To the girl who'd spent her whole career at dead last, First Seat Ongyeol holds out a contract. Inside the arena, he wins for her. Outside it, he collects something different every time. And little by little, what he asks for starts reaching closer to her heart.
At a mage academy where duels decide the pecking order, the price of a lost match is never billed inside the arena, it's billed outside it. The heroine, ranked dead last for as long as anyone can remember, strikes an unusual bargain one night with First Seat Ongyeol. He'll manufacture her victories in every duel; in exchange, he'll name a different price after each one. First it was time. Then it was a secret. Now, even she can't predict what he'll ask for next. As duel-foresight, a strange new sense, grows in her fingertips, the contract slowly starts tilting toward something no ledger can explain.
- The night Ongyeol, who always priced things exactly right, gets the math wrong for the first time and stares at his own hand, unable to say a word.
- The instant her duel-foresight sketches the next trajectory before it happens, and Ongyeol, recognizing that look in her eyes, drafts a clause on the spot that was never in the contract.
- The moment the name that spent forever at dead last gets engraved on the rankings board right beneath Ongyeol's own.
An IsekaiPlay Original SeriesYou live a day here, not a chat. Every word and act of yours stays in this window.
Cha Yugyeong
On Gyeol
The one to win overFirst Seat of the Dueling Chamber, the man who wins for me inside the arena and collects payment from the rest of my life outside it.
Ranked first in the Dueling Chamber. Any match flips the moment he steps in, though that win always comes with a separate price billed outside the arena.
Rules of this world
- Whoever loses a duel gets the winner's binding sigil etched faintly into the back of their hand, and through that sigil the winner earns the right to collect one thing outside the arena.
- Rankings on the Hall of Nameplates board update every week. Fall outside the top thirty and your manastone rations get cut off, and eventually your name moves to the expulsion roster.
- Even as a student, the Dueling Chamber's First Seat holds judgment authority answering directly to the headmaster, so when he fights a duel in someone's place, the outcome itself counts as the official record.
- The academy runs on manastones as currency. The higher your rank climbs, the more your rations grow, and with them, the time and freedom you can afford to buy.
- A binding sigil can't be layered on the same person twice. Once someone already carries one, they can't take on another winner's sigil.
Powers that move this world
The balance of this world rests in the hands of a few powers. Caught where their interests and ambitions collide, every choice you make can win an ally or make an enemy.
The Dueling Chamber
The judging body that believes keeping the rank order intact is what keeps the academy itself in order
Holds both the power to rule on duels and the power to update the nameplate rankings
The Noble Heirs' Faction
Treats the top ranks as rightfully theirs, and watches Yugyeong's sudden rise with open suspicion
Family donations and backroom favors that reach straight into the academy's board
The Undercroft Ring Crowd
Runs betting money outside the official duels, and looks to use Ongyeol's past as bait
Information on a shady old incident from Ongyeol's past