She wasn’t wearing a dress nor the servant attire but clothes more akin to a soldier’s uniform, which was a rather unique choice for someone who only came by to watch but was completely understandable for a tournament participant who wanted the most practical clothes to fight in.

”Ah, I see. Letro’s daughter, right? Remind him about the bet he lost and to never badmouth my father.”

The black-haired boy waved to her while channeling his mana into earth spells and fixing the broken arena with ar more efficiency than before – enough efficiency to make some earth magician straight up envious.

”Father…!”

But even if the young woman saw and heard Zoemi, she completely disregarded him, clinging to the unconscious – barely alive – Letro, being bothersome to the point of the people carrying him had to stop in place because she wouldn’t let them move.

|Oh, hey, look. An idiot.|

She’s in shock – if your father… wait. Alright, I guess you have the right to say that.

Zoemi groaned internally – Ludier’s shadow responded to that, seemingly to call him out, but after realizing that his argument wasn’t valid this time around, he just apologized and went silent.

”Miss. As long as you didn’t figure out a way to heal people with earth magic, I suggest you allow those nice RESPONSIBLE people to carry him to the sickbay – or instead of whining by his side, you will be mourning him.”

The black-haired boy sighed out loud and raised his voice, rolling his eyes at the brown-haired young woman.

”How dare you do something like that to him!”

”…”

His words did cause a reaction – the young woman turned to the black-haired boy and the servants of the Victureo family were able to carry the unconscious, heavily wounded Letro to get him healed up… the surprising part was how she chose to react to the words she heard…

Zoemi was actually taken aback to the point of leaning back and glancing at one of the judges – the gold-haired man who was actually equally shocked as he was.

Zoemi blinked a few times before looking back at the brown-haired young woman and carefully examining her choice of wardrobe.

”…alright… you might not know what a duel is… but if you don’t know about fighting, then why exactly are you sporting a soldier’s uniform…? Is it a new fashion statement…?”

He asked in disbelief.

”Don’t try to play a fool! I am asking how dare you do something like that during a duel! You wanted to kill him, admit it!”

The brown-haired young woman called out, getting red from anger as she pointed at the black-haired boy’s chest in accusation.

The audacity…!

Even Ludier’s shadow gasped in shock, having a hard time believing that a statement like that could pass through the throat of someone related to the man who – also during the same type of duel – stabbed his opponent in the back will full of the malicious intention of killing him.

”Alright – I see now. At first, I had my doubts but with three strikes like that, I am forced to assume that my father is the only decent person with the blood of the Auequas family flowing through him. I did not want that confirmation, but here we are.”

Zoemi had to take a few deep breaths to digest the utter bull** that Letro’s daughter was pushing onto him.

”I am Arreta Auequas, the heiress of the Auequas family, and a banished weakling isn’t related to us in any way!”

The brown-haired young woman, Arreta, called out taking a step forward, proudly raising her head while her body shone with the intense light of the earth enchantments, just as if she was readying herself to attack or preparing to be attacked.

She wants to get you angry enough to start a fight – or rather assault because she didn’t call for a duel.

Lucier’s shadow warned Zoemi from within his mind.

|She needs to work on her insult game then because that was pathetic.|

The black-haired boy scoffed internally in response – and ended up smiling brightly on the outside.

”Exactly! I am happy to hear that after my father utterly humiliated your overconfident father the entire Auequas family, including an heiress like you, lady Auequas, already accepted that nothing connects both parties. That is very appreciated AND is a first step to the road of raising your tarnished reputation from the dirt.”

”!!!!”

The black-haired boy clapped his hands with the same wide smile and nodded at the shocked young woman with approval.

”There is nothing wrong with the honor of the Auequas family!”

Arreta clenched her fists and scoffed.

”Piercing the opponent’s back from point-blank range with a water spear during a duel in a tournament that was demanded to be non-lethal… And you’re acting as if that never happened speaks for itself. Shameless. Untrustworthy. Constantly trying to twist the truth that EVERYONE witnessed with their own eyes… Treacherous. You are also trying to threaten me with your spells even though I had barely finished fighting in a duel – malicious. Should I give more examples?”

Zoemi raised his hand and started counting up on his fingers for a greater visual effect – and with each count, Arreta’s face was becoming redder and redder…

”See? You can’t even deny it. If you want to fight me then do your best in your next duels and you might even get a chance to face me… But for now, we took enough time dilly-dallying in front of an audience that did not show up here to hear discussions. Have a nice day.”

”…?!”

But before she could blow up and speak her mind, undoubtedly spilling some venom and only confirming Zoemi’s valuation of the Auequas family, the black-haired boy simply shrugged his shoulders and turned away from her, getting off of the restored arena

”Stop! How can you explain your current strength?! My grandmother said that you were only a weak darkness magician! Everyone knew that! How can trash like that get this strong without some dirty tricks?!”

Just when Zoemi thought that the show was over because Arreta followed him, it turned out that he was mistaken…

…the brown-haired young woman started calling after him…

Huh? I get why can she be interested, but didn’t that come out of nowhere?

Ludier’s shadow asked in confusion as Zoemi stopped and glared at Arreta from over his shoulder.

|It sounds like she is going along with some sort of script but since I wasn’t playing along she had to skip a few paragraphs… Well, the Auequas family is in close relation with Deriznos, and both the Derizno family and the queen don’t like me. I might be overthinking again, but just like I want to show off to other aristocrats, the queen and Deriznos might want to tarnish my image using the Auequas family. But she isn’t the only person here that can work with a script~!|

The black-haired boy breathed out, barely stopping himself from shaking with anticipation, and turned around, facing the brown-haired young woman, who visibly relaxed once her verbal jabs seem to work out.

”Just admit that you…!”

”I was never a darkness magician, and definitely not weak either.”

Arreta scoffed triumphantly but Zoemi shrugged his shoulders and interrupted her in a silky voice.