Chapter 243: A Familiar Feeling

Chapter 243: A Familiar Feeling

"Sounds cool."

Celine lowered her hand from her forehead and looked at me. She didn’t seem pleased that this was all I had taken from what she had said.

"Then why did my opponent suddenly change?" I asked. "I vaguely remember being supposed to fight someone else."

"God... Do you really not know, or are you stupid?"

"I wouldn’t ask if I knew."

Celine sat up straighter. She pushed her cup slightly to the side and rested her arms on the table.

"Under the duel rules, you can have someone else fight in your place. And the boy you messed with in the corridor is Marven’s cousin."

"So he asked his cousin for help."

"Yes. Anyway, Marven is in his second term, and his core is at the peak of the five-star stage. Don’t expect him to be at the same level as the boy you argued with in the corridor."

As Celine spoke, my eyes drifted to her plate. Her coffee was almost finished, but she had barely touched her meat.

"Even if you somehow manage to beat him, you’ll still end up in trouble," she continued. "His family won’t forget this easily. Especially if you humiliate them in front of everyone."

I pointed at the meat on her plate.

"Are you going to eat that?"

Celine looked at my finger, then at her plate. When she looked back at me a few seconds later, her brows were deeply furrowed.

"I’m worrying about you here, idiot. Take this a little more seriously!"

I reached over with my fork and took a piece of meat from her plate.

"Cassian!"

I ignored Celine’s angry stare as I put the meat in my mouth. After chewing and swallowing, I lowered my fork.

"Don’t worry. I won’t lose to anyone until I die, and right now, I only have one life."

Celine’s lips parted, but she didn’t answer right away. For a while, she stared at me as though unable to decide which part of what I had said to object to first.

Meanwhile, I continued eating.

---

After classes ended, I headed toward the arena.

The farther I got from the main building, the more students I saw heading in the same direction. Some noticed me and nudged their friends before starting to talk among themselves. By the time I reached the arena entrance, the noise from inside was spilling into the corridor.

I hadn’t expected this many people to come.

After passing through the entrance passage and stepping into the open, I got a clearer view of the crowd in the stands. It wasn’t just students in their first term. Students from later terms were also searching for seats among the rows, while those already seated talked to the people beside them. There were a few familiar faces in the section reserved for professors too.

The wide fighting area had a stone floor. Protective runes carved along its edges gave off a faint light, tracing the boundary between the stands and the fighting area.

When people noticed my arrival, the conversations in the rows closest to me quieted down. Then curious looks began spreading through the rest of the stands.

I took a few steps forward with my hands still in my pockets.

I spotted Alicia in one of the front rows. The moment our eyes met, she smiled and raised her hand. She seemed just as excited as she had been during our brief conversation that morning.

A little farther along, Layla was sitting with a few friends. One of the girls beside her leaned toward her ear and said something, but Layla kept watching me instead of answering. Her expression was quite cold.

When I looked elsewhere, I saw Felix.

Rose was beside him. When Felix noticed me, he waved with his usual warm smile. He seemed pleased to see me, even after what had happened on the training field yesterday.

I turned my head slightly and looked over the rest of the stands.

Celine was sitting among several noble girls. The same people whose conversations she had wanted to escape at lunch were now surrounding her again. Although she kept a polite expression while one of them spoke, her fingers tapped against the edge of her seat now and then.

Fish Boy had chosen the closest seat to her he could find. A few noble girls sat between them, but that clearly hadn’t discouraged him. Every so often, he shifted in his seat so he could look toward Celine.

Lunox was sitting with the demon agent. When she said something to him, he leaned closer to listen, then looked back at the arena.

Apparently, I wasn’t the only one with a busy schedule today.

As my gaze moved over the crowd, it briefly settled on a student with white hair.

His blue eyes were calm despite the activity around him. He leaned back in his seat, watching the fighting area. His aura didn’t quite match his relaxed appearance; even from a distance, it was clear he wasn’t an ordinary student.

He ranked first among the first-term students.

