Before long, the crowd gathered around the arena began to disperse.
The spectators still wore lingering expressions of shock, as though they had yet to recover from that earth-shattering sword strike. Only after leaving the island in the middle of the lake did they begin discussing it with great enthusiasm.
It was easy to imagine that, after witnessing this battle, Shien's standing in the hearts of the kingdom's people would rise tremendously.
At the very least, many of the voices claiming that Shien was unworthy of Roxie were bound to disappear, and more people would begin to take this viscount of adventurer origin seriously.
The young nobles, however, were the complete opposite of the kingdom's citizens. Every one of them was in a terrible mood.
Because, to them, this was absolutely not good news.
Especially those who had believed Shien's personal strength was nothing special, or that it was his only weakness. They all felt utterly miserable now.
"Who was the one who said this viscount wasn't personally strong?"
"Didn't they say defeating the Slayer Faction wasn't anything impressive?"
"Didn't they say taming a dragon proved nothing?"
"Didn't they say House Galuoli's Kingdom Knights were wiped out by Artur's Black Dragon?"
"Didn't they say he only rose to prominence because the princess and the demons behind him supported him?"
"Rumors really kill people!"
Many young nobles started cursing on the spot.
After this battle, all those who had loudly declared that they would challenge Shien vanished without a trace.
No one blocked the gates of House Poztut every day anymore, and the hostile reactions fed back to Shien through the Enemy Perception skill had greatly decreased as well.
It could be said that only now had Shien's position as the "first-priority candidate" become relatively undisputed.
Of course, only relatively.
In