Chapter 113: Bluffing

Rewen took a step forward where the arrogant boy was standing. 

"You dare to threaten me! I will beat you up!" The arrogant boy grit his teeth.

"Then why are you standing there? Come and hit me?" Rewen fearlessly said, taking another step forward.

The arrogant boy's heart was thrown into chaos. 'What if he is someone strong? No! He shouldn't be strong! He's so fat. B-but if he is really strong… he would take the Gruer Orbs I have…' Thinking till this point, he went half-a-foot back. 

"Oh? Are you scared? I don't like weaklings." Rewen said in an overbearing tone.

"Stand right there! I'll come back later!" The arrogant boy ran off.

Seeing his disappearing back, Rewen yawned, then started wandering around the forest. "Sometimes, confidence alone is enough to deal with a foe."

***

"Princess, according to the report, we have collected a total of 34 Gruer Orbs." Standing in front of Ayame, Mari said.

Princess Ayame, who was sitting in a chair, frowned. 

"Is that too little?" Mari asked, her tone a bit uncomfortable.

"No, it's fine. I was just thinking about the boy."

"You mean, the relative of Reza?"

Princess Ayame nodded. "For my personal reasons, I wasted away his chance to participate in the competition."

"Princess, you shouldn't think about him. From what Reza told me, he is an absolute loser." 

"Then how did he get the invitation to the competition? Only people who are worthy could participate. He was deemed to be worthy and that's why he received the invitation."

"I understand." Although Mari wasn't satisfied with her explanation, she nodded along.

"Princess! There's a problem!" A girl of about the same age of them suddenly came forward.

Princess Ayame frowned. "What's the matter?"

"Reporting to Princess, the Miscellaneous Alliance has touched our territory." The new girl half-knelt before Ayame.

Ayame's frown deepened.

In the present scenario, the entire Forest of Michaile is conquered by three alliances, namely - the Princess Alliance which consisted of ladies from Noble Families and had Princess Ayame as the Core Leader of the Alliance, the Miscellaneous Alliance which consisted of men from Noble Families and had the Eldest grandson of the Old King as the Core Leader and the River Alliance with some of the men and women from Noble Families and had no one as their Core Leader.

"Eldest Brother is planning to confront us this early?" Ayame felt like something was wrong. "How many people did you see?"

"It was only one but he appeared very confident."

"Huh? One?" Even the normally calm Princess Ayame was shaken. A while later, she calmed down. "Did you fight with him?"

"I-I didn't use my all." The girl appeared to be very shaken.

Ayame snorted. "How great. The guy was pretending and you fell for his act?"

The girl didn't speak anything but her body shook increasingly. 

Concerned, Mari approached her and laid her hands on her shoulder. "What's wrong? Why are you shaking so much?"

The girl's body shook at an ever-increasing rate. A few seconds later, her body collapsed. 

Alarmed, Mari went forward to catch her body.

"Take care of her," Ayame commanded Mari who nodded and took the girl along with some other girls to someplace.

Ayame was left wondering. 'Who did this?'

***

Sometime later.

Rewen climbed over a tree and was surveying the area. 'Hm… where are the others? They ought to be nearby.'

At this moment, a girl appeared below the tree who stared angrily at the fat young man. "Hey! Fatass! Get down from the tree and obediently give me your…" 

"... your Gruer Orbs and I might consider letting you go in one complete piece." Rewen cut off her midway and continued her words. He had mastered the art of countering arrogant people, only verbally. 'It's simple. Simply say something more ruthless and overbearing than them.'

'Let me go in one piece? I was considering letting him go but he wants to kill me!?' The girl's eyes widened. "If you have the guts, get down from the tree and let me beat you up."

Rewen rolled his eyes. "If you have the skill, why don't you get up here and let me beat you up? It spares me the effort to go down." He then went on to give a provocative gesture with his hands.

The girl was furious. "Wait there!" With that, she started to climb the tree. It was evident that wasn't used to climbing as she took a lot of time to reach Rewen.

"Finally. What did you say earlier?" The girl showed a vicious smile and pounced upon the fat young man.

Rewen gave her an emotionless glance, then jumped off the tree. "I'm tired. Did you have fun climbing?"

If "priceless" was a face, it would the girl's face at this point. Without saying anything, she jumped from the tree and onto Rewen.

Rewen's face was still expressionless. Not even taking a single step back, he stood in the spot like a tall mountain. 

The girl hesitated midair seeing the confidence and indifference on the man's face. Just as she was about a half-a-meter away, she changed her approach but didn't stop her assault. She just decided to not pounce on him but still pulled her hands for a punch.

A thick grin appeared on his thick lips. 'Little girl, you are still too green.' He wasn't merely playing around with <<Full-Body Channeling>> the past days. His predecessor, Arai Atsushi, was a person with a very low IQ and EQ. The reason he couldn't craft his own weapon wasn't due to his talent but because he was simply stupid. 

Just as the girl was about to punch him, her hand stopped when she saw a small arrow appearing in his hands. 

When Rewen experimented with the crafting, he surprisingly didn't have any difficulty in creating a small arrow with his minimum G.C. "You are quite a coward, aren't you?"

The girl ground her teeth. "Stop the act! I know you aren't half as strong as you are pretending you are!"

"I've never said that I'm strong. Did I terrify you?" Rewen calmly answered back with a sneer.

"Don't be ridiculous." The girl burst out towards Rewen again. This time, she appeared determined.

Rewen's eyes also showed some seriousness. 'This is bad. I can't do anything with this arrow. The most I can do is throw it towards her which I'm sure she would dodge. Should I run? No, that's a bad idea. If I run, she would find out that I was bluffing and won't leave me alone. Then… this is the only thing I could do.' He stood still on his spot.

When he raised his head, he saw a fist approaching his right cheek. 'Shit, no time.'

*Pah*

From the intensity of the punch, Rewen was blown away at a distance of about a metre. It was a terrifying punch. It broke five of his teeth along with his jaw bone getting dislocated.

The girl felt extremely satisfied hitting the arrogant boy. "Haha! So this is all you amount to! I should have known."

"HAHAHAHAHA!" A burst of maniacal laughter erupted from the fallen Rewen completely frightening the girl. 'So this is what it means to be the main character… plot armor is really awesome.'