"You'll show me what a real mage is? Oh really, will you now?"
He truly seemed to think he, as a newly minted mage, could show me what a real mage was. I'd been about to decline the duel but now...
"Since you want to broaden my horizons I shall accept."
Prince Albion looked like he wanted to intervene but held back. Meanwhile, I could feel a very subtle killing intent coming from Eleanor. She was clutching a dagger hidden in her dress and despite her perfectly kept smile looked like she was ready to disembowel her daughter's fiancé.
The man in question was euphoric after hearing my answer. He boldly boasted in front of the other nobles about how great his victory would be and invited them all to watch our duel.
We moved out of the palace and entered a courtyard that looked to be a training area. The arrogant noble walked to the middle of the training area where a square had been marked on the ground with charcoal and beckoned for me to enter as well.
"Now, Albion, you will act as referee. He's your guest so you too should take responsibility for his affront to me."
Begrudgingly prince Albion agreed and stepped into the square. After making sure we were both ready, he raised both his hands.
"May the duel begin."
After lowering his hands, prince Albion quickly left the square and prepared to spectate. The arrogant noble held up both his hands and began to chant.
"Oh, fiery power of the smoldering embers, come by my call and burn my enemy. Shine like the sun and melt my enemy with your neverending heat..."
His chant was taking forever. You'd think he was preparing some powerful or complex spell that could wipe out an entire city but no, based on the amount of magic he was gathering between his palms it would at most cover half the square we were standing on.
"Scorching Flare!"
He finished his chant and from the space between his palms, a rocket-like cluster of flames erupted and flew at me. It had a diameter of about three meters and looked to me like a big fireball with a fiery tail.
Not bad considering that his magic power was so feeble he couldn't have advanced long ago but not enough to back up his arrogance.
He looked quite proud of himself as he watched the spell fly at me. Before it came too close I raised my right hand, manipulated space, and made the spell reappear behind him.
With no time to react after seeing his spell disappear without so much as touching me the arrogant noble was hit in the back by his own attack. He hadn't put up any shields around himself thinking he would win with just one attack.
The spell touched his back and erupted with all its power. Flames gushed out from the epicenter and threatened to envelop him. His back was already being roasted as it had been the first point of contact.
Moments before the flames could completely engulf and he'd certainly lose his life, a flood of blue flames rushed over from where the spectators stood and overwhelmed the red flames from the spell.
The arrogant noble screamed as the blue flames touched him, he hadn't realized they were meant to save him. The caster was a rank one archmage who apparently specialized in the element of fire. Unfortunately, he'd yet to gain an innate understanding so he couldn't keep the flames from hurting someone.
Still, the blue flames were being controlled quite well so they only brushed against the arrogant noble lightly. Then the caster revealed himself, he walked out of the crowd of spectating nobles and hurried to the boy.
His looks were an aged version of the arrogant noble, probably his father or uncle. After making sure the injured youth was alive he turned to me with a somewhat sour expression.
"Don't you think you went a bit overboard?"
"He initiated the duel, he cast the offensive spell, and he was the one who didn't set up any shields. Also, since he never said he'd given up I'd been allowed to stop you from saving him. Which I did not."
"I apologize for my son's rudeness."
He picked up his son and walked off to get him the treatment he needed. Prince Albion immediately dispersed the crowd and invited me into a more private setting.
Inside his study, we were finally able to relax a little. Nobles were so exhausting with all their mannerism.
"Really now prince Albion, when you invited me to have a meal with you I hadn't expected it to be a royal banquet."
"Just Albion is fine. And for the record, I hadn't planned on having a royal banquet either. But due to your sudden arrival, many nobles wished to find out more about you. I rarely have guests so you are a person of great interest to them. I couldn't decline them."
"At least it's over now. But I'm curious, what's up with princess Nora's fiancé being such a wimp?"
"As you saw for yourself his father is an archmage and also the most powerful human in our kingdom. He's a good man but he has a weak spot for his son so one thing led to another and the engagement was unavoidable."
"The most powerful you say? I'd bet you'd beat him in a fair fight."
"You may be right but I've yet to break through and become an archmage. Actual strength is sometimes inferior to a title that holds great respect."
"So he acts as a deterrent against other kingdoms. But does your kingdom truly only have one archmage?"
"While the other kingdoms may have more we simply aren't worth the effort since we could weaken one kingdom enough to make it vulnerable against the others. But let's not speak of such negative things. You mentioned during the banquet that you were looking to open a branch here?"