The Master-Disciple Bargain
Dayman Calidos stepped out of the wrecked karaoke room, a death flag practically stamped on his forehead. Before leaving, he didn’t forget to kindly inform the man who seemed to be managing the place.
“Aigoo!! Those bastards suddenly barged in and turned the place into this mess!! They must’ve chugged way too much booze—they started causing a ruckus and then just keeled over in the middle of it! Handle it however you see fit!!”
After smoothly pinning the blame on the seven unconscious Knight Faculty students, Dayman grabbed Seria and walked out. Then, with a tired shuffle, they began the long walk back to the academy.
“Got any smokes? I’m all out.”
Seria wordlessly pulled out a cigarette and handed it to him. Dayman lit it with his wand and exhaled with obvious satisfaction.
“Let me take a guess. Those guys who just ran off. You called them friends, but they were only hanging around for your money and status, right?”
The blunt remark hit right on target.
“Cut them off. It’s best to sever ties with people who won’t help you when you’re in trouble.”
“You… are you really Dayman?”
“I am. Just the Dayman who got into an accident and now has a few screws loose upstairs. Explaining it’s a pain, so let’s just go with that.”
“What you did back there… how did you do it?”
Knights possessed extremely high magic resistance. They were beings who wrapped their entire bodies in aura, boasting terrifying tanking power and offensive strength. Seria, who had spent so long trying to surpass Octavia—one of the pinnacle figures of the Knight Faculty—knew all too well how difficult knights were to deal with. Yet Dayman had taken down seven of them in the blink of an eye. There hadn’t even been any sign of magic being cast, and suddenly they were all on the floor. He’d used his wand, so he must have done something with magic, but she couldn’t begin to understand what.
“You want to know?”
“Yeah.”
“Seriously. You really want to learn?”
Seria swallowed hard at Dayman’s question.
“If I learn it, can I beat Octavia?”
“Those knight bastards asked the same thing earlier. Who the hell is this Octavia anyway?”
Seria let out a helpless laugh.
“Octavia. Octavia de Hepherion. If you don’t know her name at the academy, you might as well be a spy.”
“So who is she?”
“The eldest daughter of the Hepherion Marquisate, a prestigious swordsmanship family. She’s in the same fifth year as us. A genius swordsman famous for making even sixth- and seventh-year seniors step aside.”
“You can beat her.”
Dayman declared it without even listening to the details. Seria wasn’t sure whether to believe him or not. He just shrugged.
“Believe it or not, that’s up to you. So. You gonna learn or not?”
Seria did some quick calculations. If those seven Knight Faculty students had fought Professor Rosemary of the Combat Faculty under the same conditions… would the professor have won? Could she have cleanly taken down all seven in an instant the way Dayman had? It was impossible. Even Professor Rosemary couldn’t have done it. Her usual teaching was to never let the situation reach a close-range confrontation with knights in the first place. Why? Because mages couldn’t beat knights in melee. It wasn’t just Professor Rosemary—nearly every instructor in the Combat Faculty shared the same view. And the person standing before her had just blatantly spat on all of their teachings in the most vivid way possible.
“I’ll learn. Teach me.”
Seria had been blocked by a wall all this time. The insurmountable wall called Octavia. The teachings of the existing professors alone could never overcome it. And the existence before her might be the first one capable of helping her break that wall.
“What do you want in return? Money?”
“No. I don’t want anything like that.”
Given his delinquent golden-sun appearance, she’d half-expected him to ask for a date, but thankfully that wasn’t it.
“While you’re calling me your master, just teach me this and that.”
Instead, Dayman made an odd request.
“Teach you? Teach you what?”
“After the accident, I lost my memories. I have no idea how to live in this world anymore. Kiosk?…… I can’t even handle the scrya thing, and I still don’t fully understand how to use this smartphone. I don’t know how people dress these days, what they like, what conversation topics they prefer. I know nothing.”
“Uh…… so?”
“You can teach me all that. And if you know anything about my past, tell me a bit about that too. If you help me live like a refined young person these days, and give me all sorts of information about Romeln Academy, I’ll teach you what I just did. How about it?”
It wasn’t a difficult task.
“That’s really all you want?”
“Yeah. That’s plenty. So? Deal?”
“Well…… it’s not a bad deal for me.”
“Then do you agree to form a master-disciple bond with me?”
She thought the grand term “master-disciple bond” was a bit much, but figured it was just his way of phrasing a business relationship.
“Well…… sure. Let’s do it.”
“Good. From now on, you and I are master and disciple. Call me Master from here on.”
“Ah! No way!! That’s embarrassing. Why would I call you Master?”
“Don’t modern students call their teachers ‘Master’? If refined young people these days don’t say that, then what do they call them?”
