Challenge to a Duel
“Alan Mueller, I can't stand by and watch the likes of you—who's besmirched the pride of the Imperial Knights—linger by Her Highness's side. I challenge you to a duel!!”
“Rejected.”
“You have no right to refuse! By the sacred rules of duel, you must accept my challenge!”
“Sorry, but I'm not interested.”
Alan casually brushed off the gauntlet that had slapped onto his face and tossed it to the ground. He wiped his cheek, feeling Meia's cold, silent killing intent radiating from behind him.
“A man without even a knight's pride!! Don't tarnish the Mueller name! To think the Sword King, guardian of the Empire, has a son like you! What a disgrace!”
“Disgrace? I've had no intention of becoming a knight since I entered the Humanities Department. Sorry about that.”
He hadn't expected the fallout from Shuren Chronicle Volume 3 to ripple this far. Who would've thought a horde of knight academy cadets would come swarming to challenge him to duels?
Alan smirked at the cadets pointing fingers at him.
“But I can't just let a gauntlet to the face slide. Meia, bring my sword.”
“Young Master, allow me.”
“No, it's fine. If they want to throw down, I'll humor them.”
“...Understood.”
She wanted nothing more than to step in and sweep them away right then and there, but it was her master's command. A maid obeyed her master.
Meia fetched the sword.
“They drilled it into me that letting such insults slide would tarnish the family name, even if I never swing a blade.”
“...!!”
It wasn't one he used often, but thanks to Meia's diligent care, the sword he'd received from his father gleamed without a speck of rust. Alan buckled it to his waist and eyed the knight cadet who'd thrown the gauntlet.
“You're the one who challenged me. Step up. I'll face you.”
“...You think I'd run scared?! From a deserter who's abandoned the path of the sword!”
“You're awfully noisy.”
Alan drew his sword and let it hang naturally at his side.
“Do you fight your duels with your mouth too?”
A bluish aura gathered along Alan's blade.
“...!!”
“Sure, I'm the family failure, but you didn't think I was a total idiot who couldn't even manifest aura, did you?”
“Young Master, mind your language.”
“They're pissing me off.”
Alan's voice carried a slightly hysterical edge. Even Meia could understand. Ever since Volume 3 dropped, the knight cadets picking fights with him had spiked. It was less fear of Albert and more utter disdain for Alan.
It was true he was known as the least talented in House Mueller.
“No matter how much they call me a failure or how much I hate swordsmanship...”
The blue aura blazed white in an instant. Aura manifestation.
Irritation darkened Alan's eyes.
“...that doesn't mean I'm weak enough to be utterly dismissed.”
Alan took a step forward. Raising his left hand, he crooked his index finger.
“Come on. One at a time. Anyone with a grudge.”
“I...!”
“Don't care about your name. Shut up and charge.”
Alan's sword traced a brilliant white arc.
Boom!
“Reckless. Taking on fifteen cadets in consecutive duels? What if you'd gotten seriously hurt—or worse?!”
In the academy temple's infirmary. Alan gave Felicia an awkward smile as she sat by his bed, fuming.
“They kept provoking me. Figured it was time to knock some discipline into them...”
“There was no need for you to handle it personally, Young Master.”
Meia spoke as she changed his bandages. Alan winced each time she peeled them off, sitting up with her help.
“Makes me realize how amazing my brother is. He'd have sent all fifteen flying without breaking a sweat.”
“No disagreement on Master Albert's talent, but in sheer recklessness, you surpass him.”
“It had to be done once.”
“And now look at you. The Madam would have scolded you senseless.”
Alan flinched at Meia's cool words. Memories of childhood spankings on his back or rear flooded back.
Felicia sighed beside him.
“What if Shuren Chronicle Volume 4 never comes out because you're hurt? The longer you're sidelined, the later it gets!”
“If that's why you came, I'm a bit disappointed.”
“You think I'd storm in here angry for that? Of course it's because I was worried about you. And why won't you call me by name?”
