Physical Union (4)
Wednesdays returned like clockwork, the day the Cradle’s Duel Committee presided over official matches. The infirmary always became a sea of people on those days. Students suffering injuries severe enough to threaten their lives—those who had to be transferred outside—appeared with grim regularity.
The Cradle’s students were young mages at the peak of their vitality, wielding powers too immense to control. They constantly clashed and stirred up trouble everywhere they went. If conflicts were inevitable, it was better to have them in a supervised arena than in unseen shadows. At the same time, the duels offered a chance to accumulate real combat experience alongside the individual ranking evaluations.
For that reason, the academy’s administration came down harshly on private duels, while officially registered matches through the committee were actively encouraged. Duels were also the most popular form of entertainment among the students. With applicants flooding in year-round, it was no exaggeration to call the Duel Committee one of the busiest organizations in the entire Cradle. The spectator seats in the arena were never empty.
Students stepped into the ring for all kinds of reasons—deep grudges, petty arguments, tests of strength, or simple proof of worth.
“Yena~”
“…”
A female student who had just climbed into the stands, Sera, spotted someone and waved. Her gaze settled on a girl with light brown hair and a light dusting of freckles.
“Ye-na?”
“…”
Despite the rather loud greeting, the girl continued staring straight ahead with fierce concentration. Sera let out a small sigh, walked over, and sat beside her. Then she leaned in close to her ear and blew gently.
“Hoo~”
“…Hyaak…!! W-what, what is it…!”
The girl finally reacted like a startled cat, fur bristling. Sera found the dramatic response extremely satisfying.
“Seriously, do you know how many times I called you?”
“You did…? Ah, sorry…”
Yena smiled awkwardly and apologized. Sera glanced toward the spot where Yena’s eyes had been fixed. At one end of the arena, a masked male student was preparing for his duel.
“Unbelievable… You were ignoring your friend just to stare at a guy? Even pure-hearted Yena has reached this point…”
“W-what are you talking about…! Stop saying weird things…”
“Hmm? I was just teasing, but your reaction is way too suspicious…?”
“I said no…! Be quiet…!”
Yena’s face turned bright red as she pouted, looking like she was about to cry. At this rate, even Sera was starting to have doubts. There had been rumors that the masked male student was forcibly dragging Yena around, but judging by her current reaction, those rumors didn’t seem very credible.
The innocent freckled girl finally grumbled, lips pursed.
“…I hate you, Sera. By the way, where’s Yeoreum…?”
“Her bones haven’t fully healed yet, so she said it’s uncomfortable coming to crowded places. She told me to come cheer in her place.”
Sera and Yeoreum had been attacked by demonic beasts during the previous exam and nearly failed. Fortunately, it had been declared an emergency rather than a standard test, and their achievement of advancing quite far earned them a respectable mid-to-upper rank for the first evaluation.
However, the image of the masked male student—who had charged straight into the direction teeming with demonic beasts and ultimately taken first place—remained vividly burned into their memories.
“Really?”
At the word “cheer,” Yena’s expression brightened instantly. Now there was no escaping it. Sera swallowed a laugh.
“Yeah. We have to repay him somehow. He helped us during the exam, and… from what you’ve told me, he doesn’t seem like a bad person…”
“Of course he isn’t! I told you…! Hyun isn’t that kind of weird guy at all…!”
In truth, Sera still harbored about half a suspicion. Maybe he was just a smooth-talking scoundrel trying to seduce an innocent country girl. Still, there was no need to voice that thought to Yena. Thinking so, Sera turned her gaze back to the arena.
At the opposite end from Yu Jinhyun stood a female student with a cold, ruthless expression, also waiting for the duel to begin.
Duels between mentors and mentees were not common. A freshman challenging a second-year who had endured a year of brutal training was usually impossible to arrange. That was why today’s match had drawn so much attention.
The recommended entrant who had achieved the highest score in the first exam—even if the ending had been somewhat questionable—and the mentor he had personally chosen, Yeon Minha. The exact duel conditions had been kept private, but it was clearly not a senior kindly offering to teach her junior a few moves. If that were the case, a simple sparring session would have sufficed. Most speculation centered on some kind of problem between the two.
