"Oh… uhh… Sir Resha, can I ask you for a favor?"

"Sure…?"

Seeing her being nervous made me curious about what she wanted after trying to ignore her life force.

"Ah, by the way, I'm Anna Irtland, please just call me Anna. You see… I don't understand how my Concept works… and every time I try to use it, it gives me this disorienting feeling."

"Ah yes, one fries and burger. And please give me one of that 'cola'…"

"… An adventurer set meal, please."

Finishing our order while thinking about what she said, thoughts of other concepts like hers passed through my mind making me have a vague idea of what kind of Concept she has.

"… Are you listening?"

"Yes. It seems like your Concept focuses on a specific target, or more like it depends on how you use your will while using it."

"How I will it?"

"Can you tell me what your Concept is if you don't mind?"

"… I… yes, I don't mind. It's called Concept of Severing when I started delving through it after waking up."

"Here's your order, please enjoy your meal!"

Taking both of our orders and eating a piece of the fries, I can't help but enjoy the taste of fried food.

To sever something, I was sure that was one of the Concepts that can be considered rare. People who awakened that Concept were strong. However, they didn't live long enough as they got blinded by the strength of that Concept.

A Concept that will sever anything that you think that you can sever, simple as that. However, what if the enemy that you chose became something that made you think it impossible to 'sever'? The only thing that they can do is wait for death once that happens.

Remembering someone from the past, a man kept boasting about his concept that he challenged me. The thought of earning fame if he was able to kill me made him ignore his senses. And being able to cut me once, he completely went deaf from the warning that his senses sent him before he realized that he couldn't cut me.

"A Concept that severs… so you don't know how to control it?"

"… Yes."

Seeing how troubled she is with her Concept, I just decided to help her a bit.

"Do you know what it means to cut?"

"…?"

Seeing her confused about what I said made me realize that what I said felt vague and that it would be hard to understand for someone young for her race.

"Seems not. Well, I'll just explain to you the easier one instead of the philosophical one so you better listen."

Seeing her nod, I took a bite out of the burger and took a sip from the cola only to be surprised with the taste of it.

'This is slightly good? Maybe good for the young ones if they are eating some fried food.'

Feeling that I was getting distracted with food, I focused back on the conversation with Anna.

"Your Concept focuses on your 'Will'."

Finding an empty table, I made her take a seat before I took out a container from my spatial storage to place my food before pulling a normal wooden stick and a metal one.

"If I ask you to cut these two with a normal knife, which one can you cut?"

"Only the wooden one…?"

She pointed at the wooden stick before she started eating her food.

"You can't cut the metal one?"

"That's impossible unless I use my mana to augment the knife or use a better knife, I can only leave a dent on it even if I put all of my strength."

"But you're different though?"

"What?"

"Your Concept can sever what you think you can 'sever'. If you don't believe that you can't cut it, then you won't be able to. And, that works vice versa as well."

"… Doesn't it sound like it will make me the strongest if I just think that I can cut everyone? What if, in the middle of the fight I suddenly felt like I couldn't cut the enemy?"

Hearing her view made me smile as she already found the flaw of her Concept without her getting blinded with what I said.

If she ignored that flaw, I would have been disappointed and just let her do whatever she wanted. However, she was able to look at it instead of ignoring it and believing that she could just force herself to think that she could cut everything.

"That means you die if you don't know how to make it work."

Taking a bite from the burger and eating more of the fries, I can't help but feel the excitement of having someone who learns properly. A feeling that I missed after I decided to live in the Hub Town as a receptionist.

"It all depends on your 'Will' to fight your opponent and to 'sense' if that opponent is someone that you should be fighting."

"Sense?"

"Yes. Do you think you have a chance to win against me or your crewmates?"

"… My friends, I feel like I have a chance to win against them if I'm lucky even to the other two that were out. As for you… I feel like I will not even be able to win against you even if all of us attacked you."

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

Finding out that she was able to 'sense' if she could win against me even in my state made my smile grow wider.

Even when she just awakened her Concept, she was able to sense who she could fight and who she should not fight. Something crucial among those Concept users.

"Anna, do you think you can win against someone in the second stage?"

"… That's… impossible. Someone in the second stage has their manifestation and has a higher energy capacity compared to those in the first stage."

"Then how about those without a concept against someone that reached the first stage?"

"That… I think there's a chance."

Noticing that she doesn't know much about the concept, I can't help but be amused that she was able to travel for this long.

"Hmm… I say… you should forget about the mindset of 'higher means stronger' for concepts."

"Why?"

"How should I say this… concepts can be awakened even if someone never had a fight in their entire life. Through that, they were able to make themselves stronger and advance till the third stage without any knowledge of fighting or control over it."

"… But doesn't that still mean that they are stronger compared to those in lower ranks?"

"Yes. However, people think that the higher their concept is, the stronger they are and will make them invincible. That mindset was something that was engraved to them when they used it to fight those inexperienced lower stage. But, people in the first stage can kill someone in the third stage if they are skilled enough."

"… But what if they encounter someone as skilled as them?"

