Difference in Class

“I heard the eldest son of the Drake family and the second son of the Liard family are going to throw down?”

A man who had hurriedly come from somewhere threw a stone into the hall, which was bustling with a social party in full swing.

At the sudden news, the eyes of those filling the hall were filled with doubt, one by one.

It’s common for people who don’t get along at social parties to have arguments, but it’s rare to see an outright fistfight.

“What? Who’s fighting who?”

“If it’s the eldest son of the Drake family, isn’t he the rumored genius?”

“As if he isn’t the shame of the Liard family, he really picked the wrong opponent to mess with.”

As the rumor spread like wildfire, everyone put aside the stories they were sharing and began to gossip about the two people.

Kyle Liard and Vermillion Drake.

Both are names that the offspring of noble families have heard at least once.

The former is famous in a negative way, and the latter is famous in a positive way, which is a slight difference.

“How did they end up fighting?”

“It’s obvious that the Liard family guy started it with his pettiness. Tsk, his older brother seems like such a generous man. It seems the younger brother didn’t even get half of that.”

“Vermillion isn’t the type to pick fights with others, hmm.”

As a result, by the time the rumor spread, the atmosphere was already set that Kyle was the one who had done wrong first.

“Is Liard-gongja really the type to do such a thing…? He seemed very kind when I met him before.”

“I agree. I wonder if there’s some kind of misunderstanding…”

However, among some of the young ladies, there was a reaction as if that couldn’t be the case.

Most of them were people who had directly witnessed Kyle and Hasel’s sparring match, and women who had exchanged words with Kyle even briefly behind the stage.

Of course, it’s hard to perfectly evaluate a person based on that short conversation, but at least to them, Kyle Liard wasn’t the pathetic and timid guy the rumors made him out to be.

‘Seriously, he’s getting so popular.’

Meanwhile, Sylvia, who had been silently listening to their conversation, pouted as if she didn’t like the situation very much.

People who didn’t know Kyle well and talked about him arbitrarily were enough to make her angry, but conversely, the existence of some young ladies who were full of praise for him wasn’t very welcome either.

It was like her own rare, hidden 맛집/matjib (restaurant) had been revealed to the whole world.

Even though she knew that comparing people to food wasn’t very good, Sylvia had no choice but to describe her current feelings that way.

“By the way, where are they going to throw down?”

“I know, I want to go watch.”

“Stop it. Don’t be a barbarian, watching fights.”

“They say there’s nothing as fun as watching fires and fights. This is a precious experience.”

“That’s true.”

Anyway, as the news that the two were fighting spread like wildfire, people began to express interest in the fight itself, rather than the cause of the fight.

As offspring of noble families, they claim to be refined to some extent, but basically, the people gathered here are young friends in their mid to late teens.

Among them, especially for the men, there’s nothing as fun as watching a fight, so they naturally asked the person who brought the news about the venue for this interesting match.

“From what I can see, they’re doing it in the training hall next door. Anyone interested, follow me!”

In response, the man who brought the rumor opened his mouth with a bitter smile.

In fact, he was a kind of shill who had come to gather spectators at Vermillion’s secret request.

He didn’t have any particular friendship with Vermillion, but he readily accepted this offer because he was somewhat interested in seeing his rumored power.

Moreover, seeing the guy famous as the shame of the Liard family pathetically rolling on the floor would also be a pretty enjoyable experience for him, so that was also worth looking forward to.

“Shall we go? I was getting bored anyway.”

“Let’s go. It’ll be over soon anyway.”

“How many minutes do you think Liard will last? I say 3 minutes!”

“3 minutes is too long. 2 minutes.”

“I don’t think it’ll take even 30 seconds.”

In the end, most of the people filling the hall were swept away by one shill and moved their feet, and the hall quickly became empty.

‘I should go too.’

Sylvia was just going to wish for Kyle to return safely, but seeing them all rushing off, she felt worried for no reason and followed them.

＊＊＊

As soon as Vermillion received Kyle’s proposal, he asked Georg, one of the members of this castle, to rent the training hall.

Following Kyle, who was moving his feet with a nonchalant look, Vermillion glanced at him, a cold smile on his lips.

‘A guy who doesn’t know his place. I’ll expose his ugly true colors.’

Born as the offspring of the Drake family, a 명가/myeongga (prestigious family) that would be second to none in magic, and called one of the most outstanding talents among them, Vermillion had pride in magic.

In addition, he also had a tendency to look down on those who use magic and those who can’t, because he considered magic a privilege and ability that only the chosen can have.

That’s why he was pissed off.

No matter how much he’s the second son of the Liard family, called the Three Swords of the Empire, isn’t he just a 무지렁이/mujireong’i (ignorant bumpkin) born in a collection of idiots who can’t even properly use magic?

For such a 무지렁이/mujireong’i (ignorant bumpkin) to not know his place and openly lie to his face, and even seem to look down on the position of the Magic Tower Master, was no different from scratching his pride.

‘I don’t know where he heard it, but him, a 5th Circle? Even a passing dog would laugh.’

The 5th Circle is generally the realm where one has reached the edge of being extraordinary.

It means that even extraordinary people who have devoted their lives to magic have to live for about 80 years and focus on the study of magic to barely reach that position.

