"Can I ask why?"

I look at Isabel for a second before saying.

"I need to create my own path. I like to join but I made a promise in the past that I will create my own path and make him proud from the path I take."

I give her a smile and see her smile back at me. I can hear the notification of my bullshitting leveling up.

"I see! I guess it cannot be helped. Very well! I will not force you to join Mathias and me in our journey."

"Thank you for your understanding and good luck in your mission. I hope you can make the name Maximilian into something famous in the Queendom of Falena."

Isabel laughs loudly and nods her head.

"I will! I will make sure justice and truth prevail!"

For the rest of the journey to Sol-Falena, Isabel, Mathias, and I have a pleasant conversation with each other. Well, truthfully, only me and Isabel had a conversation while Mathias was standing beside us, watching from a distance.

After a few hours of sailing, I can see a massive white city in the distance. When I first land my eyes on the city, I cannot help but drop my jaw. It was beautiful beyond belief.

Sol-Falena is being built on the Feitas river with a bridge connecting Sol-Falena and the land around the river.

The entire city is painted white, and it reflects the sun gently, making the city look divine. The city is also surrounded by the beautiful water of Feitas, making it even more beautiful. In conclusion, the city is gorgeous.

"It is really beautiful, right?"

"Yeah. I have never seen something as beautiful as this place."

"I know right? I heard the only place that is more beautiful than this place is the Holy Kingdom of Harmonia."

"Harmonia, huh? If I have the time, I will try to visit that place."

I shake my head and get up from the deck. We are about to dock and get out of the ship.

"So, Isabel. What do you want to do from now on?"

"Hmmm? I guess I will go to the east first. I have a feeling that this is the place that needs help the most."

"Then I hope you can help those people in need, Isabel."

"You too, Ryan. May the sun shine gently upon you."

We shared a smile before parting away from each other. While Isabel gets out of the city, I get into the inner part of the city.

Sol-Falena is separated into two parts; outer and inner parts. The outer part is where the commoner, merchant, and any low-mid class citizen lived. This is where the people sell their goods and sell their services.

The inner parts are where the noble lived, the military facilities were built, and wealthy citizens could live. If you want to stay here, you have two options. The first one is to join the military and stay inside the barracks, or you can become a rich person and then rent the land from the Royal Family. That's right. You cannot buy land in this part of the city because the royal family forbids any land to be given to the other. However, you can still rent them if you have enough money to do so.

Having a home in the inner part of the city is considered a privilege to the noble, and if you have a house in the inner part of the city, you can be regarded as a rich and powerful family.

I walk through the city and arrive in front of a massive bridge separating the inner and outer parts of the city. When I arrive in the inner part of the city, I can see a line in front of the building to my left. I walk toward the guard and say.

"Is that the line for the Sacred Games registration?"

The guard looked at me for a few seconds before nodding his head.

"Aye. Go right ahead. However, you cannot get deeper than that."

"Right. Thank you."

I walk toward the line and wait behind a man in his forty or so. He looks fragile and can be killed with a strong enough wind hitting him. I can see it was a common sight in this line of people.

~Ten minutes later~

After ten minutes of waiting, I can see there are two men behind the desk. One man is wearing full plate armor, and the other is the one writing on the paper.

"You want to register?"

The one behind the desk looks at the man in front of him for a few seconds before looking at the knight beside him.

The knight nods his head and punches the participant in the stomach. I can see the fragile man flying away from the line and going unconscious.

"NEXT! If you want to join, you need to still stand after being punched by my friend over here!"

The people near me are close enough to hear that and decide to bail out. There are only three more people other than me in the line, and one by one, I can see the others fail the test as they fly away from the knight.

As I walk forward, the man behind the desk looks at me and says,

"So, you want to join the Sacred Games?"

"Yes, that's right."

"Very well. Axel? If you don't mind?"

The knight nodded his head and walked toward me before suddenly punching me in the gut. I grunted a little but did not move from my position. After punching me, the knight nods his head and looks at the man behind the desk.

"Good. At least you have the very minimum requirement for joining the elimination stage."

The man writes something, stamps it, and gives a card to me.

"This will be your card for the elimination stage. Go back here in fifteen days for the elimination stage."

"I see. Thank you."

"Bah. You don't need to thank me, kid. Win the Sacred Games first before thanking me."

I nod my head and walk away from the line. I need to train more and prepare for fifteen days before the elimination stage. I need to search for a place to hunt and train my body, but where?

"Hey, did you hear?"

"What?"

"There is a surge of monsters in the southern forest."

"Really?"

"Yes but we did not need to worry, the knights will march there and take care of the problem."

"Of course. Sol-Falena has the finest knights in the land, after all!"

Bingo. I have a place I can use for my new training ground. After getting out of the city, I went south.