After finishing his evening training, Leon headed back to the dorms. He had picked up quite the sweat. More so than usual.

Leon wiped the sweat from his forehead and reached the dorms.

".....Coming from training?"

But at the entrance of the dorms, a purple-haired girl greeted his sights. She seemed to be studying on one of the common room tables.

"What are you doing?"

"Can't you see...?"

Evelyn pointed at the books and notebook on her table.

"I'm studying."

"No, I saw that."

He wasn't blind.

"Then why did you ask?"

".....You don't usually study here."

"Ah, I guess..."

Evelyn brushed her hair behind her ear.

"Did you know Kiera got a B on her score?"

"Hm?"

".....So you don't."

Evelyn laughed.

"She's been bragging about it the entire day."

"Oh."

And...?

What did that have to do with studying here?

"Before the exam, I saw her study here the entire week. I wanted to see if it makes any difference."

"....?"

Leon cocked his head.

Then, moving forward, his eyes paused on her exam paper.

"Ah, wait...!"

Evelyn tried to cover up her score, but it was too late. He had already seen it.

"You also got a B?"

"Uh, yeah..."

Evelyn lowered her head.

"....I tried hard, but this was the best that I got."

Things started to click in Leon's mind.

"And so you wanted to study here because you thought it'd help you?"

"Well, yeah..."

"....."

Leon didn't know how to reply from then.

He had also seen Kiera study here. However, there was a slight problem.

She hadn't been studying by herself.

There was someone else with her.

Leon just wasn't sure whether to bring that up or not.

"I know."

But it didn't seem like he had to.

Evelyn could pretty much tell from the expression he was making.

"...The reason why she got better is because of him, right?"

Evelyn raised her head and their gazes met.

Leon was just about to say something when she stopped him.

"I get it. Not the same person. That much became clear to me after today's ordeal."

Closing her notebook and the books piled up on the table, Evelyn stood up.

"If it were him from the past then he would've taken the challenge and forced you to give up in a way to make himself look good."

"..."

Leon didn't say a thing because she was right.

Had it been the previous Julien, that was exactly what was going to happen.

He was that type of person.

"But he didn't do that. It's obvious to me now that he's changed. To the point where I find myself wanting to ask for his help too."

"....?"

"Not that it matters."

She paused in front of him.

"....I'm now the one that you need to fight during the demonstration."

"Yes."

"I'm going to prepare a lot."

"Me too."

"...I want to win."

Leon remained quiet.

He locked gazes with Evelyn for a few short seconds before finally, she turned away from him and left with her books.

Leon stood in silence for a brief moment while staring at her back.

Evelyn.

She had always been rather competitive.

He had lost count of the number of times she had challenged him in the past. He would always end up losing, but things were different now.

Leon was sure he could beat her.

But that was the problem...

Although she was a good opponent, she wasn't the person that he wanted to fight.

His stupid jokes aside, Leon had caught glimpses of Julien's true strength several times. His instincts also warned him about him.

Not even Aoife gave him such a feeling.

'I want to fight him.'

It turned out. Evelyn wasn't the only one that was competitive.

Leon was pretty competitive himself.

For that reason, coming out of the dorms, he sat by the staircase with his wooden sword. It was currently dark outside, the moon shining on the landscape beneath.

Leon didn't know for how long he sat there, but gradually, a figure appeared.

It was a familiar figure.

"...."

One that eventually stopped not far from where he was.

With sharp features that made it seem as though he was looking down on everyone he cast his gaze upon, Julien's gaze locked onto his.

As usual, his gaze was overbearing and Leon smiled at the thought.

'I really do want to fight him.'

That stupid face of his.

".....That duel you rejected. Want to have it privately?"

He wanted to beat it.

***

'Has this guy lost it.?'

I couldn't for one second understand what was going on. Staring at Leon who stood on the opposite end with a sword in his hand, I felt my face twitch.

"You want to duel with me?"

".Yes."

"Why?"

"Why not?"

Why not?

The hell was this guy thinking? There were over a thousand different reasons why.

For one,

"Because I don't want to?"

Was that a good enough excuse?

"But I want to."

"...."

Seriously?

"You're my knight."

"..And it's my duty to make sure that you're strong enough to deal with potential threats when I can't cover for you."

What bullshit.

"Here."

Leon tossed me a small bracelet. It was rather heavy, and when I looked at him, he started to explain.

"There's a difference between our mana pools. Since that's the case, I'll restrict my mana to be of the same level as yours. Wouldn't that make things fairer?"

