The next day, Cain’s condition had recovered considerably.
This was thanks to the devoted care of Alice and Nefti.
“Young Master, are you uncomfortable anywhere else?”
“I’m fine.”
“Then even if you’re not uncomfortable, isn’t there somewhere I could massage for you?”
“…Then please do the area below my shoulder blades.”
“I’ll massage it right away! Please sit here.”
Nefti carefully bathed Cain’s body, which had been rolling around in the snowy mountains for several days.
Alice made chocolate madeleines that she had been practicing intensively for days and brought them to him, massaging Cain’s tired body.
Though he said it wasn’t necessary, she even sang softly to him just before he fell asleep.
Alice’s singing voice was quite sweet, more than he had expected.
In any case, thanks to this, the fatigue in his body from moving at maximum speed during the fight with the Ice Troll was quickly relieved.
“Does it feel good?”
Squeeze, press.
As Alice asked while massaging, Cain picked up one of the chocolate madeleines from the table in front of him and nodded.
“It feels good.”
“Is it delicious?”
“It’s delicious.”
“Hehehe…”
Alice seemed so happy just to be by Cain’s side like this that she massaged without showing any signs of fatigue.
“You can stop if you’re tired.”
“I’m so happy that Young Master Cain returned like this.”
“It must be tiring.”
“N-no way! It’s not tiring at all! I just… I was so happy that I wanted to say it’s not tiring at all. Really, I was so worried that seeing you off at the north gate that time would be the last…”
Alice massaged with careful hands each time, as if directly reminding herself that Cain was alive and beside her.
After receiving a moderate massage from Alice, Cain finally checked his body condition, especially his Circle Room and mana circuits.
‘Not bad.’
One surprising fact was that the mana he had compressed and stored in his Circle Room had settled much more stably than expected.
‘I used the mana temporarily stored in my dantian to create the 3rd Circle of flame magic… I deliberately didn’t touch what was in the Circle Room for fear it would become unstable.’
Storing or settling mana in an empty Circle Room without creating circles is a dangerous act forbidden among mages.
Long ago, there was a famous case among mages where someone attempted this practice because the mana that could be compressed in the dantian was limited, but mana residue was left behind improperly, eventually making the Circle Room itself unusable.
‘Especially if the mana brought into the Circle Room is impure and of low quality, it should never be stored.’
However, the mana Cain had absorbed was extremely pure and high-quality mana from the Snow Flower Ice Crystal.
Moreover, perhaps because he had compressed and stored it quickly and accurately in less than a second of real time, it had settled stably.
‘It could have been troublesome if done wrong, but I was lucky.’
This way, he could use this mana without worry to build flame magic circles.
‘Once I exhaust all of that, two Circle Rooms will be empty again… Hmm. For now, it would be better to leave them empty.’
For the complete separation of flame and ice magic circles, Cain was placing the circles diagonally and stacking them within one Circle Room.
‘Just in case later… No. For now, leaving them empty is safest.’
He had been doing well so far, but objectively speaking, building flame and ice magic circles together while balancing them was an extremely difficult task.
Especially now, the balance was temporarily broken due to the influence of the Snow Flower Ice Crystal.
Though there would be no adverse effects since he had built his circles more solidly than anyone else, he needed to focus on balancing this for a while.
‘By the way, the Snow Flower Ice Crystal really is… Even thinking about it again, it’s amazing. No wonder it sells for such a high price.’
It had allowed him to build a complete 5th Circle of ice magic instantly without side effects, and could even accelerate the building of flame magic circles.
Though he had been in various dangers due to the tremendous power of the Snow Flower Ice Crystal, in the end, it was now proving its worth.
‘And there’s still one more place where it will prove its value.’
Soon, the time for Cain and Hayden’s duel would arrive.
Cain signaled Alice, who was still massaging diligently, that it was enough, and stood up while putting the last chocolate madeleine in his mouth.
‘I feel a bit sorry for Bolio, Ed, and Fon.’
Due to yesterday’s sudden arrangement of the duel, the training that was supposed to start this morning had been postponed to tomorrow.
They showed disappointed but understanding reactions.
-That’s disappointing. I wanted to quickly build my skills with the training method you’ll teach us.
-Y-yeah.
-It’s disappointing but can’t be helped. Since it’s come to this, just win the duel tomorrow. If you lose, our going together and all our hard work will be for nothing.
Since they were so disappointed, he had planned to start lightly on the first day, but it seemed better to start seriously right away.
Cain changed into comfortable clothes for activity and headed to the East Wing.
“Fight, Young Master!”
“I believe in you, Young Master.”
Receiving encouragement from Alice and Nefti, Cain entered and looked around the interior of the training ground.
The place where he was now was the largest among the training grounds in the East Wing, originally used for friendly duels between disciples on the 4th and 5th floors and instructors of 6th Circle or higher.
Though this much space wasn’t necessary for a duel between 3rd Circle mages, since there was a lot at stake in this duel, they had chosen the largest and best-equipped place.
“You’re finally here.”
“Well, it’ll end quickly. With our Lord Hayden’s victory.”
Many people were already waiting for the duel around them.
On one side of the spectator seats, the Gasols including Richter Bederman and Ray Bederman were seated in a row.
On the opposite side were Blake Sears, Cristian Sears, Wayne Sears, along with instructors and disciples from the 4th and 5th floors.
Even servants from both families were in the back seats, allowed entry to make sure one more person could clearly witness the outcome of this duel.
Alice and Nefti had also entered through another entrance and carefully taken their seats, watching Cain.
