“Sam being nervous. This is a rare occasion. I think we should remember this day forever and celebrate it every year.”
Philip started making fun of Sam.
Sam just scoffed and paid no heed to him.
“That guy really led me into a trap. I became nervous because, right before I extended the challenge, I realized that the trap is not as small I initially thought.”
“Really? How big is it?”
“Everyone in that restaurant is their person. Waiters, chefs, cleaners, managers, customers, and even pedestrians walking outside the restaurant. Everyone in the vicinity is their person and all of them got ready to attack.
I have literally seen their auras raising with my energy vision and I saw the other people outside of my visible range getting ready to make a move.
The shopkeeper came here to finish me off if things went wrong. Good thing he is a bit, rational person. As soon as he learned that there is a peaceful solution to resolve this, he immediately backed down.
If they had all come at me, it would have been difficult for me to find a way to activate the Dimensional Drifter. I would have had to use drastic measures that could have revealed my identity.
We can’t have that happen at this early stage of this plan.”
Sam didn’t bother him and they just waited in their residence. Two more days. That is all he needs to spend waiting for their first target.
It is not a long time. He just spent these two days fidgeting with the cube a bit and they are gone before he noticed.
Two days later, on the day they were supposed to meet, Sam put the cube aside and is waiting for the people to come and get him.
But while he was waiting, what he doesn’t know is that the shopkeeper and the rest of the subordinates are all struggling for their lives at that moment.
They are all currently kneeling down in an estate with one man standing in front of all of them. The man has a lean figure and his hair is faintly green in color. Even his skin is not exactly fair or dark. It is like a very light shade of teal.
Nobody knows what race he belongs to and nobody knows who his parents are and why he possessed such a unique ability and appearance. But everybody knows him by the name ‘Saint’.
The only thing is that the subordinates under him know that he is far from the nickname or rather the vain title that people have given him.
He loves the fame and the drunken feeling it gives him. He embraces his vanity and lives his life based on the fame and belief that people have on him.
“Do you guys even know who I am? I am the Saint. The greatest healer of this land and are you telling me that I have to compete with a nobody who doesn’t even dare to show his face directly? Are you insane?
I shouldn’t have let you handle this from the start. I should have used my contacts directly without leaving everything to some incompetent fools like you.”
“But sir, because I handled this incident like this, you gained much more valuable information. From what that person said, his family is actually powerful. Just as powerful as the Divine formation mountain and the only reason we didn’t hear about him is because of their lack of interest in fame.
If my guess is right, he definitely came across this place to train and gain valuable experience.
If by any chance the family kept a tracker on him which is almost impossible to not do, we will be in big trouble.
Unless we create huge chaos to destroy everything along with him. We need to kill him and everyone who came in contact with him and even then it wouldn’t have been possible.
But now his arrogance not only revealed some other tools he had at hand that could be useful to us, but we can also avoid every possible repercussion that follows this.
All we have to do is make the challenge public and make him swear a Gandharva oath.
With your skills, there is no way you would lose. You will win and gain a lot of attention from the people in the surroundings.
Even if the people behind that guy come down after this, we can directly say that this is part of the agreement that was made by that guy.
It would be his arrogance that’s blamed instead of us.”
Saint who is projecting all of his aura on his subordinates, eased a bit and smiled.
“I will forgive you for this one time. Go and make him sign a contract publicly. You know what, just make him agree to sign the contract. We can sign it in the middle of all of the audience.
One of you go and announce the news about this challenge, just omit the details of the wager from his side, just make it so that the other party is just challenging me to make some trouble and I am not even taking it to heart.
Instead, I am generous enough to accept his plain and boring challenge just out of my benevolence.
This is the perfect narrative. Spin it so that everyone knows my greatness.”
The shopkeepers and the rest of the subordinates are disgusted by his shameless mongering for fame. But they didn’t dare voice those opinions. They just did as they were told.
The shopkeeper who was the mediator for this from the start went to Sam. He was really worried, about what he might have to pull just to make Sam agree to these conditions, but he was surprised when everything went smoothly.
Sam didn’t even bother to reject or resist them. He didn’t even bother to raise some of his own conditions. He just agreed directly.
It made him feel weird.
But the Shopkeeper took Sam to the arena that Saint has arranged.
There Saint waited on the stage and Sam who is still cloaked walked casually.
“Show me your face.
I want you to see what someone as ignorant as you looks like.”
Saint arrogantly said.
Sam removed the cloak, but his face is not fully shown. His face is covered with a half mask. It covered the upper half of his face while the lower half is revealed.
“What is it? Are you that much of a coward to not even dare to show your face?”
“If you want to see it, defeat me first. Not anyone is eligible to take a look at it. Particularly not some vain money-grubbers who are obsessed about the fleeting moments of satisfaction that come from people recognizing you superficially.”
“How dare you?”
“This piece of shit. Who is he to talk about saint like that?”
“Saint, please kill this bastard. Kill him, kill him now.”
“Right Kill him. Who does he even think he is to challenge you?”
Everyone started screaming curses. Sam turned to look at the crowd and his gaze landed on the guy that called him bastard instinctually.
His eyes are filled with killing intent and since the guy is at the very front of the crowd, he could clearly feel it. He immediately shut his mouth and so did the people surrounding him.
Sam looked at the Saint and said.
“You said you wanted to us go through a Gandharva oath. Let’s do it. But before that, let’s state our conditions.”
“Sure. You can do it.”
“If I win, you will admit that you are not the saintly being you are painting out to be. Tell the world that you are just as selfish as them if not worse.
Tell them that this fame is only for your vanity and you are focused on getting the monetary gains that are accompanied with the fame….”
Sam paused for a moment and walked in closer to him as he whispered.
“Also admit that you never cared about these people and your saint title is just a mere joke.”
“How dare you say it like that?”
“What insolence?” Sam let the audience casually digest the info and spoke after that.
“Finally, you have to remove your Saint title permanently. That is no name and you are no saint. Once I prove the selfish piece of shit you are, then the whole populace of this city and the rest of the world, and will definitely know about it.
“Childish Brat.
II think you will come to know what is the difference between you and a real expert.”
“If that really happens, but before that, let’s make an oath.”
Both parties stood up face to face with a Gandharva that can arrow out the oath in the middle.
They once again told the rules out loud and signed the oath immediately.
He gave out the basic precautions on what happens when one of them breaks the oath. After that was done they are ready for the competition.
