Emperor's Reckoning

Today was the competition day and it had been five days since the night event in the academy. Lyon and Luna rarely saw each other since then. Every time they saw each other coincidentally, Luna would blushed and walked away not giving Lyon a chance to talk at all.

The city was full of crowd and bazaar here and there. The local merchant would take advantage of the bustling atmosphere and drag a customer into their shop. There were many races inside the kingdom, there were elves, cat-persons, goblins, orcs, etc.

Even the guild would take advantage of this situation and tried to recruit new members.

Labyrinth of Simak were the place where the competition would be held. This labyrinth was so big that it had three entrances. The entrances were inside the Kingdom of Nostria, Meistas, and Arcana, however the entrance that opened every twenty five years were different each time. This time the Labyrinth opened inside the Kingdom of Nostria. The place where the entrance located was in the arena, west part of Nostria.

*grug

*grug grug

The sound of horses galloping became more apparent as they moving towards the city gate. Both kingdom's candidates were the one riding the horses with their king leading the way.

It was the absolute rule that, neither Kingdoms shall bring an army during the competition and the current leader must lead the candidates himself, however the citizens of both Kingdoms are allowed to watch the competition as well.

This rule was bind with the 'Heaven's Deal' contract. So every new leader of the kingdom must abide to this contract or face destruction from the other two kingdoms.

The people who just came majorly wore red clothing with the exception of one person. He had a straight thin body like a skeleton along with his wrinkled triangle face. He wore the royal clothes of the highest status. His name was Folan Nux the current King of Arcana.

The group of people rushed into the arena directly without stopping somewhere else.

*neigh

Scream the horse as Folan pulled his lead rope.

*tap

The King got down from the horse and approached Sylviana in the special spectator sits.

"Welcome to the Kingdom of Nostria, I Queen Sylviana hopes that you can enjoy the competition on my humble Kingdom." said Sylviana to Folan as she cupped her hand.

"Thank you for your welcome Queen Sylviana, ah, you are still as beautiful as ever." said Folan while cupping his hand. Then he continued: "Are you sure you don't want to marry my son? the offer still stands you know, we can join the kingdoms together."

Sylviana's eyes turned cold for a second but Folan failed to notice this slight changes. "Hahaha King Folan is good at joking, how can I ever be worthy of your son." chuckled Sylviana.

Then they both stop talking and sit on the designated location while the candidates waited on top of the arena.

The sittings were divided into three sections, in which each section was for one kingdom. On the Arcana side sat Folan and his army's general.

The general had a muscular body and square face with white hair drape around his shoulder. He wore a really heavy armor but it looked so light the way he walked around unperturbed. He had a double-handed sword hanging beside his waist and a big shield with 'Arcana' engraved on it, on his back. Nobody knew his real name, however people from the Arcana called him Paladin.

The King was puzzled when he landed his gaze on the arena. There were no candidates from the Nostria at all. The only team there was the Arcana.

(Where is he?) thought Folan.

.

.

.

"Peanut butter sandwich! Peanut butter sandwich! Get your peanut butter sandwich here! Buy two get one free only for today!! Only five bronze for one peanut butter sandwich!" a loud voice came out of nowhere from three rows below the balcony where Folan sat. Seeing the man shouting black lines covered Folan's face and Paladin.

"Ehm excuse me what is a peanut butter sandwich?" said one of the crowd.

"Eh? You don't know? Let me tell you brother." said Lyon while picking up one of the wrapped sandwich.

"This is the hit of this day and age brother, look at this .... the top and bottom layer of this is called 'bread' ... this item can only be obtained by special means ... using the basic fire magic this 'food' is roasted to a certain level of heat. The middle part is the core of this creation .. the peanut butter. Ooops I can't tell you how I make it, just try it for five bronze."

"Alright then I will try one." said the young man.

"Here you go brother, go tell a friend!" said Lyon while receiving the money.

.

*crunch

. 𝐟𝗿𝚎𝐞𝓌e𝒃𝑛𝒐ѵ𝒆𝑙.c𝚘𝓶

"Ah so soft, so easy to chew too. What is this food! this is simply godsend gift! Practical and Delicious I cannot believe SUCH A THING EXIST!" said the young man. Then he ripped the sandwich into two and give it to the person beside him. "Bro try it YOU MUST TRY IT!" said the young man.

"B-But I don't know you?" said the young man beside him.

"I don't care just try it!" said the young man.

.

*crunch

.

"Wow this is so good, this is unbelievable."

"Hey I also want to try one!"

"Give me two , I get one free right?"

"Hey...."

The crowd was bustling with the sandwich Lyon sell.

"Alright guys I have many in stock so don't worry." said Lyon while selling it one by one.

*crowd bustling

On the balcony, Folan was curious about the food and almost salivated seeing the crowd's pleasure after eating it. While on the other balcony, Sylviana was itching to eat the food.

Sylviana then whispered to Fei to buy two sandwiches. On the way to Lyon she met Paladin also rushing to Lyon. When their eyes met with each other they knew that it was a competition.

*Swoosh

*SWOOSH

Both of them run like a shadow and appeared in front of Lyon in no time.

*AAAAHhh

*ahhhhhh

The wind blow caused by both of them blasted away most of the low leveled cultivator.

"Lyon miss Sylviana wants to buy two sandwiches." said Fei charmingly while handing over ten bronze.

"For you Fei, this one is free." said Lyon as he accepted the bronze and gave four sandwiches.

"Why thank you." smiled Fei.

"Hmmph! Nostria can only afford two sandwiches? Pathetic!!" said Paladin. Before Fei wanted to say something he continued: "Here is twenty bronze."

"Here.." said Lyon calmly as he handover four sandwiches.

.

.

.

.

"Hey you fool! I bought with twenty bronze, where are my other two sandwiches?" berated Paladin.

"You deaf stupid old goat!" shouted Lyon back.

The crowd were surprised to see someone brave enough to confront Paladin.

Lyon continued: "It was buy two get one free! not buy four get two free!"

Fei was bursting in laughter as she held her stomach with her hand.

The surrounding crowd had black lines covering their head. (this guy is so SHAMELESS).

"YOU..." before Paladin utter another word. The sound of birds chirping were heard.

It was the Meistas.