A tall, strict-faced light magician scoffed in annoyance looking at the name cards provided to him before the beginning of the opening duel of the tournament for the hand of the young lady Victureo.

”I am not representing the Auequas family – you can go on and asked them about it too – at least one of them is sitting in the audience right over there.”

The black-haired boy shrugged his shoulders and pointed at the elderly brown-haired woman who he recognized as the teacher from the Aspaekony Academy.

”Youn man, I have been selected by her majesty the queen herself to make sure that everything will go according to rules, and the rules clearly state that there can be only three representatives from each family.”

Still, the strict-faced man merely shook his head and turned away from the boy without paying him any attention.

”And I am not a representative of the Auequas family. You have been selected by the queen and still don’t know who I am? Under which rock did she get you from?”

”…!”

Zoemi leaned back and shook his head mockingly, making the supposed rule-keeper flinch and tens up.

”…”

The red-haired young woman standing next to them looked between the gold-haired man and the black-haired boy, furrowing her brows but staying silent.

”You cannot participate in the fight and that’s that.”

The strict-faced light magician composed ended up declaring, shaking his head, which honestly made Zoemi frown.

|I expected that the queen would try and go for a low blow like that, but, you know… seeing it actually happen is even more annoying than I imagined.|

The black-haired boy thought to himself, and even though this time Ludier’s shadow did not respond, Zoemi could sense that he is agreeing with him on the matter.

”Ladies and gentlemen, it’s unfortunate but there has been a breach in rules already – The first fight will be defaulted as a win to young lady Laerias, as sir Zoemi Aue…”

The man who was supposed to be an impartial referee walked to the center of the arena and called out, making full use of his sonorous voice augmented by the well-constructed amphitheater.

”…huh…?”

As the man spoke, Zoemi was already reaching out to him with his shadow and began draining out his mana to incapacitate him, or at least make him start sounding drunk and ruin his credibility for the event, but the light magician’s eyes went round even before half of his mana reservoir was emptied out…

It was definitely a weird situation for the audience – a man who was supposed to be one of the judges, or rather referees, just started talking about defaulting win for the first fight of the tournament and then he suddenly froze up looking like a frog ran over by a carriage.

It was surprising enough for Zoemi to stop draining the man’s mana too.

”…ladies and gentlemen… the first duel would begin shortly – young lady Cerinaza Vial Laerias representing the Laerias family will face lord Zoemi Benevi Banemor representing the Victureo family…”

The gold-haired man explained while lowering his head before he hurriedly walked off the podium of the arena, with the eyes of basically everyone glued to him.

|Ah! Wait, no way! It was approved?! It must have been approved – that guy must have been contacted by someone from the royal castle! Ludier, you heard? It looks like I’m officially a high noble now~|

Zoemi’s face brightened as he correctly read all the signs and he snickered internally, watching the suddenly mellow man walk by him with his head down low, acting as if he didn’t exist.

Pffft…! Yeah, yeah, congratulations, kid.

This time Ludier’s unique shadow answered, sounding as if he was having fun observing the boy’s reaction.

”Now then – since we were announced, shall we, my lady?”

”…”

Zoemi, riding the high, turned to the red-haired young woman who was going to be his opponent and smiled charmingly offering his hand to her – to which she went wide-eyed and for a second it looked like she was going to take the offer before she regained her senses and shook her head.

”Hmph. As if I was going to touch a darkness magician!”

She scoffed and looked away, moving onto the elevated podium that was the arena prepared for the duels.

”I am not a darkness magician though.”

Zoemi shrugged his shoulders and followed her without being bothered by her behavior.

”The a shadow magician? Little difference.”

”…alright, we are going all out, your choice…”

She responded, glancing at him over her shoulder with a disgusted expression – which in turn made the black-haired boy sigh and shrug his shoulders.

The two of them took the positions at the opposite ends of the arena – which was clearly in favor of the fire attribute users like lady Laerias…

…was probably something that most people in the audience would think not actually knowing who Zoemi was…

The interest in the duel was high – but it mostly had to do with the sudden mention of a long thought extinguished Banemor family name.

”I am giving you a chance before I will barrage you with my fire – unless you want that face of yours to get disfigured by burns!”

The young woman called out and ended up making the boy uncomfortable – the red-haired boy watching from the audience, that being Grazio.

As for Zoemi…

”…”

…he has been completely silent, looking at his opponent with an indifferent look in his eyes, waiting for the judge’s call to begin the duel.

You are not going to respond…?

Ludier’s shadow asked curiously from the depths of Zoemi’s mind.

|Why? That level of trash talk is literally trash, the only person she’s embarrassing is herself.|

The boy scoffed internally still waiting.

”BEGIN!”

And the command was given – but to Zoemi’s surprise, Laerias took on a relaxing stance and didn’t even activate her enchantments properly.

The enchantments of fire magicians were known to be the weakest amongst the attribute users that could use them, but they still were the bare minimum that should be activated if one took the fight seriously.

Not activating them at the beginning of a duel by a person who could do it was straight-up disrespectful towards their opponent.

Even Zoemi already had his shadow enchantments active, even though barely anyone knew that he was capable of using those…

|Ah… right – she isn’t using the enchantments because she thinks that I will then be able to copy them. Not bad.|

Still, Zoemi raised his brow, realizing what was the deal this time, and instead of attacking, he decided to see what the young woman would dish out – maybe she was actually already conjuring a really clever spell that he never even thought about?

”…tsk…”

The red-haired woman rolled her eyes and clicked her tongue at the apparent lack of reaction from the black-haired boy.

”If that’s how you want to make it play out, fine.”

She sighed.

Then she raised her arm and moved her hand around leisurely as if she was warming up her wrist and a small ball of fire appeared in the palm of her hand.

She proceeded to gently lob it so that it fell just a few feet away from Zoemi and sizzled out.