NOVPUBIn the serene venue, an old wooden house stood under the bright noon sun. The two duelists were focussed intensely on their contest, conveying an unspoken manifestation of supreme martial spirit.
As the duel began,
Cervini didn’t rush to attack Lanci. Instead, she maintained her distance, cautiously empowering herself with enhancement and immunity spell cards.
Her body was light and nimble, ready to dodge at any time. Her careful steps reflected in her anxious gaze.
Even at this moment, she was wary of Lanci’s potential long-range spell use.
Perceiving hostility, reaching a state of preemptive response, is a milestone for all martial artists.
Cervini could sense Lanci’s intentions of attack even before her eyes could detect it.
She knew that Lanci, her opponent, was a gifted mage, so she had to be careful of possible trap spell cards.
However,
Lanci’s eyes were calm as a millpond, as if devoid of any hostility.
Cervini became more alert, she had never seen anyone maintain such a friendly demeanor in front of the very opponent they had to vanquish.
If Lanci had truly achieved a state of completely withdrawing hostility, he was probably a step ahead of her. At least she couldn’t manage to avoid the perception of hostility, rendering her opponent unable to detect or predict her attacks!
While Cervini was constantly strengthening her thought process, Lanci finally took out a stack of magic cards from his pocket. His actions were swift and clean, without any hesitation. He tossed the cards at the beams of the house behind him, simultaneously releasing a startup formula, tidying up the magic cards.
A stack?
Neither Cervini nor the other fighters present could understand Lanci’s move.
They all knew the limit to the number of magic cards that could be bound. The card rank was equivalent to the cost, and a third-order person could bear a total of thirty ranks of magic cards at most.
Even if Lanci carried all first-order cards, it would total up to thirty at the most. This card arrangement would leave him with no strength to battle.
"I surrender!"
Lanci’s shout echoed through the venue.
Subsequently, he began to dash towards the outside of the wooden house without looking back, much to the astonishment of Cervini who stood across from him.
"Surrender?"
Cervini was thoroughly bewildered.
Amongst the thousand possible methods of duel she had envisioned from Lanci, she never expected him to straight away admit defeat and defer the victory to her!
Could it be,
that he was fond of her?
He had previously signed so many agreements, were they all just his way of helping their team?
Cervini was slowly getting confused, the frantic pounding of her heart making it all the more difficult to understand Lanci’s intentions.
Just as her frantic heartbeat was filling her ears,
An explosion much more intense than during Frey’s duel resonated through the venue!
Cervini’s eyes widened. The stack of magic cards Lanci had tossed at the room’s front beam started exploding in a chain reaction, much like detonation talismans!
And at this point, the wooden house, which had already suffered damage to a beam, started violently shaking due to the explosion of another critical beam, looking as if it could collapse any moment.
When Cervini turned to look towards Lanci and the others, she realised that the three of them had disappeared.
Frey, who was prepared in advance, had started running towards the door as soon as Lanci surrendered.
Hyperion ran even faster, leaving behind a decoy using an invisibility spell.
Instantly,
In the face of Cervini’s bafflement and incredulous gaze, the shaky wooden house collapsed amidst a loud crash!
...
In the student district of the Knight College, a massive explosion attracted the attention of many students.
Looking over, they saw that a wooden house deep inside the jacaranda groves had become a pile of rubble, with smoky debris scattered all around.
In the ruins, after a long while, a slender figure covered in dust slowly crawled out.
She wobbled up to her feet, her eyes hollow, as if reminiscing about the recent events.
She was enveloped by an intense emptiness, weighing heavy on her heart like the fallen dust.
She had indeed won.
The joy of winning and an undefined warmth had just started settling in her heart when everything, like the wooden house, came crashing down, leaving her in utter devastation.
She seemed to remember,
The contract mentioned,
Whatever damage caused during the duel was to be borne by the martial arts team, the student management committee would not be responsible.
The magic cards that Lanci used to blow up the wooden house were legitimate, even though she was baffled how he used half-finished magic cards as detonators.
The contract also stated: Regardless of the outcome, both parties must not retaliate against the other, tarnish the other’s reputation, and must not threaten or harm the other with force. A friendly exchange should be maintained.
All of this, it seemed, was not a coincidence!
Cervini finally realised Lanci’s deceit-
This freshman had no intention of winning!
He simply wanted to demolish the house during the duel, and even tricked them into signing a contract in advance.
Even Frey’s provocation was all a part of the ploy to create a negotiation space for Lanci, making them believe Lanci was reasonable!!
"I thought... I thought you were a good guy…"
Cervini was visibly shaking, not knowing if it was pure anger or the embarrassing thoughts from before that were making her heart want to burst.
Cervini’s cheeks reddened, and tears of fury were on the verge of spilling from her eyes.
"Lanci!!!"
Cervini stood atop the ruins, her roar tearing through the sky. Like a deafening storm, it reverberated through the student district of the Knight College.
