NOVEL NEXT chapter 40
40 – Duel 1
A duel risking expulsion for academy freshmen and top-ranking seniors from the third year.
Countless people, from academy students to professors, were present at the dueling grounds to witness the duel.
Students formed groups, eagerly waiting for the duel to commence.
Joden Adellian, the student council president, was there with the student council members.
“Mr. President, there’s been communication from the Arshen Kingdom. They want information about Rocky.”
“Ignore it.”
“Sure.”
Perhaps from the direction of the Arshen Kingdom, there might be suspicions that Loki is not someone sent from another country.
Thanks to Loki, the prince of the Arshen Kingdom had become a person who insulted the imperial crown prince overnight.
Now, as a freshman who has just entered the academy, he was about to fight risking expulsion.
From the perspective of the Arshen Kingdom, they would probably think that Loki was sent to sow discord between the kingdom and the empire.
Therefore, the Arshen Kingdom would have investigated Loki.
‘I probably won’t find out anything.’
Even the Adellian Duke had investigated Loki’s past, but the result was that nothing was found.
Johanna Freya, the head of the leading team, sat with the leading students, waiting for the duel to begin.
The special class students naturally gathered to see how Loki would fight.
“I should have been there too.”
Lucas muttered to himself, sitting alone.
Originally, Lucas also wanted to watch the duel with the special class students, but he had a request from Erika, so he sat alone.
[Brother, a little more to the left.]
Lucas adjusted the position of the communication device upon hearing the voice coming from the communication.
[Stop, stop. You’ve gone too far. Just a little to the right.]
“Sigh… Okay.”
[Thank you for your hard work.]
In addition to Erika, there were two more people watching the duel through the communication device.
The emperor and empress were watching the duel alongside Erika.
It was clear that if other students noticed this, it would cause a commotion, so Lucas sat alone.
“Oh? Someone’s here!”
A student entered the arena and shouted upon seeing someone.
[Is that the clown?]
Eureka asked Lucas who had entered.
“No.”
Contrary to Eureka’s expectations, the person who entered the arena was not Rocky.
The first person to appear in the arena was Prince Lofri Alpse of the Kingdom of Arshen.
“Why does he look so angry?”
As Eureka spoke, Lofri entered the arena, striding angrily.
“Probably because of the newspaper the Newspaper Club posted on the bulletin board yesterday.”
The newspaper created by the Newspaper Club had mentioned that Rocky would only swing his sword once while facing Lofri.
“But can the clown really win by just swinging his sword once?”
Lucas thought upon hearing Eureka’s words.
Winning against the top students in the third year with just one swing of the sword?
“Of course, it’s impossible.”
However, Lucas did not say it was impossible.
For some reason, it seemed like Rocky really could win like that.
As time passed and Lofri entered the arena, Rocky did not appear.
“But when is the first-year going to show up?”
“Not looking was obvious; it’s not like you ran away because you were scared, right?”
“Saying it to that extent in the newspapers and running away seems a bit strange.”
“There are things you can’t say with words. If you’re going to be picky, with words alone, I could catch a dragon.”
The students grumbled when Loki didn’t show up.
Among them, there were those who spoke ill of Loki, mostly students from the Arshen Kingdom.
More precisely, they were subordinates of Rofri among the Arshen Kingdom students.
From their perspective, Rofri was absolutely not to be underestimated.
Currently, the Arshen Kingdom had two princes.
It hadn’t been decisively determined yet who would become the king.
However, Rofri, maintaining a top position in the third year at Croa Academy, the continent’s best academy, was closer to the throne.
But losing in a duel with the empire’s crown prince and getting expelled from the academy?
It was easy to predict what the outcome would be.
“Did he really not come because he was scared?”
When a student thought Loki didn’t show up because he was truly scared, he mumbled in a small voice.
“Oh, come on, it can’t be true.”
A voice echoed in the empty air. Everyone turned to the dueling ground where the voice was heard.
Suddenly, smoke appeared in the arena, and Loki made a flashy entrance.
“It seems like I’m a bit late judging by the atmosphere.”
Although he spoke leisurely, it was precarious.
One of the items he had requested from Professor Hydra had just been completed.
“Commendable for not cowering in fear. But even so, you…”
“Excuse me for a moment.”
Interrupting Verrugi, she walked to a place where as many people as possible could see her.
“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome! For all of you who have come to see my stage, I will present the best show today.”
Before stepping onto the stage, she greeted the people who had come to the arena like a theater actor before a duel.
“I’ll be the judge.”
