ตอน 30: Back to Fellarburg

His fists full of aura, Stark positioned himself for the battle against Daniel, and this time there would be no deathless duel or anything of the sort, it was all or nothing.

"I am going to kill you…" Daniel was starting to doubt his judgment now, the atmosphere around Stark was different than it was ten seconds ago for some reason.

But he couldn't let it show that he was hesitating, he was part of the Pridel family, one of the biggest ones in Fellarburg, if not the entire world.

Luckily for him though, someone came to stop whatever was happening: Lana Moonless.

"Stop whatever you're doing," she spoke with an emotionless voice, placing herself between the two.

"Oh my god, that's Lana!"

"THE Lana? From the Moonless family, the ones that own lots of businesses, guilds, and are all extremely powerful…?"

"I heard her father is called the 'Archer King'…"

Frankly, Lana would never stoop so low as to stop ongoing battles between people as she all considered that extremely childish, but for some reason… she felt like she needed to stop this one, and it's totally not because Stark is there, obviously!

"Lana, what are you doing?" Daniel showed his soft spot for the blonde-haired archer, unable to defy anything she said, both because of his obsession for her and because her family was stronger.

Stark, on the otherhand just looked at her with a neutral expression, it was as if his eyes were staring at her soul.

"That black-haired guy is done for… of course Lana is gonna side with Daniel!"

"It's business matter, that guy is cornered."

"I guess the weak really should just stay back huh…"

Lana really wanted to say something to Stark at that moment, not to criticize him or anything, just to make sure everything was alright, but seeing his expression and aura while looking at her, she switched her gaze and looked at Daniel.

"Aren't you tired of causing problems," she spoke to him, giving him a harsh look, completely different from her expression with Stark, "Seriously… I HATE men like you…" she groaned and began walking toward Stark.

"W-what the?" Daniel was astonished, he had not expected to be called out by Lana in such a way.

And honestly, no one did, they all expected her to lash out at Stark for being a nuisance.

'Well, she's going toward him anyway, so he is also getting it!' Daniel smirked again, ready to see Lana unleash another barrage of insults at him.

But… when she approached Stark, none of this happened.

She just grabbed his arm and took him away, toward one of the men in black.

They disappeared into the crowd before anyone could do anything, and everyone present to see the scene was left speechless, Daniel the first.

He had known Lana since she was little, falling in love with her the first time he saw her as a little girl, and their families were on good terms, so to him, everything was going well.

When they reached middle school, he relentlesly persued her, but she would always shrug him off, not even interested in him a single bit.

And it wasn't like she was making a bad choice: Daniel is a hypocrite, vowing his love to her but still sleeping around.

Just like that, the inspection kept going.

***

When it was Lana's turn to be inspected, the guards let her pass without checking anything: it was obvious, she was famous and her father was probably the boss of these guys, no wonder they didn't check her.

Stark on the otherhand was right behind the blonde archer, and of course, he was stopped like everybody else.

"Please show us the items you acquired, and inform us about what you did in the rift."

"No items," he lied, "And also, I am the one that beat-" he tried to speak about his achievements to the guard, after all Stark was someone who loved to boast.

But Lana came to interrupt them, "He is with me, no need to inspect him either."

"But miss, we were tasked to-" the guard was put in a tough spot, he had been given strict instructions to not let anyone that isn't Lana or from a big faction/family pass without a search

"This guy is my friend, is it so hard to understand or do you want me to tell my father about it?" she hated abusing her powers, but this time was a special occasion as she didn't want Stark to tell them about his fight with the boss.

"V-Very well!" the guard let Stark pass, "Next in line!"

And so just like that, Stark was allowed out.

The busses had already arrived by now, and people were leaving little by little.

"Welp, thank you I guess," Stark smiled before heading toward a half-full bus that was ready to take off in less than five minutes.

It was currently around midnight, and so all he wanted to do was take advantage of this ride to sleep.

He sat on a bus chair (with no one beside him), and yawned, he had been the one that probably had done the most things inside the rift, so of course he was tired.

'I just want to sleep…' he closed his eyes, and after a few seconds, he sensed a presence beside him, "…?"

He looked to his right, just to see Lana, "Do you have a crush on me or something? Why are you following me?" he asked.

"HUH? ME? There are just no other chairs beside this one I feel comfortable sitting on!"

Stark took a few seconds to notice many empty chairs in the bus, but just decided it wasn't worth it, and went back to closing his eyes.

Soon enough, he fell asleep.

***

(Many hours later)

The sun was starting to rise, casting its warm rays through the windows of the bus. Stark slowly stirred, feeling the uncomfortable stiffness in his neck and shoulders. He opened his eyes and sat up, blinking away the gritty remnants of sleep from his eyes.

They had finally arrived back at the Lotus Academy, and soon enough most of the people left the bus, greeted by their parents or other figures related to them.

For this special occasion, even Lana's father, the 'Archer King' went to check on his daughter, hugging her as soon as she left the bus, Stark right behind her.

"My little princess, did you do well?" he smiled, a proof that he really cared about his daughter.

"Of course I did, dad, I beat the boss!"

"THAT'S MY GIRL," he was extremely tall with blond hair and a beard, and lifted her up while spinning.

Stark wasn't interested in such a scene, and so he decided to go back to his hotel room as nobody had come to check on him, he had a rough day ahead of him as he wanted to sell his items, and maybe, just maybe, try to find anything related to that Domination Trial.

But right as he was about to leave…

"Wait, you," Lana's father shouted, and gestured for him to approach him, for some reason, he had the feeling that Stark was an important person.