When I got close to Captain Raven several cheers came from the main arena, it looks like the fights have already started. I hope I'm not late for Hilda's fight, she didn't tell me when her fight would be.
"Hi captain, looks like the club has grown a lot."
Captain gave a confused look when she noticed my presence, does it look like I shouldn't be here?"
"What are you doing here, Ulric? Weren't you stuck at the institute?"
How does Captain Raven know about my master's orders?
"Prohibiting is a very strong word, and today is Hilda's debut so my presence is mandatory today."
"Grimalkin isn't going to like this, she sent a pretty direct message so I wouldn't ask you out of the institute. She said that you contracted a contagious disease and were in isolation, even though I think it's strange I won't pick a fight with her, I'm not suicidal."
It seems that even Captain Raven is afraid of my mistress, but I cannot dome. Her decision I was very aware of and saved her a lot of trouble, but I think she is now afraid of being blamed for me looking here, she is slightly paler after she saw me.
"Not the need to be nervous, she was just worried that I would get in trouble if I left the institute, but as long as I stay out of trouble, she won't even notice that I leave the institute."
"It's her funeral, just don't have you drag me along with you."
That was cold, I'm still a member of your team. But I feel if my mistress said I should get out of the night owls Captain Raven would kick me out without a second thought, it breaks my heart.
"How about we move to a less terrifying subject? The club seems to have expanded a lot in the last month, have there been any problems? The atmosphere between the fighters seems a little uncomfortable."
When I bring up the subject of fighters, Vera spoke up.
"The bad weather is because some idiots started fighting outside the arena two days ago."
"Why did they do this?"
"Because they're muscle idiots with underdeveloped brains, it was a well-balanced fight between two mercenaries from different groups, but in the end the defensive fighter made a risky move that worked and he managed to knock out his opponent. The group of the idiot who was knocked out almost invaded the arena while accusing the winner's team of cheating, obviously they don't hear cheating it was just luck."
Before Vera could tell me how it turned out, the man I don't know finished Vera's story and earned an angry look from her, but it came as a surprise when Vera didn't scold him, that's unusual.
"The two groups were banned, but before they were neutralized some group members got injured and during the short brawl between the groups, some nobles and other participants were caught in the crossfire. The fight between the two mercenary teams was not just melee they attacked each other with everything, using their aura, elemental energy and weapons, only wizards are missing, but luckily the only wizards were of the nobility and they only used defensive magic to protect themselves and they ended up protecting a part of the stands or the number of injured would have been much higher."
"Who are you?"
"Sorry I forgot to introduce myself earlier, I'm Lucas Vernos. I am the representative of my family here at the club."
I didn't expect to hear this, as I remember the group's founders had no interest in making a partnership with more noble families. I turn to Captain Raven for answers.
"Captain, why does the Vernos family have a representative here?"
"Complicated history, but in short with the arrival of nobles from other arias in the kingdom and mercenaries the Vernos, Menfis and Eliure families decided that they should be the owners of a part of the club."
"Mrs. Raven, you make it sound like the three families are villages that forced the purchase of a share of the club. The three families have invested a great deal of money and men in the club, the simple arenas now have runes for the protection of the public, the many more noble attendees and the three families have already started to design a more definitive and well-designed installation for the club. , if it weren't for the help of the three families, the club would have already suffered a tragic episode the last time we were lucky that the Menfis family had placed a curse element wizard and the Eliure family a shadow element wizard, if the two had not worked together the fight between the two mercenary groups could have caused deaths among the people working at the club or the spectators."
"I didn't say I was robbed, Lucas. I said this was something the three family members decided and imposed, this is the truth and not excuses that this is because of the foreign nobles, the fight club turned into a good spectacle and the three of you decided you wanted this lucrative new business. "
It looks like Captain Raven isn't too angry at the three families, but she plans to keep playing in the face of her representatives of the three families she's partners with were bullied by them. And from the response of the Vernos family rep that this isn't the first time she's done this, maybe this isn't even the tenth time she's done it Captain Raven knows how to be vindictive.
"I would prefer that Mrs. Raven didn't comment like that anymore, as far as I know you're going to make a lot more money than before, and you and these colleagues are still the people who can change the club's rules, the three families have only been offering appeal to the club and have made no attempt to change the club's rules. Honestly the majority of the members of the three families that are involved in the club have a great respect for the rules and spirit that the club has, not one of them has an interest in changing anything in the way the club works besides increasing its size and safety."
This is good news; it seems that the club has caught the attention of people with decent and functional brains in all three families. Changing the club's leadership would be tantamount to destroying the club or turning it into another club and I doubt that most adventurous groups that are part of the club would support such changes, and it is quite possible that most of them would leave the club as a protest or sympathy for the adventurers who founded the club.
Despite having many conflicts and different ideas between the adventuring groups, they are still a tight group especially since most of the groups that participate in the group since the beginning have good relations with Captain Raven and her friends.
"How are today's fights, Captain Raven?"
"Normally, since the last incident the number of fights decreases, I don't intend to let many groups stay inside the club at the same time, the mercenaries fight too much I thought that taking care of a bunch of adventurers was boring, but being a slob, a bunch of mercenaries sucks and they stink a lot. I know they're far from home, but that's not an excuse not to shower at the various toilets in town that offer a good shower for a small price, there's not even a good reason they're avoiding showering, isn't it? how dirt increases your chances of winning a fight."
Lucas, who had given up on changing Captain Raven's behavior, still hadn't given up on the conversation.
"I think you're wrong at one point Madam Raven, to a rumor about a very unique tactic circulating among the mercenaries, letting the dirt accumulate on your body will make the nobles and most adventurers want to stay away from you and that could be very useful in a fight. I don't know who started this rumor, but it's obvious that most mercenaries have avoided bathing because of this, a layer of dirt can discourage an opponent from having too much contact with them."
I think Lucas has withheld this information until now just to shock Captain Raven at the best opportunity, he must have been planning this little revenge for a while now. Maybe the person who started this horrible rumor was him?
But I have to admit that he was quite successful in irritating Captain Raven, when she recovered from the shock, she began to exude an atmosphere of violence and hatred. She really hates the dirty mercenaries or is she really annoyed that they are using this kind of tacky tactic in the sport she likes, she grabs Lucas by the collar of his robe and lifts him off the ground and faces him.
This move wasn't difficult for the captain since Lucas is shorter than her and light, he's just a green core mage and by his physique he should be an academic mage, maybe he doesn't even specialize in magic but business. This can be rare but it happens, I can't understand why anyone would choose to follow this type of path, but according to Ingredi this happens with a good frequency in large families.
"Who started this rumor?"
Although she hasn't yelled at Lucas he has started to shake as he is suspended in midair.
"I do not know! I heard this rumor from one of the mercenary groups, I have no idea who came up with this stupid idea."
"Are you sure? If you lie to me now Lucas, even your family won't be able to protect you from my fury, so you must be very careful with your next words."
"I did not lie! I really don't know anything!"
When Captain Raven started to interrogate Lucas, I heard a round of applause in the main arena and when I looked at her, I saw Hilda stepping onto the stage. It looks like her fight is about to start, I turn to Raziel and Torris and wave them to follow me to the arena, I don't intend to lose Hilda's fight, even though it's fun to see a green core mage peeing in fear.
So, the three of us went to the arena and left a poor wizard being shaken by an enraged female warrior.