A Dragon's Curiosity

Weston felt unreconciled. He had it all planned out. First, he planted evidence on the elf’s body, then he gathered an audience and brought the scheme to its final stages.

Notwithstanding the painstaking preparation, his current situation reflected none of that! How was this possible?

With a bored expression, Nisha did not even look straight at him. Reclining on her chair, the elf ignored the cheering classmates and the twinkle of interest in Miss Anet’s eyes. Inspecting her nails and ignoring her challenger, Nisha painted the picture of laziness and relaxation.

On the other side, Weston stewed in his anger, wishing to break apart her flesh, rip out her tendons and drink her blood.

He had given everything he had, all his mana, all his willpower, and every last bit of effort the young noble had in his body. Sweat rolled down his back, and his sight grew blurry as the last vestiges of his mental power evaporated into thin air.

And nothing changed.

Whether intentionally shaming the young man or simply because the elf saw no need to try any harder the red duel stone moved towards his side of the board at an entirely ordinary speed. In a regular match between aspiring mages this might have come about due to an inexperienced student failing to release his power properly, but this was a duel for the [King’s Seat]!

Weston thought he had been in his peak state, not exhausted from previous matches and completely capable of showing the might of a second rank magician. Additionally, he focused his powers through his signet ring; a tool all direct descendants of the Whitehall house owned. This allowed him to focus all of his powers in a single direction. While it did not boost his mana, the effect still should have been somewhat significant.

The young noble dared to think that even a practitioner at the middle of the second rank might not have been his opponent. Through the nourishment of beast meat and tonics since childhood, his body generally held more capacity than others at a similar age.

Still, the merciless red rock had entered his side at a constant speed, never wavering no matter how much energy he poured into the duel.None of the inferior peasants should have been able to overpower him in this class, it was meant to be his stage to show off his prestige. That abnormal elf girl turned everything upside down and ruined his reputation.

Done with the crushing defeat, Nisha graced neither the board nor her opponent with a glance and turned to Miss Anet, who observed their game from close range.

“With this, we are done, right?”

The flat tone, which carried only indifference, instantly enraged Weston.

“You cheated! Esteemed teacher, this cretin cheated! She must have done so! I don’t accept it!”

Driven by rage, the youth grabbed the whole board and violently hurled it across the room against a wall, pointing accusingly at Nisha - who reacted in no way.

The class formerly cheered and celebrated after watching a good show and turned deathly silent while they waited for a reaction from their instructor.

Paying the violent spectacle no heed the petite woman rose from her seat, returning the board with a casual gesture and fixing the set of stones at the same time.

Nisha still stared only at the blue haired instructor, unsure if her expectations were about to be fulfilled. After all, Weston had made no small effort to place evidence on her and still had cards to play left.

“Alright, what else can you present? The elf, no, Nisha, made it more than clear that her mental prowess eclipses yours. And I can assure you that the duel board has not been tampered with, you may pick any other from the shelves and repeat the game. I am positive nothing will change.”

While the spectating students collectively held their breath Miss Anet’s generally very quiet voice resounded clearly, carrying a final judgement. She publicly branded the Whitehall youth as inferior to the girl he faced, giving his pride a slap in the face.

“There is no way that’s the truth! She must have used external help to defeat me, I cannot believe anything else! Let her empty her pockets, there must be a magic tool on her to help her cheat.”

Weston exclaimed, pointing at the dragon again. The person in question turned her head, quietly contemplating whether or not she should go along with his demands. Breaking the finger which rudely aimed at her felt quite attractive as well. In the end, she decided to hold back to not put Miss Anet on the spot later on and decided to cleanly break down everything else of the arrogant youth but his physical form, especially the defiant spirit.

Physically hurting him right now definitely would not compare to the satisfaction from robbing everything Weston holds dear. If the public attention were not on her right now, Nisha might have licked her lips in anticipation.

“Are you calling my competency into question? I have been watching all the time to prevent the use of unduly methods going against the competitive spirit. Even as a noble, do not think you can act presumptuously in my classroom. Either you accept my judgement, or you force my hand. Make your decision wisely.”

Any sane human would have paused at the ice in the teacher’s voice and make a hasty retreat. Unfortunately - or fortunately, from the bystander's perspective - the burning rage clouded Weston’s judgement.

“Who knows if you are not in cahoots with that girl. There must be evidence of her trickery, if you are not afraid to show everyone the truth then let her prove her innocence! If there are magic tools on her, the judgement is clear!”

Having used the same trick previously gave the young man the suggestion that other parties could use the same measures and he already confirmed with his lackey that had succeeded earlier. While the mana gem perhaps lacked in the eyes of Miss Anet to indicate apparent fault on the part of the elf, at least he would regain the honour he lost by being defeated in the duel in front of everyone else. As a bonus, he had the chance to take back all the merit points he lost to Nisha previously, bolstering his thinned pockets. Even with his pedigree, the gold needed to cover his debt had the power to make his face pale while thinking about it.

To put the cherry on top, the teacher acknowledged his noble status already, giving him the leverage to put all the blame on the elf without the fear of repercussions.

