Immortal Freeloader 21 (Patreon)

Linnayin looked unhappy about the way Falhaner spoke, but I caught her gaze and shook my head, asking her not to push it. I was very happy about the minor insult she delivered. 

More importantly, the System made it clear that she was considerably stronger than Linnayin when it came to fighting. Also, she clearly had a high rank, enough that she could probably kill me without consequence if she wanted. 

Not a good target to annoy. 

Linnayin nodded readily, which confirmed it. She clearly had a hot temper, and the fact that she actually listened showed that she respected Falnahar significantly. 

They turned their attention to the fight. I flipped the booklet she passed to me, which turned out to be a guide about the five martial arts of the city, describing each move for the five arts, both for the initiate realm and muscle reinforcement realm. 

It was a guide to take down the users of the five arts. 

It took a while for me to understand why the System decided to return me the complete manuals rather than a more detailed counter-strategy report. There was no explicit wording in the book about the general intent. 

Valuable information. I also wondered what was the difference between Profound Middle-Grade and Mortal Low-Grade manuals of the same Tiger Fist art, but I wasn’t curious enough to leave early — or worse, pull a book from my Inventory. 

Instead, I turned away from the fight — which the Wolf Fang disciple lost, but not wounded badly — and quickly read through the description of the moves. In a way, the booklet was similar to the Tiger Fist manual. It had similar drawings of the punches, but their descriptions weren’t fully accurate. 

However, there were no poems to accompany the moves. Instead, there were some more practical descriptions of how the essence actually moved. 

It was very easy to understand. Combined with my talent, I just needed to read those descriptions once, and I comprehended the moves, easily able to replicate their moves. 

The difference in difficulty was interesting, but it could wait. I turned my attention to the battles at the arena. After the Muscle Reinforcement disciples, it was followed by several Initiates from all five sects fought.

It was helpful, as it was the first time I was watching Martial Artists having proper fights. I had already seen many people being killed since I arrived, but it was the first time I watched Martial Artists with equal skills fighting. 

There were no rules to restrict the moves, making the fights far more complicated than sports like boxing. The tactical complexity was high, but my martial aptitude helped me to understand what was going on easily. 

Martial talent was useful. 

As I watched the fights, I didn’t just learn about fighting, but also the political landscape. The attitude of the disciples against each other showed a lot. 

The balance between sects was complicated. Whenever a disciple from Dragon Saber fought others, they took the opponent down in a few hits at most, clearly establishing them as the superior party. Whenever Tiger Fist and Demon Claw fought against the Crane Kick, they worked hard to deliver deep injuries to each other. 

But soon I was distracted by something else. The moves of the Tiger Fist disciples. Maybe because I had already studied their art, but I felt their attacks were lacking spirit. 

Another mystery, but before I could solve it, the door opened, and a familiar blonde beauty entered. 

Apothecary Elsana. 

“It looks like my misplaced guest is here,” she said as she walked. 

“Yes,” Linnayin answered before I could say anything, her tone smug. “That’s what happens when you continue to accept useless people as your disciple.” 

Elsana shrugged as she walked closer. “They have their uses,” she said, but ignored the seat next to Falnaher, and pulled a chair to the other side of me. “Though, sometimes, it’s good to have an excuse to teach them a lesson,” Elsana said, indirectly confirming that she was unaware of what happened earlier, and already punished the culprit. 

“Wait, is that why you kicked out that kid?” Falnaher said. “Lord Eirto visited my father, complaining about your arrogance for an hour.” 

“And, is the city lord going to do anything about it?” Elsana said, which I appreciated. That way, I finally learned Falnaher’s identity. I wasn’t planning to disrespect a martial artist who was significantly stronger than me in the first place, but extra knowledge still helped. 

What didn’t help was the location of the chair, one that was inappropriately close to me, though her smile showed that it was more about goading her friend than actually trying to seduce me, playing to their weird friendship. 

