Volume 3 Extra 5: Duels are serious business

<<Author's note: This bit is slightly spoilerous for the $1 folks. Proceed with caution.>>

"I can't believe you did this…"

The deadpan yet at the same time scathing words practically echoed in the mostly empty grand hall inside the former headquarters of the Knightly Order of Knightingly Knighting Knights. As for why it was demoted to its current, borderline desolate state, it apparently had something to do with the building getting infiltrated by an uninvited and quite unwelcome guest not too long ago. Since its security was obviously compromised, the Entitled Knights unanimously agreed to vacate the newly established base of operations without even bothering to take the set dressings, such as the huge round table, with them. As for how they even managed to get it into the room in the first place when none of the entrances were even remotely big enough to fit it through, that was a mystery for the ages.

More importantly, even though abandoning the building made little difference as far as observing them was concerned, especially now that two Entitled Knights were marked for Far Sight, it apparently didn't fall completely out of use, as attested by the duo currently in the room. Both of them were wearing their full gear, as usual, including the helmets. Honestly speaking, at this point it would've been stranger if they didn't. They didn't take their seat around the table, but instead stood by the main entrance, and the taller one in the griffon-themed armor was doing his best to facepalm through his visor.

"I panicked, okay?" the girl in the unicorn-helmet sulked with a voice that was once again considerably lower than her natural tone. Why she bothered with the charade even in the company of his fellow Knights was yet another mystery, especially considering she talked normally while in school. Or maybe she was lowering her voice precisely because she was talking to her peers, and was trying to sound more mature and serious? I had no idea, as I couldn't see into her head, but if she was trying to do that, I'd say that sulkily admitting that she panicked and made a bad decision wasn't made any more authoritative by dropping an octave.

"This isn't a trivial matter." Mr. Griffon spoke with a mixture of disapproval and exasperation that reminded me of an overworked elementary school teacher trying to have a serious discussion with a kid he already knew wouldn't listen. "Entering into the heart of the Magi's territory was already a questionable decision, but this? An Arbitration is not a tool for resolving sibling quarrels."

"It's not a simple quarrel. Also, I already told you, but I had to go to the school. It was necessary to inform brother about the threat this Bel of the Abyss represents."

"Necessary? There are numerous other ways you could've made contact. Insisting on getting directly involved with Leonard's mission was nothing short of foolish."

"No, it wasn't," she insisted, all but stomping her feet in the process. "I enrolled without any complications or raising suspicion, and we talked without anyone else's notice."

She sounded really earnest, so much so that if someone didn't personally experience her escapades in the school, they would've been inclined to believe her. Luckily for her, Mr. Griffon was one such person, and after a moment of silence that stretched further than the average reader's suspension of disbelief, he exhaled a long, tired breath.

"So you've already warned him?" She nodded, so Mr. Griffon emphasized the question, "When?"

"On the day I infiltrated the school," she answered, her choice of words making her enrollment sound considerably more grandiose than it actually was.

"And yet you continued to attend school despite the threat your presence posed to his operation?"

"I… I concluded that retreating right away would've been too suspicious."

"Is that so?"

"Yes. Since nobody investigated me, it means my cover is still intact, and it was important to keep it so. For Leo's sake."

Mr. Griffon let out an ambivalent grunt and pondered the issue, though it was hard to fathom why. She already taunted Snowy a couple of times, and even without the rest of the group already knowing about her affiliations, she didn't even bother hiding her animosity, so it was incredibly obvious who she was. The only way the man could buy her excuse was if he was completely ignorant of her conduct up to this point. Which he apparently was.

"Your presence is still a liability, but so long as you make sure you wouldn't be connected to him, I suppose his cover would remain intact even if your identity were to be uncovered."

"Yes. Certainly," Miss Unicorn agreed with a suspiciously nervous chuckle, and if this was a manga, she'd most likely have one of those oversized sweat drops on her head, even though she was wearing a helmet. It was one of the more baffling artistic shorthands of the medium.

"But back to the original issue," the man with the griffon helmet changed the topic at once, making the knightess twitch in apprehension. "Why did you challenge your brother to Arbitration?"

"I... can't tell you the details, but it's very important. Brother made a terrible decision, and this was the only way I could think of for stopping him in the heat of the moment."

"You can't tell me," Mr. Griffon echoed her but got no reaction. Since the girl remained silent, he slowly, very deliberately crossed his arms in front of his chest and let out a thoughtful hum. "It has to be a disagreement that cannot be resolved by words alone, and also something that came about during the time you observed him in the school environment." He looked the armor-clad girl over from head to toe, and she subtly shrunk back from his furtive gaze. "Is this related to the Abyssal he's sheltering at his base?"

"Wha... What makes you think that?"

She was as transparent as sheet glass, and the man didn't deem her awkward question worthy of an answer either. Maybe for the better, as he also ceased trying to get more details out of her.

"In any case, your timing is terrible. Between the appearance of this dangerous new element and the coming gathering of the wyrmbloods, we cannot afford either of you getting injured, or worse."

"I'll… try not to injure him?" she proposed a little weakly, but the man remained completely stoic.

"This is not up to your discretion," Mr. Griffon practically hissed in response to her comment. "The rules of Arbitration are clear and concise. So long as both of you have accepted it, unbefitting conduct during combat would risk breaking your Oath."

"I know…"

Unicorn Girl sounded especially sulky by this point, and after a long silence, the man let out a shallow sigh in resignation.

