“Excuse me?”

It was only a few days after the group of magicians arrived at the Heavenly Star Academy – a grandiose complex built by the Star Pagoda with the help of almost every single lawful sects founding – and the morning of the first official day of the lectures already brought a big surprise for Devios and the others.

“Were… were you not informed about the five exposition duels…? One-on-one, no repeated participants, the person who steps outside of the arena loses?”

A worried-looking female martial artist gulped down her saliva and asked in an uneasy voice.𝑂𝑽𝐿xt.𝗰𝒐𝐌

“I was not. Miss Metavicero!”

The blue-haired young man shook his head to the sides before spotting the pure-white figure and called out to her, raising his hand to get her attention.

“D…! Lord Perserios! I was looking for you!”

Metavicero’s white eyes lighted up for a split second only to become dim as she run up to the shorter man and the female martial artist.

“I didn’t sleep on the part when they informed us about some sort of exposition duels during the briefing, did I?”

As she approached, Devios furrowed his brows and asked her in a bothered voice.

“Of course not! I was just told about those duels myself!”

Metavicero scoffed decisively, waving her hand to dismiss the Devios’s self-doubt and assured him.

“You heard that? Call off that event.”

The blue-haired man nodded ad turned to the timid martial artist.

“I… I can’t…! It was approved by the vice-principal even before mister Bevan took the position of the headmaster!”

The woman gasped and backed off cowering.

“The… the only way for you all to get away from fighting would be if you forfeited from the duels…”

“…”

“…”

She added, seemingly trying to be helpful, but Devios and Metavicero only exchanged grim looks.

“So that’s how you martial artists want to play? Miss Metavicero, let’s go gather the rest.”

Devios scoffed at the woman and turned towards the white-as-snow comrade of his.

“So, the forfeit…?”

“Of course, we will not back down from a challenge, who are you taking the magicians of the kingdom of Bellcephora for?!”

The marital artist fidgetted with unease and asked expectantly, unable to hold back her real feelings towards the people from the land of mana, but that get her an annoying scoff from the blue-haired young man.

“Those shameless bastards… exposition matches… yeah, right. They clearly wanted to take us by surprise so that we would make fools out of ourselves and make it seem like we were scared of the mighty martial artists!”

As the pair of magicians moved away from the woman, Metavicero lowered her head and muttered towards Devios.

“Don’t underestimate their plan. They definitely made this plan knowing that our mana regenerates at a terribly slow rate. They must have accounted for that even if we will fight and win, at least one of us will suffer the mana depletion and embarrass the others in the process.”

“…the audacity…!”

Devios breathed out in annoyance and revealed his own take on the subject of the duels, causing Metavicero to gasp and grab his arm with a tense expression.

“The two of us must participate, that one’s a given, but what about the other three? We have no knowledge about the strength of our opponents, we can face literally everyone with the random mixture of twelve different laws.”

While on their way to the dormitory section, the white-as-snow young woman said her thoughts out loud without letting go of Devios’s arm.

“Reo said that he has a lot of artifacts if we want to preserve our mana, remember? Still, wind enchantments are amongst the weakest, especially his, so he might not want to participate, as for the rest… I’ve heard that Noex participated in the knight’s training for almost the whole duration. I have no idea whether he completed it, but even an attempt suggests that he has some experience with fighting that doesn’t rely fully on mana… as for the fifth one… I have nothing. Let’s ask who behaves the most normally under mana depletion and let them go all out. Maybe there is someone like my brother-in-law who acts with such dignity that they would make the martial artists’ plan to shame us backfire on them.”

The blue-haired man responded with a rough plan.

Less than a quarter of an hour later the magicians from the land of mana were discussing it in more detail.

“…”

Reo was biting his lips, clenching his fists, and staring at his feet in silence while the others were looking at him.

No matter how one looked at it, to their knowledge, the green-haired young man was the best candidate after the physically strong and trained Devios and Metavicero.

Wind enchantments were weak defensively, but the speed that the user gained made them good for dodging and running away – the rest could be potentially resolved with a well-placed wind trap pushing the opponent out of bounds, winning the duel according to the set rules.

“Let’s give him a bit more time to consider. As for the other two…”

Devios said, bringing the attention back to him and looking at one of the earth magicians.

“I had you in mind for the fourth spot, Noex. You do know at least a little bit about fighting without the use of mana, don’t you?”

The blue-haired man asked in a serious voice.

“If you are referring to the knight training, I only tried it out for fun because I’ve heard lord Banemor and even his highness the king had gone through it. Honestly, I’m probably below the average…”

“…”

Noex straightened his back but ended up waving his hand dismissively, causing Devios’s expression to turn even more serious.

“..although if it’s just throwing the opponent out of bounds, I have an idea that should work and as long as the arena is sturdy enough, it should not take too much of my mana. If it works, I would out-mock them.”

The brown-haired boy added hurriedly and even smiled cheekily, making others think that he might be a good pick after all.

“Good enough. As for the fifth one…”