Demon Lord's Reincarnation

The following day John tried to follow Kiara's advice and did his best to loosen up but it was harder than he had anticipated. The way he had trained himself from childhood to now had made loosening up a rather difficult task. 

Unable to continue his training, John decided to take a stroll for a change of pace. Also, he was quite interested in the Capital since he had heard numerous stories about it while he was growing up. This was the first city that the legendary Emperor and his friends headed to at the start of their journey. Not only was New Grenton the most advanced city on the continent it was also an important part of history since Ren's Empire started from this place. 

...

John went out of the dormitory and it took him half an hour to reach the main road. Just like yesterday, New Grenton was brimming with life. The skies were filled with dragons, wyverns, griffons, and airships. On the ground, the streets were full of those automobiles, and many people were walking on the sidewalk. 

This was the first time that John had seen so many different races. He knew that the continent had many other races aside from humans, but it was still shocking to see the different races walking beside him.

There were dwarves, elves, and different kinds of demons, from the beast tribe to even half-vampires, there were also dragons in human form. Despite being from different races, everyone treated each other equally. It was said that the unification of the different races was one of the Emperor's greatest achievements. 

...

John felt quite excited by the numerous new things he saw. He continued walking around basking in the numerous sights the Capital had to offer. He headed to one of the Capital's main attractions, the adventurer guild that the Emperor and his wife Lara joined. 

The building the adventurer guild in Capital uses nowadays was larger and different from the old building. Still, that wasn't the adventurer guild tourists swarm to, the adventurer guild they wanted to visit was the old building that no longer functioned as before, and was now used as a museum. 

There was a ticket fee to enter the former adventurer guild. John was thrilled to see the adventurer guild that was in the stories he heard from when he was a little kid. There were even some actors reenacting the scene when Ren and his companions first arrived in the guild building. 

It was quite fun to watch such a play inside the actual building where it happened. Not to mention the actors were actually pretty good. It felt like the story from his childhood was coming to life right in front of him. The trip to the former adventurer guild was better than John expected, and he left happy for the experience. 

John continued to look around, but after a while, he felt rather hungry. As he was walking through what looks to be an abandoned street, he noticed a peculiar-looking sign. He didn't know why but he was attracted to it. 

"The Lonely Cat, is this place a restaurant?" 

John looked through the window and saw that there were only a few people inside. Seeing this and feeling his hunger increasing, John entered the establishment. John sat near the window, and after a quick scan of the menu, he finally understood what this place was, this place was a pub. 

As he was thinking about what to order, a man approached him. The man had something on his mouth that emitted smoke. He took out the object on his mouth and spoke to John. 

"So kid, what are you having? Just in case you don't know alcoholic drinks can only be ordered by those seventeen and older."

" I see... It's my first time here in the Capital and I'm not really sure what's good to eat on this menu. So can you recommend me something?" The owner of The Lonely Cat, Haruto Kazuya looked at John for a second before responding. 

"Are you perhaps one of the prodigies going to join the tournament this year?" 

"Yeah, I am, why?" 

"If so, I recommend the Honey Garlic Salmon. Many champions of the past tournaments like ordering that." 

"Wait the champions come here to eat?" John looked at the owner incredulously. He found it hard to believe that a pub that has so few customers to be frequented by such famous people. Seeing the look John was giving him Kazuya snorted. 

"Not just the champions, sometimes Ren's wives and children would come here to eat as well." 

"Are you pulling my leg?" 

"It doesn't really matter to me if you believe me or not." Kazuya shrugged his shoulders. "So are you going to buy the Honey Garlic Salmon?" 

"Fine, one Honey Garlic Salmon please." 

"That will be two silver coins." After John handed the money to Kazuya, he started to look at the other patrons. 

Even though they weren't the champions of the previous tournaments nor were they the wives and children of the Emperor, the people in the pub look to be rather powerful individuals. As he scanned the pub, he then noticed some pictures on the walls. 

John got out of his chair and checked the pictures. Even though he didn't know most of the people in the pictures, he knew some of them. He had seen numerous video recordings of these people yesterday, they were the previous champions. Not only that there was also a picture of the Emperor standing side by side with the owner. 

'If he wanted me to believe his story, why didn't he just show me these pictures?' 

As John continued to look at the pictures he noticed a familiar face, a face that he had seen just yesterday, but it was not from a video recording. He had met this person yesterday, face to face. 

'Isn't this Kiara?' 

She was younger in the picture but John knew that this was the same child he had met yesterday. He looked at those that were with her in the picture. She was surrounded by many beautiful older ladies, and beside her were other children. He wanted to find a clue as to who Kiara was, but he didn't know any of the other people in the picture.

"Hey kid your food is here." 

John turned around and saw the owner placing his food on the table. 

"Hey, Mr..." 

"You can just call me master or barkeep." 

"Okay, master, can you please tell me who the child in this picture is?" Kazuya came closer and looked at the picture John was pointing at. 

"Oh, those are Ren's kids. I can't really remember the name of the kid you're pointing at. What was her name again, Kirara, Kyrie..." 

"Kiara." 

"Oh, yeah, that's right Kiara. Why are you asking, do you know her?"

When John heard Kazuya's confirmation he was shocked to learn that the child he met yesterday was a child of the legendary Emperor. After learning this, it took John a few seconds to calm himself down. 

'Wait, didn't she say that she was a participant in this year's tournament.' When John thought of that, he realized that maybe it wasn't just Kiara who would be joining the tournament, but her siblings as well. John looked at the children in the picture with Kiara and sighed. 

'Am I lucky or unlucky to be in the tournament the same year the Emperor's children are joining in?'