Chapter 3. In Which Someone Unexpected Ships It

Following the quick defeat of Luciano Bradley, a random minion came and dragged the unconscious man away. Kewell Soresi took Bradley's place. He fared mildly better, if only because he was forewarned of the fact that Kururugi was far more dangerous than he looked. It still took Suzaku less than a minute to knock him out.

Honestly, Suzaku was a little appalled. Were these really the people whom Prince Schneizel had originally chosen to protect his beloved princess? If so, it was no wonder she had rejected them. They were useless.

Of course, things got a little more difficult as the fights went on. Princess Cornelia's Glaston Knights were crushed, but Viletta Nu put up a good fight. She was faster and smarter than Suzaku expected. She still didn't actually manage to land a hit, but she was more of a challenge than previous opponents. He dislocated her shoulder, broke her leg and knocked her unconscious when she fell.

The situation was similar when the Rounds rolled in. Gino Weinberg had the skill, but not the speed, and Suzaku took him out with a fair amount of ease, breaking only his arm in the process, then knocking him out with the butt of the sword.

Nonnette Enneagram and Monica Krushevsky were vicious. With them, Suzaku actually had to put in more effort and make more use of his sword. He'd mostly used it to block their blows before, since he wanted to keep the maiming to the minimum and keep the fights brief to save energy. But if they wanted to challenge him, well, let it not be said he would ever hold back while defending his position by his princess's side.

Since the two female Rounds were unwise enough to be a threat, they got to actually taste the sword of the heir of the Kururugi family. Nonnette got the worst of it, a pretty serious slash wound across the chest. Monica fared mildly better, since Suzaku slashed her arm, causing her to drop her sword.

Either way, from knight to knight, Suzaku won again and again. In the stands above, Leloucia cheered for her chosen champion. She didn't say it out loud, but she was a little wet.

Unbeknownst to her, so was her sister Euphemia. She bemoaned the fact that she could not claim Suzaku Kururugi as her own knight, but not all was lost. Leloucia was not a very sexual creature. Euphie could still seduce him, once this whole farce with the duels was over. Yes, she very much looked forward to having him in her bed. All that strength, at her disposal. Delicious.

Euphie shivered in anticipatory delight. By her side, Cornelia gave her beloved sister a concerned look. This was exactly why she had not wanted Euphie to come. This sort of display was not for Euphie's delicate sensibilities. And that Number beast was undoubtedly scaring her now. A part of Cornelia—the one that was pure warrior—admired Kururugi's visible skill, though, and she was now on the fence about the best solution about this situation. She'd have to give it more thought if he won the last fight.

Jeremiah Gottwald was the final challenger. He was torn between admiration, outrage and jealousy. Jeremiah was completely convinced that his loyalty to the princess could not be matched by anyone, and he did not understand why she had picked Kururugi over him. In his heart, he accepted her wisdom over his own feelings, but that didn't mean he wasn't angry and he didn't want to knock the Number down a few pegs. Perhaps it was not too late to change the princess's mind and have her pick him instead.

Jeremiah was a seasoned fighter and an excellent swordsman. He had spent the past hour or so watching Kururugi fight. As expected, Kururugi showed a preference for unarmed combat and only fell onto using his sword when he had to. His main advantage was his speed.

Simple logic stated that Jeremiah had to slow Kururugi down, and that was exactly what he tried. Of course, that logic held a fallacy—which was the fact that he'd actually have to get a good blow in to cripple our young hero enough to make a difference.

The thing about Suzaku Kururugi which most people didn't understand was that he fought by instinct. This meant that he was naturally very adaptable during combat, and he responded to everything the other person did rather than stick to a predetermined course of action. Naturally, there were ways to predict his ingrained responses, but only people who knew him very well could discern his patterns, or identify the fact that there was even a pattern at all. Furthermore, Suzaku had trained from a very young age under Miracle Todhoh, and Britannians didn't really see that kind of fighting anywhere.

And so, despite his best efforts, Jeremiah was unable to hit his target. Suzaku danced out of the way, pivoted on his heel and struck out with his blade. Jeremiah blocked the blow and reared back, surprised at the strength behind it. Kururugi didn't look that big, but apparently every inch of him was muscle. God damn it.

With a grunt of effort, Jeremiah pushed him back and launched a counter-attack. Instead of meeting his sword, Suzaku slid to the ground and targeted Jeremiah's legs. Jeremiah stumbled and narrowly managed not to fall. By the time he regained his balance, it was too late. His guard was down. Suzaku delivered one of his signature spinning kicks to Jeremiah's chest. Pain exploded through Jeremiah and he collapsed, clutching his aching ribs.

In the stands, the royal family applauded. "Oh, that looked like it hurt!" Clovis said with a laugh.

"Pretty sure he must have broken two ribs there," Marrybell offered in a deadpan tone.

Cornelia rubbed her eyes. She had no idea what kind of fighting she had seen, since some of those maneuvers seemed impossible for a human body. Either way, there was no point in trying to pretend the Number wouldn't be a good knight for her sister.

Schneizel was of a similar mind. Despite his dislike of the idea of having Kururugi next to his lovely Leloucia, the fact remained that she did need a protector and Kururugi appeared to be the best option they could find.

