Title: An Accurate Appraisal Part 2

Summary: Semi-continuation of An Accurate Appraisal detailing the ripple effects.

The duels had been one-sided curb stomps in which I used the boys' specialties to dispatch them. While I naturally wanted to take advantage of their weaknesses out of pragmatism, part of me understood that much of the five's popularity stemmed from the idea that they were impressive. Cementing the idea that their skills weren't special would do a lot to bring them down to a more humbled level. As such, I felt destroying the boys at what they were best at was more beneficial.

Brad had been simple enough due to his overreliance on magic. A quick burst of lightning magic into Brad's more complicated magic seals guaranteed that any magic formulations would explode. Brad more or less self-destructed. His vocal disbelief of being manhandled by basic magic cemented the idea that he had no true mastery of magic.

Greg's spear work could not keep up with Luxion's algorithms. I even had Luxion limit Arroganz's movement speed to match Greg's armor. With the natural flow of Luxion's strikes, Greg appeared to have lost simply due to being less skilled rather than because his machine was inferior.

Chris was allowed to strike me at his heart's content with Luxion simply parrying every attack. Having Luxion lightly tap Chris's limbs to correct his form and lazily talking over the intercom to nitpick every minuscule flaw in his technique broke the boy.

Jilk was the worst for the entourage's reputation. He had been caught red-handed by all when he carried an explosive into my hangar during the intermission. When I still fought him without altering the conditions of the duel, my image pretty much became unassailable. Shooting his guns out from a flying target without having to move from my spot was just icing on the cake at that point.

That was only the combat side. Being sore losers, the boys whined about how I was a cheat or how life was so unfair. The verbal lashing, with Iris's lecture in mind, served to completely dismantle anything they had to say as nothing more than childish impulses.

By the time Julius came up, he had already lost the support of society. It did not help that he barely performed better than his friends. As he realized he could not defeat me, he played his final card.

"By royal decree, I proclaim that this duel shall not end until one of us is dead," Julius declared to show his resolve.

No one was having it. The arena stands echoed sounds of jeering and cries of his cowardice. Thanks to Iris's advice to mind my image and how I portrayed myself, I had established I was the chivalrous knight while the heirs were always spoilt decadent cads who cared naught for anything aside from getting their dick wet. I swear, Iris had the most insultingly flowery language whenever she chose to cast aside her etiquette.

"Well, Bartfort?" Julius crowed as he took my quiet contemplation as surrender.

"It's a good thing you have a half-brother. I wonder if he'll grant me a pardon if I were to follow through with your royal decree."

"What?" Julius uttered in confusion as the reality of his imminent death became a concept he may have to deal with.

"Your royal decree? I thought you made that with the conviction that death was preferable to being separated from the girl you loved. If anything, I thought it was merely your way of commanding me to kill you to spare you. Was that not the case?" I said with faux surprise.

"My parents would not allow you to get away with murdering the crown prince," Julius frantically said as his armor quickly reversed to get as far away from me as possible.

Dumbass more or less admitted he was trying to force me to surrender with the royal decree. The crowd did not miss the fact and made their displeasure known now that Julius's sliminess was on full display.

"Would you like to confirm that?"

"What?"

"Your Majesty, how would you like me to proceed?" I asked as Luxion projected an image of the King and Queen. The Queen looked saddened while the King looked bored.

"Mother? Father?"

"Did you not think your parents would witness this?"

"How dare you involve them in this?!"

"How hypocritical," I drawled.

"How disappointing," the King said with a lazy look.

"Father?!"

"Julius is hereby removed from the line of succession. Do as you will, Sir Bartfort," the King said before rising and leaving wherever he was. The Queen just sat despondently. She did not agree with the verdict but accepted that Julius had sealed his fate.

"What?"

"Congratulations, Julius. You are no longer the crown prince... or a prince for that matter," I said with the bare minimum amount of cheek.

"You dare take pleasure in this?"

"You misunderstand me. Last I recall, the exact wording of Angelica's demands was for Marie to separate herself from His Highness. As you are no longer the crown prince, or even a prince for that matter, the penalty no longer applies to you."