"Then they don't fight that one. You see… if a skilled fighter is in front of someone, they can gauge their strength, they can 'sense' if that person is weaker than them or stronger. If they have a chance or not if they fight them. That's what separates those who are truly strong from those who think they are 'strong' among their peers."

"Sense… do you mean how I sensed that I have a chance against my friends and having no chance against you?"

"Correct. If you have that sense, you can use that to control your Concept. Use it to see what you can 'sever' and the ones that you can't, that way you will get over your disorientation once you got used to it."

"… You are knowledgeable about Concepts, Sir Resha."

"Well, it is something that I delved through the most for thousands of years."

Finishing the food that I ordered, I threw the wrappers and plastic bottles in the trash before throwing the container back in my spatial storage.

"Now that we're done eating, let's go back to your group. I'm sure they already waited long enough and I feel like Hastur will scold me if I made him wait longer."

"Yes. Please follow me."

"Oh! It's rare to find a fellow elf around this part of the universe."

Just as we were about to leave, a frivolous voice rang out as an elf with another elf in tow approached our table making the two of us stop.

As if leaving was not a choice, the elf behind the frivolous one was letting out his aura of being a third stage to intimidate us. Seeing that he's trying to act tough even though he's self-absorbed in being 'strong' I can't help but be amused at the timing of their arrival.

'I'll just use you two as a teaching material to this young one.'

Turning my gaze to Anna, she looks troubled not knowing how to react to someone just greeting her out of nowhere.

"Oh, how rude of me not to introduce myself, I'm the fourth prince of the Bairu Empire, Finral Kinro Bairu and this is my bodyguard, Reynold Kinro. As for you, lovely lady, can you grace me your name?"

'Bairu…?'

Hearing the familiar last name of his, I can't help but be amused seeing this scene. A scene where an elven royalty uses their name to coerce another elf.

For elves, their hierarchy is something that they have to follow even outside of their territory. In a way, they are one of the races that has the most organized army being second to the insect race.

"I… I am…"

"Don't humor a kid, Anna."

Interrupting Anna before she could say her name, the elf prince suddenly glared at me.

"Reynold."

Calling the other elf's name, he let out the full force of his third stage of concept towards me before he reached out his hand to grab me.

Activating my Concept of Strength, I grab his arm before it reaches me.

"Guh!"

Feeling him trying to force his arm to reach towards me, I put some strength on my grip making him groan before trying to pull his arm away from me only to fail.

"LET GO!"

Seeing that using his strength is futile, armor suddenly appeared all over his body making my hand get pushed away.

"You dare be rude to an elven royal, you are sentenced to death!"

The elf prince suddenly started screaming those words without care, I couldn't help but be stunned as this guy completely forgot about the rules in the space station. A rule that even the strongest forces in the universe follow. The rule of no killing in the space station no matter how severe their hatred against each other.

As if he were waiting for the prince's words, the elf clad in full armor raises his hands before a sword appears on it.

"DIE!"

Seeing the amount of energy concentrated in his sword, dodging his attack would only damage the area and kill some of Riflaro's workers made my mood sour.

Manifesting my Concept, I used a tiny power of my manifestation and shattered the energy of his sword as I blocked it.

"Wha-"

Not letting him react, I moved down his sword and punched his helmet strong enough to pierce through the defense that his concept gives.

As soon as my gauntlet hit his head, his hands let go of the sword before he slammed on the metal ground hard enough that it dented it.

Seeing him easily let go of his sword made me disappointed that I kicked him without hesitation making him roll on the ground as he started coughing under his helmet. Dropping his sword on the ground, I stepped on its blade and started putting pressure before it finally snapped making the elf start coughing before blood drips down from inside of his helmet.

"You… you! Do you know what you're doing?! You're declaring wa- GRUAHHHHH"

"Too noisy."

Deciding that this play was done, I approached the prince and grabbed his mouth before crushing it to stop him from talking.

Noticing what I did, Anna's eyes widened from shock as if not expecting me to touch even the elf prince.

"You are a prince from Bairu and yet you act like a dog in heat while using your status. And what? You're even a damn Kinro? Parkir would rip you apart if he found out about this. Though not like he will be able to do that anymore… Shatter."

Struggling as hard as he can to escape me, his eyes suddenly widen before his body went limp. Letting his body go, he dropped to the ground before shattering into tiny pieces of light and disappearing.

"Y-you! How… how dare… you… kill an elv- GAH"

Not bothering with his words as he coughed in between, I approached him before raising my armored leg and stomping his armored chest making it caved in. Kicking his body away, his armor disappeared as the elf's face appeared with a face looking shocked not expecting his death.

"You."

Pointing at the male half-demon worker who went to the area to see what was happening, he approached me calmly as if not minding about what I did.

"Cremate this guy's body and…"

Taking out a pen and paper from my spatial storage, I started writing a letter before passing it to the half-demon and pointing toward the elf's body.

"Send this and this guy's ashes to Harkia Bairu."

"As you wish."

Bowing to me, he waved his arm as the elf's body floated before following him to leave the area.

"Now that that's done, let's go to your group, Anna."

Calling out Anna after taking care of the disappointing elf prince and his bodyguard, I turn around to see her looking at me in shock.

"Anna?"

"Ah. Y-yes, this way please."