“Eh?”

Louder, “Jin Crimson. I, Arnold Pendragon, challenge you to an official duel with Mr. Fenris as the witness.”

“I refuse.”

“I see, so you acce- What?! Why would you refuse?!”

“Because it’d be a waste of time.”

“A-a waste of time you say?!”

As I looked upon his bewildered face, I noticed everyone  was staring at us. It was a given since he loudly announced his challenge.

“Actually Jin..I was wondering if you’d actually have an exhibition match.”

“Really? You too Mr. Fenris? Can I at least choose someone else other than him?”

“Choose someone else?! Who here is a better match for you than me?”

“Him.”

I gave a quick answer while pointing towards Aiex.

“I’m sure I could have a much more enjoyable match with him than you.”

“Ahaha... Jin. I’d like you to have your match against Arnold. He already volunteered and I can’t really say no since he’s of the family that sponsors this school,” said Harry in a whisper.

“-Sigh-. Very well. I’ll take him up on his challenge but… if he’s badly injured, I won’t be blamed, right?”

“Yes. For those who duel, they’ll sign a waiver saying that ‘My opponent will not be responsible for sending me to the sha- I mean any permanent damage done to me excluding death.’ The match will start 30 minutes before class ends.”

“Ahh I see. Alright then I guess we’ll have an exhibition match.”

Time passed by without troubles. Since I had no affinity for magic, I passed my time doing physical training.

After signing the waiver, we headed towards the middle of the training hall. A barrier then enshrouded the both of us, expanding to an area of a basketball court.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As Jin and Arnold prepared themselves for battle, Aero and I approached Mr. Fenris.

“Is this really alright Mr. Fenris?”

“Yes. I think it should be fine.”

“Well… There was an incident between the two during lunch. Jin was really pissed off, almost crushing Arnold’s head so I don’t think Jin will easily let Arnold off.”

“Ooh? You seem to have a lot of confidence in Jin. What makes you think Arnold will be at his mercy?”

“... Jin is strong… Right, Aiex?”

“Mhm.”

“Master Arnold is strong as well.”

Arnold’s two lackeys arrived with sneering faces and stood to the right of Mr. Fenris. They started to boast about Arnold’s power.

“He might’ve gotten the surprise on Master Arnold that time but this time will be different. Arnold is strong, being blessed by Hubris, the God of Pride. He’s also strong in fire magic, being able to cast a level 5 spell.”

“Level 5 huh? … Interesting.”

“... Jin will win… ”

“Hmph… Master Arnold will obliterate him.”

After Jin and Arnold has finished their preparation, Mr. Fenris made an announcement.

“Alright, everyone! This exhibition match is for you to learn. As they fight, I hope you guys learn from them and the ways they use their abilities. Are both sides ready?”

“Yes.”

“Begin!”

As soon as Mr. Fenris announced the start of the match, Jin dashed towards Arnold with his sword. Arnold, wielding a silver spear, had the range advantage and used it to parry Jin’s sword before it reached him. With Jin’s balanced disrupted, Arnold went on the offensive, constantly thrusting as Jin dodged with a paper-thin margin. A hit connected on Jin’s left arm. Using the momentum, he regained his balance and created some distance.

“What is this? Running away? So you defeating Uncle Richard really was a fluke.”

“Who knows? Maybe your Uncle was just weak.”

“What did you say?!”

Provoked, Arnold started to cast magic.

“Fireball!”

A red magic circle appeared in front of his left hand and multiple fist-sized fireballs flew out, targeting Jin’s head. Instantly, Jin ducked, avoiding the attack and flashed past Arnold.

“Crimson Art : Burst Flare.”

Arnold’s left arm had a huge cut on it. Arnold let out an agonizing scream as he dropped his spear and held onto his left arm.

“After you finish casting magic, you’re full of openings.”

“You sh*t! How dare you injure me!”

“This is a duel, you know. So an injury of that degree is to be expected. Don’t worry. It should heal.”

Arnold’s two lackeys clenched their fists in frustration as they witness their master being injured. Arnold then picked up his spear and dashed backwards to create distance between him and Jin. There, he held his spear up high, and started to chant. Jin did not attempt to stop it.

“Here it is! Master Arnold’s level 5 magic spell, Meteor!”

Like the lackeys said, a giant meteor, taking up most of the arena, appeared and propelled itself towards Jin.

“With the size of this field, you will never be able to dodge it. The duel ends here!”

