Saintess VS Addict
“Ah…….”
“Oh.”
Everyone was stunned.
“I’m supposed to be Lady Idnia’s proxy?”
“Yes, Miss Mari. I have faith in your skill. It will be a troublesome matter, of course, but would you face the duel in my place?”
“B-but if I lose, won’t that stain Lady Idnia’s honor as well?”
Acting as a proxy in a duel meant shouldering a bothersome task, but it also meant entrusting one’s fate to that person. Of course, what was at stake here was not fate itself but five hundred Aka Coins; even if Mari lost the duel, Idnia would still bear the responsibility of defeat.
For the only daughter of a proud electoral house to entrust her duel proxy to a farmer’s daughter who had come up from the countryside…
“If you refuse because the duel itself is a nuisance, I will accept that. But if you are refusing out of concern for me, then you are mistaken. I, Idnia Katze Betelgeuse, believe in Mari of Astraea.”
“If you put it that way… all right.”
Mari steadied herself and took her magic wand in hand.
Culkin, for his part, brightened the moment he heard that Mari would stand in for Idnia.
I have no confidence of winning against Lady Idnia, but if it’s Mari… wait. Didn’t this girl have an absurd amount of mana?
Culkin recalled her performance in class. Her mana reserves were certainly enormous, yet she had never given the impression of being particularly strong. The one who always stood out in lectures was Idnia.
She looks kind of airheaded, doesn’t she? Still, Lady Idnia wouldn’t put her forward as proxy if she weren’t at least decent. And since Lady Idnia went so far as to appoint a substitute just to match my level, if I refuse the duel now and run, I’ll be branded a coward and my academy life will be over. So as long as I’m careful with her mana volume, Miss Mari should be fine, right?
Culkin’s own class standing was nothing to boast about even by the most charitable measure, yet for some reason he was burning with baseless confidence.
If I win, five hundred Aka Coins! The more capital you have, the better you do at the tables! Perfect!
Culkin accepted the duel.
“Very well. Then, in the name of Trismegistus, god of magic, I accept this duel!”
“Yes. Please take care of me.”
“I shall serve as the witness.”
Young Master Lorenzo, who had been standing in the back, stepped forward.
“Ah, Young Master Lorenzo. My apologies for causing a scene in your ‘establishment.’”
Idnia deliberately chose the word “establishment.”
Stirring up trouble by letting students gamble was, in a sense, a duty assigned to whichever dormitory held the lounge. The Academy deliberately allowed gambling facilities to be installed in the lounge because that, too, was a test of the students; Lorenzo was simply fulfilling his role.
Even so, Idnia shot him a faintly resentful look.
I know the complicated reasons behind what you’re doing, so I can’t really complain… but could you try resisting fate a little? Is this because you never got pulled as a character card in the gacha?
In the original game, Lorenzo carried the burdens of a complicated family situation and his mission as a secret envoy, which forced him to play the villain from time to time. If the heroine pulled his card and raised his affection, she gradually uncovered his secrets. Lorenzo would open his heart and join forces with her to defy his own fate—that was the Lorenzo route in Awakening Girl Concerto.
Of course Idnia had no intention of romancing him, so she pretended not to know his past even though she did. Still, watching him open a gambling den for students and ruin one person’s character left a bad taste.
Just because you’re a handsome pretty-boy doesn’t mean you get to destroy the lives of the ugly extras and then wipe the slate clean with a single tear of repentance later.
Lorenzo felt a twinge of guilt under that resentful gaze, but he covered it with a smile.
“Not at all. This is turning out to be quite entertaining. Now, I trust neither of you objects to my serving as witness?”
“No.”
“Of course not.”
“Then… the space is cramped, so both parties will take ten paces back. The duel will begin the instant this chip ceases its fall. Notos students, protect the fixtures. The billiard balls made from hellhound fangs are extremely valuable, after all.”
“Yes, sir!”
The Notos students—those wearing rabbit ears on their heads—cast barrier spells to shield both the furniture and the spectators against any mishap.
“Then, in the name of Trismegistus!”
Lorenzo tossed a casino chip skyward… and it landed squarely atop the chandelier hanging from the ceiling.
“Huh?!”
Idnia immediately saw through Lorenzo’s little trick.
He said “the moment it ceases its fall,” not “when it hits the floor.” Tch. What a cheap loophole…
Lorenzo had deliberately avoided saying “when it hits the floor” and instead specified the moment the chip stopped falling.
Mari, unaware of any of this, stared up at the chandelier in confusion, waiting for the chip to drop. Culkin also failed to grasp the intent at first and stood there blankly before suddenly snapping to his senses.
“Oh—right! Myunghanoni! Drop your wand!”
Culkin immediately cast a command spell at Mari. The magic took hold, but thanks to her formidable anti-magic resistance she only furrowed her brow slightly. A faint sting like static electricity prickled her skin as the mana skittered harmlessly off her body.
Tch! I went for the hard spell because I didn’t want to hurt a girl!
Seeing that Mari still hadn’t reacted, Culkin switched to a direct attack spell.
“So-warat!”
This time he fired a basic magic bullet. Its power was low, but it was an unambiguous offensive spell capable of wounding an opponent.
Mari finally reacted.
“Bang peh yo! Forward deployment!”
