A Dragon’s Curiosity

 

 

Through the window, Grand Marshal Luthais Dharnas watched as the young elf slipped away faster than a rabbit, scurrying out of view quickly as if enemies were chasing her back.

He was aware that Nisha must have some misconceptions and misunderstood him, yet it was also fine this way.

It was not that their family could not afford to offend others from the same circle, rather it was not in his nature to seek out unnecessary conflict.

Instead of trying to force his values on the children again, he might as well let them find their own path.

Despite staying in the manor for close to a turn, the girl had yet to call Henry and himself with familiar terms such as father or brother.

Perhaps there was a chance for things to change if the newest addition to the Dharnas family warmed up to them after she found her own style.

And no matter what the younger generation did, as long as they did not try to burn the palace down, it was not a big matter and could be settled somehow.

Giving the signal, the carriage stopped taking a detour and headed for the Dharnas estate.

It was only after the vehicle left the street that a certain elf peaked her head around the corner and checked if anyone was still there.

She was still half convinced that this was a trap somehow contrived by Galan and Luthais to spot if she was deemed as unladylike behaviour.

Since Nisha was unable to spot any observers and the carriage did not return either to catch her, the idea slowly manifested that the Duke had been serious.

She had officially been granted amnesty to go out and have fun!

For a moment, the girl considered going back to the estate first and bringing out Little Lia for a longer hunting trip into the floors beneath the fifth level of the Dungeon, yet she was not sure if Galan shared the same enthusiasm the Duke suddenly had for her going out to play.

In theory the guild also had an open section dedicated to honing skills and sparring with other people, but Nisha almost immediately discarded that option.

She had yet to figure out the weapon that suited her the best and it would be difficult to find someone at the same cultivation level to spar with.

Most of her skills and abilities would just overpower the weaker adventurers, so it defeated the purpose of sparring.

 

Going into the Dungeon alone was another option, although there would definitely be people who would meddle in her business despite the general agreement that teams left each other alone unless one side asked for help directly.

Seeing a lone figure like Nisha hidden beneath a cloak storm into the depths of the Dungeon would generally be very impressive and deter them from approaching, if it was not for the simple fact that the elf was just half as tall as everyone else.

Perhaps due to concern for the younger guild members, it attracted all sorts of trouble when the girl tried to enter the Dungeon alone, so it was convenient to have Little Lia around.

The wolf only needed to flash its teeth and flare its cultivation, and most adventurers ended up being too afraid to approach them, which saved them a good deal of trouble when hunting for meat to add to the stockpile.

Struck by a sudden thought, Nisha was quite amused.

In that regard, her contracted beast was quite similar to the Grand Marshal.

She had not personally seen it, they were mostly rumours that went around near the restaurant and bar inside the [Adventurer‘s Guild] building as well as the main square in the city.

Apparently the Grand Marshal was so scary, a single reprimanding glare of his could scare a suspect so much that they would voluntarily confess to all their crimes, only to escape the scrutiny of the Duke.

Though the rumour was very much overblown and Nisha personally never felt afraid of the Duke - she admired his integrity and the high standards he set for himself - that ridiculous saying was treated as the truth and all those who heard agreed with it.

Perhaps they would be itching to beat her up if they heard that the elf compared the deterrence of the most righteous man in the capital with the natural fear of a wolf beast.

Since Nisha had no plans to tell anyone about her random idea, she unintentionally escaped a misfortunate encounter.

Realistically, this eliminated another option and only left her with the Academy and one more place.

For much the same reasons as the guild facilities, finding a proper opponent would waste a long time and involve some hurdles as well as trouble in getting the necessary access and permission.

Subconsciously, Nisha still disliked drawing attention to herself, hence the option was similarly discarded.

This only left her with one realistic choice anyway, so she hurried over to the Commoner‘s District.

 

With a swift pace and outstanding physical abilities, it did not take long before the elf arrived at the Arena, which was bustling as always.

People entered and left the facilities in droves, either happy to have won some money from gambling or groaning from losing everything.

The main draw of the Arena were the fights, which allowed the spectators to enjoy a spectacle and bet some money at the same time.

Nearly no one purchased the resources from the different storefronts run by the Arena, as their prices were all marked in a special currency called points, which were purchased with common bronze, silver and gold.

When the purchase price for the different items and tonics on display was counted in coins, the point price was always between two or three times higher than a similar item would cost in a merchant house or the stores in the [Adventurer‘s Guild].

Logically speaking, no one should be interested in these pricey goods, yet there were still plenty of transactions completed every day.

This came down to a simple reason, just like gold, silver and bronze, it was also possible to wager on fights with points, while fighters were allowed to bet on themselves with points, but not coins.