As the meteor approached Jin, his sword glowed, and with a slash, the meteor vanished. Completely erased like it never existed. Everyone was speechless, including me.

“W-what did you do?!”

“It’s my sword’s ability. Because I’m unable to use magic, I compensate by being able to cut it. There is of course a limit. I can only cut magic that is equal to my level or below, nothing higher.”

“That’s impossible! How did you even know that you could cut my magic?”

“Your aura told me. It’s weaker than mine.”

Arnold was in a panic. His face was distorted into an unsightly scene, backing away in fear.

“I guess I have no choice. I’ll play my trump card.”

As Arnold cast a giant fireball, similar to the size of the meteor, he threw a ball behind it to hide it from Jin. After closely observing the ball I knew what it was…

“Jin!! Watch out!”

But it was too late. As Jin stepped to the side and cut the fireballs, Arnold grinned evilly.

“Extreme!.”

'BOOM!'

What Arnold threw was a bomb however, it’s explosion was three times bigger than normal. Jin was blown away, colliding against the barrier.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

‘What was that?’ I thought to myself as I used the barrier as support to stand. My ears were ringing from the explosion. As I looked to the right, my right arm was gone, on the ground, a pool of blood. My sword was blown in the opposite direction and was embedded in the ground. I let out an agonizing scream.

“ARGH!!”

“Ahahaha!! That’s what you get for messing with me! Look at your miserable appearance. This match is over.”

With an ugly distorted smile on his face, Arnold slowly approached me. I dashed toward my sword and grabbed it with left hand. Upon taking hold of my sword, Arnold halted his movements and stared at me maliciously. His smile changed into a frown.

“You...Why won’t you admit your defeat? Even after using my god’s ability Extreme to increase power of the explosion so that you’d lose a limb… Why won’t you just stay down?!”

“Hmph… ”

As I focused my gaze at Arnold I heard Harry and Aiex’s conversation behind me.

“Mr. Fenris, will Jin be alright?”

“I’m afraid not. Unless we find someone with a powerful healing god’s blessing I fear that he will never regain his right arm. Our nurse’s powers is limited to only healing wounds and some sickness. It’s impossible for her to regenerate a limb”

“I see… ”

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

“... Should I intervene?”

With a cold piercing gaze, Aero oozed out killing intent directing it towards Arnold. The two lackeys besides Harry jumped and shrieked in fear.

“It’s alright. I can handle this myself. I still haven’t used my trump card yet.” I shouted towards Aero and Aiex to subside their worries.

“Trump card?! What a bluff. You, who doesn't even know the god that blessed you or even possess a magic attribute, have a trump card? You must be joking right? Hahahaha.”

As I looked upon Arnold’s ugly laughing face, I remembered the dream.

“Now to the main point, your first ability is Beginning, to return your body to the state before it was injured. This ability allows you to regenerate all wounds dealt to you even if you were to lose an arm or leg. There is no set back when you use it for yourself however, if you were to use this ability on others, it can only be used once a day and whatever pain they received, you’ll experience it times one thousand. The only weakness to this ability is once your head gets cut off, it’s over. So when fighting others, always protect your head.”

As the symbol that represents Janus on my left hand shined,

“Beginning!”

The ability activated and the arm I once lost regrew itself. Arnold’s laughing face twisted and formed a disgusting face full of fear. The audience was speechless.

“Now where were we?”

“T-that’s impossible! You don’t even know your god but you can use his power and its regeneration as well… T-that’s just unfair… ”

As Arnold slowly stepped back in fear, I slowly approached him as I switched the sword to my right hand.

“Do you know the old saying, ‘An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.’? Since you took my arm, I should be able to take your arm to compensate right?”

As I coldly stared at him, Arnold tripped and fell to the ground. I slowly raised my sword up, aiming for his right shoulder. The moment I swung my sword,

“I give up!!!”

“Jin stop!!!”

Upon hearing Harry’s yell, I stopped my sword one centimeter away from his shoulder. I de-summoned it and looked down at the pathetic Pendragon and the wet floor. It reeked of ammonia. Arnold seemed to have pissed himself out of fear.

“The winner is Jin Crimson!”

The audience was silent. After the barrier was deactivated, Aiex and Aero ran towards me. Aiex patted me on the shoulder with excessive strength.

“You bastard. You didn’t tell me you could do that! You’re practically invincible.”

“Hahaha… I kinda learned it today. That hurted you know.”

