The number of researchers and staff at the academy amounted to a whopping… six members. I was told beforehand that the number of people who could use intermediate or higher grade magic was low in this territory, but I didn't expect it to be that low.

The one showing us around the academy was Yequa, whose primary focus was on animals. More specifically, his mentors were able to create magic that made it possible to tame and domesticate monsters in the wild, and through the introduction of something that the king called "genetics" they were also able to boost the size and food yield of such beasts, which resulted in not only a stable food source but also the introduction of new, stronger species that were used as war beasts on the battlefield. Since his mentors had all retired over a decade ago, Yequa had inherited and continued all that research. Currently, the lack of skilled mages made it hard to experiment with new spells, so he had been hard at work trying to figure out if one could force certain modifications to occur or enhance the effectiveness of existing magic through the use of potions. Unfortunately, his random potion mixtures often ended in explosions of some sort.

"Maybe you could help me out, since you have experience brewing potions."

"I'm not sure I can, though… I've never made potions with the intent of mutating things."

"Well, you'll probably be able to help me reduce the risk of explosions, at least."

"Haha… I'll see what I can do."

We idly chatted as Yequa showed us around the facility. It didn't seem like the researchers in this building collaborated often, since Yequa had no idea what the others were even researching, nor did he know half of his colleagues' names…

In any case, when this magic research academy was first built, the king envisioned it to be a pristine facility for training the world's finest scholars of magic and science, so the entire ground floor was fitted with large lecture halls, labs, and study rooms, while offices, meeting rooms, and lounges were located on the two upper floors. Unfortunately, due to the lack of proper education and magical ability among the general population, this place had always received a depressingly low number of students and researchers. This resulted in a lack of usage of all the facilities here, and the academy was in a relatively poor condition, with cobwebs, cracks, and mold on practically every single wall. On the bright side, all these large rooms were ideal for Yequa to use as storage space or as homes for his tamed beasts.

"Some of these things look exactly like monsters in Kitrod."

"Ah, yes, I suppressed their feral instincts with the taming magic my mentors developed. Those creatures were considered dangerous monsters here long ago, too."

Maybe the fact that large beasts that managed to escape from this land often turned into dangerous monsters in Kitrod had something to do with the effect of the taming magic wearing out.

"Why don't I show you the potions lab next? I'm trying to find a way to make our war beasts be capable of breathing out fire, but so far the only things I've set fire to are the labs…"

"Um… You're not planning on trying out weird concoctions while we're there, are you?"

"Haha… Of course not… That's dangerous! Why would I do that when you're there… haha…"

He kept glancing away as he answered, so I think it's best if I prepare to run away in case something goes wrong…

"Hm? Seems like I entered the wrong room."

"Wrong room?"

There were a lot of racks with potions and strange vials on them, so I assumed that we were in the right place. Even if this is the wrong lab, can't he just make use of the things already here?

"This place is so big that I get myself lost sometimes. Well, if this is the potions storage room, then my office should be right next door. So if I go this way…"

Yeque started mumbling to himself about the rooms in this building and pointed his finger all over the place, as though he was trying to give himself directions. He was in deep thought and wasn't paying attention to anything around him, so I just left him alone and looked around, while the two girls idly chatted.

Judging by the large chalkboard at the end of the room, this place was probably intended to be a large 40 by 30 meter lecture hall in the past. I'm not sure if there were any desks and chairs here originally, but there were now only shelves and racks standing where students would have sat. The potions in this room didn't look like anything out of the ordinary. I picked up a few random bottles and lightly shook them around, but none of the concoctions were unstable. I couldn't help but wonder what kind of crazy mixtures Yequa came up with for there to be so many explosions.

Suddenly, from around the corner, a shadow swiftly moved by. Curious as to what it could have been, I walked over to where the shadow moved towards.

"Eek!"

Ignoring the fact that I might have sounded like a little girl when I shrieked in surprise, there was a giant spider lurking a couple meters away from me. After that disgusting experience where a spider died in my mouth a month ago, I developed a slight fear of spiders, so seeing this giant one made me jump backwards in panic.

Given the limited free space in this room, unfortunately, my backwards jump ended with me hitting one of the potion racks, toppling it over and making me fall with it. Since all the racks and shelves in this place were placed so closely to each other, the rack I fell on started a chain of collisions, where the rack behind it also toppled over, which made the one behind it also fall, and so on.

Before I knew it, the room was completely filled with the banging sounds of the shelves and racks tumbling and the shattering sounds of all the glass bottles and vials hitting the floor. Heck, there were even echoes of such sounds because this storage room was large enough.

"Ah! The potions!"

Yequa pointed towards the wall behind me with a somewhat horrified look on his face. Well, I'd probably be horrified, too, just by looking at that. The pool of mysterious potion liquid on the ground was now bubbling, and small columns of smoke began rising from it. Given the tendency for explosions to occur in this building, it was probably safe to assume that there was going to be another one coming soon.

"Run!"

There wasn't any time to waste, so all of us quickly ran out of the storage room and took cover down the hallway. An explosion took place not long after, blowing off the door of the storage room. Strangely enough, the door of the room next door, which was supposedly Yequa's office, also flew off. I really hope I didn't accidentally destroy anything important in there…

"My… my office! Everything's gone!"

