash with the Emperor,” Armstrong reminds me.

“Oh what does that yearly fighting tournament have to do with me, I don’t even qualify for that as far as I remember. I believe I’m still a fledgling, aren’t I,” I say while picking up my bag of cookies.

“Not after that little rebellion quest from the Lords, if I recall that elf lass kept boasting about it until Willow was forced to promote you guys. Everyone in your group has now been promoted to Champion rank, good for you guys. Your group of adventurers are the first we’ve promoted to champions in the last 2 years,” Armstrong informs me.

“Damn you Remi,” I mutter under my breath.

“So given the fact that you’re all Champions now, I’ve taken the time to register you all for the upcoming tournament, it’ll be great. We’re sure to take the win again this year, in fact this book you have here documents just how often we’ve won, although it is a bit dated. I haven’t grown out my beard that long in this picture, and Jack wasn’t a father yet at the time,” Armstrong reminices as he shows me a picture of him and a bunch of other guild members while one guy is holding up some kind of trophy that looks like a shield with two crossing swords in front of it.

“If you guys won that tournament so much, then it's not like I’m really needed in order for you to win this year right? Besides I’m obviously still injured, look at this (fake) cast around my leg,” I instruct while the bearded man continues to flip through the book.

“We’ve had a few rough past years, since some of our older members retired from the guild, and we haven’t had any promising newbies in a while despite our numbers. Most of our members are actually below champion rank. Also people are already setting up the decorations and festivities around North Point as well as throughout Colonus. The new stadium looks even better thanks to you and your friend blowing up the old one, in fact let's go take a look right now,” Armstrong says, clearly ignoring my previous comment.

The man walks over to the curtains, opens them up as wide as they can go, allowing way too much light into the room.

“Ah the light, IT BURNS!” I complain as I wrap myself in my blanket now looking like a burrito.

“Well if you don’t feel like walking there, then I can give you a lift.”

He walks over to my bed, picks me up and walks me over to the window.

“Wait, wait, what’s going on? What are you-”

“HEAVE HO!” Armstrong yells as he chucks me out the window.

“Have a nice trip!” Azura shouts from the window I just flew out of.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!”

Why is it that almost every interaction I have with that man ends with me flying or falling somewhere? First it was getting thrown off that cliff, then it was that duel that ended in my loss. I swear to Vienna I will send that man flying one of these days. Doesn’t he know that it's wrong to attack injured people, even though I am fully healed, throwing someone out a window is just plain rude. It seems Armstrong threw me in the direction of North Point as I can see the stadium coming closer into view as I fly over a few residential districts. The sheer force of the wind coming at me causes the fake cast around my leg to fall off, as it was only loosely attached and made of cloth. As I’m soaring through the city, I can definitely feel a more jovial tune as it appears like the entire city is getting ready for the tournament. There are colorful string pennants displayed and a large banner with the Emperor’s face on it that spans over several buildings. I can’t quite make out the text given the speed I’m going at, but I’m sure it's some kind of advertisement for the tournament. As I approach the colosseum-like arena in front of me only one thought goes through my mind right now. Which is exactly how am I supposed to land? I could simply activate my aura and brace for impact, but that would be painful.

“Ok Mythril, I need a little bit of help right now, I kind of need to do that flying thing, like right now!” I command my spirit.

Activating Wind Output at 25%, engaging hover calculations.

Two small wind tornadoes appear at my feet, and I cancel out my forward momentum by releasing a small burst of wind in front of me. The recoil from going at 200 mph back down 0 makes me a bit dizzy, but otherwise I’m ok.

I find I’m hovering directly over the new stadium that was built for the tournament and I observe quite a few workers still doing work on the upper levels of the stadium. I guess it's not fully built yet judging by all the scaffolding surrounding it. Although this is strange, that fight with Ryder happened months ago and yet it's only being completed now. Actually now that I think of it the design of this stadium is vastly different than the one that came before it, it's much bigger and taller than the old one was.

I have an instinctive feeling that something else was soaring through the air behind me, as I heard a loud sonic boom go off from the direction of the hospital, painfully so as Azura’s potion is still active. Oh boy if that’s what I think it is then…

Armstrong then lands directly in the middle of the plaza in front of the stadium making a large indentation in ground, as well as causing everyone around him to fall over. He looks up at me floating in the sky.

“I see you’ve picked up a few new tricks since I’ve last seen you, it seems my training has paid off,” Armstrong claims.

“No thanks to you, don’t you know it's rude to throw injured people!” I yelled.

