"How did we meet? In the arena, of course," Oscar said casually. His tone was as light as if he were talking about what he had eaten for breakfast, and he did not even lift his eyelids.
The burly man froze at his words, scratching the back of his head with a rough hand. "What arena? How come you never told us?"
He set down his meat skewer and looked Oscar up and down, his eyes plainly saying, "You've actually done something like that?"
Several mercenaries warming themselves by the fire also pricked up their ears. Even the short fellow adding water to the pot stopped what he was doing.
The more the burly man studied Oscar's bearded face, the more something seemed off. Suddenly, he slapped his thigh as though he had uncovered an incredible secret.
"Don't tell me it was the Soul Master Tournament? But I heard the people who compete in that are all youngsters in their teens or twenties. At your age..."
He did not finish, but his eyes were full of doubt.
The tall, skinny fellow drinking soup beside him nearly spat it out. Coughing repeatedly, he said to the burly man, "What's wrong with your eyes? With that beard covering his face, does he look like Soul Master Tournament material to you?"
"Get lost!" Oscar cursed with a laugh, shoving the sausage in his hand into the burly man's arms.
"Once I shave, I'm a handsome young heartthrob, all right?"
As he spoke, he stroked his full beard, putting on the air of a man whose true depths remained hidden.
"You never saw me back in the Great Soul Arena in Heaven Dou City. I stood tall as a jade tree in the wind, dashing and debonair."
"Oh, give it a rest!" The burly