Classes had ended for the day, and we found ourselves lunching in the cafeteria. Everyone had a vegetarian style food as ellari didn’t take much pleasure in meat. Though I may have poured a bit of egg-based sauce on my salad.
“Man, I was beat since Applied Mathematics, and then we had two more hours of Spell Cryptography,” Adrian complained as he stuffed his mouth with mashed potatoes. “By the way,” his voice was muffled by the food.
“Swallow before talking.” I said with a sigh and then drank some water.
“Sorry,” Adrian told with his mouth still full. He swallowed furiously for a few seconds. “By the way, what were your purity indexes? I haven’t had time to ask it.”
“Around forty-five and fifty-five,” Monica told. “I know it’s not really high, but my affinity wasn’t noteworthy, to begin with.” Her face irradiated sadness.
“Oh, don’t sulk.” Adrian encouraged her. “I was between forty and sixty. It does look better on the higher end, but the lower end is also worse.”
So that was the standard purity for normal elemental affinities. I had about thirty percent more purity than them, a considerable amount. Maybe I should lie about mine. They also weren’t exactly students with honors, like Marissa and I. Most certainly they were on the curve and we were the exception.
“Haha!” Marissa laughed off his fellow aeromancer. “Sixty-five to seventy-five purity!” She boasted pridefully. She never wasted a chance to do so, even if it came out rather… coarse. “What about you, Edrie?” Marissa asked as she noticed I was the only one who hadn’t revealed their score.
Now I was more doubtful about revealing my true purity index. I had an interval of seventy to ninety percent, higher than Marissa’s even though she was focused on one element unlike me who was dual-wielding elements.
If I were to reveal the truth… Marissa was medium-high with such high purity. But I had a ‘high’ Arcane affinity, or so they believed. My purity didn’t look that exaggerated even factoring my Soul affinity in.
Damn it. If they suspect I’d be damned. “Around seventy and ninety.” I ended up telling the truth.
“That’s quite high considering that you use arcane and soul magic on equal terms.” Marissa commented on the obvious problem.
“Well, unlike someone I know, I meditate daily without missing it once.” I quickly came out with an excuse and added a bit of sassiness to make it feel more veritable. “But truth be told, I tried drawing all glyphs, so this is the estimate with the ten percent tolerance one. For all we know, I could have seventy percent purity.”
Even if I knew that was unlikely, it was technically the truth.
“Well yeah, but also, meditation is so boooring~” Marissa complained melodiously. “Once a day may be tolerable, but twice? You are trying to kill if you intend for me to do so.”
“You know I meditate twice a day because of my elemental affinities, don’t pull that as an excuse.” I took a fork full of salad.
“Wait, you meditate twice a day?” Monica was interested in it.
“Yes,” I told her. “As I explained, because I use two affinities, I need more meditation time than a normal person.”
“Wow…” Monica expressed in amazement. “I do like having my meditation time, but two times a day sounds like a hassle.”
“I am a calm person, what can I say.” I shrugged. “I do enjoy my peace and tranquility, my silence and studies.”
“Bah.” Marissa visually cringed at my words. “You talk like an old man. ‘I’m old Edrie, I sit on the porch and feed the ducks.’” She did a poor interpretation of me with a hunchback added, even if I had the straightest back in the group.
“I am an indescribable, old entity.” I told the truth nonchalantly with a scoff. They, on the other hand, took it as a joke and began laughing. They wouldn’t believe it if I told them about my origins.
“How do you come up with such stupid things?” Monica said between laughs.
“Yeah, how do I?” I dismissed my existential crisis with a scoff. “Has everyone finished eating? I would like to sunbathe a little.”
“Now you do sound like an old man.” Marissa added with a chuckle.
As a matter of fact, everyone had indeed finished eating a long time ago, I just decorated my words with a bit of courtesy. We left the cafeteria to find a place on the campus to lay. We decided on a patch of pink grass close by to the main square. More than a decade and a half in the capital of magic and seeing greenless grass had never stopped being strange.
Huh, now that I thought about it; purple, blue, and pink grass was pretty prevalent here, and ellari did have those skin tones… Were our skin tones a residual camouflage from evolution?