When the student beside him said something, he turned to listen. I couldn’t see the slightest hint of arrogance in his eyes or his behavior. When his gaze returned to me, I didn’t sense any ill intent either. He was simply curious.

After studying him for a few seconds, I continued scanning the stands for the person I was looking for.

I knew she wasn’t here. Even so, my eyes searched the rows one by one and lingered around the entrance.

I couldn’t see Iris.

I remembered how she had walked past me that morning without a word. Then I recalled what Myra had said.

She was really angry with me.

I needed to find a way to make it up to her at the first opportunity. Waiting outside her dorm again the next morning and acting like nothing had happened probably wasn’t going to work.

Just as I was about to look away from the entrance, there was movement at a side door leading into the stands.

A girl with long black hair stepped inside.

Her red eyes briefly scanned the stands as a few more students followed her in. Their uniforms were different from ours. The embroidery on their collars and the crests on their chests marked them as members of the student council.

After saying something brief to the people behind her, the girl headed toward their reserved seats. A few students standing in her way noticed her and stepped aside.

I couldn’t take my eyes off her.

At first, I couldn’t understand why. I didn’t recognize her face. Nothing in her movements reminded me of anyone in particular either. Even so, I had felt a strange sense of closeness to her from the moment I saw her.

She felt familiar.

My gaze moved from her hair to her face, then to the crest on her uniform. None of it explained the feeling.

It was similar to the feeling Nivelle gave me.

I frowned slightly when I realized that. I focused a little more on the girl, trying to understand the feeling she gave off, but no matter how closely I looked, all I had was that vague sense of familiarity.

Why?

As the girl took her seat, the council member beside her leaned toward her. She turned her head to listen, while I was still studying her face.

Where could I know her from?

While I searched my mind for an answer, the arena suddenly filled with cheers.

"Marven!"

"Marven Yvaren!"

The shouts spread from one side of the stands to the other. As a few students stood up, I turned toward the entrance on the opposite side.

Marven had entered the fighting area.

His brown hair was parted down the middle and tied into a small ponytail at the back. He wore light armor designed to let him move freely. The pieces covering his shoulders and chest reflected the light as he walked.

He carried a silvery spear. A dragon design engraved near its tip stretched toward the long, sharp spearhead.

But his appearance wasn’t what caught my attention.

My gaze sharpened the moment I felt the mana coming from his spear. Then I sensed the same thing from his armor.

The Golden Dragon’s mana...

My eyes moved between the spear and the armor. I could clearly sense the mana coming from both. Those two items had started to interest me more than the five-star opponent Celine had told me about earlier.

Marven didn’t change his pace despite the cheers from the stands. As he headed toward the center of the fighting area, he turned his eyes to me.

I finally took my hands out of my pockets.

Professor Soren approached from the edge of the fighting area and stopped between us. He looked at Marven first, then at me.

"Take your positions."

I walked toward the starting line marked on the floor. When Marven took his place at the line opposite mine, a few meters separated us.

As Professor Soren checked both sides, the cheering in the stands slowly faded. The conversations hadn’t stopped completely, but everyone was now watching the fighting area.

My eyes drifted toward the seats occupied by the student council members. The girl with black hair was also getting ready to watch the duel.

That familiar feeling still hadn’t faded.

"Marven Yvaren, are you ready?"

The professor’s voice brought my attention back to the opponent in front of me.

Marven gripped his spear with both hands. He moved one foot back, bent his knees slightly, and pointed the tip of his weapon at me. A faint golden gleam passed over his armor and appeared on the dragon design along his spear as well.

"Ready."

Professor Soren turned to me.

"Cassian?"

I held my right hand out to the side.

Black flames appeared around my fingers. A moment later, I felt the hilt of my sword in my palm. As I closed my hand around it, the flames rose along the blade.

I lowered the tip of my sword slightly and looked at Marven.

"Ready."

Professor Soren stepped away from between us. As he raised his hand, the last few voices in the stands fell silent.

Then he lowered his arm.

"Begin!"