“We’re the same age, so just call each other by name. What’s with this ‘Master’ nonsense……”
Dayman looked a little dissatisfied, but he was willing to follow modern youth customs.
“Fine. Then let’s just use names. Your name was Seria, right?”
“Yeah. That’s right.”
“Is there a place inside the academy where just the two of us can train in secret? I’d rather no one sees us training.”
Seria immediately thought of a spot.
“There’s one. There’s an unused storage shed behind the Mage Faculty classroom building. No one would know if we met there.”
“Then let’s meet there tomorrow! It’s late, so let’s get some sleep and meet tomorrow!”
“W-wait!! Do you have my number?”
“Number? What’s that?”
Seria sighed and snatched Dayman’s phone to save her number in it.
“You’ve really changed a lot, huh? Just what kind of accident did you get into……”
“Knowing would hurt you. Since we exchanged numbers, we can contact each other with this now, right?”
“Yeah. That’s right.”
“Haha!!! That’s pretty amazing!! Great!! Let’s contact each other with this tomorrow then!! Ah! By the way, is there an inn nearby?”
“?……”
“I need a place to stay for the night. And I’d like to change clothes too. I probably need to wear the same uniform as the other students……”
Seria looked at him with pity. But what could she do? He had something she wanted, and helping each other was part of their agreement.
“Just follow me. Let’s get you a uniform first. After that, I’ll book a motel for you to stay the night. Do you have money?”
“I do. I put a lot of money into my account through something called internet banking!!”
“Good. Then we’re set. Follow me.”
Seria felt the road ahead was long if she wanted to turn this suddenly elderly-minded golden-sun idiot into a proper person and figure out exactly what kind of accident he’d been in.
“Seria. What about that bitch?”
“I’m sorry. By the time we woke up, she was already……”
The sharp heel of a high heel struck the man’s shin. Cold sweat ran down his back from the pain, but he didn’t dare show it. The Hepherion Marquisate was the family he served. As a member of a vassal house, he could never show anger toward Octavia.
“I trusted you with this because you were the most skilled, so why? How did you let her get away?”
“We…… caught her. After subduing her, we were about to scar her face like you ordered…… but some strange guy suddenly showed up and interfered……”
“A strange guy?”
“Dayman Calidos. It was him. We saw him pull out his wand…… but after that, we don’t remember anything.”
“Is that true?”
When all seven nodded, Octavia let out a hollow laugh.
“Dayman…… that idiot took down all seven of you? At least put some effort into your lies……”
“Just in case…… we brought the CCTV footage, Lady Octavia.”
“Give it here.”
Octavia took the phone the man offered and watched the video over and over. Eventually, her eyes narrowed.
“……What the hell did he do?”
An aura-infused sword shattered and exploded. It looked like the seven and Dayman were talking about something, then the wand moved. Or should she say it shook? He did something with the wand? And the next moment, all seven were on the floor. No matter how many times she rewound it or slowed it down, that was all there was. He did something with the wand, and the seven collapsed.
“There’s no way that famously brainless idiot can use magic. What the hell did he do with that wand?”
“What’s going on? Octavia?”
The door opened and someone walked in. The moment she saw the extremely handsome man’s face, Octavia’s sharp expression softened instantly.
“Horace oppa!! You’re here?”
“What happened this time? Why are you so angry again?”
“That bitch Seria cut my face!!”
“Oh dear. But you won, right?”
“Of course I won!”
“Then just tease her about it when you see her at school later. That’ll be a much bigger revenge.”
“I was going to do that anyway. But no matter how I think about it, scarring my face is just too infuriating, so I sent them to get revenge…… and they came back empty-handed!! Look at this!!”
Horace frowned as he watched the CCTV footage his shouting little sister handed him. Even he couldn’t tell what had happened in the video, but what caught his attention more was the person named Dayman himself.
“Isn’t this Dayman?”
“Yeah. It is. That brainless bastard apparently interfered…… but we can’t figure out what he did.”
A small emotion spread across Horace’s handsome face. The name of that emotion was displeasure.
“You know Lady Vamona and I got newly engaged, right?”
“Yeah! I know! I’m so happy my new sister-in-law is so pretty.”
“This guy was Lady Vamona’s previous fiancé.”
“What? Really?”
“Yeah. Lady Vamona said she was too embarrassed to mention it until now.”
“I thought Dayman that retard was just mindlessly hitting on my new sister-in-law…… They were engaged? Insane.”
“It’s annoying to see that bastard walking around perfectly fine like this.”
With that, Horace patted Octavia’s shoulder as if to say “I’m counting on you” and left. Octavia smiled at the sight.
“Don’t worry, oppa.”
Her gaze turned to Dayman on the phone screen.
“I’ll make sure to teach that bastard a proper lesson.”