Academy – Jade

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“What? A duel…?”

Doran, momentarily flustered by the sword I drew, quickly regained his composure. Then, seeing that I was the one who had requested the duel, he started laughing.

“Hahahaha!”

Of course, from Doran’s perspective, it was absurd. Even within the Rain Academy, which preached equality, a commoner challenging a noble to a duel was akin to madness.

“You’re challenging me to a duel? Are you crazy?”

Doran looked genuinely concerned that I had lost my mind.

Of course, I was more clear-headed than ever. Moreover, I was trembling with anticipation for what was to come.

‘Finally…’

My first plan for pleasure and the future had begun.

**

Gazing at the tip of the sword before him, Doran couldn’t hide his excitement.

‘To think such an opportunity would arise.’

At first, he was taken aback by Lena’s request for a duel, but upon further reflection, it was the best opportunity he could have hoped for.

Doran, a member of a Count’s family, was a student at Rain Academy in the capital.

People assumed he came here because of poor grades, but in reality, he was sent here because of an incident.

Doran had always disliked the commoners at Rain Academy. So, he started bullying them whenever they crossed his path.

Then, one day, an accident occurred.

“A commoner dares to crawl into Rain Academy? You need to know your place.”

“Keuk, cough…”

“What? Hey, hey, wake up.”

Eventually, he severely injured a commoner who had transferred from Rain Academy.

The incident caused a great uproar, but thanks to his father’s efforts, his punishment was limited to being expelled to Veil Academy.

This was proof that even though the academy outwardly preached equality, the indelible difference in status remained.

Although he was expelled to Veil Academy, he was, in fact, a person of exceptional talent.

Doran was a 5-Star Mage.

A 5-Star Mage.

A level commonly referred to as the ‘beginning of a true mage.’

Up to the 4-Star Mage level, one could only use magic with the aid of a staff. But upon reaching the 5-Star level, one could cast spells without a staff.

He had been hiding his skills here, so he was known to be only at the early stages of a 4-Star.

He could have risen to the top, but he chose to conceal his abilities.

This was due to his father, the Count’s, words.

“Hide your skills as much as possible there. Since you were expelled from Rain Academy, you will be under a lot of scrutiny from others. Hidden skills can be a dagger that can strike them a blow.”

“Yes? With my skills, I could take the top spot and return to Rain Academy…”

“Haha! Do you think Rain Academy will take you back? As long as you have done what you have done, you cannot return to Rain Academy even if you take the top spot.”

In the end, Doran followed his father’s advice and concealed his skills, spending his days at Veil Academy.

Because of this, people thought of his actions as those of a spoiled noble who relied solely on his status.

But he was confident that he would not lose to anyone here.

The fact that Lena had challenged him was not a simple sparring match, but a ‘duel’ bound by contract.

Of course, he could use his status to obtain her through dishonest means.

It wasn’t that he hadn’t considered it, but…

‘If I get caught using my power again to commit something close to a crime…’

If news of him reached his father’s ears, his life might be over.

Therefore, a duel was an opportunity to legally obtain her, as long as he won.

Doran, who had been hiding his skills, occasionally wished for commoners who didn’t know their place to come at him.

He could show them hell.

‘But to think Lena would fall into this trap…’

He suppressed the urge to cheer immediately.

“Well, a duel sounds good. But challenging a noble like me to a duel… You know the price if you lose, right?”

Lena instead pushed the sword closer and said,

“What I want is for you to leave the academy if you lose the duel.”

Doran stepped back slightly at the sword that came close to his chest.

“Whoa, calm down. If I lose the duel, I’ll leave Veil Academy. Okay, I accept.”

“Instead, if you lose… you’ll be my ‘slave’ for a week.”

“!”

“I’m not saying you’ll be a slave for life. How about just ‘one week’?”

Jade, who had been lying down, shouted in surprise.

“What kind of ridiculous condition is that! Lena, you can’t have a duel with such conditions. I don’t want you risking yourself for the likes of me…”

Lena approached Jade and reassured her that it was okay.

“Hey, you’re not going to back out now after requesting a duel first, are you?”

Doran said, mocking the two of them.

“No, that won’t happen. I’ll accept your condition. But if you lose, you’ll sincerely apologize to Jade and leave the city of Veil completely. And don’t even think about retaliating against us.”

Lena said, putting the sword she had drawn back into its sheath.

“Okay, I’ll do everything you want. Then, the duel will be tomorrow in the training ground’s sparring arena, one-on-one. How about banning the use of tools like Scrolls? I’m being considerate of you as a noble.”

“I don’t know what you’re so confident about… Just make sure you come to the training ground tomorrow.”

Lena glared at Doran for a moment before supporting Jade and leaving the garden.

‘You’re so high and mighty now, but if you lose to me tomorrow… Lena, what kind of expression will you make?’

It was true that Lena had outstanding skills.

From what he heard, she was a 4-Star swordsman nearing the 5-Star level. She was an incredible talent among the students at Veil Academy.

But that was only here. When compared to the students at Rain Academy, her talent was merely average.

