53 – Kids these days

Equality is a concept at the foundation of the academy. No matter whether you are a noble or a commoner, in the academy, you are evaluated solely on the basis of your skills. That was the reason the academy had been able to produce countless heroes so far.

The level of students is generally higher in the nobility. This is because innate lineage not only guarantees basic talents, but also widens the gap with peers through high-quality education from an early age. In this reality, the inheritance of status was also the inheritance of skills.

However, regardless of such social background, there will always be talented people who break through the wall of social status with a miraculous probability of less than 1%. The goal of the academy is to provide the soil for such talented people to demonstrate their skills.

Of course, this is a story full of ideals. No matter how much the academy’s basic ideology is equality, students who have lived in a caste society for decades cannot suddenly awaken the spirit of equality.

Thanks to the strict school rules and supervision of the management, the academy’s ideology of equality seems to be well maintained on the outside, but if you look inside, unequal situations have occurred in many places. The circle is a clear example of such a situation.

Red Lake

Red Lake, the academy’s only social circle, is reserved for the upper class. Even among the aristocrats, discrimination was made so that people from Korean or American families could never join. The only students who can join this school are the sons of prestigious aristocratic families that are recognized by everyone, or come from merchant families with that kind of financial power.

Bondi, the purpose of founding Red Lake is for high-ranking people who work hard on their shoulders to create their own network. It is a circle created by tycoons who graduated from the academy and are active in the political and financial worlds to eat among themselves. That’s why it’s only natural for the Red Lake to be covered by Circle One.

There is no one who is unaware of this inside story. Even the academy management knows about it. Circle management is a student’s area of autonomy, and the academy can’t really touch it because it blindfolded and accepts some people from commoners.

In addition, since the red lake is devoted to social activities such as biting and sucking each other according to its purpose, it is difficult to touch even from the academy’s point of view. If I had done openly discriminatory circle activities, there would have been an excuse to touch them.

Anyway, for this reason, there was a strong perception that the red lake was the exclusive property of nobles or similarly rejected commoners. Many of the students who enter the academy aim to step foot on this red lake. If you somehow join the circle, that alone will give you a huge network.

That’s why Drake Dellas, Circle Master of the Red Lake, was not unfamiliar with the current situation.

“You want to join a circle?”

The location is the office of the Red Lake Circle Master.

Sitting in a luxurious chair purchased with the Circle grant money, Dellas looked away from the papers on his desk and looked at the girl in front of him.

A female student boldly presents the circle membership papers.

A schoolgirl with her wolfish, silver-gray hair hanging down to her shoulders nods her head as she looks at herself with her emerald eyes.

Now is the season when freshmen are in full swing looking for circles. In fact, there were not a few students who knocked on the door of the Red Lake.

“No.”

Delas did not hesitate to answer immediately. Then the girl in front of her tilted her head.

From noble mtl dot com

“Why?”

Dellas snorted at the girl’s calm voice. The girl in front of him was not entered into Dellas’ database.

As the Circle Master at Red Lake, Dellas knows all of the freshmen this year who are eligible to join the Circle. Among countless freshmen, only a handful of students can cross the threshold of the red lake. Students like the famous ‘Sarah Leoris’ or ‘Arsha Swordhorn’.

The girl in front of him now was a student Dellas didn’t know, which meant she didn’t deserve it.

I’d like to say ‘commoners are out there somewhere’, but it’s best not to do stupid things that go against the academy management’s planting. Dellas smiled softly and recited lines from the Red Lake Circle operation manual.

“To apply for membership in our circle, you must have a referral. You have to get a recommendation from among the circle members who have already joined the circle. Do you have any recommendations?”

At Dellas’ words, the girl shook her head.

That’s right.

There’s no way a commoner student who doesn’t even know the basics has a recommendation.

A girl with emerald eyes strides toward Dellas, who shakes her head and gestures to go away.

This is a bold move for a freshman. Usually, when I said this, first-year students without foundation used to go back to their despondent appearances.

“What, what? Didn’t you hear me go back? Kids these days don’t know how to be afraid of seniors.”

“Senior Drake Dellas. I’m going to challenge the senior to a duel. If I win, please accept me into the circle.”

A lot of absurd words come out of the female student’s mouth. At that, Dellas laughed involuntarily.

“What?”

Is there a junior who ate rice with this kind of concept?

Looking at his junior who was casually doing something unimaginable in his sleep, Dellas opened his mouth.

“Ha ha. It’s ridiculous. I have never seen a conceptless person like you for the first time in my life.”

Sometimes during the 3rd year. Ignorant people who think of a duel as a reportage of the transfer house that solves everything.