Maybe I was being too hopeful. When we walked over to inspect the damage, all that could be seen were unrecognizable debris and burning stacks of paper on the floor. There was not only a giant hole in the office wall adjacent to the potions storage room, but the explosion was strong enough that there was also a hole on the opposite wall. Luckily, that other neighboring room was completely empty, so there wasn't much damage done to it.

Still, there was the undeniable fact that I just caused everything in Yequa's office to reach an unrecoverable state.

"You! Why did you do this?!"

"Well… It's not like I did this on purpose. A giant spider showed up and scared me…"

"You killed one of my test subjects too?!"

"I… Um…"

I looked to the left, where the potions storage room used to be. It's quite amazing how this building is still standing after such a huge explosion, but back to the issue at hand, there was nothing in that room that retained its original shape. Even the metal racks were in pieces, and there was nothing in there that resembled a giant spider, so I guess that thing was dead now.

"Well?"

"I… might have, I guess."

"…And all my research papers are destroyed, too."

"Um… Is there any way I can make up for this?"

"Yes. You could kill yourself on the spot."

"Isn't there anything else I could do?"

"Well, I'd love to kill you myself right now, but the general's going to cut my funding if I do, so you could voluntarily enslave yourself and recreate my research instead."

"I'm not against magic research, but I have another full-time job already, so I think I'll pass on that."

I couldn't just bluntly say no, so I had to come up with a stupid excuse.

"…"

"Is there nothing else I can do?"

"Fight me."

"What?"

"If you're not going to kill or enslave yourself, then I'll have to force you to do it."

"Eh…"

"And so, duel me. You'll have to obey my requests if you lose."

"But I…"

"It sucks that I'm not allowed to kill you, so I'll just turn you into a cripple, instead."

"Isn't that just as bad?"

If I'm crippled, then I wouldn't be able to do anything on my own for the rest of my life, which is just as bad as having my freedom or life taken away.

"I'm sure the general won't mind, as long as you're alive and your shop assistant can help you with your job."

"Aren't there any peaceful ways to settle this?"

"No. We must duel."

"…"

I took a glance at my traveling companions, but the two of them just shrugged their shoulders. Do I really have no way out of this?

"Don't I have the right to decline the duel challenge?"

So far as I'm aware, settling disputes by fighting required mutual consent, after all. Of course, he could arrange for accidents to happen to me in retaliation, but I live hundreds of kilometers away, so I'm sure I'd be perfectly safe.

"You can, but don't blame me if some giant spiders start nesting around your home next week."

Oh, right, he had a lot of tamed beasts under his control. They're probably docile enough for others to consider them as harmless stray animals if he were to let them run loose, but given their other purpose of being war beasts, they could probably easily shred me to pieces if given the command.

Sigh…

It looks like Yequa really wants to settle this with a duel, and it seems I have no other options…

"Fine, I accept the duel challenge… But shouldn't we agree on the conditions first?"

"If I win, you'll be working to recreate my research in addition to your regular day job. If you win, I'll forgive you for what just happened, but you'll still have to pay for reparations."

"That sounds like I'll be losing something no matter what the end result is."

"Would you rather have giant spiders nest at your home, then?"

"Okay, okay, I get the point. I agree to those terms…"

I suppose having to pay for reparations isn't too bad, since I did have a lot of money stockpiled up, and I didn't know what to spend it on. I needed to somehow win, though. I have no knowledge of how he fights, but I reckon he's at the same disadvantage, since he wouldn't know how I fight, either.

"Follow me to the battleground."

Yequa silently walked through the building's hallways, and the three of us quietly followed.

I expected there to be some sort of training grounds outside of the academy, but it didn't look like this place had such a facility. After we left the research building, Yequa led us into the woods, farther and farther away from the academy.

"Um… You're not taking us to an execution site, are you?"

After all, why else would we be going this deep into the woods?

"No, they told us to keep the training grounds far away from the facility in case we accidentally blasted it with magic…"

"Oh."

If the place can still firmly stand after several indoor explosions, I feel like it can still stand after getting bombarded with magic, though.

Whoever designed this place probably didn't think things through.

"We're almost there."

"What's up with all these plants?"

We were now in a section of the forest where the plants were completely abnormal. The trees were twisted and bent, and there was a significant amount of overgrowth: countless thick, thorny vines and large tree roots had spread all over the place. Had the plants here not maintained their green colors, this place could very easily pass as a haunted or cursed forest.

"One of my… former… colleagues wanted to research magic for creating treants. It didn't work."

So this is probably the result of failed experiments to turn trees into sentient beings. I'm not exactly sure why he had to stress the word "former," though.

"Here's where we'll fight."

"Eh? What's with this terrain change?"

Beyond the twisted greenery was a completely desolate, dry field filled with sand and rocks. Never in my wildest dreams would I expect to see a small desert right next to a lush green forest.

"The overgrowth that my former colleague created aggressively sucked the water and nutrients out of the surrounding area."

"If the plants had that bad of an impact on the surrounding land, why not chop them down?"

"He did try to chop down a tree. It released a deadly poison that killed him."

"Oh…"

Now I know why he emphasized the word "former," although learning about what happened to the poor fellow made me feel a bit concerned. If I accidentally burned one of these bent trees with my fire magic, would they release a deadly poison?

"Well, enough talking. Let's begin the duel."

Then again, this desolate field is ridiculously large, so maybe I won't need to worry about misfiring.