(Continued from Part 1)

They arrived at the training grounds, in which the scene looked the same every day. You had various students there who trained, from all sorts of ranks and years. Generally speaking, A ranks didn't train here as often, which made Allen wonder where they even trained to begin with. Perhaps A ranks get their own special room?

"Alright, let's get some real training going on today!," Thomas said as he began stretching and getting pumped up.

"Always so excited, like usual," Allen laughed.

"Well of course! I'm always excited to get a good training session in. And it makes things better when I can go all out on you with my abilities, Al," Thomas said as he continued to stretch.

"Of course Thomas. Looking forward to it like usual," Allen said as he was doing his own warm up stretches, although not as enthusiastically as Thomas was.

As they both were stretching, Allen noticed that Cecily was acting a bit off. She seemed to be staring into space, but more out of fear. He noticed Thomas caught on to, and looked to where she was looking at.

Walking towards them was a student who wore a water academy uniform. He was a bit tall in figure, and had a sort of natural intimidating look. His face had a rather handsome look, enough to where he figured girls would fawn over him if not for his expression. His expression was one that looked like he was constantly observing his surroundings as if he was an inborn predator, ready to trample whatever got in his way. But what surprised Allen the most, was his hair and eyes. His long hair that barely touched his shoulders and mischievous looking eyes were both light blue in color, very similar to a water based color. Very similar to color to Cecily's hair color and eye color. Could he be a Rivertide?

"Well, if it isn't little Tom and Lily. It's been awhile you two," the student spoke as he walked up towards them.

Cecily proceeded to avoid eye contact as much as possible and seemed to be, shaking in fear? Thomas had immediately moved in front of her and Allen in an almost defensive maneuver.

"What do you want?," Thomas asked in such a serious yet frustrated tone that Allen has never heard from him before.

"It's just that, I haven't spoken with you two for what feels like forever. Just thought we could… catch up," he spoke with a mischievous smile on his face.

Upon closer inspection, Allen noticed something on his uniform. Very specifically the left side of his uniform. A pin that had "2C" written on it. He remembered what Thomas was telling him a week ago after Charles had interrupted their training. "This student has to be Nathaniel," Allen thought.

"I'm not interested. You can leave us be," Thomas commanded, although Allen detected a hint of uncertainty and slight fear in his tone.

"Why the unfriendliness? We have to maintain some sort of relationship since we're children in the great elemental families right? Or have your families already forgotten about you because of your magic?," he said with a playful, yet condescending smile.

"Just, just be quiet," Thomas muttered. Allen barely heard it from where he was standing.

"Hm? What did you say?," He asked, but didn't receive an answer. "Anyways, I wanted to talk Cecily about her and my arrangement together, isn't that right Lily?"

Lily showed no indication of giving him a response. She just stood there, refusing to look at him. After seeing what had happened, Allen thought he has had enough of the scene before him.

"Hey, I think that's enough," Allen told him.

At first he had a look of surprise on his face, as if he didn't even notice Allen was there the entire time. Then his surprise turned into interest.

"Ah, you must be the student my brother was going on about. I swear, he wouldn't shut up about you. It seems he wasn't wrong when he told me you barely have any magic at all. 'The Weakest Mage', the other students have been calling you. Allen Fleming, was it?," he asked, tilting his head in curiosity.

"Correct, my name is Allen Fleming. And you must be-,"

"The name's Nathaniel Rivertide. A pleasure to meet you," he bowed with his right hand on his chest as he spoke. Allen found it a rather weird way to introduce yourself. "I'll have to apologize, as it seems that a few of my friends bothered you in the academy's cafeteria about a week ago".

Allen remembered what he was referring to. A few students were bullying them since they were F ranks. He honestly didn't care at this point, he was more worried about the current situation.

"Don't worry about it. So, what about this arrangement you were speaking of?," Allen asked him, maintaining a defensive position in case anything happened.

"Oh that? It's just that I had asked miss Lily here years back if she would take my hand in marriage obviously," he stated.

"What? Wait aren't you both cousins?," he asked, a confused look on his face.

"Well of course we are. It isn't uncommon for cousins in the great elemental families to marry and bear children. And if that isn't possible, then someone from the other prestigious families, even if they are a step below ours. After all, we wouldn't want to dirty our bloodline, now wouldn't we?," he said with a mischievous smile once more.

"E-excuse me?," Allen said as his anger started to swell up.

"So of course, I asked Cecily for her hand in marriage. Her older sister is a bit… well how should I say it? Ah, nevermind," he explained. "Either way, Cecily is the only one fit as I see it. Just unfortunately, she's declined my every advance and keeps around that Terrastone boy. And here I thought our families had a mutual understanding that we aren't to bear children with someone from a different element. Doing so causes… problems, you understand?"

