Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

On the busy streets of the capital city of Ellesmere, a man roamed around in his casual black clothes. His hair was just like the night itself absorbing all of the light and his handsome face evoked peals of exclamation from the ladies walking by.

"Where did that little girl go? From her over the top excitement, I would not be surprised if she ran all around the city in trace of her disciple" Simon remarked looking at the hundreds of stalls set up around the corner of the street.

It seemed the stalls were in preparations for the upcoming tournament. Since the tournament attracted people from all walks of life and region to the capital; naturally, there would horde of customers looking for food and drinks during this time.

The time right now was when these businesses will boom. There was still more than a week remaining for the upcoming 'Battle of the Finest' tournament hence these stalls were still being set up and were not functional yet.

Feeling that he had not eaten anything for a while, Simon searched for a good place to eat. However, since he was new to this place and every street was crowded with people, he didn't know where to go or where he was.

"Haha, I can't believe a grown man like me has become lost. Should I ask somebody for directions?" the only silver lining was that he knew the name of the inn he was staying at.

Simon walked cluelessly for a while trying to find a restaurant where he could eat, he crisscrossed around many winding streets and before he knew it, he had ended up on a street devoid of any people.

The place here reeked of a pungent smell and gave off a gloomy vibe. Even the building here were broken and dilapidated, made with whatever was available and no plan in mind.

Looking at the place, it seemed that he unknowingly arrived at the slum district. Just when he planned to walk back to where he came from, a gang of people with brusque faces, surrounded him from front and back, cutting off his path of retreat.

Seeing each of them give him a mocking look, Simon suddenly understood what kind of situation he was in and sighed in exasperation.

"Haah… so they are trying to mug me huh. Well given that I am walking all alone and clueless, I cannot blame them. But seriously what is with this cliched trope".

The scene was the very same where the main character from a novel or a movie suddenly finds themselves lost in a narrow backstreet and encounters hoodlums who try to make life difficult for them.

Simon couldn't believe he was experiencing the very same thing. He looked at the thugs who were surrounding him, currently each of them wore a black tank top and carried a wooden bat with nails sticking out of them.

Looking at their appearance, it was like they were screaming 'Look at us, we look like thugs'.

While Simon was observing this group of men, they too were silently snickering and examining him. Their eyes showed a greedy glint when they landed on the space ring in his hand.

Space ring was not uncommon in this land and many people had it, however, no matter how common they were, they were still out of reach for the poor as they needed at least a hundred silver coins to even purchase the lowest grade space ring.

It was no surprise that these thugs would immediately have their eyes on Simon's space ring.

"Oi Oi~ do you see this? A fat lamb had just stumbled himself in front of us. Hehe, how can we not feast on it?" the thug who had the most muscle out of the group and seemed to be the leader, licked his lips and commented.

The other thugs laughed and played with their bats trying to intimidate the other party. Perhaps because Simon was alone and his human appearance made him look like a son of some noble or wealthy family, these thugs had mistaken him as an easy target they can fill their pockets with.

"Tch… look at him cowering so much that he can't even speak..Kehehe" the other thugs remarked and laughed.

"Look here fat lamb, there is no need to be afraid. As long as you comply with us and hand over everything you have with you, we won't mind letting you walk back… naked that is hahaha" the leader of the thug revealed their intentions before laughing out loud.

From how smoothly they talked, it seems that were used to this line of business. Simon pondered intensely; he was thinking about what to do with these thugs. Although fights would break in the capital in some corners, killing someone was strictly prohibited. This was something that he had learned from Cynthia who had told everyone not to kill even if they were provoked.

"Not kill them huh… that would seem difficult" he used [Analysis] on these group of thugs and the result he got was utterly disappointing. Each of them were below level 60 and the leader was barely level 80.

They were so weak that if Simon did not control his strength well, even a simple punch from him would end up killing them.

"What the hell is this guy mumbling? Throw everything you have on the ground and kneel if you don't want us disfiguring that pretty face of yours" Mistaking his silence as him scared out of his wits, the thugs started to become even bolder.

One even tried to push him on the ground only to realise that he couldn't even flinch the other party.

"Eh?! Why is this guy not budging?" the thug put more strength on his arm that was pushing down on Simon's shoulders from behind. However, even after using all of his body strength, the other party was just like a huge boulder that refused to move from its place.

When the other thugs laughed at him, the man's face flushed red with embarrassment and he couldn't help take it out on the young man. The thug brandished his bat and smashed it on Simon's back in a fit of anger.

SMASH… the bat broke apart and its splinters flew around in the surrounding.

"What?" the thug who was holding the other end of his now broken bat, looked at his opponent in disbelief. His lips repeatedly opened and closed, it looked like he wanted to say something but before he could, Simon turned around and flipped the man upside down before smashing him on to the ground.

BANG… the road shattered when the thug was implanted on the ground and small cracks appeared in a few meters area around them.

"O-Oi… Buno?" the other thugs called out to the thug buried on the road. Buno's unmoving body told them that he was knocked unconscious in just one move.

Everything happened in a couple of seconds which made this ragtag group of thugs unable to believe their eyes. When they pulled the thug named Buno out, they saw several of his teeth shattered and his nose bent in a weird way. His eyes were rolled up and he was turned into a vegetative state where it would be impossible for him to continue with his current profession in the future. After all, who would be afraid of a thug with several of his teeth missing and having an out of shape nose.

Nevertheless, seeing their friend beaten like that, all of the reason flew out of the other thugs and they all pounced at Simon together…

"Stop right there".

When a shout that halted their advance came from behind them.  Judging from the depth of the voice, it seemed to be from a boy, a relatively young at that.

When Simon and the thugs turned around to see who it was, they saw a boy no less than thirteen years of age, wearing a black uniform and a navy hat appear out of nowhere.

The face of the boy was delicate, he wore a smile around the corner of his lips, and carried a rapier buckled to his belt. From his unique appearance to his feeble presence that was even able to escape Simon's senses, it could be seen that the young man was anything but ordinary.

At the same time, the royal palace of the capital city of Ellesmere. A knight who seemed to be quite high up in the ranking, ran through the corridor and approached the study room of the king in a hurry before being stopped by the other knights and soldiers stationed there.

"Haa… haa… I have an urgent message from the knight captain Lord Cyrus. I need to see the king immediately" the soldier reported.

Just by mentioning the name of the Knight Captain, it was enough for the other soldiers and knights to understand the gravity of the situation. One of the soldiers stationed outside went in to notify the king before beckoning the latter to come in.

The king who was seated on his chair glossing through the documents on his table, put the document down and looked at the soldier. It must be because he had run all the way here without stopping, that the soldier was perspiring a lot.

The king first told him to catch his breath before continuing with his report.

"Your Majesty… haa.. haa… they are here. The delegates from the Sanguine Empire are here" the soldier reported.

"What?!" the king exclaimed dropping the document on the table.

"When did they arrive?" he questioned pacing out of his table.

"Lord Cyrus is currently meeting with the delegates. He sent me to inform your majesty to send someone from the royal family to welcome them" the soldier detailed.