The rest of the school day went without a hitch. We had another intense basketball duel with Josh during PE (our teams tied), and during homeroom, Mrs. Applebottom reminded everyone to study hard for the rest of the semester, and there was a vague mention of some kind of sports festival. That last one was news to me, but I figured I'd ask Josh about it later.

More importantly, there were a few small but noticeable changes. First and foremost, Judy's makeover, slight as it might've been, had a noticeable effect. Just as Elly told me, the other boys in the class were suddenly paying attention to her, and I could overhear a couple of eminently clichéd lines, such as 'Is it just me, or does she look cuter than usual?' or 'I can't believe I didn't notice her sooner.'

I wasn't entirely sure how I felt about these comments. On the one hand, it annoyed me that it took them until now to realize she was cute, but on the other hand, I was annoyed that they were talking about my girlfriend like that. Wait. Doesn't that mean I knew exactly how I felt about them?

Putting semantics aside, I had to wonder what changed their perception. After all, I sincerely doubted that it was literally just the small change in hairstyle and a touch of makeup. If that was all it took, her idol getup during the cultural festival should've done the trick already. Was it because I insisted on her being a 'heroine', or was it the subtle change in her demeanour and facial expressions? Or maybe the latter was related to the former in a way? I had no idea.

But speaking of things I didn't quite understand, the class rep remained strangely passive during the day. She was sticking to us, as usual, and she was paying attention, but I couldn't help but feel that there was something off about her behaviour. After some thinking, I figured it might have been Mike's absence. Since I had entrusted him with helping Moose, he was busy in the last couple of days. Considering that, it made sense that she might have been missing him, and it put her in a sour mood.

Yet, that didn't seem like it either. I couldn't put my finger on it, but the look in her eyes was somehow familiar, but I was unable to figure out why. It bothered me to the point I was seriously considering pulling her over and just asking, but she beat me to the punch.

"Leo?"

Ah. It's been a while since the last time Ammy pulled off her old ninja-routine and appeared in my blind spot like that, so it took me a second to gather my wits and turn to her. By the looks of it, Elly and Josh also shared my sentiment and looked rather confounded by her suddenly calling out to me from the blue.

"Yes? I'm not in trouble with you again, am I?"

"No, not this time," she said, and I had a hard time telling if it was a subtle dig at me or just her natural response. "Can I have some of your time?"

"Of course. Is it urgent?"

"I wouldn't call it that, but…"

When her words trailed off, Elly leaned back in her seat, so that her ringlets spread out on my desk, and she looked at me.

"Leo? Don't forget you have a duel!"

"Oh, right. That's a thing," I muttered and then levelled a doubtful gaze at my girlfriend. "Why do you sound excited?"

"Because I missed the last time! I want to watch you beat up an arch-mage with my own eyes!" she told me with a sweet smile.

Her words and her angelic expression provided quite a contrast, but before I could call her out on counting her chickens before they hatched (not that I was worried or anything), the class rep let out a thoughtful hum.

"Right, you have a prior arrangement." She readjusted her glasses, and added, "In that case, can we talk later?"

I pondered for a moment, and proposed, "I'll drop by in the base in the afternoon. How does that sound?"

"I wasn't planning to visit today, but I'll make the time." I wanted to tell her that if she didn't want to, we didn't need to meet there, but she apparently considered the conversation concluded and bowed out of it with a curt, "See you later."

"I wonder what's on her mind," Josh noted absently behind me, and it made me raise a brow.

"You noticed too?"

"Of course. She's been quiet all day, and after PE, she pulled Angie into the girl's restroom, and she doesn't tell me what they talked about," the guy grumbled while packing his bag.

I was getting more curious by the minute, but when I glanced back, I saw that my draconic girlfriend was still looking at me expectantly, her head practically touching my desk at this point. On a whim, I leaned down and planted a kiss on her forehead, and then gently pushed her away, making sure she wouldn't fall over with her chair in tow, or something equally clumsy. It was in her character, after all.

"So? Are we going?"

"We?" I echoed Josh as I turned to face him again, and he gave me a look that said I was being silly.

