Dragon King Muk laughed loudly as he gave a greeting. "Uahahaha! I've heard about your martial arts from the previous dragon king. I’ve been told that the Crow Tribe has a genius of the sword that will never appear again."

Weger smiled mildly. "Thank you very much for such an evaluation. When I met the previous dragon king, I was nothing but a child compared to him."

When Weger met Drachen, the previous dragon king, Drachen was already a member of the Demon King subjugation party and was one of its strongest members. Weger, on the other hand, was a young man who had just passed boyhood.

"Uahahahaha! Child, you say? You are very modest! If you were just a child, then what about my childhood?"

Weger smiled at the Dragon King's joke. "Still, I am not a genius who will never be seen again. I already have five disciples who surpass my talents."

Weger was referring to their potential, not that their current abilities had already surpassed his. His sword skills, which he had honed for more than a hundred years, were not a quality that could be overcome simply by talent.

The Dragon King was well aware of that fact. "Oh! Five? The Crow Tribe is quite blessed."

When the Dragon King admired them, Weger nodded and sighed. "Yes, but my only complaint is that two of the five walk a different path from that of the sword."

The Dragon King burst into laughter. "Kuhahaha! Are there such freaks? No, I can’t believe that they are wasting their potential to surpass even you."

"You're right. Well, one of them has fallen for the bow, and the other is into magic.”

Of Weger's disciples, the one into bows was Mac, and the other that was into magic was Denburg.

The Dragon King clenched his fist at Weger's lament and said, "Then, should you grab them by the collar and forcefully teach them? It’s a sin to tarnish your talent.”

Weger nodded at the dragon king. "I thought the same, so I grabbed the one who’s into the bow and dragged him by the collar to teach him, but the one that’s into magic, senile Mirpa... Khmm! It's a shame that Elder Mirpa got in the way, so I wasn’t able to teach him sincerely."

"Oh, if it’s Elder Mirpa, isn’t she the famous great alchemist? Your disciple seems to have a knack for magic as well." The Dragon King looked at Weger with interested eyes. 

Weger sighed once again. "I think so. If he had concentrated on the sword instead of magic, he would have been the best of my disciples, but right now, he is the worst of the five in sword skills."

“Kuhahahaha! I'd love to meet those talent-wasting jolly friends sometime!” Saying so, the Dragon King looked around.

The spar was taking place in the palace, not to mention that it was in the middle of a banquet hall where nobles were gathered. As such, court magicians were forming a barrier around the two people for safety.

"I believe there will be a chance to meet them!" exclaimed the Dragon King.

When the Dragon King got ready, Weger slowly pulled out his sword. Weger was unfamiliar with this sword because he borrowed it from a nearby knight rather than using his own favorite sword.

"They seem to be almost done with the barrier, so I think we can gradually get started.” At the same time, the two men raised their auras.

"Honestly, I don't like this spar because it feels like we are performing for entertainment. I wanted to fight to my heart's content in a bigger place."

Weger smiled lightly when the Dragon King complained. "What’s the harm? Not only are the empire’s nobles here, but there are also knights and young men of each tribe who know martial arts. It'll be a great experience for them."

The Dragon King laughed cheerfully at Weger's words. "Kuhahahaha, that’s right! I was thinking about it the wrong way."

The Dragon King nodded, and the two rushed toward each other at the same time. As soon as Weger's sword and the Dragon King's fist were about to touch, Weger's body seemed to split into two, and he stabbed the dragon king's left and right sides at the same time. The dragon king was not flustered by Weger's clone technique, gathering an aura blade around his whole body. He outstretched his feet and fist at the same time, striking Weger.

Weger's clones, hit by the dragon king's kick and punch, disappeared like smoke. "Here!"

Before he knew it, Weger had flown up high towards the ceiling, and he raised his sword surrounded by an aura blade, striking down at the Dragon King.

The Dragon King took a big step back to avoid Weger’s sword and got goosebumps on his back. It would have been a pretty dangerous blow if Weger hadn't given away his location on purpose just a moment ago.

"Kuhahaha! How strange! To make clones with just footwork instead of magic."

Weger assumed a prepared stance as soon as he landed and smiled. "It's nothing. It's just one of the various techniques I've developed. I'm attacking again."

At the same time, the two rushed toward each other. When the Dragon King punched Weger in the face, Weger ducked down to avoid his fist. Then, he pushed his way into the Dragon King's proximity and stabbed at his chin with his sword.

The Dragon King twisted his body to dodge the sword and tried to attack the nearby Weger with his elbow and knee. To avoid the attack that was approaching his side and shoulder simultaneously, Weger grabbed the Dragon King’s side and leaped over him.

Weger rotated in the air and immediately tried to cut the Dragon King's back as soon as he landed on the ground. The Dragon King leaned forward, and at the same time, he grabbed the ground with his left arm and kicked backward forcefully with his right foot.