Especially, those who stood out more than others and quickly gained recognition from those around them used to show such a tendency. However, even those ordinary no-concepts pretended to look for a place to lie down before lying down.

“Do you know what you are talking about?”

“I am requesting a duel with senior Drake Dellas, Master of the Red Lake Circle.”

The Dellas Family

If you ask the residents of the capital what kind of place the Dellas family is, they will say that it is also a place where flying birds drop off.

The Dellas family, a family of long-standing magic and belonging to a great aristocratic family, was a family that was fearless in the royal capital by holding various important positions in the center for generations.

Of course, it has the cute label of being the last of the great aristocratic families, but anyway, originally, it was a family that people like commoners wouldn’t even dare to talk to.

But, going beyond talking to yourself, the eldest son of the Dellas family, to challenge him to a duel?

No matter how much this place was inside the academy, this was an act that went beyond the level of ignorance.

“It is safe to say that what you have just done is a challenge not only to the Red Circle, but also to the Dellas family.”

Originally, a duel is a noble ritual that separates black and white through force. In other words, to challenge the opponent to a duel is to vehemently say, ‘You are wrong and I am right!’. Of course, there were many cases in which the high-spirited students of the academy didn’t care about that and overdoed duels.

Anyway, for a commoner to challenge a son of a noble family to a duel is such a big deal that it was reported in the capital’s newspaper.

In fact, Dellas had never been challenged to a duel by a commoner. Among the nobles, let alone commoners, the people who challenged him to a duel were counted on one hand.

“Okay. Say you accept the duel. If so, what will you bet?”

Bondi, the balance of a duel must be weighed.

To Dellas’ question, the female student answered without hesitation.

“If I lose, I will drop out.”

For common people, admission to the academy is the first step in changing their lives. The academy is where your life changes just by graduating. Giving up such a chance to reverse one’s life means literally risking one’s everything.

Delas was surprised. No matter how much admission to the red lake is a shortcut to class advancement, I have never seen a student who risked his or her everything to take on the challenge. I almost got goosebumps at that hesitant answer.

“Withdrawal…. Alright, then let’s do it in an open duel.”

To be honest, it doesn’t matter if they don’t accept it. It would not be a disgrace to not accept such a reckless duel. In the first place, she and that female student were fundamentally different.

However, Dellas’ acceptance of the duel was a kind of declaration.

Commoners, open your eyes and see.

The door to the Red Lake is not open to you.

In order to declare it, I received a duel request from a female student.

“It’s been a while since I’ve had to brush off the dust on my sword.”

The place where you can encounter random events most frequently in the ‘Legend Route’ is the Circle. So, the current commotion was not very unfamiliar to me.

“There are so many people here.”

As Ellie said, people were tightly packed in the lobby of the Red Sunset Circle building. The way they talk loudly with each other reminds me of a market hall. It’s too foreign to be the usual look of a virtuous social club.

“What’s going on?”

Ellie struggled to stick her head out among the crowd and inquired about the situation. One of the onlookers, presumably our senior, glanced at Ellie’s face and opened her mouth.

“It’s a duel.”

“A duel? Wasn’t this a social club?”

“I heard that some timid freshman took time to ask me to sign up. She challenged Master to a duel.”

“My God! There is such a swollen freshman! This is a scoop!”

“Look closely, freshmen! No matter how many people call the golden generation or what, in terms of skills, our upperclassmen have the upper hand. So, treat your seniors with respect.”

The extra senior, whose name she did not know, said that and turned her head again.

“John-kun~! It smells very interesting. A freshman challenging the Circle Master to a duel. Isn’t this bigger news than Yohan’s ‘entrance ceremony duel’?”

“I see. Ah, break it down Who the hell is trying to steal the record I set?”

I said so, but I know who the challenger is. This random event, the probability of occurrence is so low that even I, a rotten water, have not seen it a few times, but I definitely remember the contents.

“Are you ready for the duel?”

A hooked-nosed female professor wearing a black conical hat asked, taking turns looking at the two people in the crowd. She is an old professor who looks well past her 50s. She is Professor McDonagall, the advisory professor of Red Lake. In her community, she is nicknamed Hamburger Girl rather than her real name.

“I am ready.”

The gray-haired female student on the left answered as she pulled out a sword from her waist.

“I am ready, Professor.”

The black-haired man on the right replied by knocking on a staff member who was as tall as he was.

“Wow! That person is Dellas-senpai, the Circle Master of the Red Lake! He is also the big hand of our upper ranks. By the way, the female student opposite her…. I don’t know who.”

An excited Ellie turned to me and asked.

“John! Who do you think will win Yohan-kun?”

Who wins?

Of course….

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