I Got A Title: Lord Of The Time!-Chapter 60: "King" Royal

"King," came the obvious question from Lin. He thought for a moment and realized who Aran meant.

"So this is Royal’s trail..."

The two quickly set off following Royal’s tracks. They covered long distances, encountering corpses of Distorted creatures along the way — their once beautiful bodies sliced into dozens of large pieces by Royal’s sword.

After covering a significant distance, they spotted a large campfire ahead, still emitting a faint orange glow from charred logs. But there was no one nearby — no food, no sign of life, although the surroundings clearly suggested someone had recently been there.

Aran approached the large fire with curiosity and spoke loudly, his voice carrying clearly for a hundred meters:

"Royal!! You can come out, it’s me, Aran!! Lin is with me too!!"

But the area remained silent. No one responded to Aran’s voice, and no "king" appeared.

"Looks like he’s feeling a bit shy..."

Aran shrugged and bent down to inspect the fire. Just as he did, Royal emerged from the bushes behind him in all his glory!

A very tall guy with golden hair and bright red eyes, he stared at Aran with murderous intent and dashed forward at a speed no human should possess!

He smiled brightly and swung his golden two-handed sword at Aran!

"I knew you’d show up!" Aran quickly turned around and, smiling, raised his dagger to clash with Royal’s massive sword!

Clang!

Countless yellow sparks flew, and a one-meter-wide crater formed beneath Aran from the impact!

"Damn you, Aran, I thought you’d perished somewhere!" Royal growled, his heart full of rage, tightening his grip on the sword and putting Aran in an awkward position.

"In that case..." Aran smirked slightly and activated his skill!

He instantly vanished from his spot and disappeared!

Royal snorted coldly and looked over at Lin. He calmed down and smirked.

"Ha. I didn’t expect to see Mister Mystery here. How did you run into Aran, and why is he still alive?"

Lin just shrugged and replied:

"I don’t know either why he’s still alive."

"But I know why I’m alive," Aran’s figure appeared behind Lin and answered.

Royal rolled his eyes and sat down near the fire, asking the two:

"Not that I care much for your affairs, but I’d like to know how you survived and made it this far."

Lin and Aran sat by the fire. Aran opened his mouth, ready to start recounting their grand adventures, but Royal raised a finger and pointed to Lin.

"I want to hear his story first."

Lin was surprised at first but then nodded and said:

"Of course."

Lin quickly began telling Royal about their adventures. He didn’t mention where he had originally come from, starting instead from the moment he met Aran and began traveling with him.

"In short, we found a large number of Distorted creature corpses along the way, and Aran immediately realized you were nearby," Lin finished his tale.

During the story, Royal showed various emotions. He squinted at Aran and smirked.

"So, did you really practice cannibalism? Or is there another reason?"

Aran shrugged.

"I don’t know myself whether I did or not."

"..."

Royal coughed a few times and tried to brush off Aran’s awkward response, saying:

"Anyway, now that we’ve met, we need to stick together so our journey can go well for everyone," he smirked and added, "After all, no one wants to die, right?"

Lin nodded.

He didn’t mind joining forces with another strong individual to survive in this dangerous world, where any creature could kill him in seconds if he wasn’t prepared.

Aran nodded too and asked:

"So, how did your journey go?"

"Good," Royal slowly pulled two Low Soul Shards from his clothes.

"These are what I got from killing Distorted creatures. If we go back to the start, I appeared in the forest and realized it was the Dead Lands, though I wasn’t sure which part. So I had to travel down an unknown path."

"Along the way, I encountered many Distorted creatures. At one point, I even saw a group of students from our academy — but they were already dead."

Royal raised his sword and declared proudly:

"With this sword, I cleaved through their skulls and managed to get several Low Soul Shards — my greatest achievement."

"You’re still as proud and arrogant as ever."

"Naturally. My face and body shine brighter than the sun. Yours, on the other hand, reek of death and judgment," Royal stood and pointed his sword at Lin.

"I’ve always wanted to fight you, Lin. We’ve got nothing else to do, so why not have a little sparring match to assess each other’s strength?"

Lin nodded.

"I knew this moment would come sooner or later. I don’t mind — I’m curious too. But I won’t fight for nothing."

Aran laughed and warned Royal:

"Lin is no weakling. He’s very strong — it’ll be much harder for you to fight him than it was to fight Silia... But I’m excited to see who wins, especially if skills are allowed."

Royal frowned and asked:

"You won’t fight just like that? What do you want?"

Without saying a word, Lin pointed at the Low Soul Shards.

Royal laughed.

"Ha-ha-ha! People will fight for Soul Shards, no doubt. Alright, I don’t mind. But what if I win? What will you offer me?"

"And what is it you even want?"

"In this world, people die for gain," he thought for a moment and replied: "I don’t want anything physical. You’ll just obey me in our group."

Lin frowned.

"Obey? And how far will this "obedience" go?"

Royal smiled slightly and answered:

"Not very far. You’ll have to follow most of my orders — of course, ones that are reasonable and take many factors into account. You won’t have to do anything you don’t want to... unless my request goes too far."

"Besides, I think you’re confident in your strength... Aren’t you?"

"No, it’s fine." Lin stood up and stepped a fair distance away from Royal.

"And what are the rules for the battle?" Aran asked curiously, watching the two.

"Right. Anything goes — skills and all types of weapons. The loser is determined when they say: "I lost." That’s it."

Lin and Aran both nodded.

Lin sighed.

"Another fight, but for another Low Soul Shard. I need to give it my all."

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