Though, after seeing how Linnayin lived, I understood what Elsana was trying to do better. For all her incredible exotic beauty, Linnayin was a nerd who was more interested in forging. Elsana was clearly using an interesting technique to goad her. 

Not exactly what I had planned when I arrived in the city, but certainly fun. 

“No. You know there’s no love lost between them, but Lord Eire might try to revenge once he leaves the city,” Falnaher declared dismissively. 

“You better hire a few guards. Who knew if he would get impatient and hire a few people to deal with you,” Elsana said. She sounded smug, but she was clearly cluing Lannayin about my predicement and goading her to act at the same time. 

She might not have planned what happened for her lunch invitation, but she was quick to adapt. A dangerous woman. I was glad that I was not her enemy, but a harmless parasite at best. 

“Really, in the city? Would he dare?” Lannayin commented. The other two chuckled in amusement at her naivety. I wanted to join them, but I couldn’t afford to annoy my sexy blacksmith. 

“Well, he managed to get me kicked out of my inn,” I murmured in frustration instead. A risky move, but I didn’t like how my sudden enemies were mentioned in the same breath as the city lord. I needed to leave, the sooner, the better. 

However, before leaving, I wanted to see if I could convince Lannayin to pass me a manual about Volcano Hammer. The full manual was clearly out of the question, but just the initiate section should be doable. 

Particularly since the Initiate section of the Volcano Hammer was truly useless without higher sections.  

“What, he get you kicked out of the inn,” Lannayin started. “How dare he! I will go and—” 

“Do nothing,” Elsana interrupted as she reached over me to grab her arm, but used it as an opportunity to rub against me in a visible way. Lannayin growled in anger. Elsana continued. “It’s my fault that he is homeless. I will arrange him a place to stay.” 

“That’s not necessary,” Lannayin said with a frosty voice. “He can stay with me. After all, it was my beautiful workshop that inspired his beautiful poem.  

“Oh, really,” Elsana answered, her smirk wide. “Let me hear them.” 

I ignored my desire to sigh, and repeated the same poem,  followed by a few new ones. Lannayin blushed with each poem, while Elsana looked amused at first. 

Unfortunately, she was too good at keeping her expression hidden. It was too late that I noticed a hint of jealousy on her face. “The last time I visited, you still didn’t have a guest room. Don’t tell me that he’s going to share your pillow like I do,” Elsana said, showing that she decided to play more seriously than I had been expecting. 

I did my best to ignore the following discussion as they argued about who was going to host me, particularly the images that it conjured. It was not a discussion I could intervene. 

Instead, I watched the arena, where another Muscle Reinforcement battle was going on. This time,  it was between Crane Kick and Tiger Fist. My initial plan was to watch the members of the Crane Leg to get a better understanding of their style, but the more I watched, the more I paid attention to Tiger Fist discipline. 

His punches were correct, and his swings were intense as he used the first three punches of the Muscle Reinforcement realm. Outwardly, it was more impressive than the punches I had practiced. My punches were accompanied by the subtlest whisper, while with every punch, his essence roared intimidatingly. 

Yet, for some reason, the roars felt hollow and lacking. The difference was like watching a tiger on the TV screen and hearing it in real time. I wanted to watch that more, but before I could say anything, Elsana grabbed my arm and lifted me. 

I didn’t appreciate being treated like that, but the strength of her fingers left no place to argue. “Then, it’s a deal. He’s going to stay with me until you can put together a decent guest room,” Elsana declared with a teasing smirk. 

“Fine, but once I finish with the meeting, I’m going to visit as well. You can’t be trusted.” 

“Oh, my dear friend. You wound me,” Elsana declared smugly and started walking. Since the decision was made for me, I followed.  

I didn’t appreciate the process, but that was the cost of being a boy toy. Sometimes, you needed to accept the decisions … especially when those decisions were made by a sexy rich woman in her late twenties, likely strong enough to punch through a wall.