"These past years, the outside powers have been fighting way too much," someone said, "Apparently, the imperial royal family got a huge batch of energy stones from who knows where a few years ago, and their strength has increased several times over. And then there’s that Nine Realms Kingdom..."

"I know about that," another chimed in. "There’s internal strife in the Nine Realms Kingdom. The one in power was overthrown, but the former lord managed to escape with his son."

"Is that for real?"

The Nine Realms Kingdom is the most mysterious existence among all powers.

Unlike other forces, the Nine Realms Kingdom originally consisted of nine planets. Rumors said that these nine planets together guarded an abyss known as the Land of Darkness.

But as time passed, conflicts arose between the planets, and they began to annex each other. After a period of chaos, they finally formed a new power in the true sense.

Not long after, this new force elected a new emperor, the lineage of the former lord.

Even so, dissatisfaction persisted, and internal struggles never ceased.

Logically speaking, such a chaotic force should have been conquered by others long ago, yet part of the Nine Realms Kingdom is comprised of people born with extraordinary gifts, especially the son of the former lord, rumored to possess psychic powers beyond an S-grade.

No matter how powerful, he ultimately faced a grim fate, with his whereabouts unknown and being hunted down.

How unpredictable life is!

As the conversation went on, the topic eventually turned back to Hannah.

The beast fighting arena now treated Hannah as a living signboard. They put quite a bit of effort into their promotion.

Leveraging the fuss from the last event where people clamored for refunds, the number encouraged to see if Hannah truly lived up to the hype only grew.

The more exaggerated the rumors became, the greater were Seventeen’s worries.

He himself was not one to wear his emotions on his sleeve, but this time even Hannah could see his anxiety.

At night.

After tidying up the table, Seventeen didn’t leave immediately. He sat on the living room sofa without turning on the lights, staring at Hannah’s tightly closed bedroom door by the moonlight.

He was thinking.

If that young man named Archer were still around, how would he handle this issue?

Would he let Hannah fight tomorrow, or would he take Hannah and leave?

But where could they go if they left?

Just as Hannah had said, only by winning tomorrow’s match would they have a chance to leave Brie one day in the future.

Otherwise, even if they left now, they would face being hunted by the beast fighting arena.

The night seemed exceptionally short; it felt like only a moment after closing his eyes, it was already dawn.

Outside the window, cicadas chirped, and the first rays of sunlight fell on the tree tops, making the leaves appear extraordinarily verdant.

...

Before evening arrived, the beast fighting arena was already surrounded by people.

Unlike the previous on-site ticket sales, this time tickets were sold in advance, and highest bidders got them.

Some people took this opportunity to hoard a large quantity of tickets to sell at the venue.

The arena’s operators did not interfere much when they became aware of it because they knew that no matter whether Hannah won or lost tonight, it would bring them a full purse.

At six in the evening, on the distant horizon, the sunset had dipped by more than half, its afterglow spreading far and wide.

In the glaring lights, tonight’s match officially began the prelude.

Inside the semi-basement beast fighting arena, with only the blinding lights, the audience looked at the ground covered in dried bloodstains, screaming and shouting enthusiastically.

The host on the platform was even more excited, his hand holding the microphone trembling uncontrollably.

Hannah stood outside the arena.