Chapter 23

Winter Winslet.

He asked,

“What are you doing here?”

“……”

“Just how long are you planning to keep staring like that?”

Shannon slightly tilted her chin upward.

Running into the very person she was trying so hard to challenge to a duel and right when she was in the middle of making arrangements for it was far from pleasant.

Still, she forced down the surge of emotion rising inside.

They were still professor and student, after all.

“I came to see the dean. I was going to ask him to officiate our duel.”

At those words, the secretary at the dean’s office let out a heavy sigh.

When Shannon glared across the desk, Professor Winslet’s gaze naturally followed hers.

In the weighty silence that followed, he looked back and forth between Shannon and the secretary, then gave a small nod.

“I see. That explains it.”

Explains what, exactly?

Shannon planted a hand on her hip and stood with a defiant posture, watching what Professor Winslet would do.

He stepped past Shannon as if cutting in line and walked right up to the secretary.

“Dean Kingfisher?”

“He’s in.”

“Bring him out.”

“Understood.”

Not even five seconds after the secretary disappeared into the office, a series of thuds sounded from within.

Then—slam!

A man came rushing out in a flurry.

Shannon was struck by how oddly voluminous his hair looked. It just didn’t match the rest of his appearance.

“Oh my, if it isn’t Professor Winslet! What brings you here today? If you had just called, I would’ve come running to you anywhere!”

“Busy?”

“Not at all! In fact, I had nothing to do, so I was just trimming my bonsai. Shall we go inside?”

…What is this?

Shannon began to doubt her own eyes and ears.

Was this groveling man really the dean of the Magic Department?

And more importantly, didn’t his secretary just say he was in a meeting?

That without an appointment, she couldn’t meet him?

She was boiling with anger.

Shannon’s anger began to simmer quietly.

Professor Winslet didn’t seem to care and calmly called out to her.

“Hand it over.”

“…Huh?”

Hand over what?

“You said you needed a witness for the duel, didn’t you?”

With that, Professor Winslet snatched the paper from Shannon’s hands.

It was the document required for witness registration.

He passed it to the dean.

“Sign it.”

“Oh, yes. Right here, correct?”

The dean scribbled his name without even reading the form.

Shannon was baffled.

Wasn’t the position of dean supposed to carry serious authority within the academy?

Then why was someone like that bowing and scraping before Professor Winslet like this?

A moment later, when Shannon got the document back, she confirmed the dean’s signature was indeed there on the certificate…and let out a hollow sigh.

The task that had plagued her for the past week was now resolved so effortlessly.

While she absentmindedly bit her lip, Professor Winslet spoke again.

“How far along are your preparations?”

“…Huh?”

“I’m talking about the duel.”

“Oh. I’ve almost finished everything. I just need to secure a venue…”

“I’ll handle the rest. I’ll have the dean arrange a location. The duel will be held tomorrow afternoon. You’ll be informed of the exact details once they’re finalized.”

“Who said you could just—”

She didn’t even have time to object to his unilateral decision.

Clunk.

Professor Winslet disappeared into the office with the dean in tow.

Shannon was left speechless.

…What kind of person even is that guy?

***

[Notice]

Today’s “Theory and practice of modern magic” class will be replaced with duel observation.

Location: Luteo Hall, Building B, Room 105

Date/Time: March 12th, 2:00 PM

Posted by: Winter Winslet

The notice had been posted on the central bulletin board of the First Magic Department exactly at 8:50 a.m. on Tuesday morning.

Students who had come to the department for their first-period class stopped in their tracks as they passed by the hallway and stood in front of the board for quite some time.

They rubbed their sleepy eyes vigorously, but no matter how hard they tried, the content of the notice didn’t change.

“A duel? Professor Winslet?”

Within less than an hour, every student attending classes in the Magic Department had heard the news: “Professor Winslet is having a duel with someone.”

It was an unfortunate situation for the professors conducting first-period lectures.

The atmosphere in the classrooms was chaotic, and not a single student could focus on the lesson.

In the end, even Professor Emil who had a reputation as the most composed instructor at the Magic Academy ended up halting his lecture with a displeased look.

“Mr. Howard, stand up and speak loudly. Just what’s so amusing that it’s disrupting the class? Could you care to enlighten me as well?”

Howard dutifully followed Professor Emil’s instruction and answered the question, and right after the first period ended, Professor Emil was seen dashing down the hallway toward the faculty lounge.

By the start of the second period, there wasn’t a single staff member unaware of Professor Winslet’s upcoming duel.

A rare scene unfolded, where even the professors found it hard to concentrate on their own lectures.

The chaos reached its peak unsurprisingly during lunchtime.

As the students gathered at various dining halls across the academy, they put their heads together to speculate.

“Who on earth would challenge Professor Winslet to a duel?”

“Could it be Assistant Professor Glenn?”

“You mean the guy who couldn’t graduate with his master’s degree because the laboratory project got changed at the last minute two years ago?”

“Yeah. I heard that was Professor Winslet’s doing.”

“Wow. Honestly, at that point, I’d respect him for picking a fight. Whether he’s a big bro or just some old guy, hasn’t he been stuck in the lab for eight years now? I heard they call him the ghost of the lab…”

“But that Assistant Professor is super timid. He might set the professor’s bedroom on fire in the middle of the night, but there’s no way he’d ever go for a duel.”

“True. Still, I haven’t seen him around lately. Think something happened?”