The angry onslaught consumed all of Cervini’s reason, transforming her into a furious beast that suddenly rushed out from the ruins, charging in the direction where the three were fleeing.
The other fighters who had just struggled out of the rubble had also entered a state of fury. Seeing Cervini’s leading charge, they followed suit without any hesitation or concern. The only thing they had was complete madness.
On the road of Knight’s College in the distance.
The three members of the student council who had already drawn a certain distance also felt the terrifying murderous intent from behind and the roar of the earth!
The three immediately tried their best to flee quickly.
"Hey, hey! It’s in black and white! You signed the treaty yourself; you can’t retaliate against us!"
Lanci declared while looking back.
Although he still believed he was in the right, the overwhelming momentum from the others made Lanci feel somewhat guilty.
He didn’t expect Cervini to be so angry, especially when he had so graciously admitted defeat to her!
"Lanci! You are the most despicable and cunning villain!!!"
Cervini’s distant voice came from behind.
"..."
For a moment, Lanci didn’t dare say anything further to provoke her. The moment he looked back and caught sight of Cervini’s expression, he understood.
He was too familiar with every phase of human anger from zero to beyond the limit!
Obviously, Cervini had now been overwhelmed by anger and lost her reason.
Until she calmed down, it was as if the oath about the Spirit of Martial Combat in the contract could no longer restrain her.
Talia’s teachings were indeed correct; sprinting and endurance running were both very useful, because sometimes such unreasonable classmates would appear!
"Lanci, working with you is very efficient."
Frey couldn’t help but glance over at Lanci and praised him. Originally, he felt that no one in the world could keep up with his thinking. Now, it turns out that he had such a partner with whom he could cooperate efficiently and effectively to achieve invincible results.
"Likewise, without you covering for me, it wouldn’t have been so easy for me to persuade them to sign the peace treaty."
Lanci was also full of admiration.
He even felt it would have been better to meet Frey earlier.
"By the way, what’s the deal with those exploding Magic Cards of yours?"
Frey seemed very interested in this efficient and convenient new technology.
"Ah, those are some semi-finished Magic Cards. Just add a supplementary formula, and they can be blown up."
These days, under Talia’s guidance, Lanci had developed a new type of "explosive semi-finished Magic Card".
Although they couldn’t be soul bound.
As a White Magician, he finally possesses, in the real world, some slight attacking methods of a Red Magician.
In the future, there would also be plenty of space to improve and enhance the power of the explosions.
"Same time next time in the Shadow World? Our Civilization Example Team lacks a frontman, Frey you are good at taunting, right?"
After explaining, Lanci seemed to remember something and quickly asked Frey.
The three of them were not only part of the same organization but also first-year freshmen, with quite good cooperation. They were certainly very suitable for challenging the Shadow World together!
"What else is there to say? I just lack credits and can’t find suitable teammates!"
Frey seemed very happy too. After getting familiar with Lanci and Hyperion, he completely lost his initial cold demeanor.
It seemed that he couldn’t wait to return to the student council room to play cards and chess with the two of them.
"You two..."
Listening to the conversation between the two unusual men beside her, Hyperion couldn’t help but complain to the sky with pity:
"Why do I have to run with you two!"
She hadn’t done anything wrong.
But she felt that if she dared to stop, she would be the one to die!
So.
On the campus road, the students of Ichrite Academy were surprised to see three students sprinting ahead and a group of fighters chasing after them.
It was hard to imagine what kind of sin these three had committed to make the people behind them so angry.
...
Old Literature Building, Student Council Room.
In the spacious and quiet council room, the president and vice president were seated at their respective desks, fully immersed in their own work.
The president’s long table reflected the dark wood gloss. The clean lines made the table look even more spacious, even with numerous folders and papers stacked on it, they were neatly organized.
Suddenly, a noise accompanied by the wind broke into the student council room through the large windows.
The president, Monasite, temporarily put down the pen in his hand because of the noisy disturbance. He stood up, stood by the window with his hands behind his back, and witnessed the chasing scene below.
"It seems they have done it."
Monasite picked up the coffee cup on the table, took a sip, and there was an appreciative sense of satisfaction in his leisurely time.
"...Is this really considered as mission accomplished?"
Soon, Vice President Asina also came over and was surprised to see the situation downstairs.
Her words were hesitant, and she didn’t know how to evaluate this situation.
She always felt that the three who were being chased seemed to have stirred up a hornet’s nest, and must have done something outrageous!
"With these three excellent new members, I believe this year’s Student Management Committee’s work will go quite smoothly."
"In fact, in the next month or so, there will be an academic visit from the Arolan Kingdom Academy. Although it’s a well-known school in the South Continent on par with us, every year their attitude is somewhat suppressing."
"This year it seems they have recruited a lot of outstanding freshmen, so they have the confidence to conduct this academic visit so early in the academic year. But with the three of them, I am not afraid of any chaos."
President Monasite calmly adjusted his monocle, seemed to appreciate the value of these three newcomers quite a bit, and said with a smile.
