The crowd is stunned into silence along with the blond human.

  “What… do you mean, no?” he asks with a look of utter confusion.

  “Well, first of all, I’m eating my lunch. Second, I don’t even know who you are. Third, there’s nothing in it for me,” I say as I take a bite of my beef stew.

  “You’d get the opportunity to face me, Julian Brodero, the most handsome first year and dare I say the most elegant you’ll ever meet,” he says with pazzazz.

  “All three of my points still stand.”

  “Well, uhm, I… wasn’t expecting this. Uh, oh! I know, how about we put our honor on the line? We'll have an honorable duel that bards will sing about for ages to come. The Elegant Julian vs. The Chosen One,” he says, striking an elegant pose.

  Chewing on my beef stew, I stare in boredom. “I’m good,” I say in between bites.

  The crowd starts to look disappointed and is getting smaller by the second. I slide another cookie over to the downed Hopper. Julian stands there baffled until he seems to have thought of something.

  “If you win, I’ll… give you my mother's secret cookie-,” he says.

  “Deal,” I say the moment the word cookie leaves his mouth

  The arena is filled to the brim with students who have come to watch us duel. Hopper is slumped over with a cookie in his mouth, and I’m standing here wondering why I folded so quickly. Damn my love for the culinary arts.

  Julian stands across from me in gaudy armor and seems to be wielding a gold rapier. I’m not entirely sure that’s practical, but based on how he’s blowing kisses at the audience, he might not be practical at all. Someone throws a rose at him, and he catches it with his mouth. Not practical at all.

  “Can we get this over with?” I say, grabbing a sword from the rack.

  “Of course, this duel will be the height of elegance,” he says, pushing a golden lock of hair out of his face.

  “So, what are the rules?” I ask, doing a couple of practice swings.

  “We’ll keep it simple. The first to say that you surrender loses. Let’s keep it clean,” he says, readying his rapier.

  “Ok. Then by the [System], I, CJ, accept this duel.”

  “By the [System], I, Julian, accept this duel.”

  As he begins to charge, I quickly put my hand up and say, “Wait? What are the rules again?”

  He stops and looks confused. “What?”

  “Well, I want to make sure I understand the rules,” I say, hiding a devilish grin.

  “Oh, uh, Ok. Which part did you not understand?” he says, lowering his rapier.

  I scratch my head. “I’m confused by the win condition. Why would my telling you that you’ve surrendered equal me losing?” I ask, playing it up.

  “What do you mean?” Julian says, confused.

  “That’s what you said,” I retort.

  “No, I told you that the first to say you surrender loses,” he tries to explain.

  “That’s what I don’t understand. Why would my saying that you surrender lead me to lose?” I say, trying to goad him.

  Frustrated, he clarifies, “When you say I surrender, you lose.”

  Everyone in the arena crowd is stunned in silence. Julian looks up at the [System] message with utter confusion.

  “What happened?” he asks me.

  “Well, you surrendered.”

  “You tricked me!”

  “Yup. Now, I expect that cookie recipe before the end of the day,” I say as I start to walk away.

  “Wait! I want a rematch,” he says, chasing me.

  “I’m tired and I don’t really see why I should do that,” I say as I start to exit the arena.

  “Another wager. I’ll give you a… an MP potion if you win!” Julian exclaims.

  The entire arena gasps at the mention of an MP potion. Stopping in place, I hide a devilish smile. Like taking candy from a baby.

  “Ok.”

  A look of relief passes his face as we walk back to our starting positions.

  “Same rules as last time?” I ask as I stretch.

  “Yes,” he says as he readies himself.

  “Then by the [System], I, CJ, accept this duel.”

  “Then by the [System], I, Julian, accept this duel.”

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  Julian charges forward. His rapier at his side. Instantly, he’s in front of me. He’s fast. The blade pierces towards me. With my blade, I barely parry the attack and step back. By the time I get my footing, another stab flies towards me. My foot slips, and I barely dodge out of the way.

  “As expected from The Chosen One,” Julian says as he readies his next attack.

  Ok. Time to get lucky. Reaching into my pocket I [Throw] a pebble at him. The rapier pivots as it parries the pebble. Without missing a beat, I continue to send pebble after pebble his way. His rapier glides through the air, parrying each pebble. Using this opportunity, I rush towards him and [Throw] my sword at him.

  Surprised, he barely parries the sword, giving me an opening. I tackle him to the ground. Pinning him, I rip the rapier out of his hand and throw it to the side. He struggles to get out, but I put my entire weight on him. I then punch his face with all my strength. Once, twice, three times I hit him before I feel a gust of wind that sends me flying back.

  As I land, I roll until I finally stop. Getting my bearings, I see Julian rushing to his rapier. Using the pebbles in my pocket, I [Throw] them at the rapier. With each hit, the rapier is sent further and further away from him as I close in. The moment I get close, Julian raises his hand with a light blue glow. I then feel a rush of wind that sends me flying backwards. As I do, I send one last pebble at his head.

  The pebble bonks against his head as I land. Not wasting any time, I rush towards. As I pass my sword, I pick it up and [Throw] it. Julian barely grabs his rapier in time as he spins around and parries the sword. The sword clatters to the ground as he eyes me up.

