NOVPUBThe duel was over.
“Winner: Aidan!”
With the referee’s declaration, a roar erupted from the crowd.
It came entirely from the commoner students who had come to support Aidan.
“Aidan! That was awesome!”
“You’re amazing!”
“When did you even learn that move?!”
No one looked more thrilled than Leo and Teishy.
In stark contrast, the noble students openly wore expressions of disgust and turned to glare at the defeated Jeban lying sprawled on the ground.
“Tch. That bastard Jeban just disgraced noble honor.”
“Honestly, he was always annoying. A baron’s kid trying to suck up everywhere like he’s somebody.”
“Losing to a commoner... what a disgrace.”
Their murmuring was sharp-edged and scornful.
Jeban stared blankly at the world around him.
‘I... lost?’
He couldn’t believe it. It didn’t feel real.
But waking from a dream wouldn’t save him—this wasn’t a dream. It was reality.
The hateful stares and sharp words being hurled at him were all too real.
And the one basking in the joy of victory on this stage... was none other than the lowly commoner he had so thoroughly looked down on.
‘No... No, this has to be some kind of mistake!’
There was no way he had actually lost.
Yes. There had to be some kind of error. That filthy commoner must’ve used some kind of cowardly trick.
After all, how could someone cast magic while running?
‘You damn filthy commoner!’
Grit.
Jeban erased the memory of drinking the mana-boosting tonic from his mind entirely.
If he had felt even a shred of shame over it, he wouldn’t have done it in the first place.
Now, all that remained in him was a festering hatred for the commoner who had humiliated him in front of everyone—and a murderous rage that demanded satisfaction.
‘I’ll kill him!’
Jeban began squeezing out every last drop of mana in his body.
Everyone’s attention was still on Aidan, who now stood in the winner’s spotlight—no one noticed what Jeban was doing.
Who would’ve expected a defeated contestant to suddenly lose his mind and launch a sneak attack?
No one.
Jeban poured all his mana into a «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» 2nd-circle spell.
It would take roughly four seconds to complete the casting.
Four seconds might be too long if someone was on guard—but in this moment of total distraction, four seconds was practically nothing.
“Huh?”
The first to sense something was wrong was Aidan.
Jeban, who had been slumped over with his head low, was now radiating a strange aura.
Just as Aidan turned toward him, their eyes met.
“Jeban?”
Jeban’s eyes, brimming with killing intent, curved into crescent moons.
And then Aidan saw it—the spell circle forming right in front of Jeban.
It was [Burning Wave], a 2nd-circle fire spell.
And right now, with the duel over, Aidan had already removed the protective barrier from his body.
On top of that, [Burning Wave] had one of the widest areas of effect among 2nd-circle spells—making it virtually impossible to evade.
And there wasn’t enough time to defend either.
The spell activated.
A crimson wave of flame surged forward.
“W-wait, what?!”
Even the referee, who had been preparing to check Aidan’s condition, was caught off guard.
He never imagined Jeban would try something like this. In a panic, he drew his staff and began gathering mana.
He was a Seorn staff member, after all—capable of basic magic.
But he was too late.
The fire was already at their doorstep.
A wave of searing flame surged forward like a crashing tide.
Snap!
Aidan’s body moved before his thoughts could catch up.
Springing into action, he grabbed the referee by the collar and yanked him behind him.
Then he gripped his sword-shaped staff tightly with both hands.
Time seemed to slow.
In that slowed moment, he saw the crowd’s eyes widen in horror.
Teachers were rising from their seats one by one, realizing what was happening—but it was already too late for them to intervene.
The wave of flame was nearly on top of Aidan.
“Aidan!”
Teishy’s voice rang out.
But Aidan didn’t turn.
He kept his eyes fixed forward, raised his staff, filled it with mana—
—and brought it down.
SHHRAAAAK!
“Huh?”
“What the hell—?!”
Then, something unbelievable happened.
The wave of flame cast by Jeban’s [Burning Wave]—
—split clean in two along the path of Aidan’s staff, dispersing into scattered sparks.
Fsshhhh—
Moments later, the spell lost all strength and vanished into thin air.
“What... just happened?”
“He... cut the spell?”
The stunned students murmured in disbelief, trying to process what they’d just seen.
Ludger, meanwhile, stared at Aidan with a look that suggested he’d been expecting this.
‘So, he used that spell... when the moment of crisis came.’
Aidan was a mage capable of casting [Singular] magic.
Unlike the four primary schools, [Singular] magic wasn’t formally categorized in modern magic theory and was rarely known or understood by the public.
Aidan’s ability was one of them.
A [Singular] type spell known as [Anti-Magic].
Another name for it:
The Magic that Erases Magic.
That’s what Aidan had just used.
“This... This can’t be!”
Chris was on the verge of fainting.
It was already maddening that Jeban had resorted to such a disgraceful tactic—but the fact that the commoner, Aidan, had used anti-magic?
‘Don’t tell me... That man knew this would happen...!’
Chris’s eyes darted to Ludger.
Even when Aidan was hit with a surprise attack, Ludger hadn’t moved an inch from his seat.
It wasn’t that he wasn’t surprised.
He simply had no reason to be.
Because he knew.
He had known Aidan would win. He had known Aidan was a [Singular] type mage.
“My god...”
Jeban was no different.
He stared in stunned silence as the [Burning Wave] he had poured his remaining mana into was effortlessly erased—
—by the commoner he had mocked.
His face went blank.
Aidan walked steadily toward the completely disarmed Jeban.
“Jeban...”
“H-how... How could a commoner use a spell like that...?”
“Enough. Shut your mouth.”
“What?”
Before Jeban could ask again—
SMACK!
Aidan’s tightly clenched fist slammed into his cheek.