"Are you sure you want to go through with it? The sixth clause allows the cancellation of Arbitration so long as one side admits their mistake and the other acknowledges it in front of at least one witness."

"I can't back down!" the girl suddenly burst out with an intensity that made her previous sullenness seem like an illusion. "I can't let brother…! I mean, I have to open his eyes to the truth before he makes a huge, no, enormous mistake that cannot be undone!"

"Is the eye-opening part still in regards to the Abyssal girl?"

"Yes! I mean, no! I mean… among other things?"

"You're making very little sense right now, Penelope."

Mr. Griffon's comment (presumably) made the girl puff her cheeks in indignation. It was impossible to say for sure due to the helmet, but her body language definitely gave off that impression.

"I'm not making sense!? Tell that to my brother! There are so many perfectly normal girls in that school, so why did he have to choose someone like her?!"

"… Are we still talking about the Abyssal girl?"

Miss Unicorn shuddered so hard her whole armor rattled and she hastily waved her arms in front of her as her tone took another one-eighty turn.

"N-No, of course not! Leonard would neeeever do something like that! Seriously, he didn't!"

The more he floundered, the more skeptical the man in front of her appeared to be (though, once again, it was hard to tell through all the metal plates), and once she ran out of breath, he slowly exhaled as well.

"So Duncan was right. This really is all about your obsession with your brother's love life."

"No, it's not!" Miss Unicorn exclaimed in a show of clear indignation that, incidentally, also broke her fake voice as well. "I mean, yes, it has to do with him, and it might have something to do with his lover, but I'm not obsessed with him!"

"I said his love life, not him in particular," the Griffon Knight corrected her, earning himself an angry huff in return.

"Same difference!"

The man slowly shook his head when faced with the fuming girl, completely unfazed by the barely visible yet almost tangibly scathing glare behind her visor.

"In conclusion, you aren't willing to compromise, and if Leonard was willing to accept Arbitration despite his slim odds of victory, I presume he won't listen to reason either." After concluding that by himself, the man raised a hand to his face and lightly tapped on the chin of his helmet with his index finger. "Are you certain you're prepared to go through with this?"

"Yes, I'm certain," the Knight girl nodded, her posture full of determination… and her voice hovering somewhere between her normal and fake voice, kind of ruining the moment. Or rather it would've ruined the moment if there was one, but I digress.

"In that case, you better make the necessary arrangements. Was that why you came to me?"

"Yes? I-I mean, yes, mostly." When the man remained conspicuously silent, she quickly sputtered out, "Since I have no first-hand experience, I thought I'd ask for advice. Also… um… could I ask you to be my witness?" The request, for some wholly unfathomable reason, took the man completely by surprise, so she hastily explained herself. "I can't ask Sir Arnwald, because his injury still hasn't fully healed yet, and as for Duncan… He never really got along with my brother, so I'm afraid he would make the situation worse."

"True," Mr. Griffon agreed, if tentatively, and the Knight girl immediately used the opening to lean forward and clasp her hands in front of her chest.

"Please, uncle! You're the only one I can rely on!"

Was… Was she trying to act cute? It was hard to tell with the armor and the helmet and the false voice, but her body language certain implied that she was trying to appear that way.

"How come you're only calling me uncle nowadays whenever you want something from me?"

"That's not true! It's just that… calling you that in front of others is awkward. It makes me feel like I'm a kid."

"You are a kid," he pointed out, and the girl immediately switched into sulking mode again.

"No, I'm not! Also, you owe me one anyway! You lost my unicorn horn!"

"I did, but you got it back," Sir Roland continued to be the voice of reason, which only infuriated the girl even further.

"That's beside the point! The least you could do is to do me this tiny little favor, right, uncle?"

At this point the two of them entered into a long staring contest. It was, unsurprisingly, broken by the man ever so slightly slouching his shoulders and stating, "Fine, I'll be your witness."

"Great! Oh, but don't tell the others about it! I need to do this alone!"

"You just recruited me, so you're not doing this alone by definition."

"You know what I mean!" she grumbled, yet it definitely felt like she was grinning behind her visor. "Thanks though. I would've become a laughingstock if I got disqualified because I couldn't find a witness."

"Be careful. You can still end up as one if you lose the duel."

"Pfff! Like that would ever happen!" Miss Unicorn dismissed him without a moment of consideration. "Brother couldn't beat me in a spar ever since we were ten years old!"

"Arbitration isn't sparring," the man pointed out with unwavering patience. "You'll put everything on the line to prove your point, and so will Leonard. If you underestimate his resolve, you might end up regretting it."

He also added 'Especially if it's really about a girl' in a low voice, but she either didn't hear that or wasn't paying attention, since she gave no reaction whatsoever.

"I… guess you're right. It's been a while since we last sparred so… maybe I should train a little? Just for my peace of mind! It's not like I'm worried about losing, but it never hurts to be prepared, right?"

"That's right."

"Soooo… Uncle Roland? Would you be my opponent? Pretty please?"

"… You are incorrigible," he said, yet soon they both headed to the spacious lobby of the office building they were in, and they soon began to make preparations for erecting a Purple Zone, most like to avoid collateral damage.

They were also, naturally, completely unaware of the fact that someone was observing their sparring session with every single fiber of their brain. I had no idea whether spying on the Arbitration opponent was unchivalrous, unsportsmanlike, or just plain unfair, but I couldn't say I cared. I was a sneaky little fly on the wall, and that's how I do things. It served me well so far, so there was no reason to try fixing what isn't broken. Buzz-buzz.