14 Chapter 14: White Knigh (1/2)

”Ah…Albert lost.”

The guy named Nick groaned and slapped his forehead.

”Bloody hell, how do you avoid something like that?” Louis complained. ”He literally just engulfed the whole stage in fire!”

Cecilia watched as the staff carried Albert's charred body off the stage on a stretcher so that he could receive treatment. They would ferry him all the way to the infirmary where Teacher Cure was waiting. Chang Cheng had already recovered somewhat, and returned to his seat with bandages and gauzes wrapped over his wounds and burns. Apparently he had elected not to wait for Teacher Cure to complete her healing spell before returning.

That was fine. Defensive mages such as Chang Cheng had rapid regeneration. Now that he had received the basic healing spells from Teacher Cure, it would only take him the rest of the day to fully recover.

On the other hand, Hal Gunther was conspicuous by his absence. The guy was so much more injured than Chang Cheng that it would require Teacher Cure's full attention to heal him back to normal. Probably one of the reasons why Chang Cheng demurred on spending too much time in the infirmary. His teammate needed the treatment more than he did.

”What do we do now?” the burly guy directed the question toward his leader. Cecilia Stuart was folding her arms and pursing her lips as she considered her options.

After a moment of pondering, she turned to the handsome guy.

”Doug, do you think you can handle him?”

”If you so order it, I'll give it a shot, but no promises.”

The good-looking, blond guy shrugged casually, a smile touching his lips. Cecilia glanced at him seriously.

”How do you rate your chances?”

”About 60-40, I suppose?”

”Oh!” Elena brightened up. ”As expected of you, Doug. You have a 60% chance of winning? That's better than the rest of us, save the Captain.”

”I think you misunderstand me.” Doug's eyes gleamed mischievously. He tilted his head toward the Vermilion Phoenix. ”I have a 40% chance of winning against a monster like that.”

Elena's jaw dropped. ”Even you aren't confident that you'll be able to fight on par, Doug?”

”Like I said, I can give it a shot.” He glanced at Cecilia, who nodded almost imperceptibly. ”It'll be a good experience anyhow.”

Having gotten his leader's permission, he jumped to his feet and began stretching himself. Then he strode toward the stage. As he did so, all the girls in the spectators squealed and screamed, much to the guys' dismay.

”Sir Doug!”

”How handsome!”

”I love you, Doug!”

”Marry me!”

The guys looked at each other in dismay, but didn't say anything. There was nothing for them to say at all. Doug was quite the looker, much better looking than me. Even the girls from my school rooted for him over me.

Evidently this Doug dude had female fans all over the Federation.

”Get him, Richard!”

”Teach that pretty boy a lesson!”

”Burn him to ash!”

On the other hand, all the guys ended up cheering for me instead. United in their hatred against the handsome Doug, and jealous of him because of all the affection and attention the girls were fawning upon him, the guys in my school jumped onto my side. They appeared to relish the prospect of the pretty boy getting toasted by my Vermillion Phoenix. If his features were blackened to ash, would the girls still be infatuated with him?

I honestly didn't care. I had better things to do than to be jealous over a handsome guy or vie for the girls' attention. Previously, I had been a thirty-plus uncle before I reincarnated into my current young body, so I was subject to the same teenage hormonal tendencies as my schoolmates.

”Doug Daniels. You already know that I'm from Crowley.” Doug chuckled good-naturedly and extended a hand toward me. I accepted it. His grip was firm, but he didn't resort to that bullshit tactic of crushing my hand to show off his strength. ”You've put on an impressive display this far and humbled my school. Please keep that up! I look forward to exchanging a few pointers with you. Let's have a good fight, okay?”

”I'll do my best,” I replied non-committedly.

From what I knew, Doug Daniels was known as the White Knight of Crowley's Grand Arcane Academy. It wasn't solely because he was handsome, chivalrous and popular with the girls. I had seen a few of his fights, and he was a superlative swordsman.

And right now that Doug Daniels was drawing a sword from nowhere.

”Fighters, take your stance!” Teacher Fielding announced.

Doug held his sword in both hands. From first impression, he appeared to be relaxed, adopting an easy, casual offensive stance.

Yet…

What is with this pressure?

All my instincts were screaming at me. I could intuitively sense how dangerous Doug was. He was still smiling at me in a friendly manner, but I was breaking out in cold sweat just from seeing him hold his sword and settle into a standard stance.