Chương 7: Chapter 6 - Young Master

"How can I have lost this much money?" the young man yelled.

"This isn't fair. You all must be cheating. You.. you're all in cahoots somehow. I demand my money back!"

"You lost fair and square, Benji," the player nearest him said.

"None of us are cheating, tonight just isn't your night. You'll win it back next time." Benji stood up so suddenly that his chair toppled over behind him.

"No! Someone must be cheating. I've never lost this bad before, and I play Royal Bluff with my friends all the time." He started reaching for the other players' piles of money to take back the money he had lost. Each of the players covered their stacks of coins with their arms and gave him a dirty look.

"Knock it off, Benji," Dustin said quietly from his chair.

"You heard what Josia said, you'll win it back next time."

"You!" Benji glared daggers at Dustin from across the table.

"You're the biggest cheat of all. Look at the pile of money he has." He looked at the other players.

"He must be cheating!" Josia simply shrugged.

"Dustin's good at Royal Bluff. He beats us all the time. You get used to it." A few of the bystanders snickered at Benji's frustration. Benji shook his head. Kiara could have sworn she almost saw steam coming out of his ears with how red his face was.

"I've had enough of this! I want my money back now." Benji held out his hand, and a blue ball of fire appeared above it, slowly growing brighter. The snickering stopped, and people quickly backed up from the table, giving the mage some room. Even the stoic bar maid that Kiara had admired for her strength earlier looked on in fear. Kiara had only ever met a single mage in her life before that she knew of, Lord Grivalt.

Now, it seemed that both mages she'd met were complete jerks, and somewhat devoid of normal courteousness, or even basic common sense. The mage community was 0 for 2 in her mind, as far as impressions went. It wasn't a good look. Mages weren't that common, a lot of people didn't have the spiritual roots necessary to wield magic very effectively.

Beyond that, only nobles and rich families could afford to send their children to the magical academies, so even those commoners that might have good spiritual roots oftentimes never learned about it or got the chance to practice magic. Everyone's eyes were wide, and a few of the bystanders even made a run for it, heading for the pub door to the outside. Most of the players backed their chairs away from the table, leaving their stacks of money free for Benji to take if he wanted.

Dustin narrowed his eyes, but didn't move his chair away from the table. Kiara heard him say under his breath, "spoiled nobles…"

"What did you say?" Benji roared, stomping his way around the table to where Dustin was sitting. Dustin raised his hands defensively.

"If you take our money Benji, there's obviously nothing any of us can do to stop you. But you know you didn't earn it."

"I don't have to give anything to cheaters like you," Benji snarled as he started collecting Dustin's money and putting it in his pockets. Kiara watched the whole scene play out, and was quite frustrated. Were all mages this conceited? This entitled? Did they think they could bully anyone they wanted, just because they were stronger? Her experience with Lord Grivalt was still fresh on her mind, it had only happened a few hours ago, honestly.

She reflected on her ability that made her immune to magic, and decided she had to do something. She couldn't stand by and watch a mage bully someone if she could do anything about it. She didn't really know the limits of her ability, but she figured this was the best place to test it out. If she died again, well… the World Engine was an old friend by this point. Maybe this time it would actually be her scheduled time to die. She stepped forward, much to the surprise of everyone around the table.

Getting in the way of an angry mage was as good as asking to be killed. A few of the onlookers' eyes went wide as she walked up to Benji. Benji glared at her as she approached.

"Who are you? What do you want?" She pursed her lips.

"I want you to give that man back his money. He won it from you fair and square. Stop being such a poor loser." Dustin's eyebrows shot up as she said this. Benji, on the other hand, glared daggers at her.

"Do you have a death wish?" he snarled. He held his hand back up, where the same blue ball of flame re-appeared. This close, Kiara could see the air warping around it, it was very hot indeed. Interestingly though, she couldn't feel any heat coming from it. She hesitated for a moment, then steeled her nerves. She wouldn't back down now, she was in it this far. She had to take a stand. If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

Plus, she was curious how her new ability worked.

"Give Dustin back his money. We all know he beat you in the game. Stop being a bully." Benji's lips curled into an evil smile.

"You asked for this." He extended his hand and released the ball of flame at her, point blank. The flame hit her in the face almost immediately after he released it. She instinctively flinched backwards as it hit her, but it dissolved as it made contact, and she never even felt a thing. Bolstered by the amazing result, she glared at Benji. She wanted to test her ability a bit more, and decided to taunt him to see if he would shoot another spell at her.

