Lying back against the wall, Shade observed his party members. Eris was snuggling in Nova's arms as their newly hatched baby sleeping peacefully on her lap. Emilia was writing down some documents on the desk as Anastasia was silently standing by her side like an obedient assistant (maid). He turned his gaze toward the scenery outside through the window.

They were currently hiding in a rural village on the mountain somewhere. The location of the mountain was unknown and even he tried to ask the villagers or the peddler coming there from time to time, they had no idea what he talked about. 

Shade and Anastasia had once tried to descend the mountain to find out the surroundings. However, what they found was just some settlements a kin to where they hid, large farmland, or another mountainous area.

Eris, who was the only one among them who could fly, had tried to fly to check outside the mountain area but according to her report, she just found large forest with mass of problems surrounding the whole mountainous area as if to isolate this place. 

The northern area's forest was leaking out miasma. The thick miasma was so thick that it almost looked like some purple fog. The west side was forest filled with poison. The trees had withered even there were few which where still alive, most of them were just treant monsters mimicking some trees. The worst was the poisonous gas leaking out from any crevice of the stone, or the earth itself. The east and south side was forest with some natural mana being radiated by the ground. The mana itself wasn't a problem however the forest dweller was. The mana leaked by the ground had mutated the animals into magical beasts with strong firepower and the plantations were turned into either some magic plantations or man-eater trees and treants. Even some of the rock and soil were transformed into magical golem with infinite amount of mana and fast regenerative ability.

Maybe that was also the reason why the culture in this place was so unique and was not touched by the church's faith. Thanks to that, we weren't hunted as criminals. Emilia who was the group's eldest (in appearance) was acting as the representative of the group and with her communication skill the group was accepted as one of them by the locals. And for some reason, Emilia was regarded as one of the elders.

Don! Don! Don!

Suddenly the door was knocked loudly. It was rather strong knocking and was sounded very impolite for a guest. Anastasia left her spot and headed to the entrance. As soon as she opened the door, a youth around her teens was standing there.

"Ah, umm... Is Shade around?"

She timidly said. She spoke in rather polite manner despite her rude knocking. Hearing his name was mentioned, Shade left his spot and walked to the entrance.

"Ah, there you are!! I'll pay you back for my last defeat, Lizard face!!"

She suddenly declared rather loudly. It was very unladylike and .made her timid way of speaking earlier was a complete lie. And to respond that rude calling, Shade could only sigh.

It was almost everyday that the youths in the village would challenge him. On certain occasion, the challenger would cpme from the neighboring village. He deduced that the reason he was kept challenged because he was the only one on the group who had non human face and for some reason, there was no demihuman or beastkin in this region. It was already good thing that the elders didn't discriminate him or told him to leave from the difference.

Shade walked out as he was afraid to receive Anastasia's glare if the challenger made a fuss in any case if he refused the challenge and disturbed Emilia's work.

Shade let the challenger girl to lead him toward the battle court of the village. It was rather unique that each village in this region had a battle court and some of them even had a special hall for battle. The culture of this region was mostly battle oriented and even the leadership of the region was decided mostly by strength in martial arts.

"Today, I will definitely defeat you!!"

She declared after the arrived at the court. Shade just ignored her and got ready on his spot. The surrounding had became crowded. It was not strange in this place for people to come to watch any battle occurred in the court.

"Say, who do you think will win?"

"Dunno, Rin is strong but Shade has never been defeated before. But, judging from how hard that girl had trained that move, I can't say she can't win."

"So, we will witness that guy's first defeat?"

"Probably"

Shade overheard the gallery's whisper. It seems like his opponent had new ace under her sleeve.

Shade watched his opponent's stance. He traced every sign of the muscle movements of his opponent to read her next move.

The girl, Rin, readied her stance. It was very refined stance of someone who had good mastery over martial arts and there was no sign of opening on her at the first glance. A villager stepped out from the crowd and stood in the middle of the court to act as a referee.

"Ready, start!!"

Sa soon as the battle started, Rin kicked the ground and advanced at high speed at Shade. The spectators were surprised by her sudden speed increase but it didn't surprise him at all. With swift move, Shade caught the upcoming high speed palm strike by the wrist, used his left feet as pivot and redirected the incoming force into the centrifungal force. The two clashing opponent spin rather fast and caused the dust rose in the air.

The crowd waited for the dust to clear up. There was no sign of any further clash of combat. And when the dust cleared up, the spectators saw Shade's figure was standing without any scratch on his body and his hands were holding Rin's hands in an armlock on the ground. She tried to struggle but her action was futile as the difference of their strength was large.

"Winner, Shade!!"

The referee declared. Shade let his opponent go. Rin stood up and brushed the dust over her clothes.

"As per the rule of the ancient pact, the winner allowed to ask one thing to the loser."

The referee added. Shade sighed every time he heard this on the end of every battle.

"Train harder and become stronger. After that, you're free to challenge me anytime."

Shade said to his opponent. Rin looked dejected. He left the venue as is. The spectators attention directed at the girl. They sighed in unison after witnessing the result.

"Just look!! I'll get stronger and made you admit my existence!!"

She declared.

"It was a shame that she lost again."

One of the spectators said.

"But the girls really too charmed by his strength. It was not strange if there's always a challenger for him everyday."

Another one said.

"But, it's too bad that Rin-chan is too obsessed with that guy. Not that I doubted her taste."

Another spectator said.

"Shade is strong, wise, kind, and his black scales covering his body is cool. He also loyal to his lord, diligent, honest, and very skilled in many aspect. Any girl would be glad to accept his proposal and any parent would be more happy to have him as son-in-law. And even there're some doting parents that used him as a wall to obtain their daughter by saying that they must be syronger than Shade to marry their daughter. But, I wonder if he's too dense to notice Rin's advances or he has certain weird taste."

A female spectator said.

"But, there's a chance that he fell for Emilia-sama. There's a rumor too that he already has a spouse out there."

"Could it be that he didn't know that the court challenges was a kind of proposal ceremony?"

"Ah, that might be so."

"If that's the case, this will be an endless loop for Rin-chan and the rest of the girls."

"Should I ask Anastasia-san to tell him this?"

"Probably you shouldn't. This misunderstanding has motivated the youngsters to train hard after all."

"This also have become our daily entertainment too."

"Then, let's wait till that dense man to notice it."

"Yeah"

After that discussions, the spectators left the venue and returned to their daily routines. As for Rin, she had ran for her family dojo to train again since long ago.