The audience was in a long, stunned silence. Processing what had just happened.
Eventually, murmurs evolved into chatter, and fervent discussions broke out.
"What!?! He was in the middle stage?"
"Isn't that cheating?! Quinn was not aware of that."
"No… Quinn never asked and Aurelius never stated he was in the lower stage."
"Didn't Aurelius ask after accepting that Quinn would match his cultivation to lower stage?"
"No, Aurelius asked if Quinn was going to set his cultivation to lower stage, he never talked about 'matching' cultivation…"
"Wow… Hahaha, seems like he's grown pretty clever now."
"Please, you're overpraising him. Just a little dirty trick, completely unbefitting of a noble."
"We should talk about Aurelius, he was in the middle stage all along?!"
"I always knew something was off, no way a duke's son could only be lower stage by 19."
"That isn't surprising at all. In fact, it's still severely lacking. He is barely at the level of a low noble while he's their heir of a duke!"
At those final words, I smiled internally. Besides humiliating Quinn, I also wanted to make myself stronger publicly.
When it was just a shit novel full of garbage tropes, I didn't question Aurelius being so pathetically weak.
But as a part of the now living, breathing world, I realized the situation was quite suspicious.
It truly didn't make sense for the heir of a dukedom, armed with unimaginable wealth, techniques, and teachers to be so weak.
As the paramedics arrived to treat Quinn, I sighed. Originally, I wanted to beat the shit out of him for… idk, a good hour or two because he wanted to covet my woman.
None gave a shit about Quinn's injury as there were ascendent healers stationed at our house, capable of healing him no problem. His body at least, the emotional damage? I don't think he'll be able to recover for quite a while.
Actually… He's the type to be enraged and seek revenge again rather than being depressed.
Ahhh—this'll be annoying in the future, especially at the academy… Whatever, I'm just gonna go use the bathroom.
While walking, people made way for me, a different look in their eyes. I didn't care as I pulled out my phone to check the reaction of the livestream. It was at 25 million viewers right now.
A clip of the fight was posted and had gone pretty viral, racking up 800,000 views in just two minutes.
'LMAOOO!!! BRO GOT ONE TAPPED AFTER ALLAT SMACK TALK LOL'
'He thought he was him'
'I thought it would be a good show, but this was even better.'
'yeah, seeing that main-character wanna-be get humbled was orgasmic'
'...what?'
Reading the messages, it made me smile. These terminally online degenerates actually knew comedy, unlike those nobles.
'Should I go make some memes in the bathroom right now?'
I thought to myself before I saw a young man my age, coming out of the bathroom with a look that said 'Uhh… Did I miss something?'
He had pale skin and glossy, jet-black hair. They parted to the sides of his face in semi-neat, semi-messy, semi-curled strands. The hair barely obscured the edges of his indifferent, pure black pupils which matched the color of his hair.
His features were sharp, on the line between handsome and beautiful, so… 'pretty,' I guess would be the best word to describe him.
He wasn't the most attractive person you'd see, especially in a room filled with striking young nobles. Yet, when you looked a bit closer—you would find something quietly compelling about him, beneath the unextraordinary surface.
It suited him.
Miyaura was the kind of unknown figure who rose from the shadows to claim the Primarch position at Intis Institute, surpassing the princess, Quinn, and the rest of the established highborn prodigies who spent their days performing for the public eye.
He never flaunted his strength, but he never hid it either.
As one of many children of the Murama Duchy, he naturally blended into the background, and he made no effort to change that.
He was content with his power, uninterested in recognition or validation from anyone.
And he was also the kind of person who was pretty clueless in most social situations, which was why he awkwardly looked at me as I monologued.
Eventually, I spoke to break the silence. "You want to know what happened?"
"Uhh… Yeah… Aren't you the guy who's supposed to be fighting in the duel right now?" He asked with a confused tone.
"Mhmm, that's me," I answered nonchalantly.
"Soo… Why are you here then?"
"Cuz I won. Anyways I gotta pee," I said as I moved past him into the bathroom, leaving a bewildered Miyaura behind me.
