Chapter 35 – Gesundheit

Lynett

I take back what I said before. The public isn’t indifferent.

The moment the teacher supervising the event announced the opening of the advanced classes’ duels, the atmosphere radically changed. Since I didn’t know when exactly it would be my turn, I left the boys to join the participants zone. I am no longer in the stand so I can’t see them, but I definitely can hear them…

I can hear the students yelling, erupting in cheers. I think I can even hear some of them jumping. The only things missing are the ground shaking and the loudspeakers, and there you have it: the stadium atmosphere. I’ve actually never gone to see a game so I’m not sure, but at least, this is definitely what I would expect from it.

The audience wasn’t indifferent. It had just been waiting for the real battles to begin. And now that the novices’ duels were over, the real show was starting.

I don’t feel so good.

I am quite uncomfortable with crowds. Because of my eyes, I’ve learned to tolerate it, but I still really don’t like having all eyes on me. I can handle a little attention. I could have handled the audience from before. But now they all just went crazy, cheering like madmen.

From the participants’ zone, we couldn’t see the fights. We just patiently waited all together for our names to be called. I didn’t know anyone there. The participants were all older than me, all serious, and last but not least, they were all prepared. Because of that, the atmosphere in the waiting room was pretty tense. Combined with the fact that I couldn’t see anything of what was happening outside and with the public’s loud cheering, I was really starting to grow anxious. It’s not like I wasn’t confident in winning, but the atmosphere was just hard to bear.

I think I can understand Vivian now…

So I sat in a corner, buried my head in my arms, and I closed my eyes. Letting myself get swallowed by darkness always had a relaxing feeling for me. It wasn’t so difficult as the others around me were very quiet. Some were meditating, others were stretching, all were silent. If it hadn’t been for the noise outside, I would’ve probably fallen asleep.

And I waited. For quite a while, I think, as I quickly lost track of time. But eventually, I emerged from my stand-by mode as I felt a hand on my shoulder.

“You alright?”

It was an unknown boy. The stranger crouched down to reach my level.

“Are you nervous?” He asked, his eyes looking genuinely worried.

I’ve learned to become wary of strangers approaching me, but that boy didn’t seem to have any ulterior motive.

I shook my head.

“No I’m not,” I responded. “Not anymore.”

“Good, because you’re next,” the stranger told me with a half smile.

Uh… HUH?! Already? No wait, I did wait for quite a while… But my heart is still not ready.

“As I thought, you didn’t hear the teacher coming in, right?” The unknown boy continued. “He announced the next three competitors. Your name was among them.”

Huh? Really?

“You weren’t budging though, so I thought maybe you passed out or something. I hope I didn’t interrupt your mediation.”

“You didn’t. Thank you for warning me.”

I was lucky. I totally didn’t hear anyone coming in. Did I fall asleep after all?

As the stranger helped me up, I felt myself weak in the knees, and it wasn’t because my legs had gone numb. My duel with Aoban now imminent, I was growing anxious again. The unknown boy didn’t miss that as he let out a small giggle.

“So you are nervous after all,” he joked, reading my expression.

“Maybe just a little,” I admitted.

“That’s fine. It’s your first duel, it’s alright to be nervous.”

He was really friendly. I thought that maybe I knew him after all, but after examining his face more carefully, I was sure that I had never seen him before.

“Do you know me?” I asked.

The stranger smiled.

“Well, doesn’t everyone?”

He has a point.

At that moment, the door of the waiting room opened.

“Lynett Maedis Whiteheart?” I heard my name. “You’re up next.”

So it’s time.

I headed to the door as the unknown boy gave me one last smile.

“Good luck!”

◊◊◊◊◊◊

The person waiting for me there was a young girl around Aoban’s age. She was probably a student, but the folder she was holding indicated that she had some kind of responsibility in the event.

“Are you ready?” The young girl asked.

I nodded.

“Good, follow me.”

Complying with her instruction I followed her through the maze of corridors. It didn’t take long for us to reach our destination. From there, I could finally see what was going on outside. The entrance of the battle area gave us a view of the battle currently happening.

“Wait here, it will soon be over,” the young girl ordered before disappearing in the corridors, without even waiting for a reply.

She wasn’t wrong though. The current duel was reaching its end.

