The laughter echoed through the room as Yellow Turban slapped Adam’s shoulders, greeting his companions in the same manner. Sir Landon’s presence had kept most of the other nobles away, and though the Duchess could have intruded past him, she had remained with Sir Roseia and the others, not wanting to spit on their face.

Yellow Turban?

He was technically not a noble of Aldland, and therefore did not have to play by the same cultural rules as the other Aldishmen. His position as a quasi noble and great merchant always caused some awkwardness between him and the other nobles, considering the Yellow Turban’s wealth matched some of the greatest families in the land, and their pedigree was considered quite great in the other lands.

“Bringers of gold! Why have you not come see me in my room, eh? You think this Yellow Turban cannot afford drinks? You think this Yellow Turban is too cheap?” Yellow Turban asked, though his grin was wider than even Vasera’s.

“I’m sure my friends enjoyed your company,” Adam said, glancing to Lucy and Mara at Yellow Turban’s side. Everyone in the area seemed to tense up, considering the pair were well known to be Demons thanks to the various Guardians within the area.

“They can drink well,” Yellow Turban confirmed. “First, second, third place, all good, yes?” Yellow Turban pat Jurot’s back. “This Yellow Turban bet much on your fights.”

“Yeah?” Adam smirked. “I bet a bit of coin too.”

“I think I have made thirty, forty thousand gold?”

Adam raised his brows. “That is a lot of money!”

“My son has made so much less, son of cat, what can he do?” Yellow Turban sighed, shaking his head. “Ten thousand gold? What wine you can buy with ten thousand gold? I cannot buy boots for ten thousand gold. What I do? He is my boy, to be Yellow Turban, but what money he can make?” Yellow Turban continued to shake his head.

“Sometimes, all we can do is prepare our children for the best, and allow them to make their mistakes,” Adam said.

“Haa,” Yellow Turban sighed once more, before shaking his head in defeat. “I can only do so much.”

Adam had really wanted to make a joke, but the joke was going to put him on everyone’s radar, and would have probably led to him getting in trouble with the nobles at best, and killed at worst. ‘I really am maturing.’

Sir Landon sat with the group, glancing between them all. Mostly, nobles only gathered a few warriors, at most five or six, but he had sponsored so many more. All but one of those he sponsored had managed to place.

‘I almost refused the gift the fool gave me.’ He went from having two people claiming first and third, to having almost ten people place, with roughly half of them placing in the finals.

He could feel all the gazes his way, as well as beside him, where his brother sat with his group. He had only sponsored two of the six Golden Savages, and though Flaming Hyena had done well, and had placed in the top ten, Vasera had also placed in the top four. Then there was his father, in the other room, who had sponsored three warriors, one of which had placed in the top ten. His eldest brother also had a pair who placed just outside the top ten, yet both of them had lost to someone who the Iyrmen had beaten.

Sir Landon’s heart warmed up within his chest, slowly growing drunk on victory and the attention.

Due to the various presences around Adam and his group, they were left alone in peace for once. Though the Duchess refrained from meeting with them, but she had noted all the gazes which they had managed to gather.

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“So they just stared at us?” Adam said, returning back to the guild, Sir Landon accompanying them with his guards.

“They will want to meet with you in the next few days,” Landon said, dancing around the reasons why. “I will invite you some time soon to reveal the gifts the nobles will have offered you.”

“Gifts?”

“Your group has done well in the tournament,” Landon said, stating the obvious. “You will be gaining the attention of many other nobles. Since you were sponsored by me, they will offer the gifts to me, and I will dispense them to you.”

“Oh?” Adam looked to Jurot, who just nodded. “Then…”

“I will refuse some gifts on your behalf, but there will be some I will be unable to refuse,” Landon admitted. “You should speak with at least one high ranking noble in order to keep the peace.”

“Sure…” ‘I guess I could speak about the business with them?’ “I mean, of course, Sir Landon.”

“I will also prepare your payment.”

“My payment?”

“One hundred gold for each win,” Sir Landon said.

‘Was it one hundred?’ Adam thought. ‘I thought we changed it.’

“I will prepare the youth’s rewards too,” the young noble added.

“…” Adam slowly nodded.

Once they were at the guild, they found a great many adventurers glancing their way, as usual, but upon seeing the group, their eyes lingered. The adventurers swarmed them for the rest of the evening, not allowing them to retreat after they had at least chatted with each party. There were one group which had retired early, and had decided against speaking with the group.

‘Why do I recognise her?’

Omen: 8, 20

‘Did I roll the same Omen again?’

“Ah,” Adam gasped. “So that’s who she was.”

“Yes,” Jurot replied, sipping some milk.

The entire group had met together in one of the largest rooms of the guild, in order to eat breakfast in peace.

“Hehehe,” Adam chuckled quietly. “Do you think she now knows we can beat them all up?”

“Yes.”

Adam continued to chuckle quietly, before he stopped, glancing around to the rest of Fate’s Golden, and the trio of Iyrmen who had joined them. “Nobby,” Adam called, motioning the giant of a boy closer. “Good job on placing first.”

“Thank you, mister boss.”

“Next time you win a tournament, or place well, make sure you thank your mum and dad, alright?”

“Yes,” the boy replied, flushing red. “Sorry.”

“It’s alright. You did really well, and I’m sure your mum and dad will feel so proud of you when they find out. I’m going to send them some coin so don’t worry about them.”

Nobby nodded, his shoulders relaxing ever so slightly.

“I just wanted to reward you with something,” Adam said, before stepping aside to the side of the room, where he undid the cloth which had hidden the shield, and he held it up for the young man. “It’s a magical shield.”

“For me?” the teen asked, unsure.

“Yeah. It’s a Basic bonus, but it should serve you well. We’ll be equipping everyone with better gear, but I thought I should equip you first so you can help protect everyone else.”

“Thank you, mister boss,” Nobby replied, holding the shield. He could feel the tingle of the shield between his hands, and a different tingling filled him. A childish smile swept across his face.

Adam wasn’t sure if he had seen Nobby smile before. He reached up and pat the boy on his shoulder. “You did a great job, Nobby.”

“Yes. Thank you, mister boss.”

Adam wondered how many times the boy was going to thank him. “Alright, let’s get back to eating.”

“How long will we spend in East Port?” Jaygak asked.

“We’ll need to do the thing with the nobles, and then once we’re done, we’ll head out to find Dunes and help him out. I would suppose that some of the nobles might have heard of Amira.”

“The name might not help, since Amira is also a title for the Shens’ daughter,” Jaygak said. “We should ask for a Devilkin from the Order of Black Mountain.”

“They let her have the name Amira even though its used as a title?” Adam thought the world wasn’t quite so progressive.

“It was once punishable by death, but the rules were relaxed over time.”

“Oh.”

“It is still punishable by death to name yourself King, Duke, Shen, or Faro, and the like.”

“Fair,” Adam replied. “Not fair, but you know what I mean.”

“Do I ever know what you mean?”

“Fair.” Adam returned back to eating. “Brittany, don’t think I forgot about you either.”

“I know,” Brittany replied.

Adam wondered where she would have placed if she had fought. ‘Top ten, maybe? She’s an Expert too.’

“I should probably go buy some cloth…” Adam thought about how much gold he had to spend now that he had bet so much. ‘Oh, right. I need to figure out how much to give to everyone. I’ll do that after I go to the market and figure out how much we’ve made. I can’t let the party fund get too low after what happened. Why did I have to make it so complicated?’