I placed the knife from that man on the table. "As I promised, Lady South, I dealt with that group before the next week even started."
I currently found myself under Catlonia's Bar, dealing with the lords of the underground fighting arena.
Today had been a pretty normal first day of the weekend — training with my friends, spending time with Fran, and going to the fishing spot to keep progressing on that event.
Thankfully, I was able to hide my injuries and keep my involvement in last night's activities a secret.
From what I'd heard from Theo, Kaida had actually wanted me to help them — which wasn't too strange, since I'm pretty close to her group.
Even if it wasn't the cleanest clear, this would surely help Kaida improve.
"Haha," the bear demi-human cackled. "I'm surprised, West. I seriously thought you were all talk and no bite."
"Using Aurum Academy kids to help you out… so unrefined," East said, slowly shaking his head in disappointment.
"He wasn't involved with those kids," Lady South corrected, shutting East up.
"Hmm?"
"The students involved were registered as lower-class students, with only a single A-class among them. Ale— I mean, West belongs to the highest class in Aurum."
"What do you mean, South?" North asked, crossing his arms.
"This is why you're not fit to be a lord, North. The first night this kid came here, when he defied the previous Lord of the West, he foolishly revealed his name. Tracking him down wasn't that hard."
"Even I learned as much as I could from our new partner."
"However," South continued, her eyes locked on me, "my informants failed to dig up anything from before your arrival in the city. The closest they got was that you arrived on a horse with a woman…"
I shrugged my shoulders, avoiding the topic entirely. "My past isn't important right now. I'd rather talk about what happened last night."
"Our sources could only gather so much information, West. After that little battle ended, the Golden Troupe and the Knights of the Red Tower appeared. The men were taken prisoner into the Blue Tower," Lady South said while reading through the papers handed to her.
"That pesky leader, Lila Varsem, keeps everything about the Golden Troupe highly confidential. Even the best information brokers would be caught trying to slip into her domain," East commented.
"I did my part of the deal, South. That's all that matters."
"Sadly for you, we never agreed on your rewards if you actually completed the job," South said with a sly grin.
"That's fine by me. Honestly, I got more out of it than you could ever give me," I replied flatly.
All three other lords seemed to flinch in surprise at my words.
"Bah ha! Now that's better. You're at least entertaining."
"Then I guess we can leave it at that, right, West?"
"Fine by me."
"I seriously can't tell if you're unrefined or a real gentleman…"
---
With that done, and the lords leaving the meeting room, I was ready to go train with the Eleventh Songbird Squad and check on the fairy group, since I hadn't had time to after last night.
However, I was met by a butler entering the room.
"Oh, you're…" I snapped my fingers, trying to remember his name. "…Ba, right?"
"No, lord. I'm BuTi," he said respectfully, bowing his head.
"What a weird name! And you look just like Ba!"
"Under Catlonia's Bar, in the fighting arena, we butlers and maids have no real names. We're given aliases, such as Butler A — the one you know as Ba — or Butler T, me," he explained with a faint smile.
"That… is…"
"Maids follow the same pattern, if you were going to ask."
"I wasn't… but thanks anyway." I squinted my eyes as I tried to look for any difference between him and the other butler. But I failed to spot anything that told them apart.
"I was ordered to help you manage your side of the arena, lord."
My whole body felt drained at the thought of managing an entire sector of the underground arena.
"Yeah, right… to start with, how are—"
"Everything you'd like to do will have to come straight out of your own pocket, lord."
Managing my side of the underground arena was going to be a massive time sink…
"Let's start with the sector itself. I remember it was filthy and dangerous to fight in. BuTi, close off the whole sector. I'll spend tonight working on it."
"All by yourself, lord?" he asked, surprised.
"I have my contacts, you see. Everything must come out of my pocket," I said with a confident smile.
"As you wish. For tonight, all fighters will be out of the sector while you work."
---
Once inside the sector, I was surprised by the sudden level of technology and mechanisms this arena had.
With a simple pull of a lever in a special control room, a whole wall lifted from the ground, sealing the sector off from the outside.
And, by my own demand, I was the only one left inside.
