It had been about two days since I was struck by Reina’s class-roster smash.
“Aizen. Come see me for a moment.”
As usual, class had ended and I was about to hurry off to the workshop when Professor Reina called me over with a grave expression.
I immediately asked her in return.
“I’ve been behaving myself, Professor.”
“Come to think of it, the librarian told me yesterday to give you a warning. What did you do?”
“There were some materials I wanted to look at, so I secretly copied them from the library…”
“…If you did that without permission, I’ll have you submit a letter of reflection. But that’s not the issue. Come.”
You needed permission just to copy things by hand?
Compared to my previous life, I’d thought something like that would be fine, so I hadn’t even imagined it would be forbidden.
But seeing Reina’s expression, I quickly realized there was probably a more serious problem.
As I followed Reina straight toward the faculty room, I heard Noel following behind me.
“Lord Aizen? Did you cause trouble again?”
“I did copy some materials from the library without permission, but apparently that’s not the issue.”
“I think this from time to time, but I get the feeling your common sense and mine are very different, Lord Aizen.”
I walked slowly, matching Noel’s pace as she delivered that accurate assessment.
Noel’s body was weak and she walked with a cane, so if I walked at my usual pace, she would inevitably fall behind and end up gasping for breath.
If Reina looked that serious, it might be better to ask Noel for her opinion anyway. Just as that thought crossed my mind, I remembered someone I hadn’t seen at all today.
“Come to think of it, I didn’t see Mina today.”
“Oh? You didn’t know either, Lord Aizen?”
It looked as though we were always together, but we didn’t take every class together, so there were plenty of times when we wouldn’t see each other for a few hours.
Besides, despite how she seemed, Mina was a saint and also ran her own merchant company, so I’d heard that even as a student of the Academy, she often didn’t show up for classes.
And yet she always came to the workshop.
‘Is she that comfortable there?’
By the time I thought that far, the faculty room was right in front of us. When we entered, I saw Professor Reina speaking with Professor Iserina, her expression grave.
As it happened, the conversation had just stopped, as though both of them were deep in thought. I let Noel enter first, then stepped inside, and Professor Reina seemed slightly flustered before soon changing her expression.
“Lady Noel, you came as well.”
“Please don’t only address me casually during class. Feel free to do so normally too.”
Noel spoke gently, and Professor Reina bowed her head once as if in thanks.
Then, after thinking again, she began taking headache medicine.
“Taking too much medicine isn’t good for your body, Professor.”
“Do you want to be hit for no reason?”
At Professor Reina’s words, I took one step back.
Noel also looked at me with a bitter expression, then cleared her throat and looked back at Professor Reina.
“I heard earlier that you summoned Lord Aizen…”
“Lady Noel, pardon me. I would like to say that this has nothing to do with you, so please leave… but that isn’t the case either. Let’s begin.”
Saying that, Professor Reina took a stack of documents out from a drawer.
She pointed toward the meeting table and chairs in one corner of the faculty room, so we followed and sat down. Soon, she placed the stack of papers on the table and spoke with a sigh.
“Prince Gilford has challenged you to a duel, Aizen.”
“A duel?!”
“Judging by Noel’s reaction, it seems this was done on his own authority, without the royal palace’s approval.”
Professor Reina seemed to find a faint hope in Noel’s startled question.
“To put it another way, this is the duel application Prince Gilford’s side submitted to the Academy. The stated reason for the duel is that you, Aizen, have not expressed an apology or sincerity regarding your rudeness and insult toward the prince.”
“This is the first I’m hearing of it.”
“Don’t worry. It’s the first I’m hearing of it too.”
Noel immediately began looking through the documents.
I also picked one up and looked at it, and soon one passage caught my eye.
—Aizen placed Gilford Rex Vespia into a dustpan and then forcibly threw him…
“I saved him, and he’s still throwing a damn fit.”
Noel had told me just a few days ago that Prince Gilford was raging because I’d put him in a dustpan.
But that had been all.
He had never directly demanded an apology.
‘From what I heard, in this place, if there’s something that requires an apology, the person who’s supposed to receive it has to give some sort of hint.’
It was a rather peculiar custom, but apparently it had arisen because, in the past, there had been a case where someone had deliberately maintained an ambiguous attitude and repeatedly refused apologies from the party that had come to apologize first, driving them to their death.
For reference, I’d heard that it was probably an envoy from the Argent Empire who did that, and the Vespia king at the time died of pent-up rage because of it.
