"Miss Reo, please return to your spot."

"Ah! S-sorry...!"

The teacher in charge of the event cleared his throat and addressed the young woman who flinched, and moved back to her side of the arena but not before bowing apologetically towards her opponent one more time.

"...those magicians might not be bad at all..."

"Sure, sure... Rogeris! Pfft...!"

Roger said looking at Reo's back to which one of his sect members nodded at him with a smirk and snorted at how the girl from the land of mana misspelled his name.

"Yooo! You prankster! You had something so amazing in store and you acted as if you would have trouble winning, you! That was amazing!"

Noex was the first person to welcome Reo in, cheering over her victory while tousling he hair as if they were friends for ages.

"It wasn't meant to go this way, it's a good thing that it didn't end up harming anyone."

Reo blushed in response to the prise and fidgetted, lowering her head, not knowing how to respond to the price.

"You know, it was a good thing that she was the first one to fight."

From the side of the welcome, Devios nodded with a soft smile while speaking to Metavicero.

"I can also act thoughtful and motherly."

"..."

The white-as-snow young woman murmured in a sulky voice which made the blue-haired man try to discreetly bite his lips to hold down the wide smile that was forcing its way on his face.

"What is it?!"

"Nothing."

Metavicero noticed that and scoffed grumpily at Devios doing his best, to which he responded immediately with a short shrug and a head shake, flawlessly returning to a serious expression.

"With that, we can go straight to the second duel. Mister Noex from the kingdom of Bellcephora will face the elite member of the Virtuous Maiden sect, miss Christine Lassier!"

"...why does it look like she isn't well-liked even amongst her own group...?"

Noex who barely stopped praising Reo furrowed his brows looking towards the opposite side of the arena. For Roger, his sect members present cheered on him loudly, but with Christine, not only she did not receive the same level of support, some of her sect members straight up looked away as if they didn't want to be associated with her.

"She looked this way and licked her lips as if she saw something tasty... that might be one of the reasons..."

Terez pointed out with an indifferent expression.

"She... she might be excited to test her strength...?"

Noex felt uneasy with the fact and said, trying to justify the behavior...

"Maybe, but she licked her lips looking at me. Ah, and now she winked and did a kissy face at me again. I feel strangely threatened."

"Wait, hold up. What?!"

Terez responded without changing his tone but as he reported he continued to steadily back off and hide behind the shocked Noex's back.

"Noex, you are making it seem like you are stalling. Get out there."

Devios rolled his eyes and give the brown-haired boy a verbal push.

Noex got up to the arena, observing the young woman who seemed to be disliked by her own sect members.

There was nothing in her appearance that would suggest the reason. She was pretty, quite tall with brownish-gold hair that went all the way to her thighs, and seemed like a proper lady with the prudent way she walked...

"Hey... if I win, will you introduce me to that small cutie? This big sister wants loves to teach young boys like him a thing or two about the pleasures of being an adult~"

"!!!"

...but that positive image shattered when Christine opened her mouth and spoke, continuously licking her lips while looking over Noex's shoulders straight at the uneasy Terez, which sent chills of disgust to the back of the young earth magician.

"Yeah, so that's one of the questions answered."

Noex shuddered and breathed out while noticing that one girl from the same sect as Christine straight up covered her face with her hands in shame.

"Hey, you aren't as old as I thought, now that I look at you. How about you give up and then both you and that little friend of yours will go with me to play? Or you can just give him up and I will hook you up with a girl of your liking?"

"...you..."historical

"Begin!"

Christine focused on Noex for a moment and offered with perverted intent written all over her face, making the boy's expression darken just in time for the duel to officially start.

"Law of Virgo! Law of Aries! Law of...!"

*RUMBLE*

Christine used the chance and began activating her star power, but when she was on the third one Noex flicked his hand and the entire arena shook almost nocking the pervert out of balance.

"Eh...? EEHH...?!"

Christine gasped, looking around in confusion as the surface of the arena began to tilt toward her side.

"Did you just ask me to GIVE UP MY FRIEND?!"

Noex roared in fury, raising his hand, and with that motion, the entire arena flipped from horizontal to vertical position with him standing firmly on the side in the air.

"Wait! Wait! Wait! NOOOOOOO! Uhn..."

Christine panicked and tried to cling to the suddenly impossibly steep surface going as far as clawing at the tiles composing it with her fingers – with all her attempts ending up useless and her sliding down onto her butt with a pitiful yelp.

"SAY THAT AGAIN! TELL ME TO GIVE UP MY FRIEND ONE MORE TIME SO I WILL BE ABLE TO BRING THIS WHOLE THING DOWN ON YOUR HEAD WITH CLEAR CONSCIENCE!"

Noex's voice boomed over the entire area while he raised his hand over his head and the arena edge which he stood on was lifted into the air and moved over Christine as he glared down at her.

"HIIIIII! I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY! I WILL NOT APPROACH ANY OF YOU!"

"THE DUEL IS OVER! NOEX WINS!"

The urgent voice in which the teacher ended the duel suggested that he wanted it over before the representative of the Virtuous Maiden sect would embarrass herself and the other marital artists, but unfortunately, he was a split second too late and Christine managed to crawl back at all fours while shouting in panic as she ran away from under the levitating arena.

"Hmph. I will keep you on that word."

Noex scoffed angrily, glaring after the escaping marital artist, and lowered his hand, carefully placing the arena back in its original place.