One look at the filth covering the place almost made me want to plop down and sigh in defeat — but I wasn't about to sit around.
"Come out, guys…"
At my call, both the Eleventh Songbird Squad and the fairy group I'd saved emerged from my black cloak.
The goblins stretched their muscles, with Sheiran staying close to Rachnera.
The fairies, still too weak to fly, clung to Gola for support.
"A strange artifact indeed. I've never heard of a storage cloak," Antares said, looking around.
"Ew… where are we?" one of the fairies asked, still clinging to Gola.
"I've got work to do cleaning this arena, and I wanted to ask for help," I said with an awkward smile, a bit embarrassed to make them work after everything that happened.
"You're just going to have us do slave work!" Tinalara snapped, yanking on my ear.
After I groaned in pain, she finally let me go. "I'm sorry! But I really need help here. Just think of it as training… please." I clasped my hands together in a pleading gesture.
"It'll be good practice for my rock affinity," Sheiran said.
"Speaking of magic… we wanted to talk with you, Alen," Antares said, standing tall on Gola's shoulder and pointing at me.
"Here, you can talk with them, mister. We'll handle the cleaning," Gola said cheerfully, handing me the five fairies.
"Hey, I'm the leader here! He's not ordering us around!" Tinalara shouted, though she still huffed and joined the others in cleaning.
"Alen is in no shape to be working. Honestly, after last night, I'm surprised he's still alive," Antares said, settling on my shoulder.
"What did you want to talk about, Antares?"
"Besides thanking you again, we have a lot of questions. Like — how could you control outer mana? What were those magic circles behind your back when you shared mana with us? And is your Inner Realm broken?" She rapidly listed off, counting on her fingers.
"I have a broken Inner Realm?!"
"That's what we felt when you shared mana with me. But you might just have a mana-leaking deficiency."
"Mana-leaking deficiency?" I echoed, confused.
"It can be caused by a lot of things," she said, raising a finger. "A broken Inner Realm, or naturally larger mana pores. You definitely have the latter — maybe both."
"I don't understand…"
Bigger pores? Broken Inner Realm? I'd never heard of those before.
"Your mana pores are larger than average, which means you burn through your reserves faster."
"So that's… a bad thing?"
"Yeah!" one of the fairies said, nodding enthusiastically.
"The best case is average pores," another added. "Big ones make you lose mana quickly, but small ones are just as bad — maybe worse."
"Having big pores means you absorb mana as fast as you lose it. People with smaller pores take longer to recharge and their spells are weaker."
"I guess I'll just look at the positives if it's something I can't change," I said with a sigh.
While we talked, Sheiran practiced manipulating sand and dirt with his rock affinity, while Gola and Tinalara picked up debris around the arena.
"And what does a broken Inner Realm mean?"
"We don't know if you actually have one," Antares said.
"Imagine the Inner Realm as a glass," one of the fairies explained. "A glass that fills itself.
It has gates to stop the water at certain points, these are the magic circles. If the glass breaks, the contents leak out and never rise to its full potential."
As she explained, my eyes widened with worry.
"As we said, we don't know if that's your case," Antares reassured. "You barely have enough mana to be on the second circle — enough to cast one tier-two spell before draining yourself. Once you increase your reserves through training and meditation, we'll know if your Inner Realm is broken or not."
"I see…"
Mana leakage? Was that the reason Alen's maximum rank in the game was only the second circle? I'd always thought it was just a natural limit — everyone had one, after all, since mana reserves varied from person to person.
"How could you control outer mana as someone with a physical body? What were those circles that appeared behind your back? And is stabbing your thigh really important?" one of the fairies asked, her eyes sparkling as she pressed her fists together in excitement.
"Uhhh… about those circles, I have no idea. As for outer mana… it was just trial and error. And stabbing my own thigh… yeah, I think that part's actually important," I admitted, struggling to explain since I'd never given the whole process much theoretical thought.
"That's… not what we were expecting…" the five fairies said in unison, their wings drooping in collective disappointment.
"I'm sorry! I always just wing it and hope it works!" I apologized quickly, feeling their opinion of me plummet to an all-time low.
"Why don't you go through all the steps?" one of them suggested. "We might be able to help you understand."