"I'll do it," he said the minute she said that.
Maria was surprised. That was what took to convince him? He was badgering her with questions but it was the location that convinced him. This made her curious about what Leo wanted in the capital, but she knew she couldn't ask him.
Meanwhile, Leo clenched his fists hard with excitement. If he went to the capital, he could try to find Daphne. Of course, he would have to be incredibly careful since she was now someone belonging to a duke's family.
But he wanted to see her and this was a good chance to do that. Once he accepted the offer he wanted to go out.
"Is everything done?" He asked.
Maria shook her head.
"Well, this is only a chance for you to get into the reserve team. To prove that you are qualified, you need to get onto the ranking," she said.
"Student Ranking?" He asked. She nodded in response.
"There are already three students who have done this. The top 3 ranks of the New Student Ranking are all also on the Student Rankings. Other than them, all the members of the top 20 were made aware of this opportunity.
Everyone will be competing for the 5 reserve spots that we have to offer. So you will need to do your best to grow strong and get to the ranking as quickly as possible," she said.
Lyra and Marcus were both shocked when they heard this. Neither of them knew about how there were first-year students in the Student Ranking. But Leo didn't show any surprise.
"I know. I heard from the person at the point shop," he said.
Maria narrowed her eyes. "Why did they tell you? Did you... did you already challenge one of them?" She asked him.
He shook his head, making her a little disappointed. She thought he was already confident enough to attempt to challenge someone in the Student Ranking.
"I challenged someone else. Remus Eldridge," he said.
Lyra's eyes widened. "Are you joking? Why did you do that?" She asked him.
Marcus, on the other hand, had a smile on his face.
"I can't wait to see his expression when he comes for the fight. It will be hilarious. And since he is ranked 97th, it will fulfill your requirement," he said.
Leo shook his head again. "He isn't ranked 97th. He's ranked 89th."
Maria's jaw almost dropped. She was starting to doubt how sensible her best candidate for the Phoenix Trials was.
She wasn't the only one who had that expression. People on the other side of the academy were also thinking that.
Remus walked into his dorm after his class and was planning on going to his room to train, but his roommate stopped him.
"You got a letter," he said to Remus.
"Ignore it. I have to train. I am in a bad mood for fan mail," he said. He had defeated three people after climbing to the 89th Rank and had gotten him a reputation among the second-years. He thought the letter was something related to that.
"It isn't from a fan. It's from the point shop. Another idiot probably challenged you," his roommate said.
Remus frowned and took the letter. As he opened he commented, "Those fools will never learn. Maybe they will after I beat them to-"
When he looked at the letter and read it carefully, he stopped talking. He clenched his fist and crumpled the letter into a ball.
"Wow. Did someone from the ranking challenge you?" His roommate asked him.
"No. It was a first-year student. A dumb first-year student challenged me. I will show him exactly what the gap between us is," he said.
"Isn't that funny? I will be sure to tell everyone that you are taking the challenge to teach him a lesson," his roommate responded.
What Remus didn't know was that his roommate had a very loose mouth. And he had never told his roommate not to tell anyone about the challenge. So within a day half of the campus found out about the fight and had a very biased view of how the fight was going to end.
When Leo went to his first class in a while, a lot of eyes were staring at him. He didn't know why it was like that.
"Do you know why everyone is looking at me?" He asked Marcus as the class was about to start.
Marcus nodded. "Apparently everyone knows about your duel with Remus. Madison told me," he said.
Before Leo could ask another question the class already started. He waited for the class to end before going to Madison.
"Hey, Madison. Do you know why everyone is staring at me? Marcus said it's because they know about my fight," he asked her.
She nodded. "Yeah, I know. You moved from the 9th most famous person to the 3rd most famous because of what you did. I'm supporting you in the duel by the way," she said.
Leo was amused by the way she worded her sentence. "There's a ranking of the most famous students of the Eldridge Academy and you were on it ever since you defeated the 2nd Year Mage. You peaked at then but slowly slid down when you didn't do anything after.
But know that you have a fight upcoming, you shot up. Especially because you are a 1st Year Student attempting to be that highly ranked," she explained.
Leo nodded in understanding. "Well, that is very interesting," he said. "Who are the other ranked famous students?" He asked.
Madison listed them out.
"Well, on top we have the strongest student in the academy - Silas Wilson. Below him is the pretty Elysia Still. She is considered the prettiest student in the entire academy. And then there is you. Because of you, Remus Eldridge became the 4th most famous student," she said.
"That's funny. Well, thanks for telling me all this. I have to leave," he said.
As he was walking away, Madison said something.
"Well, good luck on your fight," she said.
Leo paused. "I don't know when the fight is. He still has to accept the challenge," he said.
She chuckled. "Do you not know? He already accepted the fight. There was even a date so that everyone could see him beat you," she said.
Leo sheepishly smiled. "Well, I never knew about the date. I will need to go check again to make sure," he said. "Also, don't be so about him beating me. You wouldn't know how strong I am," he said to her.
He said this and left. He was very relieved that he had the talk with Madison. Otherwise, he wouldn't even know when his fight was going to be. And he needed to attend the fight.
At this point, the fight was no longer about the quarrel he had with Remus. It was about getting his reserve spot so that he could get to the capital. That was always going to be more important to him than a small quarrel he had with a random noble.
If Remus knew what Leo was thinking, he would choke with anger. Remus was the heir to a Marquis and Leo was considering him as a random noble.