Many had witnessed Yeon Minha leaving the mentor designation ceremony early with a sour expression.
“We’re here to cheer, but… still, winning seems pretty difficult, doesn’t it…?”
Yena’s face darkened in an instant, causing Sera to close her mouth mid-sentence.
“…I believe in him.”
Yena muttered stubbornly. Sera desperately tried to think of ways to console her once the duel ended. Roughly ninety percent of the people present expected Yeon Minha’s overwhelming victory.
Soon the preliminary bell rang, signaling fifteen minutes until the duel’s start. Lee Hyun and Yeon Minha faced each other at the center of the arena. Yeon Minha’s eyes burned with cold hostility toward the person who had caused her unnecessary trouble.
Lee Hyun paid it no mind and spoke.
“Before the duel begins, I have one thing to say. Is that acceptable?”
“Why? Are you trying to back out now? Too bad, but—”
“Why would I back out when I’m going to win anyway?”
Lee Hyun cut her off cleanly.
“Rather, I’d like to add one more condition to the duel.”
“What…”
Unable to follow for a moment, Yeon Minha asked with a deeply furrowed brow. Lee Hyun paused briefly, then whispered in a voice soft enough for only her to hear.
“If I win, I was thinking of moving into your dormitory, Senior. How does that sound?”
“What…?”
He had expected her to explode in rage, but Yeon Minha’s reaction was instead eerily quiet and detached.
“It seems your comprehension is worse than I thought. I mean exactly what I said.”
The shocking, absurd statement appeared to have left her brain unable to process it. In that case, he would simply have to explain it slowly.
“Someone of your status should have a private dormitory room. That means there should be more than enough space for me to take one room, right? The first-year dorms aren’t really to my liking. I thought I might take this chance to experience the second-year facilities.”
“What kind of insane bastard are you…? Do you even understand what you’re saying right now?”
The vacant look on Yeon Minha’s face gradually gave way to venomous fury. Beneath the silence lurked an anger like a volcano on the verge of eruption.
“No matter how much of a recommended entrant from the Black Lotus Sa family you are, if I report this conversation to the Education Committee, you’re finished.”
“Do you really think I would honestly admit to the contents of this conversation? And if anything happens to me, the successor would come running immediately. Are you confident you could handle that?”
“I see. Now I understand. Even if he stepped back from the front lines, a prestigious family is still a prestigious family. I did wonder how someone like you managed to become a recommended entrant. So you had that trashy, perverted womanizer backing you. Birds of a feather, I suppose…”
I silently apologized to the commander in my mind. I had unintentionally disparaged him. Even without that, though, his external reputation among those who knew him was already rock bottom. It wouldn’t be wrong to say every negative descriptor applied. Just what had turned the commander into such a person…?
Still, it seemed she didn’t know that I had served in the military with the commander. Her intelligence network didn’t seem weak enough for that to slip by. Perhaps she simply had zero interest.
“…Ha. As provocations go, that was pretty good. I’ll acknowledge your talent for getting under someone’s skin.”
Yeon Minha exhaled a fury-laden sigh. The volcano was beginning to reveal its crater. What she didn’t know, however, was that this was not a provocation—it was simply the predetermined future.
“You want to enter my dormitory? You do realize that members of the opposite sex are strictly forbidden from entering each other’s dormitories, don’t you—”
“I’ll take care of that myself. You didn’t think I wouldn’t know something that basic, did you?”
The sound of grinding teeth came through clearly.
“…Fine. Do whatever you want. Use my room, use the one next door, use the bathroom—I don’t care. But since you added a condition, it’s only fair that I add one of equal weight, isn’t it?”
“What do you want?”
“If I win the duel, I will cut off both your arms and both your ankles. I won’t even leave you your legs. No need to thank me. I’ll throw the severed parts straight to the dogs as feed. You didn’t think the successor of the Yeon family would simply let an insult like that slide, did you?”
A murderous hostility surged outward with increasing intensity. As if to express that emotion, tiny sparks of flame flickered repeatedly in the air around her.
