“Give them back! Give me back my materials!!”
“Stop being annoying! Get out of my way!”
“Hn? What’s going on…?”
Meanwhile, Yuugo was heading to the communal shower room, when he heard an alarming conversation and stopped.
He looked where the voices were coming from, and when saw a student he recognized from somewhere, kicking and hurling abuse at another student who clung to his leg, he rushed to try to fix this situation.
“Hey hey hey, wait! I don’t know what happened, but let’s not be violent!”
“Hn, you…? Yuugo, uh?”
“Oh? You’re the one I saw during that thing with Skull… Isaac! Thanks for that time! You really helped! But what’s going on?”
It was the twin swords user Yuugo met before… He thanked Isaac and asked what was happening, and he responded with an exasperated expression while pointing at the other boy.
“This guy keeps hounding me to give back materials I won in a duel. We agreed the winner would get them, but now that he lost, he keeps asking for them back. That’s not right, is it?”
“…Is that what’s happening?”
“I-it is, b-but…”
“See? He admits it! He’s a loser that doesn’t know when to let go and admit defeat! Give it up already!”
“Aguh!?”
“H-hey! Are you all right!? What are you doing!?”
Isaac said that it made no sense to complain and demand the materials back since he won them in a duel, and when the other student tried to respond, Isaac kicked him.
This violence surprised Yuugo, who showed concern for that student and raised his voice to stop Isaac, who looked at him with a smug smile.
“That’s what this idiot gets for being so stubborn. Why wouldn’t he get this when he doesn’t admit defeat and instead keeps pestering me?”
“Yes, he should accept it, but you don’t have to go that far. Don’t attack someone that can’t even move.”
“Ahh… You’re so naive. It makes perfect sense to squish a loser bug like that. If he’s going to hang around a winner like me, he’s definitely after some pain.”
“…”
Isaac sneered, justifying going too far with his treatment of the other student, and not feeling any shame about it.
Yuugo wondered if he was feeling smug after winning a duel, because he seemed more brazen than the last time they met, as Isaac kept talking.
“More importantly… You got a fire magic crystal, right? That’s nice, I’d sure like to have it…! Do you want to bet it in a duel against me?”
“…What?”
There was a dubious light in Isaac’s eyes as he challenged Yuugo to a duel, and Yuugo was both surprised about the challenge, and wondered where he heard about the magic crystal he received from Skull.
But Isaac was not done yet.
“Doesn’t it sound good? Not to brag, but I have a lot of materials! Those and your magic crystal can be the prizes! I can bet lots of things if you want! I’ll put out a lot of materials! But in return, you… Bet Melt and An. If I win, they’re mine!”
“…Do you even know what you’re saying?”
“What’s the problem? You bet your fiancee in a duel against Zenon…! Don’t you think betting just two girls is a good deal when you can get so many materials? Or did you lose your nerve after losing to Zenon?”
Isaac continued to try to talk Yuugo into accepting the duel.
He looked him in the eyes and laughed as if making fun of him, but Yuugo shook his head, and spoke with a tone that made his feelings clear.
“Sorry, but I can’t accept that. The magic crystal means a lot to me because I got it from a friend, and Melt and An are also dear friends. They’re not prizes for me to bet in a duel.”
“Hm… I see. Fine then. Goodbye, coward.”
Isaac let out a laugh of ridicule after his challenge was flatly turned down, and left with light steps.
Yuugo was nonplussed by his arrogant attitude, and turned to the boy crouching and crying.
“Hey, are you all right? That was pretty awful, so let me take you to the infirmary.”
“U, uu…”
He nodded while tears continued streaming, and Yuugo helped him walk.
On the way to the infirmary, Yuugo turned to him with a question.
“What were you going to say earlier?”
Yuugo remembered there was something he tried to say before he was interrupted by Isaac’s kick.
He responded with tears still flowing down his face.
“I-I didn’t really want to duel. But he threatened to attack my girlfriend if I didn’t… So that’s how I ended up doing it…”
“…What? Is that true?”
“It is. That guy, Isaac, forces duels on people like that. You can ask high school students and they’ll tell you the kinds of things he does. Everyone’s being harmed by him, but not one can beat him, so he does what he wants…”
When Yuugo heard that Isaac dueled not just willing opponents, but forced students to duel and took away their materials, his expression changed.
He understood his grievances, but if what this student said was true, that changed things. But since he was also the victim of false rumors, he decided not to accept this at face value, and instead look for more information.
(I was like that too, but this Isaac guy sounds like bad news. Maybe even worse than me…?)
Yuugo did not know for sure what the past Yuugo was like, but forcing duels on people was pretty nasty. At least when he dueled Zenon for Claire, Zenon was a willing participant. He grimaced as he thought that Isaac might be even worse than his past self.
He wondered if the current trend of students repeatedly looking to duel for materials he heard about from Hercus birthed this monster, and decided to ask Hercus about it again.
As he took the student to the infirmary, he grew concerned of the growing lawlessness of the Luminous Academy.
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Thanks for the chapter
Surprisingly bold moves from the guy who went with stealth tactics last time we saw him. Did Isaac already started getting corrupted by the magic swords or that is just his true colours.