Chapter 128 Competition 6

Lucas stood proud in the applause that came from the crowd. The commoners were especially grateful for his performance, by putting down one of the best students it made them feel they had the same potential. There were even some nobles that were congratulating Lucas, not because they loved commoners, but because they put a noble of their opposition down.

Although the attention would be addicting for others, Lucas hated every second of it. His body was hurting, everything was about to collapse. He was holding on by a thread, trying to use his willpower to keep his body together, but it only resulted in his headache getting worse.

He was prepared for a lot, but the backlash from his assault was something way out of his expectations. His bones felt like they were creaking, his tendons felt snapped, his nerves screamed out in pain. Lucas was scared, he knew he had won, but the cost was too much to pay. He wanted to scream out in pain, but even that wasn't an option.

Not because he wanted his reputation and strength to be solidified, but simply because he couldn't. Like when he was under pressure, his body didn't allow him to express his pain. The mask displayed a broken smile, yet the truth was that he was in terrible pain. Tears had already fallen down, but the mask hid them from the crowd.

Out of nowhere came a man on stage, he didn't look special or remarkable. He walked up to Lucas with his hands in front of him to gesture he wasn't dangerous.

"Hello there, please don't worry, I'm not from any noble family. Rather, I'm here to protect you from them, you can call me Cal."

Lucas wanted to respond, yet not a word could be formed, only a slight jitter in his body was possible. Cal placed his hand on Lucas's shoulder. The lack of response made it clear to Cal.

"I see, let's patch you up first, then follow me to our seat. It's time for the next challengers."

Cal healed Lucas up, but only enough to walk with him. He knew Lucas probably didn't want to follow him, so healing him completely would only result in him returning to his own seat. In this way, he was forced to follow him.

There were some noble families looking at Lucas like a prey, but Cal's presence made them back off. It wasn't that they were friendly with the Eliot's family, or maybe they were, but that was besides the point. A commoner should be put into his place, both the eldest princess and prince's factions agreed to that principle. Sadly, the presence of the military made them back off. They wouldn't want to ruin their relationships with the most powerful mages now, would they?

Being escorted to Cal's place, Lucas arrived with pain in his legs. His body might've received some healing magic, but it wasn't nearly enough to heal his condition.

"Sir, I've brought him."

"Good, wait, why hasn't he fully recovered?"

"Huh? But sir..."

"Don't disobey my orders, make sure he fully recovers. I want him to see him like he never fought in the first place."

"Yes, sir!"

Cal placed his hands on Lucas's back and started his treatment. Slowly but surely every bone and muscle was being patched up. It felt incredible to Lucas, like he was relaxing in a spa, all his troubles and stress disappeared. He was curious about a lot of things, but kept all his thought to himself.

"There we go, he's as good as new. I had to use an external source of energy to fully heal him."

"That's not an issue, now then, I guess I should introduce myself. My name is Kasto."

"Conrad, thank you for helping me out."

"Ohohoh, that's not a problem to be worried about, you're welcome. It's quite a surprise to see someone so young display such a level of power."

"Thank you sir, I only won because I was lucky."

"Well, you're not entirely wrong, still, what you did surpassed the norm. So, I'd like to ask you a sensitive question, Cal?", Kasto simply glanced at Cal, but that was enough for him to know he had to put up a barrier to stop people from listening in. He nodded to convey that the barrier was put up.

"Alright, Cal just made sure that everything we say from now on will not be heard by others. So let me ask you, was what you just showed on stage part of your innate gift?"

Such a question was very sensitive to ask. After all, innate gifts could be extremely powerful but have certain pitfalls. If an innate ability was known, who wouldn't prepare for it beforehand?

"Oh, if you'll answer honestly, I'll tell you a secret of mine as well."

Cal was wondering why Kasto bothered to ask if he had an innate gift. Their previous deductions should've proven there wasn't any other option.

"It's not part of my innate gift." Lucas said in a serious tone. Well, to him, he never had an innate gift to begin with, but tricking others into believing he does have one doesn't harm him in any way.

Cal's eyes grew large for a second, before analyzing Lucas once more. Even Kasto couldn't help but give a slight smile. He knew that in the world of mages, lies and deceit were daily occurrences. That kind of life only made him more adept at discovering when someone was lying or not. He was certain Lucas said the truth, but that only made it more interesting.

"Hahaha, good, good. It's good to see some honesty in a while. I can't hold back on my little deal now, can I. Actually, tell me something that you'd like to know, and I'll answer to the best of my abilities."

Lucas was unaware of how great of an opportunity he had just gotten. Not many people were capable of talking to someone of his renown. Tons of people wanted to talk to him, but he always turned them down, now he opened his library of knowledge to Lucas.

Asking a question was more difficult than he initially thought. His internal thoughts started to get hectic. There were tons of questions he wanted an answer to. Lucas started to analyze his own situation, and he ended on two questions he wanted an answer to. After mulling it over a bit longer, he didn't hold back anymore.

