As Lord Reine rode his black horse into the training ground, he immediately drew the attention of several nobility scions.
Lord Reine glanced around and recognized many familiar faces, all participants in the assessment at Rosby County.
After just a few looks, Lord Reine shifted his focus to the ongoing contest in the field.
Although Lord Reine didn't hold much regard for those few, the noble scions were quite curious about his arrival, sizing him up thoroughly.
However, they only looked for a brief moment before realizing that Lord Reine was not one of them.
The horse had no extra ornaments, overly simple.
Lord Reine wore a chromed iron set, just an ordinary set of knight armor.
As Lord Reine approached, they could clearly see that there were no noble crests on the knight's chestplate.
Thus, they could almost be certain that Lord Reine was not a noble scion but a commoner's son.
"He seems to be the one who attended the ennoblement assessment this time, another county's newly appointed knight, I saw him at the Navy House Inn," one of them said.
"Yes, I remember too, seemed to be mingling with that commoner knight, Hass."
"Why is he here now?"
"Now that you mention it, I remember too, but... on the night of the assessment, I didn't see him. I was at the 'Ruer,' Osby, you went to the 'Li Hook,' right? Did you see him?"
"No!" the young man named Osby, after staring at Lord Reine's black hair for a few seconds, confidently said.
"Hehe, so he must be one of those who went to the small fortress, right?"
"Then the chances are slim that Evelyn actively invited him over, it's more likely that he is one of Evelyn's pursuers."
"Every county has its delusional folk," the young man beside him sneered and said.
Lord Reine wasn't paying any attention to what the onlookers were saying, he just glanced and then ignored them.
However, his gaze lingered on Evelyn's opponent a bit longer.
Male, a peak knight, wielding a sword and shield, with proficient combat skills, quite impressive.
Due to the opponent's competence, although Evelyn caught a glimpse of Lord Reine, she had no opportunity to stop and greet him.
Their eyes quickly met for a moment, exchanging a hasty greeting.
Evelyn and her opponent's shields collided, each stepping back two paces, momentarily stalling the fight.
Then, Evelyn said, "Stop! Salem, let's call it a day for today."
"Huh? Evelyn, I was just getting into it, why stop now?" the opponent took off his knight's helmet, revealing blond hair and a handsome young face, probably about eighteen or nineteen years old.
"A friend of mine has arrived," Evelyn pointed at Lord Reine, still mounted on the black horse, and said.
Then, the young man named Salem squinted his eyes and scrutinized Lord Reine.
Evelyn's friend, he seemed never to have seen him before.
However, seeing Evelyn's demeanor, it seemed she valued this friend highly; could he be a rival?
Hey? From his attire, it seemed he was not a noble.
And moreover, he likely wasn't from Rosby City either because if he were from Rosby City and had reached the status of a formal knight, Salem would have seen him before or at least heard of him.
At this moment, Evelyn waved at Lord Reine, looking at his luggage and said, "Reine, are you preparing to go back? Why not stay a few more days?"
Seeing Evelyn approaching, Lord Reine also dismounted the black horse and said with a smile, "Yes, Evelyn, I plan to return to Meister soon, so I came to say goodbye."
"This friend of yours, Evelyn, did he come for the ennoblement assessment?" Salem stepped forward and asked.
Seeing that Salem had taken the initiative to come forward, Evelyn knew it would be too impolite not to introduce them at this point.
"Salem, this is Lord Reine from Meister County, a friend I met during the ennoblement assessment," Evelyn said.
"Lord Reine, this is Salem, the second son of the Earl of Zeman."
The two nodded at each other, acknowledging the greeting.
At this moment, a few of the onlookers also came forward, one of them saying to Lord Reine, "Lord Reine, how about staying until tomorrow? It's rare for everyone to gather together; we could exchange some combat skills."
"That's..." Lord Reine pondered.
The people present seemed to be good 'experience grinding' prospects, as his Tokkal Hammer Technique was already at lv4 (843/1000).
Engaging them to potentially level up his Hammer Skill seemed like a good choice.
"Hehe, Osby, don't make it difficult for Lord Reine."
"Perhaps, only I and Salem could spar a bit with Lord Reine, though chances are we wouldn't prevail," Evelyn, noticing Osby's insinuation, couldn't help but laugh.
In Evelyn's view, Osby wasn't a bad person, being an old acquaintance, she felt there was no need to make him embarrass himself publicly, hence she spoke out to hint.
Hearing Evelyn say this, the noble second generations present instantly understood that this Lord Reine must be something special.
In an instant, several gazes concentrated on Lord Reine.
Underneath all the scrutinizing eyes, Lord Reine remained calm and composed.
But internally, he couldn't help but smile wryly.
"Well, Evelyn, you're about to scare off my 'experience NPCs,'" Lord Reine thought to himself.