She projected a shield spell ahead of herself and blocked the bullet, then shoved the shield forward, driving it toward Culkin.
“Wha—?!”
“Hyung-sung-hara!”
Mari next used formation magic, shaping translucent wooden planks into a box that closed in on Culkin from every side.
“Guh?!”
Culkin fired more magic bullets from inside, but they could not pierce Mari’s shields.
“Ah, you idiot!”
“Shoot the planks, not the shields!”
The spectators shouted advice, but it was already too late. The wooden planks Mari had formed pressed tighter and tighter until Culkin was sealed inside something resembling a coffin. He could not even turn his body to aim at the planks.
“That is enough!”
Lorenzo declared the duel suspended.
“In the name of Lorenzo Medici de Mazdari, I declare the victor: Mari of Astraea!”
“B-but—!”
“Any further and someone will only get hurt. You fired magic bullets at her, yet she went to great lengths to restrain you without injury. Do you not realize that?”
“No, I—at first I was trying to disarm her wand for the same reason—”
“As stipulated in the duel agreement, Culkin, you are henceforth barred from entering the lounge.”
“Th-that’s—”
“Or would you prefer that entry to the lounge remain permitted, but games be forbidden?”
Lorenzo glanced at Idnia for her opinion.
“Entry to the lounge is permitted, but monetary wagers of any kind are forbidden for the duration of his enrollment at the Academy. I will accept that.”
Hearing Lorenzo’s suggestion, Idnia spotted the loophole in her original condition and closed it. Upon reflection, simply barring Culkin from the lounge would not stop a gambling addict; he would immediately seek alternatives—procuring cards elsewhere, or even playing odd-even with other students who could not enter the lounge.
“Will you accept, Culkin?”
“No, that’s… you can’t just change the terms after the duel is over!”
“Lady Idnia’s original intent was to keep you from becoming too deeply immersed in gambling. This demand is entirely consistent with that intent, is it not? It is not a lifelong ban—only a prohibition during your academy years. Two noble ladies staked their honor, which they need not have risked at all, for your sake. As a man, I find myself rather envious.”
“Ooooh…”
The surrounding students gasped at Lorenzo’s high-flown rhetoric. He had romanticized Idnia and Mari’s challenge as something done for Culkin’s own good and then praised him for it.
“Well? If you accept, it can be arranged. What will it be?”
At Lorenzo’s words the other students began to chime in.
“Yeah! Take it!”
“You’re not seriously planning to gamble somewhere else, are you?”
“You were ready to run from the duel just because Lady Idnia scared you!”
“The Saintess candidate worked hard not to hurt you!”
“Two highborn ladies went through all that trouble for one guy—show some gratitude!”
Under the barrage of jeers, Culkin grew flustered.
“A-all right. I’ll do it that way.”
“Excellent. With that, I conclude my duties as witness.”
Lorenzo, for his part, had opened the gambling hall, officiated the duel, and mediated exactly as Idnia wished, thereby planting the image of a fair dealer.
I’m not trying to ruin you with gambling. The ones who get too deep and wreck their lives are the ones at fault.
That was the message he was sending.
Hmph. You pulled that little stunt with the casino chip and the chandelier at the start. Well, since you mediated properly afterward, I’ll call it even.
Idnia had not forgotten Lorenzo’s opening prank. But right now it was time to praise Mari.
“You did splendidly, Mari of Astraea. I’m glad I chose you as my proxy.”
“N-no, Lady Idnia. This is all thanks to your guidance.”
“Not at all. To handle formation magic at that level requires both relentless effort and talent. I’m proud to share a dormitory—and a room—with someone like you. Allow me to treat you to tea afterward.”
“Eh? I-it would be an honor!”
Mari brightened at Idnia’s encouragement. Seeing her delight at both the praise and the promise of tea made Idnia happy in turn.
“More importantly, are you all right, Culkin? You weren’t hurt, were you?”
“Ah… I-I’m fine.”
“Please don’t gamble so hard from now on. Back in my hometown there were far too many people who gambled during the off-season and ended up as tenant farmers.”
“Y-yes, ma’am.”
Culkin hung his head in shame.
The other students, replaying the duel in their minds, began to realize that Mari was a far more formidable mage than they had thought.
“Whoa, Miss Mari’s magic was pretty impressive, wasn’t it?”
“That’s a Saintess candidate for you. She zoned out for a second at the start, but her control after that was excellent.”
“Honestly, that was a sneak attack.”
“By the rules the chip had stopped falling, so it was legal, right?”
“Still, did he have to go all-out with a surprise attack against a girl?”
“It’s a magic duel—what does gender have to do with it? That attitude is sexist.”
“Oh, is that so? So if the rules allow it you’ll spam surprise attacks whether the opponent is a girl or a kid? That’s how I heard it.”
“Isn’t Mari just strong? His first spell bounced right off her anti-magic resistance.”
“Control-type magic usually doesn’t stick well anyway.”
Everyone argued back and forth, dissecting the duel that had just ended. Idnia listened with quiet satisfaction.
Good. Mari’s reputation is rising. And her magical skill is quite solid. As expected of the protagonist. Hm?
Something dropped from the chandelier onto Idnia. She caught it—it was the casino chip Lorenzo had tossed to open the duel.
And then—
“If you have a moment, would you care to enjoy a game?”
Lorenzo challenged Idnia to a match.