It was pedantic, and no one would look upon Julius favorably if he were to take my advice. The brat would no doubt take it since he only cared about his childish wants.

"What?"

Or he was too stupid to. Unsurprising since he was stupid enough to get to this point.

"Seeing as how you just had your entire life upended and are likely in a state of turmoil, let me state it clearly for you. If you continue fighting, I will kill you as I will have no choice but to take it as you wishing to die an honorable death. Surrender now, and you can have your sordid affair with Marie with no further repercussions, though I would suggest that you at least give Angelica some closure."

"How can you speak of killing me so casually?" he asked weakly.

"Simple. You bet yours so frivolously," I said before stepping forward ominously.

Rather than immediately surrender, he sank to his knees. Another step forward, and he didn't move. Why wasn't he surrendering? He was supposed to surrender. Step by step, I moved closer until I stood before him. He never moved. He didn't move even when I moved to strike him.

"... Petulant to the very end," I said dramatically before turning to the proctor and declaring that the crown prince who had accepted the challenge was no more.

"Sir Bartfort... no. You are right. Sir Bartfort is the winner."

"... Why did you not kill me?" Julius said weakly.

I didn't respond as I flew back into my hangar. I had more important things to focus on now that this duel was over.

Where was that damn protagonist? I had been so focused on getting engaged that I had not noticed that Marie had replaced her. I should've known that it could've been possible for another reincarnated to exist and take the protagonist's place.

"Should I be concerned you are seeking out another woman despite being engaged to me?"

"Iris? It's nothing like that."

"I know but please do be mindful of the current climate."

"Right..."

"... Were you friends with the scholarship student?" Iris said with an uncomfortable expression.

A pit grew in my stomach. Iris never displayed such a face before. It did not bode well.

"No... but I do need to know where she is," I said nervously.

"She's likely met an unfortunate end."

"What?"

"She attended Heir Field's tea party and earned Ms. Offrey's ire. The last anyone has seen of Ms. Gardenia was when she was physically struck by Ms. Offrey not long ago. Given the rumors surrounding Ms. Offrey and a recent string of kidnappings by pirates known to sail in her territory, Ms. Gardenia was likely taken by pirates. Chances are likely that she was either sold, raped, and/or killed."

"..."

"Leon?"

I simply sank to my knees upon hearing the news. How could this happen? In the game, the protagonist going to Brad's tea party wasn't supposed to trigger this. Short of failing the pirate raid, she wasn't supposed to experience such an ending.

... It was all that damn Marie's fault. Because she occupied Brad's attention, the one hope for this godforsaken world was lost.

"... The Winged Sharks are believed to be navigating around the Wayne territory," Iris said before walking away.

She was broken by the time I found her. There was no semblance of a person left. Whatever brain functionality left begged for another dose of whatever they had been injecting her. The fact that she tried to pleasure me for another hit just instilled insurmountable rage in me. Luxion had to sedate the girl when she started harming herself after the withdrawal kicked in.

When Luxion told me the results of the medical assessments, I decided to allow Luxion to have fun with the pirates. I would have fun with the Offreys.

Looking at the sleeping girl, I saw she had a fretful expression. I placed the Saintess's Necklace on her in hopes that it would alleviate her nightmares. She developed a frown, but at least she stopped moving.

As I lay on my prison bed, part of me wondered if I was to be executed for my actions. While my actions with the heirs had been lauded by the masses, they definitely had not earned me favors with the royal family. My rage-induced decimation of the Offreys would be a convenient excuse for them to put me down.

But did I really care at this point? Olivia was currently incapable of stepping up, and I doubted she could recover in time. That was also ignoring how she was currently pregnant. I doubt that news would be welcomed in any way should she even be able to process anything.

My options were death by execution, death by invasion, or death by monster apocalypse. Or genociding the Principality and hoping they don't return the favor by summoning the monster gods as a last fuck you. The execution was looking mighty fine.

"You have a visitor, Sir Bartfort," a guard said as he opened the door to my cell. I quirked my eye at the respectful (possibly reverent) tone. I would have thought he would be treating me like criminal scum.

My thoughts were interrupted when Iris walked in. The door was closed behind her and locked. I just stared at her as I did not know what to say.

