C47: Student Duel
When Chris Benimore received a letter from his private office, he read it at one glance and immediately set it on fire.
“Yes. I knew that too.”
The report that came in was the material sent by a user of Theon and the content was related to Rudger Chelici.
“Are you teaching that commoner hard? Even if you pretend not to be, you are desperate to win the bet.”
He murmured and laughed at Rudger’s actions, but that didn’t make Chris Benimore stand still. He turned his head to look at the boy standing in front of him tensely.
“Jevan Pellio.”
“Yes!”
“I think you know what I want to say to you.”
Jevan nodded his head with a determined face.
“Yeah, I know. I have to win against that cheeky commoner in this duel.”
“It is not enough to just win. You have to show the gap between nobles and commoners with overwhelming power.”
It was a demand that was a little too harsh, but Jevan Pellio didn’t think he was going to fail.
When he heard that Aidan was being taught by Rudger Chelici, he was terrified, but he had Chris Benimore.
“Take it.”
Chris tossed a reagent bottle at Jevan.
Jevan, who took it in a hurry, looked at the blue liquid inside and asked with a puzzled face.
“Is this?”
“It’s a magic booster. Drink it before the duel.”
“But isn’t this against the rules?”
”This is a special product of our Benimore family that leaves no trace if taken in advance, so there is no need to worry.”
“This…….”
“When you drink it, your magic power is instantly amplified, but the duration is less than 5 minutes.”
“Five minutes. It’s short.”
“Yes it won’t amplify your existing magic, but will increase the limit of the output. The traces of the drug disappear immediately, leaving only the effect. Just pay attention to the magic power exhaustion after 30 minutes.”
At Chris’ words, Jevan swallowed his saliva. In fact, it was close to a drug that allowed you to use the magical power you had at once. His pride would not allow him to drink such a drug against a commoner.
‘But if it’s for a sure win.’
As long as Rudger is behind Aidan, he may have received something like himself because he’s a dirty commoner.
With that in mind, Jevan put the amplification potion into his pocket with a stiff face.
Seeing that, Chris laughed.
* * *
The auditorium of the 2nd training ground was more than half full of people who had come to see the new student’s magic duel today. Most of the first-year students gathered but there were also second-year students and other teachers.
If it was simply a fight between first-year students, they would have ignored it, but since it was a match between two teachers, it was a different story.
Rudger Chelici and Chris Benimore have just been assigned to Theon and they both have in common that they are in charge of the manifestation class.
However, one is a fallen aristocrat, and the other is a noble and even a high count. The difference between them was quite large and Rudger supported the commoners while Chris Benimore supported the nobles.
In the end the soon-to-be-scheduled duel transformed into a battle between commoners and aristocrats.
“Who will win?”
“Are you sure it’s a freshman fight? Then the nobility has an advantage. Commoners are not educated from an early age.”
“I heard that this commoner freshman is not weak. They say he made a big contribution during the werewolf incident.”
“You don’t know but Mr. Rudger trained him.”
“In that sense, there was Mr. Chris on the other side.”
“I don’t know the teacher. Was he in charge of the first year?”
“Even though they are both teaching the same manifestation system, it seems that Mr. Rudger is better.”
During the conversation, people’s eyes turned to the top, where only teachers could sit in the audience.
“Look.”
“Uh. It’s real.”
Chris Benimore, who had just entered the teacher’s seat, sat down calmly while maintaining his dignity as a nobleman. Because of his intelligent appearance, the adoring eyes of the female students naturally followed Chris. Chris also lightly enjoyed the gazes.
At that moment, the murmur of the students grew louder. It was quite different from when Chris showed up.
‘What?’
He looked at who the hell it was, and it was that man, Rudger Chelici. He had long black hair tied in a ponytail, a sharp jawline and a high nose bridge. His cool facial features and deep sunken eyes made many women’s hearts flutter.
He wore a black shirt and black trousers with a black tie and even his long coat was black. The overall impression of the black color is reminiscent of a raven. Holding a staff in his right hand, he looked like the head of a prestigious mage family.
“Wow. Look at Mr. Rudger.”
“Are you crazy?”
All eyes of the students, who were distracted by Chris’ appearance, turned to Rudger but Rudger didn’t even care how much attention was drawn to him, and he went to the empty seat of the professor’s lounge and sat down.
“Saw that?”
“Uh. The atmosphere is really not a joke. It’s understandable why the rumors spread like that.”
“Is he really a fallen aristocrat? I thought he was nobler than the other noble teachers.”
Chris, who overheard the students talking like that, smirked and clicked his tongue, not hiding his unpleasant feelings, turned to Rudger, who was sitting in the row next to him.
Rudger would probably look around this way, but he was staring at the training ground with a smirk in his eyes that didn’t show what he was thinking. Chris bit his teeth in response as if he didn’t even care about this.
‘That naughty attitude is now over. I will make you feel defeated in front of everyone.’
This fight will be won by Jevan Pellio. Aidan, that commoner? Chris didn’t even know such a student existed. He didn’t even check the list of commoner students.
