"NOW, let the combat begin!"
"Ed Rothstaylor. You confuse me."
"I want to come to a conclusion with this duel."
"I'm coming."
'Start with one. The magic that Ed Rothstaylor can use is wind and fire. How will you react to this...? Shaking off everything while exchanging moves, a dramatic battle as a finale,
getting rid of that mysterious man from my heart...'
The princess thought while casting her water magic.
"....?"
Boom.
"...I lost."
"What did you say?! You..."
"He didn't even block after seeing the trajectory of the water ball...!"
"KuaHaHaHa!"
Students started laughing at the outcome of the duel.
"Wow, what was that~ he's worse than Taylor!"
"He was acting all cool, but he got knocked out with just a hit!"
"You were so cool, Princess Phoenia! That was really refreshing!!"
"That was a good fight. I learned a lot."
He said while grabbing his stomach and bowing slightly.
"Just what are you..."
The princess was shocked.
She had expected that the fight with Ed would be good.
But he lost on the first hit.
He took off his dueling guards and stood up, meeting her eyes as he gave his greetings.
It was then that Princess Phoenia realized he hadn't made eye contact with her until now.
He never had any interest in their duel from the very beginning.
Princess Phoenia felt as though something hot was stuck in her throat, and it wouldn't disappear. The uncomfortable feeling she tried to shake off through this fight had now started to swallow her whole.
Was this really the time for a duel?
I quickly walked off the arena as fast as I could. The childish mockery and ridicule the students welcomed me with today… it must have been great to see me get knocked down so easily after one shot from the princess.
"Taylor… where did that guy go?"
There was a prioritized order for everything. And everything had a set level of importance.
It was important to minimize the impact as carefully as possible when in contact with Princess Phoenia. This was so I wouldn't affect the story, as the princess was an extremely important person in the game.
But Taylor, as the main character of this world, was even more important than the princess.
If he were to completely succumb to this ordeal and get disheartened, it would form a fatal flaw in my grand plan of taking advantage of him so I could graduate.
I had to do something no matter what. It didn't matter how important of a person the princess was. She couldn't be more important than having Taylor move past this.
"Anyways, finding Taylor is my first priority."
Leaving behind their taunts and mockery, I rushed down the hallway leading to the exit of the Training Hall. The class wasn't over yet, but I should be able to mix well among the crowd and leave unnoticed.
As long as I find a way to help Taylor come to his senses, I could just work hard to cover for the things that would affect my grades.
I took long strides with that thought in mind, noticing there was another person behind me.
"Ed Rothstaylor!"
The princess had surprisingly jumped down from the arena and followed me. Her vitality might be low, as she was leaning against the wall, catching her breath.
I looked back at the princess, puzzled beyond words.
"Huh? Princess Phoenia, for you to have come all the way here without your knights…"
"Don't make that face like you don't know anything!"
Honestly, the princess shouting at me with a voice full of contempt was a bit surprising. Was she ever this kind of character in the game?
No, the better question was, was there even anything that could have made her so mad?
"Every time… being unsure if it's wrong or right… do you know how frustrating it is to have to measure a person like that?"
"Um… I am not sure what you are talking about. If it's about the duel, I have learned a lesson thanks to you…"
"What do you mean learned a lesson…!"
I could clearly see her clenched fists shaking. She must be seriously angry.
"Princess Phoenia, please… calm down."
"You never thought of winning from the beginning. All you thought about was getting off the arena as quickly as possible!"
"Princess Phoenia, your voice is too loud…"
The princess was not the type of person to be flustered enough and show it publicly like this. This was completely unexpected, coming from her.
Princess Phoenia was a royal who hated using her authority to oppress people. She was also a noble who never forgets the value of her dignity at all times.
So to put pressure on, shake her fists at, and raise her voice, all without dignity, to someone beneath her power… it went against her own beliefs. And if someone were to see or hear this, the rumors won't be pretty.
