An average-looking Weaselkin with a bronze plate hanging from his neck approached Lone's group with a malicious smile on his face as four other Weaselkin followed him.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here? A filthy little Human? I wonder what we should do with such trash? Throw it out?" the leader of the Weaselkin laughed as his eyes stared at Sophie's beautiful face.

Lone could feel his blood boiling and his anger quickly rising. Even if he had sworn to act less arrogant outside of fights, if this Weaselkin kept insulting Sophie, Lone would make sure that he and his group would be leaving this building as nothing more than puddles of blood.

He felt a soft hand gently squeeze his shirt, so he looked at his side to see Sophie smiling at him.

'Don't worry, Lone. I can handle this,' Sophie told Lone telepathically with confidence. 'I need to show Lone how strong I am. I'm not the weak and emotional girl I was two years ago!'

Lone was shocked and he felt his anger disappear as he looked at Sophie's clear emerald-green eyes that held no anxiousness in them. 'Are you sure? To be honest, this fucker deserves to be killed just for even daring to suggest you're filthy.'

Sophie's heart felt warm. Although she knew how much Lone loved her, it always felt nice hearing him be so passionate about her. 'Mmm. Trust me. Thank you for caring about me so much, but I want to deal with this myself,' Sophie replied with a smile.

Lone conceded and nodded, stepping back and allowing Sophie to deal with this group of Weaselkin.

"Finally done staring at each other? So, just like I said. There's no way a C-Ranker can get a gold-silver plate and a Human kid could get a dark-steel plate. You bribed the Guild didn't you?" The Weaselkin spat on the floor and disgust filled his face. "Filthy Human. All of you scum are corrupt, buying your way to power."

"Shut up," came Sophie's soft reply. Everyone was stunned into silence. Not by the power held in her voice, in fact, Sophie had intentionally made herself as quiet and as weak sounding as possible. Everyone was shocked by how clear and beautiful her voice was.

"Hah? Fucking slut. Telling me to 'shut up'?" the Weaselkin said with a vicious glare.

He turned to look at Lone before a nasty smile took a hold of his lips. "Hey, Foxkin, sell me this Human of yours. She's your slave, right? You only bought her for her good looks, yeah? I'll fix that attitude of hers. How does one hundred gold sound?"

His group laughed and looked at Sophie with lust, sickening everyone present. No one could argue that his offer wasn't fair though. One hundred gold for a slave was more than enough, especially since Sophie seemed to lack combat abilities.

"You have no right to speak to him," Sophie said in a very relaxed and gentle voice.

"Hah? Shut up, bitch, I'm talking to your owner," the Weaselkin replied with a click of his tongue, clearly annoyed at Sophie's interruption.

Just before Lone's rage exploded, Sophie's voice could be heard once more. "I challenge you to a duel. The rules are simple. To win, I must kill you or get you to surrender. You have to do the same to me if you want to win. If you win, you can have me, if you lose, you'll be dead. I won't give you a chance to surrender."

"You fucking-" The Weaselkin's angry response was cut off by Lone's powerful and bloodthirsty voice. "I consent to this duel as her 'owner'."

All of the Adventurers nearby were clearly shocked by Lone's decision. Although Sophie exuded the aura of an entry-level C-ranker, she was still quite obviously far weaker than the C-ranked Weaselkin and his group.

The Weaselkin looked stunned for a moment before his lips curled upwards making his normal face look particularly menacing. "Okay. Let's duel. I'll beat you into submission."

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"One second," Lone said as he raised his hand. "Is there any Guild employee or someone that can guarantee that my companion killing this walking faecal-matter won't cause any legal trouble?"

"What the fuck did you just call me?!" the Weaselkin roared in rage. Obviously, he didn't enjoy being called 'walking faecal-matter' very much.

The Deerkin Manager with white-centred eyes and white-tipped horns walked up to Lone and spoke loudly enough for everyone to hear. "Feel free, Sir Lone. Such fights are perfectly acceptable if the challenged accepts and the challenger pays for any damages to the grounds. You can move to an official fighting ring if you'd like, but I have a feeling that you don't want to spend much time on this."

Lone nodded and passed him a small sack that was full of white-gold coins. "Keep the change. I'm pretty sure you'll only need one of those since you'll only need to clean up some bodies."

"It's Manager Hessal. I heard he was on an adventure recently and only came back today."

