NOVEL NEXT 246. About Time (Book Four)
The lady spent a good hour going over all the information she felt I needed to know about the Empire to ensure I was prepared for not just the next battle but the ones after that.
Of course, the only individual I got direct information on was my next opponent, but she did say a whole bunch of other stuff.
I understood that I was in a new universe, but it's still kind of hard to wrap my head around that concept. Especially when it was explained that this particularly universe held two galaxies within. One that was essentially the 'main' galaxy and the headquarters of the empire, while the other was well still a galaxy just smaller.
The main one was called the Aquana Galaxy, while the other was called Aquana 2. Very creative for that second name. Anyway, the galaxy I was currently in housed 23 total planets. And 20 of them were controlled by a prince or a princess.
I thought there were dukes and such in control of these things, but essentially that's what the princes and princesses were serving as. A good portion of them were only royalty in name as the leaders of formerly conquered kingdoms and such.
All of this conquering happened many millennia ago though, so it wasn't like there was a bunch of unrest spread throughout the empire or anything like that. Now while there are other nobles, they are basically the hands and feet of their respective prince or princess.
Beyond that, there are actually a group of people who are true royalty and they are known as the High Prince or High Princess. Apparently, the chances I met one of them would be incredibly rare as to even approach the planets they dwelled on would require so many permissions that it would become belittling to even try.
Not something I was fond of.
Anyway, Princess Laviesa was 'in charge' of the planet I found myself on, but that didn't mean that she couldn't gather resources from other planets, and the resource this time would be the rights to a mine of some sorts.
My opponent was a young man at the peak of the Core Formation Realm, and he fought primarily with a spear. He had a really long name and was the descendant of blah blah blah, don't really matter to me and all that jazz.
He was a spear user.
That was more than enough information for me, and I honestly couldn't help the smile that crept onto my face when I heard the news. I've obviously fought against the vamps before but this felt different.
This would be a controlled environment where my opponent will have time to prep for a battle. Although I'm guessing that they will have limited information on who I am and exactly what I was capable of, they would still be able to prepare all the same.
But the same was true for me, only my preparations would be a bit different, seeing as how I did not really have any. The only real decision that I made prior to the fight was to restrict the use of my Eternal Flame.
There was no need for me to use that fire in a battle that was not to the death. I was not here to kill my opponent, only to win, and more than anything, I wanted to enjoy the fight as a user of the spear.
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Though that does beg the question: if I were losing, would I allow myself to use the flame? And just as quickly as the question came, so did my answer. No. If I lost, then I lost. The favor I owed to the princess was to fight on her behalf.
That I would do, and while doing it, my goal was always to win. I would hate to lose a single battle, and any restriction I applied to myself needed to stay that way throughout the battle. And if that restriction caused me to lose, then all that meant was that I was not good enough.
So I was simply armed with my spear and the Qi empowering my body.
I did not give a damn if they used any techniques that they had. I would weather it all the same and only fight with my spear.
Eventually, the week passed, and it was time for the battle. I was very excited, dressed in my all black robes, looking like the young master of some cultivation novel. The spear that the dwarf made for me, which thankfully survived whatever I did on Earth, was in hand, and I was ready to go.
Now here I was, standing in the courtyard with the princess standing before me, where she asked me a very interesting question.
"Who is coming along with you to the fight?"
Well, I knew my guard would come with me and my fellow planetary Lord, but I wondered if anyone else wanted to come. In fact, my entire clan was gathered in the courtyard as well, so I did not have to go far to ask.
"If you want to come, raise your hand."
I guess I should have expected the sight before me. More than a few thousand hands immediately shot into the air all around the courtyard. I smiled, then turned to look back at the princess.
"Well, there you go."
She smiled ever so faintly, as if expecting the answer we gave, and to meet that expectation, the ship we rode to the venue on was big enough to hold all of us. I guess she knew my Infernals better than I did.
The venue in question was actually just a small private arena. It was not covered at all, and there were enough seats going around the open arena for all of my people to sit and watch.
The only other people present were about fifty of those mermaid people. Most of them looked like guards or servants, and only a couple looked relatively important. All of them had aqua blue scales, which of course included my opponent, who was already standing on the arena with a pristine looking blue spear, all the way to the blade itself, awaiting my arrival.
And it appears the smile on my face was back.
"Patriarch, you are smiling again."
Lirian said that, and I looked over to see both him and his brother shaking their heads at me.
"Well, I cannot help it. If there is one thing I love in this world, it is a good fight."
And that was something I only ever realized when the apocalypse began, and I had to fight all those goblins so many years ago. Now here I was, about to fight some aqua blue mermaid man. I was excited. I truly was excited.
A few minutes later, my excitement was gone. Apparently, I could not just go down there and begin the fight. There was a whole bunch of politics and ceremony, and so many exchanges of words between the princess and the prince she was challenging for a resource, that it bored me to no end.
Even the fact that the man was waiting on the arena with his spear was part of the politicking. I could not believe it. I thought he was just excited to fight like I was, but no, it was all a part of some grand ceremony, and I had to stand by the side and wait until all the back and forth was done.
I think there was some trash talking involved or something along those lines, but it was so veiled and under the table that I barely managed to pick up on it at all.
If you do not like somebody, just say that. If you want to tell someone you are going to defeat them, just say that too. But instead they were dancing around the topic like it was forbidden to come out and say exactly what you wanted to say.
So much so that I tuned it out, and it took the princess saying my name twice for me to snap back to attention and realize she was finally calling me to the arena to fight.
About time.