It was a clash between swordsmen. I didn’t know much about swordsmanship, but you didn’t have to be an expert to understand that this duel was one-sided. I didn’t see the whole fight, but at this point, the issue was clear. One of the competitors was being overwhelmed by his opponent and although he still held his ground, it was only a matter of time before his defeat. Eventually, as I expected, the boy lost his balance and his challenger used the opportunity to disarm him. In a duel, with the exception of mages as they didn’t have a weapon, being disarmed was as good as losing. The boy knew that.

“I forfeit,” he reluctantly grumbled. But with the sound amplification, it was loud enough for everyone to hear, so a teacher stepped in to announce the end of the fight.

The disappointed boy left the arena, passing just by me, as the audience erupted in cheers. It was at that moment that I realized how many there actually were. There definitely wasn’t as many people in the stands before, so when did they multiply? It’s no wonder they are so loud.

“Next, Lynett Maedis Whiteheart and Aoban Whiteheart!”

Finally hearing my name being called, I stepped into the pit, and everything became silent.

A little surprised at first, I gave a quick glance at the stands. I could see people cheering and yelling, yet, no sound reached my ears. I soon understood that the pit was completely soundproof. Whatever magic they were using to amplify the sounds coming from it, it was also nullifying all noise from the outside. So the audience can hear us, but we can’t hear them. It’s kind of a relief, to be honest. At least, I won’t be distracted by the spectators. I might even forget about them.

Finally reaching the center of the battle zone, I stopped beside the teacher supervising the combat.

Aoban was already there, standing right in front of me. I hadn’t seen him since our dispute, but it felt like it’s been really a while. He wasn’t the same. The atmosphere around him was different. His expression was deadly serious and his eyes were cold. There was not a faint trace of the usual kindness I was used to. Brother has felt like a stranger to me more than once ever since I arrived here, but this time, I was feeling really threatened. His eyes piercing right through me, I never knew how scary and intimidating he could be.

“We are here today to resolve the dispute between Lynett Maedis Whiteheart and Aoban Whiteheart,” the head-teacher loudly announced, following the usual procedure. “Both parties will engage until one is well blooded, disabled, unconscious, or until one of the challengers forfeits and begs pardon.”

Brother did not take his eyes off of me for a second. He was not purposely trying to intimidate me. He was just being his usual self. That’s right, this is the normal Aoban. The kind and gentle Aoban was exclusive to mother and me, but right now, I wasn’t his sister. He was not staring at his beloved Lyni, he was staring at a rival. At that moment, I understood that he was not going to go easy on me.

“Does anyone want to withdraw?” The teacher asked, as he finished listing the rules.

Withdrawing was allowed. As long as the fight hasn’t started yet, a duel could be easily called off by an apology from one of the challengers. But this was entirely up to the challengers to decide. Usually, the one supervising the duel wouldn’t even ask the question as it could easily be interpreted as an insult to one’s honor, so I knew the teacher was asking that for me. I could easily guess his thoughts: I have no chance of winning in his eyes. But I’ll soon enough prove him wrong.

“No,” I replied, as brother did the same.

The teacher let out a small sigh.

“Very well,” he said. “In that case, take position.”

Aoban and I both moved away from each other, so as to let a distance of about fifty meters between us. Normally, it should have been ten meters, but as soon as one of the challengers is a long-ranged fighter, the distance between the competitors increases to fifty meters.

I was still at a disadvantage though. Duels were usually held between people with the same kind of fighting style. A warrior against a rogue. A ranger against a mage. Long-ranged fighters against long-ranged fighters, and close-ranged fighters against close-ranged fighters. As soon as you started mixing the two together, the fight stopped being fair. It might have been different in a real battle situation, but in a duel, there were rules, so no one expected me to win. A duel between a mage and a swordsman was totally unfair.

Mages and swordsmen have always been mortal enemies. They were each other’s greatest weakness. The only thing that made the difference in the clash between a mage and a swordsman was distance. As long as the mage kept a reasonable distance between him and his enemy, then he would have enough time to cast his spells while staying out of range of the swordsman’s attacks. Conversely, if the swordsman managed to close the distance, then the mage was done for, as he wouldn’t be able to cast spells anymore.

In a duel, challengers begin at a definite distance from each other and fight in an enclosed area, so I was at a total disadvantage. Or at least, this is what everyone thought. Distance was not a problem for me. Whether we begin at one meter or fifty meters from each other, it doesn’t change a thing for me. Because I don’t need time to cast a spell. Because I use voiceless incantations. Still, I was not planning on disclosing that fact. I needed to fake chants, so starting at this kind of distance wasn’t so bad.

