The time for the duel against the future hero and his contracted fae has finally arrived, and Rotsard was troubled by it.
By a lot.
How much power could he use? How to lose convincingly without actually harming Justin or Polaris?
That sort of thing.
And that's why he was distracted the whole day, making up plans and playing mock battles in his head.
When the time for the duel arrived, Rotsard left the dormitory, but still wasn't quite sure how he would achieve his goal convincingly.
After all, he never saw Justin using Polaris in an actual fight. There was a chance that with her aid, Justin would be able to not only put up a fight but actually defeat him!
"..."
…and that idea made Rotsard frown in annoyance as it was jabbing at his pride a bit too much…
*WHAM*
…and that was also why he ignored the loud sound behind him.
In the first place, it couldn't have been anything worth his attention. The dormitory wasn't crumbling down or anything, surely, as everything was following the story he heard from a deofol.
*tap*
"...?"
But he couldn't ignore when someone was actually trying to get his attention, shyly and delicately poking his back.
Well, it felt like someone lightly brushing the tip of their finger against his back, and it made Rotsard think it might be Demi-Leigh trying to be conspicuous, so he glanced back…
"...huh…?"
But when he saw Oliver Berdon standing behind him, pale as a ghost as he was poking him with a wooden sword, Rotsard couldn't hold back a baffled gasp.
He stepped away as he turned around fully, and gave Oliver a proper taxing look from head to toe…
Rotsard's beastly yellow eyes lingered a bit longer on a spreading dark spot on the upperclassman's pants as Oliver appeared to have… soiled himself…
"What in the…? Do… Do you need help…?"
"..."
In pure confusion, Rotsard inquired, but Oliver remained silent, only staring into the distance with a blank expression...
"..."
"..."
As seconds passed and absolutely nothing changed, Rotsard fidgeted and looked over his shoulder towards the training ground, and then back at Oliver.
"Umm… Hey… Why don't I take you to the hospital wing first…? Okay? Everything will be alright..."
"..."
Finally, Rotsard spoke up cautiously, slowly approaching the silent Oliver and sliding under his shoulder to support the older student.
"Don't worry, I'll make it so no one will notice your misha… no one will notice."
"..."
Rotsard reassured Oliver, and the circle and wings of light appeared for just a split second as he cast the Dance of the Frozen Lake...
Covering himself and the clearly deeply troubled young man in an illusion.
—-
"This time I ACTUALLY have no clue what happened. I was going to the training ground and suddenly felt something tapping my back. Poor guy must have no strength left by that point… are you really unable to tell what happened to him, Miss Chloe?"
In one of the private rooms, Rotsard looked away from the seemingly sleeping Oliver and asked the nurse with a concerned expression.
"I don't know what else to tell you… At first glance, without him cooperating and taking down his natural mana barrier, I can at least tell that he isn't injured. Not physically... Did you have a chance to check the place where you found him?"
"He literally tapped me right after I turned the corner by the dormitory. And no… I didn't look around, I just thought that it would be best to get him here as fast as possible."
The nurse inquired, and the bleached-blond-haired youth pointed out while glancing meaningfully at the bucket in the corner of the room, where a few pieces of clothing taken off the patient he brought were getting disinfected.
"Alright. I'll notify the right people to look into this. You have better things to do, don't you?"
"..."
The nurse nodded before motioning towards the door with her chin, but the bleached-haired youth didn't seem too eager to leave at that moment.
"Is there something else you want to add… Or come clean about…?"
"I really have no idea what happened. Even when he tapped me, I wasn't even particularly focused or anything that could potentially cause this!"
The woman insisted cautiously, making the youth roll his eyes and scoff in annoyance,
"Then, what do you want?"
The nurse raised her brows and crossed her arms in a challenging pose.
"...if it is gedwyld… if it is the thing that you implied earlier... Wouldn't it be too dangerous to leave you here with him alone?"
"!"
After looking away, Rotsard finally murmured the answer, causing Chloe's expression to change to that of utter shock.
"Tsk. Forget I said anything. I have a duel."
But soon enough, Rotsard just clicked his tongue and turned around, leaving hurriedly to hide his embarrassment.
He went away too quickly, so he didn't get to see the blush that covered the nurse's face…