‘Anyway, commoners are commoners. Even those who were not properly educated entered the school with preferential treatment.’
When he was thinking that, the commotion in the audience reached a climax. Feeling noisier than when Rudger appeared, Chris looked back and he could see why.
“President, you come.”
When Elisa Willow appeared, Chris jumped up from her seat and greeted her. The president smiled broadly and accepted Chris’ greeting.
“Hello sir Chris Benimore. Wow. There are many people here.”
“President, what are you doing here?”
“I heard that something interesting was going on, so I came to see for myself.”
The teachers who followed as if assisting the president were Marie Ross of the Pharmacy department, who is said to have served the longest in Theon, and Hugo Burtag, who leads a faction of noble teachers including Chris.
When all the most famous people in Theon gathered, the students expressed their surprise, saying they had no idea that this duel could have been this big.
It was the same with Chris. He just thought that the two students would have a simple fight but he didn’t think the president would come forward.
‘The president had no choice but to come because it was a fight between commoners and aristocratic students?’
The president is nominally neutral with no push for either side, but Chris knows that the president values commoner students more than nobles. That was the reason why Hugo had a confrontation with the president in the first place.
‘Will it be okay?’
He was worried about what would happen if the president interfered, but it didn’t seem necessary. The president, who wanted to remain neutral, had no reason to intervene in this matter.
‘Rudger Chelici.’
Even when the president appeared, the man did not look behind him and just sat still. His behavior was cheeky and rude but thinking that it was manly Chris got annoyed.
“Mr. Rudger! Long time no see!”
The president greeted him with a smile. At that moment, Rudger, who had been still, turned his head to the president. He slowly got up from his seat and bowed to her.
“Hello President.”
“Yeah. Hello Mr. Rudger. How have you been?”
“I am doing well.”
“I was really surprised. All of a sudden, Mr. Rudger and Mr. Chris said that they would like to watch the students compete so I wanted to know what was going on.”
“We were just making a simple bet.”
“Hmm…Who did Mr. Rudger bet will win?”
Knowingly, the president asked if she wanted to hear from Rudger directly.
“I bet on student Aidan victory.”
“Betting doesn’t happen unless you choose the opposite, so Mr. Chris must have been betting on the victory of student Pellio?”
“……Yes.”
Chris had no choice but to answer reluctantly. The president smiled softly and clapped her hands.
“I am really looking forward to it. Of course, the priority is to ensure that the students are not injured, right?”
“You don’t have to worry about that. We have put in place as many safeguards as possible.”
Marie Ross answered from the side instead. Even if the students competed in an informal match, there was a high possibility of hurting the opponent therefore they wear light protective gear before entering the duel.
Metal protective gears that can be worn on the chest, shoulders and both knees resonate with each other and a thin magic barrier is placed over the student’s body in the end the student whose barrier runs out of energy first loses the duel.
“Then I’m happy.”
“Ah, just in time, a player appeared.”
The first to stand in the center of the training ground was Aidan with a very nervous expression. He had a face that looked like he was about to vomit because he wasn’t used to the gazes pouring down like a spotlight on him.
“Aidan! Go for it!”
“Break his cheeky nose.”
Perhaps it was thanks to Tracy and Leo, who cheered for him, Aidan nodded with a more relaxed face and waved his hand toward the audience. Commoner students cheered Aidan in hopes that he would raise the status of the commoners.
Then Jevan appeared through the opposite entrance.
“Jevan, I believe in you!”
The noble students cheered for Jevan who nodded his head with a smile as if he was familiar with this situation. The two stood facing each other and Jevan looked at Aidan with a smirk.
“You didn’t run away?”
“…….”
“Are you nervous? Commoners would not be accustomed to a place like this. If you ran away you would not have suffered a catastrophic defeat in front of everyone.”
“……If I win.”
“Yes?”
“Apologize to Tracy and Leo.”
“What? Hahaha!”
Perhaps he didn’t know that Aidan would say such a thing here, so Jevan burst into laughter.
“Yes. If you win, I’ll get down on my knees.”
“You said it.”
“But what should you do after I beat you?”
He was confident as he felt the powerful magic in his body. It was thanks to the magic boosting potion that he drank a while ago before going on stage, an item whose duration is so short that it is unknown whether it has been used or not.
There was a condition that the match had to be over within a short time of less than 5 minutes, but with this strength, it seemed that it would not be too difficult.
‘If the same magic is used the one who has the most magical power wins.’
There is nothing more advantageous than the superiority of firepower in a duel between wizards. Even if the same spell is casted at the same speed, it is possible to defeat your opponent with brute force.
Before starting the match, the referee checked the status of Aidan and Jevan. This was to verify if any irregularities were involved in the duel. Jevan believed Chris’ words, so he nodded proudly.
Eventually, the referee, who was checking Aidan’s condition, saw the object hanging from his waist and widened his eyes.
“Student, what is this?”
“Ah, this is my staff for this duel.”
Aidan replied with a smile, but the referee was still puzzled. The staff that Aidan had was basically different from the wands made of unusual materials that wizards deal with, and the shape itself was different, it was in the form of a sword.