C93: Magic Duel (1)
“Gasp! Let go of me!”
Ivan Luke opened his eyes to the intense pressure on his wrist and tried to shake off his arm.
‘Wow, what kind of power is that?’
His hand doesn’t budge. As such, Rudger’s grip was stronger than he could have imagined.
Evan, who thought that the wizards were a group of people who only read books, was shocked.
“Hey, aren’t you going to let this go? You don’t know who I am?! Do you want to lose your teaching job right now?!”
“If you can.”
There was a slight shadow on Rudger’s face as he looked down at him.
“Try it.”
“This, this…!”
“Let’s stop there.”
It was Ivan’s attendant who intervened between Rudger and Ivan. Rudger stared at him and looked around with a sidelong glance.
Before he knew it, security guards stood around him as if they were surrounding Ivan. The attendant stared at Rudger with a gloomy gaze.
“Stop there and let go of that hand. Otherwise…….”
“Otherwise, what do you intend to do?”
Rudger asked back in a blunt voice.
The moment the attendant was about to say that he would regret it his voice didn’t come out properly. He gulped and felt a cold sweat running over his forehead.
‘This guy. He’s out of the ordinary.’
He thought he would win if they fought. Although Rudger is a teacher at Theon he is a professional wizard directly employed by Luke.
Now he is bowing his head to a kid, who is much younger than him, and he is constantly swearing, but his skills are inferior and he can’t do anything.
‘This look. This spirit. I feel like my bones are freezing even though I’m simply facing him. Is he really a new teacher?’
The aide changed his mind when he saw Evan huffing while trying to step back. He couldn’t back down from here.
Even if Ivan Luke’s is a jerk, he is the chairman’s only blood. Although Ivan does not have the ability to inherit his legacy, and the President also did not show much affection for Ivan, he was still treated like a blood relative. That’s why he was looking after him.
The three bodyguards were even made up of members of the Knights Academy.
‘Yeah, we won’t lose.’
However, the only thing that bothered him is that the location is not good. If there was a quarrel on a dark road with no one around, he could just deal with it quietly, but this a banquet hall full of people.
All sorts of distinguished guests were watching the situation with interest.
‘Although it is said that the character of the master has already spread throughout the society, if we try to suppress the situation here with force, the image of the group will be severely damaged.’
It’s embarrassing and annoying, but in the current situation, he had to deal with it as best he could.
The assistant finished his calculations and started talking.
“Let’s stop here. If we start fighting in this location we’ll hurt other people.”
“…….”
As the assistant said as gently as possible, Rudger let go of Ivan’s hand. Barely freed, Ivan grabbed his throbbing wrist and licked his lips.
“Hey, you bloody fallen aristocrat……!”
“Young master, let’s stop here. There are a lot of eyes on us right now.”
The aide intended to end the situation as much as possible before Ivan did anything but when he tried to persuade him to stop Ivan slapped him on the cheek with all his might.
“Hey, you punk. I told you to call me Director.”
“……I’m sorry, Director.”
“And, uh? My arm. Can’t you see this? You want me to step down after all this? Do you want to get fired?”
“……No.”
Suddenly, the atmosphere began to take a strange turn. The assistant sighed inwardly as he saw Ivan’s bloodshot eyes.
It seemed that the situation could no longer be solved through conversation.
“Do you think I should just let it slide in front of people like this? Huh? Answer me.”
“No.”
“No, right? Right?
Ivan glanced at Rudger with eyes full of hostility.
“Hey, you’re done. I’ll make sure you’re fired on the spot. You know what? I keep my word.”
Ivan Luke is a director of the Luke family, and under the protection of the chairman, he is a troublemaker, but the weight of his power was never light.
It was nothing to cut a new teacher if Luke, who gives Theon a huge amount of funding every year, was determined to put pressure on it.
Rudger, who was watching the scene from beginning to end, wondered what was going on. Originally, he should have quietly left his seat and started searching for the First Order but Ivan ruined his plans.
‘There are a lot of eyes around, but it doesn’t seem like anyone will stop me.’
Rudger was just thinking about how to do this when someone intervened.
“……President?”
Theon President and genius wizard Elisa Willow wearing a black dress full of long frills appeared naturally at the breathtaking scene with an innocent smile.
‘Are you here to help me?’
When Rudger had a curious expectation, Ivan Luke was already annoyed and when a new interrupter appeared, he stared at Elisa with an expression as if he wanted to eat her alive.
“Who are you?”
“Me? I’m the president of Theon”
“What?”
Ivan looked at Elisa slightly bewildered. He’s heard of Theon president, but it’s the first time he actually saw her, so he didn’t recognize her right away.
A young woman like this is the president? Ivan rather thought it was good.
“How did you educate your teachers?”
“Education? What education?”
“That fallen aristocrat has used violence against me!”
People who watched the situation would not have called it violence, but Ivan believed he was a victim.
Elisa asked Ivan again, still smiling.
“So?”
“So what? Fire him right now. If you want to continue to be sponsored by Luke, you’d better.”
“Luke? Ahhhhhhhhh. You were the son of Chairman Luke.”
As if Elisa understood, she clapped her hands and nodded.
Ivan smiled around, thinking that someone he can communicate with has come.”
However, Elisha’s following words made his face collapse.
“So?”
“Huh? Didn’t you hear me now? Luke…….”
“The owner of Luke’s company is Chairman Theodore, right? So why is it that you decided that on your own?”
“Although I am a director, I am the only son of President Theodore, you know? I have enough power to decide.”