"Of course. We're going to watch you duel the old man, right?"

"We sure are!" Elly backed him up before I could get a word in and sprung to her feet, picking up her bag in the process. "It's not every day you can see an arch-mage of the Assembly in action, and this time, I'm not going to miss it."

"Oh? Are we going?" a new voice entered the fray, and when I turned to her, I found a strangely hyped-up Angie strangely approaching my desk in the company of a strangely apathetic Judy. It was strange is what I'm saying. "Let's go! I wanna see it!"

"Aren't you all at least a little bit worried for my safety?" I grumbled, and my lovely assistant raised a hand.

"I am, but you already jinxed it, so we can't do anything about it."

"Oh, don't be like that!" Angie suddenly put an arm around her shoulder and gave me a thumbs up. "Leo will be all right!"

"Yeah, of course he will," Josh nodded along like it was self-evident. "You already dueled Ammy's grandpa, right? I bet you won't even have any trouble."

"Jinxes. Jinxes everywhere." Judy sighed and directed a serious gaze at me. "Chief. I have a bad feeling about this. Be careful."

"Don't worry Dormouse. It's not like I'm a week away from retirement or anything."

I flashed a grin at her, which caused Judy's brows to perceptibly descend into a frown.

"Angeline, please let me go. I have to kick the Chief."

Before she had the chance though, someone loudly knocked on the sliding door at the back of the classroom and then pulled it open before anyone could respond.

"Ah, here you are!" Lord Gulliver exclaimed with a happy-go-lucky grin the moment he poked his head into the room.

"Where else would we be?" I pointed out by, fittingly, pointing at the clock on the wall. "Classes just ended."

"True," the lanky arch-mage granted me as he walked in. "I guess Ambrose is just a bit impatient, so he asked me to fetch you."

"Did he?" Josh spoke the words on my mind with a skeptically raised brow in tow, and Gulliver immediately let out a chuckle.

"Heh. Well, maybe not directly, but I can read between the lines." He paused, as if waiting for a non-existent laugh track to finish, and then turned back to me. "So? Can we get going?"

"Yes! Let's go!" Angie answered in my stead and pointed a finger forward, like a general ordering her troops to charge.

"Oh? Are you kids coming too?" the redheaded man inquired with a finger on his chin. "I knew I should've bought more popcorn. At this rate, we won't have enough for everyone."

"Brother?" All of a sudden, a different redhead poked her noggin into the room, and let out a relieved breath when she noticed we were still inside. "Snowy! This way! We didn't miss them!"

"Hm. Yes. Hm." Gulliver mused aloud and folded his arms. "We're definitely going to be short on popcorn."

Ignoring the man and his impish smile, I grudgingly stood up and slung my bag over my shoulder.

"Fine. Let's get this over with."

Without further ado, our little group was led to the ground floor. Yet, contrary to my expectations, Lord Gulliver ushered us towards the track field instead of the basement entrance leading to the underground complex of the School.

"Aren't we going to the Nexus Room?" I inquired, and the arch-mage shook his head.

"No way. Only the head of the local School can access that, and we didn't get approved by Amadeus." He paused for a beat, and then coyly added, "Not that we even asked, but you know?"

I couldn't quite understand what he meant by that, but it soon became irrelevant as we finally reached the sports grounds behind the main building, where an impatient Lord Ambrose was already waiting for us. He looked exactly the same as he did during lunch break, save for the walking cane he was gripping in his hand. It was one of those fancy ones, with a shiny, lacquered black shank topped by a round crystal head. Judging by the subtle, pulsing magical light of invisible colours around it, it was obviously more than met the eye.

"What took you so long?" He let out a harrumph the moment we got within earshot, and his colleague flashed a toothy smile. "Don't just grin at me, you lout! Hurry up and get over here!"

"Now, now. There's no reason to rush," Gulliver told him amicably, refusing the hasten his pace. "Our popcorn isn't here yet, so we can't start anyway."

"Like, did someone say 'popcorn'?" another cheerful voice joined the fray, and when I glanced over, I was met with the sight of an enthusiastic girl and a considerably more collected boy making their way over to us, carrying four striped paper bags you would often see in movie theatres.