"Eh? That's Manager Hessal? One of the city Elders?"

"Right. Don't you see his white-tipped horns? That means he's awakened three times. Last I heard, he was A-ranked in strength."

"Woah. That's cool. I wish I could be that strong. I've been stuck at E-Rank for ten years now."

"Ten years? Wow. You must be the strongest wooden plate in existence then, right? Hahaha!"

"S-Shut up! I'll get enough achievements to one day get my plate to copper!"

At that, everyone listening laughed at the poor Deerkin who had just spoken those words.

'I'm pretty sure I'm the strongest wooden-plate in existence, thank you very much,' Eolande harrumphed in pride, but only to herself obviously. Being a wooden-plate despite her power wasn't anything to proud of, that was for sure.

"Just to confirm, you consent to duel for your entire group?" Sophie asked as she blinked slowly, showing off her perfect, jade-like eyes.

"Hah? Sure, whatever. Though only I will be needed to fucking end you, slut," the Weaselkin leader dismissively replied.

"Good. I don't even need to teleport or use my swords to kill you," Sophie said as a beautiful smile crept across her face.

"What?" Sophie ignored the Weaselkin's question and simply extended her arm. 

Everyone looked at her with confusion and wonder. Obviously, considering her power as being a C-ranker, everyone present expected for her to put up a decent struggle before losing to the Weaselkin, but what happened next shocked everyone into disbelief.

A small, green disk made of energy appeared in front of Sophie's hand and it immediately started spinning at a fast enough speed to generate an audible sound.

"Hey, what the fuck is that? Magic?" the Weaselkin asked curiously as he took a light step towards Sophie.

"It's-"

Suddenly, the Weaselkin disappeared and reappeared right behind Sophie with a dagger pressed against her throat. "Stupid bitch, this is your fault for getting distracted."

"Woah, so he does have some skills. That was the iconic Weaselkin skill, 'Point-Blank Movement'," an Adventurer watching said in surprise.

"Oh, you're right. Guess he has some skill to back up his words." another added.

Lone looked at Sophie and grinned. "Well, it looks like Sophie's won."

Breena and Swind looked at Lone in confusion, but Eolande slowly nodded her head. "Indeed. Scary girl. Who knew she could control her barriers to such an extent already?"

"Master, what do you mean?" Breena asked curiously while she stared at Sophie and the Weaselkin who weren't moving, and the small floating barrier that was still spinning.

"Just watch," Lone replied.

The Weaselkin chuckled a little bit and licked his lips. "Well, surrender?" he asked with a confident tone, sure of his victory.

"... As I was saying, it's the thing that will kill you in less than a second." Sophie softly spoke.

"Haaa?! You gone insane, Human? Fucking crazy slut has lost her mind in fear, hahahaha!" Sophie frowned upon hearing the Weaskin's answer.

"You have a bigger potty mouth than even Lone does. Shut up and die for me," Sophie said with an ice-cold tone.

Before the Weaselkin could reply, the barrier suddenly moved so fast that the other Weaselkin couldn't react in time. It only took a second until the barrier was gently floating in front of Sophie again.

"Hey, what the fuck did you just... do..." the Weaskin's voice lost strength. What has caused this was the heads of his companions, his friends, slowly sliding off from their shoulders. 

The barrier had completely cut through their necks and severed their heads, creating several fountains of blood. Regardless of experience or power, everyone in the hall felt a chill go up their spines.

The Weaselkin behind Sophie quickly jumped back, lost his footing, and fell over. Sophie slowly turned around and walked towards him.

"Devil... Witch... no... you're not Human... you..you're a Devil... you... I surren-" Before he could finish his words, Sophie's barrier spun towards his head and cut it off with one clean motion.

"I told you I wouldn't let you surrender..." With that, Sophie dispersed her barrier and looked at Lone. Almost instantly, her cold and heartless gaze changed into a loving and innocent one. Sophie then ran up to Lone and hugged him tightly. 

"I did well. See, I'm strong now, right?" Sophie asked cutely as she looked up at Lone's face.

Lone smiled and gently stroked her head. "Mmm, you did great, Soph."

Lone's group then left the Guild. Everyone who had watched what had just happened didn't move or say anything for at least five minutes. It was on that day, that the legend of the Heartless Ice Queen, Sophie, was created amongst the Adventurers.