In Anatol, there were two archduke families, the Norama family, and the Athne family, who had both sworn fealty to the crown. However, while the Norama family had kept their promise, the current Athne archduchess had strayed from her original beliefs. As she was raised in a matriarchal family, when she gave birth to twin daughters, she had been ecstatic—especially when her younger daughter had shown talent to be a mage. Later on, when her eldest daughter had been kidnapped and rescued, she had also awakened as a mage.
With two talented daughters, the archduchess' greed had grown, leading to the current situation—her twin daughters being shoved into a duel at a young age.
'Or should I be glad that she's this hasty. If they were adults, instead of settling for a duel, she might just start a rebellion instead. But didn't Anatol only declare their male children as heirs? How did she plan to justify putting her daughters on the throne?'
Ciel, who had tied his blindfold back onto his head, pretended to be listening to Dominic's explanation of the change in participants to the audience. Meanwhile, he discreetly looked in the twins' direction.
Tsk, when he got stronger, he would definitely expand his mana senses to a field of vision with a full 360 degree view with no blindspots.
Suddenly, one of the girls looked over, locking onto him. Although he was wearing a blindfold, Ciel could swear she was looking into his eyes.
He looked away expressionlessly, pretending to be blind.
Curly hair. This was the older twin.
'Nichole Athne. Wasn't she Dominic's fiance in the original?'
He couldn't resist peeking again.
Just then, Dominic finished his piece, passing his role to the announcer, who cleared his throat.
"May the dualists enter the arena!"
Ciel, who was still a bit distracted, felt his collar being pulled.
"Ah wait, I'm paying attention! Don't let me enter the arena like this!"
Erin let go silently and watched as Ciel jolted up and ran through the entrance.
He looked at where Ciel had been gazing at.
The curly haired girl's light amber eyes stared directly into his own.
"..?"
Why did she feel familiar?
"What are you waiting for, let's go go go!"
Feeling no one behind him, Ciel looked back to see Erin in a daze. He hurried back and pushed his brother out of the participant's room.
The arena was a large, sandy circle surrounded by a round water canal, with the spectators safely behind the water border and a reinforced magic barrier.
Pushing Erin over, Ciel stepped on the small wooden board that had been placed there to act like a bridge. He looked at the water border curiously—even with his mana senses, he couldn't 'see' the bottom.
"Huh, this water is actually quite deep. Erin, what do you think would happen if I—"
Bang!
The gunshot started out, interrupting his next words.
The twin girls immediately sprang towards Erin. Ciel barely felt a gust of wind blow by his face before he quickly reacted, spinning around and grabbing Nichole's collar as he threw a punch to her face.
"Oi oi oi. This is the first time I've been ignored in a fight. Do I look that weak to you?"
Seeing his small white fist, Nichole didn't bother to dodge, about to let Ciel's weak punch hit her face.
She sneered.
"Of course."
Ciel gave a simple smile, and his closed fist opened up, the blood threads from his bleeding fingers forming into a thin needle aimed towards her eyes.
"Big sis!"
At this time, the younger sister rushed forward, blocking the solid threads with her staff. The twins switched places with well practiced movements, and behind her younger sister, Nichole raised an arm, forming a finger gun with her ungloved hand.
Ciel was quickly pulled back by Erin, narrowly avoiding the small water bullets shot at him. They sprang back a few steps, creating a safe distance between their opponents.
Taking advantage of the gap, the twins quickly formed a large water barrier.
Looking at the solid barrier that was also being slowly frozen over, Ciel silently reached into the bag strapped to his waist. But before he could take anything out, Erin took out his whip and a gun Ciel had given him.
A swift crack sounded out loudly as the barrier was instantly shattered into a million fragments. However, Ciel wasn't happy.
/Hehehe, it was a smokescreen~/
"I know, fogging the grounds is a basic tactic for low level water mages."
The fragments quickly melted, instantly fogging over the entire area.
