In the meantime, while Evangeline and Samuel were enjoying themselves, Julian was in quite a pinch.
'Goddamnit. This Curtis guy is such a pain!', he thought as he recalled the outrageous proposal by Sophia's childhood friend, Curtis.
"Julian... I'm sorry for him... but... I think you should take the duel and teach this bastard a lesson.", Sophia told Julian.
"Hmm.", Julian just nodded.
In the past few weeks, he had begun feeling protective of Sophia. After all, she had been helping him a lot ever since he returned from the other world.
He did think that he would cut ties with her after the whole incident with Samuel and Evangeline, but at last, he decided against it, since he needed a lot more help from her before he could become independent.
Also, because he hadn't even known the warmth of another human while spending a decade in the other world, he became addicted to it after Sophia, one of the most beautiful girls he had ever seen, was extremely kind towards him. In the beginning, he was super on guard towards everyone, even Sophia, so he tried to avoid contact with them, but slowly, he learned to trust humans again.
'I'm not gonna let this dumbass take her away from me... If need be, I'll kill him...', Julian thought coldly.
'...I wonder how that Samuel guy would've handled this situation... probably a lot better than me... He's insanely smart after all...', he recalled seeing how cold and calm Samuel was during their entire duel.
After spending a decade constantly fighting, he had gotten the skill of differentiating people based on their motives. But when he tried to classify Samuel, he failed. It was like Samuel's mind didn't have any motive. He just wanted to win. He had no other plans while fighting.
'But that's what's so confusing... he looks like he spends most of his time planning something. Always thinking deeply, and never letting his emotions show... How can a guy like that suddenly change when he's fighting?', he wondered.
'Come to think of it... he was way too calm for a 17-year-old who got his arm shattered by an aura-imbued sword... WAIT!', a sudden realization struck Julian.
'I'm super calm and have a very high pain tolerance because I spent a decade fighting in the other world... what if... what if he's the same as me? what if he has also spent that much time in some other world and become like that?', Julian started to come up with a hypothesis.
"... Sophia...", Julian asked.
"Yes?"
"I need to talk to Samuel Francis..."
"What?"
"Let's go. I'll destroy Curtis within 5 hours."
"???"
"I think... I just got a clue...", Julian muttered silently so that Sophia couldn't hear him.
--- Sophia's POV ---
'What's wrong all of a sudden?', she thought as she looked at Julian. His face was cold and emotionless.
'So cool...', she blushed.
She secretly had a thing for guys who looked cold.
'But... why Samuel Francis all of a sudden? He was the guy that beat him in that duel... Although, no other student knows about that...'
'Also... he took Eve with him...', Sophia got angry at that thought.
Sophia was a Wind and Thunder mage. Her power was something to be respected and feared. But even she wasn't sure about confronting Samuel Francis head-on. He was on another level... Almost as good as Julian Asher...
'He beat my Julian in the duel... I can't help but detest him... I'm sure he isn't a bad person, but I don't care... he hurt Julian and took away Eve... I won't forgive him!'
As she was running with Julian, she involuntarily started to recall her past.
It was something she wasn't proud of, to say the least.
It was around the time when she was 8 or 9. She had met the poor and miserable Evangeline, struggling with a disease. Just remembering it feels nauseating for her.
As soon as she got close to Evangeline, something unexpected happened.
[You have found {Evangeline, The Hier of the Bloody Witch}!]
[Quest Received!: Befrined {Evangeline, The Hier of the Bloody Witch}]
[Reward: Talent Increase in {Wind Magic}]
She told no one about the System notifications she got. She wasn't the first to come close to Evangeline, but for some reason, the System had picked her to be the activator of the quest.
At that time, however, Sophia didn't know much about the System. She blindly followed everything the System told her to.
She did some horrible things to Evangeline because the System gave her quests and rewards for it.
Sophia still regrets it to this day.
And this brings us to why she detests Samuel. She suspects that Samuel has gotten the same quest from the System and that he will also harm Evangeline because of the quests and rewards.
'I can't let Eve go through something like that again... I will save her!'
--- At night, after Julian was done beating up Curtis ---
'Finally. This idiot gave up...', Julian thought as he looked at the handsome boy with a muscular build, laying upside down on the arena's ground.
He paid him no mind and left for Samuel's hotel.
He power-walked to the receptionist and asked for Samuel's room number.
The receptionist, a lady, was flustered at Julian's handsome face and couldn't refuse.
He got on the elevator, power walked to the room number given to him by the receptionist.
But, as he was about to knock, he heard something.
*aanng!* *mmmph!* *yes!*
'... what...', he was dumbfounded.
Although it was muffled, those sounds were very clearly of a woman moaning...
*kiss me!* *mmmhhh* *ahh!* *so good!*
He continued to stand still in front of the door. Absolutely dumbfounded.
The moaning noises filled his ear and his mind.
Suddenly, in a jolt, he retreated from the door. His face was flushed red.
'H-h-h-... HE'S HAVING SEX?!?!?!?!'
'Cr-crazy! This is a school field trip, y'know! You can't just fuck somebody!'
Defeated and embarrassed, Julian left and went to his own room to rest up.
'Whatever! I'll just ask him tomorrow! I can't interrupt a fellow man while he's having fun! That's just rude and lowers my own self-respect!'