A Bug In Fate

While Alden was sleeping peacefully after all his continuous hard work, a group of twenty individuals were growing increasingly frustrated back in Ravenhold City.

They had been roaming around the guild in disguise for nearly a week.

During the first two days, they had remained on guard, ready to accomplish their mission. But as the days passed, their patience began to wear thin.

Eventually, they started sitting around and relaxing themselves. Now, on the sixth day, they were drinking and chatting on the rooftop while occasionally glancing toward the guild’s entrance.

A man at the Metamorphosis Realm stood at the center of the conversation. He drank from his bottle in one go before cursing loudly.

"That fucker... Why isn’t he coming out of the guild? How many days has it been? Six? Six fucking days!"

He slammed the empty bottle down, and some of the beer spurted out in different directions.

"Captain Daren, I think he’s simply scared and can’t come outside because of fear... Not that I blame him, though. After all, he’s being hunted by a noble family. Haha."

A man in his early thirties spoke with a grin.

"Hahahaha!"

"Hahaha!"

Soon, their laughter rang across the rooftop, mixing with the sound of the wind as they continued drinking and mocking the young man they believed was hiding inside the guild.

To them, the situation was almost amusing.

They had been waiting for six days already, yet their target still hadn’t shown himself. In their minds, there was only one possible explanation.

He was afraid.

"Captain, you don’t have to worry about him. If the news about him representing the Ashborn family in the upcoming tournament is true, then he’ll have to show up at the arena. We can simply kidnap him on his way there."

A woman spoke in a calm tone. Unlike the others, she wasn’t drunk. She was calmly polishing her dagger with a cloth.

"Yes, Captain. Lira is right."

"He’ll have to come outside eventually. Hahaha!"

"Yeah... He only has five days. Let’s wait here, and we might even get a special reward from the Young Master," Daren said, curling his lips upward.

A greedy light appeared in their eyes as they thought about the reward.

None of them knew that the person they were waiting for wasn’t hiding at all.

He was simply somewhere else, peacefully sleeping after spending the entire day doing something they couldn’t even imagine in their drunken state.

The next day came, and Ravenhold seemed to be more lively for some reason.

Vendors were shouting at people, trying to convince them to give their products a free try, while adventurers were chatting with their friends in various taverns.

At the city gates, new faces could be seen everywhere, as people from neighboring cities arrived in carriages while others entered in groups.

The city seemed unusually busy. The five city guards who were usually free most of the time and took turns checking people entering the city were now all occupied, as crowds continued to flock into Ravenhold.

"Of course our Redmont City is going to win... Idiot, didn’t you see how Marcus killed two Rupture Realm monsters with his bare hands?"

A woman smacked her friend’s head as she proudly boasted about her city. It seemed she was from Redmont City and had come here with her four friends.

"Did you hear those fools? They haven’t even seen our city’s top genius, who has learned more than five wind spells at just seventeen years old." A man grinned as he spoke loudly to his friend, who smiled before replying.

"Yeah... It’s good that this time the tournament is happening between five cities. Haha! Our Windmare City will be the final winner. Let those fools believe whatever they want." He chuckled as he stepped forward, noticing that the line ahead of him was getting shorter.

"What did that bastard say?"

It seemed their conversation had been overheard by the earlier group—not that they had exactly intended to keep their voices down anyway.

The woman who had been boasting turned her head toward them with an angry expression.

"We said our Windmare City will win. What can you do about it?" the man replied, spreading his arms in a dramatic gesture.

"You all are wrong... It’s our Blackwood City that will win!"

Before the woman could open her mouth, another loud voice interrupted them.

It’s our Greyhaven City that will win, you two-brain-cell people!" Another voice rang out from behind.

"You outsiders haven’t heard of Liam and Mina... Our Ravenhold City will be the one to win!" A citizen of Ravenhold stood up for his city’s pride. It seemed he didn’t like how these people were boasting about their cities while standing right in front of the city’s entrance.

And it wasn’t only him. Soon, others joined in and raised their voices.

"Yeah! Keep your mouths shut!"

"Who the hell are you?"

"I am your long-lost grandfather, bastard!"

It didn’t take long for the situation to escalate. Within moments, a fight broke out, and soon, people from every group were dragged into it as they supported their respective cities.

Swords began to clash, and spells were thrown at each other while a small number of people stood to the side, avoiding the battle and simply watching their fellow citizens fight for their city’s pride.

Clearly, they were the intelligent ones who at least had enough self-awareness to understand that getting involved in a street brawl wasn’t worth it.

The fight was eventually stopped by the city guards before anyone could lose their life.

The guards quickly separated the groups, shouting at them to calm down as the once peaceful entrance turned into complete chaos.

Some people were still arguing even after being pulled apart, while others looked at the destruction around them with awkward expressions.

The tournament had not even started yet, and the people of the five cities were already fighting over who would win.

Perhaps the upcoming tournament was going to be far more interesting than anyone had expected.

If people were already fighting over their cities before the tournament had even begun, one could only imagine what they would do once their respective geniuses actually stepped onto the stage.

The funniest part was that those very geniuses had no idea that a fight had already broken out in the streets simply because people were arguing over who would win.

They were probably still preparing for the tournament, completely unaware of the chaos their names had already caused.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!