“So, Marissa. Who’s stronger? Ya’ or Edrie?” Adrian asked once we had laid on the grass. All of us did so, except Monica who decided to rest her back on a trunk under the shade of a tree.
“That’s a good question.” Marissa used a tone as if she were a scholar.
“A simple question you mean.” I mocked at her as I had my eyes closed taking in the sunlight. The little sunlight that passed through the dome, anyways.
I could feel the girl’s deadly glance without opening my eyelids. It somehow felt more intense than the faint rays of the sun filtered out by the violet sky on top of us.
“As I was saying, it’s a good question. And more nuanced that Edrie may tell you.” Marissa renewed. “If Edrie goes all out, then my chances are one to three, but if he decides to only use one element, mine goes up to one-half or beyond.”
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
“I think you have tweaked those numbers a bit, but I agree.” I told her.
“Wow, are ya’ really that strong, Edrie?” Now I could feel a gaze filled with stars and adulation.
“Not really,” I explained. “It’s just that I have a big repertoire that is difficult to battle against or counter. I’m not a fighting person, I do not have reflexes and instincts as Marissa does. It just so happens that I have a good shield and a sharp blade.”
“Good shield? Sharp blade?” Adrian reiterated in confusion.
“Ignore him, it’s a metaphor. He always tries to overcomplicate things with fancy wording.” Marissa explained to him. “He meant his dispelling and his soul attacks, respectively.”
“Right on the nail, Marissa.” I congratulated her while I stretched my arms and grunted in pleasure. I should lie down more times.
“He’s a menace with his mana-weaving, if he has spellcasted Mana Void, there’s no chance to conjure any spell with the mana-absorption and the dispelling working in tandem.” Marissa told her fellow aeromancer.
“I won’t deny that, but as of late, I am more inclined to understand the intricacies of the soul.”
“If you focused on the arcane, you may even become the new High Arcanist. Who knows?” Monica joked from our behind. Clearly wanting to join our sunlight-laden conversation.
“High Arcanist? This lowlife? Don’t make me laugh.” I opened my eyes as I recognized the irritating source of the new voice. “Hello there, how you even dare to corrupt the academy officials with your foul lies?” The child with facial scars talked to me.
Foul lies? Was he drunk? I knew what he was talking about, the report I made against him and his friend. But he dared to say my objectively correct version was a foul lie? Man, people these days didn’t educate their children correctly.
“You might need a small reminder of your position.” The idiotic pyromancer spat nonsense from his mouth.
Oh crap, here we go again.
I couldn’t believe what my pointy ears were hearing. This meathead noble wanted another beating. Not only I had already denounced him to the academy staff, but he was stupid enough to say so when he was alone, and I was with three other friends.
What was going through his empty head? Marissa didn’t even have to try to beat him, and now he wanted to go one versus four of us?
“Why are you ignoring me, trash?” The pyromancer exclaimed in rage.
“I have a name, you know?” I couldn’t care any less about him. Just in case I had a Mana Void prepared, so any attack he was going to throw at us would be nullified.
“As I did care.” Were you dropped as a child? “I challenge your ungrateful being to a duel. Be honored to face me.” Totally confirmed, this guy was delusional.
“I refuse.” I told with a sigh.
Everyone present, except Marissa, were shocked by my response, the noble included. Monica’s face was tainted with a glimpse of fear, while Adrian’s expression was mixed with doubt.
“You don’t seem to understand, you are in no position to refuse my petition.” I could see a vein throbbing in his temple. He really had anger management issues. “Though I can understand that you may be scarred to have me as an opponent, I would accept an apology—“
“You are the one who doesn’t understand.” I stood up slowly and looked him right in the eye. I used my ‘adult’ tone that I uncommonly put up when Marissa misbehaved. “I’m not fighting you because of fear, I’m choosing not to do so to protect you.”
“Protect me? Uncultured swine.” He scoffed at my words. “You should be trembling against my might. A six-star arcanist has nothing against me.”