Even Vermillion, who is called the most promising talent in the Drake family, is barely reaching the 4th Circle, but for a 천둥벌거숭이/cheondeongbeolgeosung’i (scatterbrain) who is called the shame of the family and doesn’t even belong to the category of mediocrity to dare to mention the 5th Circle.

Vermillion decided to approach this not as a sparring match, but as a kind of discipline.

He even hired a shill to gather spectators to show this as a kind of example.

“Did it start?”

“It doesn’t seem to have started yet.”

“Hey, move aside! I can’t see.”

‘They’re slowly gathering.’

When he arrived at the training hall and was facing Kyle, Vermillion smiled bitterly when he heard the whispering from one side.

The spectators had finally arrived.

Now, if he thoroughly tramples and crushes the guy in front of him with an overwhelming difference in skill, the gazes of reverence for him will naturally pour out, and conversely, the gazes of censure for that guy will also pour out.

For Vermillion Drake, who always calls himself a winner, that sense of superiority was an unspeakable thing and one of his most enjoyable hobbies.

Although he usually acts like a nice guy, so there are hardly any opportunities to create such a situation, but this time, the other side even provided an excuse, so it was truly his playground.

‘I’ll play with you slowly as a thank you.’

Already erasing the word “defeat” from his mind, he looked at Georg, who was approaching him.

“You both know, right? Although you’re going to use magic, this is clearly a sparring match.”

“Of course. Don’t worry for no reason, Georg.”

“……”

Vermillion nodded nonchalantly at him, who was mentioning precautions as a temporary referee before engaging in a fight under the guise of a sparring match, but invisibly harbored cynicism.

Unlike sparring matches that basically use simple weapons such as wooden swords, there is no way to control the force of magic, so some degree of injury is inevitable during sparring matches.

In other words, as long as you don’t kill them, most things are within the acceptable range.

That was nothing more than a very easy excuse for Vermillion to escape.

‘After all, killing a guy like this would only dirty my precious hands. Is there a need to do that?’

Since his purpose was to give Kyle a humiliating appearance in the first place, he didn’t care about the rules of the sparring match.

Perhaps he recognized his eyes urging him to start quickly.

It was the moment when Georg, who was standing between the two, looked left and right and was about to draw his hand down.

“Wait, Georg. I have a suggestion to make to Drake-gongja before that.”

“Hmm? A suggestion, what is it? Kyle.”

When Kyle, who suddenly intervened, raised his hand and threw out an unexpected remark, the eyes of the two people widened at the same time.

“Drake-gongja, since spectators seem to have gathered, how about making a small bet?”

“A bet, you say?”

This isn’t some kind of money-making game that takes place in an arena, and Vermillion frowned slightly at the unexpected suggestion and asked back.

“Yes, now that I think about it, I should get something in return for showing my skills. Of course, you don’t have to accept if you feel burdened.”

“…Keuk.”

Although it was a polite tone, Vermillion recognized the true meaning contained within and gritted his teeth.

That meant that if he was worried about losing, he didn’t have to make a bet.

Feeling his pride being chipped away by the tone that openly looked down on him, Vermillion took a deep breath, “Ha.”

“We should give that much in return for seeing Liard-gongja’s skills. What do you want?”

“If I win, you just have to answer one question. That’s all.”

“A question…. Alright.”

Since the content was only a fairly light request, Vermillion nodded boldly, feeling that something was찝찝하다/jjipjjip’hada (fishy).

“Then…. Start!”

As if that was the starting signal, Georg’s arm was drawn from top to bottom, and in response, Vermillion immediately drew up magic power and cast Ice Thorns, an ice-type 2nd Circle magic.

Although the Circle was low, the fact that a boy of only fifteen years old cast magic without chanting from the start showed a glimpse of his skill.

Kwadeudeuk.

“Ooh…!”

It was the moment when the magic power that manifested in an instant that the onlookers couldn’t even recognize took the shape of ice like an awl, and exclamations burst out from the mouths of the spectators.

Kwajik-!

“…What!?”

Vermillion gasped as the ice created in the air seemed to lose its power on its own and shattered into fragments, scattering in all directions.

It was by no means that he had failed to cast the magic.

In the first place, Ice Thorns was the magic he had used the most so far, and it was so familiar that he could now cast it even in his sleep.

That meant that the magic had been forcibly canceled due to external intervention.

‘Could it be…!’

At that moment, a shocking hypothesis flashed through Vermillion’s mind.

Cancellation.

In other words, a technique that arbitrarily cancels the magic by stepping on the moment the opponent tries to cast it.

But that is virtually impossible unless there is an overwhelming difference in skill. It’s a technique that is practical only if there is a difference of at least 2 Circles between each other.

“If you don’t come, I’ll go first.”

Kwadeudeuk.

While Vermillion was wide-eyed in shock and couldn’t do anything, Kyle’s nonchalant voice continued, and the same ice awl as before was created above his head.

However, there seemed to be twice as many of them as Vermillion had just created, and they were much larger and thicker.

It was almost like a spear rather than an awl.

Seeing that the level was so different even when using the same magic, Vermillion sensed it.

The person in front of him was a far superior person than him.

But even if he realized it late, there was nothing he could do.