To him, who had already reached the level of a skilled 5-Star Mage, she would surely be an easy opponent.

“Hehe…”

Doran let out a sinister laugh as he imagined what would happen tomorrow.

**

Jade and Lena, who had left the garden, sat on a nearby bench.

Jade apologized to Lena with a tearful voice.

“Hic. I’m really sorry. Because of me, you had such a ridiculous duel…”

‘Lena is doing something reckless for me…’

Jade didn’t have the face to look at Lena.

“There you go again. I’m the one who should be sorry to you. I didn’t even notice Doran was bullying you. I know how much you’ve been holding back. But trust me and wait this time. You know my skills, right?”

Jade calmed down a little at Lena’s confident words.

He suppressed his fearful feelings about Doran and thought.

Objectively speaking, there was no way that she, who was at the top and always worked hard, would lose to Doran, who was just running wild with his status.

“…Okay. I’ll trust you.”

Suddenly, Jade remembered Doran’s confident attitude from earlier.

He felt a sense of déjà vu in Doran’s confidence.

‘Why is he so confident when Lena is clearly stronger…’

But soon he thought it was just a worry and shook off his concerns.

‘No, it must be unfounded confidence. Let’s trust Lena.’

**

“Lena!”

Annie, as if she had heard the news, came running towards me in a hurry on the way back to the dormitory.

“Is that rumor true? That you’re dueling Doran…”

“That’s right.”

Annie started to get angry at the news that the rumor she had thought was impossible was true.

“Why did you bet on a duel! Of course, I don’t like Doran either… but that guy is from a prestigious noble family!”

She looked at me with eyes that couldn’t understand.

“Jade was being assaulted by Doran. For quite a while.”

“Re, really? How could he do such a thing…”

But as soon as I told her that Jade was being bullied, her expression hardened.

Annie was silent for a moment, breathing heavily as if she was angry. Soon, she clenched her fists tightly and said to me.

“Now that it’s come to this, you have to make Doran look bad! But I heard that if you lose, it’s a slave contract… are you okay with that?”

“I know it’s dangerous. But Doran wouldn’t have accepted the duel if I didn’t agree to that much.”

“The only solution I could think of was a duel with a contract. Even if I told the academy about the facts, it wouldn’t do any good. They’ll turn a blind eye to a Count’s noble bullying a student who’s close to failing.”

It’s true that he’s not the kind of guy who would stop if I just told him to.

And if I, a commoner, used force to stop Doran?

Even if Doran was bullying Jade, the situation would become difficult.

At my words, Annie lowered her head and became depressed.

“Sigh, I’m sorry as a fellow noble. This academy is always just talking about equality.”

She, who had been lowering her head, suddenly grabbed my arm as if she had thought of something.

“This is no time for us to be like this. Let’s go see Jade!”

**

I was dragged to the training room by Annie’s hand.

It’s still the time when the training room is open. If I guessed correctly, Jade would be here…

Swoosh, swoosh—

I could see Jade holding a sword on one side of the training ground.

He was swinging his sword like a madman, like a demon.

“Damn it! Why me!”

“Jade.”

I called Jade softly.

Jade stopped moving at the voice calling him and looked at us.

“Annie and Lena? What brings you here… huh?!”

Annie, who was next to me, ran over and hugged Jade. And she started patting his back slowly.

“I heard it from Lena. That you were being bullied by Doran. It must have been hard, right?”

“Annie, you heard too…”

“You don’t have to feel guilty or anything. You know he’s a bad guy.”

At Annie’s words, Jade started to cry as if the emotions he had been holding back had burst.

“Hic, hicu…”

“It’s okay, that kind of bullying will be over from tomorrow. Because Lena will punish him.”

“…”

I awkwardly lowered the hand I was holding up. I was just about to comfort Jade…

Annie thought of Jade as more important than I thought.

Jade, who had been crying for a while, seemed to have calmed down, and carefully pushed away from Annie’s arms and stood up.

“…Annie, thank you for comforting me.”

Watching the scene, I approached Jade and took out a handkerchief from my pocket. And I slowly wiped the tears from his eyes.

I should lend a hand too.

“You’re crying like a baby… Why didn’t you say anything? When it was so hard.”

Jade’s eyes were about to burst into tears again, as if he was overwhelmed by my words.

“Are you going to cry again? You can cry more.”

This time, I pulled Jade into my arms. And I stroked his head without saying anything.

“Hicu… Thank you so much. Lena, please win tomorrow.”

**

Jade’s face was bright red, as if he thought he had shown us an embarrassing side of himself.

Annie laughed at the sight.

“Hehe, you’re embarrassed. Shall we go eat something delicious?”

I smiled faintly as I watched the two of them bickering and talking.

What Jade liked… was it meat after all?

There’s nothing like delicious food to relieve a depressed mood.

“Jade, you must be hungry, so let’s go eat your favorite meat. Quickly!”

I grabbed Jade, who was standing there blankly, and headed out of the training ground.

As we walked towards the restaurant district together, I kept Annie and Jade’s happy expressions in my mind.

It would be hard to see the two of them like this for a while from tomorrow.