"It's Sanchez Hilda, not Hassen," said the fatty as he fervently shook his head. "You even got the name wrong... It seems that you really don't hold him in any regard at all..."
Larne's face reddened in embarrassment. He had a friend who when he was younger always taunted him as him being a nerd, so the person reminded of his friend whenever he saw his face.
"It can be seen that this fellow is exceedingly ruthless in his methods from how he gathered all those people to beat you up some three years ago. Even though he should be quite confident in defeating you during the duel, given his background as a noble, he should be quite adept at using some other underhanded plot to make his victory doubly certain. I wouldn't be surprised if he dares to try something sinister. The next open match will be the 12th one and he's on the challenger list of your 14th open match. He would probably be trying something within the next few days to weaken you before the match. The only thing that I still can't figure out is the origin of those two Gold level CoreEnergy badges. It doesn't seem like they were issued from the Tapa Kingdom either..."
"Oh well, let's stop worrying our minds over something like this. With my capabilities, no matter what kind of trick this fellow pulls, it'll be useless just like what happened with the assailants just now. It's getting late, so we should all be getting some rest."
"Aje, you're only an Iron rank yet you dare to claim that you're capable? For your safety, I will be staying over at your place tonight just in case. You do have an extra bed, right?" asked Pella. Now that Larne was an important piece for his money-making scheme, Pella had to make sure that he would not come to any harm.
"Nope, the other servant room is already occupied by Tally. You can either use the couch or sleep on the floor," replied Larne.
The next morning, Fred, the Purewater Academy Headmaster, heard about how Iron Landon, the Master Swordsman Undefeated, had been ambushed on the way home the night before by two First Level Grandmaster Swordsmen. Even though help ended up coming for him and forced the two assailants away, Larne didn't fare that well either and had incurred some injuries.
This was music to the academy headmaster's ears. His only complaint was that they didn't manage to take his life too. Should that have happened, the Purewater Academy's awkward problem would instantly vanish! What a shame! Academy Headmaster Fred gave a long sigh and sent people to the Orca Academy to check if the duels will still be held today or not, with the actual aim being to find out the extent of injuries incurred by Larne.
Academy Headmaster Fred decided that if Larne really was hurt badly, he will not agree to postponing the duel to another day and insist that Larne would lose by default for not showing up. If he didn't do something like this in Larne's moment of weakness, there was no saying whether the Purewater Academy would become laughing stocks like the other 13 academies before them. Given that Larne had defeated over two hundred of the Master level instructors from the previous academies, Academy Headmaster Fred was quite certain that his instructors wouldn't fare much better either. He was rather pleased by the timely attack that had put Larne at a disadvantage. It's better if he doesn't show up at all and concede his victory. Well, even if he plans to fight, I'll have to make sure to encourage the 20 instructors representing my academy to do their best, thought the academy head.
If the 20 Master level instructors couldn't even defeated an injured Iron level, then the logical conclusion would be that the instructors of the Purewater Academy were useless weaklings. Academy Headmaster Fred wallowed in frustration once again and decided that he would sack these Master level instructors should they all lose to Larne.
Without much delay, the people he sent came back with the news that Iron Landon would not be postponing the date of the duel despite the Orca Academy's advice to do so. He was quoted saying that he was only going to fight against Master level instructors and not Grandmaster Level instructors so there was no need to move the duel to another day even though he was injured.
This news worried the Academy Headmaster Fred as he wondered if it was intentionally leaked by that old bastard of the Orca Academy. However, the people he sent to the herbalist paid 1 gold coin for information that stated he was indeed hurt. The alchemist even described the injuries Larne had incurred: there was a slash wound on his left shoulder and a stab wound around his right upper torso. He even stressed that while those wounds posed no threat to his life, it would affect Larne's mobility quite visibly, especially the one on his right torso, which has made it hard for Larne to even lift his arm and would require at least two months to recover completely.
Academy Headmaster Fred excitedly brought the instructors of his academy to the Orca Academy for the duels only to return in the afternoon filled with anger and frustration. Even though the battles were all pretty close and the Master level instructors of his academy had gave the best of their efforts and performed far better than they would usually have, for some reason, all of them lost by a hair's breath. For some reason, Iron Landon's luck was just that good and he managed to gain victory by the narrowest margin despite his impaired mobility.
In the case of the last battle, he even managed to win by using the scabbard he had cast on the ground before the duel started. Who would've expected that with his longsword knocked away, he would be able to pick up his scabbard and sheath his opponent's sword in it when the attack came and swing his shortsword to his opponent's neck? Nobody would be satisfied with a victory like that! It was merely a stroke of luck!
Aside from Academy Headmaster Fred, the other academy heads also wore unpleasant expressions when Stevens received a report from the finance department of the Orca Academy.
The report stated that a group of instructors lead by Instructor Martins had purchased 100 gold coins worth of betting tickets while the members of the Swordsmanship Society had bought 300 gold coins worth as well with the Security Division also chipping in 500 gold coins into the betting pool. The reason was that they wanted to show support for Instructor Landon who has so adamantly decided that he would continue dueling despite having been injured the night before.
After the duels in the morning ended, , the finance department of the academy had to pay out 180 gold Kans of reward for the 900-gold-Kans bet whereas the money earned for the audience tickets and the ones who bet on Larne's loss only amounted to 63 gold coins, 1 large silver and 3 small silvers. That meant that the academy had incurred a loss of over 116 gold kans for the day.
In the afternoon, the Orca Academy Head issued a new notice that stated that the finance department would no longer be accepting bets for Instructor Landon's victory. That meant that people could only bet on his loss in the future.
"Tsk, who would be so dumb to hand their money over to the academy like that?" said Pella as he threw the notice into the trash.
.............