"Did you see the duel today? It was so amazing."
"I know, right? They are both the disciple of great people, yet Zoella defeated him so easily."
"Will there be another challenger for her? I absolutely love to watch it again."
The whole academy was filled with the talk of the duel between Zoella and Oscar. Of course, after witnessing the duel between the disciples of two great swordsmen it was only natural that people would talk about it.
The duel was intense since Oscar put his all into winning while Zoella looked unbothered by his fierce attack. Zoella started to take over the duel after she spent around three minutes dodging Oscar's sword.
And so, the duel ended in a mere five minutes.
"To think such a talent is his disciple... that side really lucky, huh?"
Anthony Hart was looking at the training ground where Zoella and Oscar had their duel.
He already heard the rumors about how talented Hayes's disciple was. But to witness it himself, he couldn't believe how much potential that girl had.
Anthony was about to walk out when he noticed a white flower around the bushes near the training ground. He knelt and picked it up carefully.
"Once she graduates, a lot of people will covet her just like his teacher."
As the orange color of the sunset enveloped him, his brown eyes glowed red and an excited smile spread across his face. Slowly, he clenched his hand destroying the flower in it.
"But I will get her first before anyone else can. I'll do anything I can, Master."
***
On the other side, two figures were sitting under the tree while enjoying the sun that slowly went down across the horizon.
Zoella who had done her purpose to pick up some herbs decided to stay out a little longer. She was feeling guilty because she knew Ezekiel always come to this place even though she never showed up. And Zoella wanted to make it up.
"Did anything happen? You seem tired. Do you want to go back?"
Ezekiel asked. Worries lingered in his voice as he prepared to stand up.
"I'm alright. It's just... maybe because of the duel I had earlier."
"A duel? With a sword? I'm sure you won the match but why did someone suddenly challenge you? It's unusual for a student from the Magic department."
Ezekiel's eyes stealthily scanned Zoella's body to see if she had any injuries. And fortunately, she didn't.
"Well, things happened and I did win. But, there was something that bothered me."
"Do you want to tell me?"
Zoella looked at Ezekiel's golden eyes for a moment. His eyes were so clear that she could see her reflection in them. Nothing else but her in those golden eyes.
She turned away and took a deep breath.
"My opponent was a freshman from the Swordsmanship department. From what I heard, he often asked his classmates for some duels excessively. After he won over all of his classmates, he began to ask his senior for a duel."
"..."
"For someone at his level, my friends, Lilian and others who were his seniors were enough to defeat him. I just can't understand why they asked him to challenge me like that."
Ezekiel nodded his head and wait for some time before he started to talk.
"You said he was bothering his classmates, right? Can you guess why?"
"Well, they said his master is one of the best swordsmen. So, maybe he was a bit... conceited?"
"There you have it. He thought he was above everyone else's level because of his master's status. If he was defeated by his seniors, he could just say that they have more experience than him."
"..."
"But, he was defeated by you who aren't even focused on swordsmanship. He thought it'll be easy to defeat you by that fact. However, he lost and it shattered his pride. What he can't learn from his seniors, he learns it from you."
Zoella recalled her duel earlier. In the beginning, Oscar seemed to be holding back his strength. But he went all out after Zoella easily dodge his sword. After Zoella took over the rhythm, he lost. She remembered Oscar's expression. He couldn't believe that he still lose after he went all out.
After the duel ended, Oscar faced the ground the whole time and walked out of the training ground.
'Did I make yet another enemy? Ugh, I don't want it.'
Zoella held back her groan. She shook her head lightly trying not to think about it anymore.
"Anyway, enough about my day. What about yours?"
"Just as usual. Work and training. Nothing important happened except that I'm here with you."
Zoella averted her face as the blood rushed to her face.
"T- training, huh? It's been a while since I saw you training with your aura which..."
"Which?"
Zoella shut her mouth right away.
'Which the only swordmaster in this empire have? Dang, good thing I stopped there.'
During her lesson about nobility, Madam Stefield told her all of the important figures in the empire including the one and only swordmaster, Grand Duke Lucelence.
At first, Zoella was confused because she thought there was another person who also use aura besides the Grand Duke. When she asked Madam Stefield about it, her teacher answered there was a rumor that Noah, her brother, had the potential to become a swordmaster. However, as for now the empire only had one swordmaster.
And when Zoella heard the full name of the Grand Duke, everything had become a complete puzzle.
Zoella didn't know the reason why Ezekiel wanted to hide his identity. And Zoella didn't want to pry in any further and would only wait until he trusted her enough to tell her himself.
"Which... is really cool, hahaha. It's somehow similar to mana but also different."
"Right."
Ezekiel felt slightly nervous. He knew that was not what Zoella wanted to say and she deliberately changed her words.
He had a feeling that Zoella might know his true identity by now because of the lesson she had to take for debutante which every noble had.
However, Ezekiel still wanted to tell her directly. He just couldn't figure out the best time and the best way to do it.
'I need to think about it as fast as possible.'
'Let's just wait until he brings it up.'
With the beautiful sunset as their company, the two hearts understood each other. Though they didn't know about it, surely they definitely would in the future. Just like they did in the far past.