As brother and I took stance, facing each other, the head-teacher finally announced the beginning of the duel.

“Begin!”

Genius or not, I could easily defeat Aoban in mere seconds if I decided to. But I couldn’t go full power on him and I needed my victory to feel real to the others, so I can’t have him collapse suddenly without a reason. I guess I could torture him until he concedes like Vivian did, but he’s my brother. I don’t want to hurt him. Besides, even if I did, there is no telling that it will work. Lucius did hold out for a long time after all. So I’ve thought about a way to win without harming him and without using high level spells. The only thing I need to do is hold out for long enough that his defeat doesn’t look too unnatural.

I expanded my mana field so as to control the air around Aoban. But as I started to execute my plan, I immediately noticed brother charging at me.

So he intends to finish this fight quickly, huh? Well, it’s fine. I just need to distract him enough to keep him at a distance.

One of my main issues in this duel are the incantations. The audience will definitely be able to hear me so I need to be consistent with them. One attack, one incantation. I need to be able to remember them but at the same time, I can’t have people understand them. I’ve already been seen using magic so I’ll keep ‘Abracadabra’ for fireballs. As for the rest, well… I guess it will be time for my knowledge in foreign languages to shine! But for now…

“Abracadabra!”

I launch a fireball at Aoban in order to slow him down in his course. However, it wasn’t very effective. Brother didn’t decelerate one bit. Unimpressed by my spell, he simply deflected the fireball with his sword. And although it was a wooden sword, his movement was so swift that it didn’t even catch on fire.

Yeah, I expected that much.

“Abracadabra!”

This time, I launched ten consecutive fireballs at him. Coming all at the same time, he had no choice but to halt his course. Although Nomi said defense wasn’t his forte, Aoban had no problem stopping the fireballs. But I didn’t expect them to hit him in the first place. I was only buying some time. Keeping him busy, I kept sending fireballs at him as he kept deflecting them. Brother tolerated it for a while as he probably expected me to run out of mana. A normal person would have, casting spells one after another, but certainly not me.

Eventually, he had enough. Instead of deflecting the fireballs, brother decided it was better to avoid them. With a swift jump to the side, he resumed his course toward me. So I called back my fireballs. Just like homing missiles, the blazing orbs Aoban just evaded changed their course, flying straight to him. Brother didn’t see them coming but he felt the heat increasing in his back. He turned around just before they could hit him. Startled by the unexpected attack at first, he still managed to deflect most of the fireballs. Most, but not all. Unable to avoid or deflect them all, he had no choice but to slash down some of the fireballs. They exploded on impact with his sword, unleashing a lot of heat. Brother was unharmed, but his sword was beginning to show signs of strain. It was a training sword after all. It could handle exchanging a few blows, but it wasn’t designed to resist magic.

Brother clicked his tongue. If his weapon broke, then he would have no other means with which to fight.

Not letting him rest, I sent a couple more fireballs at him. Aoban glared at me. He knew I wouldn’t let him avoid them. But he couldn’t afford to keep deflecting them, or slashing them either, at the risk of wearing out his blade.

“Spirit of the day, wisdom of the night,” he suddenly started chanting. “Sweep my enemies away, out of my sight. 『Vortex』!”

An incantation?

Mana swirled around him as Aoban summoned the wind. His magic wasn’t very strong, but amplifying it with a whirlwind slash of the sword, it was enough to brush to fireballs coming at him away.

It was a bit surprising. I knew brother could do a bit of magic, but I didn’t expect him to use it in the duel.

“Are you done?” He asked dryly.

Oho. He’s not in a good mood.

“Then it’s my turn,” he continued, as he didn’t expect an answer.

Aoban focused. His mana left his body, passing through his sword. He stabbed the ground with his blade. His fierce and blazing eyes were locked on me.

“Earth my mind, earth my body,” he chanted, supplying magic power to his weapon. “Grant me the strength to defeat my enemy. 『Enhancement』.”

Fuck me.

Power overflowed his blade as Aoban used Reinforcement magic to strengthen his sword. Without wasting another second, brother charged, quickly closing the distance between us. I need to keep him away, but I guess fireballs won’t really work anymore, huh? Well, that’s fine. Let’s try something else.

I let my mana flow out of my body, spreading it in the ground under my feet and I extended my arms forward. Now, as for the chant… Let’s go with French for now.

“Les coccinelles sont des coléoptères!”