“...Not used to it.”
Felicia shot him a glare, crossing her arms in clear displeasure. A hint of resentment lingered in her eyes.
“Anyway. Can't you even take a joke, Alan?”
“Was it a joke?”
“I never expected you'd call me by name so easily with your personality. You're still using honorifics.”
Felicia seemed irked by the subtle wall between them. Alan scratched his cheek.
“I get where the knight cadets are coming from. But it was too reckless. What if you'd been badly injured?”
“I was pretty badly injured.”
“I could have stepped in for you, Young Master. Grandmaster duels aren't illegal.”
Alan gave a wry smile at Meia's words.
“They'd have just called me a coward hiding behind my maid. Ow!”
“Please mind your decorum in language, Young Master.”
Meia smacked the back of his hand for the vulgarity and resumed bandaging the wound. Felicia chimed in.
“There's a reason you refused holy magic healing, right, Alan?”
“Just planning to loaf around the infirmary for a bit.”
“You really love slacking off. What if you miss the credits you need?”
“Then I'd repeat the year, no big deal.”
“Duke Mueller would blow a fuse.”
“Haha.”
Alan laughed, then grimaced sharply. Pain flared from his wound. Meia paused her bandaging.
“Young Master?”
“Nah, it's fine. Just stings a little.”
“I told you to get holy healing, Alan.”
“Part of it is holing up here to let the attention die down.”
Felicia sighed at his response.
“Well, at least no one will come at you after this.”
“Some diehards might still try to break me. Handle them then, Meia.”
“Of course. I am your tool, after all.”
“Don't call yourself a tool! That's so misleading!”
Alan's face paled as he waved his hands frantically. Felicia's gaze turned electric—practically sparking— at Meia's words.
Meia remained unfazed.
“One of a maid's duties includes nighttime atten— ”
“Gahhh! Stop! Shut it! Speech ban! Close your mouth, Meia! Please!”
Her stare burned hotter than hot coals, Alan thought.
“Al— Alan! Just what kind of indecent things are you doing with your maid at night in your dorm?! I heard from Stella last time too—wh-what unspeakable depravity are you up to?!”
“I've never done anything like that! Eek?!”
Alan yelped like a girl as Felicia smacked his back.
“Hmph, Alan's such an idiot.”
She'd smacked him in a fit of anger but, seeing him wince, ended up casting a low-tier healing spell before heading back to her dorm.
“I shouldn't have hit him.”
Why had her hand moved on its own? Felicia pondered. She'd momentarily forgotten he was injured in the temple infirmary. Unable to leave him in pain, she'd healed him, watched until he calmed, then left.
Resting her chin on her hand, she flipped open Shuren Chronicle Volume 3 for the umpteenth time.
“I want to get closer, but he won't let me... It's so frustrating.”
Alan drew a firm line with everyone but Meia. Her attempts to cross it only made him pull further away, leaving Felicia on the verge of madness.
“Is it because I'm royalty?”
She pondered seriously. Wanting to befriend Alan was a wish she'd held since childhood. The youngest son of the Sword King, always buried in books even at banquets. That had sparked her curiosity.
But he'd avoided her from then until now. The physical distance had shrunk, but the emotional gap remained.
How could she close it? Lately, that was Felicia's constant dilemma.
“Sigh...”
Thinking of Alan, she closed the unabsorbable Volume 3 and stood.
“I just don't know what's the problem.”
Instead, she picked up 365 Tips on Romance.
“I'll make you notice me somehow, Alan...!”
“...Tch.”
While Alan was holed up in the temple infirmary, a shadow slipped into his dorm. A figure in a black robe covering head to toe emerged from the darkness, frowning at the magically sealed door to Alan's room.
“No helping it. The inter-year competition is soon. I'll strike then.”
The black robe melted back into shadow. Moonlight shone on its vanishing back. The moonlit breeze, as if waiting, swept the spot clean and headed for the academy's central library.