"What can one do to kill someone of a higher rank when they are using their natural pressure?"

It was a decent question, Cal didn't think he chose the right one though. It was widely known that a difference in rank wasn't something to overcome. A Rank 2 would never win against a Rank 3 and so on, there was no debate, no discussion, it was an objective truth.

Even Kasto was a bit disappointed at the question, he was expecting something a bit more complex. He knew tons of research was being done by other mages to figure out strategies and new spells, so he couldn't just go and give away state secrets.

"I can't give you a perfect answer, but I can tell you this. How does an aura manifest? If you knew how they are manifested, would it be possible to remove the activation? I can't say anything else, or I would be overstepping my own bounds. Hmm, I can show you something else though."

Lucas didn't hesitate to activate his Magic Vision before seeing Kasto move his hand a bit and the surrounding pressure increased tenfold. This was nothing compared to Elam's pressure, but the strange thing was, was that he was still standing up. The pressure kept him in place, the control was something he had never seen before.

"There you go, I can't give you anything else, or the deal wouldn't be fair. Now, Conrad, as you might've already guessed, I'm from the military of this country. I don't mean to mince my words. I want you to join us when you're done here."

"That's asking a lot, sir."

"Hahaha, what an accurate statement. I know forcing you to join us would only result in backlash, but I want you to know that our door is always open. In the military your noble rank doesn't matter, I was a commoner myself, but the military brought me riches I couldn't dream off."

Lucas wasn't convinced, even if what he said was true, why would he bother joining them?

"Look, I get it, you're only in your first year and you have great plans. Still, I don't want you to end up like those wandering mages or vagrants that kill indiscriminately and don't care about morality. Those kinds of monsters need to be hunted, and they don't often get far."

"In this country, no, world, you can easily end up becoming victim to other mages. Whether those be vagrants or corrupt ones don't matter, there are only a few that look out for others. One of those groups is ours. If you're willing to join us, I'll give you a certain immunity."

"What do you mean, immunity? Any noble could still end up assassinating me without you knowing."

"Hahaha, you have a good head on your shoulders even if you're wrong. This immunity is something else. We publicly place your name on a list that everybody can look into. This list contains everyone in the military that we protect. We'll engrave a spell on your person that will release a tiny pulse of magic that conveys you're with us.

If someone kills you, that pulse will attach itself to the killer, making it easy for us to track them down. Trained assassins know very well not to mess with us and don't go after military targets. This is the kind of protection that we give every member of our group."

"You're saying that everybody gets such a 'pulse'? Even the commoners in your group? I can't imagine that this would hold anybody with evil intentions back."

"You might think so, but, Cal, how many of our group has been killed lately?"

Cal conjured his communication spell again and conveyed his question. Lucas didn't know what was happening, but could assume certain things.

"The last person of the military that has been officially killed was about 6 years ago. Personal details of the victim are known, but kept secret. The killer on the other hand was publicly humiliated and hung."

Kasto didn't waste any time before trying to convince Lucas again.

"See, we don't want to lose anyone of our group. Hence, all the safety measures. If you join us, you can finish up in this academy and officially join us later. How about it?"

Lucas could definitely see the benefits of their cooperation. To Lucas, it felt like a good deal at first value, yet the hidden deficits were also present. He had to make a choice into being bound to a single group and lose his freedom, or be free and risk assassination from other nobles.

Lucas decided right on time, he had only given his answer before he was challenged again. Saying his goodbye to the military crew, he went back to the stage, the courtyard.

With his health back to the very top, he felt great. He didn't have any magic left, but that didn't matter anymore. He had won and he knew it. This entire competition was in his hands, victory wasn't anything of the past anymore, he had done it.

Arriving at the stage he confronted his next challenger, Matheo. He didn't really know who he was or what he did, but that didn't matter anymore. Lucas glanced once more at the scoreboard to confirm his absolute advantage.

Conrad - 1 - 12061

Matheo - 2 - 6703

Asta - 3 - 6340

...

'Hihihi, we've done it! Oh, this feels fantastic.'

'Seeing a plan come to fruition is the best part of the plan itself.'

'Plus we managed to take advantage of those dumbasses.'

'Hey, they aren't stupid per se, but they should've kept their presence a bit more unknown.'

During the entire duel, Lucas had been scouting the visitors. There were three big groups, the commoners and two factions of nobles. Lucas knew from Freya a bit about the political environment, so as long as nothing drastically changed those two groups should be the different factions.

But then there were a few people who held great power that were very structured and kept to themselves. Both factions of nobles tried to talk to them, but they brushed them aside, and yet, the nobles didn't show any angry faces.

There weren't many possibilities, but if this competition was meant for external parties to look for recruits which group would be the most willing to find those juniors? A war was brewing, so it only made sense that they started to employ more subordinates.

Lucas took the risk of putting himself in danger and hoping someone would help him out. Someone of the commoner faction could've patched him up, but to think the military came instead.

Now, Lucas had gotten to the point where he couldn't lose anymore, and his arrogance grew massively.