“Nah you're completely fine, real men like us can take a dagger to the abdomen and merely call it a flesh wound,” he comments.

“Hey I’ve actually been stabbed in the abdomen before, I wouldn’t call it a flesh wound,” I argue.

Ugh, I’m getting thief flashbacks just thinking about that.

“HAHAHA, and you’re still alive my boy, just shows you're tougher than you look. Tell me when you get an arm or leg ripped off, now that’s a real injury,” Armstrong boasts.

I really hope I don’t suffer that kind of injury. Can healing magic even fix that? Nah, I’m sure it can, reattaching an arm is probably only slightly harder than reattaching fingers.

I hover back down to the ground and as I land I’m immediately greeted with the sensation of my feet burning due to coming in contact with hot stone. Trying to walk barefoot right now is like trying to walk on hot coals.

“He could have waited until I put my shoes on before tossing me ,” I grumble silently.

I pull out the boots of my armor set from my pocket dimension to drive off the burning sensation. Armstrong comes over to me and starts patting my back aggressively, while he stares up at the stadium.

“Isn’t this new stadium great, the stage is already set for our victory,” Armstrong boasts.

“Yeah it's really great, now can I go back to the hospital already,” I pestered.

“I can almost feel that trophy in my hands, I wonder what shape it’ll take on this time. The emperor should have it sculpted in the shape of a dragon,” Armstrong says as he continues to ignore me.

“Kekeke, don’t be so sure of yourself Armstrong,” some unknown man says.

I turn around to see a man wearing a black and white suit that makes him kinda look like a Japanese salaryman. His hair is grey, containing two black streaks and it's long enough that he’s wearing it in a ponytail. He’s also wearing round glasses and holding onto a leather briefcase. Honestly he looks really non intimidating and appears to be an old man who could really use a nap.

“Ah, it's been a while Jujiro,” Armstrong says as he deepens his voice a little more to make him seem intimidating.

“Who’s this old guy,” I remarked.

Considering the last old guy I met was a real disappointment, and by far most of the old people I’ve met in this world are disappointments, I don’t have very high expectations for old people.

“Will the man who stands before you is the guild leader of the Basilisk guild in Astus, Jujiro,” Armstrong informs.

“At your service,” the man greets.

“Now don’t you think it's a little too early to arrive here for the tournament, it's still a month away after all,” Armstrong questions.

“Yes, yes indeed, but a few fledglings of mine kept begging to see the festivities and upcoming parade for the heroes who put down the rebellion,” Jujiro tells us.

“Oh, uh yeah the parade, that’s definitely gonna maybe not happen or it might happen without them since I heard the heroes are still injured,” I lie.

Armstrong simply stands there in silence with a deadpan look on his face.

“Is that so, well that’s a shame, they’ll be so disappointed. Well it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance, um Will was it?” he prods as he gestures for my name.

“Ah yes I’m Will I’m the first- um I mean first member of Dragon’s Descent who’s been promoted to Champion rank in the past two years,” I tell him.

“Oh, well Armstrong it seems your guild has been slacking in terms of combat strength, kekeke, perhaps it’ll be the Basilisk guild’s turn in the spotlight,” Jujiro laughs as he shakes my hand firmly.

“Don’t kid yourself, while we may have less Champions than the other guilds it's only because we have such high standards for strength,” Armstrong laughs.

“Be that as it may, it won’t be a breeze for you guys this year. Now I must be going, there’s this strange restaurant I wish to visit that serves food in the shape of pants,” he notifies us as he walks towards the city with a bit of a slouch.

“Why did you deepen your voice when we were talking to that guy?” I ask Armstrong.

“HMM, it's kinda like I wanted to intimidate him a little. That man is actually one of the most intimidating men I have ever known,” Armstrong reveals.

“My first impression was that he was nothing to be concerned about, but damn that man has a really strong handshake,” I say as I clutch my hand in pain.

“Now that that is out of the way, I’m going back to my hospital room. Where is the nearest portal to the city?” I questioned.

“New building, I dunno where it is, try looking in the stadium somewhere. Oh and you should start training for the tournament in a month. If you don’t I’ll demote you back to a fledgling,” he warns.

“You should do that now instead of after the tournament!” I yelled as I walked into the stadium.

