Chapter 50: The King!

“It will be done, your majesty.” Said one of the ministers, who turned around to address some nearby guards.

“After the match ends, escort the competitor that the King just pointed out up here. Oh, and be sure to be polite, he will be an honored guest. I won’t have you losing face for the King.”

“Yes sir.” The two guards nodded and began to descend to the stadium field. The two of them were personal guards of the minister, and they understood what would happen if they didn’t follow the minister’s orders. Someone like Jia Yuan would probably stand at the forefront of the Fire Kingdom in years to come. Youths like him weren’t exactly indispensable, but were definitely hard to come by.

But some guards? The two guards were both at the peak of the Absorption level, but from the attack they had witnessed earlier, they already knew that Jia Yuan was likely stronger than them. Compared to Jia Yuan, they were dispensable. If they caused bad will between Jia Yuan and the minister, the minister wouldn’t hesitate to use the two guards to placate someone like Jia Yuan.

The reason why the minister was careful to the point of reminding the two guards, was because an incident had happened at the last tournament, where a minister had grown interested in a competitor, and had sent for his men to greet the competitor. However, the competitor had not wanted to go with the guards, at which point the guards began to use force. After doing so, the guards had actually been killed, and the competitor, who shortly became a soldier of the Burning Legion, was actually the son of a fellow minister.

One can imagine the trouble that came from the bad will caused by such an event.

So, to be safe, the minister who sent the guards to retrieve Jia Yuan sent them off with an extra warning.

After about another 10 minutes of fighting, there were only 100 competitors left alive on the field, and the round was over. As the remaining fighters filed out of the stadium, their names were recorded by some soldiers by the exit.

After Jia Yuan’s name was recorded, two guards walked up to him.

“Hello, what can I do for you?”

The two guards politely responded. “Hello sir, our lord would like to invite you, on behalf of the King, to the royal box. The King very much desires to meet you.”

“Hmm…” Jia Yuan actually hadn’t counted on the King wanting to meet him immediately. To be honest, he didn’t really want to meet with the King. If it weren’t for the promised weapon, he wouldn’t even have bothered with showing off previously.

It was just a pain to deal with nobility. You had to keep a straight back and speak eloquently… it was tiring.

But how could he refuse the King? Jia Yuan understood that if he angered the King, even Guo Huo wouldn’t be able to help him if he was there.

And Jia Yuan was alone.

“Fine fine, I’ll come. Is there food up there?”

“Ah, thank you sir. There is indeed some food in the royal box, I believe that I saw some servants bringing up some roast pork when the two of us were coming down to receive you.”

“Ahh, perfect. Lead the way, lead the way.”

Maybe if I just focus on the food, it’ll be worth it to deal with those damn nobles.

After walking up to the royal box, where the King and his ministers had been viewing the tournament from, Jia Yuan was able to detect some wonderful aromas.

Ahhhh, looks like I might be able to profit from this meeting after all. I can smell some roast pork, some sweet beef… ah…

Then, Jia Yuan noticed the people around him. They were all looking at him with eyes of admiration. Although Jia Yuan wasn’t truly strong, he was extremely gifted to have such strength at his age.

The most noticeable was the King, who was wearing a fiery red robe with royal gold decorations, as well as a tall golden crown.

However, the most distinguishing feature of this man, was the noble aura that surrounded him. Although he wasn’t released the aura of his Song, the King still had a suffocating and fearsome aura around him.

Upon encountering the aura, Jia Yuan found it hard to think, or even to breathe. After a momentary daze, Jia Yuan subtly released the aura of the Song of Swords, which protected Jia Yuan from the King’s aura.

What was that domineering aura?