Chapter 144

"Huh?! Did he hate those kinds of pranks?... Well, he might hate it if someone he thought was a friend of the same sex loved him, right?" Ludger nodded his head.

"I don't understand how someone like you became that famous writer, 'Nero'. Or are you just teasing me right now by acting ignorant like before?" Darius asked with a strange suspicious expression. 

Ludger's body flinched as he heard what Darius just said to him.

"Eh! When do you know about it?! You seem to using your power as a Duke to dig some private information about me like this!" Ludger sharply glared at him even though he was smiling gently.

"You're looking down on my intelligence. But actually, I have guessed it around a year ago. You're the only person who has the greatest potential as the real writer 'Nero'. While others didn't dare to think that you would be writing something like that, but I'm quite sure that you are the only person who will write such stories. And you do need to be careful about your schedule and where you're visiting." Darius said in a relaxed manner. 

"So, you did spying on me. Or you are still doubting my identity?" Ludger sharply glared at Darius as his expression became colder. 

"No, no, no. I never doubt your identity but why are you trying to hide it from me? With my power as a Duke, wouldn't it help you to hide it better if you want it? Do you still don't believe me that I have promised you to not harm anyone in this place and that will help you with all my power?" Darius looks hurt because of Ludger's reaction. 

Ludger took a deep breath and exhaled before continuing his words. "Rather than doubting your words, I feel that something bad will befall the people who will help me. And I hate when someone tries to find out about our past because I still feel that I will die if someone knows about it as if it was my fate. Not only me but also my mother, Brother Winslow and Sister Ancelina who also know about it." 

Ludger really thought that if his real identity as Renneshia was known by others, the death flags might start to haunt them again. Then he might see every single person that he loves die in front of him like what happened to the real Renneshia in the game. The more he lives happily and is loved by everyone, the he feels more fear of losing everything. 

'I think I will grow weaker as I get closer to the people in this city. But I will never be able to hate this person in front of me because he was the person who saved my Mom.' Ludger felt sad as he saw Darius's hurt looks. 

Darius was speechless for a minute before frowning and said. "...Is this the reason why you know about your mother's strange sickness or maybe curses before?! Then... are you the person that the first Duke Kadaklan meant in that letter? But how? It was something from thousands of years ago..."

"I can't answer it because I will die if I tell you about it. You can help me because even your ancestor, the first Duke Kadaklan can't do anything about it. I think it was similar to your reason to hide Ed, Rain and Leo's real identity, right?" Ludger said with a pained expression. 

"So you have known about it. You're right, I can't say anything about them because they are chased by assassins and they're important for this world's future...Can you answer me if I ask you 'Are you able to see parts of the future?'" Darius changed his question because he realized something. 

"I can only answer that I can't see it but for some reason, I just know about it. I can't tell anyone about it but I..." Ludger wants to explain but he also has a hard time telling him.

Ludger remembered what Shia and Kadaklan told her before. 

'If you do not peek into it and directly see it or say it out loud to the others who relate with it, then you might be still able to change the future. You can only say it to someone who already knows about it. But you must be careful to not get deceived by them.'

"No. You don't have to say it. I know you have a lot of secrets and that's part of your charm so I guess I'll let it pass." Darius stopped him from speaking as he didn't want to force him to talk about it. 

"Pffft. What kind of flirting sentence is that!?! Hehe..., you should say something like that to my Mom, not me! Do you think I will feel touched and fell in love with you?" Ludger laughed as he started to tease Darius. 

"W-What are you talking about?! Who wants to do that? Should we continue watching the next one?" Darius was relieved because Ludger seemed to not hate him because of what happened before. 

"Right, we need to watch the next one. It was quite a good match." Darius took another recording magic item. 

***

The next match was between two magicians that Ludger knew, Elviira's match with Ceres. 

"Should we also make a deal before we start the match like what the previous participants were doing?" Ceres asked with her usual cold tone.

"I don't mind to do it. What will we bet?" Elviira answered with her usual flat tone. 

"Then how about the loser quits from the current guild and joins the winner guild?" Ceres said as her lips raised a bit.

"All right, it's a deal. Don't regret it later!" Elviira still has her usual expressionless expression but for people who know her, they will know that Elviira is angry. 

As the match began, both of them instantly sent their attack magic to their opponent. 

Bang!

An explosion that caused by their colliding magic appeared in the middle of the ring. But it didn't end the match and a few magic attacks flew in each other direction and caused another barrage of explosions as their magic kept colliding. 

The atmosphere is different from the previous matches as it was more tense and silent than the previous match. The people who watching also get silent and only keep their eyes on both of them. 

Although Elviira's light attribute is not a good match to fight Ceres' ice attribute, but both of them seem to be in equal condition. No one knows that Elviira's light magic has grown a lot after she exchanged her ideas with Ludger and created a lot of her specialized magic.

If it was explained by Ludger's knowledge, he would say that Elviira's light attribute is similar to the light beam in some movie or book that he had seen before. Every single light bullet magic that Elviira creates is similar to the compressed sunlight. The heat from his light bullets is able to melt Ceres' ice bullets. Both of them chanted quickly with small voices. 

Bang!

Bang!

Boom!

As they couldn't find the winner just by shooting each other with their magic, the first person who made a move was Elviira. She runs to get closer to Ceres using the dust cloud that interferes with the other sight. 

Logically, Elviira who joins the Adventurer Guild will have an advantage when fighting in close range with the mage from the Magic Tower. But surprisingly, Ceres also enter the dust cloud and fights with Elviira at close range.

The people that watching their match seemed to marvel at their skills. Especially the magician or mage that comes to watch them. For people who use magic as their main weapon, fighting at close range is the most difficult thing. They need to chant their spells while avoiding the opponent's attack. 

But both of them are people who trained themselves until they were able to overcome such flaws. No one knows how much effort they made until they were able to overcome it. How harsh their experiences are and how many times they have been injured because of their training. 

Right now both of them are showing the results of their hard work and willpower. The fight is getting more intense. The people could only silently watch their match as their eyes were unable to look away from it. 

Yellow and blue light keep clashing intensely in the dust cloud. The explosions keep exploding in the dust cloud and making new dust clouds and preventing the people from clearly seeing what happened to their match. Of course, the people who have experience in fighting are still able to understand what they're doing in that thick dust cloud. 

Both of them are cladding themselves with their magic and making an attack and defending continuously. As their magic keeps colliding, the dust cloud gets thicker and it gets harder to see what happened. 

"Haaaa!"

"I will never lose to you!"

Both of them seem to use all of their remaining power to this last attack. 

BOOM!

BOOM!

BANG! 

An explosion greater than before happened. The deafening sound and blinding lights make the people who watch the match close their eyes and ears. The arena became silent for around a minute. The dust cloud started to disappear from the ring and they could see two silhouettes in the dust cloud standing facing each other direction. 

As the dust cloud completely disappeared from the ring, some people made a gulping sound as they were feeling nervous about the result of the match. 

Thud.

Elviira's knees bent and she was kneeling with her head looking down. Looking at what happened, some people want to cheer while others seem to be surprised and sad by the results. 

But...

Thud!

Ceres's body fell down. 

"..." Everyone seems to be surprised by it.

Long silence in the arena with everyone stunned frozen wondering about the result of this match.