"Excuse me? What is the meaning of this!” Pait growled.

It was truly odd that the aristocracy would go to this effort. They already provided them a small mansion with a cursed nature, now they weren’t going to let them into the festival. What was Aberis trying to do? Were they trying to start a war?

“Not you!” The guard said, shifting his eyes to me and my girls. “You five aren’t allowed in!”

“Huh? But I have the tickets right here. We’re in the top 100…”

“Your position in the top 100 is being… reevaluated. It’s claimed you pulled out the money and bribed off various people during the competition, so how could we allow someone like that be a noble?”

“Geh…” I shook my head. “It was a bet to free a slave, and both parties and the judge agreed!”

“Well, once Lord Tibult heard of your transgressions, he naturally disagreed with your actions. He is the one who is the final judge on all matters regarding the competition!”

“T-tibult!” A sound like a strangled cat came from Lydia’s lips.

Instantly, the name I had heard before came back into recollection. Lord Tibult was the man who had owned Lydia and sold her just to spite me. He had also left Lydia and inadvertently myself for dead by collapsing the dungeon staircase and trapping us there. He was a fat, arrogant man who took pleasure in his slaves. Although, if I remembered correctly, he had more interest in males than females, which was the only reason Lydia had managed to escape unscathed.

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“I’m sorry to hear you’re having problems, my boy.” Pait shrugged. “I’m just going in to get a bite to eat, and then after we can head back to my place and…”

“Ahem!” His servant Dav made a noise in her throat and then shot Pait a pleading look.

He sighed. “Oh, very well, I suppose I’m not that hungry after all. Since they won’t let you in, and we came with you, we won’t go in either.”

One of the guards snorted. “You say that like we would have let you!”

“What was that?” Pait spun on the man angrily.

“Of course an Esmere would keep cheaters as company! You suffer with the company you keep! No entry!”

“Why… you arrogant son of a-“

“Wait!” A voice called from behind the guards.

He came running up from inside the party. He was a nondescript man that appeared to be wearing a red and black livery that I didn’t recognize. Actually, I didn’t recognize any livery at all. Lord Tibult’s colors appeared to be purple and green, and he had an insignia that looked to be a sparrow and a sword. At least, that was assuming that these guards belonged to his house. The man whispered a few things to the guards, who’s frowns deepened as their faces turned red. When he was done whispering, the man bowed.

“Actually, my Master has taken an interest in your party. After hearing you were barred from it, he immediately ordered this to be rescinded. You may come in as is custom. As for the competition, he said that if you were truly deceivers, the truth would be revealed in tomorrow’s match anyway, so there was no sense in evaluating the situation. I had hoped to fix this issue before the guards were involved. I apologize for my delay.”

The man bowed deeply. The guards looked at each other and then stepped aside, no longer willing to meet our eyes now that they couldn’t act arrogantly.

“That’s more like it!” Pait responded arrogantly, immediately pushing his way through like he expected the door to close a second later.

The rest of us could only look at each other, shrug, and then enter the Mansion of Lord Tibult. However, I knew now that this was the Lord who clearly had a vendetta against me. I suspected this wasn’t the last trouble he was going to give me.