"Hollow? That's a nice name, my name is Seraphina," said Seraphina before reaching out to Hollow with her hand.
"Yeah, I guess that's my name," Hollow said before shaking her hand.
"So where are you headed to?"
"I'm going to Holalix city to participate in the battle festival," Hollow said in response.
"Oh, I'm going there too! Would you like to accompany me?"
"Sure, why not!" Hollow said happy to have a new friend to talk to on the way to the city.
"Do you know how far the city is from here?" Hollow asked curiously as all the information he had was from the man in the town of Sistema.
"Although it's strange you don't know how far away the city is, you're already quite strange as it is, so I'll answer your question, it's about 10km away from here," Seraphina said.
"Yeah, I'm uh not from around here," Hollow laughed nervously.
-/-/-/-/-
As they approached the city of Holalix they could see the battle festival decorations distributed around the streets.
Before when Hollow and Seraphina were heading to the city, Seraphina told Hollow about the battle festival and its importance to the people of this world as it's the time of the year when people fight not just for money, fame or freedom but for their godfather Solaris, the god of war, who they believe is their creator.
Because of this, the colour amber is considered to only belong to royalty or aristocrats as they are the only ones who are believed to be worthy of the colour of their godfather.
Now as they walk through streets painted with glistening amber decorations, as it's the time when everyone can use the colour, they head to the arena to sign up for a position as a fighter.
1 minute before every battle starts the audience can bet on who will win, with the ones who are well known as capable fighters being more likely to win the odds are made as 1:5 for all the matches with the lower number going to those likely to win.
Betting on the one who ends up the winner will get you your money back plus your bet times the number they had.
Half of all the profit that the arena makes from fights is given to the winner with the other half going to the city lord.
-/-/-/-/-
"Your name and age please," said an old man who seems to have been doing this job since he was but a teenager.
"Seraphina 17," Seraphina said immediately as if she had practised for this.
"Uh…my name is Hollow," Hollow said not understanding the concept of age enough to answer properly.
"Your age?" asked the old man again impatiently this time.
"He's 17 as well," Seraphina said before dragging Hollow away before he embarrasses them anymore.
"Why are you dragging me away?" Hollow asked confused about what he did wrong.
"How don't you even know your age?," Seraphina said after they got a sufficient distance away.
"I don't even know what age is!" Hollow said exasperated but the situation his lack of knowledge is getting him in.
"How long have you been alive?!," shouted Seraphina confused why he doesn't understand even the most basic of things.
"I don't know like six or seven-," Hollow said before getting cut off by Seraphina, "Six or seven years old! How are you so young?!"
"Not years….I meant solar cycles," Hollow said.
"Solar cycles?," Seraphina said confused as she had never heard of the term before which shocked her.
"Yeah the time it takes for people to form a solar body," Hollow said.
"What!," shouted Seraphina shocked by this revelation.
"Obviously this is the average time it takes and only considers people who have just reached the amount of power necessary to do it and I'm not fully sure on the time because I blacked out quite a bit," Hollow said.
"I'm going to need some time to process this information," Seraphina said before laying down to think about what she just heard.
-/-/-/-/-
"Now it's time for the first match of the battle~ festival!~," cheered the announcer with excitement and enthusiasm present in his voice.
"Our first competitor is Dersi! A devout paladin of our godfather Solaris! And our other contestant is a gladiator fighting for his freedom in a trial by combat!" the announcer introduced the competitors with vigour.
"The odds are to be 1:5 in favour of Dersi's win! Nows your time to bet!" the announcer said before going completely silent.
A minute later once the betting time was up the announcer started the match.
Dersi was quick to his assault on the gladiator as he pulled out his sword and charged at them.
Once he was in range he took a big swing at the left shoulder aiming for a quick fatal blow to end the match but the gladiator knew what Dersi planned and so dodged backwards quickly before punching forward with immense force knowing that Dersi won't be able to dodge with the momentum of that strike.
But unbelievably Dersi managed to redirect the strike into a piercing jab that went straight through the heart of the gladiator who was shocked by the display.
"That was a quick fight there but I'm sure the next one won't be so fast! As our next contestant is Nilfor Hydra! A proud warrior of the Hydra family known for their ancestors' amazing act of killing the mighty hydra long ago! And his opponent is Helna! An axe master that is known for her charitable nature!" the announcer was excited for this match since both of them were well known.
"Nilfor however has the odds in his favour for the betting with his power being X rank!" the announcer ended off his talk quickly with that before going silent once again.
-/-/-/-/-
After many brutal fights ended with a winner it was finally Hollow's turn to fight in the arena, although most finished with one dying some still surrendered in the end.
"Our next contestant is….h…h-hollow? Although he has a strange name the strangest thing about him is the fact he likely isn't part of our species! And his opponent is going to be difficult to defeat as it's the monstrous berserker, Gilgalor!," the announcer said.