After six hours of speed-reading through the martial knowledge found on the seventh floor, Vaan's luck finally ran out. Even Vaan himself found it surprising that no one tried to start anything with him earlier.

Vaan turned his head and glanced at the person who called out to him.

The owner of the stern voice belonged to a fifty-six-year-old Dunean male dressed in white gi-like clothes. This Dunean man had been a core member of the Martial Hall for forty years and achieved the strength of a Low-level Rank 4 Body Refiner and Mid-stage Aura Master.

His combat power was not weak compared to most Martial Hall members.

But when comparing his strength to the regular top contenders in the Rising Dragon Division of the Ten-Year Glory Evaluation, his martial talent was not worth mentioning. Thus, there was no need to even mention the Senior Dragon Division.

However, this Dunean man had a special identity.

"Young Master Vanderlin, this man is Senior Martial Brother Acharon, the eldest young master of the Evron family, and the Evron family serves Duke Gamliel," Berucha surprisingly informed Vaan in a timely manner after making his way over at the first sign of trouble.

His martial talent was mediocre, but his character was pretty solid. He did not shy away from the trouble.

Nevertheless, Vaan quickly understood why Acharon dared approach him with hostility – he belonged to a rival duke faction and was a person of nobility.

Vaan's eyes gleamed with a cold light.

'You want to mess with me? Watch how I screw you over!' Vaan thought.

"Do you need something from me, Senior Martial Brother?" Vaan shortly asked affably with a cordial smile. His mannerisms were impeccable, like that of a model good student.

"You…"

Acharon suddenly lost his words, facing such friendliness from Vaan, and forgot to criticize him harshly. In fact, he found it difficult to antagonize him in the present situation.

After all, a gentleman does not slap the face of a smiling person.

"Ahem!" Acharon loudly coughed before criticizing in a milder tone, "Are you aware that what you are doing is very disruptive of other people's learning, Junior Martial Brother? The Martial Arts Repository is not a place for you to act wildly…"

"You need to watch your man...ners… and be mindful of others. Otherwise, you could get yourself in trouble," Acharon said as his eyes started twitching.

He obviously came to get the person in trouble. Yet, it somehow ended up with him only mildly criticizing the person and even giving the person a word of advice. Moreover, his word of advice was like a fart; it was pure nonsense.

What did he mean by watching his manners?

The kid was so well-mannered that it couldn't be more perfect. As such, it seemed more like he was finding random excuses to oppress the kid to the spectators.

After all, he had unwittingly lost his justifiable reason!

Thus, his oppression would only make him look like a plain bully instead of a righteous senior martial brother. Such a thing wasn't good, whether it was for his image or Duke Gamliel's faction, which he represented.

"What? I was disrupting other martial brothers and sisters' learning? How can that be…?" Vaan put on a shocked look, full of disbelief, before saying, "Senior Martial Brother Acharon, you can't blindly accuse me like this."lightsnovel

"I am aware my behavior may have seemed odd, but I am genuinely here to learn martial arts. More importantly, I have been very quiet in doing so. Someone would have already said something to me if I was truly disrupting other people's reading experience. Not even the floor elder said anything to me. So it wouldn't be your turn to say something."

"On the contrary, I think your loud voice had disturbed quite a few people and interrupted their train of thought, Senior Martial Brother Acharon…?" Vaan added with an innocent look, seemingly unsure and naïve.

"Bullsh*t—!" Acharon barked.

Vaan's counter-accusation made Acharon erupt furiously before the latter quickly covered his mouth in shock. His loud shout only served to prove Vaan's point further.

However, as angry as he was, Acharon forcefully calmed himself down. He had made a mistake and put himself in a disadvantageous position. Even the seventh-floor elder had started looking his way with disapproval.

After calming down a bit, Acharon realized he had been tricked. Although Vaan put on an innocent, naïve look, he was actually full of schemes. Everything was just an act to make him drop his guard and screw him over.

When Acharon understood that, he stopped underestimating Vaan. No matter what, Vaan was a person from Duke Zaahir's faction and his opponent.

More importantly, Vaan left a big flaw in his counter-argument.

"Junior Martial Brother Vanderlin said you were genuine about learning, but what have you actually learned? You've been skimming through books for hours without picking anything. The way I see it, you are not serious about learning at all!"

Acharon wore a smug look before he turned to the seventh-floor elder and stated, "Elder Yorem, I believe this person, who is not serious about learning, should be banned from the Martial Arts Repository immediately. Otherwise, his presence will continue hindering other students from learning martial arts."

Acharon firmly believed Vaan couldn't have learned anything from skimming pages faster than one could blink.

lightsΝοvel

"Oh?" the seventh-floor elder, Elder Yorem, appeared interested but not in a hurry to judge.

Elder Yorem calmly glanced at Vaan and asked, "Martial Student Vanderlin, was it? Do you have anything to say in your defense regarding this matter?"

"Replying to the elder, I truly was genuine about learning martial arts," Vaan replied with a fist-palm salute before adding, "If you doubt my words, you can test my martial knowledge. In this section, I have already learned everything from these three bookshelves."

On the three bookshelves Vaan pointed to, there were roughly six to seven hundred books.

"Interesting…" Elder Yorem smiled thoughtfully.

Elder Yorem didn't think much of the situation at first, but now he was quite intrigued.

After all, a normal person wouldn't have been able to read so many books so quickly. Thus, Vaan's claim would be no different from digging a bigger pit for himself if he truly lied.

However, he appeared very confident – that was the interesting point.

"Very well. Let this old man test your martial knowledge," Elder Yorem agreed before adding, "If you prove to be true to your words, I will not punish you. On the contrary, I can even grant one of your requests as long as it's within my power to do so."

Boom…!

Elder Yorem's words rang like thunder in everyone's ears as he shocked them with his promise to Vaan.