Seeing Gen walking over to the table, Raja asked, "What are you trying to do? Your ring is with Gerald. Why are you going towards the table?"
"Raja, don't waste your time. I know how your essence works."
Gen then walked over to where he had put the ring and then stretched his hand out in the direction it had been before, and then said, "Looks like I was right."
Gen then stretched out his hand in front of him and grabbed the air.
Gen then said, "Are you going to show up for good, or am I going to have to make you show up by force?"
Gen then waited for a while and, after getting no answer, said, "Then it's going to be by force."
He then punched the air in front of him, but before he could complete it, Raja said, "Wait! You win!", and then the area around Gen's hand began to blur, and Raja appeared there.
Gen was holding his arm, and Raja said, "You can let go now."
Gen then released him and said, "What was the need to do that? You knew that I already knew your essence."
"I know, but I also wanted to test you a little."
"And what did you find with this test?"
"I was able to confirm your strength."
"Are you satisfied now?"
"Yes.", Raja then stretched out his hand and said, "I know we already know each other, but I don't think we ever really introduced ourselves. Nice to meet you. My name is Raja."
Gen then shook his hand and said, "Haha, that's right. Nice to meet you. My name is Gen."
Raja then said, "Oh, and another thing. Thank you for the advice you gave me that day. Unfortunately, I didn't take it and ended up with a trauma, but thanks for the intention."
"Yeah, you really should have taken my advice, but relax, I don't blame you. Lina is very beautiful, and I also expressed myself a little wrong."
"Well, even if you explained it to me better, I probably wouldn't believe it. Her beauty blinded me at that moment."
Gen then said, "Don't blame yourself. I saw a lot of people going through the same situation as you during the time I lived there, and out of all of them, I think you did the best."
"Really? Thanks. You said you've seen it happen several times, and I can completely understand that. Who wouldn't be charmed by her, with that beautiful face."
Gen then remembered when his and Lina's faces were practically glued to each other and thought, 'Very beautiful.'
And Raja continued, "Perfect body."
And then Gen remembered the moment he hugged her and thought, 'It really is.'
And Raja continued, "And those lips -"
Gen then interrupted him and said without realizing it, "Yeah, so soft."
Raja then said, "What do you mean by soft, Gen? You talk as if you ..."
Raja then stopped talking and started thinking about something.
Seeing this, Gen asked, "I what?", while thinking, 'Damn, I ended up talking too much.'
Raja then ignored him, and after a few seconds, he looked in Gen's direction and said, "It was you!"
"Me what?"
"You know very well! How can you kiss that demon and run away without dealing with the consequences?!"
"Raja, I had my reasons."
"And what would they be."
"Well, the main one was fear, I won't lie, but there were also other reasons like-"
"Gen, Raja.", Gerald said, interrupting the two's conversation, and then continued, "I know that because you two know each other, you must have a lot to talk to each other about, but let's leave the talking until after we're done here."
"True. Then we'll continue when this matter is finished, Raja."
"Yes, and don't even think about running away from the subject afterward."
"..."
Gerald then asked, "So, who's going to take their leader?"
"Let Gen take him. His essence seems to be better at holding him than mine."
Gerald then said, "Is that okay with you, Gen?"
And Gen said, "Yeah, no problem."
"Well, then we're done here. I'll let the platinum ranks and lower know what they're going to do. I'll see you all in an hour."
Everyone then left the room, and after leaving the room, Gen went towards Raja and saw that he was talking to the woman adventurer who was sitting next to him at the meeting.
He got close to them and said, "Raja, about -"
But Raja interrupted him and said, "Gen, I'll find you later, and we can finish talking. I'm kind of busy at the moment.", and then he left with the woman.
Seeing this, Gen then thought, 'Some things never change.'
He then went to the front desk of the adventurers guild lobby and asked, "Lia, can you tell me a good restaurant nearby?"
