A Dragon’s Curiosity

 

 

“No, that‘s enough. I will have to trouble you to send me to one of the participant's rooms, I will wait there until the fight starts.“

Now that she was able to fight personally, the dragon had no more mind to watch other events.

It was better to reflect on her combat techniques like the [Imperial Swordplay], aura based skills and the like to prepare herself for battle, as Nisha would likely continue to hide her life and death attunement unless she was forced into a deadly trap.

It was still alright when it came to weapons, as the attribute did not matter too much before the fourth rank, but there were bound to be gaps as long as some abilities that the elf frequently used were sealed away.

Profound means like [Midnight] and [Solar Flare] would attract the wrong kind of attention, whereas the life and death attribute was rare and easily recognizable, the dragon would only be able to bring them out when she was on her own in a place without outsiders observing such as the Dungeon or the Wilderness, or if she was sure that the enemy was bound to die.

“It‘s settled then, I will leave first and make the arrangements, it should not take too long given that this is a high level fight.

Feel free to rest here, Miss Nisha, I will send someone to remind you when it‘s time to go to the preparation area.

Thank you on behalf of the Arena.“

Elinor was delighted that the two of them reached an agreement.

Regardless of the developments in the future, as the one who brought a fourth level cultivator as a client, and one with rare dual attributes at that, she would receive great rewards.

And compared to other knight-level existences, this girl was rather pleasant to talk to, especially as the elf did not look down on her or made unreasonable demands.

She heard from her seniors that it was common for attendants like her to receive abuse, getting shouted at or chastised for things out of their control.

When the Arena had to choose between high rank guests and the employees under them, the higher ups would basically turn a blind eye to such incidents as long as there was no physical violence.

Naturally, the attendants for higher ranks also got higher compensation, yet not everyone could endure the stress and blame long term and sometimes a senior of Elinor would unexpectedly quit their job after being brought past their breaking point.

 

Thinking about a certain matter, a trace of greed rose in Elinor‘s mind.

Unable to control herself, the assistant stopped short of the door and turned back to face the elf who was about to submerge herself in her own thoughts.

“Miss Nisha, I remembered something else.

This is purely a spontaneous idea, you do not have to answer right away.

To make things convenient for our guests, the Arena provides permanent liaisons for our esteemed guests in order to make some processes less complicated.

I would like to recommend myself for this position.

In the future, you can send me a message and everything will be arranged in the shortest time possible so that the young miss doesn‘t have to wait or personally make the trip in order to arrange a fight.

As your personal assistant, it will always be my first priority to attend to you and put your affairs first.“

Elinor‘s heart jumped into her throat while she spoke, as long as she succeeded this time and obtained the position of a personal attendant for a cultivator at the fourth rank, her treatment would increase and match that of a fourth rank employee as well.

While it was not as generous as the remuneration for the guests, it was definitely worlds above her current benefits.

Her future now rested in the hands of the young elf in front of her.

Because the other woman said everything in one breath, Nisha put her attention back on the employee during the latter half of her words.

Seeing how intent she was on promoting herself and highlighting her usefulness, the dragon did not reply straight away and thought over the consequences first.

Narrowing her eyes, her answer changed into a question instead.

“Will there be problems with my fight if I do not agree to take you on as my personal contact?“

As an outsider, there were many matters out of the girl's hands, such as her opponent or the matter of fighting against a prisoner this time around.

If Nisha did not agree and the Arena attendant was disheartened by that, it was entirely possible for her to cancel the Prison League match and insist that there was currently no suitable opponent for her.

After being forced to attend the [Etiquette] lessons by Galan, the head butler of the Dharnas estate, Nisha was painfully aware how much power the seemingly unimportant and invisible attendants that kept the entire household running actually had in their hands.

It was easy for a report to reach the hands of the Duke himself earlier if the head butler decided to speed it up, while another matter might never reach the Duke at all if the sender fell out with the staff and mistreated the servants.

It should be the same in the inner workings of the Arena staff.

 

“Of course not, as workers tasked with serving the Arena‘s guests to the best of our abilities, it‘s impossible for mistakes of that level to occur.

My suggestion was mainly for your benefit, young miss.

Instead of having to do many things personally and arranging things on your own, you can rest assured and leave the tedious work to the experienced staff here.

The Arena values our guests very much and is thankful for your glorious feats inside the sand pit, as such it is our pleasure to lessen the burden on young miss and the other guests.

Whether you agree to my recommendation or want to look for someone else as your personal liaison, it is all up to the esteemed guest and has no influence on the upcoming arrangement.