***
In the stall, I squatted on a luxury toilet, crafting the dankest memes. So far, I have only made two.
The first one was the four image template of Gru explaining his plan before being shocked/confused at the final result.
In my meme, the first three images were about him planning to challenge me to a duel, lower his cultivation realm below me, and beat my ass badly. In the final image, he looks shocked at being stabbed in the liver and rushed off to the ER.
The other meme was the distracted boyfriend one, where the guy is *appreciating* a passing girl's ass while his girlfriend looks at him, shocked.
Quinn was obviously the guy in the meme, despite the fact he would never have a girlfriend. The girlfriend in the template was 'much needed family funds and assets,' while he was looking at 'bandaging my wounded pride and defending a girl's honor who called me ugly.'
I also used the event to make a meme template.
Quinn's expression aghast while my abyssal hand easily caught his fist, my spear piercing his liver. I couldn't think of any applicable memes I could make with it, so I just made an anti-meme, where the text is just describing what's happening in the image.
Right when I was about to post them, I realized I didn't have an Arcanet account—the central social media platform of the world, so I started making one.
While creating my account, I accidentally clicked on the messages sent by Anastasia and Evelyn asking where I went. Clicking off them, I went back to the process of creating my account, now on the verification section.
It was truly a hassle, I wanted to give up right then, but the idea of the memes coming from the official, verified Aurelius Augustus Astrea from the Astrea Dukedom was very funny to me, so I persevered.
After I finally created the verified account, I decided I wanted to post a mirror selfie with a witty caption first. Regrettably, as I was contemplating what to write, a servant came into the bathroom to usher me back to the engagement ceremony.
Apparently, over 45 minutes had passed, and it was time for the final part of the ceremony, the exchange of vows and rings.
As a result, I just uploaded the selfie as is, with the caption 'me when,' then posted the memes.
I followed the servant back to the banquet hall where all eyes turned to me, their eyes holding a different gaze from before. They still weren't positive though.
Plenty of people still saw me as a disgrace. Not as badly as before, sure, but still shameful for someone with noble blood. I wasn't the 'commoner trash' rank anymore, I'd been promoted to 'low-tier noble,' despite my lineage being among the highest.
There was a man who retained his bewildered expression from before as he looked at me and his phone back-and-fourth. It appeared like he was trying to hold in his laugh, wanting to share what he had on his screen with someone else, but too awkward to.
Walking towards the main stage, I saw Evelyn and Anastasia irritatedly looking at me for some reason.
"Mind telling us why you disappeared and left us on read?" my sister asked in a vexed tone.
"I just went to the bathroom," I replied in a casual tone
"For 40 minutes?"
"Uhh, yes?"
"Then tell us why you left us on read if you were just using the bathroom."
"I was busy."
"In the bathroom? Doing what?"
"You'll see."
I tried to end the conversation there, but then Evelyn piped up.
"A-and what was that comment you said right b-before the fight?!" She angrily demanded, with a flushed face.
"Huh? What comment?" I innocently asked back with a clueless face.
"A-abou… Urrghhh—you know what! Stop pretending!" My sister's annoyed expression faded as she enjoyed the show.
The show didn't last long though, one of the attendants signaled to us of the impending start of the ceremony, motioning us to move into place.
Anastasia parted from us, moving to another section reserved for family.
As Evelyn and I gracefully walked, I suddenly closed in on her, putting my mouth right next to her ear whispering, "should we kiss?"
She didn't expect the sudden tease, considering we were in a public space with all eyes on us, so her face flushed as my hot breath tickled her ear.
"W-what? That's… inappropriate!"
She was right, displays of affection like kissing (lip to lip) were considered unsuitable in the public, even in an engagement ceremony. The only place really considered acceptable to kiss for nobles was weddings, but I pretended like I knew nothing.
"Oh… so you don't want to…" I said hurtly, averting my gaze from her as we separated onto different platforms.
Walking without turning back, I heard a muffled "w-wait! No—I…" from behind me.