This was getting interesting. The Demon formed a broad grin on his face as he locked eyes with Kristoph. He pushed the man's fist away one more time, just this once while using Air magic as support.

"You know, I didn't plan on using magic during this fight. But since you're using your benefits as a 'Letter', we can't call this unfair, can we?" Eiro asked, and Kristoph immediately froze, "How do you-"

"Exactly, how do I know? Ask yourself that question, bud. Now, which Letter are you? B? Maybe even A?" Eiro just stood there, basically pausing this duel for now as Kristoph looked back at him with a nervous glare, "I don't see how that's any of your business."

"Oh, but it certainly is~... After all, I'll need to face you during my conquest of the organization anyway." The Demon whispered, just loud enough so that Kristoph could hear it. The man in front of Eiro ripped his eyes open wide as he heard these words.

"You... You're the guy causing havoc in the organization? Do you know how many people you've killed?!"

"Ah... Do you mean just within the organization, or in general? Well, either way, the answer is gonna be 'a lot'." Eiro smirked. Kristoph's glare only became sharper. Seemed like he was the rarest sort of member in the organization. The kind that actually cared about others beside himself.

"Why are you doing that? What did the organization ever do to you?" Kristoph asked. Eiro didn't need to think for long to come up with an answer, "Nothing. It's just a bother to have around, and I'd kind of like to be able to meet the people from the overarching organization. Not the one we're a part of, but the one leading that one. You know what I mean?"

"This is knowledge you shouldn't have... How did you..?"

"Easy. I'm pretty smart. Well, either way, let's continue this talk later. For now, sorry for this, but I'll have to win this duel pretty quick. But let's have a nice bout later on again, I'd like to see how strong you really are."

And with that, Eiro carefully slid his foot over the ground and watched as Kristoph shifted his own body to counter-attack the Demon. And then, time stopped momentarily as the man's fist approached Eiro's face. But the Demon himself also had that same card up his sleeve. It was something that Eiro pulled out of his treasury and hid with Bavet's help the moment he realized who Kristoph was.

His own ring that he could use to stop time for himself. The Demon just barely managed to dodge the attack as time proceeded for both of them.

Realizing that this wouldn't end up working if both of them were capable of stopping time, Kristoph built some distance between himself and his opponent. Now, he took on a slightly different stance.

He raised his arms in front of his face as a guard and angled his knees to give him more mobility, before jumping forward at Eiro. This time, he was trying to attack him from below and in close-quarters to reduce the chances for Eiro to deflect his attacks.

Kristoph punched upward at Eiro's chin, and the Demon pushed his own body backward by shifting his weight. With a flat palm, Eiro hit Kristoph's stretched-out right arm while hooking his left foot and lifting it up.

Eiro carefully tried to shift Kristoph's weight over to make him fall. The moment that Kristoph lost balance and tried to recover it by shifting his weight onto mostly one of his legs, Eiro let himself fall while once more hooking Kristoph's leg and pulling forward.

With his momentum, Eiro caught himself and then pushed his own other leg against Kristoph's chest to really make him fall over now. But while Kristoph was falling backward and trying to recover himself by pressing his feet to the ground, Eiro managed to stand up and kick his foot into the back of Kristoph's knees to forcefully angle them.

He then grabbed Kristoph's colar, giving Eiro basically full control over this man's body as it was hovering over the outside of the ring.

During this whole bout, Eiro had been subtly letting himself be pushed back toward the edge of the ring by Kristoph, only to switch positions during their brief conversation in their middle.

Like this, Kristoph was unable to save himself with his hands, as there was no ground currently in his reach.

historical

"Seems like you lost." Eiro said with a broad smirk on his face, feeling ecstatic after this wonderful fight with this man.

Sure, Eiro didn't use all his abilities, but when it came to hand-to-hand combat, Kristoph and Eiro were actually relatively even. Eiro just had a small edge on him there. However, Kristoph also didn't use all of his abilities. He certainly had some other powers beside just the ones given to him by the artificial artifacts.

But for now, Eiro pushed Kristoph down onto the ground. And as he did, Eiro could feel the tag in his treasury softly shift. The letter that was on there before, now slowly turned into the letter 'B'. At the rank they were on, it was logical that one would take over the rank of another person after beating them.

