The silence was deafening as Justus and I waited for Leena Grey to enter the office. Why is he doing this? I thought to myself as I side-eyed him. It usually isn’t the go-to move to have the opposition meet each other the day before they duel in front of the most important people at Keeper Academy. 

“Nico, I forgot to mention that as a warning that Leena, despite being from a former noble family, is quite…rowdy,” Justus said with a hint of caution in his voice. 

Crash!

As if on cue, the office door burst open. For a brief second, there was a gust of hot air and blinding light as Leena Grey entered the room. After my eyes readjusted back to the room after being flash-banged by a burst of orange flames, I noticed a voice shouting. 

“Hahaha, it’s me! Leena Grey! Behold my glorious power!”, She said as she posed in a comical manner. As she started doing some ridiculous model-like poses, all I could do was stay frozen in shock. I looked at Justus, who just shook his head and sighed. This wasn’t his first rodeo with her. 

“Leena, please sit down next to Nico. I am sure you already know why you are here?”, Justus said as he motioned for Leena to sit down. “Of course, I know why! I am here to fight this guy in the finals of the Noble Placement Exam.”, Leena said while looking at me, grinning as she sat down. 

Despite her quirkiness, Leena had a charm about her. She seemed trigger-happy and bubbly, full of energy. Something which I desperately lacked.

“Hi Leena, my name is Nico. Nice to meet you ....”, I said awkwardly. I quickly stared daggers at Justus, who was suspiciously avoiding my gaze. Whenever I think I don’t have to socialize much, I do. 

“Nice to meet ya too, Nico! You are quite the topic on campus. I heard you can use the forbidden dark magic. Others think it’s disgusting but I think it’s quite cool.”, Leena said while smiling at me. 

“I-”, my words got caught in my throat, my mind unable to let me continue. Leena was the first person to say there was nothing wrong with my dark magic, let alone say something about it being cool. Not only that, but her level of directness caught me off guard as well.

As I was struggling with coming up with words to thank her, Justus stood up. 

“Now that your introductions are over with for now. Let us get to the topic at hand. Leena, I called you in here to go over some details regarding the duel. I do not know the full rules the Keeper Principal will put into place, but I can do my best to prepare you both for it. Are you both ready to listen?”, he inquired of us. 

We both nodded in anticipation. Particularly Leena, who seemed to nod so fast she looked like a bobblehead. 

“Good. Now first off, both of you do not go full force on each other. Do your best to attempt to restrain yourselves. Both of you, not to be mean, have an almost complete lack of control over your magic. As we know and from my research as an academic on universal magic, emotions are heavily connected to the magic of this world, so I suggest you practice emotional control.”, Justus said to us as he pulled another copy of Magic and Emotions from his bookshelf and handed it to Leena. 

“Both of you, please read this book to help you with that. Leena, you in particular, needs to read it carefully. As I have seen, some of your duels and training sessions and they turned out quite sour. I am surprised you aren’t more like your older brother who could rejoin the Noble Class due to being sponsored by numerous higher-ups.

Many people widely regard your older brother as one of the Top 5 Keeper Academy students. His mana control is at the mastery level. Not to mention, all of his flame techniques are at a 9th affinity level, making him an authentic genius. Your mana capacity might be more, but it means nothing if you can’t control your mana. I am saying all of this to help you, not to insult you.”, Justus said seriously.  

The mood in the room instantly shifted.

I looked at Leena out of the corner of my eye, pretending to mind my own business as Justus was lecturing Leena. From what I could see, her personality completely changed. She was the exact opposite of happy and bubbly. In a way, she was even more depressed than me.

“I know…”, Leena said in a cracked whisper as she lowered her head. I thought she was honestly about to cry. 

“I am sorry if that hurt, but it is the truth, Leena Grey. Only you can change that and I would not be saying this unless I did not believe you could change. Anyway, that is all I wanted to say regarding this. Please spend some time together outside of class today before tomorrow to get to know each other. I know the Noble Class Placement Exam Finals are a lot of pressure to handle. 

I think if you know your opponent well, things will go better than expected. You both are dismissed now.”, Justus said as he sat back down at his desk. 

Leena and I both got up awkwardly from our seats and walked out of the office. Before I took the last step out of the office, I looked back at Justus. He simply gave me a look and nodded at me. I nodded back at him and shut the door behind me. 

Talking with Leena was more important than just this duel. Why did he mention her brother in front of me? Does this duel have anything more to do with the state of the world than just simply impressing the Keepers?