The people around them began murmuring to themselves. Zich’s provocative behavior and his encouragement to ‘check it out for himself’ could only mean one thing.
“Are you telling me to duel that woman?” Even the young man seemed taken aback. However, there was not a single ounce of fear in dueling another magician. On the contrary, there seemed to be some amusement in his expression.
“You think my friend isn’t at a level to teach Ms. Dwayne, right?”
“Of course. Even if magic is a study based on natural talent, there’s a limit to it. How could a mage of her age teach someone else? That’s ridiculous.”
“So, that’s why I’m telling you to check out her skills for yourself.”
As she watched Zich and the young man argue, Lyla let out a small sigh. “Ah, seriously, he is always…” She clearly looked exasperated.
Elena said, “Sorry, it’s because of me…”
“No, it’s not your fault so there’s no need for you to feel sorry.” The young man had picked a fight first, and Lyla and Zich did seem suspicious, but in the end, they hadn’t done anything wrong.
‘Yeah, that’s right. It’s at least true right now. All I’m doing is teaching Elena Dwayne so…’ Lyla repressed the guilt she felt in tricking Elena like this in her mind.
“It’s still my fault, so I should intervene…”
“Elena, it’s going to be okay.” Lyla stopped Elena as she was about to intervene. “Don’t worry. Even though Zich doesn’t seem like it, he is really thorough when resolving a conflict.”
However, Zich might raise the conflict to another level during that process.
‘Well, he does get the job done in the end.’ Lyla turned her head away from her screaming consciousness.
“Are you going to do it or not? If you don’t have the guts, stop bothering us. Just focus on your all-so-important magic studies, okay?” Zich tapped on the young man’s shoulder as if he was talking to a child.
Tak!
The young man coldly slapped Zich’s arms away from him. “Fine.” He showed his teeth. “Perfect timing. I was also getting bored just staying in my room and studying, so it won’t be bad for me to duel. While I let out my pent-up stress, I can teach a good lesson to two stupid swindlers.”
One of the young man’s companions asked, “Ah, hey. Are you really going to do it?”
“Of course. This is actually better. The administrators don’t allow us to duel each other since they keep talking about how they don’t want conflicts between different schools, but it’ll be okay to fight these guys. It’s obvious that they’re travelers.”
“Our teacher or the expert magicians won’t look so favorably at you dueling other people.”
“Whatever, I’ll just hear some scolding. Since they picked a fight, it’ll be dishonorable for our school if I back down.”
“I’m sorry to intervene while you guys are talking, but anyone can see that you’re the one who picked a fight first. Can you not push the blame onto us?” Zich smiled brightly and continued, “Ah, don’t misunderstand. I really like people who are trash like you. As expected, there are so many trashy humans in the world, it makes me feel really proud of myself for living such a kind life. However, my friend and her disciple are ordinary people, so they might find your shameful actions disgraceful.”
“…Trash?” The young man’s eyes became menacing.
Zich made an exaggerated surprised expression. “No way, did you honestly think that you were an ordinary person? Wow, I thought I had no conscience, but you far surpass me. Are you that lacking in self-awareness? No, no. Is this a problem with your brain? Are you unable to realize that you are a piece of human trash?”
“You bastard!” The young man grabbed Zich’s neck, and Zich didn’t resist. “Judging by your low-class speech, you don’t seem like a magician! Then you must be ignorant dim-wits who carry around pieces of metal! How can such a lowly guy like you dare insult me?”
“I can’t believe you’re immediately resorting to violence after hearing a few hard truths. I wonder who’s more low-class? Me, who is trying to resolve this matter peacefully with words? Or you, who is using violence against me right now? I think that even if you ask a goblin who is about to get eaten by an ogre, they would be able to say the correct answer. Ah, now that I think about it, you can’t figure out the right answer. I’m sorry. Even if I’m talking to a guy who is dumber than a goblin, it was rude of me to say this directly to you. Yeah, I was wrong.”
Elena opened her mouth in shock. While the young man yelled angrily, Zich smiled brightly and quietly said his words out loud; however, the content of Zich’s words didn’t fit his tone at all.
Lyla made a bitter smile and asked, “Are you surprised?”
“T-that person…is…”
Elena looked at Zich and stuttered her words. The impression she had of Zich with so far was a nice person who was playful but respectful and frequently helped her out in her magic lessons. However, the man in front of her was a completely different person than the image she had of him.
“That’s his original personality. He’s personality is bad, and he does whatever he wants. He doesn’t shy away from calling himself trash, and also he’s especially cruel towards his enemies.”
“…Is he a bad person?”
“Who knows?” Lyla stared at Zich. “I will never say that he has a good personality, but does that necessarily make him a bad person? He at least doesn’t harm ordinary people, and he’s only playful like that to his enemies. He’s nice to people who are nice to him.”
Elena recalled how Zich always showed basic respect to her.
“Hmm, if I have to describe him…” Lyle put one finger up and said, “He might just be a good person with a bad personality.”
“…It seems like he has a very complicated personality.”
“You think so too? That’s why my head hurts.”
“I agree!”
Lyla and Elena’s conversation was cut off by a loud shout.
The young man shouted out in excitement, “Let’s duel right now! First, I’m going to show how difficult magic is to that woman! I’ll definitely show her how stupid she was to pretend to be a teacher!”
The young man was still holding onto Zich’s collar, and he said, “And the next person is you.” He let out murderous intent. “Don’t even think about running away! It’s going to be a one-on-one battle between a swordsman and a magician. You know that a one-on-one battle is more advantageous for a swordsman, right? I’m giving you a handicap! In other words, I’m saying that I’m also going to duel with you! Do you understand!”