"Sure, sir Gen, there is a great restaurant in the back street, its name is 'Desert on Fire.', the food there is excellent, just a little spicy."
"Ok, thanks, and stop calling me sir, just Gen."
"Alright, Gen."
"I'll go then. I'll be back in an hour."
Gen then left the place and went in the direction of the restaurant that Lia had told him about. He quickly found it and, upon entering, sat down at a table and ordered the main course.
While he was waiting for his food, Gen started to listen to what three men at the next table were saying, "There's only nine months until the tournament."
"That's right, I have to start preparing if I want to go watch it."
"Tell me about it. I remember I spent almost a month saving up to go to last year's tournament."
"Where is it going to be this year?"
"From the looks of it, it's going to be in the Kingdom of Brim."
"In Brim ... where is Brim again?"
"It's north of here. It's not that far."
"Good, one less expense for me to worry about."
Gen then thought, 'The tournament ... I had even forgotten about it. This year it will be in Brim ... ah, what a shame, I wanted so much to attend, or even participate, but unfortunately I can't go back to Brim.'
The men then continued, "It seems that the reward this year is different. It seems they are going to give a map."
"A map?"
"A map for what?"
"It seems to be a map to an ordeal from what they are saying."
Hearing this, Gen was surprised and was planning to let it go, when suddenly he heard Dehji speaking, 'Gen, maybe this map has to do with the ordeal of one of my siblings.'
'What? How do you know that?'
'I don't know, but one of my siblings always liked this kind of thing. It might be his.'
'... It won't be easy, Dehji. The tournament is hotly contested. There are always people with influence-level essences in these tournaments, sometimes even on the natural level. Even if I go to Brim, which is something I'd like to avoid and enter the tournament, there's no guarantee I'll get the map.'
'So you won't even try?'
'I'll try, but I need to get stronger first. Do you know any way I can do it in nine months?'
Dehji then said, 'If you can find my other siblings' ordeal, you can probably get stronger.'
'And do you know where it is?'
'No, but she always liked rivers. It reminded her of her essence.'
'Rivers ... as far as I know, there is no river in this desert, but I don't know all of it, so I will confirm it in the guild later.'
Gen's food then arrived. He started to eat it, and then Dehji spoke to him again.
'Gen ...'
'What is it Dehji? Did you remember anything else about your siblings' challenges?'
'It's not that, how-'
'Then you can tell me later. Just let me finish eating.'
'Gen!'
'What's wrong, Dehji? Can't you wait until I'm done?'
'I can, but explain something to me.'
'What thing?'
'How do you plan to pay for this food?'
Upon hearing this, Gen choked on his food and started coughing.
Gen then took a glass of water that had come along with the food and thought, 'That's right. I forgot that I'm out of money. Why didn't you warn me before, Dehji?'
'Gen, what do you think I am? Your secretary? I didn't remember either, and at the end of the day, I was not even eating anything. So it's not my problem.'
'Easy there, Dehji, give me some ideas at least.', but Dehji ignored him.
Gen then finished eating and thought, 'What do I do? If I ask to pay later, will they let me?'
'Pff, they are surely going to let a random guy pay later.'
'Hey, if you're not going to help me, don't bother me.'
Gen then decided to call the waitress, and when she arrived, she asked him, "Do you want anything extra?"
"No, I'm satisfied."
"Ok, that's twenty bronze coins."
"So, I wanted to talk to you about it. I'm an adventurer."
Gen then took his ring out of a pocket and showed it to her, and then continued, "Unfortunately, I just came back from a ruin and ended up losing all my money there. Would there be any other way for me to pay the bill?"
The waitress then began to think and said, "Wait a moment. I'll call the owner to see what he thinks about this."
"Okay."
She then went into the kitchen and, after a while, came back from there with a man a little shorter than Gen.
When the man arrived at the table, he asked, "Are you the one who's trying to dine and dash?!"
Everyone in the restaurant then turned towards Gen, and he then thought, 'How did things get to this point?'