"What was that? An illusion? Why don't you shoot me with a real spell?" * Benji was the only son of two very doting parents. They were both tier 3 mages, and had high hopes that Benji would someday become a tier 4 mage. They were minor nobles, second cousins of Count Agravard, who ruled the city they lived in. Benji had been taught from a young age to carry himself with class, and to look down on the commoners, who were there to serve.

His parents had made it clear from a young age that if he ever wanted to rise to true nobility, he would have to get used to carrying himself appropriately for that title. Benji was still young, and didn't know much about ruling anything, but he was a product of his upbringing. He wasn't as strict as his parents when it came to avoiding all contact with commoners, that would be too limiting. There just weren't enough nobles around for him to completely avoid the rabble of the city.

As so it was, that he found himself at Sally's pub playing Royal Bluff with a group of strangers. He had been losing more and more to his friends back at the estate recently, and was hoping to learn a thing or two here tonight. He could tell right off the bat that these players were better than him, which was perfect! This would help him hone his skills, and then his friends wouldn't stand a chance. One player in particular, Dustin, seemed especially sharp.

Benji watched all of the players to see what he could learn, but kept an especial eye on Dustin. Some of the players were fairly obvious with their attempts to cheat, they'd yawn and stretch further than needed to try and get a glimpse of another player's cards. Dustin, on the other hand, just sat there, calmly observing each of the other players. By the tenth hand, Benji could see a massive skill gap between Dustin and everyone else at the table.

More and more, Benji became sure that he was cheating somehow, he just couldn't catch him in the act. That was why Benji didn't feel bad taking his money back after he'd had enough of losing for the night. He'd stood up sharply, displayed the fact that he was a tier 1 mage, which got him the appropriate responses of shock and fear that he had been expecting. Except Dustin didn't seem too bothered by his display. Maybe he needed to teach him a lesson. That was when she had stepped in.

A random woman from the bystanders, challenging his authority! He knew that as a minor noble, he had to teach her a thing or two in order for her to learn her place. He had unleashed his best spell at her, a blue fireball. He probably put more mana than he needed to into the spell, but he had only been a mage for a few months, he was still getting a handle on his mana control.

Instead of just enough mana to burn her badly, he figured he'd dumped enough mana into that spell to permanently injure her, maybe even kill her. If his parents found out, he would get in trouble, but it wasn't like anyone would really do anything about it. They would probably just pay off the girl's family to keep them quiet, and he would get a slap on the wrist. Such was the way of things. To his surprise, the spell didn't even injure the woman as it made contact. It just fizzled out as if it had never existed.

At first he was angry that she dared stand there unperturbed by his potent attack, but then a realization hit him. The only time he had seen a defense like that was from his private magic tutor back at the estate. This meant that this woman must be a powerful mage, clearly above his power level. He had enough mana left to throw one or two more spells at her, but he quickly realized that it was futile.

If she was powerful enough to completely unravel his fireball spell like that, then anything else he tried was doomed to failure as well. If she was a powerful mage, then she was most likely nobility of some kind herself. Either that, or she was from a powerful merchant house. Either way, he had just provoked a powerful mage that could kill him with a flick of her wrist. * Benji's face went through a myriad of emotions in a short time.

Confusion, then anger at her taunt, then back to confusion, then finally settling on something akin to fear.

"Wh-what was that? H-how did you do that?" All around, Kiara could hear whispers from the onlookers.

"She must be a mage too."

"I wonder what tier she is."

"Did you see that? It didn't even singe her eyebrows! She barely flinched." Benji slowly backed away from her and raised his hands defensively.

"I don't want any trouble." Kiara scoffed.

"You don't want any trouble? Then what was all of that shouting and complaining you were doing? You're the one who brought the trouble, Benji."

"S-sorry, I didn't mean anything by it." He kept backing away, slowly trying to make his way to the door. Kiara sighed.

"Look, give Dustin back his money and we can pretend this never happened." Benji nodded stupidly and emptied his pockets onto the table, even the money he hadn't lost in the game.

"S-sure, thanks for your understanding. Here, take it all," he gulped and a single bead of sweat formed on his brow. Then, he made a dash for the door and disappeared onto the street. The whispers were getting louder, and Kiara didn't really want to be the center of attention. She was glad she had stood up to the bully, and tested out her new ability, but she didn't want to stick around any longer. She made her own way to the door and out onto the street, heading for the inn the bar maid had told her about.

About a block later, She heard someone jogging up behind her, and spun around, worried that Benji had brought some friends to try and get some revenge or something. Instead, she saw Dustin's handsome… er… smiling face as he jogged up.