Aoban frowned upon hearing my weird chant, but I didn’t let him the luxury to stay surprised for too long. I lifted my hands in the air and an earth pillar suddenly rose from the ground. Feeling the earth crumbling underneath him, brother leapt aside, allowing him to evade the attack. I tried to take advantage of the moment and immediately summoned a few more pillars. Aoban, however, saw it coming. Impassible, he swung his blade around him, easily slashing down the living earth and returning it to the ground.

…

Did he just cut earth pillars in half…? With a wooden sword? That Reinforcement magic of his is going to be quite a hassle. Aoban didn’t just harden his blade, he infused mana into it and created several layers of magic defense on top of that, increasing its power. He can pretty much cut down anything now, can’t he?

As I was thinking that, I noticed Aoban coming closer at an alarming pace. Don’t tell me… Did he also enhance his physical abilities? He definitely wasn’t that fast before!

This is not good. The moment he reaches me is the moment when my plan falls apart.

For a moment, I considered debuffing him. However, it would be too obvious. Unlike Lucius, Aoban was constantly moving around, never staying still for a second. A sudden decrease in his stats would be immediately noticeable.

Still, I can’t let him get closer. Not yet. I need to keep him away just a bit more.

“Poudre de perlimpinpin!”

The land growled as this time, I summoned an earth wall. I made sure to make it extra thick and extra long to prevent brother from cutting it down. He will have to go all the way around it if he wants to reach me, allowing me to gain some time. Or at least, this is what I thought. But brother simply forced his way through the wall. I heard his blade whistling in the air and the next thing I saw was my earth wall collapsing, and he appeared, still charging.

Fuck…

“Poudre de perlimpinpin! Poudre de perlimpinpin! Poudre de perlimpinpin! Poudre de perlimpinpin!”

Several earth walls rose from the ground. However, as soon as they had been erect, they immediately collapsed as Aoban mercilessly destroyed them one by one, barely slowing down in his course. He was only a few meters away from me now.

Alright, I’m starting to panic.

“Abracradabra! ¡Metí la pata! 新年快樂! Dov’è il gabinetto per favore! 치과 검진 하러 왔어요! Les coccinelles sont des coléoptères! ゆっくりお願いします! Poudre de perlimpinpin! Abracadabra, abracadabra, abracadabra!”

Yelling out random chants, I casted one spell after one another. But none of them worked. Brother easily blocked the gusts threatening to slice him with his sword. Any earth structure was smashed back into the ground, he struck down any projectile I sent and he easily vanquished the flames racing in his direction by summoning the wind.

What the fuck, Nomi? Didn’t you say it would be easy to lay a hit on him?

This is definitely not going well. Was it too arrogant of me to think I could defeat him with low level magic? Do I really have to cast advanced spells? If I do, I’ll have to kiss my normality goodbye. But if I don’t, then I’m going to lose for sure.

As I was starting to get in a difficult position, I finally saw it: the glimmer of hope.

Aoban’s expression was becoming stern. He was forcing his eyes to stay firm, fighting to keep attention on me as I could finally see the first drops of sweat forming on his face. At last, my magic is starting to work!

Ever since the beginning of the fight, without anyone knowing, I’ve been altering the air around him, slowly removing oxygen. Naturally, brother didn’t immediately feel that. The objective was to make him gradually lose stamina, without it looking too unnatural. No matter how skillful he is, brother is a mortal. Deprived of oxygen, it was only a matter of time before his body started to deteriorate. As for the rest, the fireballs, the earth pillars, the gust of winds… It was only meant to occupy him a bit, accelerating the asphyxiation process by forcing him to exert himself physically. Now that his body was starting to show the first signs of oxygen deprivation, he didn’t feel so threatening anymore. His movements were slowing down and they will continue to do so. Soon, he won’t be able to avoid my attacks. And there I’ll have it: my victory. Without even -seemingly- using a single high level spell. But I need to hold on for a little bit more before landing the finishing move.

On the surface, Aoban remained composed. However, I could see in his eyes that his confidence was slowly wilting away. He couldn’t manage to catch his breath, growing more tired by the second. I, on the other hand, showed no signs of mana exhaustion. Understanding that time wasn’t on his side, he became even more aggressive, trying to finish the fight quickly.

As I I kept him busy with my magic, Aoban stopped trying to avoid the attacks. In a desperate attempt to close the remaining distance between us, he covered his face with his arm and charged, letting himself get hit by one of my fireballs. Startled, I immediately launched another one to dissuade him from coming closer, but once again, he took the blow directly.

