"Hah! I believe that is more than enough!"
"...hmph…"
"?!?!"
As Amelia Edemsworth announced, with her normal attitude back, Rotsard could swear that the murky black figure of deofol in the corner of his vision scoffed in annoyance before dissipating into nothingness, which caused him to flinch and make a bewildered expression.
"Rotsard Vallhall! In the light of your clear incompetence, I challenge you to a duel! This will be the only chance for you to defend your honor! If you win, I swear to vouch for you in front of everyone, but if you lose, you have to tell the truth about your scores!"
Just like clockwork, when the time came, Justin stepped from Amelia's shadow and called out with might and fervor. His words carried a hint of the might of his future as a hero, and everyone immediately looked up to him without a second thought.
"..."
Besides Rotsard, that is, who merely squinted his eyes and glared at the peasant student.
Even with the words the future hero used being exactly the same as in the story read to Rotsard by the deofol, their meaning wasn't any less infuriating because of that.
Because no matter what the future hero claimed, his words very clearly suggested that Rotsard was guilty of cheating anyway, so accepting it was equal to the admittance of breaking the rules.
"..."
Honestly, the decision of his character in the story at that point confused the real Rotsard to no end. The right choice was to relentlessly mock the peasant until he was in tears, sobbing at his feet so hard his face would turn cute… but the story Rotsard just… accepted the heavily disadvantageous duel without batting an eye.
Although the real Rotsard could relate to the anger the character Rotsard felt when he couldn't answer the easy questions and was surrounded by whispers of relentless mockery and scorn…
Why didn't that other Rotsard snap then and there and attack the character of the future hero directly?
Why agree to a duel in the first place?
Did Rotsard in the story have some triumph card that the real one wasn't aware of…?
Was he already…?
"..."
Rotsard suddenly tensed up, and his expression darkened, causing everyone around him to go silent.
Up until that point, the bleached-blond-haired youth believed that the loss of his status in the Royal Academy caused by his cousin revealing the truth about his standings in the Vallhall family, coupled with Justin summoning and making a contract with a juvenile Great Fae of Light caused the character Rotsard to break down and sell his soul to the deofol as the only retaliation…
But…
…could it be that the story Rotsard was already in contact with the deofol by this very point…?
That would make sense in the setting, only that it wasn't directly stated in the story…
…although, all things considered, the real Rotsard was also in contact with a deofol… to a degree…
That should not be considered as changing the story, right!?
RIGHT?!
The deofol itself was in on everything in the first place, so that detail shouldn't even matter!
"...my trust was already betrayed one too many times, I will only show up when I'll actually see you on the training grounds…"
"!!!"
Rotsard's answer, full of anger, disgust, and… anxiety… left Justin frozen in place with his eyes widened.
"You don't mind me being careful like that, do you?"
"..."
Rotsard began to move but stopped by the future hero, asking him quietly, in a vicious, accusatory whisper that caused his target to lower their head with a pitiful expression.
The news about another duel between the young Vallhall and the commoner student spread like wildfire, and summoned more than half of the students' body to the training grounds.
Since the major consensus seemed to be that Rotsard had cheated during his exams and Justin was going to expose everything, almost all of the students who originally were going to leave for the summer break immediately after learning of their results stayed longer just to witness it.
…and fate wanted that, at least for the moment, when asked about what happened to get to that point, the students who were there for Justin challenging Rotsard merely said that it happened because young lady Amelia Edemsworth asked Rotsard a few basic questions and he answered them with some gibberish, prompting the commoner student's anger…
As for the details about those so-called gibberish answers, for the time being, no one chose to inquire further.
Everything was ready and the future hero was waiting in the middle of one of the fields, next to the very same teacher who oversaw all the previous duels.
The one thing that was missing was the opponent…
"Wha…?! Hey! A carriage with the Vallhall family crest just arrived by the main gate!"
"!?!?"
Someone called out from the crowd, and everyone erupted into gasps and murmurs with wild accusations being thrown around without a moment of consideration.
"..."
Even Justin flinched, his eyes widened in disbelief, lowering his head in shame as if he was accepting this situation as his just punishment.
"The carriage is here to pick me up right after the duel. What? Are you claiming that I am confined to the Royal Academy even for the summer break?"
"!!!"
But the next moment, voice full of contempt roared over the audience's heads, and one look at the one responsible for it silenced them all.
Rotsard Vallhall has arrived.