And since this was a duel that both of them agreed to, Eiro officially just became the Letter B. However, this meant that there was one more person that was still stronger than Kristoph in the organization.

Eiro snapped his fingers and with Gondos' help immediately made the platform disappear again. He then walked over to Kristoph and helped him up, "Great job, 'C'." Eiro grinned broadly, and the man in front of him just glared back as he pushed Eiro's hand to the side.

He patted the dust of his shirt as he stood up, and some students came rushing down to where the two of them were standing.

Obviously, they were excited after watching a fight like this. The swift movements of these two men, and the sheer level of expertise and thought that went into every little thing they did. This was something that all of these students were striving for.

It was a lot easier to see in something like hand-to-hand combat rather than a battle with weapons, since it often required a lot more fine control.

The Demon smirked at the man next to him, as someone else walked into the arena. It was an elderly man, who Eiro recognized from the Teacher's lounge. It was one of the Magic Division's teachers.

"I am looking for Eiro, is he here?" He asked in a loud tone, and Eiro turned his head toward him, "That's me. Ah, am I supposed to come watch your lesson next?"

"Indeed so. Sorry if I am pulling him away so suddenly, Kristoph." The man said with a smile on his face, and Kristoph scowled as he looked at Eiro, "Don't mind it, Merlin. I just got my ass handed to me anyway. It's easier to recover from that embarrassment if he's not here."

Meanwhile, Arc was just staring at the Magic instructor that was slowly approaching, "Holy shit, his name is actually Merlin..?"

"Yes, is something wrong with my name?" The mage asked, seemingly having quite high perception himself. Nervously, Arc scratched his cheek and shook his head, "Nope, nothing wrong. It's pretty cool, actually."

Merlin the mage huffed slightly in response and then looked at Eiro again, "Please get dressed and follow me. Or else we will be late for class, and we cannot allow that."

"Sure. Just a second, though, I have to speak to the students for another moment." Eiro explained, and the mage nodded his head, "Very well."

Eiro looked at the students and smiled broadly, "From tomorrow on, I'm going to be taking over mostly practical classes with the first-year students, but I also have a few classes with second and third-year students. That means we'll certainly see each other again. I hope that we'll get along for this next semester."

And with that, Eiro slowly turned around as he waved at the students, locking eyes with Kristoph one more time.

"Sorry for the delay. I'm aware you know who I am already, but I want to formally introduce myself again. I'm Eiro, nice to work with you." The Demon said as he stretched out his hand, and Merlin simply turned around. "I'm Merlin. The pleasure is all mine."

Although that's what he said, the tone of Merlin's voice hinted at him not being particularly excited to work with Eiro. For now, he should wait and see what happens before saying anything about his behaviour.

The Demon took a deep breath and followed Merlin to another part of the campus, where the Magic division could be found, "I will give you a tour later on, for now we must hurry to meet the students. I heard one of them is your... daughter?"

"Yes, she is. You won't have any issues teaching her, don't worry. She's a bright girl who is incredibly excited about anything she does. She has a great affinity for Light and Water magic, although her expertise lays in healing." Eiro explained, and Merlin slightly turned his head toward Eiro, "A Healing Mage, I see? Then is there a reason why she chose so many magical combat classes?"

"Of course. I strictly believe that a healer needs to be able to protect themselves. If it should come to it, in a fight against other people, the first person targeted is the healer. One of the most important roles, while having the weakest combat prowess. It makes sense, right? But if that healer can actually fight back, the whole party has more possibilities for tactics to try."

"Ah, I see. So it is a sense of self-defense, then? Does that mean she is already experienced enough as a healer to afford splitting her attention like that?" Merlin asked, albeit with a slight frown on his face.

Eiro ignored that and snapped his fingers, making Nelli appear, "This is one of my partners, Nelli. She formerly had a contract with my late father. He was a prosthetist, so over the years, he and Nelli gathered a lot of experience in healing magic. So, after I was taught by them and after Nelli made a contract with my after my father's passing, we chose to teach Clementine. We knew she had a talent for healing magic since she was a child, after all."

"Is that so? And to that child, you taught that magic shall be used in such manners?"

"Hm? What manners do you mean?" Eiro asked, and Merlin stopped walking for a moment, "In such reckless, self-destructive manners, of course."