Jeban’s body crumpled to the ground, sprawling pitifully.
Standing over him, Aidan glared down with blazing eyes.
“I thought at the very least you’d accept your loss like a man. But I didn’t realize you were this much of a piece of trash.”
Jeban couldn’t say a word.
This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.
Jeban couldn’t answer.
He had already been completely and utterly defeated—both physically and mentally—and could no longer maintain any sense of reason.
At last, the referee rushed over in a fluster and checked Aidan’s condition.
“Aidan, are you all right?”
“Yes, I’m fine. But what about you, sir? Are you hurt anywhere?”
“H-huh? Oh—thanks to you. If you hadn’t stepped in, things could’ve gone really bad.”
As the referee bowed repeatedly, Aidan instead apologized, insisting he was all right.
The instructors and spectators watching the scene were left with no choice but to see Aidan in a new light.
“My word. They said he could use anti-magic, and it turns out it was true.”
Marie Ross, who had already heard vague rumors about Aidan, gently covered her mouth and let out a delighted laugh.
Meanwhile, Hugo and Chris looked as if they had bitten into raw lemons.
Only Ludger remained unchanged—his demeanor calm and exactly as it had been from the beginning, as if he’d expected this all along.
The reaction among the students was explosive.
“Did you see that just now?! He cut a spell with a sword!”
“Idiot, it was a staff, not a sword.”
“Same difference!”
“Still, I didn’t feel any other spell being activated... What was that?”
“He erased the magic? Is that even possible?”
For students who didn’t know about anti-magic, what Aidan had just done seemed like something out of a fairy tale.
Even Jeban’s disgraceful stunt had been completely overshadowed by Aidan’s incredible display.
Among the stunned onlookers, a few students had managed to grasp what they had witnessed.
“Was that anti-magic just now?”
A beautiful girl with snow-white hair and a frosty, emotionless expression stared intently at Aidan.
Her words may have sounded condescending, but she too was a first-year student—one of the new entrants to Seorn.
A girl easily considered the top of this year’s freshman class.
Ranked first in the entrance exams, a prodigy championed by the Mage Tower—an unrivaled genius.
Julia Plumehart.
She gazed at Aidan with intrigued eyes.
‘I only came to watch for fun, just out of curiosity. But now... this is interesting.’
Normally, she wouldn’t have paid something like this any attention.
After all, who cared about the outcome of a student duel?
But this time, the event had grown so large—it wasn’t just a student versus student match, but a commoner versus noble showdown.
And behind them, the pride of two professors was also on the line.
That’s why she had come to take a quick look.
‘At first, it was so one-sided I almost left. I’m glad I didn’t.’
Who would’ve expected to see anti-magic in a place like this?
‘Aidan, was it? Where does a commoner learn anti-magic? Hm. You’ve caught my attention.’
With that, Julia left the training ground, having seen enough of Aidan, the boy who had knocked down Jeban.
She wasn’t the only one intrigued by Aidan’s magic.
Another figure, one who wielded immense power among the second-years and acted as the de facto leader of the noble faction, was just as interested—
Freuden Ulburk.
Aidan, huh.
When Baron Pellio’s son Jeban had come asking to join his faction and declared he would fight someone in a duel, Freuden hadn’t bothered to stop him.
The truth was, he didn’t care in the slightest.
Whoever Jeban fought didn’t matter, as long as they didn’t cause him trouble.
But who would’ve thought that the opponent Jeban challenged was a commoner who used anti-magic?
‘They said the new first-years weren’t to be underestimated... Turns out that’s true.’
Freuden was the type to acknowledge things cleanly when they deserved it.
And he acknowledged Aidan’s anti-magic as valuable.
He didn’t know how skilled Aidan truly was, but one thing was certain: a man’s worth was still higher than that of some mediocre noble.
“Let’s go.”
Freuden stood up after glancing one last time at Jeban, sprawled pathetically on the ground.
His followers immediately rose in unison to follow him.
Before leaving, Freuden cast a sidelong glance at the professor’s section where Ludger was seated.
‘That professor...’
He stared at Ludger for a moment, then turned away as if losing interest and left the arena.
One by one, people began to leave, chattering excitedly about today’s shocking duel.
The appearance of a new prodigy.
The mage who used anti-magic—Aidan.
“Tch.”
Aidan scratched the back of his head.
He had never planned on using anti-magic during this duel.
No—in fact, he hadn’t planned on using it at all while at Seorn.
His master had told him so.
This magic was important. Unless it was a true emergency, he should never use it.
Otherwise, it would only bring him endless trouble.
‘So this is what Master meant.’
As he felt the intense gazes of the students now looking at him with awe and expectation, Aidan instinctively realized—
His life at the academy was about to become far more complicated.
‘Ah—right.’
Aidan quickly turned to look at the professor’s section.
He wanted to find the man who had helped him win this fight.
Ludger.
Fortunately, Ludger was still in his seat—it wasn’t hard to find him.
That jet-black outfit of his always stood out.
Ludger wore the same expression as always. He didn’t look particularly pleased that Aidan had won.
He simply met Aidan’s gaze.
And nodded once.
“...!”
That was more than enough for Aidan.
That nod was all the validation he needed.
Only then did the reality of his victory truly sink in.
“Aidan!”
“You did it! You won!”
Teishy and Leo rushed toward him, grinning from ear to ear.
Aidan grinned back as he faced his friends.
Ludger watched the trio for a moment—and then stood up from his seat.
The duel was over.
It was time to move on to the next matter.
“Chris-sensei.”
At Ludger’s voice, Chris Bennimore flinched where he stood, frozen in uncomfortable silence.
He turned toward Ludger, his expression stiff.
“We still have unfinished business between us, don’t we?”
At those words, Chris’s face collapsed completely.