Cain walked slowly forward and stood opposite Hayden, who was waiting.
Hayden looked at Cain and smirked.
“Why didn’t you come out earlier? I thought you had run away.”
“Me, run away? Why would I?”
At his genuinely puzzled expression, Hayden’s eyebrows furrowed.
“Shameless bastard… Let’s see how long you can act relaxed.”
“Feel free to watch as long as you want.”
“This bastard!”
He wanted to spit out harsher words, but since there were watching eyes, Hayden kept his mouth shut.
‘That guy… He came to face me but doesn’t even pretend to be nervous? He should know when to stop bluffing.’
Perhaps because Cain’s maid had taken great care, yesterday’s disheveled appearance was nowhere to be seen.
His silver hair, trimmed to show his forehead slightly, gleamed with luster, and his clear, white skin made his red eyes appear even more vivid.
Looking at those calm eyes that were hard to read emotionally, Hayden felt psychologically overwhelmed and clenched his fists.
“Enough, let’s start. I’ll completely smash you to pieces.”
When Hayden stepped forward two steps first, Cain also stepped forward two steps, signaling he was ready.
Then Rowen, who was acting as referee, came up to the training ground and equipped both of them with protective artifacts in turn.
The servants on the Sears family side watching this scene swallowed their saliva.
“Young Master having a duel with Lord Hayden…”
“They’re really doing it…”
“I still can’t believe it.”
“All the support funds are riding on this one time, right?”
“Please…”
“We’ve come this far, so I’ll just believe.”
“I hope a miracle happens…”
Since their living standards from next month, no, from tomorrow were at stake, they clasped their hands together and muttered with earnest voices as if praying.
Meanwhile, the disciples sitting in front, especially those from the 4th and 5th floors, were looking at Cain with interested eyes.
“That guy Cain seems confident.”
“From when he threw that punch at Hayden, you could tell he had some guts.”
“He achieved 3rd Circle in such short time… If that’s true, isn’t that faster than us? This is the first time seeing him duel, so I’m curious. Don’t you think so, Neville?”
“Well, we’ll see.”
And.
“Brother, what were you thinking when you accepted this?”
“Cristian, you’re underestimating Cain’s abilities too. Cain should be able to win easily enough.”
At the very front, Cristian was speaking to Blake with arms crossed and a voice full of dissatisfaction.
“I knew you favored Cain, but I didn’t know it was to this extent. Wayne, you say something too.”
“I also think C-Cain can win. Ed and Fon praised Cain’s abilities tremendously.”
“Haah… No matter how excellent he might look to 2nd Circle kids… No, I’m wrong for asking you.”
Cristian sighed.
“Well, what can we do? Rather than begging and pleading to recover a tiny amount, it might be better to try breaking through once even if the chances are low. And…”
He looked at the Bederman family side with sharp eyes and said.
“If possible, I’d like him to at least put up a good fight and deal a blow to those despicable guys’ pride.”
Since things had come to this, Cristian watched the training ground, hoping Cain wouldn’t lose too pathetically and disgrace the family’s reputation.
Rowen finally infused his mana into the protective artifacts.
After all procedures were completed, he came outside the training ground.
Now only Cain and Hayden remained in the central area of the training ground, and silence flowed around them.
Rowen quietly raised one hand.
And shouted.
“Begin!”
As soon as the duel started, Hayden glared at Cain and extended both hands forward.
“I’ll make sure you can never crawl up again!”
Deep in Hayden’s heart, in his Circle Room, fire mana began to writhe and surge.
As if crying out that it had been suppressed for too long, the mana exploded out in an instant.
When Hayden raised his hands upward, the erupted mana spread instantly like wildfire meeting wind.
‘I’ll show an overwhelming difference in ability in front of everyone.’
He especially wanted to prove definitively to his father who had visited last night.
-Hayden. I have something to give you.
-This is…
‘I’ll show that I can crush someone like Cain without using such things.’
The fire mana spread in the air responded to Hayden’s will and divided into numerous small masses.
And.
“Fire Ball, expand.”
Those translucent masses grew one after another like fire spreading to large candles, transforming into huge blazing fireballs.
“That’s…”
“How can Fire Balls be so big…?”
“He can summon that many at once like that?”
Voices of disbelief flowed from the spectator seats in the training ground.
Twenty, no, easily more than thirty giant Fire Balls seemed ready to fill the entire airspace of the training ground.
“That guy Hayden plans to completely crush him from the start.”
“That’s already beyond 3rd Circle level.”
“With natural talent plus enhancement potions… It’s basically cheating.”
Even the upper-floor disciples shook their heads, thinking this was hopeless.
The Bederman family’s tendency to focus solely on firepower, combined with Hayden’s matching natural talent and various enhancement potions, had pushed his Fire Balls beyond the realm of his current Circle.
Certainly, the results Cain had shown so far were admirable, but handling this overwhelming firepower seemed impossible.
However,
“Not a chance.”
Bolio, who was watching, smirked as if he knew well what was about to happen.
‘I’ve been hit by it directly.’
Of course, even Bolio, who had expertise in Fire Ball, couldn’t produce firepower like Hayden’s.
But Bolio had watched up close how Cain dealt with such brute force firepo
wer battles, and how perfectly he could handle them.
‘Besides, the current Cain isn’t the 2nd Circle Cain who dueled with me back then.’
And as Bolio expected.
“I’ll finish this… huh?”
Pop pop pop bang!
Hayden’s Fire Balls began exploding before they could even cross half the field.
