Duel

Before the situation could get any worse, I immediately dragged Ūbel out of public and went to a private location where it's empty and people won't try to pry at this ongoing drama.

Thankfully though Ūbel just let herself be moved away by me and wasn't being stubborn because that would definitely sucked and frankly I would have no choice but to confront her in public.

I never did like having problems and if I had a choice I'd rather end it fast because it's annoying in the long run.

Right now, I have to understand why she's acting like this and after I do I'll act accordingly to what I learned.

Later on, we arrived at an empty alley in the town and guaranteed that there won't be anyone else listening to our conversation.

After a few moments of gathering my thoughts I decided to ask. "What's wrong?"

Ūbel was still sniffing and it took a bit for her to reply. "You'll leave me here."

I frowned at that and said, "No, I never said that."

"Yes, you did! You said that you're going to leave this town and that's the same thing as leaving me in this place! D-did I do something wrong? A-are mad at me for something? Or maybe you feel annoyed by me? P-please tell me, i-i'll do my best to change s-so don't leave me!" Ūbel begged as she grasped both of my hands.

Hearing that reasoning, I immediately understood why she reacted like that. Thinking about it, I'm technically her only friend or at least someone who she's comfortable to be with and now learning that the person you liked the most leaves.

Even I wouldn't be unfazed by such a revelation, and the fact that she's reacting like this made me reevaluate my importance to her.

Either way I need to calm her down. "Ūbel, listen you haven't done anything wrong to me, so rest assured you're completely fine in the way you are, but hear me out. Leaving this town doesn't mean I'm not going to come back, this place is home. Living here with you and your sister made this place special to me, you guys are family, do you understand?"

Ūbel nodded, although confused, however she still protested. "But it doesn't change the fact that you're leaving m-, us!"

I couldn't disagree with that statement, however I also have my reasons. "Ūbel, originally I wasn't really planning to stay in this town for a long time, but because of you and Ūriel-neesan I stayed. It's always been my dream to go on a journey around the world, to have an adventure."

Technically it isn't a lie, I do want to travel around this world, however my main motivator for doing so isn't because of some wishy wash reason like wanting to be remembered as a hero for ages to come, but because of a quest that I could complete across the world.

Basically this is all self-interest, it's selfish I'm aware, but who wouldn't want to be powerful when there's a clear pathway to it?

Anyone who disagrees is a liar, humans are creatures of curiosity and greed, and I'm not an exception.

A white lie, that's what I told her. 

"Then let me join you in that journey!" Ūbel said, seeing that it's the most logical choice to make.

To be completely honest, I actually wouldn't have minded for us to go together, however…

Ūbel is way too young and very inexperienced for her to follow me, if she were a little older and had more experience like her canon-self I would no doubt accepted but unfortunately I can't allow her to.

Unlike me who has the right tools thanks to the community, I won't have to worry about surviving if I were in danger as there's a lot of life saving tools that could save me in the shop.

But Ūbel doesn't have that, she'll become my burden, worse she's going to drag me down.

There's also the fact that I can't really let her know about the community. If we ever go on a journey together it means that I can't use the shop frequently.

Meaning if a danger ever arises, and I would have to choose but to leak the existence of the community and face whatever consequences were on the guidelines.

I really don't want to find out, 

"No, it's too dangerous for you to follow me." I bluntly said.

Hearing that Ūbel got angry. "Dangerous?! Who are you to decide that! You're not even that strong! I'm better at magic than you!"

That's true, I couldn't deny that she's way better than me at using magic. Despite getting my talent [ Jack Of All Trades ] it doesn't make me a genius, it only makes me better than an average person.

And Ūbel is a true magic prodigy, even though she just started learning a year ago, the same time with me, she instinctively made a spell of her own.

That spell was basically [ Reelseiden ] her iconic spell from canon, although it's still incomplete, however it isn't any less lethal.

Not to mention she's the type of genius that doesn't really need to understand the mechanics of a certain spell, and just directly copying them as long as she would understand the target feelings and nature.

However, despite all of this. It simply isn't enough for her to follow me, she'd get herself killed and wouldn't be able to complete her full potential and I would really hate knowing that I let such talent die when I could have prevented it.