Allen could not believe what he was hearing. Every word out of Nathaniel's mouth made no sense to him and just made him angrier. He had to keep remaining himself to keep his cool, otherwise his other magic could get exposed. He noticed Thomas remained quiet as he watched the exchange between Allen and Nathaniel. Thomas kept looking back at Cecily and then back at them. Finally, Allen took a deep breath for a second and finally spoke.

"Well it seems to me that Cecily isn't interested in this 'arrangement' of yours. So you can stop asking her about it," Allen stated in a calmer tone, but the anger was still prevalent in his eyes.

"Well, why don't we ask Cecily her thoughts on the matter?", he turned to look at Cecily. "So Cecily, how about it?".

Cecily still refused to speak. The whole time she has remained silent and it seemed like she was going to stay that way.

"She's not interested, Nathaniel. She has never been interested. There's no need to keep asking." Thomas sternly told him.

"Well, I want to hear it from her herself. Cecily, tell me-".

"I think Thomas made it perfectly clear what her response is. She's not interested," Allen snapped, his anger finally seeping through.

"Oh, is that so?," Nathaniel said with a serious look on his face for a moment. "Well then, nevermind,"

Allen took a second to think. There's no way he just decided to stop.

"Well then Allen. Why don't you and I have a little duel?," Nathaniel quickly changed the subject. "If what my brother says is true, you defeated him in the entrance exam duel, yes?".

"That's correct. I did defeat Charles," Allen responded, still not letting his guard down.

"Well then, how about it? Let's have a duel to see who is stronger then," he smiled condescendingly.

Allen remembered what Thomas had said about Nathaniel. Thomas specifically told him not to duel with Nathaniel.

"I refuse," Allen stated.

"Well, that's very unfortunate," he sighed. "It looks like I'll have to take matters into my own hands".

Nathaniel quickly summoned what seemed to be a water magic circle from his right hand. It was an average sized one, but Allen sensed something off about it. It was aimed for Cecily.

Allen quickly unsheathed his sword and moved in the way of Cecily so the magic circle was instead aimed at him. He pointed his sword up in defense, ready to block any incoming attack he may throw at him.

Both Thomas and Cecily looked in utter shock at the scene in front of them. This was the first time Cecily looked directly at what was happening in front of her. Even some of the nearby students looked in shock at the scene unfolding in front of them.

"So Allen, what will it be? If you're not going to accept my duel here, then unfortunately I'll have to do what I must to get what I want," he said with the most sickening grin Allen had ever seen on someone before. He still pointed his magic circle towards them, ready to send out his spell at any given time.

Allen gritted his teeth thinking what he should do. He was almost certain that Nathaniel would send a spell their way if he didn't act. Allen doesn't know how powerful he is firsthand, so this could turn out disastrous if he doesn't act quickly.

"Very well Nathaniel! I'll accept your duel!," Allen shouted at him in his anger.

"Well now, that's what I like to hear," Nathaniel said as he immediately stopped casting his spell.  "Very good, very good,".

"And if I win this duel, then you will leave Cecily and Thomas alone," Allen said.

"Very well, I will leave them alone from now on if you win the duel. As for if I win… well, I'll have to think about that now won't we?," he laughed.

"You can leave us alone now," Allen angrily said.

"Yes, yes I shall leave… for now. I will contact you later about the official details about our future duel. I'll see you later, Allen fleming," he laughed as he left.

Allen couldn't believe what just happened. He had accepted Nathaniel's duel, which Thomas had specifically told him not to do. Either way, he did not regret it. He turned back around to Thomas and Cecily.

"Hey are you guys okay? Cecily?," he asked in a worried tone.

"I- I'm fine," Cecily managed to say.

"I'm okay, I'm just very frustrated," Thomas said as he gritted his teeth and clenched his fists.

"I think we should head out," Allen tried to push them out of the training grounds, as they were getting a lot of unwanted attention.

"I- I think so too," Thomas quickly agreed.

Allen figured they were both shaken up from what just happened, so he figured he would talk about what happened with them tomorrow. He led them to Cecily's dorm first, going as far as they could since males aren't allowed in some areas of the female dorms. Allen then walked Thomas back to his dorm. The whole time none of them said a word. Thomas seemed to be frustrated with himself, while Cecily was still scared out of her mind.

Allen walked himself back to his dorm and sat down on his bed. There wasn't much they could do in the situation, so he just hoped what he did was the best way he could've handled it. If he had fought Nathaniel there in the training grounds with the intent to harm, they could've gotten suspended or even expelled.

Allen doesn't know yet how powerful Nathaniel is, or when exactly his duel will be. The only thing he could think of doing is asking William for help. William can't directly interfere in any way, but he can at least offer some advice or something.

The only thing on his mind is that he wanted to defeat Nathaniel. He was absolutely frustrated with how Nathaniel treated Thomas and Cecily. He was going to win, and get Nathaniel to leave them alone.

Either way, this would mark Allen's first duel at the academy. There was the entrance exam duel, but that doesn't count for records. He decided that he will train even harder until the duel happens so he can be sure to win.

Volume 1 End