“Oh, really? So have you discussed all this with your father?”
“…….”
The remark left Ivan speechless.
There is no way that he could have talked with his father since he got angry and shouted without thinking.
“Oh, my father would feel the same way. I’m his son. Don’t you know that?”
“Oh, really? That’s a relief.”
“What do you mean by relief?”
“The chairman just happened to be here!”
“……What?”
Ivan’s face turned stupid.
The chairman is here? No, it can’t be.
“A lie like that won’t work…….”
“Wouldn’t it be better to see for yourself if I lied or not?”
Elisha said so, and moved slightly aside.
Ivan was able to find a person spreading a strong presence beyond the crowd obscured by Elisa.
A white-haired old man was standing on his cane and staring at him.
“Huh!”
Ivan’s face was as pale as a sheet of white paper. He was running wild without knowing the meaning of the word ‘afraid’, but he couldn’t stand up to his father.
“Oh, father?”
“You useless fellow, I told you to go and build a network, but what are you doing?”
“That’s not it…….”
“Stop making excuses. It was troublesome that I entrusted this task to an idiot like you.”
Chairman Theodore Luke stared at Ivan angrily and bowed his head toward Elisa.
“Sorry, President Elisa. My stupid son did this on his own.”
“It’s fine. On the contrary, there are not many people who dare to step forward like that to me these days, so it felt a little fresh.”
“……Thank you for saying that.”
Theodore’s gaze soon turned to Rudger.
He was quite displeased with the situation. Even if Ivan made a mistake in the first place, there was no way he would have been able to admire a man who almost had a fight with his son.
It was then that Elisa suddenly intervened.
“Oh, but I think I’ve been a little harsh on your son.”
“President Elisa? Now it’s….”
“So I’d like to give you a chance. Now we are going to end the situation neatly between the parties.”
“…….”
Theodore read something in her manner and immediately shut up and it was the same for Rudger, who was watching the situation.
‘I was relieved that the president intervened.’
The president secretly glanced at him. The corners of her mouth were flinching as if she could not bear the entertaining situation.
‘I think she’s a little fickle.’
The fact that she has that kind of personality is something I’ve come to realize from meeting her several times.
I’m thankful that she mediated the situation, but the president seemed to want to lead the game in the direction she wanted.
“The two of you will compete in front of everyone. What do you think?”
At those words, the eyes of the audience watching the situation lit up as if they were interested.
What she said was simple. A duel.
“Of course! Ivan doesn’t know magic, and Mr. Rudger is a wizard, right? In that case, it cannot be an equal match. So I will give Mr. Ivan a chance to choose someone to fight in his place.”
Ivan didn’t understand why Elisa suddenly said this but then he stared at Rudger, clenched his teeth and nodded.
“All right! That’s what I wanted!”
Elisa tells him that he can use people, so he seems to think it’s worth a try.
While he was thinking Elisa looked back at Rudger as if asking ‘What do you think? Can you do it?’
Seeing it, Rudger sighed inwardly.
‘But I can’t say no.’
It was Elisa who calmed down Ivan, who was about to run wild, no matter what anyone said. Besides, the method of duel wasn’t bad for him either.
If he forces the situation to end vaguely, Ivan will have bad feelings for him for a long time and act behind the scenes. However, if they have a duel in front of everyone and come to a clean conclusion, then the story will be different.
Even the chairman is watching, so even Ivan can’t go on a rampage afterwards.
‘No, he’s just confident he’ll win.’
I will not retaliate for my defeat in a duel in the presence of so many eyes and if Ivan tries to do something, Theodore, the chairman, won’t let him.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Rudger. Because of me.”
“No. it’s okay.”
Rudger shook his head at Selina, who was sorry.
“Even so, I felt that I needed to be in this position at least once.”
“What……?”
“There’s something like that.”
In no time, the center of the banquet hall was emptied, and a large space was created.
The audience, who retreated outside, stared at Rudger with interest. Among them was contempt for Rudger coming from his enemy Chris Benimore.
“……In the end, this is how it goes.”
Ivan chose his assistant as Rudger’s opponent. Although he’s an assistant he is also a skilled wizard and a person who once served in the military.
“I’m not going to hold back.”
He pulled out a cane from his waist and aimed it at Rudger. Rudger answered with a shrug and lifted a large cane in his hand.
Everyone watched the scene breathlessly.
A duel between a professional wizard hired by Luke and a new teacher appointed at Theon was a special event that they couldn’t see anywhere else.
“Now, show us a legitimate match! Begin!”
The observers were President Elisha and Chairman Theodore Luke.
At the same time as Elisa’s cry, Ivan’s aide quickly started casting a spell. He wanted to end it as fast as he could since it was the best he could do for a talented junior, as a senior on the magic path.
‘I will finish this as quickly as possible without wasting time.’
The most important things in a magic battle are speed of casting and accuracy. In fact, the way he fought was to cast quick spells and immediately overpower his opponent.
He also made significant contributions thanks to these abilities when he joined the military, and the reason why he was hired by Luke after his retirement was because of that.
He had been through this kind of duels many times in the past and always won so he thought this duel will be just like those in the past.
“What?”
The moment he was about to unleash his magic he saw that his opponent manifested a much greater amount of spells that swallowed down his magic like a tidal wave.
He didn’t even had time to respond.
“───!!!”
What followed was excruciating pain running through his body and he fell back unconscious.
“…….”
“…….”
The surrounding area became quiet in an instant.