"The Lord did not approve any of this," Armband Guy complained in a flat voice, and Sahi rolled her eyes in response.

"Come on, Paz! Don't be lame! It's just, like, a little duel. Endy is, like, totally busy and doesn't need to concern himself with something like this."

"Ae a've heard it richt! Thare pure is a duel afoot 'ere!"

"Form up, everyone! We must secure the perimeter!"

Oh, did I forget to mention they were followed by Duncan, Armour Guy, half the Praetorian Guard, and a gaggle of Squires? Because they were. Much to my annoyance.

"Seriously? Are you guys serious?" I hissed while holding my forehead, but nobody paid much attention to my gripes. In particular, Lord Ambrose let out a provocative huff, and theatrically raised his cane high, holding it by the head, before slamming it against the ground.

In the blink of an eye, the entire campus was covered in a familiar yet no less disorienting flash of inverted colours. Another blink of an eye passed, and we were all standing at the same spots, except inside a purple-tinted world, with thin cracks on every surface, though their glow was hidden by the equally purple light of the sun overhead.

"Won't people notice that all of us disappeared at once?" Josh muttered as he glanced around, and before I could answer him, Snowy came to the rescue.

"The Restricted Space includes a mild observation obstruction charm," she explained in a low voice. "Even if a student was directly looking at us, they would immediately forget what happened."

"Well, that's convenient," he responded with a genuinely impressed hum.

"It sure is," I followed him up, and then glanced at the impromptu audience gathered at the side of the sports grounds, and then exhaled a lung-rattling groan. "I guess this turned out to be a much bigger deal than expected."

"Stop muttering and follow me! We don't have all day!"

After calling out to me, Lord Ambrose turned on his heel and gestured ahead of himself. He headed to the middle of the track field with dignified steps, rhythmically tapping the butt of her cane against the ground. It was how it was supposed to be used, but the way he did it kind of reminded me of a community theatre actor trying to portray a posh Victorian-era gentleman with altogether too much gusto.

"Sir? Should we set up a barrier, sir?" Armour Guy asked me first.

"I do not think I can cover so many people at once," Pascal responded as if it was aimed at him.

"Don't wrack your heads over something silly like that," Lord Gulliver scoffed playfully even as he accepted a bag of popcorn from Sahi. "I'm here."

With that, he raised his free hand and made a few small gestures while reciting a long, faux-Latin chant full of words with way too many syllables. The air around the group became oppressive, but it only lasted for a second, as the influx of mana congealed into a multi-layered, semi-transparent dome around them. It was made of interlocking hexagonal plates, and while I knew that hexagons were the bestagons, I found them to be a bit overused in magical barriers around these parts.

"There, that should do it," the lanky arch-mage declared and threw a piece of popcorn into his mouth. "Unless Ambrose pulls out the big guns, this should be enough."

"And what if he does?" Josh blurted out the question, but Gulliver remained silent. "No, seriously. What if he does?"

"Maybe we should set up another barrier, just in case," Armband Guy stated, and the Praetorian Guards were on the same page.

"Go, get him, Leo!" The princess, completely ignoring the buzzing by her side, clenched her fists with a daring grin, as if she was the one heading into battle.

"Break a leg," Judy added, causing the smile on my other girlfriend's face to be replaced by a stumped expression.

"Judy. That's not a very nice thing to say."

"It's for good luck," she explained and glanced at me. "Also, I'm trying to counteract the jinxes."

"Thanks, I guess." After saying that, I took a deep breath and followed after the bearded arch-mage.

In the few seconds till I reached the grassy middle of the track field, I considered my options. When I sparred with Lord Grandpa, we were in the Nexus Room deep under the School complex, where he had an infinite mana cheat, while I didn't have my gear, and only had Cal with me. In contrast, this time I had my Leoformer, a much wider area to work with, and also two magical relic weapons. Oh, speaking of which, I poked my storage enchantments, stored in the same belt buckle as the Leoformer's arrays, and with a small flash of colourless light only I could see, I immediately had a pair of swords in my hands.

