Younger Brother, Boy, And Mad Princesses

With only a short time left in the third term, the academy had grown busy preparing for its graduating students and the new students who would arrive next. And now, the promise between the Arses Family and Fritz was about to be fulfilled. Aileen, the First Princess, had come to visit the academy, and Fina would be watching the duel alongside her elder sister from the VIP room.

Far more students had gathered in the arena than for the basic-course class competition, and the spectator stands were broadly divided between nobles and commoners. The students supporting Fritz loudly cheered for him in the ring, while Chlust, standing opposite him, was instead showered with jeers and heckling.

“Smash him, Fritz!!!”

“Chlust, quit cowering and say something!”

“Don’t lose to some noble!”

There were overwhelmingly more students of commoner birth than nobles. In the nobles’ section, the children of aristocratic families, centered around Luecke and Unias of the Three Dukes, silently watched the situation with bitter expressions.

Aleist sat beside Unias along with some friends, while Izumi sat beside Luecke. Rudel was waiting on Chlust’s side near the ring itself, so he was not in the stands.

“Chlust certainly is popular.”

Luecke sarcastically commented on the atmosphere in the arena while reading his book.

“Nah, they’re taking a shot at all of us nobles, aren’t they? And you know what? This guy beat Fritz to a pulp before, so now he’s fidgeting because he’s worried Chlust is going to get beaten to a pulp in return.”

“Th-That’s not it! Sure, I beat him to a pulp, but I don’t care about Fritz or Chlust or anything!”

After staring disinterestedly at the ring, Unias pointed at the restless Aleist beside him and laughed. Aleist hurriedly scrambled to defend himself. As Izumi listened to their exchange, she watched Rudel staring at Chlust.

“I just hope nothing happens…”

In the VIP room, the two princesses each watched the young man they were supporting. Aileen smiled as she gazed at Fritz standing in the ring, while Fina expressionlessly watched Rudel waiting outside it. The Senior Knights serving as guards and the academy headmaster were also watching the students from there.

“Ah, Fritz-sama… he’ll surely win, won’t he?”

Aileen asked the Senior Knight standing beside her for reassurance, while Fina said,

“Sophina, in your estimation, which of them will win?”

“Yes. I believe the commoner student named Fritz has the advantage. Chlust-sama appears to have trained as well, but their fundamentals are different. With less than a year of training, I doubt he could even catch up.”

“I see…”

(I don’t really care, though. Honestly, it doesn’t matter whether Chlust loses or Fritz loses. As long as Master makes it through the next match safely, there’s no problem at all! More importantly, she’s completely head over heels for him… Even if she is my sister, isn’t that the real problem here?)

However, after hearing Sophina’s assessment, Aileen proceeded to ask for her opinion of Rudel as well. She wanted to hear the evaluation of the Senior Knight stationed at the academy as Fina’s guard and gain reassurance that Fritz would win. But…

“You there, Senior Knight. From your perspective, how do you see the next match going? That man may be strong as well, but I believe Fritz-sama has trained considerably, hasn’t he?”

“No, surely my opinion is hardly…”

As Sophina struggled to answer, the expressionless Fina inwardly laughed and enjoyed watching her predicament.

(Go on, say it! Tell her how her beloved Fritz-sama is rated! He got beaten to a pulp by Aleist, Aleist lost to Unias, and Master is the strongest of them all—tell her! Well, if you actually said that, she’d remember your face and name and probably make your life miserable!)

In the ring, the two facing each other glared as the cheers echoed around them. More precisely, Fritz was glaring, while Chlust avoided his eyes and trembled slightly.

“Do you have any idea how long I’ve waited for this day? I’ll teach a noble brat like you—someone who spends his days fooling around without knowing how much we’ve suffered since childhood, or how badly we’ve struggled under those crushing taxes—exactly what that suffering means.”

Fritz raised his wooden sword, and Chlust took his stance as well. The referee standing between them signaled the start, and Fritz stepped forward and swung his wooden sword down at Chlust.

“L-Like I care!”

Chlust blocked the descending wooden sword, but the next attack immediately came at him. Chlust continued receiving Fritz’s wooden sword as it came at him relentlessly from every direction.

Even when he blocked, even when he dodged, more of Fritz’s attacks still reached his body… and Rudel simply watched.

“You and your brother are both scum! Do you have any idea how many people are suffering because of you?!”

Fritz shouted as he brought his wooden sword down, sending Chlust flying. Chlust dropped his wooden sword and collapsed, but Fritz followed up immediately. He did not stop with the wooden sword, either, and began kicking him as well.

“Hah… hah… Say something! Tell everyone who’s suffering that you’re sorry! Apologize!”

Within only a few minutes of the match beginning, Chlust had been battered all over… Yet he said nothing and stood back up. He tried to retrieve his wooden sword, only for Fritz to kick him away again. It was a completely one-sided match. The commoners and nobles watching had both fallen silent, their initial cheers gone as they simply watched the fight.

“…Apologize? Then you apologize first.”

“Huh?”

Clinging to Fritz’s leg, Chlust spoke. He was breathing heavily, and his voice was so faint that almost no one around them could hear it…

“I-I said apologize for calling my brother scum.”

