Lex's POV
The peaceful bubble I had shared with Clarice was abruptly shattered by the sound of voices rising in anger, at the center of the room.
I looked at Clarice, who was already staring at the center of the room with a look of uter exceperation, and how the male heirs had completely ruined the fragile balance that their parents, had been fighting to maintain, at the palace.
I took her hand, brought it to my lips, and gave it a light kiss—a gesture of respect I learned from Leon's "Master" of tea.
"Thank you for such a wonderful night, my lady, but it seems I must bid you farewell."
Her red eyes widened in shock. The gesture was a final goodbye, as if I wouldn't see her again.
Looking regretful, I added, "I would have liked to spend more time with you at the Academy, but it seems my time here is about to come to an end."
Shocked, she asked, "Please don't tell me you're going to involve yourself in that?" pointing at the mess at the center of the room where Leon was now standing with Angelica.
"You could lose your head!" she said desperately trying to change my mind. The political suicide of defying the Crown Prince was a very real consequence in this world, not to say the literal suicide.
"I can't leave my brother to handle this on his own," I said with a smile. It was the same smile I gave Leon when we were about to start one of our rumbles in the shed—a smile that said, Let's do this.
Clarice simply stared, completely dumbfounded, as I left her side and made my way through the parting crowd. I reached Raymond and Daniel just as they were standing up.
"He actually did it," Daniel whispered in shock.
"Yep," I confirmed, adjusting my uniform jacket. "he's going to be the end of us, WHT was the Captain even thinking when he made that idiot the leader of our unit."
"We're fighting five A-Grade potentials, you know!" Raymond stressed, adjusting his glasses nervously.
"Then we'll just have to be better," I replied, my usually golden eyes now flashing Silver with my LunarIce Aspect.
"Well boys, our leader has picked a fight he has no chance of winning on his own, so it's up to us to, wipe his ass." I said finishing the drink in my hand.
"Right!, but when is going to learn to wipe his own ass? " they both said with a laugh as we made our way to the center of the Room.
Together, the three of us moved toward the center of the room, ready to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Leon against the future King and his entire inner circle.
Leon's Pov
Many, might be wondering why, I would be doing this but I had my own reasons.
I just grinned. "Well, you know…I really, really hate those guys."
I wasn't close to Angelica. While I did sympathize with her for the heaps of scorn abruptly turned on her, I had my own reasons for going forward.
I pushed people aside and stepped through the crowd. Everyone's eyes turned to me.
"Okay, okay, here I am! I volunteer to act as her representative in the duel!" I lifted my hand casually as I strolled into the center of the room.
All around, people shot me looks as if to say, Dude, read the room!
I ignored them all.
Greg studied my face. "Who even are you?"
Apparently he really didn't know. That was me and my sad reality as a background character.
Brad examined me as well. His tone suggested I was obviously beneath him. "I think I heard about a group of young, accomplished adventurers. Who left their homes at young ages and became barons. Could you be, part of that Group?"
Well, considering my lowly status and middling grades, it wasn't a surprise they hadn't noticed me sooner.
"More importantly, Miss Angelica, recognize me as your friend main proxy in the fight. Come on, hurry up."
She looked conflicted. "Uh, um…" "Come on, say it. You won't have anything to worry about once you do."
"I-I recognize you as my stand-in," she finally stammered, still confused.
Satisfied, I turned to the prince. "There you have it. I, Leon Fou Bartfort, will act as her representative in this match. You've got five on your side, correct? I'd like to confirm the rules of the match, but before we do, can we clarify the stakes?"
Marie gawked at me. Evidently, she hadn't expected anyone to intervene.
But lately, I'd been watching this girl through Luxion, collecting information, collating my suspicions…and given her shock, I was pretty damn sure I was right.
This Marie was like me—an outsider. She had reincarnated into this world as well, or something along those lines. She knew how the game was supposed to go.
I assumed that meant she was probably also a woman in her previous life, though I guess guys could like otome games. But it'd have to be a guy who was fine manipulating other dudes into waiting on him hand and foot as he built himself a reverse harem… Yeah, you know what, either way, that sucks. But my bet's on girl.
She stared at me as if she couldn't believe how I'd just thrown myself into this.
Then she composed herself. "My wish is simple—Marie should stay away from the prince."
Whispers erupted from the crowd.
"Did you hear her?"
"Oh my! Don't tell me she's jealous?"
"She's washed up. She doesn't even have the appeal to win back the prince, so she's resorting to brute force."
Angelica lowered her eyes and ground her teeth together.
I turned toward Marie. "All right, so what do you want out of it?"
The prince stepped in front of Marie, blocking her from view. "You're really that desperate to break us apart?" he said to
Angelica. "It seems you don't understand who the real 'witch' here is. Even if you did manage to separate us, I will never have feelings for you!"
"I am aware," Angelica mumbled. "I understand, but getting her away from you is the last thing I can do for you as your—" I clapped my hands together, ignoring the indignant looks from the prince and his posse.
"Save the sentimentality and sniping for later. Hurry up and tell me your conditions for this duel. I don't have all day."
Marie stepped around the prince and faced Angelica. "I-If I win, I don't want you to do cruel things like this anymore. I don't think it's right to wield your house's influence like a weapon and force others to do your bidding."
"Okay," I said, "then if we win, the prince breaks things off with you. If we lose, Angelica stays away from you.
Next, let's discuss how we're going to do this. How about borrowing the arena and settling it in Grace-Knight Armor? That's the usual way we do things, yeah?"
Chris looked ready to cut me down right where I stood, never mind his lack of weapon tonight.
"You seriously think you can beat us? If you don't want to get hurt, you better back off. Someone as weak as you wouldn't even last a minute against us."
He didn't have any idea who I was, so he lumped me in with others whose abilities never stood out. He assumed they'd blow me to smithereens.
"Come again?" I asked. "What makes you so sure I'm going to lose?"
Everyone around me burst into laughter.
"Did you hear him?"
"He actually thinks he can win! That boy doesn't know his place."
"He's got a talent for making people laugh, though!"
"Ridiculous. His peerage was clearly a fluke."
It wasn't just women sneering at me now, but men. Not that I could blame them. These five lordlings were the most talented of the first-years, and their status far exceeded pretty much everyone's. No one in their right mind would ever challenge them.
Greg came up close, getting in my face. "Just a little bit ago, some boys called out to a group of girls. Then one of the girls' servants sent them flying, and they ran out of here with their tails tucked between their legs. Weren't you one of them?"
He already knew the answer, of course. What a jerk.
"You won't even put up a proper fight," he spat. "If all you want is the spotlight, save yourself the humiliation and run home now, pipsqueak."
Now this guy really knew how to tap into real intimidation. He'd had all that combat experience, after all.
Jilk intervened. "Let's do one-on-one with Armor. However, there are five of us. If you can find more people in time for the duel, you're welcome to select an additional four to match up against us. And as summer break is almost upon us…we should be able to borrow the arena the day after the closing ceremony."
"There's no need I already have my own Team," at exactly that time the rest of the members of team 619 arrived.
"You know Leon, if you keep this up we might end up, leaving you to face the fire alone 1 day." Lex grumbled, but with a smile on his face.
"After this I'm sending a partition to the Sergeant, we need a new Leader, the current one is Defective." Daniel said.
"Let's just get this over with, we have to pack because after this we're sure as hell gonna be expelled" Raymond said pushing his glasses, thinking it will make him look cool.
Turning back to the Prince, I put the final Nail to the coffin.
"Now as it is now, Five on Four, it's a bit more fair, and as I was the first one to accept, I will fight twice, does everyone agree."