Truly, if he had realized it before, he would have never done this to begin with, since they had given away some of their advantage to their uncle. Oh, well. It couldn't be helped any longer.

Meanwhile, Charles zi Britannia was contemplating the potential of this situation. The boy had proved to be quite interesting. When Schneizel had suggested this idea, Charles had decided to investigate Kururugi Genbu's son a bit more, and he had not been disappointed. He might not necessarily understand the boy's reasoning, but he approved of someone who disregarded idiotic ideas like morality and honor for the benefit of power.

Also, those spinning kicks had been really impressive, and for all his flaws, Charles did actually reward superiority where it existed.

He could use Kururugi. The boy would do nicely.

In fact, given the fact that he had kicked the asses of most of his Rounds, it wouldn't hurt to add something a little extra.

Charles had long puzzled over who could possibly be deserving of the hand of his most precious daughter. Certainly, it was in part due to a degree of paternal affection and pride, but mostly because he could not waste Leloucia's genetic potential on someone unworthy.

The most likely candidate he'd had in mind had been Bismarck. However, Bismarck's age had been an issue, as it would undoubtedly limit the number of children Leloucia could produce.

Kururugi could be the solution to his problems. A child with Leloucia's intelligence and Kururugi's physique would be the next step in the evolution of man. Sure, there was the chance that it would not happen instantly, but that was why multiple attempts were necessary, and both Kururugi and Leloucia were young. They had plenty of time to breed and produce the next generation of Britannia geniuses.

Not to mention that the boy did technically come from nobility. Most Britannians might see Kururugi as only another monkey, but Charles knew better. The Kururugi line was just as old as Charles's own, and had Britannia not taken Japan, the boy would have technically been first prince of a sovereign nation. Not a bad match.

Of course, for the moment, Kururugi was not the first prince of anything. He was still just an Honorary, and so Charles couldn't hand his daughter over to him on a silver platter. There was, however, something else he could do.

As Kururugi knocked Sir Gottwald out, effectively ending the duel and the competition, Charles got up. The entire crowd—the imperial family included—seemed to be holding their breaths.

For once, Charles was not overly verbose. "I present to you, Sir Suzaku Kururugi, the Knight of Seven and my daughter's personal knight."

It would be perfectly acceptable for a Rounds who'd proven himself to marry his daughter in a year or so. In the meantime, he would have Kururugi fight Bismarck. If Bismarck proved to be superior, Charles would give him Leloucia. Eventually, if fertility became an issue, he could always dissolve the marriage and find someone else for her. If Kururugi won, Leloucia would be his. Yes, that was a good idea.

But for the moment, making Kururugi a Rounds would suffice. He would discuss the other matter with Leloucia in private. After all, there would probably be a lot of shouting involved—she was so much like Marianne—and it wouldn't do for the people to see him cower in the face of his daughter's anger.

Suzaku stared up at the emperor in disbelief. He did not know what to make of this. As far as he knew, it was not possible for someone to be both a Rounds and a personal knight of somebody else, since technically, the Rounds were the personal knights of the emperor.

But it was not his place to question that, even if in his heart, he would have preferred to hold the title of his princess's knight alone. So he did the only thing he could do, knelt and bowed his head. "Thank you for this honor, Your Majesty. I will not fail you."

Leloucia was torn between anger, confusion and excitement. Suzaku was her knight, not her father's. How dare the emperor try to poach him? It frustrated her beyond belief.

Of course, there was the fact that Charles could have simply made Suzaku a Rounds alone and not assigned him to Leloucia at all. This inexplicable "in between" situation made her wonder what in the world her father was thinking. Whatever it was, she feared she would not like it.

Still, it meant Suzaku would be a Rounds, and that was excellent for him. Leloucia was not selfish enough to not realize how much that would mean for Suzaku's position. Being a Rounds went way beyond being the personal knight of a princess, even a favored one like Leloucia.

Either way, she would just have to use this as an opportunity and make sure her father didn't try to separate them in some way in the future. Sigh. This meant her plans to remove Victor permanently would have to wait, since he was technically the reason why she needed a knight to begin with.

Schneizel did not have such dilemmas. He was simply furious with his father. He could understand the logic of having Kururugi as Leloucia's knight, but making him a Rounds put him in a far more influential position. And he feared that he could see his father's reasoning too.

If the emperor did indeed plan to do something drastic like marry Leloucia to Kururugi, Schneizel would probably abandon all sanity, take Kanon, kidnap Leloucia and move to Australia. No other option seemed available.

As for Euphemia... She mentally did a happy dance. With the handsome young Number a Rounds, the obstacles to their destined love were now reduced to one: Leloucia.

She would just have to find a way to get rid of her sister without jeopardizing Suzaku's life and position.

Sigh. That would be difficult, wouldn't it? If she tried to do it alone, at least. Leloucia was much too dangerous for Euphie to handle on her own.

Normally, if Euphie wanted something or perceived a threat, she would just go to Cornelia and the problem would be solved. Clearly, she couldn't do that now. Perhaps her uncle could help?