Please excuse me for now, I will handle the subsequent work.“

Although the question made things rather awkward and did not sound like a good sign, Elinor was secretly delighted inside her mind.

If the elf did not consider her at all or acted perfunctory to chase her away, it would not bode well for the attendant.

On the other side, close scrutiny from the young miss meant that she at least considered her for the position and weighed the pros and cons.

Now, the assistant needed to show off her strongest points and leave a good impression on the elf, and she would stand a good chance to be selected as the direct contact.

Another big advantage came from the fact that the young girl had only followed her teacher to visit not long ago, where Elinor handled their registration.

There was simply no time for Nisha to come into contact with other attendants and make a connection, giving her the greatest chance of being selected in the end.

With hope in her chest making her heart beat faster and faster, Elinor quickly excused herself and jogged towards the administration area in the building.

She did not dare to let thoughts stray and wished to have a few more legs to complete her tasks even faster.

Nisha, who was left behind in the lounge, had no choice but to raise her brows after the other woman left.

In her opinion, it would not have been strange for Elinor to ask for some benefits to settle the fight, yet she left after promising to do her best regardless of the dragon‘s decision and only promoted herself once.

This indirectly showed the foundation of the Arena subtly, even the standard of their employees was so high.

 

Unwilling to ponder over the benefits of accepting a personal contact, the girl closed her eyes and got into the correct mindset for the upcoming fight.

Perhaps she would ask her foster father for advice later or discuss it with Miss Thana during their tea session; it was never wrong to get pointers from the more experienced parties.

If there were no big downsides, it would not be impossible for the elf to accept Elinor as her personal contact either as she planned to frequent the Arena more in the future.

Having a worker dedicated to arranging things on behalf of the dragon would not be a bad thing and could save her some time and legwork.

As Nisha‘s thoughts drifted away, her state of mind slowly sharpened and got rid of any distracting thoughts as she examined her moves and thought about those that were fine to expose and which ones had to be sealed away to prevent exposing her identity.

An unknown amount of time passed before a knock on the door interrupted the girl sitting on the sofa with closed eyes.

“Come in!“

Though her pondering got interrupted, Nisha was glad to be woken up at this moment.

Just as she expected, a man in the uniform of the Arena employees entered under her gaze and bowed his head when he saw the elf.

“Esteemed guest, I was asked by Elinor to inform you that the fight has been successfully arranged, there is one more event before you enter the stage.

If you wish, I can guide you to the preparation area.“

There was some shock in the workers eyes when he saw how young this cultivator was, but they saw all kinds of geniuses and unusual fighters in their line of work.

Some old demons even found pills and potions that could alter their appearance in the depths of the Dungeon, relying on appearance alone to judge the strength of a fighter had cost more than a few lives in the pit before.

“Alright, sorry to trouble you.“

Although she could find the correct place by herself, Nisha did not want to be late and accepted the offer with a smile.

The attendant Elinor indeed kept her promise and managed to secure a fight, giving the elf a good impression.

Now it was time to go and fight to her heart‘s content.

 

Not long after, the man arrived at the gate leading inside the sand pit and pointed to a series of rooms to the side.

“This is the place.

Someone inside will guide you to pick a weapon and explain anything else for your match.

When it is time, they will also remind you to enter the ring, no need to be worried about being late.

Apart from weaponry, there‘s also a bunch of auxiliary equipment if you need to borrow anything, just ask the person in charge.

On behalf of the Arena, we wish you good luck and victory in battle.“

Although the worker was not aware of the girl‘s strength and figured that she could not be too strong due to her age and short time spent cultivating, he still maintained a polite attitude and performed his job well.

The last sentence was a common phrase used by all the attendants and workers when they interacted with someone about to enter the contests and events, it was hard to say how sincere their wishes were since they said the same thing to all contestants.

Nevertheless, Nisha thanked him and entered the preparation area without issues.

To her surprise, there were more people waiting inside, either talking to their companions or inspecting their gear while ignoring the outside world.

She was confused about their purpose, as the next fight would be between a fourth rank earth warrior and herself, without any additional participants, yet she soon figured out the actual situation from listening in on the conversations around her as she looked for the person in charge.

Without a certain level of fame and success inside the pit, the Arena would not provide an individual lounge for each participant or even refreshments.

Left without a choice, most cultivators beneath the fourth rank just entered the preparation area and maintained their armour or made last minute preparations here until it was time for their events.

Because of her age and subdued presence, the elf drew quite a few gazes, though most of the attention quickly shifted away again.

Everyone here was either a competitor or unrelated to their upcoming trial.

No one had the spare time to care about someone else.