When Benjamin arrived at Bell Fight Pit, Brock just finished letting another fighter inside, and no one else was waiting to get in right now, so Benjamin walked right up to him.
"You're alive. Good fight last night. You don't need to come here tonight," Brock said, sizing Benjamin up. It was a little unexpected that he was already on his feet and walking around like this.
"I came for my payment," Benjamin said with a curt voice, mostly due to the swelling in his cheeks and tongue.
"Sure." Brock fished out a few coins and handed Benjamin two grey and seven bronze coins.
"...How much are the grey ones worth?"
"Ten."
Twenty-seven coins. A fateful number.
Benjamin pocketed the coins.
Brock nodded him inside.
"You said I didn't need to fight tonight."
"You don't. But you can watch, and there's food inside."
Benjamin entered the Bell Fight Pit.
***
Rydell turned around at the sound of heels clacking against the stone floor of his room.
"Lord Apostle," a beautiful woman with long dark brown hair said as she joined Rydell on his balcony. She stood next to him and watched the vast capital city with him.
"How come you respect me enough to address me with 'Lord Apostle' but not enough to knock before entering my bedroom?" Rydell questioned.
"I respect the power of God bestowed upon you," she answered as if making it clear she did not respect Rydell.
Rydell rolled his eyes.
"To what do I owe the pleasure, Your Highness Celize?"
"The Oracle of the Flow has sent word. There are twenty-six new messengers of the gods, twenty-seven, including you. Who is the twenty-eighth person you asked us to look for, Lord Apostle? Do they exist?" Celize's doubts were clear.
"Of course they do. Benjamin Vrolas," Rydell said, grinding his teeth. He knew the name, even if he never used it when addressing Benjamin.
"He wasn't chosen by any of the gods in the Pantheon," Rydell explained, clearing Celize's doubts. There were twenty-seven messengers of the gods, but there were twenty-eight visitors from Earth.
"Yet you want us to search for him?" Celize asked. She would have been a fool not to notice the aggression Rydell held toward this Benjamin Vrolas.
"Without the assistance of a god, his chances of survival are close to zero, even if you were to consider him a person blessed by luck. From what you've told me about Earth, only a select few from your population would be able to handle the conditions on Arthea without a transitioning and training period.
"It would be a waste of resources to look for a corpse that will most likely have long since been eaten," Celize finished.
Rydell glanced at Celize. What she was saying was true.
Without the help of a god, survival in this world, especially in the wild, seemed impossible.
Rydell glanced at his hands. Thanks to Kiamtar, his senses felt like they were leagues better than they were on Earth. He could see, smell, hear, and taste things he shouldn't be able to. He could even faintly hear Celize's heartbeat.
As if that wasn't enough, against people and beings weaker than him, he could accurately feel where their weak points were and how to target them. It had been uncanny at first. But knowing where his target's weaknesses were became a source of assurance for Rydell, even if it didn't work against people like Celize or the knights he saw around the palace.
It didn't even work against most of the monsters he had seen so far. That meant he couldn't defeat those monsters.
And if he couldn't, how was Benjamin supposed to when he didn't even have the help of a god? He would almost definitely end up monster food before the week was over.
"...Close to zero is not zero," Rydell said after a long pause.
"If anyone can survive, it's that rat bastard."
Celize was doubtful, but if the Lord Apostle insisted, who was she to continue protesting?
"Enough about him. Just thinking about it makes me want to hurl. Is that all you came here for, Your Highness?"
"I also came to inform you that your training will begin tomorrow if that is alright?"
"That's alright." Rydell nodded. After Tamzi had said they would basically be free to do whatever they wanted in this world, Rydell had initially planned to do just that, especially after he got chosen as the apostle of the chief god since it meant he had an incredible status just by existing. But after seeing a knight split a boulder in half with a simple swing of his sword, his thoughts had changed.
Rydell not only wanted to be able to do that, he also wanted to have the strength to defend himself against someone who might try to do that but after replacing the boulder with his head.
He was the apostle of a very important god. That meant he was very important. He might have the protection of the Kiamtar Empire, but the Kiamtar Empire wasn't the only nation or group of people in Arthea. With how people seemed to be mindbogglingly strong, who knew who or what might come to get rid of a political figure?
Rydell was worried about being assassinated. He was also worried about monsters. Lastly, he was worried about Benjamin.
The countless knights in the palace were proof enough that one didn't need the help of a god to grow strong enough to split boulders and punch through walls.
Rydell wasn't stupid enough to think Benjamin didn't want revenge.
"That Oracle can't tell us anything more than the number of messengers?" Rydell asked. Benjamin wasn't the only one who wanted revenge. He had to pay for the disgusting things he said before they were all pushed out of the Pantheon and into Arthea.
"They can, but asking them to look for a specific person would be like asking you to look for a specific drop of water in a lake." Celize could tell what Rydell was thinking just by looking at his face.
She was curious. Who was this Benjamin Vrolas that he could twist the Lord Apostle's face into such a grimace even when they might be continents apart? And did he like tea?