Edgan had his hair tied back with the help of a white ribbon. This detail, along with the same color outfit, made him look more attractive than he really was.
“Mel, are you here too? What a pleasant surprise!”
The handsome boy hugged Mel as if they had known each other for a very long time. Now, the eyes watching Edgan were on the group.
“When the Plant Department test was over, we wanted to watch the fights with my friend Nalt. You know, I have a lot to learn!”
When Mel spoke of Nalt as a friend, the boy whose hair had been cut out of proportion gave a cheerful laugh and held out his uncut left hand to greet Edgan.
“Nice to meet you, I’m Nalt. I heard that this is your fourth win in a row!”
Nalt took a short pause from his speech and stared all over the handsome boy.
“But you don’t look like you had been in four fights. Your white clothes aren’t even dirty!”
Edgan, listening to the other’s words, squinted in embarrassment and bowed his head slightly. This made the girls around them take a deep breath.
“Such girls never let him alone!”
Marvina seemed to dislike the interest of other girls in her older brother. She pounded her feet on the ground as she looked around and spoke.
“Take it easy, Marvina. You should build better relationships with people.”
Edgan, who folded his hands behind his back, called out to his sister as if imitating a wise man and then turned to Nalt.
“Let’s say a little luck and a little underestimation by the rivals since I am not a noble. But there is a point that I wonder about; why are your hands cut?”
Edgan, who pointed at Mel’s and Nalt’s hands with his eyes, changed the subject skillfully and charged with a question.
Before answering, Nalt looked at the burly young man next to him, seeming not to want to do this without his permission. Noticing this situation, Mel spoke before him.
“I better explain it to you. It required a sacrifice today for the public people to pass the test, and we did it.”
An unsatisfied expression appeared on Edgan’s face, listening to Mel’s summary. Nalt immediately intervened.
“Mel equalized the hundred-year record today. He made all ten buds of the Ten Buds Ghost Orchid bloom!”
When the two siblings heard this news, they petrified for a while. Then Marvina hugged the Genius of the Plant Department again.
“Congratulations Mel, you are really something!”
The young girl was so cheerful. Her brother responded to this news differently compared to hers.
“So, I have to go through this tour without losing. As far as I heard, someone who is not a noble did not achieve this before!”
Mel immediately spoke after the words of the handsome young man who was motivated by taking Mel as a rival.
“Don’t say that. You’ve already won four fights comfortably. I guess nobody would want to come across you unless they are very strong!”
Being fresh out of his seclusion, Mel thought as straightforward as possible. But the young boy who had come down from the stage just a fight before had something to say.
“You are thinking it wrong, my friend. It won’t be like the way you think!”
Mel turned his eyes to the group with surprise but saw them lower their gaze to the ground.
“I still have time for my next fight. By the way, let me tell you why I said this. The five people gathered here are not children of noble families. This is actually the only reason.”
“I don’t understand anything. Can you explain it in more detail?”
The young boy, hungry for new events and concepts, wanted to learn the deepest parts of the issue without hesitation.
“First of all, none of the participants from noble families give up in front of your friend even though they know they will be defeated. Yes, it may be embarrassing to be defeated by a commoner, but giving up causes them to be ridiculed for a long time!”
“Well, what if he only faces the commoners from now on?”
A bitter smile appeared on Nalt’s face and he took over the conversation.
“That’s the most dramatic point! Children, who want to defeat someone that cannot be beaten by the nobles, definitely will not want to miss this opportunity. Therefore, Edgan has no choice but to fight ten fights in the first round!”
Mel, who did not witness such complicated behaviors in the village where he was born, listened carefully to what was told. It seemed that this state of him had whetted Florin’s appetite.
“There are more and more! For example, let’s watch this scene!”
The young boy with two large front teeth pointed at one of the twenty fighting areas with his hand.
“That brunette boy’s name is Nasrr. He is a friend of me and Nalt. He’s been auditioning for the fighter selections since he was fourteen. I want you to watch him very carefully.”
Mel did what he was told. As if isolated from the world, he watched the boy mentioned. Nasrr put up pressure on his opponent as the fight started. He attacked his opponent, who was wearing a luxurious outfit, with a wooden stick from all directions.
Five minutes later, as his opponent was almost losing, everything changed suddenly. By using his weapon, Nasrr had to begin to block the blows that he had easily escaped before. Within a minute, he accepted defeat by throwing himself out of the battlefield.
“What happened there?”
It was hidden in the tone of his voice that Mel did not understand what was happening. When he turned to those beside him, he saw that sad look and head bow again.
“Oh man, you are so naive! How will you survive in the academy like this?”
Florin first made a short introduction.
“Nasrr is perhaps the most talented person in this settlement, but his misfortune is that he is the child of a very poor family. His father died in the forest surrounding the campus when Nasrr was ten years old. He has been taking care of his mother and his three siblings ever since!”
“He could easily enter the academy at the age of fourteen if he wanted to, but he did not want to leave his family behind. He also knew that he could not survive in the academy without money. So, he discovered this way; the method of getting the money of noble families.”
“You saw with your own eyes, Nasrr could finish the job anytime he wanted. But instead of it, he forced his opponent to a point of giving up. Of course, this ‘giving up’ happened figuratively.”
“Do you see that girl? The girl in a blue dress, with her hair in two ponytails, is her sister.”
“Just as you were watching the fight, she took a money-filled purse from the noble boy’s father. And things turned around. He has been doing this for the last three years. Even though they knew they could not defeat him, no noble family paid from the beginning to give up.”
“Do you know why? Not because they don’t have money. They give that amount of money to a glass of drink at the Grape Temple Inn. Their only concern is to have their superiority recognized. If murdering a child would not be an issue to be ridiculed among noble families, they would have killed Nasrr already!”
As Mel listened to the brutal hierarchy and caste system, he began to clench his fists. Meanwhile, the wounds healed with Grumpy Hanry’s ointment were reopening and blood was covering his hand.
