Walking to this arena is not like the experience I had a few days ago. The place where I fought first was a dump, a massive load of crap. It’s the equivalent of a public high school compared to Harvard. But the arena I’m looking at right now is ten times grander than anything Harvard could front.

You have to walk through the entire academy and go out to the back. As I mentioned, the academy is already a massive piece of architecture. But what I didn’t know was that there were also ruins behind it. Apparently, the Nine Towers Academy changed a lot in appearance over the millennia – yeah, it’s that old. So, behind the new Elven Sagrada Familia, there’s a wealth of ruins, half-destroyed towers, and random architectural wonders — as usual, am I right? Stan said that before the current era, the Nine Towers were not meant to be attached to the academy or have a precise disposition. Only much later did it become a custom. Probably at the whim of a whiny [Magical Architect].

There’s a lot of savage vegetation around, signing off the lease of this place at Mother nature’s expense. Plus, the rich energy seems to have evolved these plants so much that even [Mages] have to be careful around them.

My stomach suddenly rumbles.

“Yo, Domi, did you bring some snacks?” I ask the young girl, my [Student].

“I have some rice and meat saved,” Domitilla says.

Suddenly, before I can stop myself, I start humming and whispering one of the silly songs from my childhood.

“With my rice, I like to have some cow, cow, cow…”

“Are you sure you want to go out like this?” she looks at my attire with a hint — well, no, not a hint – she’s massively worried.

“I’m a showman; what can I say?” I give her my signature wink.

It’s her and me. I asked everyone else to give us some time alone before the match. Princess Laura and I have barely spoken since we arrived here, and that made things between us weird as hell. However, I’m good. I’d rather not distract myself right before the match. And I wanted a few words with the young Elf anyway.

“They will kill you,” Domitilla says, distraught.

Even after I made her sign a contract in blood, she doesn’t really understand, does she? I taught her some powerful magic principles, even more than I have taught Lucinda. Much more. But the big difference here is that Domitilla is not talented at all. She understands some parts of my magic, but she’s clumsy as hell. So, even if I basically revealed to her the core foundation of my magic… she has no idea how strong I am. She still cannot gauge how amazing her teacher is. And yeah, I know. I’m so impartial I should be given an award.

“They will try. And if everything goes well, all of this,” I gesture at my clothes, “is just going to create more openings. Angry people don’t fight well. Plus, you know how good of a [Mage] your [Teacher] is, don’t you?”

As I’m eating some of the rice, she suddenly hugs me. This is not the best idea, considering that there’s only one layer of clothing protecting my…

“Ahem, Domitilla,” I cough multiple times before she lets me go.

“My mom will be super angry with me if you die.”

She detaches herself from me but still stares me right in the eyes. She’s frowning, and she’s on the verge of tears, the poor thing.

“I know,” I sigh and laugh at the same time. I put a hand on top of her head as a father would – that’s the one thing I’m not sure she has. “Don’t worry. I’ll try not to kill too many of those idiots.”

She nods at what she thinks she heard before frowning.

“What? Don’t you mean you will try not to die?”

“No, no. I mean, I’ll try not to kill too many idiots. There’s no way they can even hit m—”

Oh, shoot.

Jinxed it.

Here we go; Lady Luck is already rubbing her smooth hands, probably looking forward to my suffering.

Anyway, we finally get in front of the half-destroyed tower we were looking for.

It took an hour on foot, and I can already see a lot of traffic in the distance. Thankfully, there’s a separate entrance for the contestants. That means I can avoid most spectators coming to see if I’ll die.

There are many half-destroyed towers, but this one is definitely the most preserved. Based on what Stan said, even when it was an actual tower, the [Battle Archmagus] who lorded over it had it built in the form of a giant arena. Said character was convinced that [Mages] needed not to study, just a lot of experience. And hell, he was pretty powerful from what I gather. Also, that’s a very cool concept.

It looks like the Tower of Pisa meets the Colosseum. It’s a thing of legends, but with the upper half blown off by something that I don’t want anything to do with. Sometimes, ignorance is bliss. Only something of cataclysmic proportions could have destroyed such a colossus. It’s a behemoth of white stone, partially invaded by the otherworldly greenery surrounding all the ruins. Nature is slowly claiming its territory back, daring to go even into the once-houses of the greatest [Archmages].

While the towers are hunched, destroyed, and sad, nature is still going at it. The green is as green as it gets. Joyful, it plays among ruins like children in a park. The fallen arches are its slides, and the caved roofs are its playhouses.

But while nature is strong and powerful, always with the upper hand on every other creature, I’m simply uncaring. I heard it all while coming here: people telling me they would assassinate my ass on the way, my companions saying I should forfeit. Even Stanimal, the once King Tiberius, is worried that I might have offended one too many bastards. But one person was just happy.

Really happy.

Arrogance is bred from ignorance, Joey Luciani. And the Vanedenis are not arrogant. They are just ready to die at a moment’s call. They bid their lives against everything else, believing that they would win. That’s the kind of faith that can make people into [Heroes]. Remember that, child, you’ll need it in the future.

Lord Juler approves of this weird hate they have for me after I killed a murderer. Or murdered a killer. I still believe it was in cold blood. Whatever, Lord Juler is convinced that this will be my baptism with fire.

But what’s important now is how we will play this new level, this new scenario of ours. People expect to see a feverish Human with his tail between his legs. The entire citadel has been talking about me disrespecting [Archmage] Marcus. And that painted a target on my back – or that’s what they brought themselves to believe.

As I see it, there is just a swarm of targets all around me.