At that moment, he was kicked away again. What came to Chlust’s mind then was his elder brother Rudel—the only person who had never abandoned him, even after everyone else had.

(My followers and classmates started looking down on me. Everyone around me calls me trash… Father and Mother won’t even properly answer my letters. But when everyone else abandoned me, Brother was the only one who didn’t!)

After losing to Fritz, Chlust had been abandoned by everyone around him. Rudel alone had taken time out for Chlust and trained him. And even now, he was watching his match.

(Why… am I this pathetic? I can’t keep humiliating myself like this in front of Brother.)

Chlust desperately clung to Fritz’s leg. The match continued with Fritz either kicking him away or striking him with the wooden sword. When Chlust’s blood began spraying across the ring, more than a few screams finally rose from the spectators.

In the VIP room, Fina watched the excited Aileen with cold eyes. Realizing that her sister had become so engrossed in Fritz’s performance that she could no longer see anything else, Fina expressionlessly surveyed the mood throughout the arena and inwardly shook her head.

(This sure doesn’t look like a hero of justice fighting. My sister’s prince on a white horse looks more like some street thug. This whole thing has turned into such a perfect case of poetic irony that all I can do is laugh.)

To Fina, a match in which the strong freely wielded their strength against the weak resembled the very power relationship through which nobles oppressed commoners. From one perspective, Fritz was right and the Arses Family was evil. But from another perspective… under the laws of the kingdom, the Arses Family was the victim, and Fritz was the aggressor.

In Courtois, a nation ruled by royalty and nobility, Fritz was a criminal for raising his hand against the Arses Family, one of the great noble houses. And the reason he had done so was something the other nobles and royals could never accept. After all, he was essentially declaring that the nobles who ruled over him had no right to do so…

(Even if the Arses Family are villains, Prince Charming’s (Fritz’s) methods are way too dangerous. And judging by the atmosphere in this arena, he doesn’t have any real charisma, nor can he look at himself objectively. A prince (Fritz) without anyone capable of making up for his shortcomings isn’t frightening.)

Just as Fina thought, the spectators had begun recoiling from the completely one-sided match. No one could look at Fritz’s fighting and call it justice. Occasionally, some tactless fool would shout a jeer into the silent arena. Even so, the atmosphere only continued to worsen.

(More importantly, Black Hair! I hate her… She got Master to stop petting with just one sentence, and now she’s a vixen who has Master wrapped around her finger—well, she’s cute, so I guess Black Hair is fine. I hate Black Haaaaair!!! Forget Fritz—the kingdom needs to do something about that Black Hair before we lose a national treasure!!!)

Fina expressionlessly stared at Izumi, who sat beside Luecke with a worried expression…

The referee stopped Fritz as he continued attacking the now-motionless Chlust. After confirming that Chlust had lost consciousness, the referee declared Fritz the winner.

“Get up here, Rudel!”

While Fritz shouted with his wooden sword raised, Rudel hoisted the fallen Chlust onto his back and started leaving the arena. Fritz became irritated by his actions, but—

“I’m taking my brother away. Rest while I do.”

At that one remark from Rudel, Fritz begrudgingly stepped down from the ring and decided to take a break.

Rudel carried Chlust out of the arena on his back. Chlust regained consciousness while being carried and realized that he had lost.

“…Haha. I worked that hard, and I still lost in the end. Guess I’ve got no talent.”

Chlust mocked himself as tears of frustration flowed down his face. He was furious that he had failed to land even a single blow, and blamed himself for being able to do nothing more than cling to Fritz’s leg even after his brother had been insulted.

“I even lost pathetically at the very end… Now I’ll just die out on the frontier.”

Rudel silently carried the sobbing Chlust. However, he did not take him to the infirmary. Instead, he carried him into the arena’s spectator stands, to where Luecke and Unias were sitting.

“Sorry, but could you make some room?”

Rudel made the request of Luecke and Unias as they sat in the stands.

“Rudel… why the hell did you bring him here?”

Unias stared at him in exasperation, but created a gap between himself and Luecke, whereupon everyone along the entire row shifted over in unison. Rudel seated the battered Chlust there, his eyes swollen red from crying, then immediately jumped from the stands into the ring.

Still exasperated, Unias addressed the dumbfounded Chlust beside him. He had sensed the awkward atmosphere and acted to break it.

“Watch your brother’s fight. He’s clumsy about this sort of thing, but this is what he came up with to do for you… I’m not telling you two to become best friends, but at least acknowledge Rudel.”

Chlust tried to say something after hearing those words, but swallowed it back and instead looked toward his brother and Fritz in the ring.

“This is probably going to be a very boring match.”

Luecke closed the book he had been reading and turned his gaze toward the two facing each other. Izumi, seated beside him, did the same. Aleist alone seemed bothered by what he had said.

“Boring? Fritz is pretty strong, isn’t he? I heard he’s been training ever since I beat him to a pulp.”

“Haah… and that’s exactly why you can’t get past your wall. You’ve been blessed with so much, but that part of you is still hopeless…”

Unias sighed at Aleist. Despite possessing mana beyond human limits, Aleist still could not make full use of it, and everyone else appeared to agree as they gave him equally exasperated looks.

“W-What’s with all of you?!”