Oh, oh! I now understood. This mongoloid thought that he only lost because Marissa was there to protect me. From his point of view, I was a simple arcanist who wasted all his mana on a Mana Void as I didn’t spellcast anything else during the fight besides that ‘arcane wind’ I managed to produce. And then he didn’t even see it as he fell unconscious.
I didn’t know if to feel compassion or disbelief for such a short-minded person.
“Are you sure about that, you can still back down,” I told him. “I will accept your ‘duel’, but with the condition that I am not responsible for any damage caused to your person on the event.”
I implicitly told him that I was going to break his legs if he accepted. I waited for his answer.
“Likewise.” He spoke with a wide smug. “I accept those terms by the clause that you are also under them.”
The spoiled noble at least took profit on my wording to ensure that he would be unpunished in the unlikely case that he won the duel. He may be a moron, but he had some intellect underneath, deep, deep underneath.
“So, when do we duel?” I asked him, ready to jump to his throat.
“Not now, uncivilized creature.” Creature did somehow hurt more than trash and lowlife. “The fourth day of the week in the afternoon at the training grounds seems like the perfect place and time.”
The pyromancer’s grin was unnaturally big, almost diabolical in aspect. This child was an open book like no other.
“I’ll be there then. Don’t run away tomorrow, though.” I also grinned.
The noble was seething in rage, clearly affected after I had stolen the phrase he was going to say. He was so obvious that it was easy to predict what he was doing to do next.
“Whatever.” He turned his back to us and went away with a scoff.
Only when the little sociopath had disappeared from our sight did the conversation start.
“Man, that dude is nuts.” Adrian told, not affected by my bold interaction against the nobility. In a way, I felt he actually supported it.
“Edrie, do you know what you just have done?” Monica asked with exasperation.
“Of course, I do,” I replied to her. “I’ve just sentenced him to death without having to bear consequences.”
“It’s a trap, Edrie!” Monica expressed zealously.
“Oh, don’t worry about that.” I comforted her. “That’s pretty obvious. Still, the conditions are a duel, so there’s so much he can do to cheat. Maybe he can use a champion, but he explicitly said ‘face me’. So, I don’t know. Perhaps he will boost himself with magical artifacts.” I started considering every scenario where he could cheat.
“You should have just punched him in the face.” Marissa spoke her true emotions.
“And that, Marissa, is why I do the talking,” I told her. “Because you talk with your body instead of your mind.” She was ready to charge him a ‘Marissa’s special’ if he made any funny movements.
“I do not!” She shouted unnecessarily.
“Of course,” I replied with a smug. I could see herself trying to hold her punch, so my statement wouldn’t be true. With that, she only had proven it more correct.
“What are ya’ planning for the duel?” Adrian asked me, ignoring the irascible Marissa.
“I still have three days of preparation, so I suppose I will practice.” I answered honestly.
“You should prepare so you can be at common groun— “ I interrupted the talking Monica.
“I will practice to humiliate him in the utmost degrading way possible.” I could feel the corners of my lips rising. Oh, how good it felt some evil from time to time. I was already rejoicing myself in my imagination.
“What’s the strategy?” Marissa asked ignoring my act of evilness.
As a matter of fact, I think she was enjoying it. In the end, she was the one who let them run away, the one who had the ultimate call to spare them, and the mentally challenged boy came back for more action. Though Monica was taken aback by my sudden change of humor.
“He’s a pyromancer, an irrational and irascible person.” I began explaining. “A bloodthirsty beast that only wants to eat its prey. Mobility and offense are his main components. He will be focused too much on damaging me to actually defend himself. Besides, based on the confrontation of the other day, I believe his only a seven-star pyromancer.”
“So soul magic is out of the plan.” Marissa said understanding where I was going.
“Exactly. Soul magic is too slow. While I can knock him down with one hit, it won’t be my main weapon.” I stopped to think for a moment. “Marissa, do you think he will fall down for my minefield?”
“He will definitely fall for your minefield.” There was no doubt on her face, it was not a question to her, but a statement.
“Alright, I will keep that in mind,” I replied. “But I won’t use arcane magic either. I want to humiliate him.”
“Oh.” Marissa began crackling as she understood my idea. In the end, she had experienced firsthand what was going to occur to the unsuspecting noble.