The Lady's Butler: I Reincarnated To Serve The Villainess

Chapter 205: An Underwhelming Match

The crowd, especially those from the academy, immediately erupted in cheers as they saw the two on the arena floor.

The third year was yelling in support of who they thought was Cassian.

Hell, even most of the second years were certain that this match would go in the third year’s favor.

Cassian, or rather, Marion, stood opposite Adrian with a small smile on his face as he muttered, "With the two of us about to battle again, I can’t help but have a sense of deja vu."

"Though, now we’re not trying to kill each other," he then glanced at the crowd around and added, "and we’ve got quite the audience, this time."

Adrian also glanced around, though unlike Marion, he sensed no deja vu from the situation.

Perhaps it was because Marion felt a lot... weaker?

"A side effect of switching bodies, I assume?" He said.

"Hmm?" Marion asked in confusion.

"Your mana," Adrian clarified, "it feels a lot weaker. "

Marion silently looked at him for a while before chuckling, "can’t help it, after all, if this was without a price, I’d be doing it multiple times a week."

Adrian nodded in response, not truly surprised that Marion didn’t try hiding that weakness.

But it was information nonetheless, one that might come in handy.

The herald interrupted their conversation with a simple,

"BEGIN!"

Marion made his move exactly as the herald’s voice came, launching a blast of wind towards Adrian.

In response, the butler simply switched places with his shadow, easily avoiding the attack.

But it seems Marion already anticipated this, because the moment Adrian reappeared, another blast of wind was already headed towards him, forcing him to put up a shadow barrier.

The shadow barrier absorbed the hit, but Adrian could feel the difference in Marion’s attacks compared to the dungeon.

Weaker.

Considerably so.

Which was both reassuring and slightly disappointing, after all, he had been looking forward to this.

Especially the battle-loving instincts the former Adrian had left behind.

Marion seemed to notice the lack of reaction from his opponent and let out a small sigh.

"You don’t seem impressed," he said.

"I was just expecting a bit more," Adrian honestly said.

Marion looked at him for a while before letting out a dry chuckle.

"Unfortunately," he said, "this body has its limits, and I’ve already reached most of them."

He glanced down at Cassian’s hands briefly before looking back up, "It’d be different if it were yours."

"Though," he added, "I wouldn’t be too comfortable if I were you."

The next second, his strings suddenly spread across the entire arena floor simultaneously.

A net.

Adrian felt them the moment they touched his shadow and immediately understood what Marion was doing.

Like a spider’s web, Marion was treating him as prey to be captured, and if he got caught in them, it’d be over.

Though the crowd could see nothing, as the strings were basically invisible and quickly closing the distance.

Unfortunately, this wasn’t Adrian’s first time dealing with these things.

Multiple clones detached themselves from his shadow and stood in the way of the strings.

The moment they touched it, they suddenly clung to it, and the strings suddenly became visible, turning completely black.

The moment they touched it, they suddenly clung to it, and the strings suddenly became visible, turning completely black.

The crowd immediately reacted to the sudden appearance of what seemed like a web of black threads covering the entire arena floor.

"That’s quite unfair," Marion muttered as he realized that the stings were not in his control anymore.

Adrian just shrugged in response as the strings drew closer to his opponent, and Marion had no choice but to let the strings dissolve,

Otherwise, he’d be caught in his own trap.

"Then I guess I’ll have to just rely on this body’s element," he said, but this time, instead of launching himself forward carelessly, he suddenly seemed to split into two.

Adrian frowned at this, wondering when the wind mana was capable of cloning.

"There’s just one of him," Noctis said, and Adrian finally noticed the mana around.

Unlike his clones that contained his mana, the second Marion seemed to only have mana surrounding it; in other words, the clone was just,

"Pressurized air that formed a mirage," Adrian muttered as he looked at the second Marion.

Honestly, the trick might have worked against any other spirit magw, save for Adrian and perhaps the saintess.

Marion realized that even his unconventional means had been seen through.

Still, this wasn’t the only trick he had figured out in the few days that he had possessed this body.

The pressurized air clone dissolved as Marion abandoned the mirage approach entirely.

What came next was quite different.

Adrian suddenly noticed that the pressure around him was increasing whilst the air was quickly thinning.

[Vacuum]

Marion looked at him with a smile, realizing that Adrian hadn’t expected this in the least bit.

Hell, not even A-rank wind spirit mages were this creative with the wind element.

Adrian was forced to switch places with his newly formed clone, and it immediately imploded.

The crowd was quite confused at the exchange between the two. The only visible attack they had seen was the strings, Adrian’s clones and the mirage formed by the third year.

The South was quite bored watching the match. After all, they wanted punches, kicks and explosions, not whatever flirting was going on in the arena.

***

It was quite opposite for the Grand Dukes watching the match; after all, they could see or sense many bits of mana that the two used.

"How interesting," Ignis said with a grin as he looked towards the headmistress. "Where did you find such an interesting kid?"

"He is one of Boreas’", Evelina said before a hand on her Chinese, "or perhaps it’s more accurate to call him Renelle’s."

Boreas didn’t say anything in rebuttal to that, after all, even he knew how true that was.

"How interesting indeed," the Bishop agreed as he also looked at Adrian.

But unlike the Grand Duke of the South, his tone was definitely not one of fascination.

"Speaking of which," the headmistress muttered, turning towards the Grand Duke of the East, "it seems your child also developed quite the interesting set of skills."

Horus turned to her with a blank expression before nodding, "After the dungeon, it seems he developed a new understanding of the wind mana."

"I see," she also nodded and turned towards the arena.

She was truly fascinated by the skill it took for ’Cassian’ to maintain control over his strings whilst also fighting Adrian.

Of course, she knew about Marion’s strings, but again, her hands were tied.

Her skill, as much as it allowed her to become one of the strongest in Avera, also came with quite an inconvenient flaw.

Evelina could see and manipulate strings of fate.

But she couldn’t do so freely....or rather, some events were set in stone by Avera herself that couldn’t be manipulated without consequences.

There were also people whom she couldn’t manipulate the fate strings of without having to pay a price.

And Marion just happened to be one of those.

If she had met Marion within the dungeon, then she wouldn’t have had that issue, but now, Avera saw him as a crucial part of surviving whatever was coming.

But, for some reason, Evelina felt as if this limitation was just a bottleneck, one that she needed to break to achieve the next rank.

Yet, the process of achieving that was one even her eyes couldn’t see.

***

Back in the Arena, Marion used multiple other [Vacuum], and each time, Adrian escaped using a clone.

It had quickly developed into a pattern.

The South’s crowd had long since lost interest in trying to understand what was happening and had resigned itself to watching two people seemingly do nothing impressive.

"It seems our audience has gotten quite bored," Marion said as he stopped to look at the crowd.

"I guess it’s time to end this then," Adrian replied and the next second, his shadow spread, enveloping where the two stood.

[Shadow Domain]

Marion looked down at the domain, let out a sigh and wrapped a ball of air around him, though he doubted that would do much anyway.

Adrian was right, this fight really was boring.

But he wouldn’t give up either, as that would only make for a really boring end.