Title: Only Gifted At Best
Summary: You expect me to believe five first-years could beat one of Holfort's finest?
I stared horrified. This wasn't supposed to be happening. Everything had been going so well up until now.
I had managed to seduce the five within the first semester and triggered the honor duel. As expected, the villainess had been unable to muster any support. Even though I was a little worried the supporters for the other fiancées would have become an issue, none stepped up. They must have been too scared to when even the daughter of a duke could not muster any support.
Everything went swimmingly until Brad started to clash with the villainess's knight. Brad went down as expected. The problem was that he couldn't touch the knight.
After launching the initial barrage of spears, Brad was left vulnerable. The knight had capitalized and never gave the boy time to recall his spear drones, and since Brad used a spear and magic, he couldn't counterattack at all. Brad fell within a minute, and the knight did not look as though he broke a sweat.
How?! How could this happen?! I did everything correctly! I followed all the lines for every event! I did nothing outside of the script! I did everything so perfectly that the duels happened in the first...
Shit.
"Don't get cocky. Brad was the weakest of the five of us. You face a real warrior now."
"And what makes you a warrior, Heir Seberg?"
"Unlike Brad, I've polished my skills on real dungeons and have had the most time spent on piloting armors."
"Hmm"
"You seem to disagree."
"My brother was your escort. He was less than impressed, and I can't disagree with him."
"What did you say?!"
"The fact that you believe you are a warrior for being babysat through the guild's training dungeons speaks volume. It's even more galling when you have the audacity to flaunt it as some accomplishment when another your age is considered the star adventurer of your generation."
"The baron? Please, it must have been beginner's luck."
"And now you prove how foolish you are when you can't even accurately assess a person's value. It's no wonder the Lafan girl was able to fool you so easily."
"Raaagh."
I shook in fear. While Greg had done more than Brad, it was only just. Greg was able to swing his spear and ward off the knight for a time. He was even able to land a few glancing blows, but the most damage they did were scratches on the surface.
At this rate, the knight was sure to win. It would be a complete humiliation on the part of the heirs if they could not put up a fight.
What's worse was that the pre-fight banter had been broadcasted. It and the results of the two matches had started swaying the students' opinions. The mutterings of the students near my seat indicated how weak the five seemed. That they were nothing special.
It was fortunately only about strength. Their character and judgment had not been called into question yet. So long as those weren't challenged, the heirs' defeat could be waived off as the Redgraves being cheats. They had broken an unspoken rule by bringing in the knight.
"How? How could I lose? After I put so much effort? Why was my effort not rewarded?"
"How pampered."
"What?"
"To have lost your composure from one loss? No, not even a loss. From a broken blade. You must not have been challenged in all your life."
"I am distraught because my efforts have not been rewarded."
"If what you say is true, then you have never faced real hardship. You were coddled so that you may never have experienced failure. Had you not been, you would have realized long ago that effort does not always yield results. You would not be falling apart at a failure as small as this. You would know it is the ability to stand back up that matters."
"Pretty words from an honor-less dog picking on Academy students."
"Petty words from a boy who thinks he fought fairly to begin with."
"You dare impugn my honor?!"
"Honor? What honor? Was it honorable of you to gang up five on one against My Lady? Was it honorable to set the duel to be fought with armors when almost none of your peers would have access to one? Was it honorable to slander My Lady with baseless accusations of bullying? Was it honorable to flaunt your paramour without breaking you engagements?"
"Don't get sanctimonious on me! Angelica was the one to break taboo and brought outside interference to this sham of a duel."
"And you brought outside interference by leaning on your statuses as heirs of the founding families. You may not wish to acknowledge it, but the fact is that by virtue of being who you are, your families' status prevents people from volunteering. Did you not wonder why the followers of your friends' fiancées did not volunteer? It is well known that Lady Clarice has a bevy of male followers who would die for her. Have you wondered why none of them stood up? If not even they could help, then who could? You five, by being who you are, makes it impossible for any volunteers. And you would have been content to all fight My Lady. What choice did My Lady have but to fight fire with fire?"
Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit!
That damn knight reframed the event. It was no longer the five valiantly defending their true love. It became the five dishonorable cads bullying a girl into submission.
I wanted to say it was character assassination, but it was technically... not even technically. It was all true. Every last bit was true when you put a little thought into the situation. It wasn't something you would consider when playing the game, but in person, these small details added up quickly.
With the heirs falling one by one and their achievements being revealed as shams, the students no longer seemed to wish for their success beyond gambling reasons.
The male students murmured their grievances about the heirs openly. The female students began to mock the prince and his friends. How quick public opinion turned simply because the boys let the knight get under their skin.
In an ironic way, Brad's measly performance was the least damaging since he was unable to damage our reputations like Greg and Chris had. It didn't matter that Chris had been the one to remove the secondary arms of the knight's redundant limb systems when his mental breakdown was used so effectively against us.
I took a deep nervous breath. It's okay. The situation was still salvageable. While I had not taken the context into consideration, the situation could be handled.
While the knight did call the heir's' characters and judgements into question, it could be waved off as naïveté. Up until the knight has reframed the event, everyone had the same impression. Who could blame the boys for not considering the details when no one else in the school had.
It was still a bad look, but no one could justifiably blame them without blaming everyone else as well.
Like before, the heirs' characters and judgements, while a bit wobbly, were still in the clear.
"By the Queen's decree, Jilk Fia Marmoria has been disqualified for attempting to sabotage his opponent's armor and placing a deadly explosive device in the cockpit during the intermission."
And there goes any hope of the heirs' image being noble. I should have known black sheep Jilk would resort to using underhanded tactics the moment things turned south.
I can't even be mad. One of the man's special attacks involves setting off an explosive in his opponent's machines. I had just never questioned it because of game mechanics and promptly forgotten about it. That was totally on me for having any hope.
"Don't worry, Marie. Even though the others have fallen, I shall not fail you."
"Julius," I winced. I could not muster up the effort to sound relieved or loving. He was definitely going to lose, and he was somehow going to spout some nonsense that would ruin him even further. He would maybe even paint me as the villainess in some stupid rant to defend me.
I was utterly fucked.
"Oh, that is odd."
"What is?"
"They're calling for a renegotiation of the terms."
"They are?"
"We should reject it. It's proof that they don't..."
"We accept the bid to change the terms!" I frantically screamed.
Amongst the villainess, Duke Redgrave, their knight, and the Queen, an average looking boy stood. For whatever reason he was being pushed forward. If the terms of the honor duel were to be renegotiated, shouldn't any of the other people standing along side him have stepped forward instead?
"Lady Lafan, I am Leon Fou Bartfort. Due to the breach in code by Marmoria, the Queen and the Redgraves have decided to open renegotiation about the terms. Should you refuse this offer, the penalty for the incident would include allowing new champions to volunteer as Lady Angelica'a representative."
"And I would assume you would be a volunteer?" Julius scoffed.
"I would be the first, yes."
"First?" I asked.
"After all that has been seen and said today, do you believe no one else would rise to the occasion? I'm sure Lady Clarice's followers would rise to the occasion now that Jilk is no longer at risk of dying from a stray shot. I know several frontier lords that didn't volunteer before because they feared backlash. That's not even including the Redgrave vassals who will be desperately trying to earn back the family's favor."
"We are open for discourse," I hurriedly said.
"Very well. In the interest of minimizing the risk posed to the crown prince, we wish for the final match to be a test of character."
"Character? I see no issue with this. I've nothing to worry about in that regard," Julius said.
"Inspiring, but I wasn't talking about your character. I was talking about Lady Lafan herself."
"Me? What would I have to do?" I asked fearfully.
"It's a simple test. I will present you two options. You will pick one and that will be the end of that."
"And if I find neither option appealing?"
"We return to the original arrangement, and the prince duels until he falls or however many people decide to champion Lady Angelica."
