Chapter Text
Getting hold of money in Essempii city is harder than you might thing. Until now he has gotten a lot of help from his friends, Sapnap and George, both who lived in wealthy and successful families. But there's only so much help Dreams pride can take and at this point he could as well be laying with his face flat down on the road in front of them both. He had to start earning money somewhere else.
Dream never managed to get a real job, no one wanted some random street urchin to work for them. Most people were probably scared he would start to steal or maybe even lower the company's name by just being in the presence of their store.
So he had to figure out other ways to get his earnings. Mostly he did random quests that people currently needed help with. It could be anything between gardening to hunting down some dangerous creature and bring its head to the quest giver, the latter was what he mostly chose to do since that earned him much more. Now though, there was no such job available and he desperately needed more money than a simple gardening job could give him so his only choice was to go with plan B. Duelling.
There where many different fighting arenas around the country but of course Essempii city had to own the greatest and biggest one. Most fighting arenas in smaller cities and villages were illegal, meaning that they were probably just filled to the brim with trafficked hybrids who fought against their own will. The Essempii's arena "the prostigous ring" was supposed to be fully legal, something no one believed as well as no one questioned. But it was really not that bad as far as Dream knew, most contestants fought completely on their own accord and not many fights ended in bad injuries or death. That was much better than many other arenas out there. Dream knew, he'd had many missions where his purpose was to defeat rising fighters in such arenas and had seen the suffering first hand. No matter how much it took against his morals there were not much he could do about the situation. He could sadly not take care of every abused fighter in the world when he could barely manage to take care of himself, so that would have to wait until he was better situated.
Anyhow, Dream was currently hanging out with two of his best friends and also his two only friends when he for the first time spoke his idea out loud.
"Absolutely not" was the only answer he got from George and Sapnap just looked dissaprovingly at him.
They usually hung out at a little clearing in the woods right outside the Essempii city or at one of their favorite bars when Dream had enough money for it. Right now it was safe to say he wouldn't be going to many bars for a while. His moneysack was a sad sight with two lone little coins inside. Enough to survive another day but not much more than that.
"Look, I need to get money somehow and if you don't have some amazing well-paid job laying around somewhere this is about my only option" Dream tried to reason with the two. It didn't really look to have gone home yet but Dream would not give up this. This might be his only chance.
"If you need money just ask, both I and George has more than enough", this time it was Sapnaps time to speak. Of course they would say that, because they were Dreams best friends and would probably give them their title as well if they were able to. But Dream had taken enough from them, it didn't matter if they had more to give. If Dream would ever be able to live with himself he had to be able to survive by himself for once.
"I can't take anymore than I already have, you know that. I'm done using you both as some salvation, I want to be able to provide for myself." Please the gods up above, could they just let him do this. No matter how much Dream appreciated his friends it did sometimes antagonize him how oblivious they were to any other lifestyle than the one of wealth. But he couldn't blame them, they grew up that way, how would they know?
"Fine"
Dream couldn't believe his ears, it was that easy?
"But I demand to come with and work as your executive, when I decide to pull you out or tell you to pass over any fight your going to obey, got it?" As a nobleman son with more power than they should have, George of course loved to be in control. Dream would like to imagine that its because he cares so much about him and not just the fact of being able to push him around how he likes. It's probably the latter though if he was going to be honest with himself.
"Your really letting him go through with this?" Sapnap didn't seem as keen on the idea, he had always been the softy. He had this really tough shell, but it wasn't very thick and with enough force cracked wide open to reveal that he's actually just a bleeding-heart.
"Yes, I believe Dream is of age enough to make his own decisions. We wouldn't be able to stop him if we wanted to. And he's mighty talented, he could easily win against some amateurs in that moronic ring."
Even if George sometimes did seem as just another mindless aristocrat he was in reality quite sharp-witted, he knew from the beginning Dream would get his will through. It didn't mean he couldn't make an attempt at changing his mind though, even if it failed miserably from the start.
"I highly appreciate it George, I hope you can understand why I have to do this"
"I don't, but I will let it play out anyways. Please don't make me regret this". Well, that was good enough for Dream, and even if George sounded worried he didn't look it. They all knew Dream would do fine in the ring. They had yet to find anyone even close to the skill Dream held with a sword. This would be easy money.
Or that's what they all thought at least. Turns out the life in the arena was more complicated and perplexing than any one of them could have imagined.