"Did you think I got stronger because of Evelyn? We were friends in the academy, and since the academy days, I have been stronger. I was rank 1 all the way to class 3." Victoria replied with a smile on her face.
"Rank 1?" Roman asked, he had no idea what she meant by that.
"You donât know about the academy rankings, After the first month of training, youâll be required to duel with your fellow students and establish a ranking system, Youâll receive bonuses depending on the ranking and a headstart in the kingdom tournament"
"After the first month, so I have to win the Queenâs tournament to get there" Roman muttered.
"Yes, but back to your question, I was ranked 1 and I dueled with Evelyn severally, all of which I won, but then we got to the battlefield in front of actual demons and I found myself taking orders from Evelyn"
"But that wasnât the turning point, it was when I almost lost my life because of a demon, Itâs the reason my hair is covering part of my face"
"You got injured?" Roman asked.
"Injured is a small word. You can heal an injury, but this... After that I managed to survive, Reinforcement arrived and we were sent back home to rest before we returned to the Frontline"
"When I got home, I was so angry at myself. I trained to the extent that my body was shutting itself down. Once I trained so hard that I fainted and was taken to my sister, a healer," Victoria mused as she remembered the incident.
"For a month it was just me training. After that, I got so strong I couldnât even recognize myself," Victoria said with a chuckle.
"I didnât try actual combat after training till I got to the frontline and when I did, I was unstoppable, but someone was right behind me, Turns out I wasnât the only one who was training to death, Evelyn was too, Thatâs how I got strong"
"What Iâm basically saying is that you need that kind of conviction to actually break through, Thereâll come a time youâll get stuck, thatâs when youâll know if you have what it takes to be as powerful"
"What if I train as hard as you?" Roman replied.
"You canât to be honest, I canât advise anyone to train as hard as I did, even Evelyn didnât train as hard as I did, not all S-ranks would reach the same height, just like weâre the strongest mages in the world, doesnât mean weâre the only S-rank" Victoria laughed as she finished speaking.
After she said the word strongest, the incident in the cave came to her mind. That was the reason the capital was under alert, but nothing had happened since then, so she wasnât that worried.
Still, the leader of the Blood Fang obtaining that sort of power wasnât something she thought about. If it came down to it, she and Evelyn would fight to the death to protect Avalon.
"Do you think I could be as strong or even stronger than both of you, a male like me?" Roman asked with a smile.
"Normally I can predict how strong a mage can become, but for you I canât, maybe because youâre a male, or maybe youâll be much stronger than me, or maybe you wonât amount to anything"
"But that shouldnât be your focus for now; you should think of winning against the 9 strongest students in your class," Victoria replied.
"9 strongest?"
"We already made arrangements for the tournament. Itâll be announced at the end of the week, where Evelyn and I will make our first appearance to the new students officially," Victoria spoke.
"Ohh, do you know who Iâm going to face?" Roman asked.
"The tournament would start a week before the actual tournament, here in the academy. All the class 1 students except you would duel, and the 9 strongest, along with you, would then participate in the Queenâs tournament in the Royal Palace," Victoria replied with a smirk.
"Shit, if Iâm facing one of the strongest, what if I lost the first match?"
"Then youâre done, itâs knockout. Once you lose, itâs over... Are you getting scared?" Victoria chuckled.
"A little. What if I face Ava in the first round? Thereâs no way she would want to lose when Iâm sure her family would attend, and the princess, too, and the rest of the other 9." Roman spoke.
"The Queen is also preparing a huge prize for first place, a prize that would make everyone think only about themselves, Good luck"
Victoria stood up and stretched her arms.
"I have somewhere to be. Train on your own. Itâs the only chance you have of catching up. 1 hour of training isnât going to make up for years of hard work," she said.
Roman nodded as he looked up at her.
She gave him one last glance. "Donât forget what I said, train...when the week is over, youâll start learning flame spells, itâs the element with the most spells created in the world"
Then she turned and walked away. She walked slowly till she got to the door and pushed it open. Roman watched her leave until she disappeared behind the doors.
Silence returned to the building as he was now alone.
Roman let out a deep breath and walked slowly toward the wall. His legs felt heavy, and his body still ached from the training earlier. He sat down with his back against the wall and slid to the ground.
He was tired.
Not just his body... even his thoughts felt tired. Yesterday was just him trying to reach Victoria, but today he had to make split-second decisions and take beatings for not doing the right thing.
He closed his eyes and leaned his head back.
Victoriaâs words echoed in his mind. Roman wasnât just in the academy so he could get stronger and fight in the Frontlines; he was aiming for the demon lord.
Roman couldnât tell how strong Victoria really was, but he had to be stronger than her, much stronger than her to attempt something like that.
The biggest issue wasnât training and all, but how was he supposed to meet the demon lord? The demon lord wasnât someone he could find just like that. No one had really seen the demon lord.
Roman smiled a little.
This wasnât even the start of his journey. First, he had a boulder in front of him, which was the tournament, before thinking about this.
Roman rested inside the building for around 30 minutes before standing up. This time, he wasnât heading back to the dorm; instead, he was going to the library.
He wanted to test something.
Now that he could control his Mana better, he was going to make Neia show him an illusion spell circle so he could try to copy and replicate it.
She wouldnât think anything about it so it was perfect.
Roman exited the building and walked towards the library. He pushed the door open and walked in, and this time Neia wasnât behind a book.
She was walking around the library looking at books, probably finding what to read.
Roman walked towards her without saying anything. he could only spot a few students in the library, and they were all busy with books.
Roman walked up behind Neia quietly, and when he was behind her, he tapped her shoulders.
Neia flinched and quickly turned around to see Roman with a smile on his face.
"Why did you do that? Also, I wasnât scared; I was just surprised." Neia spoke the next moment, and Roman chuckled.
"So what brings you here, If it was books you wouldnât have tried to scare me"
"Canât I just visit you" Roman spoke.
"You came to visit me?" Neia replied with a smile.
"Yeah," Roman said. " But I also came to ask you something."
Neia tilted her head. She knew he would just come to see her. "What is it?"
"I want you to show me an illusion spell circle, any spell, preferably a low-level spell"
She gave him a suspicious look. "Why?"
"Just curious. You made it look easy, and Iâm trying to understand how spell circles are built. Iâm having trouble holding it without activating the spell, so I want something I canât do," Roman replied.
Neia stared at him for a second. This was just reinforcing her theory that Roman was an illusion mage.
"Fine. But donât try anything weird. Illusion magic isnât as easy as it looks, Also itâll be better if I draw it"
She left where she was and walked back to the counter where she got a paper to draw on with ink.
A few seconds later, she sketched the illusion spell circle.
The markings were clean and complex, but Roman focused. His eyes followed every line, every curve.
"This is a basic spell called conceal, Itâs used to hide things, things hidden with their spell canât be seen, Also it doesnât work on a human, only objects"