Chapter 200: Mindful Steps

Mid Morning - Late Fall : The Golden Lotus, Northern Market District (Valtivar)

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*Click* *Yawn~* "Hm?" Finally coming out of her room after nearly a full day of rest, Amara gave me a confused look. "How do you and Ilios seem even closer than before?"

"Haha, do we?" Looking down at Ilios, who was sleeping while stretched across my body, I couldn't help but notice warmth fill my chest. -I guess I can't deny it...-

As I idly thought back to my 'enlightenment' again, I casually ran my mind over the events that followed it to make sure I didn't miss something.

But in all honesty, not much happened.

After I finally accepted reality for what it was, Amara, Yolanda, and I continued our talk for quite a while.

At first, the conversation stayed aimed at Ilios and me to figure out what our plans were going forward since it didn't make much sense to continue a pilgrimage meant to show loyalty and worship to ourselves. But after some thought, I decided to continue with things as they were. -At the very least, it'll be worthwhile to see what the prayer is all about.-

After figuring out our plan though, the conversation finally changed directions and landed on Amara and her situation with the halfie and Helvig family. 

Our conversation gradually fell apart after that, and I'm sure it made her night feel like an eternity, but it was good for her to vent pent-up feelings and finally sort out her thoughts on the situation.

Following that, Amara said she felt exhausted and went to take a nap, leaving Yolanda and me alone for a while, before she inevitably went back to her room as well.

But at the end of it all, it made things work out quite well.

While they napped, I left the inn with Ilios and flew out of treant territory to spend the day playing with him.

-Maybe I got a bit carried away while playing though...- Since it was the first time really playing with him after quite a while, we were at it for several hours non-stop, and I ended up not watching his stamina closely enough.

When he suddenly slowed down and hung his head to pant heavily, I broke into panic, but things settled down once I finally realized that we had played for twice as long as normal and used incomparably more strength as well. -But to think those tiny black tubes all around my body affected my strength and stamina so much...-

After playing with Ilios for nearly the whole day, I wasn't even half as winded as I normally was. But even though the gap between us in terms of strength and stamina widened... -He still crushes me in terms of speed... Without using magic, I could only barely even catch his tail.-

But instead of feeling jealous, when I looked down at his sleepy face, I felt proud. -It's good to see that you're still getting stronger, buddy!- *pat-pat*

"You know, recently, I was starting to question whether you or Ilios slept at all." Amara wore a smile as she poured herself a glass of water.

"Haha, I don't blame you. It's pretty rare." -Normally I'm more careful with his stamina, so he doesn't get so exhausted...- I felt a bit guilty seeing his exhaustion, but I knew he wouldn't have pushed himself so hard if he didn't enjoy it. -If I told him I felt guilty about it, he'd probably just try to smack me…-

"In any case, it's good to see you didn't change much." Casually picking up a snack and some cold water, Amara walked over to the table and sat down. "When I told you the Ancient Fenrir's names, I was honestly scared it would ruin our relationship..." She paused with a slightly conflicted expression on her face. "Haha, I guess it's a good thing I can laugh at that now, right?"

Seeing she was still stressing over the whole situation, I decided to give her some simple advice. "Well, dwelling on the past is only worthwhile if you still have something to learn from it. Do you think there is still a lesson to be learned from it?"

"But that's the thing... How do you know if you've learned everything?" She gave me a slightly desperate look.

"Haha, the funny thing is, you don't."

"Huh?" Not expecting my response, her conflicted expression turned to surprise.

"What's the difference between dwelling on something and constantly looking at it to find future solutions?" Seeing her fall into thought, I continued with a grateful look on my face. "At some point, you need to let it go and look forward again. If you don't watch where you're walking for too long you might accidentally step off a cliff."

Seeing my worry for her, her look of surprise shifted to a warm smile. "T..thank you, Vasilias... I think I needed that." There was a short awkward silence that followed as she took a sip of water before changing the subject. "So what's the plan for today?"