Zich smirked in a super rude way so that the person on the receiving side would get pissed off like hell. “Fine. I can duel with you as much as you want. But before that, you realize that there’s another person you have to beat, right?”
“Bring it on! I’ll do the favor of immediately crushing her down!”
“Then this matter is settled.” Zich pushed back the young man’s hands, and then stared back at Lyla. “You heard him, right?”
“I heard him very well.” With a coy expression, Lyla walked next to Zich and said, “I just have to duel with you, right?”
“Yeah!”
“When and where should we duel?”
“Here, right now!”
* * *
Zich and his companions went down to the basement of the magician’s tower. It seemed as if there was a dueling ground for magicians in the basement of the magician’s tower. The people who came down were not only the people directly involved in the duel. Rumors had somehow spread around, and a great deal of people had come down and gathered around the dueling ground. Most of the people were magicians. They were gazing at the dueling ground with extremely excited expressions; there were even people who were betting on the outcome.
Anyone would feel nervous about being the center of so much attention; however, Lyla was calm. Her expression almost seemed indifferent.
“Teacher! I’ll give you information about your opponent!” It seemed as if Lyla’s opponent was someone Elena knew; but Lyla shook her head.
“It’s all right, Elena.”
“B-but…!”
“It’s really all right.” Zich leaned his back on a small wall that was covering the dueling grounds and stopped Elena. “There’s really no need to listen to his information. Lyla is really an amazingly strong magician.”
“Hah!” Lyla made a small laugh. She seemed completely confident about her victory.
“This is a bit unexpected. I thought you’d just sigh and complete this duel like you’re finishing overdue laundry, but you’re actually kind of wanting to do this.”
“Yeah, of course.” Lyla stared at the young man from across her. He was with a few of his friends, and his face was full of confidence.
Lyla’s expression changed. A small amount of murderous intent oozed out of her eyes, and an ominous smile appeared on her lips.
“That punk, he’s really looking down on Elena Dwayne.”
“Yeah, don’t you think it’s a talent where he can let out his emotions just with his attitude? If there were more people like him, people wouldn\\\'t need to talk to communicate with each other anymore.”
“Judging by his attitude and the people’s reactions around him, it seems like he’s one of the best among his peers, but in the end, he’s just the talented one among her peers, right?”
Lyla erased the smile on her face. “And that bastard with barely passable talent dare insult my disciple?”
‘She’s angry.’ Zich clicked his tongue, and then, stared at the young man who was going to face Lyla. The young man had already gotten up on the dueling stage. As if to show off his expensive staff, he tapped his staff several times on the stage. However, Zich thought that the staff looked worse than a half rotten tree branch.
“I’ll be back soon.” Lyla slowly climbed up to the dueling stage.
Zich looked to the side, and he saw Elena look up at the dueling stage with a very anxious gaze. “Open your eyes wide and don’t miss anything, Miss Elena.”
Elena looked at Zich.
“You’ll be able to find out how amazing your teacher is.”
* * *
Ziing!
Mana flowed all around the dueling stage. From the top of the small walls surrounding the dueling stage, a thin sparkling wall slowly rose.
‘It’s a barrier.’
As expected of a dueling stage in the magical tower, there was a magic barrier. Since duels between mages were more likely to cause damage around their surroundings than swordsmen and fighters, it seemed as if people thought it necessary to have a magical barrier. Most of the people were outside the dueling stage walls. The only people inside were Zich and Elena and a few of the young man’s friends. Of course, for Lyla, it was not a very good barrier to her. She could snort and immediately rip off the barrier if she wanted to.
‘However, she doesn’t need to go so far in this battle.’
Lyla also had no intentions to perform any great magic.
“We’ll begin when this lands on the ground? You have no complaints, right?” The young man raised a coin in front of him and said this.
“It doesn’t matter to me.”
“You win if your opponent is unable to continue fighting or gives up.”
“Got it.”
The young man flicked the coin; it soared high up in the air with a spin and began plummeting down. The young man and Lyla followed the coin’s movement with their eyes.
Clank!
The coin hit the ground and bounced off.
“Wil! Wayin! Con! Misuwon! The man lifted his staff and began muttering spells. At the same time, a great amount of mana began swirling around the staff.
The audience began letting out sounds of admiration. Since Elena also let out a small sound, it seemed as if she was also impressed by the young man’s abilities.
Zich asked Elena, “Is that amazing?”
“Yes. His pronunciation, the speed of his incantations, and his mana control is all good. As expected of a top young talent in the magical tower.”
“Really?”
“Don’t you see something like this often when you are hanging out with high-level mages like Teacher?”
“No, Lyla is a high-level mage, but—"
“Ah, but why is Teacher…!”
Compared to the young man, Lyla didn’t move at all. At that moment, the young man completed casting the spell, and it shot towards Lyla. Up until then, Lyla let down her staff and didn’t react at all. When the swirling fire seemed to directly hit Lyla’s completely exposed body—
Tap!
Lyla flicked her finger.
Boom!
The fiercely moving flames exploded instantly. Lyla brushed off the fiery sparks left on her clothes. Then, she stared at the young man who was now staring at her with a dumbfounded mage.
“She’s not just an ordinary expert mage.”
Elena was no longer able to hear Zich’s words. As she stared at Lyla, her eyes sparkled as if they could not shine any brighter.