Lord of Charm

The crowd watched Joanna being unable to defend herself and get consumed by fire wisps with surprise. It all happened too fast and the loud cheers still didn't die when only dust remained behind.

"NOOOO!!! JOANNA!!!"

A pained scream echoed in the arena, silencing the last noises of the students. Ronda stood up with bloodshot eyes while watching the arena.

-----

An hour ago:

Joanna and Ronda were facing each other, Joanna with a stubborn face while Ronda was mainly annoyed and frustrated.

"It's not that I don't trust you. I just feel more comfortable when I know you're safe."

"I know, and I love you for being worried about me."

Joanna placed her hands around Ronda's waist and leaned forward, giving her a long kiss on her lips. Ronda didn't resist the kiss, but she also didn't kiss her back. She was still mad at her.

Joanna stepped back and continued her argument.

"But I don't agree that you pay the academy for a human judge. I will win this battle for sure. Gale only has a powerful connection to mana, he isn't well-versed in fighting. You told me that yourself; he couldn't keep up with your martial arts in class while I can. If you really believe in me, don't insist, my love."

"Will you not budge no matter what I say? You know money isn't a problem for me."

"I won't."

"Fine, just promise me you will be careful and not hesitate to surrender if you're in danger."

"I promise, so kiss me back."

"No, I'm still mad at you."

Ronda said and left towards the front seats to wait for the match to begin.

"I love you."

Joanna called after her but didn't get an answer from the upset Ronda.

--------

Ronda's expression was crazed with fury, and she leaped from the seat to the arena, attacking Gale with air blades as she ran to him, fully intending to kill him in her anger.

However, a snake of water appeared in front of her faster than she could react and wrapped around her, pinning her to her spot. As for her air blades, they were nullified at a speed nobody in the room could perceive.

"You cannot kill my student, little girl. If you want to kill him, you must do it by the rules. Wait for him to challenge you for your rank or spend a thousand IMG to force a challenge on him."

Alice appeared in the air in front of everyone and restrained the raging Ronda.

"Release me, bitch! I'm going to kill him!"

But anger isn't enough to defeat a magus. A wave of cold water washed over her and brought her to her senses.

"Watch your tongue, girl. I will let it go this time because of your sorrow, but next time expect it to be painful."

Ronda looked at Gale with hatred but stopped struggling. She understood it was pointless, and she didn't have any problem with money anyway.

As soon as Alice released her, she opened her Alessa watch and issued a challenge. Gale sighed and checked his watch. He felt bad about killing Joanna and he never planned to kill her over a trivial challenge, but she pushed so far that he couldn't control his magic well enough.

Fourth-rank magic was too dangerous to play with, and Gale didn't blame himself for Joanna's mistake. He felt bad about it, but it was ultimately Joanna's decision to risk her life, and that was the result. She couldn't possibly be unaware that he might use a second spell to win, and it was her job to be careful, not his.

Gale saw a new challenge on his watch, but this time he didn't have to accept it. He saw he had the option to refuse the challenge for 500 IMG. It was just a way for the academy to get easy money from nobles.

"Refuse it, she is still too strong for you to defeat. Save some money since she can forcibly challenge you every month."

Alice instructed him. Since he knew Ronda wanted to kill him, he decided to trust Alice's judgment on this one. He refused the challenge and left the arena under Ronda's hateful watch.

He went outside and soon saw Valentina coming to meet him with a worried face.

"Be careful, Gale. Ronda isn't just a genius, but she is also the daughter of an honorary marquee."

"What's that?"

"Um, it's a title that the empire grants to magi who didn't have a title or weren't the heirs of their family. If their son also becomes a magus, that title becomes permanent, and a marquee family without a magus is demoted to keep the number of marquees consistent."

Gale nodded to show he understood, and the pair went to have lunch together. Valentina was used to people getting killed in the arena and during missions, so she didn't make a big deal out of it. She herself had to kill a few people as part of her missions previously.

Gale looked at Valentina and decided to make a move.

"Hey, would you like to have lunch at my place instead of eating here?"

"Hmm, okay."

She agreed with a shy voice and followed him to his apartment. When she entered, she looked around curiously. She had never been to a top 10 apartment before.

"You can look around if you want, don't be shy."

He encouraged her and showed her around the house.

"Aw, your room is so big! The bed is also twice bigger than mine!"

"Haha, I'm sure you will get there in a year or two if you keep working hard. You already advanced one rank today!"

She rolled her eyes at his joke.

"I was ranked 18 before you came too, so I just got my former rank back."

"So I only need to be challenged 8 more times and you can get your own top 10 apartment, right?"

"Don't aim to kill your opponents for such stupid reasons!"

They kept talking and sat down to eat.