Anyway, she may be a better mage than me, but I'm still superior to her in combat. Just because she could dominate me in a single field doesn't mean she can beat me.

After all, I have a lot of tricks up my sleeve. Those 3 years give me lots of experience, whether it's combat, planning and even wisdom.

"That's correct, but despite that I'm a better combatant than you are, not to mention more experienced."

"You're full of crap, I'm a better combatant than you are and more experienced as I'm older." Ūbel was confident of this.

Looking at her, I couldn't help but think. 'I really did a good job influencing her, if this was the original Ūbel this wouldn't be how our conversation would go, she's more human and wasn't as detached like from the series, however as much I'm fascinated by the result I still can't let her follow me and that's why I needed to do this.'

"What about this then, if you manage to beat me in combat, I'll allow you to come with me on my journey, but if not then you'll stay here and wait for me to come back in a few years." I laid my condition and also a trap, if she accepts then it's guaranteed that she's staying.

Of course, as someone who was barely a teenager, immediately accepted my proposal as she was very confident of her victory, she looked completely assured of it.

Too bad for her, I wasn't going to play fair as this is a very serious matter.

"I accept, so where are we going to fight?" Ūbel looked eager to be done.

"In the forest near, there we won't have to worry about the damage or casualties." 

After that we went to the forest.

—

"Let's do it here." I told her as we arrived at a place inside the forest that has a lot of space and wasn't filled with trees.

Ūbel nodded and made a considerable distance between us. "Feel free to start whenever you're ready."

I couldn't help but roll my eyes at her confidence, she was completely looking down at me, not just because I'm smaller than her but also thinking that I'm inferior to her in combat.

Sucks for her, I have a lot of things that she didn't know of. "Well then, let's begin."

I didn't hesitate to dash at her and unsheathed the sword that was hanging in my waist.

My immediate attack surprised her for a bit, but she quickly regained her composure and attacked using her [ Reelseiden ].

She didn't even hesitate! If this was any other time I would have praised her for the lack of hesitation because a good combatant isn't someone who would hesitate.

Normal people would hesitate even for a bit if they knew that their attack would cause an injury, but it wasn't the same with Ūbel.

She wasn't normal, I don't know if it was her confidence that made her do something like this, confident that her spell wouldn't gravely injure me or outright kill me.

Or simply she's confident that I can block it, either way it wasn't time to dwell about it.

Immediately without a second thought I used a spell that she hadn't seen me use [ Jilwer ], one of the few spells that I bought directly from the community.

It's a spell that would make me move in high-speed in a single moment, before Ūbel spell could reach me I was already behind her.

I took a deep breath and thrust the sword behind her, however Ūbel instinctively felt the attack and blocked it with the basic shield magic.

Clangg! 

'Tsk, I knew it wouldn't be this easy.' I'm quite impressed by how she could even block such a thing, but then again I did expect this to happen.

"Zoltraak." I casted the basic offensive spell of this era directly into the Ūbel's shield breaking it immediately as it wasn't really that solid.

Without hesitation I used this change to push her back into the ground and arm locked her.

Bang!

For extra measure I casted a spell that temporarily locks an opponent's mana, sure this isn't as good as Wirbel [ Sorganeil ] but it was enough to assure my victory.

It's also one of the few spells I've bought from the shop, it has quite a strict condition of use, like I have to touch the opponent physically before I could use it, but since it's the only thing I could afford at the moment it wasn't too bad.

The spells I've bought are pretty much a mage killer set, something that makes me a nightmare to them.

"Checkmate, I win." I stated, as I completely dominated this fight.

Then after that I heard Ūbel crying, and thought. 'Not this again..' 

I let out a sigh, but it's also something I expected to happen but since I won, she should understand that she can't follow me.

As cruel as it is, this is way better than her possibly dying.

—

Author Notes: I wasn't sure about the fight as I'm not really that good at making a fight scene but I hope it's decent enough.

Anyway, as you may have noticed Stark skill set is basically a battle mage, the type that would throw hands with the enemy after depleting all of his mana.

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