I tried to calm her down first.
"It's already hard enough to keep up with my classes, but that foxlike merchant keeps hiding her intentions and is trying to devour the whole academy for her own gain! And Professor Glast's temper isn't getting any better! Meanwhile, people around me kept mentioning the royal laws… even if I didn't want to, I had to pay attention to them! It's all too difficult!"
Had she always had this much pent-up anger?
But why was she unloading all of this on me? Was it a sin to have a duel with her? I get that she had a lot of built-up frustrations inside of her, but she wasn't going to have all of that explode on me, was she?
"Princess, please calm down."
Ready to be criticized for my insulting actions, I touched the princess's royal body, putting both of my hands on her shoulders and making eye contact.
"Take a deep breath."
As my hands wrapped around her shoulders, the princess took a deep breath. No one would dare touch the princess of this kingdom. But in a situation where it was just the two of us alone… she was probably surprised by my sudden touch.
"There's no need to get too agitated. Just take a deep breath, in and out."
The princess listened and took a few deep breaths, in and out…
In such situations, people generally feel uncomfortable after regaining their composure.
"Ahh… Ack…!"
Princess Phoenia realized how undignified she had been acting and covered her face.
This was her moment of realization, the embarrassment coming back to her all at once.
"Uhm… About earlier… Please forget all of it…"
Great idea!
"Uh… Of course…"
The princess had her hand covering her face for a while, red from extreme embarrassment.
So... was she good now?
Could I go now?
"Yes, I know I have a bad habit of trying to figure out people and piecing together their secret plans, even though I know it's fine to simply ask questions if there are things I'm wondering about. I guess it's because I grew up in the royal family."
She started talking about things that nobody asked her about.
No, I got it! I'll listen to you some other time and give you my sincere reaction then!
Just let me go first! I need to find Taylor!!!!
"That bad habit… I knew I had it but…"
I couldn't just tell the princess to her face, 'Oh, I don't care. Just please let me go. It's urgent. I'm busy.' So I had to nod my head for now.
"I see. Princess, then…"
"So, let me ask you straight."
What now?!
"This is what I think: you knew something about the secret darkness within the Rothstaylor family, or you were hurt by them, so you tried to cut your ties with the whole family. But you needed some type of justification to be excommunicated, so you bullied a student named Taylor. Is that correct?"
The princess continued to talk while keeping eye contact with me. It was quite a sharp deduction. Most of it was wrong, but the reasoning about the dark side of the Rothstaylor family was correct.
But that was something the princess would directly investigate by mobilizing the academic affairs power vested in her in the second half of the story. That part was still a long way to go.
"So if you know something about the darkness of the Rothstaylor family…"
Was there a reason to tell her?
"I don't know anything about it."
"...There's no way."
The princess quickly interrupted my answer.
"Logically, it doesn't make any sense. Why did you just shout at Taylor? Why are you encouraging and supporting the person you were trying to get kicked out of school? You didn't hate Taylor in the first place, did you?"
"Uh… that's…"
"That's… I was just teasing him. Or… uhm… that… well.. hmm… well everyone hates me, right? So when I cheered for Taylor, I wanted to show them a different side of me… won't they see that side of me then…? Something like that…"
"Anyone can tell that's a lie!"
"No, I'm not lying…"
"I have something that helps me judge another person better than anyone else. It's my pride, my Insightful Eyes."
The princess raised her head and spoke clearly.
"Even if everyone in the world believed you, I clearly saw through you, even for just a moment. And that moment you encouraged Taylor, you were really desperate."
"I'm serious…"
"But it's true… I'm telling the truth…"
"I'm serious… it's the truth…"
"Ahh… seriously…!"
At this point, without manner or class, the princess grabbed her hair with both hands, her expression crazy with frustration. She stomped her feet and kept saying the same thing.
"There was nowhere to relieve her anger and frustrations, so she trampled on the pavement."
"AHHH! SERIOUSLY!!!"