A Dragon's Curiosity

Nisha raised one of her hands from her sword and pondered the agreements for the duel.

“To sum everything up, we will fight a duel to determine our ranking in the class.

The restriction will affect us both to the same degree, we will fight until either of us is incapacitated or hit in a vital spot like the throat or heart.

Lastly, there’s no time limit, while no one is allowed to interfere, correct?”

Duels had an important place in Leandar’s culture, Nisha had heard about some famous encounters between people of different stature, who had differences that could not be solved with normal means or resulted in such heavy loss of face that one of them had to die.

It somewhat interested her to participate in one herself, yet the opponent in front of her made it hard for the dragon to get invested in the entire ordeal.

She had half a mind to just beat him over the head and be done with it, but that did not bode well for her cover as a regular academy student.

Faced with the elf’s question, Tyne Pinewood nodded and agreed with her.

“Indeed. As the witness, it is my duty to uphold the rules. My personal honor is the deposit for the agreement, and it is not an easy duty for duels.

As long as anyone not directly involved as parties tries to intervene, it is my duty to prevent interference at all costs, even lethal force.”

Speaking as such, the [Eternal Warrior] let his gaze wander over Grace Silverwood, before settling back on Kian Ravenstone and Nisha.

“Alright, I’m ready then.”

Picking up her rather hefty wooden sword, the dragon assumed the base posture for the [Imperial Swordplay] across from the noble scion glaring at her.

Despite the brief meetings they had so far, it was incomprehensible to her why he detested her so much and glared with so much animosity.

“You will regret picking a fight with me, the son of a Count. Once I am done with you, everyone here will know exactly why commoners can never hope to overcome their betters.”

Compared to Nisha’s stance, the young man clearly had more experience in handling a sword and shield, he drew the wooden shield close to his body to protect most of his mass, and shifted left and right to find a good angle to attack.

Even then, he still made the impression of a self important clown to the elf.

“Why are you so spiteful against commoners?

Have you ever had a horrible experience with one of the servants working for your house or something along the lines? I just don’t understand why you’re so antagonistic against them.”

It baffled the young woman. Despite enjoying the upbringing and education of a noble lady of the highest noble peerage, her grandfather and other teachers never said anything bad about the common folk.

On the contrary, part of the history lessons included the duties and privileges of their stand, which included the protection of the citizens in exchange for their taxes and service.

It made no sense to the dragon to mistreat those in her charge.

The entitled descendants only made the stark contrast more transparent, and it baffled Nisha to no end.

“Don’t pretend that you know anything! So what if I look down on you or other commoners.

I simply don’t like you and will beat you down for that. Prepare to get hurt!”

Amidst the anger, reproach and disgust in his eyes, the elf also picked up some more nuanced emotions.

Quickly thinking about possible reasons, Nisha had a flash of insight.

He is not even really trying to challenge me by himself, it’s a task he has to fulfill.

Before his cousin Grace challenges me, he’s the cannon fodder that has to feel out my prowess and tire me out at the same time.

Nisha’s intent to fight it out with the young nobleman rapidly withered and fell away like scattered ash.

Instead of a proper fight that would set her blood on fire, this meaningless affair was the result of a hastily arranged plot.

The elf wondered whether there was a way to proceed with the duel and still deny Grace Silverwood the satisfaction of dancing to her tune.

“As long as you are going to acknowledge the results of the duel, do your worst.”

Nisha had some inkling of pity for Kian, part of his identity as a young member of the Ravenstone House meant that he had to serve as the vanguard for his cousin.

From the small bits of information she gathered so far, the dragon surmised that he hailed from the main line of descent, the son of the Count leading the House.

Even then, he had to give way and listen to the orders of another peer his age, who most likely only originated from a side branch of the Silverwood Dukedom.

Otherwise, Grace would not enter the [Royal Academy] and enjoy the best tutors their home had to offer.

Seeing that his adversary loosened her stance and let her sword drop to the side, Kian suspected a ruse from the elf to quickly defeat him and pulled his shield even closer to his body.

Poising the wooden sword like a snake ready to strike, the young man braced himself to deflect the first strike and immediately counter attack with all his might.

Tyne Pinewood examined the scene with mild interest, the entire reason he agreed to emulate the challenge as an official duel came from his intent to combine a harsh lesson for a pair of his overconfident students with an informative discourse for the other two.

He had noticed that Grace gave her cousin some subtle clues and let him spear the charge towards the monstrous elf.

On one side, the [Eternal Warrior] did not bother with some small quarrels between his students. What the two nobles cooked up together to claim the most resources for themselves was bound to amount to nothing in the end.

Their individual growth after an intensive training schedule would result in frequent changes to the ranking anyway.

On the other side, even with his abnormal standard and expectations for those in the first turn at the Academy, the elf Nisha happened to be one of the biggest anomalies he had witnessed so far.