“How would I know? But don’t you think Senior Luke is more suspicious than Assistant Professor Glenn? You know his roommate is my brother, right? He said he caught him late at night researching explosion magic in secret and planning to blow up the professor’s house.”

“For real…?”

“Luke has serious problems with him. Remember when Professor Winslet took his research funding and ruined his chance to submit results for a national project?”

“That’s awful.”

Names of others who might hold a grudge against Professor Winslet continued to circulate among the students without pause.

But there were just too many of them.

“There’s no way we can narrow it down at this rate. Isn’t there another way?”

“Instead of looking for someone with a motive, maybe we should think about who’s actually brave enough to challenge Professor Winslet to a duel.”

“That makes sense.”

“Now that you mention it, maybe the challenger isn’t even a student. I mean, think about it….how could a student even hope to fight a professor?”

“You don’t think… it could be one of the other professors?”

“Hmm… Honestly, I don’t think the professors are much different. Is there even anyone who could go one-on-one with Professor Winslet and win?”

“Why not? When we talk about the academy’s top three powerhouses, there are two others besides Professor Winslet. Like Professor Monastrell.”

“Would she even know what a duel is?”

“Good point. That woman would probably just start swinging. She’s like a wild animal.”

“Someone said they saw her tearing into a steak with her bare hands the other day.”

“No way.”

“I swear it’s true.”

“If it’s true, so what? As long as she’s pretty, who cares.”

“Professor Monastrell is kind of a beauty, to be honest. She’s tall, and there’s something about that wild charm of hers…”

“Ugh, men.”

“What? Why? The professor’s a hundred times prettier than you.”

“If you like her so much, why don’t you take her class?”

“I did. Took it for one day last year and dropped it.”

“Why?”

“She broke my rib. The professor did.”

“……”

Anyway.

The general consensus was that Professor Monastrell was far too uncivilized for something like a duel.

Then someone suggested another possibility.

“Then what about Professor Sophia?”

“She’s way too kind to get into a fight.”

“You didn’t hear about the scuffle she had with him in front of the Magic Department building the other day?”

“But that was settled, wasn’t it? Professor Winslet won.”

“Hmm. If it’s not either of them, then who could it be?”

Just when the speculation seemed to be spiraling into a dead end, a senior student appeared near the end of the lunch break and put the matter to rest.

The upperclassman, who had just woken up from oversleeping and came to grab a bite, responded nonchalantly when asked if he knew anything.

“Oh, that? It was a freshman.”

“A freshman?”

“You know I’m taking Professor Winslet’s class, right? It was a first-year international student. Her name was Shannon or Quinan, or something like that. Apparently, she failed the skills assessment and immediately challenged him to a duel. Ridiculous, right?”

“No way…”

“Is she crazy?”

“My thoughts exactly.”

The information spread at a staggering speed, and by the end of the lunch break, everyone at the academy had learned that Professor Winslet’s duel opponent was Shannon Quinlivan.

The reactions generally fell into two categories.

The first group was simply dumbfounded.

“Who the hell has the nerve to challenge a professor to a duel?”

The second group was more concerned.

“That cruel professor is probably trying to rough up another student again.”

And so, as the duel between the two began to draw unprecedented attention in the academy’s history of incidents, two o’clock in the afternoon finally approached.

The designated duel venue, the Luteo Building, was a large indoor gym located on the Knight Department grounds.

Room 105 of Building B, in particular, was a sparring hall used for practical evaluations of complex combat skills.

It was only natural that the place became packed far beyond the number of students Professor Winslet had originally summoned.

After all, there was nothing more entertaining to watch aside from a fire than a good fight.

Most of the audience was made up of students who didn’t have afternoon classes, but many upperclassmen had skipped theirs to sneak in as well.

There were even a few professors who had ditched their own classes to come.

And of course, Jacqueline was there too.

“Ugh, there are so many people.”

“Anyone who could make time probably came. This kind of thing doesn’t happen often.”

“Is that so?”

“Mhmm. Come on, let’s move up.”

“Let’s do that. We’ve got to cheer Shannon on from somewhere we can see her!”

“…Jacqueline, this is a duel, not some sports match.”

Originally, Professor Winslet had only summoned students who had passed the skill test to the Luteo Building, so seats had already been prepared for Jacqueline and Rita.

The very front and center was arguably the best spot to watch the duel.

If this were a match instead of a duel, it would be first-class seating.

Simply sitting there was a badge of honor proving they had passed Professor Winslet’s infamous test, so naturally, Jacqueline and Rita drew a lot of attention.

Some of the older students even greeted them or asked for their names.

Jacqueline felt awkward about the sudden popularity that had come out of nowhere.

“Ugh, all I did was pass out while standing. I’m not even sure I deserve to be here.”

“It’s fun, isn’t it? Just enjoy it.”

“Rita, you can be way too bold sometimes.”

“Really?”

“My stomach’s in knots right now. Seeing how big this whole thing’s gotten is kind of terrifying. Maybe I didn’t take this whole duel thing seriously enough. Was it really the right move to write that statement for Shannon? What if she gets hurt?”

“So what? She’s the one who asked for it.”

“Still…”

“Someone’s coming.”

At Rita’s words, Jacqueline turned her head.

Someone had appeared at the entrance. Not the one for spectators, but the one that led directly into the dueling arena.

“It’s her.”

A girl with blonde hair and doll-like features.

It was Shannon.