"{Ah! Young knight! I told you, you can't just—!}" Cal's voice came to an abrupt halt as they realized we were in a Purple Zone, and they immediately turned serious. "{We're in a Restricted Space? Who are we fighting?}"

"{Statement: Interface:Teeny is entering combat mode.}"

"{Is that an arch-mage? Are we duelling another worthy foe, young knight? Marvelous!}"

"{Request: Interface:Cal, please focus on combat operations.}"

"{Right! On it! Maybe this time, our young knight will finally develop his beam attack!}"

Ignoring the chatty swords' words, I flourished them and came to a halt a couple of steps away from the old man. He was apparently waiting for me to do this, as he had his back turned, and only at this point did he dramatically turn around to face me.

"Shall I give you a handicap, I wonder?" he asked with an eager smile, and I shook my head.

"Nah. That would make this whole ordeal even more pointless than it already is," I jabbed back, and it visibly got under his skin.

"Pointless, you say? We'll see about that, once you experienced the full brunt of the School of Invocation on your very skin!"

I was planning to give him a snappy comeback, but before the first syllable left my mouth, my danger sense suddenly blared at me. As in, genuinely warned me that if I didn't move right this instant, I was going lose an arm or a leg. It's been so long since I've got a warning of that magnitude that I momentarily froze up, but even so, my body moved in time and I stepped and leaned to the left at the same time.

As I did, a sudden flash of red light flashed by me. I instinctively tried to counter it with my phantom limb, yet to my utter shock and horror, my ethereal appendage passed through the strange beam without any apparent effect. The attack gouged a straight, smouldering line into the ground between the arch-mage and where I stood, sweeping upwards until it hit the edge of the barrier dome behind me, refracted off one of its hexagonal plates, and carved another burning line into the side of the library building.

"Oh dear," I heard, even as my body and mind reeled. "He brought out the big guns."

"The heck was that!?" I exclaimed in perfectly understandable outrage, and the old man let out an elated guffaw.

"Why so surprised, young man? Could it be that this is the first time you've ever faced off against a master of the Material Schools?"

I couldn't see it the first time, because I was preoccupied by my sixth sense's warning, but this time Lord Ambrose clearly demonstrated his spell. Only uttering a few words, he held out his gem-topped cane like a sceptre, and from its head, he launched another attack. It wasn't aimed at me, and instead, the bright crimson beam drew another red-hot mark onto the ground, forming a cross with the still smouldering line left behind by the first strike.

It was only at this point that it dawned on me: he was glowing with magical light. So was his cane. Yet, the beam wasn't. Which meant…

"This is no mere parlor trick. Oh no. This is Invocation, young man! I'm not one of those fools from the School of Conjuration, who would create blazing phoenixes and balls of fire to burn my foes, wasting time and mana on frivolous appearances. When heat is required, one must simply apply heat in the most effective way possible."

"… Did you just fire a bloody laser beam at me?" I blurted out, and after some thinking, the old man shrugged.

"A heat ray, a laser beam, call it whatever you want. It's the result that matters."

Saying so, he swung his cane vertically, and as if opening a tear in the fabric of the world itself, he drew a shimmering arc in the air. It remained for a split second, and then it snapped with a deafening boom and launched a blast of air my way, kicking up the dust and grass in the way. This time, my danger sense didn't warn me to get out of the way, but I still had to brace myself so that I wouldn't be blown back.

Once again, my phantom limbs had no effect on this attack, which solidified my initial realization: unlike Lord Grandpa, who used mana to create magical constructs to attack me, which could be disrupted mid-strike by a well-placed swing of my ethereal appendages, Lord Ambrose was instead using magic to induce physical phenomenon, and since the effect itself was natural, I couldn't easily disrupt it. Which meant…

"Okay," I said as I levelled a glare at the arch-mage. Of course, he couldn't see that, since I activated my Leoformer and donned my Lion Knight armour replica, including the helmet, to better withstand the wind blast. I waited for the gale to subside before straightening my back, and added, in a low voice, "The kid gloves are officially off."