"Are you really sure about this?" Amelia asked one last time.
I was in the midst of getting ready for the fight. I wore plain black clothes, and for my weapon, I asked to borrow a dagger from the Lix Estate.
It wasn't the best, but it was definitely better than nothing.
──────── 『 Training Dagger 』────────
◆ E-Rank: It is quite mediocre and is only supposed to be used during training. The blade is mainly dull apart from the very tip.
────────────────────────────────
'It should be good enough for Oliver, even if he uses some strange skill.'
I wasn't too worried about the fight; I knew just how much more powerful I was compared to Oliver. However, this definitely wasn't a fight to my advantage.
My fighting style was not optimized for a one-on-one battle. For all my life, I had mainly trained in assassination methods, which I wouldn't be able to use today for the most part.
'Still, if they offered that deal, they must have been sure that they would win against me.'
Nevertheless, as much as I could worry about what they might have planned, it wouldn't change anything down the line.
"Let's go, they're probably already waiting for us."
***
"I think he might have left the Estate! He must have regretted picking a fight against me!" Oliver screamed for everyone to hear as the members of the Lix Family continued to cheer him on. "Oh no... he's actually here!"
I could only shake my head at the shamelessness of this man.
Honestly, I really wanted to punch that smiling face right in the jaw, knocking him out cold.
Still, I glanced out at the small crowd that had gathered.
From the looks of it, only the most important members of the Lix Family had gathered: the elders, those who had direct connections with the patriarch, and more. However, they all had one thing in common: they had red hair.
The Lix Patriarch was also present, most likely curious to see how I would fare against his own son.
'Oliver must have organized this to prove himself to his father, while Edward's goals... I'm not sure.'
Out of the two brothers, Edward was definitely the smarter one. He didn't act on impulse, and he always seemed to have some kind of plan in mind.
"Can't we fight already?" I said, interrupting the little show he had put on.
"You must really want to get beaten up, huh?"
I shrugged.
"I'll make you wish you had never been born, lowly commoner."
'Once I'm done here, I will have repaid my debt to Amelia.'
Before coming here, I thought that I would have wanted to push everyone away after accomplishing what I had come here for. However, now that I had gotten the Patriarch's recommendation to join the Royal Academy and repaid Amelia... I wasn't so sure anymore.
"The rules are simple," a neutral party said as they appeared before us all. "To win, the opponent must either lose consciousness or give up of their own will. No killing from either side will be accepted."
'Mhm... I doubt anything would happen to Oliver if he ever tried to kill me, though.'
The Lix Family was powerful enough to make insignificant news like this disappear.
Nevertheless, it wasn't like I was planning to die.
"Are you both ready?" the man asked.
We both nodded, standing about five meters from one another.
"Then... in 3, 2, 1, fight!"
Right as he finished the countdown, the individual disappeared from our sight as I solely focused on my opponent.
I had asked Amelia briefly about Oliver's strengths and weaknesses. But to be honest, she hadn't really been useful. She only told me that he was the best at using his Fire Affinity. She had no idea about his unique skill or if he had another affinity.
"Fire Fist!" Oliver immediately cast as he dashed in my direction, ready to strike me down.
His movements were careless and easy to read, allowing me to dodge his attack perfectly without using any Mana.
"Tsk. That was lucky. You won't be able to dodge this one."
I saw him turn around, trying to use the same spell once again.
However, I thought it was about time I showed him that we were in a completely different category.
[Shadow Body]
In an instant, my face turned into a shadow, allowing Oliver's fist to go right through it without harming me at all.
"The commoner has Darkness Affinity?"
"And the spell he used, isn't that Shadow Body? You need to be at least D-Rank in Darkness Mastery to even use it, let alone use it in battle..."
As soon as I began showing off my abilities, Oliver's anger just began increasing, annoyed that I was demonstrating my superiority over him.
His plan was clearly going wrong.
"Fire Wave!" he screamed.
I smirked at the incoming waves.
"You know, you should probably stop shouting your spells out loud. It makes it easy to counter them."
With a slow wave of my hand, a brush of wind dispelled the fire away at once, shocking the crowd once more, who couldn't understand what they had just witnessed.
"Did he just use Wind Affinity?!"
"A commoner awakened two affinities?"
"Are you sure he doesn't have some unknown background?"
Most of the Lix Family members were asking the Patriarch. However, when they realized that he was planning on staying silent throughout the whole duel, they also shut their mouths and watched carefully.
After all, some of them had clearly realized that they were potentially watching one of the greatest future talents in the whole world.
'I should keep my third affinity hidden. I don't want too many rumors about me spreading. Wind and Darkness are quite common, so it shouldn't draw me too much attention. But Space Affinity is one of the rarest affinities one can get.'
"H-How is this possible?" Oliver asked as he was losing his mind over how useless his attacks were.
Still, this was only the beginning.
I hadn't even started to attack yet.
"Is it my turn now?" I asked with a sigh.