Chapter 17: Oh~ This Familiar Routine?
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The next day, at the entrance to the Fis Royal Magic Academy
Lis slowly climbed down from the carriage. It had been some time since he had returned to the academy, so he had dressed a little more formally than usual.
He wore a formal black mage’s robe, an emerald staff in his right hand, and an emerald amulet and Focus Ring neatly fastened upon him.
Welf wore silver-white warrior’s armor. His powerful physique and the golden class insignia on his chest proclaimed to everyone that he was a formidable Gold-ranked warrior.
Today, Welf had volunteered to accompany Lis to the academy. As he put it, Young Master Lis had not returned to school in a long time, so he ought to follow along and help him make an impression.
Lis himself had not thought it necessary. He was not the sort of person who liked to flaunt his status. Still, seeing how enthusiastic Welf was, he had not refused.
Lis had studied at the academy for seven or eight years and was naturally familiar with every corner of it. He led Welf toward the Fifth Magic Workshop.
The academy’s antique bronze gates and mottled dark-green brick walls stood in stark contrast to the surrounding buildings, lending the air itself a sense of history and accumulated years.
It was said that the history of the Fis Royal Magic Academy could be traced back even before the founding of the Kingdom of Fis. It had merely been given a new name by the current royal family.
Anyone who came here had to leave their carriage and enter the academy on foot. Even the king was no exception.
The rule existed because the academy’s headmaster had decreed it so.
That headmaster was the legendary mage who stood at the pinnacle of the entire continent—Flame of Judgment, Fran Stephens.
However, this legendary figure spent most of his time traveling through the Astral Realm, studying the mysteries of magic. In all the years since Lis had enrolled, he had never even heard of the man appearing at the academy.
Indeed, no student of the magic academy had claimed to see him in the past twenty years.
In his previous life, Lis had naturally witnessed legendary powerhouses in action. Every legendary powerhouse was a walking natural disaster. A legendary warrior could shake mountains, to say nothing of legendary mages who commanded transcendent-circle spells and forbidden magic.
For that very reason, legendary powerhouses had an unspoken understanding among themselves: they would not interfere in wars between nations, nor would they slaughter living beings on a massive scale.
The legendary realm was still far, far beyond his reach.
But in this life, blessed with the talent of the Omnipotent, Lis was confident that he could climb toward that legendary realm.
As Lis sank into thought, an inappropriate voice suddenly rang out and interrupted him.
“Well, if it isn’t our esteemed shut-in Viscount Lis Kane. What brings you out of the house today?”
The slightly grating voice piqued Lis’s curiosity, and he looked toward its source.
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What the hell? With that irritating tone and those provocative words, was he about to walk straight into one of those stories where the protagonist humiliates his tormentors?
Off to the side stood five or six people wearing the academy’s mage robes. They appeared to be around Lis’s age and seemed to have just happened to be passing by.
Lis did not answer. Instead, he carefully looked them over. They seemed vaguely familiar, with faintly arrogant expressions on their faces, while their mage robes looked wrinkled and faded.
Seeing the puzzled expression on Lis’s face, the freckled youth who had spoken in that mocking tone could no longer contain himself. He said resentfully, “As expected of a viscount. Nobles really do forget everything. You can’t even remember your own classmates?”
The people around him seemed to share his grievance and stared at Lis with hostility.
Lis studied them again, rummaging through the memories he had long since thrown into the scrap heap of his mind.
“Oh~ Aren’t you the members of the Mutual Aid Society? What can I do for you?” Lis narrowed his eyes and smiled, looking at them as though they were a troupe of clowns.
He remembered now. They had entered the academy in the same year as him. Though they came from commoner families, their magical talents were decent enough for them to pass the entrance examinations.
After enrolling, they had banded together for mutual support, claiming that nobles had no business coming to the magic academy to snatch resources from them. They had been especially hostile toward Lis and Mora.
The original Lis had been completely absorbed in studying and researching spells and had never paid them any attention. In the past, they had been hostile toward him, but they had never provoked him so openly.
Had they suddenly become different people?
“Oh, I remember now. Did you need something?”
Lis regarded them with a beaming smile, not the least bit angry. Why lose his temper over a bunch of children?
“Uh…”
The freckled youth leading them was named Yoni. He had intended to provoke Lis, enrage him, and then use a wager to achieve his goal. After learning that Lis would be coming to the academy today, he and the others had waited for quite some time along this route he was bound to take.
They had never expected Lis simply not to take the bait.
“If you have nothing else, I’ll be on my way. I still have to go to the Fifth Magic Workshop.”
Seeing them standing there dumbfounded, Lis found the situation rather amusing. They had clearly come looking for him on purpose, so he pretended to prepare to leave.
When Lis turned to go, the others grew anxious. If he went straight to the magic workshop, all the effort they had put in over the past few days would be wasted.
Yoni stepped directly in front of Lis. Abandoning his other lines, he said, “You’re not going anywhere. Today, you must give up your assistant position at the magic workshop. It was supposed to belong to Big Brother Camus.”
Assistant position? Was that why he had been summoned to the Fifth Magic Workshop by letter?
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Lis pondered the matter inwardly, but his expression remained unchanged.
“Oh? And why should I give it up? Let’s hear your reasoning.”
“It was supposed to be Big Brother Camus’s! He’s so talented, and he’s applied so many times, only to be rejected every time. What gives you the right to be chosen?”
“Besides, that position is useless to you. You’ve wasted so many resources and still haven’t improved. You’re nothing but a bottom-tier student,” Yoni said hurriedly.
“Even if I waste it, that’s my business. Why should I hand it over to your Big Brother Camus?”
“I don’t want to waste my breath on you. Do you dare to have a mage’s duel? The wager will be the assistant position.”
Lis looked at the youth staring stubbornly at him with some amusement. As expected of a young mage who had spent his entire life in an ivory tower—how could he be so childish?
“I’m curious. Why do you think I would agree to duel you?”
“You… Don’t you have even the slightest sense of honor as a noble?”
Yoni felt that something was wrong. Why did Lis seem so different from before? In the past, although Lis had been a taciturn person, he had never refused a mage’s duel. He had been obsessed with anything related to magic.
Yet the Lis standing before him seemed like an entirely different person. That look in his eyes, as though he were watching a monkey show, made Yoni deeply uncomfortable.
Lis yawned. “A duel is fine. What are you willing to stake?”
Yoni thought for a moment. “If you win, all of us will avoid you from now on.”
Is he joking?
Lis gave a derisive laugh and turned to leave. Who had the time to waste standing around here with him?
Seeing this, Yoni hurriedly blocked his path. It seemed he had no choice but to bring out that thing.
As long as he could get Lis to agree to the mage’s duel, that was all that mattered. He did not believe he could actually lose to Lis, who had spent enormous amounts of resources yet remained stuck at the Intermediate Bronze Mage level.
Gritting his teeth, Yoni reached into his mage’s robe and pulled out…
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