This place is a whole lot bigger on the inside than on the outside. I pass by several doors, none of which is the portal room. I’m forced to do a brute force search mostly because they haven’t even put up any signs in this damn place. I open one door, nope that’s the armory, open a second door, nope that’s the bathroom. I try opening a third door to find the Emperor himself talking with a man who looks like a charity worker judging by the text on his shirt that says “We Give To The Homeless” on it. He has brown hair and looks rather tanned. He’s also wearing white gloves and khaki pants. My unexpected intrusion causes both of them to cease talking and turn in my direction.

“Ah Will pleasant surprise, so you’ve come to check out the stadium as well. How do you like it? I made the architectural designs myself, you really did me a favor blowing the old one up. Was planning to destroy it eventually. Think I should put up a statue of myself up in front of it?” Emperor Marcus asks.

“You know I think it would somehow get destroyed by accident during the tournament. Oh and sorry for interrupting whatever this is I was looking for the portal room.”

The man who was talking with the Emperor then speaks up,

“Oh not at all we were just about done speaking, I can show you to the portal room if you wish, oh and Emperor Marcus you won’t forget about what we discussed, yes?” the man asks the Emperor.

“Yes I know, we’ll donate 2% of the tournament’s proceeds to the Circle of Harmony,” Marcus answers.

“Come I’ll show you the way,” the man instructs.

The man then leads me down the hallway to where the portal room is.

“You seem to be having a bad hair day,” he notices.

“Oh that, well that tends to happen when you get thrown out a window at 200 miles per hour.”

“Oh how fun!” he claims.

“I wouldn’t call it that...” I shivered.

I wonder who this guy is? If he can get the Emperor’s time then he must be someone important.

“So you are….” I lead off.

“Ah yes, my name is Victor. I work for a charity group called the Circle of Harmony, I was just talking to Emperor Marcus if he would kindly donate some money for us to help the poor and homeless. We do all sorts of charity work as our mission is simply to help the people,” Victor informs.

“How noble. I’m Will, I'm the first hero and I… apparently put down rebellions.”

“Yes I’ve heard of that tragic bit of business in Ayana, but I guess it couldn’t be helped. I’m sure our branch in Ayana will do our best to serve those people well. Don’t feel bad about doing what you had to do,” Victor says as he attempts to comfort me.

We come to the end of a hallway and Victor opens the door to the portal room.

“Here we are, first hero. It was an honor to meet you. I heard you're going to be participating in this year’s tournament? Then good luck with that, I’ll be watching with great interest,” he says.

Oh no more pressure to participate in this tournament.

“Y-yeah thanks, um be sure to give a homeless person a hug for me,” I say awkwardly before stepping into a portal.

I haphazardly make my way back to my hospital room where both Azura and Lilith are sitting talking to each other.

“Oh Will your back, I thought hospitalized patients aren’t allowed to leave without being discharged,” Lilith says.

“Armstrong came in earlier and gave me a bit of physical therapy. If you don’t mind, I'm just gonna lie in this bed for maybe forever,” I tell her.

“If you want I can give you a massage, it’ll help to relax your muscles and help you recover from aura exhaustion,” she offers.

“Sure knock yourself out,” I say as I turn over and bury my face in a pillow.

Lilith comes over to my bed, places her hands on my shoulders and starts to massage me. And you know what it, really, really, HURTS! It feels like she’s trying to push holes in my back, I almost want to scream. I seriously forgot just how strong this woman is. It’s ok Will, just hold your breath and endure the pain. I don’t want to say anything bad as I might hurt Lilith feelings, but I might end up more injured than when she started.

“So does it feel good?” Lilith asks.

“YEP, IT FEELS GREAT I THINK I MIGHT JUST DIE!” I say as I try to stifle any screams.

I don’t think I can take this anymore, so my aura subconsciously activates.

“Oh hey it worked. Your aura is back and stronger than ever. If I give you a few more, you're certain to be discharged soon,” Lilith observes.

“You know what I feel great, I think I’ll leave tomorrow, so no need for any more massages. In fact, let's start the training tomorrow, you should leave so you can get ready,” I frantically tell her.

“Okay I’ll do just that then,” she says joyfully before leaving the hospital room.

For the next 5 minutes I lie motionless while also groaning in pain.

“So what have we learned today?” Azura questions in a stern tone of voice.

“That I need to seriously reconsider my engagement and that the more painful the medical treatment the more effective it is?” I say sarcastically.

“No it's that no matter what you can’t hide from your responsibilities,” Azura instructs.

“Yes teacher Azura.”

My efforts to elude my responsibilities as the hero have completely and thoroughly failed. I don’t know what there is to look forward to in the future, but this upcoming meeting with the lords is going to be a pain in the ass.