Arguing

I started to make my way out of the crowd, heading for the hall. "Miss, I must ask that you return that carving to my apprentice." An old man walked in front of me, blocking my path. He looked ancient but that meant nothing as he could still be insanely strong compared to me. The older you were the more deteriorated your strength became, unless you broke through to expert warrior. I could not afford to be rude here, even if I was younger, he outclassed me.

"Pardon me Elder, but this is mine now. I won it off of your apprentice, why must I give it back?" Even though I would be cautious here, I still did not wish to relinquish my trophy. The crowd had still not dispersed, eager to see drama. "Though you beat him, that does not mean you may take his things and that was his first carving. Surely you don't mean to rob him of his pride?" The crowd muttered amongst themselves.

Pride was immensely important to an individual, more so than anything else. I saw what he was trying to do. It would be incredibly degrading for him to beat me to give it back and his own reputation would take a hit. If he had to, he could beat me to recover the carving, but it would make him out to be unfair, someone who bullied younger people. So he was using the crowd to his advantage.

"Elder, he was looking down on me. If I did not attack him, wouldn't my own pride be at stake? Furthermore, taking trophies is something to mark the battle. If he had won, he most definitely would have taken something of mine. Aren't you only stepping in because he is yours?" Two could play at this game. Using the crowd was a double-edged sword.

"That is true, however who would waste energy on someone who they do not know? Miss, I am kindly asking you to return that carving. Please do not test me." The old man was losing his patience. The real reason he wanted the carving back was pride. Having a useless apprentice was bad enough, but the girl having a memento of how pathetically he lost was even worse.

"Look Elder, I will not be giving this back. Your apprentice looked down on me so I challenged him, won, and took a trophy. I did not break any of the rules so I'm sorry I will not be giving it back. I do not mind him challenging me for it later but right now he needs to recuperate." I pointed out. Crowd opinion had gradually shifted and was now with me. "Yeah that's right!" "Just let him fight later for it." "Aren't you butting in a bit too much?"

Due to this the elder backed down. He sighed, seemingly defeated. "Since you insist, my apprentice and you will fight to the death in the arena the day after tomorrow." 𝘞𝘪𝘤𝘬𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘭𝘥 𝘮𝘢𝘯, 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘵𝘰𝘭𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘪𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘢 𝘧𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩! I thought glaring at the ground. 𝘚𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘴𝘵, 𝘐'𝘭𝘭 𝘴𝘭𝘢𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘭𝘢𝘮𝘣.