'Hospital? I have no time for this.' When Hugo woke up, he found himself in a hospital ward.
This was quite weird to him, after all the last time he had been in a hospital ward was a few years ago, and back then it wasn't even him that was injured.
After checking himself for any major injuries and finding none, the next thing he found was a reason not to stay in such a place.
He removed the connected drip from his arm and limped to the closet in the room.
"Where do you think you're going?" A voice spoke out from behind him.
"Huh?"
Assessing the room carefully, he saw the only place it could be coming from was behind the curtain which he ignored previously.
The voice was also very familiar, after all, it was the voice he'd heard before he fell into unconsciousness.
"Eh, how are you also hospitalized? I don't remember you being in the range of YOUR own attack."
Iron Alchemist finally draw the curtain backwards after fiddling with it for a while. Now he could talk to Hugo more effectively.
"The Kinetic Cannon Blast stores all the kinetic energies that I've collected and released before concentrating the energy into one big kinetic blast. It hurts my enemies as much as it will hurt me."
Hugo nodded in understanding and went back to looking for his clothes.
"HEY, DON'T JUST IGNORE ME!!!"
Hugo's attitude visibly annoyed Iron Alchemist, but that didn't really matter to the former.
"What are you so angry about? My injuries will heal sooner or later, I have nothing to be doing in a hospital. There are villains to be apprehended and preparations to be made!"
The last part caught Iron Alchemist's interest. "Preparations for what, exactly?"
"Isn't it obvious? For the re-ranking tournament of course! I realized one could fight Skydancers to increase their rank, the winner obviously gets an increased rank depending on whoever the person he was fighting."
"But I've also realized that those particular points don't really matter to me unless I fight someone of higher rank than me since I'm an S-rank Dancer." He continued, "So, in that case, I'm going to fight some higher-ranked Skydancers, and if I win, I get a rank increase."
But all that still made little sense to Iron Alchemist upon Hugo's elaborate explanation.
Sighing a little, Hugo explained further. "Well, the higher your rank is before the tournament starts, the fewer opponents you'll fight. In fact, the only opponents you'll fight are those on the same level or those of higher level."
Iron Alchemist looked at Hugo in a new light for the first time.
'I knew he was smart, but to think of this on his own. And when did he do it, when we were embroiled in that heated battle? If that's so, he's just some sort of monster.'
It wasn't an exaggeration in the very least. But his thoughts gave rise to Hugo's brilliant escape.
"Hehe, see ya next time Mr Iron Alchemist."
The sound of a window opening alerted him of Hugo's escape. The wind was much that day and at first, Hugo took the full brunt of the cool air, but the moment he left was a different story.
. . .
Hugo ran back to the park where he left his hover cycle and he planned to get back home the moment he got it. Hyena was probably waiting for him.
The park was in a miserable state. On the way back, he learnt that he'd been unconscious for no less than two days and since the time that their sparring match had finished; the park was closed down for reproduction, so the Skydancers living in that vicinity had to find a park in another area to rest.
There was quite a huge crowd in front of the park, most of them were Skydancers who were dismayed to find this place wrecked. Hugo looked at them with a lack of sympathy and listened in o their conversations.
'Hehe, why don't you go find your own park to wreck.'
"Do any of you guys know what caused this?" A shabby-looking Skydancer muttered to his companions with a tinge of annoyance hidden in his tone.
"You don't know? It was a battle between two high-ranking Skydancers?"
"Which ones exactly? Even if they're high ranking does that give them a right to destroy the paradise of us lower ranks?!"
The shabby-looking one who spoke first was enraged by the attitudes of those so-called higher-ranked Skydancers.
"Shh, don't let people hear you. Their fans are quite ferocious."
His friends' whispers made the shabby-looking one even more curious than before. Which Skydancers could cause C-rankers to feel so inferior?
"It was the 'Legendary' S-rank Skydancer; Black Knight and the infamous A-ranker, Iron Alchemist!"
Their words made him almost want to commit suicide.
"Are you kidding me?! Those guys are on another level entirely! Why were they fighting though?"
Just like snow, rumours flew out of their mouths endlessly. Even some random weirdos who were not involved in the conversation joined in, mouths carrying weird rumours.
"I heard that they were fighting for the affection of SS-rank Skydancer, Mystique!"
"Nah, not possible. Black Knight has known Mystique since he was a boy, everyone who lives in this part of Allegro knows that."
"Yeah, I heard that they scripted the fight because of a movie they were producing together."
"Wut?"
"Pfft! The both of you are wrong, the fight was actually because of food that B-rank Skydancer; Hyena made."
Everyone in front of the park: "..."
Hugo himself had gotten used to stupid rumours, but this was just unbelievable. And these guys, they were over forty years old. Easily twice his age and were spreading dumb rumours like this.
What had the world turned to?
Their conversation gradually found meaning again but this time, Hugo stopped listening and it turns out that it was entirely about him.
"What's the background of that guy, anyway?"
"Who, Black Knight?"
His friends were astounded, some even asked questions like "What have you been doing your whole life?" and other questions like "Were you born in this region of Allegro at all?"
But the one he was asking just answered, knowing how utterly helpless his friend was.
"You know the Smithson clan that was wiped out a few years ago?"
"Mhmm, pretty much."
"And how there was only one person left from the clan, and the person was only a little boy."
"Yeah, everyone knows those stuff."
"Well, he doesn't entirely hide it, but few people pay attention to his background. But with us Skydancers, such things cannot be hidden."
"So what is it?"
"The child that survived that day, Hugo Smithson is the Black Knight we know today!" But that wasn't all he had to say. "Not only that, but before the downfall of Allegro, the Smithson clan succeeded in buying this region of Allegro that we live in; the Theta Region!"
"So, what I mean to say is that Hugo Smithson otherwise known as Black Knight has sole ownership of one of three regions of the Independent State of Allegro."
"In the Theta Region, he is God!"