“What you did was an insult that would justify war between families. Even if Sa Jaehyuk himself came and raised hell, it wouldn’t matter. No matter what happens, I will cut off your limbs. How dare you… It’s too late to regret it now—”
“Very well. I accept. Rather, shouldn’t we start soon? I feel like I’ll lose all my strength just waiting.”
I was certain at least one of Yeon Minha’s teeth had cracked. After adding one more line to the pre-written duel agreement and stamping it, I handed it to her. Yeon Minha glared at me as if she wanted to kill me, stamped the paper so hard it nearly tore, and shoved it back.
I delivered the sealed envelope to the judge beside the arena. Although the duel conditions were processed privately, if either party disputed the result, the envelope would be opened and the conditions publicly announced. But that envelope would never be opened. Of course, if I lost, I intended to quietly have my limbs severed and accept my fate.
The plan was proceeding smoothly, and for some reason that made me smile. The events of the day I first arrived in the capital suddenly came to mind. The headmaster’s sudden request had been extremely disconcerting, but in the end I had no choice but to accept. I had to honor the deal with the commander, and I didn’t want to cause even the slightest harm to him or my older sisters. No matter who the opponent was.
However, it was by no means an easy task. The damned mask, my unsociable personality, and the conflict with one of the Cradle’s most popular figures had already sent my reputation plummeting. Although I had taken first place in the initial exam, not enough time had passed for that to influence the social aspect. Besides, I barely even understood terms like “family” or “corporation.”
And the person I had to help was someone who perfectly embodied the type of human I despised most. The image of me laughing together with her and exchanging favors was pure delusion. Covering up Yeon Minha’s flaws under my own name or rehabilitating her through normal means were both impossible. Physiologically, by birth, and by fate—it could not be done.
Even so, I couldn’t simply sit down and complain. In the end, I found a method. The mentoring system was merely an excuse. An excuse to approach her and speak with her. An excuse to make the duel happen. I deliberately strung together insulting words designed to provoke her so she would have no choice but to accept the duel.
The initial condition I set was simply that if I lost, the mentoring with Yeon Minha would be canceled without any further obligations. For her, that would have been preferable. She couldn’t be completely certain that I would voluntarily leave even if she tormented me, and having baseless rumors spread would also be troublesome.
But a duel was different. Since I had already submitted the sealed conditions to the judge, there could be no backing out later. There was also no chance of losing. She herself possessed the greatest talent in the Yeon family’s direct line in history, and she had won every single one of the dozens of duels she had fought since entering the Cradle.
She had accepted the condition because she never imagined she could lose in the first place. Once the duel was established, I once again uttered clearly rude and provocative words to insert one additional condition. Of course, if she refused it would end in failure, but from what I had observed of her personality so far, she would never let such an insult pass. Rather, she would see it as a legitimate, legal opportunity to punish my rudeness at her leisure—which was exactly what had happened.
The condition was a bit excessive, but that was fine as long as I didn’t lose. In that situation, I decided to do what I did best. Not rehabilitation, but submission. I would inflict a hellish, devastating defeat that would shatter that high pride and self-esteem down to the floor. If necessary, I would repeat it several times. Only then would she become someone I could at least communicate with.
Additionally, by keeping my living area close to hers, I would find ways to alleviate the excessive connection with spirits that I suspected was the main cause of her twisted personality. No matter how I thought about it, the plan was trash.
I moved to the end of the arena and took my position. Yeon Minha also waited at her own spot for the duel to begin.
Ding~
Finally, the bell signaling the exact hour announced the start of the duel. At that instant, something resembling a long rectangular frame materialized in the air along the boundaries of the arena and spectator seats. Flames then began to descend along the frame, soon covering all four sides of the arena and completely blocking the view from outside.
“…”
I silently stared at the burning curtain of fire. Yeon Minha wore a cold smile full of ridicule.
“Nothing that happens inside here will ever leak outside, right? You’d better be careful. It’s entirely possible that your hands and feet will be cut off before the duel even ends.”
There was no way I could have been more grateful.