Chapter 26

Personal Grudges

Volume 1 Chapter 9 part1

I had a few reasons why I stepped forward as a representative, but the most prominent one was my personal grudges.

I had a grudge against the capture target boy characters.

These were the five that my sister forced me to captivate in the otome game.

I had to painstakingly make moves on them and listen to their sweet talk.

Just thinking about it riles me up while the memories resurge.

Let me do this.

I was in the arena.

I pushed away the scattered debris and objects that were in the way, took the box that Arroganz came in, and moved it to the arena’s outside.

Standing in the center while waiting, the situation regarding the prince and the others took a strange turn.

Arroganz’s microphone picked up the voices of the prince and the others.

“I’ll go. That wimp Brad was indeed weak, but that thing over there is a behemoth. It’s too much for you guys to handle.”

“──You’re making light of us. Are you trying to say that I’m inferior to you?”

While Greg and Chris were arguing, the prince and Jilk looked over at me.

“That Baltfault fellow was someone who conquered a dungeon, wasn’t he. I see, he was that confident since he had this armor.”

“A lost item, I suppose. However, I’ve never heard about armor this strong laying dormant until now. From appearances, it looks like a power-type.”

There was an aura of discomfort that rose from the unexpected result that had happened.

There were loads of students who held no doubts that I would lose and the prince’s side would win. To make matters worse, many of them had bet a large sum of money.

My microphone also picked up voices of relief, like “There would be no point in coming here if we didn’t get to see this much,” or “It’ll probably be over in the next round, though.”

Luxon made some data adjustments.

[I have revised our spear-based battle techniques based on data from the battle just a while ago.]

“Good work. Let’s see, next is Greg.”

Entering his red-painted armor, he got into the arena while holding a large spear.

Luxon checked the state of the opponent.

[I’ve confirmed that there are points on the exterior that had to have been repaired. Judging from the signs of prior damage, it seems that he has a lot of experience using this armor in battle.]

“Aah, this guy is tough. He may be strong, but…”

Greg Fou Seberg had a rough appearance and had the most experience as an adventurer out of the five. He was the type that stresses a lot of important on actual combat.

That much was fine.

I thought of him as a reliable character during the combat side of the game.

Greg pointed his spear at me.

“You said you were Baltfault. I will remember that name. However, you’re getting cocky. It seems like you have a lost item with strong power, but the result of the first battle happened because of that armor’s power. It’s not your own power.”

It was quite like he had said, so I couldn’t refute that and even wanted to applaud him.

“What’s wrong with that? I thought about this at the party as well, but you open your mouth pretty often. If you want to chitchat, I can invite you to tea next time.”

I agitated him in a roundabout way, and the results were instant.

“…I’ll crush you!”

The referee announced the start of the duel.

“Begin!”

While wielding a spear, Greg shortened the distance between him and me.

Perhaps after watching the previous battle, it seemed that he didn’t plan on letting me attack. For that reason, he attacked successively, but──

“Gah! What’s going on! Why is this happening!”

I defended against his continuous spear thrusts, slices, and strokes using my shovel.

In addition to the sparks from metal clashing against metal, the faint light coming from the opponent’s spear was indeed quite radiant.

However, there was one thing about this guy──

“Your movements are good. You’ve got the willpower too. But…you need to pay more attention to your tools!”

I fling off the spear with my shovel, breaking off the balance between our armor. Since his was the lightweight type, it could slip away from a heavyweight.

Greg’s red armor tried to take a distance by flying into the air.

Armor were originally weapons meant for flying in the air.

However, I reached out with my left hand to seize Greg’s right leg.

“Y, you!”

He attacked the left hand of my armor, but it didn’t leave a single scratch, and nothing broke.

The armor Gred used was an older type, a mass produced one that was only dressed up.

It’s red color was only for show.

Despite this guy’s abilities, in the game, his setting was that he didn’t pay as much attention to his equipment. It led to him sticking with second-rate tools.

Thanks to that, he often went down during the war part of the game, making me get a game over many times.

Throw away that strange pride!

Arroganz’s left hand crushed the right ankle of Greg’s armor. I knew that his actual legs were fine, but I heard shrieks from many girls in the audience who didn’t know that what I crushed was only the structure of his armor.

I took out my shovel and thrusted it into the head. Letting go of the shovel in my right hand, I then used it to crush the arm of Greg’s armor.

“Hey hey, just try and run away now~.”

While I grabbed his other arm this time and crushed it to torment him, I heard Greg yell.

“Damn iiiit! Let me go!”

“…As if I’d let you go, idiot~.”

I relied on the performance of my build to destroy Greg’s armor. While making sure not to injure Greg himself, I tore out the arms of his armor.

Greg’s actual arms appeared.

Arroganz is one size larger than the usual armor.

*”Are you having fun torturing me?! You’re no man! If you’re a knight, then fight like a knight! You’re only able to win because of your armor!”

He yelled whatever he pleased to vent his discontent.

