Chapter 158 - Layla Vs Arthur, Once Again.

"Huh? You two know each other?"

"Of course, Lord? Sir?..."

"Just call me Edward."

Esna shrugged her shoulder and turned back to Arthur who was silently stepping away from Layla who was glaring at him.

"What does she mean by 'your handiwork'?"

Before Arthur could respond, Esna took the reins and decided to explain it all in one short breath.

"He was the one who dragged me over to the academy, put me in class A and spread rumors that I-"

"Esna, Stop!"

Arthur hurriedly cut her off but she wanted to continue speaking, however she discovered she could not open her mouth anymore.

Realizing Arthur exerted some sort of control over her, she glared at him in indignation.

Layla, who realized that Arthur did something to make her stop talking, hit the back of his head before dragging the duo out of the arena.

Edward and Nicole looked at each other, their confusion visible on their faces, before shrugging their shoulders and following the trio out of the arena.

Of course, the most confused were the spectators who were unable to hear the things spoke but saw Layla suddenly hit Arthur's head before dragging him out of the arena alongside Esna.

◇　◇　◇

"Now, full explanation."

Layla dragged Arthur and Esna to the private training area that was constructed near the third year dormitories while Edward and Nicole followed.

Each of the buildings was quite large, containing a dozen rooms of fifty meters length and width having a five meter gap in between. The buildings had an average height of about five meters tall and were all made of reinforced concrete and metal.

For each of the rooms, they had inhibition magic circles inscribed on the walls, preventing those in other rooms from discovering what was going on inside the private rooms.

There was also a formation placed inside each room that ejected any students that had taken damage above a certain level. This was to prevent any deaths in the private rooms, as they had no surveillance.

It was in one of these private rooms that Layla sat Arthur on the ground and asked for a full explanation on the relationship between him and Esna.

"Honestly Layla, I can't tell you everything even if I wanted to. Just know that I met her on a planet I went over to get artifacts for my collection from.

Due to certain circumstances we reached an agreement that ended up with her coming over to the academy so I could keep a close watch on her."

"If so, why did you prevent her from speaking earlier?"

Arthur was about to skillfully avoid the question however Esna who was hiding behind Layla, used magic to form a wall of light, preventing him from seeing her.

"That's because he was the one who spread the rumors that I entered Class A without taking any exams knowing fully well that it would cause discontent among the second years and I would end up getting challenged multiple times.

I challenged and defeated the former rank one to stop it but somehow that only made it worse. If there was someone inciting them from behind the scenes then it makes sense."

As soon as she finished speaking, Layla rose her hand and flicked a bolt of dense aura towards the wall of light.

**SHATTER!!

The wall of light shattered instantly and Esna felt a pang of pain in her chest from having her magic forcefully disabled.

Unlike the instructor from earlier, Layla was not skilled enough to do so without causing the caster any harm.

"Sorry about that but I'm not really a fan of light attributed magic, despite how I may seem, I'm still a devil you know?"

"...Noted."

Esna dropped to one knee and clutched her chest due to the pain from the backlash while nodding in affirmation to Layla's words.

'How in tarnation is she just one year older than me?! High level stage 4's can't disable my magic so easily, yet she did so with a single bolt of aura!'

Arthur on the other hand, was snickering at Esna's misfortune causing Layla to send a bolt of aura to his forehead.

"OW!!!"

While Arthur was clutching his forehead in pain, Nicole had used a water magic spell to alleviate the pain that Esna felt.

"Thanks."

Nicole only nodded in response to Esna's thanks before walking over to reprimand Layla.

"It's funny how she's able to make both of them behave despite being the quietest of the trio."

Edward spoke as he held out a hand to help Esna to her feet. Accepting his hand and standing upright, she looked at the scene of Layla and Arthur kneeling on the floor, folding their legs under their thigh and sitting on their knees while being scolded by Nicole.

"I'm more surprised by the fact that there's more than one person who can rein in Arthur."

