-23- A Challenge to a Duel
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Dusk soaked the rust-colored metal in a fading gleam, while the distant horizon melted the setting sun into a smear of gold. The moment Rosalind’s little boots touched the cracked pavement, the taxi behind her rose into the air, startling several seabirds pecking through the garbage.
Her gaze soon fell upon the dump beside the town. Discarded arcane devices lay piled into endless mountains, forming a vast mechanical graveyard.
According to the townspeople, many years ago this had been one of the most prosperous areas on Ish Island—and the island’s only port.
But after the construction of the new harbor in the Tower District, as well as Grey Harbor City next door, the port in the Blackwater District gradually declined. It was finally abandoned altogether during the Silent War twenty years ago.
Since this was not her first visit, Rosalind gathered up her skirt and deftly threaded her way through mountain after mountain of metal refuse, quickly locating an open space hidden among the “peaks.”
Hans and Mary were there, just as expected, sitting on a metal panel nearby as though waiting for someone.
“Hi~ Good afternoon, you two~”
“Huh? Rosalind, what are you doing here?” Hans asked in surprise.
“It’s probably because you hung up on Mom just now. She can track you,” Mary said from the side.
Like Rosalind, Hans and Mary were both middle-school students, twelve and eleven years old respectively. Hans was a refined-looking boy with medium-length brown hair, while Mary was a red-haired girl with round glasses. Though she was not as beautiful as Rosalind, she possessed an exceptionally graceful air.
“Aunt Susan was very worried about you two… But why did you suddenly come here without saying a word? I had no idea…” Rosalind asked.
Her expression was calm, but the unspoken meaning was perfectly clear:
Why did you go out to play without inviting me?
“There was… a special reason today. I arranged a fight with someone, so I was afraid you might get dragged into it,” Hans said quietly.
“Arranged a fight?”
“It happened like this,” Mary explained. “My brother and I have several good friends at school. They all come from the Blackwater District to attend Black Tower High School, and we often help one another. One of them is named Tangy. He’s always being bullied by someone in his class named Briel. My brother happened to see it recently and stopped him, but the teacher arrived too quickly, so they never actually fought…”
“Briel was obviously the one at fault. He’s always discriminating against students from the Blackwater District. But his father is an executive at Black Tower Medicine, so none of the teachers are willing to deal with it. Then he challenged my brother to come out and fight this weekend…”
“I see.” Rosalind nodded. The matter was not complicated. It could even be called nothing more than a childish scuffle between middle-school students.
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But viewed from a broader perspective, it could be considered serious. Black Tower High School was located in the Tower District, which, as its name suggested, was an urban district built specifically to serve the employees of Black Tower Medicine. The school was an elite institution of the same nature.
On one side were children from the slums; on the other were the children of executives. Even when the executive’s child was plainly in the wrong, the teachers could do no more than smooth things over. In the end, the dispute had developed into this sort of after-school settlement.
In the teachers’ words, it was a class conflict…
A half-understood insight began to take shape in Rosalind’s mind.
“What about Tangy?” After glancing around, Rosalind suddenly realized that someone else involved in the matter had yet to appear.
“He’s a coward. My brother helped him, but he was too scared to come,” Mary said with a curl of her lips.
“No. Tangy said his parents wouldn’t let him come.” Hans shook his head, determination appearing on his refined face. “I believe he wasn’t lying to me.”
Mary opened her mouth, but said nothing more. In that respect, she could understand Tangy. After all, her own parents worked themselves to the bone so that she and Hans could attend Black Tower High School, enter Black Tower Medicine in the future, make something of themselves, and one day stand atop Black Tower Tower, at the very summit of Ish City.
Tangy’s parents surely thought the same way.
At the same time, for children of their age, such immense expectations could turn into mental pressure. They gradually became timid and hesitant, terrified of causing even the slightest trouble for their parents.
The three of them waited there for a while. About ten minutes later, a contemptuous voice rang out from above and some distance away.
“Heh. You really dared to come, you pauper.”
Rosalind looked up and saw a middle-school-aged boy standing on a floating hoverboard, looking down at them with disdain.
Two thin boys who looked like his lackeys followed behind him, along with a hovering mechanical construct. The construct had only an upper body, and rings of runes glowed and revolved across its cross-section. It appeared to be some kind of intelligent bodyguard.
“Who’s afraid of whom? Don’t forget, my Rune Studies grades are still higher than yours,” Hans said with a cold laugh.
Rune Studies was something ordinary people could only hope to encounter after entering the legendary university stage. It marked the beginning of the path to becoming a mage.
At Black Tower High School, however, things were entirely different. Beginning in their second year, these middle-school students—most of them children of company employees—were given the opportunity to study it. All they needed to do was purchase a discounted Active Rune Set and enroll.
Hans had done exactly that, and Mary would do the same once she reached her second year. The only problem was that Active Rune Sets were astonishingly expensive. Even the cheapest variety cost at least fifty thousand. A single injection could increase one’s magical power by ten points, though the effect grew weaker with each successive dose.
“Rune Studies is one thing, actual combat is another… You know nothing about my fists, pauper.” Standing atop his board, Briel slid down the garbage mountain and lightly jumped to the ground.
His gaze swept over Hans and Mary before finally settling on the unfamiliar blonde girl. He asked coldly, “Who are you? What school do you attend? Did this pauper bring you here to put on a show of support?”
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Briel had never seen such bearing in anyone from the Blackwater District. Every gesture, whether she was sitting or standing, possessed a natural elegance that made him suspicious.
“My name is Rosalind. I’m Hans’s friend.” Rosalind inclined her head slightly. “I won’t interfere in this matter, provided that your conflict doesn’t go too far.”
“What a foul-mouthed woman. How dare you speak so arrogantly? Who do you think you are, acting as though you have the right to interfere in the boss’s business?”
“In a moment, the boss will teach this kid a lesson. Watch closely!”
The two lackeys behind Briel immediately began shouting.
Briel smiled at their jeers, seeming to enjoy the feeling of having others speak on his behalf.
He said nothing more and turned instead to Hans. “What are the rules for a one-on-one fight here?”
“It’s just a fight. What rules do we need?” Hans replied disdainfully. “No tools except for arcane terminals. That’s it.”
“Then let’s add a wager. The loser has to crawl around the school courtyard like a dog and bark in front of everyone. Otherwise, there’s no fun in it. You’re not scared, are you?”
“You think I’m afraid?”
Thus, once the wager had been set and the onlookers had been told to clear away, Hans and Briel were about to begin a tense battle between mages in the open space amid the mountains of garbage.
Rosalind was nervous and concerned as well. Aside from worrying about Hans, however, she was mainly excited because this was the first time she had ever seen a mage other than a teacher take action. For a novice mage who had been studying magic for two years, it would provide an excellent point of reference and help her quickly determine roughly how she measured up against her peers.
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