In any case, the main point was that between commoners and nobles, it might be one thing, but between nobles, the one receiving the apology was supposed to subtly signal it and settle the matter that way. Since there had been no such talk, I had assumed he would simply wear himself out and drop the matter on his own.
“This is unjust.”
“That’s a reasonable assessment.”
While Professor Reina answered Noel’s words, I read the contents again.
Then, when I saw the demands, I unconsciously frowned.
—Therefore, Gilford Rex Vespia hereby sets forth the following demands.
—The disposal of all items created by Aizen Arclight at the Academy, including golems, and the submission of all related materials to Gilford Rex Vespia.
—An apology from Aizen Arclight.
—The expulsion of Aizen Arclight.
“He must really hate me.”
The fact that the disposal was listed even before the apology and expulsion made his pettiness apparent.
Rather than wanting an apology, yes.
It felt more like he wanted to deny everything I had accomplished.
“Don’t entertain any strange thoughts, Aizen.”
Professor Reina’s cold voice reached me.
“This duel is unjust. Even the terms are absurd: in exchange for allowing you to deploy your golem, he chooses the venue, and he challenges you as a party. There is no need to accept such conditions. It is nothing more than violence backed by rank.”
“It’s also shamelessly written here that since you defeated a sandworm, this much should be expected… This would make it look as though the royal family were unjustly oppressing a noble, so it’s a duel that must not be held. The royal family’s attendants should be the ones stopping something like this, so what are they doing?”
Noel’s tone was gentle, but I could tell she was angry.
Reina sighed and clutched her head.
“The Academy’s environment is unique, so occasionally there are those who are strongly inclined to think they are kings inside these walls.”
The interior claims extraterritoriality, but most of the students and professors are people of the kingdom, so in the end, the kingdom’s status and laws are practically followed.
Because the Academy’s interior is somewhat isolated, outside status turns into something like privilege, leading to misunderstanding… that sort of case.
‘Noel is impressive, now that I think about it.’
Even though her status was no less than royalty, the fact that she showed courtesy to professors and students suddenly seemed remarkable.
“To state only the conclusion, I intend to mediate this matter and make it as though it never happened, Aizen.”
“Can you stop it? The opponent is royalty.”
“Don’t worry. The majority of the faculty are asking how this could possibly make sense. Do you think we’re in a position where we can’t even lodge a protest?”
She said that, but if it were that simple, I didn’t think Professor Reina would be this tense.
Judging from how seriously she had been speaking with Professor Iserina, it must be a thorny situation.
Maybe they would try to compromise by accepting the duel for now, having me lose on purpose, and then having the Academy reject everything except the apology.
“In that case, first, you should draft our conditions politely, Lord Aizen.”
“Politely?”
“Yes. Something like, ‘Let us consider the previous discourtesy as having never happened.’ With that much, we can argue that Lord Aizen had the intention to apologize, but Prince Gilford acted hastily and rudely. The Academy can use that point to mediate as well.”
“To tell you the truth, that’s what I called you here to ask for.”
As expected of a high-ranking noble.
She seemed able to calculate immediately how to get through this smoothly and without major trouble.
However…
‘He’s being this unreasonable. Will that be enough?’
As Noel said, if there had been a sane attendant by his side, they surely would have advised him against it, but there was a strong chance he hadn’t listened.
Wasn’t Prince Gilford seeing red right now?
But my hesitation did not last long.
‘There’s nothing good about increasing the number of enemies.’
Just as I was about to write the conditions as Noel suggested—
—Thud.
“There you are. No, there you are, Mr. Aizen!”
Mina strode in energetically, speaking in her usual tone for a moment before remembering that this was the faculty room.
Noel looked slightly impressed at the sight of Mina changing masks depending on her audience, while Reina looked a bit surprised, then relieved.
“Mina. It’s good to see you always so spirited, but entering without knocking is rude.”
“Haha, I’m sorry. But I heard some interesting news, so I came to inform my friends!”
“Lady Mina, you really do seem like an outstanding actress…”
As Noel murmured in admiration in a very small voice, Mina approached me.
Then—
“Three days from now, it’s a duel, Aizen!”
“What?”
Mina smiled as she thrust out a document almost identical in content to the paper I had been about to sign.
****
The document Mina handed over turned the faculty room upside down, and in the end, Professor Reina evacuated us.