"What are the two options?"
"Option one, we walk away from this as is. Only Jilk will lose his inheritance for his actions, but otherwise everyone's engagements are ended and you walk away with your original prize."
"... I see no negative. What's the catch?"
"There is no catch, at least not for this option. This is a test of character for you."
"... The second option?"
"We grant you a pardon for any wrongdoing you or your family have done up until this point. All debts forgiven. After all, you are only in this situation because of them, are you not?"
"What?"
"Of course, we would not be so shortsighted as to allow them to rack up another debt for you. On top of the previously listed, you will be emancipated so that they may not place another debt upon you. Ah, and to ensure you aren't left destitute," at this, the boy clapped. In the back, one of the bookies rolled out a chest. When opened, I saw it was full of platinum coins. "My winnings from betting on the knight for these honor duels."
"... How much is in there?"
"If the bookie has not cheated me, two hundred thousand platinum coins."
"Two hundred thousand?!"
"Two hundred to one odds do make any paltry bet significant."
"... Now, what's the catch?"
"The boys will all be stripped of their noble standing. You will be sent to the Alzer Republic for the remainder of your education. And one last thing."
"That is?"
"The original demands of Lady Angelica and a little more. You will never meet the prince and his friends again."
"You demand far too much for such a paltry sum. It is obvious which option she will take," Julius said confidently.
I picked the second option easily. Pretty boys were a dime a dozen. Plus, I could always seduce a capture target from the second game.
Epilogue
"And that, Angelica, is how you are supposed to handle the situation."
"Yes, Father" my daughter said morosely.
My heart burned seeing how broken up she was. I had done everything I could and succeeded in securing her future and reputation, but their was no helping her heart. I seethed at the thought that my ambitions for the crown had caused he so much pain.
The most I could do was distract her. It was not the most healthy of ways, but work had a way of hiding the pain.
"We have much to do."
"Father?"
"With this incident, it has become obvious that your followers cannot be relied on. You'll need to recruit your followers personally from now on."
"My followers," she bitterly said. I winced at that. We had raised them to be her friends, and they had left her high and dry when she needed them most. The sting of their betrayal resounded more deeply than any broken oaths.
"What of Sir Leon?"
"He's Olivia's friend. Outside of that I only know he has maintained a low profile up until the day of the duel."
"Yes, we were most fortunate he stopped Jilk when he did."
"I don't think it was luck so much as him protecting his interests," she huffed.
"And yet, he forfeited it all. And he didn't capitalize on such a favor. He only asked for his initial investment."
"That's what has confused me."
"What does Olivia make of it?"
"She's not so sure herself. She believes there to be several, but some seem to be contradictory in nature."
"Hmmm"
"Father?"
"You should secure his loyalty. He seems amenable enough to such arrangements. His reputation, while lackluster for what he should be, is untarnished. He also has shown enough of a handle on noble politics to thwart Jilk and convince the Lafan girl to reveal herself as the snake she was."
Plus, his involvement put him in the crosshairs of the crown. Even if he had the Queen's approval, he was a key figure in the heirs' downfall with this stunt. He would be most suitable piece should we need a regime change.
AN:
1) Not meant to beat down or bash on the five, but that inherently happens when you make a story about... well beating them up and airing out their immaturity.
2) Canon states these five are strong but only within the Academy. When we see them fight pirates for the first time, they demonstrated how small they were when Greg and Brad couldn't 2v1 a pirate boss in relatively similar armors.
3) I always questioned why Clarice's followers did not help at all. It was probably because they were a later addition to the story, and the author forgot to put a reason.
4) I always found the idea that the Redgrave could not outmaneuver school children in the political sphere to be baffling. But then again, if the boys were putting up a real fight, I could maybe see the words not sticking.
5) I could easily alter this to remove Leon. Part of me feels the story would be more interesting to see the plot lay out without the Deus Ex Machina that is Luxion. But then it would then make explaining Olivia's introduction a bit more complicated.