From inside the mist, water bullets shot out again. In addition, there were also two ice swords piercing through the air, aiming straight at Erin. Ciel collected the blood he had shed into a thin blade, smoothly splitting one in half.
"Damn, at this level, they couldn't have condensed so much fog this quickly."
Erin grabbed the other one with his whip, shattering it.
"The canal."
"Tsk. This is an unfair advantage."
If it weren't for his mana senses, he wouldn't have been able to feel the sisters' location at all. Quickly scanning his surroundings, Ciel divided the blood threads into a group of needles and shot all of them at a spot in the fog.
"There!"
Not questioning his decision, Erin lunged forward, whip in one hand and a gun in the other.
*Screech!*
Elaine's eyes widened.
How could they be found so quickly? And by a blind kid too!
The sound of metal on metal clashed as the staff and whip met each other. Not giving any time for more thoughts, Erin immediately fired his revolver at Elaine's legs.
Distracted by Erin, Elaine was split between trying to block the needles for her sister, or dodging the bullets. Looking at the black haired boy in front of her, she instantly made a decision. Gritting her teeth, she pushed Erin back, taking a bullet in her thigh in the process, before falling back and gathering the fog into an ice shield around her and Nichole.
But just as the needles were about to fall down on them, they turned around, condensing back into a thin blade in Ciel's hands.
Behind the murky ice, Elaine's eyes widened in anger.
They got scammed! Damn, solidifying a barrier costed a lot of mana!
"Hahaha! I really missed seeing those kinds of expressions!"
Ciel laughed happily.
"Erin, use the bullets I gave you. Save the rest for later."
Expressionless, Erin changed his bullets and pointed the gun at the ice dome.
Bang…boom!
/The f*ck, when did you have time to make exploding bullets?/
The dome shattered like glass, vanishing into the air. This time, Nichole lacked the mana to do a large-scale operation like fogging the whole arena. Erin immediately aimed at Elaine, distancing her from Nichole.
Forming a few blood knives in his hands, Ciel gave a happy laugh as he threw them at Nichole, who was now unprotected.
"Commissioned it from Taq. Envious?"
/Hmph, I can make better ones when I revive./
Ciel ignored his sister's words. Leaping past Erin, the knives in midair that Nichole had been about to dodge transformed into daggers in his hands.
Freezing in an awkward duck, Nichole scowled, pointing her finger gun straight at Ciel's eyes.
Ciel grinned, tilting his head. Aiming at her throat, he slashed down.
Although the fight was intense, there was surprisingly no blood spilled on Ciel and Erin's side—other than Ciel's weapons.
However, in the audience, Jadiel had covered Lanae's eyes. Beside them, Mason and Ivan had begun commentating the fight for the lady who wanted to watch her children fight but was too scared to see their blood being shed.
"Damn, this fog is making it hard to see—oh it's gone! Wow, this is supposed to be a noble duel, but our kids have completely turned it into a bloody dogfight–ouch!"
Ivan smacked Mason's head, and he immediately changed his words.
"Lanae, don't worry, our kids haven't gotten their blood spilled yet."
"Not counting Ciel though. He needs to spill blood to fight properly."
"Ooh, with that amount of blood, your brother's gonna kill him when he gets back—ouch!"
Mason was forced to change his words again.
"Lanae, don't worry, from the looks of it, Ciel still has a lot of mana. He'll be able to retrieve all the blood that's out right now."
He continued.
"Oooh! Erin ran out of bullets and started smacking his opponent with his gun! Damn, he can't use that flimsy whip in such a close range! Ss, that looks pain–ow!"
Clutching the back of his head, Mason glared at Ivan.
"Oi, I didn't say anything wrong!"
Ivan was unapologetic.
"Sorry, force of habit."
"You b*stard, you're just taking the chance to hit me!"
Not refuting his words, Ivan looked away wordlessly.
"Continue commentating."