Kino, the Knight of the Round who had loudly claimed he would teach Xiao Ran a lesson and show him what proper hierarchy meant, ultimately did not attend the evening banquet held specifically for the visitors who had come from afar. The official explanation was that he had been injured during the assessment and was unable to attend, but anyone with eyes could see that injured or not, Kino was too embarrassed to show his face. As for whether he had truly been injured, only those involved knew for certain.
There was nothing shameful about a Knight of the Round losing, but what made it interesting was that before the assessment began, this Knight of the Round had looked down on Princess Euphemia's Personal Knight in every possible way. Then he had been defeated in a battle where he had been utterly unable to fight back, as though he were being toyed with. Whatever effect it had on the other Knights of the Round, rumors unfavorable to Kino himself had begun spreading through Area 11.
Yet another Knight of the Round, Anya, a girl who was also young and only fifteen, had instead become an example of Self-Awareness. She attended the evening banquet without being overly affected by the earlier assessment, though she did not remain at the reception for long.
Xiao Ran and Euphemia stayed at the reception for less than half an hour before leaving early. They merely showed their faces and exchanged a few words, but by then, the way the attendees looked at Xiao Ran had changed considerably.
Many had originally believed that Xiao Ran had only attained his current status through luck. However, a small number of people had known all along that this man who had seemingly appeared out of nowhere was not simple.