A red fruit with a bite taken out of it rolled by Zareth's feet as he retracted his sword from the back of Braemos' neck and swung it to the side once more, ridding it of all blood before sheathing it.
Braemos' face was rid of any emotion, one couldn't imagine what was going on in his head.
Everyone watching was also dumbfounded.
Jasmine's mouth could be seen agape in shock, the red fruit gone from her hand.
For some reason, a stream of tears was flowing down Liam's face.
"To achieve such power at such a young age. How inspiring."
The both of them had expected Braemos to quickly take care of the little brat, but what occurred was almost too much to even comprehend.
In their entire lives, they had never seen Braemos lose a single battle against anyone.
Arthur's expression stayed the same, with the light smirk and eyes one couldn't tell were closed or not.
Yan and Silio's jaws were on the floor.
They were speechless.
Yan had expected Zareth to have some power, but this was inconceivable.
Silio on the other hand was excited as hell.
"Holy fu*k! I expected no less!"
He yelled, almost on the verge of tears himself.
Braemos slowly picked his saber up from the ground and sheathed it, before finally turning around.
"I lost."
He said, looking down at the masked figure below him.
His face looked to utter disbelief.
Not even his team knew how he would react after losing, as they had never seen him in such a state before.
Suddenly, Braemos took Zareth's right hand before firmly shaking it with both hands.
"Thank you, friend!"
He said, his eyes glimmering with exhilaration as he added
"I have never lost before, what a magnificent feeling!"
His smile was completely genuine.
Zareth knew this not to be out of place.
Admitting a loss, and being happy over a mistake, was a sign of a great leader.
It represented someone who would continue to improve themselves until their final days.
From his reaction to the loss, Zareth got a good impression of Braemos.
He took his left hand and shook both of Braemos' hands as well.
"You're welcome, and thank you for the duel."
From the high level of skill that he showed, Braemos also gained a lot of respect for Zareth.
As the group made their way back to the marquee, Braemos buzzed around Zareth like a bee, asking him multiple questions to try and understand who this kid was.
"What is your real name?"
"How did you get so powerful?"
"Can you teach me your sword style?"
By now, Zareth began to get slightly irritated by the man.
He was indeed a frivolous fool.
After making it back, Zareth departed from the adventurer's group to Braemos' dismay and decided to stroll around some merchant stalls with Yan and Silio until the grand auction began.
After all, he wasn't allowed to leave their adventurers group, and there wasn't much else he could do at the time.
After strolling around for several hours, Zareth had found nothing that caught his attention in particular to buy.
Even if something did come off as slightly interesting, Zareth wanted to try and save his money for the auction.
Speaking of which, had already begun setting him.
Zareth was informed by Yan that after the grand auction, his merchant groups shop would finally be open.
Zareth simply accepted the fact but didn't bother asking Yan what their shop sold.
Instead, he was eager to go to the auction.
When they made it to the town center, Zareth saw that the scene of hundreds of people walking around sipping watered-down liquor was gone.
Instead, it was now replaced by several tables gathered around in a circular motion around the circular stage in the middle of the town center grounds.
At first glance, Zareth recognized that all tables were for different higher-status families of Bolnuir, and different groups such as merchant groups and the Vanir Adventurer's Association.
Most of the other average people simply stood by the sides, also looking on for the grand auction.
Surprisingly, he saw Drufus and Freya sitting at the Vanir Adventurer's Association table, most likely because they were the guild's most famous adventurers in the city.
However, their faces looked to be full of worry, especially Freya's.
Even now they seemed to be scanning for Zareth in the crowd.
Yan and Silio began making their way to their merchant groups table.
The table held four other merchants, including Yan's father, three of which were dressed in different colored robes and looked to be in their forties.
Their table was situated quite far from the Vanir Adventurer's Association table, but not far enough that Freya couldn't spot Zareth.
Thankfully, he was still wearing the mask and hood.
However, how long was he going to keep this act up?
All it was doing was complicating things.
Zareth had started to get quite irritated with his situation, but he decided that he was going to play it out for now and see where it goes.
Yan and Silio sat at their respective merchant group's table, which was surrounded by several other merchant groups that seemed to have envious expressions on their faces.
As Zareth finally began to make his way over there as well, he suddenly heard rapid footsteps approaching him.
And then, a sudden voice.
"Zareth?"
Spoke Freya...