"Haap!" At the dragon king’s attack, Weger let out a cry and turned the trajectory of his sword to deflect the dragon king’s kick. The mana emitted from the deflected kick hit the barrier behind him and caused it to tremble.

"Ugh!" The court magicians maintaining the barrier let out a groan and barely managed to keep up the barrier against the Dragon King's attack.

It was a strong barrier that was created by dozens of magicians, but it shook like a sheet of paper after a light blow from the Dragon King. The two people within the barrier did not care whether it was shaking or not and got into their prepared stances again.

As they were maintaining vigilance towards each other, the Dragon King grumbled discontentedly, "Jeez, I think this place is too advantageous for me. Isn't this barrier too cramped to utilize your strength and speed? I don't think this is fair."

"There is no such thing as a fair fight normally. And it doesn't matter much."

The Dragon King laughed merrily at Weger's determination. "Kuhahahaha! That's true!"

The Dragon King shouted, gathering up a great amount of mana, "Even if it’s only a taste, we should at least show as much as the great elder of the Butterfly Tribe did!"

In line with the Dragon King's heightened mana, Weger also raised his martial aura. The space began to distort due to the two people's struggle to dominate the space with their mana and aura, and the trembling barrier quickly broke apart. When the windows of the banquet hall began to crack, the Butterfly Tribe people urgently began to repair the court magicians’ barrier.

"You two! Remember that this is the palace!"

The great elder took out a magic wand from his pocket space and made a solid barrier over the current one. At the same time, he interfered with the magic circle covering the palace to prevent it from attacking the two people.

The banquet hall was located on the outskirts of the inner palace, but it was natural for the magic circle to react if they raised their energies this much. The great elder frowned and hindered the complicated magic circle as much as possible.

The two men in the barrier, whether they knew of the great elder's hard work or not, put thick aura blades on their fists and swords, respectively. Then they rushed at each other, and their fist and sword clashed with all their might.

Kwaaaang!

Two aura blades hit each other within the barrier, causing large and small explosions.

* * *

As I left the palace with my aunt, I panicked at the huge pressure behind my back. "Wow, Elder Weger-nim seems to be fighting quite seriously."

My aunt smiled bitterly when I admired him. "That’s not being serious. If he were serious, he wouldn't have used that big, fancy technique.”

Certainly, Elder Weger did not like to use force ignorantly. If he were fighting sincerely, he would have chosen a way to examine his opponent thoroughly and hit their vital point, finishing the fight at once.

I smiled playfully at my aunt's comments. "Well, it is literally a show, but we’re lucky since we got out of the palace easily because of that.”

"Yeah, even if it’s teacher-nim, he won't be able to rush over here while fighting all-out against the Dragon King, Muk."

In fact, even if it wasn't an all-out match, he probably couldn't have located me and my aunt's presence either way. This was because the people my aunt prepared at the banquet hall slowly released mana to hide us when she gave a signal. Of course, even though Elder Weger was confronting the Dragon King with all his might, his senses would have still remained alert, and the fact that I had a helper would be conveyed to my third sister.

"Just how long are you going to eat?” My aunt looked at me with a fed-up face as I pulled food out of my pocket space.

These were the dishes that I had sneaked from the kitchen and put into my pocket space when I was picking up the wine before coming to the banquet hall. We have a chance to eat imperial palace food for the first time in a while, so it's a waste just to eat and leave. It can be stored in the pocket space for a long time, so there was no worry about it going bad.

"I heard that you usually eat well at the boarding house, so why are you eating like someone who’s been starving for a few days?”

It seemed the information from the spy planted in the boarding house went all the way up to my aunt.

"I used a lot of mana earlier, so I'm going to eat my fill.”

I had only competed with Great Elder Arpen for a short while, but the mana I consumed couldn’t be ignored. The mana recovery potion worked well but was not very healthy, so it was better not to take it unless it was urgent.

"Sure, go ahead and eat a lot. There's a great deal of work requiring mana from now on."

I felt somewhat uneasy as my aunt said that. "Aunt, wasn’t the favor just to protect someone for a few hours?”

I heard from Milpia when she snuck in to see me at the hotel that it was a small escort mission.

My aunt nodded with a deep smile. "That’s right. It’s escorting."

My aunt's smile made me even more anxious.

Aunt Talaria took a pocket watch out of her pocket, looked at it, then handed me a mask and black clothes that looked easy to operate from her pocket space. "There’s still time until the appointed moment, so change into that.”

The black clothes and mask had the same pattern as the Big Mama Information Agency’s VIP certificate.

"This is the Big Mama VIP pattern."

"That’s right. The person you're escorting today is very high up in the Big Mama Information Agency. You'd better be prepared if you allow even one of their hairs gets damaged.”

Quite unlike her typical behavior, my aunt gave a gentle smile. No matter how hard I looked at it, it was a smile that said she would make me suffer. It seems like I ran into another tiger while trying to avoid a tiger.