To attend the school, prospective students had to reach the late stages of the first rank when they reached the age for enrollment.

Aaren was an example for the requirement, and he was the biggest genius his town had seen in a long time, hence the youth got the spot to come to the capital with the support of the kingdom.

Kian and Grace took it one step further, they attained the early and middle stage of the second aura rank respectively.

Most likely, the resources supplied by their families played more of a role rather than their natural talent, yet background and luck also played their role in cultivation.

Any other family or organization would find it hard to match the support which the descendant of a Duke received.

Most likely, there were no more other young students than the fingers on Tyne’s hand that cultivated to the middle of the second rank at the start of the first turn.

Despite all that, a student stood out from the crowd and attained even greater heights right from the start.

Tyne Pinewood generally had a good grasp on the strength of others, a vital talent for adventurers who often delve into the [Dungeon].

The elf Nisha defied his expectations several times.

When the [Eternal Warrior] had made his rounds through the different first turn classes, he selected his students through a little trick.

Rather than testing their individual aptitude and mentality, Tyne valued willpower more than the other attributes.

Lucky encounters and natural gifts were useless if those he selected did not have the will to work hard and persevere through difficulties.

Hence, he released a short burst of bloodlust and killing intent accumulated in the depths of the [Dungeon], and checked the reactions of the youths gathered below the podium.

When Tyne observed the classes of Grace and Kian, he had originally acknowledged their perseverance to stand up under his suppression.

Only when he learned of their lineage did the man suspect that they might have equipment to help them withstand his test, but he did not care that much and did not investigate further.

In the last class he visited, he had already largely given up hope to get more students and wondered whether his requirements were too strict, but to Tyne’s surprise, two students did not crumble right away to the ground.

As for Aaren, the young man struggled briefly and showed his willpower by resisting as long as he could.

Tyne approved of him greatly, he did not have an early start to cultivation or a wealthy family behind his back, he relied on his own effort to get into the [Royal Academy].

What had really caught his attention, however, was the enigmatic elf who shrugged off his killing intent without showing outwards signs of being pressured at all.

The girl blinked and observed the falling bodies around her before homing her gaze on Aaren, who half kneeled a close distance away from her.

Only a short period of time had passed since he started the test, not more than a breath or two.

When Tyne wondered what exactly could have allowed the girl to withstand his pressure, she seemingly understood the nature of the test and why the people around her fell down and copied them, pretending to fall on her back as well.

He had wondered why she wanted to divert attention from herself and not get admitted to the special class, but picked her anyway in addition to Aaren.

Later on, Nisha still defied his expectations in the first training unit he held with the four youths.

Tyne Pinewood had gained fame for his [Wind God Bracelet] among high tier adventurers quite early on.

Right after he had obtained the ability by combining his previous [Manifestations] into a single superior version, the [Eternal Warrior] had placed more emphasis on his style as a heavy warrior.

By leveraging his strength directly through the ability against monsters, their team had had a very opportune opening while their target was restrained.

Nevertheless, the ability did not have much more use than his regular [Manifestations] before.

It had taken him several turns to find out the real use of the [Wind God Bracelet]. Rather than forcibly matching strength with likely stronger opponents and immobilizing them both at the same time, his actual combat strength had risen sharply when Tyne discovered a method of application contrary to his original usage.

By speeding himself up in short bursts while slowing down the restricted targets for a tiny fraction simultaneously, the compound effect had far exceeded the simple addition of both actions.

Still, both his mastery of the [Manifestation] and his estimation of others' strength had failed against the elf and he had to readjust the binding twice before the large physical strength that did not match her cultivation.

That very same young woman now walked up to Kian, her leveled gaze causing fear and trepidation to manifest in small shivers in the youths form.

With his assessment of her power being wrong before, Tyne could only tell that Nisha had reached the third aura rank.

He had a tiny suspicion that this accurately reflected her cultivation and strength, instead of a fortunate encounter involving a heavenly herb or a fortuitous encounter that boosted her to this level.

Nonetheless, Tyne Pinewood no longer had the same investigative drive and interest as his younger self and he did not want to pry into her secrets.

He was going to do his job according to the request made to the [Adventurer’s Guild], which only involved teaching the youths to the best of his ability.

Kian stared so hard at the wooden sword in the elf’s hand, ready to block and counter attack, that he did not see the real attack coming at all.

The dragon lost her interest in having a proper duel and playing into the plot laid before her, hence she found a solution that required thinking outside of the box.

With quite some strength behind it, she swept away his feet with a strong kick, sending him sprawling on the ground.

A yelp escaped his lungs as he crashed on top of his training gear, twisting his wrist in the process.

“Take your time to get back on your feet, Kian. This is going to take a while.”