On the other side of the restored board, Nisha considered her options. To see Miss Anet show consideration towards a noble made a bitter feeling rise in her gut. For a moment she considered revealing her status as well to even the playing field. Ultimately the dragon decided against it, doing so would lower her on the same level as Weston, a fate she would rather avoid.

Nisha had everything to nail him down already and kept a neutral expression as she made final preparations.

“This is already the second time you are accusing me. If I go along with your demand and show you my belongings, won’t you simply find another reason to condemn me? I think it is rather unstately for a noble such as yourself to bully a young girl like me.

What will it take to satisfy your suspicions? I cannot lose on purpose, this is an institute of learning and improvement. If that has offended you, I beg your pardon.”

The overflowing resentment and anger Weston felt towards Nisha transformed into hate step by step. She insinuated that she had already shown leniency by not losing on purpose and belittling him at the same time. Hatred burning red and hot in his chest, the young noble wanted nothing more than to rip her apart.

“Stop pretending, there is no way you are stronger than me without external help. If you really have nothing to hide, show us what you carry on you to prove you are stronger. I will not make any other accusations if that is the case. But if you have cheated in any way, you have to return the [King’s Seat] and all the points to me!”

Due to his fury, Weston wanted to see a conclusion now and prevent the girl from spouting more nonsense and further smearing his honour.

Perhaps he might have left himself an avenue of retreat if he had a clear head - not that it mattered, the sly dragon had plenty of strategies left to corner Weston.

“That’s great, I can prove my innocence and reconcile with the young sir at the same time. Take a look then.”

Pulling her pockets inside out to show their contents, not even a speck of dust fell out of them. With her [Inner Space] Nisha had long since mastered the sleight of hand to pretend whatever she took out of her pockets came from there instead, leaving her with nothing to carry around.

“See? There’s nothing there … anymore. Are you convinced?”

Even the slower students noticed the elf’s sharp phrasing and gave Weston pitying glances. He had completely lost.

The youth felt each glance like a hot needle poking his face, burning away the remaining honour he had. Now he simply was a clown. With the shock of not finding the mana gem his underling smuggled into Nisha’s pocket, he could not help but stare at the culprit for a second; an action which cast extreme doubts in the minds of all spectators. Weston’s first reaction was not one of protest or contest, rather he looked at one of his lackey’s with doubt and disbelief.

“This is as far as it goes. I will not tolerate any more disturbances during the lesson. Hand in your cards at the end to let me pay out the points and subtract the fee you agreed on. Young man, I can only advise you to give up. You lost and not only once. If you continue to make a clamour, I do not mind revealing all the magic tools in the room and tell everyone when they have been used the last time. Sit. Down. Now.”

Chilled anger froze any remaining struggle in Weston’s body. Apparently, the teacher did not regard his noble status as important and spoke a final verdict in a manner that even overcame his boiling hot anger. With no choice but to grind his teeth and hold the fury inside his body, the young man walked back to his seat and rapidly interrogated the boy he instructed to deposit the evidence on Nisha. He had no more cards to play, and as a member of the young noble generation, he had to acknowledge when he had to retreat. The agony and enmity which he felt towards the elf, however, sank into his bone marrow, setting a long lasting feud against the wretched girl.

Nisha, on the other hand, bowed to their instructor first, a smile playing around her lips. Even though the ruling looked fair on the surface and the blue haired woman had not interfered with their duel much, almost all decision ended up being in the elf’s favour. She did not know why Miss Anet felt partial towards her, but the dragon remembered the consideration and promised herself to remember to pay the teacher back in kind. Nisha already tried a bit, offering five hundred merit points each from her opponent and herself as part of the bet. She had no idea whether instructors had any use for the points though, or if they had an unlimited amount to give out.

Nonetheless, the teacher left an excellent impression on the dragon and proved worthy of her respect.

Reaching her own seat and settling down while the class recovered from the excitement, Alexander gave her a thumbs up while grinning like a madman.

Nisha gave a noncommittal shrug as if to say it was nothing extraordinary, and put a finger to her lips over the scarf as Miss Anet prepared to continue the lesson.

“Remember the lesson of this duel. Never assume you are the strongest in any situation, especially not based on prejudices. Mana does not need to be impressive to be deadly. As part of your assignment during this lesson, learn to feel your environment through your mind, send small ripples of thin mana outwards and see what you can perceive. It’s not a skill on its own, rather a small application of your mind’s ability to understand the real world.

When you are unsure about the strength of an opponent, check first.”

For the stoic and detached instructor, this amount of words counted almost like a speech and made a profound impression on the students. None of them really expected Nisha to win in the second duel after they had heard Weston accuse her of cheating. They still hoped for it, to see a commoner win over a noble and were pleasantly surprised when it turned out like that. Their underestimation and the complete turnaround burned the display into their minds, and all youths took the lesson to heart; immediately sitting down and meditating, some soon giving out small ripples of mana as they had little insights into sensing the world through their mind.

Nisha did not need to practice for long, tracking prey through her mind alone had long since become second nature to her as a beast in the Wilderness and polished to an extreme when she had lost her vision as an elf.

Perhaps not even Miss Anet felt the minute ripples surveying the area around the dragon, despite her much higher cultivation in mana.