Edward chuckled lightly upon hearing her words before suddenly questioning her with a serious voice.

"He didn't force you to come here did he?"

"Unfortunately I agreed to come here of my own free will."

"What about your friends and family back home, don't you miss them?"

Hearing Edward's question, Esna paused for a moment before answering.

"I'd be lying if I said that I don't miss them at all, I've known them all for years after all. However, I have a chance to improve myself and become stronger here, I would get to experience new things, meet new people and form new relationships.

Most of all, the people I care about were happy at me gaining such and opportunity, besides, it's not like I can't go back home and visit."

Edward nodded and was about to speak again when he sensed the clashing of magic power from in front of him.

**BANG!!

He looked up and was met with the scene of Layla pulling out a gun and firing towards Arthur who summoned his semi-transparent blade and blocked the bullet.

"What in tarnation...?"

"Arthur is trying to escape from Layla's wrath so he made a bet that if he wins the fight, she would not do anything to him."

Nicole, who had returned to his side at some time he did not even realize, answered his question with a quiet voice as usual.

"I think we should back away."

"We definitely should."

Nicole's suggestion was accepted by Esna who immediately back stepped to give Arthur and Layla more space to duke it out.

***PAPAPAPAPAPAPAPAPAPAPAPAPA!!!!!!!!!!!

Layla who had pulled out an Assault rifle during the short time Edward took his eyes of her, fired towards Arthur who was running on the walls of the training center with magic power infused in his feet.

The moment she stopped firing, Arthur kicked off the wall and dashed towards her while filling his sword with aura.

"Aura Claw."

He swung the sword and released a three-pronged aura slash towards Layla. In response, Layla stamped her foot on the ground, shattering the concrete floor and causing a large chunk of concrete to fly up into the air.

She twisted her body and delivered a spin kick to the chunk of concrete before gravity could do its work and sent it flying towards Arthur's Aura claw.

The moment her feet touched the piece of concrete, she poured as much aura as she could inside in to make it strong enough to cancel out the aura claw upon Collison.

**BOOOM!

However, even if she nullified the aura claw, the real Arthur who came dashing through the small explosion, took no damage whatsoever.

Arthur slashed towards Layla, who only grinned before suddenly vanishing from where she was, causing Arthur to slash at empty air.

Realizing she had used illusion magic to cover her traces, Arthur let energy flow towards his left eye as it glowed blue under his contact lens.

'Behind?!'

He felt a chill on his neck and he responded by ducking and rolling on the floor. The next moment, there was a 'whoosh' as Layla's sword missed its target.

Arthur turned around instantly and through his left eye, he could see Layla kicking off the floor and charging towards him.

He grinned and filled his sword with aura before raising it to meet hers.

**CLANG! CLANGG!! CLANGGG!!!

The two clashed blades multiple times and despite Layla's surprise, she did not show any opening for Arthur to take advantage of.

'How can he see me?!

If so, let's use this.'

Layla collected her thoughts instantly and activated another spell, causing her figure to split into five.

They five Laylas all jumped in random directions before pulling out pistols and firing towards Arthur simultaneously.

'Only one is real but all the bullets are real?!'

Arthur who realized that each of the Laylas was firing real bullets towards him, could hardly contain his surprise as he decided to use actual magic for the first time in a while.

"Flame magic: Bursting Flame."

A burst of flames manifested on the ground surrounding him. From this circle of flames, multiple fireballs manifested and launched towards the directions of all the Laylas.

The fireballs clashed with most of their bullets en route causing multiple small explosions in the air.

Ignoring this, Arthur emerged from within the circle of flames and charged towards the real Layla who was once again surprised that Arthur was able to find her so easily.

Deactivating her illusions as she saw they were futile, she snapped her fingers and multiple three ringed magic circles emerged around her.

From each of these circles, a spear of darkness emerged and shot towards Arthur.

"Really?"