When we arrived at the workshop, Mina said she had another copy and showed it to us. After seeing its contents, Noel’s eyes widened.
“T-This is a little…”
“Reasonable.”
Mina had taken off her mask again and wore a calm expression.
Then I looked at the proposed terms.
—Aizen Arclight (representative: Mina Krista) accepts the terms of the duel.
—If Aizen Arclight (representative: Mina Krista) is victorious, the rights to a lower-to-mid-grade mana metal mine owned by the royal family shall be transferred to Aizen Arclight (representative: Mina Krista).
“You went and pushed this forward on your own?!”
“Why? Got a complaint? I have authority too, you know?”
Mina said, waggling a finger.
“I also have rights to the failed models, drafts, and so on of the piloted golem you made. That’s more than enough qualification to be your representative. I’m an interested party.”
“Ah, th-then it is possible, but these conditions are…”
Noel looked troubled.
The rights to a lower-to-mid-grade mana metal mine owned by the royal family?
“Isn’t this a bit too much?”
“They’re trying to lay hands on contracted goods involving a saint of the Saras Church. And now they want to back out? They can’t.”
Then Mina grinned and said,
“Well, if you interpret it broadly, they’re also trying to lay hands on the king’s property. You didn’t come to the Academy for no reason, did you, Aizen?”
The reason I came to the Academy.
Since the royal palace had vouched for my identity and let me in on the condition that I complete the piloted golem, the logic that it was the king’s property also held.
“Huh? Wait. Isn’t that a double contract…”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Lady Duke’s Daughter. In any case, Prince Gilford was short-sighted, but he was also in a position where he had to push this duel through even if he accepted those conditions. Mediation would have been impossible.”
Noel’s expression changed slightly, and Mina leisurely picked up a cookie and ate it as she spoke.
“The opponent isn’t Prince Gilford. It’s the dissatisfied faction using him as their figurehead. Men who want to be on good terms with Noel and me, idiots who are unhappy because they think you’re being favored, and the dissatisfied faction among the knights who have started to feel a sense of crisis.”
“The knight order?”
Noel grew serious, and Mina waved her finger.
“Yeah. The dissatisfied faction. If golems that can easily defeat sandworms are mass-produced, the knight order, which only holds swords, will lose influence and have its scale reduced, won’t it?”
So they had felt a sense of crisis and joined in… was that it?
“This was a political fight.”
“It’s not some trivial quarrel within the Academy. …There’s someone moving behind the scenes. Definitely.”
Mina smiled as she spoke.
“So as soon as I obtained the information, I went straight over, pulled the ‘I’m his representative’ card, and wrote it up like this.”
“Aren’t you being too arbitrary…”
“It’s good for me, good for you, good for everyone.”
Looking at her face, I could tell she had already devised a way to get her hands on the mine even if it became my property.
She never took a loss, did she?
“They can’t beat you anyway.”
Mina spoke leisurely.
“I’ve ridden the Caterpillar Golem, so I have a rough idea of its strength. They said party-sized, but they’ll force it and bring as many as ten people. Even then, I know you’ll win just by running them over.”
Mina smiled and said that this sandworm subjugation had made everyone recognize its potential, and that it had also become a threat.
“So you just have to ride it, go there, and come back with the profit. Nice, right?”
“That way of putting it aside, taking things that far is…”
Noel expressed concern, but it was not concern about the duel itself.
Noel also seemed to believe victory was entirely possible.
It appeared she had given up on stopping the duel after all.
“All right. Then rest well, and in three days, go win. Easy, right?”
Mina said lightly.
Then I smiled and said,
“There’s one big problem.”
“What is it?”
To Mina, who belatedly looked uneasy, I said with a smile,
“I already removed the engine from that thing.”
I had already taken out the engine to research a new frame.
To fit it back in, I would need to adjust it, so it would take at least four days…
Noel and Mina’s expressions changed.
“Th-Then what should we do…!”
“Produce a good solution. Immediately.”
Seeing Mina troubled, I found it slightly amusing.
“There is one. We just have to move up the field test. However, it’s hard for me to finish all the preparations alone.”
As I said that with a smile, I looked at Mina and Noel.
Mina understood immediately.
“You’re asking me to prepare people.”
“The blueprints are finished. If other people handle only the simple work, it can be made.”
I looked up at the frame standing on one side and said,
“Let’s make that thing stand upon the earth.”
At long last, that day was approaching.
The large red jewel on the frame’s head caught the light and gleamed faintly.