The one who volunteered to be the judge was Professor Gedra, who, even among the professors, was older.
“Begin!”
Professor Gedra announced the start of the duel, and Loki immediately drew his sword.
“What’s that guy doing?”
“No intention to fight?”
The students murmured as they watched Loki run in the opposite direction of where Rofri was, without drawing his sword.
As it was the first incident during the duel, everyone was bewildered.
Regardless of the students’ confusion, Loki went to the end of the arena and took something out of the pocket dimension.
“What’s that?”
“A chair?”
The murmurs grew louder as they saw the chair Loki had taken out of the pocket dimension.
What Loki pulled out was indeed a chair, but it was no ordinary chair from its appearance.
The chair was more splendid than ordinary chairs.
It was much larger than usual.
“Ha!”
Loki leisurely sat on the large chair.
“Aren’t you going to fight?”
Loki, sitting on the chair, flicked his finger at the bewildered Lofri.
Provoked, Lofri rushed towards Loki.
Swoosh. Thud.
But Lofri’s leg got caught in a wire, and a dagger aimed for Lofri’s head flew off.
Clang.
Lofri suddenly parried the flying dagger with a sword.
“Do you think you can defeat me with just this level of skill?”
Lofri shouted at the half-lying Loki on the chair.
“Don’t rush. There’s still a lot to go.”
Loki, still sitting on the chair, threw a dagger at Lofri.
The dagger flew swiftly towards Lofri, but Lofri, calmly, dodged the surprise attack.
Thud.
The dodged dagger cut the wire behind Lofri.
Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh.
As the wire was cut, three daggers attacked Lofri.
Lofri gracefully evaded the flying dagger aimed at her.
“You’re good at dodging. How about trying to dodge this one as well?”
Loki simultaneously threw three daggers.
Anticipating the possibility of the daggers being connected by a thread behind her, Lofri used her sword to deflect the daggers instead of evading.
Clang.
All the daggers bounced away.
“What will you do now?”
Lofri confidently shouted, but everything unfolded just as Loki had expected.
As the deflected daggers collided with each other, they fell to the ground, cutting the thread that was hanging there.
With the thread severed, dozens of concealed daggers scattered in different directions, all converging on Lofri.
“Did Lofri lose?”
“How far did that guy calculate?”
As dozens of daggers flew towards Lofri from various directions, the students thought she was surely defeated.
Ting, ting, ting, ting.
However, all the daggers that headed towards Lofri were blocked as if hitting an invisible barrier and fell to the ground.
A blue-colored barrier appeared around Lofri.
“It’s an artifact.”
“You’ve got a discerning eye. Indeed, it’s an expensive artifact that you can’t obtain no matter how hard you work.”
Lofri spoke to Loki, who had stopped throwing daggers.
“Your tricks are useless in front of me.”
Upon hearing Loki’s words, Loki’s body trembled.
As other students watched, realizing Loki was now without recourse.
“hahahaha!”
Loki burst into maniacal laughter.
In the arena, only the sound of Loki’s laughter echoed.
At first, students, taken aback by Loki’s sudden laughter, trembled in fear as Loki’s crazed laughter continued.
“Shall we see if it really doesn’t work?”
Loki stopped laughing and threw a dagger at Lofri.
“Sorry, but your clumsy moves won’t work anymore!”
Lofri, trusting in her artifact, didn’t dodge the dagger, and it was blocked by a blue barrier.
“This looks a bit different?”
Lofri picked up the fallen dagger and examined it.
“Haven’t you learned not to give away other people’s belongings?”
Snap.
Loki flicked his finger towards Lofri while speaking.
Bzzzzz!
A tremendous light and noise engulfed Lofri.
“aaargh!”
Having taken a flashbang point-blank, Lofri closed her eyes, engulfed in agony.
No matter how much artifact you use, you couldn’t block the light and noise.
At that moment, Loki’s words from the newspaper flashed in Rofri’s mind.
“I’ll swing the sword only once.”
With those words in mind, Rofri swung the sword in any way to prevent Loki from approaching.
As Rofri swung the sword recklessly, he opened his eyes when his vision cleared and checked where Loki was.
Contrary to Rofri’s expectations, Loki was sitting on a chair, chin in hand, staring at him as if watching a clown.
“I’ll kill you!!”
Enraged, Rofri rushed at Loki.
Clack.
As Rofri took a step forward, his foot stepped on something.
Ignoring it in his rage, Rofri lifted his foot.
Boom!
As his foot landed, a mine exploded.