“... We were worried.”

“Sorry Aero. I didn’t mean to worry you.”

“Seriously though. I can’t believe he would go as low as to bring outside weapons into this duel.”

“Hmm… Where did he get that anyways? I remembered that only the non-blessed military people were allowed to use them.”

Arnold was taken home, still shaking in fear, while I was conversing with Aero and Aiex.

After school was over, I decided to head towards the library to scout the place. I wanted to know if it was an appropriate place for me to do my research or not.

As I entered the library, I saw a familiar face. Sitting by the window, was the beautiful blue haired girl from earlier today. She noticed my presence and turned to meet me. I didn’t notice it at first but she seemed to be a first year as well, wearing a blue tie with the school uniform.

“Ah… The boy from the roof.”

“... Hello.”

There was an awkward silence between us for a while. As I was about to continue my survey of the library, she spoke.

“Right, we never introduced ourselves to each other have we? My name is Lulli P. Ragoths. Nice to meet you.”

“Jin Crimson. Nice to meet you too.”

“About the roof… Sorry if I came at the wrong time.”

“Ah that… It’s fine. Don’t worry about it too much. Let’s change the subject. Why are you here alone?”

“Oh right. The announcement hasn’t been made yet but I’ll be the school’s librarian after school from today and onwards. The other librarian is expecting his wife to have a child soon, so he’ll be in charge of the library only during school hours.”

“I see… ”

“Why are you here?”

“Ah… I was scouting this place to see if it’s a suitable place for me to do my research.”

“Hoh~ Interesting. What are you researching on?”

“That… Is my secret.”

As I talked to Lulli, I walked around the library to survey it. It was two stories tall. A pretty huge library I’d say. On another note, Lulli had a pretty interesting personality. She was always smiling and cheery while we were talking. She’s also very persistent and stubborn. She kept on insisting that I tell her what I planned on researching but I kept on answering the same with a ‘no’ until I had enough.

“Come on… Telling me what you’re researching wouldn’t hurt would it?”

As I sighed, “Hm… How about this? If we were to become close friends, then maybe, I’d tell you what I’m researching.”

Lulli made a small mischievous smile like my response was her goal all along.

“You promise, okay? Even though I can just check the library records.”

“... Sure… I have a way around that though.”

As it was getting close to dinner time, I decided to leave the library. For some reason, Lulli also locked up the library and followed me to the dorm with a gentle smile on her face while humming a tune.

“Why are you following me?”

“Following you? What makes you think that?”

“When I left the library, you locked up and have been following behind me ever since.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Coincidentally, my shift was over and coincidentally~, you’re heading in the direction of where I live.”

There was the small mischievous smile on her face again as she talked in a sarcastic, teasing way.

“Wait… when you say the direction where you live, you don’t mean… ”

“Yep. I live in the dorm as well.”

“Really now… ” I said with a sigh.

As we entered the dorm, we were greeted by Varelia. As we enter the kitchen/dining hall, like this morning, it was empty.

“Everyone already got their dinner and brought it to their room if you’re wondering why it’s empty.”

“Amazing as usual, Ms. Aeros. Thank you for the dinner.”

“Jin. Let’s eat together.”

“... Sure… ”

Though I was unwilling to eat together with Lulli, I had no reason to reject her. While we were eating, I felt an ominous aura from Varelia but everytime I looked over, it disappeared. After Lulli and I finished our dinner, we said our goodbyes and went to our separate rooms. As I was about to head to the second floor, Varelia called for me.

“Jin. Come here for a second.”

“Yes, Ms. Aeros?”

“Let me tell you about the secret rule of this dorm.”

With a malicious, mischievous look on her face, she pulled the collar of my shirt closer to her and spoke in a mobster-like tone.

“Listen here kid. That girl seems to taken an interest in you but if you are to hurt a single little hair on that innocent girl’s head or let anything else hurt her, I’ll personally track you down and kill you. Of course, I won’t let you die a painless death. I’ll make sure you thoroughly suffer. With my powers, I can hurt you, heal you, and hurt you again, a thousand times over. Understand?!”

“Yes Ma’am…  ”

Turning back to her gentle self, or should I say her false self, she waved me goodbye while saying, ‘It’s good that you understand.’

After taking my shower, I fell onto my bed, exhausted. As I sighed to myself and thought, ‘If this is only the first day, how will the rest of my school year go,’ I fell into a deep sleep.