"Hm? I'm not sure, honestly. We still have two days till the prayer, so do you have any ideas?"

"Hm, well, there should be some high-yield martial arts tournaments going on in the Northern Gambling District that we could check out."

"Valtivar has a gambling district?" I immediately raised an eyebrow. -I wonder if it will only be tournament bets like the rest of the western continent though…-

"Haha, Valtivar actually has four of them with the north and south being the biggest. Do you want to go check it out?"

"Sure, are we gonna wait for Yolanda and Bjorn to wake up and see if they want to come?"

"Well, I'd assume you want to let Ilios continue sleeping, right?" She gave me a smile like she already knew the answer. "If they're up by the time Ilios wakes up, then I don't see why not."

"Haha, fair enough." Looking back at Ilios again, I rubbed his head and felt a blanket of pure bliss wrap around my mind. -Hehe...-

The next couple of hours passed fairly quickly as Amara and I casually talked about whatever came to mind. It was a nice and calm chat, but that of course didn't last forever.

Eventually, both Yolanda and Bjorn woke up and came into the living area for a morning drink and snack to start off the day, and, when asked if they wanted to join Amara and me, they immediately agreed.

After that, we idly chatted and waited for Ilios to wake up. After about two hours, I was getting ready to just tell them to go on ahead of me, but that was when Ilios finally woke up with a stretch.

"Haha, based on that stretch, it seems you slept well, huh."

He gave a slow but strong nod immediately before licking my face a bit.

"Haha, I love you too, buddy." With a few extra pets though, he finally moved to the side and let me sit up. "Well, bud. How does going to the gambling district sound? You want to come?"

He nodded before I even finished. "Woof!"

"Haha, it's good to see you back to your energetic self again." Casually leaning over, I gave him a quick kiss on the forehead before finally standing up. "Well, now that he's finally up, let's get going shall we?"

Seeing everyone in agreeance, we finally made our way out of the inn and across town as a group. We ended up walking for about a little over an hour before we finally made it to the district though.

"Is this it?" Seeing that I was the only one new to Valtivar, I had to ask quite a few questions to stay up to speed.

"Yeah, this is the edge of it, where lower-cost gambling dens are. The deeper you go, the more expensive they get." Amara spoke like she had fond memories of the place.

"Oh?" -So we're going to the high-end district?- "Sounds fun! So where exactly are we going first? Didn't you say it was a tournament or something?" Casually looking around, I tried to not make a connection to Earth, but I couldn't see the 'gambling dens' as anything other than casinos. -They even have card games of some sort...- Although I couldn't tell exactly what the games were, the cards looked extremely similar to those from Earth. -It's probably just a coincidence though…-

Turning my attention back to where we were walking, we quickly traveled through the treant town and came into a different, more well-lit area with half-breeds, elves, and demihumans of all kinds walking around. -There are even some dark elves... How rare...-

Continuing even further into the town, we eventually came onto a branch of a treant that didn't act like a street at all. "What is this?" The entire width of the branch was taken up by a large raised platform.

Thankfully, Amara was quick to explain. "This is called the Western Martial Road, it's a place for martial artists to fight and train, but.." She paused as we walked up the stairs to see countless people huddled around the arenas. "It doubles as a place for people to bet on fighters."

"Why is it the western Martial Road and not northern?" -And why is there not a single noble-looking guy or dragon around any of these arenas?-

"Well, that's because Valtivar's Grand Martial Hall is at the center of that treant over there." A wild grin came to her face before I knew it. "That's where the really big bets are!"

Although I didn't think much of her excitement at the time, thinking she was just excited to place bets and watch, I was very, very wrong.

*Ding* "And after 15 long years! The rising star, the Bronze Stallion, Amara Chalkos has returned!"

Sitting in the stands among countless cheering elven nobles, half-breeds, and even dragons, I looked down at the arena to see Amara wearing adventuring clothes with an excited grin on her face. 

"Haha, I really should've expected it from her!" -To think she wanted to come here, not to place bets, but to let off some steam…-