“Knight? I’m not officially a knight yet. While I’m at it, if you come to a duel with an old model of armor and lose, wouldn’t it be because of your armor? You’re better off lamenting over your insufficient preparation to get a newer one. Actually, you’d be better off feeling ashamed about the fact that you looked down on me before. Though, I suppose it’s fine if you want to keep making excuses. Go ahead and say that you lost because of the difference in the power of our armor!”

When I tore off the chest portion of his armor, Greg’s face appeared.

Perhaps frustrated that he couldn’t do anything in face of this overwhelming power, his face was dyed in anger, but also in impatience──it was a very complicated expression.

Quite like a child destroying a toy, Arroganz destroyed Greg’s armor. If I were Greg, it would’ve been a scene of trauma.

Well…I’m not going stop, though!

When Greg knew that he couldn’t use his armor anymore, he got out and stood in front of me while holding a broken piece of his armor.

“Don’t be stupid! I haven’t lost yet. I’ll fight to the death!”

I felt like stopping after being moved by his unwavering heart──not. Stopping would only be bad in my eyes.

“Hmm~, but you see…”

“Hurry up and come at meeee!”

While Greg was using the piece of his armor to slash me many times over, I didn’t resist.

After all, he wasn’t doing any damage.

In the first place, the difference between the power of a living being and of armor weren’t at a scale where they could compete.

“──I, unlike you guys, am not inclined to bully the weak.”

Thereupon, Greg’s move movements stopped.

“W, what did you say? What did you say just nooow?!”

“I said that I don’t take a liking to bullying the weak like you guys do. Did you not hear me?”

“S, stop kidding me! Just when did we bully the──”

“Ah ha ha ha! You really do like to chatter, don’t you. Well, since you were making light of others and showing up with an older model of armor, I thought that you had a lot of confidence in your own abilities, but…people at your level are pretty common all across the world. My abilities aren’t at the top either, but since you had a lot of confidence during the time that the duel was proposed, I had some hopes for you, and yet things turned into this sorry state…you’re way too much of a small fry. Tormenting small fry like you is giving me a bad aftertaste, so I’m going to quickly end this. I’m unfamiliar with this feeling~.”

I politely told him that he was weak.

Oh, how kind I am!

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!”

Greg launched an attack while screaming, but it seemed more pitiful than gallant. The opponent, who got called out as a small fry in front of a large audience, was going to be treated as a small fry and lose…It pained my heart to see such misery.

Well, not really. My heart didn’t ache at all.

These guys were better off understanding what their strength amounted to.

Perhaps not wanting to see any more than this, the referee stepped in to stop us.

“…The winner is Leon Fou Baltfault. Greg Fou Seberg will step down. Clap your hands for the brave fight between these two!”

In response to the referee’s voice, which was full of sympathy and lacked spirit, Greg crumbled onto his knees and sat down where he was.

There was a sparse clapping in the arena sent towards us.

I muttered.

“With this, three remain.”

Luxon was cold towards me.

[Quite the cruel outcome. Any normal person would hesitate from cornering their opponent this much.]

“Do you even realize? It’s better off if these guys faced reality. I hate people who get cocky.”

[Should I prepare a mirror? Those words apply perfectly to you, master.]

…I was aware about that, but hearing it being said still made me angry.

◇

The students in the arena were no longer excited.

“The match just wasn’t on his side. We aren’t concerned with the knights’ way of fighting.”

“What an idiot, it’s supposed to be a duel.”

With this, two of them have lost. Well, things will probably wrap up with Chris…”

The spectators in the arena agreed that Greg’s outcome wasn’t any surprise.

“Isn’t that guy’s actually weak?”

“I wonder how good he is at combat~? He was so noisy, and yet he could only do this much.”

“A disappointment to my expectations. I have no interest in weak guys.”

Anjelica was in a cold sweat when seeing the results of the match with Greg.

“He would go this far to flaunt the difference in power?”

Anjelica didn’t think Greg was weak.

It’s just that Leon was way too strong.

Greg was too unlucky. He lost because of his old armor? That couldn’t have been it. Even if he had prepared the latest model of armor, Greg still would’ve lost.

Arroganz held just that much power.

(In the first place, why would he be his opponent using that armor he got from the kingdom?)

Olivia got a little angry.

“I’m glad that Leon won, but he went too far. He should apologize to Greg later!”

Anjelica shook her head towards Olivia’s honest beliefs.

“He shouldn’t. It would only hurt Greg’s pride even further.”

However, Anjelica cast her eyes slightly downward.

(…Bullying the weak, was it? I suppose in the eyes of Baltfault, I’m just a young girl.)

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Leon agitated Greg at that time by saying “I’m not like you guys.” She guessed that had to do with how he found it unpleasant when Julian and the others kept persecuting her at the party venue while she had no allies at her side.

She didn’t know if the person himself was aware of that, or if he acted subconsciously.

“So…that makes me weak? How miserable. I wanted──”

Anjelica looked up at the sky.

(I wanted to become stronger for the sake of his Highness.)