Elizabeth was surrounded by her peers, for the first time in nine months and yet she never felt more alone. For reasons she could not parse, she was given the cold shoulder by everyone. From the cheer of the fans, she had expected some kind of congratulations in the waiting room that would lead them into their next match. Nobody approached her or even acknowledged her. At least in the beginning before the fight, one or two would become a bit curious and come up for conversation but now any semblance of comradery was all but gone.

She even tried to approach the ones who were initially curious only to be ignored and snubbed. Giving up she huddled into a corner, sat on a chair, and brought her knees to her head confused and distressed by what was happening.

She had done well hadn't she, so why was she being treated as a non-existent entity?

Even when she was hated she was at least paid attention to, this felt even worse than back then. It felt like her triumphs did not matter.

"Excuse me."

Her face brightened at the initiation only to quickly fall when she noticed just who had called out and the begrudging expression on his face. It was one of the healers on staff who had come here to give her a post-battle check.

"Yes?..."

She sounded dispirited even to her own ears. She had hidden from her master but a part of her really wanted to show off and prove just good she had become over the last couple of months and she thought her for her first fight she had done well. Sure, she stumbled but she recovered and managed to come out victorious which was the whole point of the tournament.

"We need to..." He started to say.

"No need for that." A powerful voice reverberated through the room demanding all of the attention including hers.

Upon seeing who was at the entrance of the waiting room Elizabeth's whole demeanor immediately turned jubilant, she hopped to her feet and immediately ran to the one place that had become her safe harbor since leaving her sorry excuse of a family and subsequent horrible life at the sect.

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She slammed into her master with no care of decorum which caused a bevy of shocked reactions.

One might be forgiven for thinking that Elizabeth had weak mental fortitude but that could not be further from the case. She still had life in her eyes even after all the unjust tribulations she went through. It was simply that her master had accepted her with next to no reservations and she could act as childishly as she wanted. She completely forgot her surroundings and acted like an over-excited child bragging about their achievements.

"Master! I did it!"

Samuel gave her a genuine smile instead of his practiced one as he started patting her head.

"Yes, you have. Good work. I am proud of you."

Elizabeth melted into him as she closed her eyes in contentment, completely forgetting her pain merely moments ago.

At this moment Samuel had made two mistakes he was not aware of. First, by disregarding the traditional respect between master and disciple in such a public setting, he was creating an image of himself that was not wholly good. He was making a precedent that he treated students under him more like lovers than disciples which was not a good thing, especially in a sect where a single master could have upwards of a hundred disciples.

Secondly, he was making others believe that he did not understand combat because Elizabeth did not fight effectively in her match, she had simply steamrolled her opponent through sheer power imbalance.

They were not totally wrong to think this, but most of them did not have one crucial piece of information. The man standing before them was at the nascent soul stage, which is the peak of the inner sect and he could probably fold the entire outer sect by himself after all the man was in secluded cultivation for over a hundred years, most who knew him were either in the inner sect or have died and he was not that famous before anyway. His mental capacity far outstripped any of the disciples or even masters present in this outer-level event.

His personal reasoning was simply that Elizabeth was not confident in her own strength and he was going to build that up before he started working on her faults. In real fights underestimating your own strength could be just as bad as overestimating them, especially in a team setting.

Then he proceeded to enforce his first 'mistake' by taking her into his arms in a princess carry and walking off which was arguably another mistake as if he simply vanished showing off the extent of his power some of the discontent would have hushed.

As it was, Samuel was in the beginning stages of being labeled a 'lover' behind his back. A derogatory term used to describe masters who look for relationships instead of pursuing the true reason one joins the sect, to pursue the path of immortality.