Owner says "Excellent! The fight will be tomorrow. A big fight the day before the auction is just perfect!"

"That's fine, but I want a third party to act as witness and hold the stakes!"

Owner says "No problem! That is standard for wagers this big!"

"Alright, what time will the match be?"

Owner says "Noon!"

"Fine, I will be here!"

After being escorted out of the arena I head back to the manor for dinner. When I arrive in the dining room I find that more guests have arrived. There are two men chatting with Henrietta, they look like merchant types.

To my surprise, when I sit down I find they are discussing my match tomorrow. News about it has spread a lot faster than I thought it would, it makes me wonder how it spread so fast. I wait until there is a break in their conversation and then ask how they heard about it so fast.

It turns out that there is a magical news service in the kingdom that keeps subscribers informed. The arena owner probably gave them the information to spread the news faster. It looks like there will be quite a crowd present to watch the fight tomorrow.

Henrietta says "How confident are you of winning tomorrow?"

"My win is almost guaranteed."

Henrietta says "Even without knowing your opponent?"

"Yeah. Unless they somehow have a dragon for me to fight."

Merchant1 says "A dragon? That's impossible!"

Merchant2 says "True! The strongest beast ever used in an arena was a drake and that was even a youngster!"

Henrietta says "If you are so confident in winning why do you look a little nervous?"

"I am just worried that if I reveal too much of my strength in the fight it will cause problems."

Henrietta says "This is the Magic Kingdom, as long as you don't use magic it won't matter how strong you are."

"That is good to know!"

Henrietta says "Since you are so confident I think I will go to watch your match!"

"Really?"

Henrietta says "Of course, how can I miss out on betting on a sure thing?"

The two merchants laugh and agree with her, so the three of them will go to the match. After that the rest of the dinner passes with some casual conversation. Then I head to my suite to check on Grimgar and give him more pointers on working on his core.

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

So far, he is doing fairly well, he has already raised the level of his core to rank three. It would probably be higher if he had more cores to absorb, but it is still good progress. There isn't much more for him to learn about working on his own core, time to start the next lesson.

"Grimgar, your progress so far is good. Now, since you want to teach others, I need to teach you how to help others. The first part is learning how to sense and observe someone else's core."

Grimgar says "Is it similar to when you had me watch you work on your core?"

"It is! You just need to learn how to do it without my help. That way you can watch others work on their core and watch for mistakes."

Grimgar says "I understand!"

I spend the next two hours instructing Grimgar and letting him practice. Then I set him to practicing on his own, open a soulscape, and invite Myria and the kids. Then instead of just letting them play I create different training grounds for each of them, including Myria.

This is a good chance for me to see what kind of improvements she made in the captain's trial. I also need to test each of the kids to see where their strength is currently. Once I know that I can further customize the training grounds for them.

Of course, I don't make them train the entire time, only the first half or so. After that I let them play like normal and enjoy themselves while I chat with Myria. Mostly I just tell her about the Magic Kingdom and describe the capital to her.

To avoid worrying her, or a lecture, I don't tell her about the arena match tomorrow. I will tell her about it after the fact, that way I can downplay the danger. I might still get lectured, but it won't be as bad and she won't be worried.

Myria says "The capital sounds magnificent!"

"It may look impressive, but it is far too reliant on magic. With a strong enough dispell I could destroy the entire capital!"

Myria says "Maybe so, but who, other than you, could do that?"

"Probably only a dragon or god that I know of."

Myria says "If either a dragon or a god wants to destroy the city they don't need to use a dispell!"

"Well, I guess that's true!"

Myria says "Could you destroy the entire city in one shot without using a dispell?"

"Maybe, I am not sure. I haven't experimented with any huge spells yet. With my current mana, it might be possible."

Myria pales and says "What? Really?!"

"Yeah, at least I think so. As I said, I would have to experiment to know for sure."

Myria yells "No! Don't experiment! Especially because of something I said! Do you want to get me killed?!"

"You wouldn't get killed. Stop exaggerating!"

Myria says "If you do something stupid and the goddesses find out it was because of something I said, they would totally kill me! If you don't believe me, summon them right now and ask!"

"Um, summoning them isn't a good idea right now!"

Myria says "What? Why not? Are they mad at you again? What did you do now?!"

"Nothing! I don't want to talk about it!"

Myria says "Fine! Promise me you won't experiment and I will stop asking!"

"Alright! Deal!"

Myria says "You agreed to that too easily! Now I am really suspicious!"

"Too bad! You already agreed to drop it!"

With a ferocious growl, Myria throws herself at me and starts throwing punches at me. She can't hurt me, but I still move to defend myself out of habit and catch her wrists. However, it turns out that was part of her plan and exactly what she wanted me to do.

As soon as I block her hands she launches her real attack and it works. Before I even realize what she is planning she has already kissed me and her tongue is in my mouth. Then, before I can decide what to do, she ends the kiss and leaves the soulscape.

When I get over the surprise and look around I find myself alone, the kids have left as well. The problem is I don't know when they left and whether or not they saw what happened. The others don't worry me, but Kechara and Asuna won't hesitate to tease me about it.