At the same time, the betting rates were carefully controlled by the experts in charge of the finances, barring exceptions, the Arena always earned more money and points than those that were paid out for the bets.

It was the same for the resources and gears sold in the shops, while some fighters and gamblers made enough profit to make a purchase at a low cost for them, the brokers earned the difference in the arena pit.

For every item sold, the Arena made a tiny profit and could not wait to put more goods on display, earning twofold with the same system.

Fighting and betting consumed a tidy sum of wealth every day, making it a very profitable business.

Over time, a few families firmly grasped the management rights of the Arena and formed an alliance to push out anyone that tried to steal a slice of their pie.

The kingdom had no reason to interfere either, the storefronts needed to purchase the resources locally and contributed to the economy in great amounts, while the gambling was not obviously rigged either.

As long as there was a fair share of winners, nothing was done about the losing parties that lost their last copper in a desperate bet.

It also helped that the tax payments every turn were extra generous and included a small extra amount to make friends with the officials in charge of overseeing their operations.

 

Nisha was not very interested in the unbalanced exchanges going on, they actually demanded her shiny treasures in return for some invisible points that could not be used to get more shiny treasures either.

She really despised the idiot who set up this system, they would never get a single shiny item from her treasure hoard.

The only slightly interesting thing was the betting odds, by appraising the fighting parties and correctly predicting the winner in advance, a few shinies would turn into many shinies.

It was a very good deal and Nisha had high praises for the kind soul who wanted to give her free treasures.

Once the girl observed the lay of the land and had some insight into the exact processes, it was not a bad idea to get some more shiny coins.

In the dragon‘s opinion, there could never be too many of them, if they piled up into a mound, then it was time to gather enough to make two mounds.

And if two mounds were gathered, it was not too late to gather a mountain of treasure instead.

Nisha had not decided what came after two mountains yet, but she was positive for the future.

She went to the entrance and paid the price of a ticket, which was not too expensive at one silver.

It was not cheap enough that any random citizen could go and watch the fights in the Arena every day, yet not so expensive that it was not possible to come as an occasional expense.

For the more affluent viewers, the silver was more of a formality and some disdained the common viewing seats entirely.

For higher prices, better accommodations were provided, including food and beverages as well as better services, such as betting directly from the seats instead of needing to go to a storefront.

Even the rich and powerful were not exempted when it came to enjoying the pleasure and looking at the performances in the arena pit.

Whether as a social outing to discuss business or purely as a form of entertainment, the highest-priced seats were not sold for money at all and needed connections and plenty of face to be obtained.

By managing the Arena well, the families in charge of the place easily had superficial ties to all of the major nobles in the kingdom and even held secret deeds about gambling debt from all major camps at the Count level and below.

 

Of course, these had nothing to do with a certain dragon at the moment.

Following the directions of the employees, she arrived at the free seating area in short order and prepared to find a place to sit down.

There was tempting food and drinks sold in the gangways leading up to here, so it was a tough battle to arrive here without buying a cartload of snacks, which would distract her from the original goal she had before arriving at the Arena.

Rushing straight into a fight was a stupid idea, she had to observe a few battles first before the elf could consider signing up for a fight as well.

Even her teacher from the academy, Mr. Tyne Pinewood, had brought them to this place before and asked them to come here more often to observe and learn.

One of their tasks was to accumulate more points by betting and fighting to gain practical combat experience by fighting against others.

Since the dragon was in the mood for a fight anyway, it was just fine to come here and play for a bit.

One such fight was currently happening in the arena pit, with several fighters around the late second aura stage pitting their strength against each other.

Apart from the majority, who used rather simple skills and brute strength, one of the participants was only at the middle second aura stage, yet made up for the lack in cultivation with nimble footsteps that looked like a decent movement technique.

After practicing the twelve steps from the [Imperial Swordplay] for so long, Nisha did not need a long time to discover the hidden order in that fighter‘s move and see the traces of the movement technique.

It mainly focused on being erratic and fast, which allowed that man to match up against those with greater strength but lesser speed.

Without experiencing it herself, it was difficult for Nisha to guess which footwork was better, her own or the erratic version that was currently on display.

Nevertheless, the addition of the footwork allowed the man to hold on until the last few fighters duked it out.

Under the encouragement of the commentator, the cheers of the audience, and the fervor of battle, the last five warriors split into two groups of two and left out the man with the footwork, either because they felt threatened or because his cultivation was a minor level below their own.

He managed to prolong his survival for a while as the two parties clashed against each other and guarded against him at the same time, but eventually, his reserve of aura ran dry and a wound to the upper arm defeated the fighter with the erratic footwork.