  Alright, this is harder than I thought it was going to be. Turns out elegance isn’t all he’s about. What am I going to do? I don’t have my sword anymore to throw him off with, and he’ll parry the pebbles. I can’t exactly [Steal] from him either. That leaves me with only one option.

  With a relaxed stance, I put my hands in my pockets. “Game. Set. Match,” I say with a smug grin.

  Julian tenses as he looks at me. “What do you mean? I have you dead to rights. It will be my elegant victory,” he says as he goes to take a step forward.

  “Are you sure about that?” I ask menacingly.

  He stops and looks around him, searching for any hidden traps or contraptions, but finds nothing but pebbles.

  “The pebbles?” he asks in utter confusion.

  “Did you really think I would just throw pebbles in a duel?” I ask, fully knowing that’s exactly what I did.

  Julian steps back from the nearest pebble. “What did you do?” he asks, fear lacing his every word.

  “What do you think?” I ask as I take a step forward.

  Seemingly surrounded by pebbles, Julian finds no way to get out. “Impossible. You’ve made a magic circle using pebbles. As expected from The Chosen One.”

  With a smug grin, I say, “Of course, and if you don’t want it to go off, I recommend you give up.”

  Oh, thank the Gods that those pebbles fell in a weirdly circular way. Otherwise, he might’ve realised that they really are just pebbles. Nothing special about them. I literally picked them up from an alleyway, but I can see doubt in his eyes, or is that confidence? Don’t tell me he thinks he can tank the supposed magic circle. He’d have to be an idiot to think that.

  With a smile, he laughs. “This is the elegance I was looking for. To think I underestimated you. To show my gratitude, I’ll tank this magic of yours,” he says as he takes a step forward.

  As he does, his foot slips on one of the pebbles, sending him falling. His head cracks against the stone floor, knocking him out cold.

  Standing there dumbfounded, I hear the roar of the arena as people begin to cheer. Well, that was lucky. I’m not entirely sure what I was going to do after he stepped on the ‘magic circle’. Basking in the glory, I see Hopper, who’s seemingly just woke up. Dazed and confused, he looks at me and then the arena.

  “What happened?” he mouths.

  I shrug back as I head out of the arena. I just won a cookie recipe and an MP potion. The day is looking up.

  With labored breath, I look at the newly reorganized greenhouse. It took the better half of yesterday and today, but I think I’m finished. Everything is exactly where it should be, and all excess foliage has been trimmed. Hells, I even brushed the floor. Everything is spick and span, except for her.

  My gaze lands on Helia, who is lounging in a chair with a book over her face. The sounds of snoring can be heard escaping the Dryad as I grow close. With a kick to the chair, she startles awake, dropping the book on the floor.

  “I told you to watch the magic oven,” I say, pointing to my broken magic oven.

  Helia wipes the drool from her mouth as she blinks herself awake. “I was watching it.”

  “Oh, really? Is that why you were snoring like a bear?” I ask as I pour my MP into the oven.

  If I hadn’t checked it, the oven would’ve started to cool down. Which would cause an imperfect bake and would subsequently diminish the flavor of the cookies. If I want something done, I have to do it myself.

  “I don’t… What kind of cookies are you making?” she says as she inches closer to the oven.

  “They’re snickerdoodles. I won the recipe from this Julian kid I fought in a duel,” I say as I control the temperature of the oven.

  “You already got into a duel? Odd. Most people wait until after winter break to challenge people. Did you win anything else?” she asks as she reaches for a cookie.

  Swatting her hand away, I answer, “Yeah, I got an MP potion.”

  “Really? Those are rare for first years to have. This Julian kid must have friends in the upper years,” she says as she sits back down.

  “Are they really that good? What do they even do?” I ask as I put oven mitts on.

  “Well, they increase your passive MP recovery rate by a lot, but only for a day. Most people use it to train [Skills] that require MP to use. Basically, they’re a great training tool,” she says, leaning back in the chair.

  “That does sound useful. I might give it to a friend of mine. He’s going to be dueling Lupin and-” I say as I pull the cookies out of the oven.

  Helia just about jumps out of her seat, interrupting me. “Did you say Lupin!? What did your friend do to earn that sadist's attention!?” she exclaims.

  “Let’s just say he pissed him off. Do you know anything about Lupin that might be helpful?” I ask as I let the cookies sit.

  “Yeah, I watched one of his fights when I was a second year. I would recommend that your friend forfeit as soon as he can,” she says without adding anything useful, “but now that I’m thinking about it… There was something I found odd about his fights.”

  My point ears perk up. “What?” I ask, curiously.

  “Give me a cookie and I’ll tell you,” she says.

  “Fine,” I say, handing her a cookie. “Now spill.”

  “There was this fight where his opponent couldn’t even land a hit on him, but at the end of the fight, he was still hurt. I found it odd at the time. These cookies are amazing,” she says, eating my cookies.

  He didn’t get hit, but he still got hurt? I’ll have to keep that in mind. As I think my hand absentmindedly reaches for a cookie, which soon finds its way to my mouth. By the Gods, this is amazing!!