So he’s just going to sacrifice his body? Well, in that case, time to flee.

Since I couldn’t hold him away anymore, I turned on my heels and immediately started running, much to Aoban’s annoyance.

“Don’t run away!” He ordered with a curt voice.

“What do you expect me to do? Wait for you?” I shot back. “I’m a mage, of course I’ll run away!”

The pit being an enclosed area, there was not a lot of place for me to run to. But if I can buy some time, even a little, then I’ll gladly run.

Despite my poor endurance, brother had trouble catching up with me. He was exhausted. Besides, I didn’t make things easy for him. I kept summoning earth walls in his path. He could ignore my attacks if he wanted, but he couldn’t ignore the earth walls. Blocking his way, he had no choice but to smash them down, burning away his remaining strength. However, this little cat and mouse game didn’t last for long, as I quickly reached a dead end. With the walls of the arena in front of me and with brother behind me, there was no other way for me to run to. I turned around, erecting one last earth wall.

“Poudre de perlimpinpin!”

Not much to my surprise, the wall soon collapsed, as brother forced his way through.

He appeared like a zombie, rising from the rubble. He was starving for air, breathing heavily and fighting not to succumb to the exhaustion. But the light in his eyes was still there, burning with determination.

“If you want to forfeit, now is the time,” he said, as composedly as he could, trying to avoid betraying his poor state.

I gave him a silent answer.

Aoban frowned, before letting out a long, complaining sigh.

“Fine,” he grumbled in resignation. “You leave me no choice.”

Brother reluctantly readjusted the weakened grip on his sword. He raised his blade, preparing himself to strike me down. However, as his eyes met mine, I saw my reflection in his pupils and I read the hesitation on his face. I took advantage of the moment.

“Let there be light.”

I closed my eyes as a flash of light appeared, shining brighter than the sun. The light seared into Aoban’s eyes. Out of reflex, he tried to cover his face but it was too late. Blinded by the light, brother did not see me approaching. I shoved my palm forward, just in front of his chest.

I will not make the same mistake, brother. I will not hesitate.

“Gesundheit!”

In one word, I released all the mana I had clustered in my hand as a sudden blast of wind gushed out my palm. Aoban was violently thrust aside. As he hit the ground, his first reflex was to grab his chest. Hit right in the solar plexus, he was gasping for air. However, the lack of oxygen around him didn’t help in catching his breath. With him in this state, I had no trouble in stealing his sword. Completely disoriented, brother didn’t even notice that his weapon was no longer in his hand. I raised the blade and placed it on his shoulder, right next to his neck.

It was over.

I returned the air around Aoban to its original state, allowing his breath to return to a slow and rhythmic pattern. His frantic breathing finally calmed down as brother also recovered his sight. It didn’t take long for him to then notice his sword in my hand, the blade kissing his neck.

“I win,” I declared.

I had expected him to be furious. To burst out his indignation. To be in denial. But surprisingly, none of that happened. Aoban stayed rational and calmly analyzed the situation. He silently stared at me for a while, before his eyes fell upon his emptied hand. Eventually, a resigned sigh escaped his nose as he came to the same conclusion as me.

“You do,” he admitted.

The threatening atmosphere around him was all gone. However, the kind and cheerful brother I knew didn’t return just yet.

“The duel is over!” I suddenly heard a voice announcing out loud. “The winner is Lynett Maedis Whiteheart!”

Noticing the head-teacher who had just stepped into the arena, I suddenly remembered my audience. I raised my eyes to the stands. I still couldn’t hear them and from here, I couldn’t properly see their expression either, but I could definitely see the swarm of students fussing. Without a single sound, it was a strange, yet amusing scene.

“I owe you an apology,” brother suddenly spoke up.

I couldn't see his face properly. He was still on the ground, staring at his emptied hand, seemingly dejected.

I sighed.

“And I owe you an explanation,” I responded.

Aoban looked up at me, his brows furrowed and his eyes squinted, as he tried to read my expression. I bet he thought that I was angry at him about last time. I did cry, after all. But I’ve long since moved on to something else. I didn't condemn him for his harsh words. He was trying to protect me, I knew that. And in the spur of the moment, he said things he didn’t really believe. It’s fine, it happens. The only thing I wanted from him is for him to understand that I didn’t need his protection. And for that, I needed to explain the whole situation to him.

A very subtle smirk played across brother’s lips.

“Alright, seems fair.”