Fairer?

Fairer my ass.

The experience difference between the two of us was huge.

Uh, no, wait

Thinking about it, I wasn't exactly inexperienced.

There were a dozen different memories within me. All belonging to different people who walked through different paths.

But even then, they were all strong people who had their fair share of fights.

If I were to include those then

"Why do you want to fight me so badly?"

"Is there a reason why I need a reason to want to fight you?"

"Yes, actually."

Who'd want to fight another person for no reason?

"Fair."

Leon shrugged, playing with the wooden sword in his hand.

"..I just want to see who is stronger between the two of us."

"Is that all?"

"That's all."

"."

I stood in silence while observing his expression. I wanted to see if he was just making a random excuse up, but seeing the graveness in his expression I could tell he wasn't lying.

He really did want to fight me for that simple reason.

And what about me?

Did I want to fight him?

'It isn't as though I don't want to fight him.'

Before, the only reason I rejected the offer was because it would potentially affect my draft stock.

The chances of me losing against Leon were rather high. In fact, I didn't think I could beat him at all.

And yet

That didn't mean I didn't want to fight him.

Truthfully, I also wanted to see the full extent of his powers.

My powers too.

Just how big was the difference between us?

.....With everything that I had experienced, would I be able to fight him properly? Not just with my skills, but with the memories of the people within me?

"Ah, fuck"

Ruffling my hair, I cursed.

"Fine."

Looking around, and I pointed in a certain direction.

"Let's go somewhere else. This isn't the right place for us to fight."

We were right in front of the dorms.

Our fight would wake everyone up. Furthermore, fights between cadets were prohibited unless it was in the training grounds which were currently closed.

".."

As if taken aback by the fact that I had accepted the offer, Leon didn't react immediately. Rather, he looked at me with an incredulous look.

I nudged him with my hand.

"Why are you acting like that? You're the one that wanted to fight me. Let's go. I don't have all day."

I really didn't.

Especially since I still needed to revise for an hour before going to bed.

".Alright."

In the end, Leon snapped out of it and followed me from behind.

Catching up to me, he asked.

"Where are we going to fight?"

"Don't worry about that."

I answered flatly.

"..I know of a good place."

That said, Delilah wouldn't mind me going there, right?

***

Aoife's schedule was rather packed. From her daily training to studying, she had a lot of things that she needed to do.

With that being said, it was usually manageable.

That was before, however.

"The fliers are almost ready."

"..We have already done a survey. There aren't any noticeable competitors. You should be able to win."

"We're done on our side too."

The elections for the student council were just a few months away.

Aoife had been eyeing the position ever since joining the Academy. The position, while not as important as that of the Black Star, was also quite an important one.

Since she couldn't be the Black Star, she hoped she'd at least be able to join the student council and become its president.

That way, she'd be able to influence a lot of the important decisions of the Academy.

There were a lot of things that she was unsatisfied with.

It was for this reason that she was busy.

"Huaaam."

Before she knew it, the night had already come and the Academy grounds were empty.

Holding into a large stack of papers, Aoife was on her way back to the dorms when she heard a voice coming from the distance.

".....That duel you rejected. Want to have it privately?"

Her steps paused.

She felt that the voice was quite familiar.

But just who did it belong to?

"You want to duel with me?"

".Yes."

"Why?"

"Why not?"

Another familiar voice.

'What's going on?'

Curious, Aoife kept her presence hidden and moved forward. It was then that she caught sight of two familiar figures.

It was Julien and Leon.

Why would the two of them...

"..I just want to see who is stronger between the two of us."

Overhearing their conversation, her eyes widened.

'He wants to duel Julien?'

Was he perhaps not satisfied with his rejection before?

Aoife half expected Julien to reject, but contrary to her expectations, Julien actually accepted the offer.

".!"

Baffled, she could only look at him with wide eyes.

He had actually accepted?

But wasn't he the same guy who had rejected him in front of the entire class? Why the sudden change in heart?

Lost in her thoughts, Aoife didn't realize that Leon and Julien had already started to leave.

".."

For a brief moment, Aoife didn't know how to react. Standing behind a tree with a stack of papers in her hands, her eyes traced the backs of the two before shifting towards the papers and then back to the two of them.

".."

This went on for a couple of seconds, until..

"Huu.."

Aoife bit her lips.

Putting the papers on the ground, she followed them from behind.

'I can't miss this. I have to see it.'

Her curiosity had gotten the better of her.