"When I asked you to marry me, I had expected that the most excitement our marriage would face would be you coming back to boast about conquering a new dungeon... Well, that or you bringing home a concubine."

"... Sorry," I ruefully said as I looked away ashamed. My actions were causing my fiancée problems.

"None of that now," she said before sitting on my bed and gesturing for me to sit by her.

When I did, she immediately pulled my head down into her lap in such a way that I stared at the ceiling. She began to mindlessly pick through my hair.

"You really should take better care of your hair," she said absentmindedly as she flicked away some dandruff.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm grooming you. You need to look as best as you can when the royal family decides to roll you out for your trial."

"Are you not angry?"

"Why would I be angry?"

"I just attacked a county unprovoked."

"No, you didn't."

"No, I did."

"No, you didn't."

"Damn it, Iris. Forget about maintaining my image for a second and..."

"Leon, I asked you to marry me. I know what kind of person you are. As such, I know you weren't unprovoked."

"... What?"

"You're not the type of person prone to violence even though you are entirely capable and equipped to do such things. I'm fairly certain you are content to let things be unless put at gunpoint, or you see some unforgivable injustice. An eye for an eye and whatnot."

"..."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"... No," I said gruffly as the image of Olivia's violated form flashed in my mind.

Respecting my wishes, Iris did not broach the subject again and silently continued her task. Once she finished picking out the dandruff, she began to comb my head with her fingers. She gently scratched my scalp.

Focusing on the gentleness of her touch, I felt much of my worries disappear. Not long after, I felt my eyes grow heavy.

"Rest now, Leon. A few notable individuals have notified me that they will support you."

I winced as people never did anything for free. Iris noticing my discomfort let out an amused snort. "Worry not. The offers were sincere and from families of good repute."

"Why?"

She just looked amused.

Count Leon Fia Bartfort, Arbiter of Justice. The royal family saw fit to appoint me to a government role to rout out corruption. I could tell the King wanted nothing more than to hang me, but he could not when I had the backing of the Redgraves, Roseblades, several border lords, the multitude of nobles and baronets who had lost daughters to the Offreys, and my archduke for an etiquette professor. No wonder Iris thought I was stupid for thinking I would get hanged. I was already forming a goddamn faction.

More good news was that Olivia miraculously made a recovery. Luxion attributed it to her inherent light magic as he had no other idea how she could jump back so quickly.

Though... I did find something odd. She seemed to have developed an unrelenting hatred for the former heirs of the founders. I could only chalk it up to her accurately believing that her association with Brad was what led to her suffering.

AN:

1) Olivia definitely would have been abducted by pirates and violated. We are more or less told in Marie Route that the only reason she didn't do so was because she thought Angelica would have done worse, which makes no sense. After all, Angelica never takes a serious stand.

2) Iris immediately went to talk to the Roseblades after directing Leon to the Wayne territory.

3) This was the fourth or fifth draft, and each was vastly different. I could not figure out a good way to write this chapter.

4) Part 2 of AAA definitely feels a bit weaker since the focus was on Leon and Olivia. It feels as though it goes against the initial premise of the first one in which the goal was to control the narrative of Leon's actions or convince him to act in a way more befitting his station. I feel this chapter would have been much better had it been more focused on the duel and framing every action as noble or justice. Something to keep in mind if this were to become a full story or if anyone decides to pick this up.

Review Response:

AlternativeFutureFan27: I would have made the Baka Rangers with Leon as the sixth much to his chagrin. My rough draft unfortunately sucks currently since I was focused on the five finding the power. I probably would need to change it to Leon stumbling on them fighting a monster and failing.

kellar007: I'm not familiar enough with Made in the Abyss to even try that. Also, what would the general effect on the plot be? Not criticizing, but I am curious since I tend to try to write on concepts that have either large effects on the plot or have a cascading effect when I'm not writing crack fics.

Brandon Storm: It's all good. In any case, I can see why those cards could represent Brad and Chris. I semi-disagree mostly because Brad is not a quiet person. Plus I was thinking of Dark Magician archetype with the Quintet Magician as the boss monster since it requires the combined power of five different spellcasters, each of which could represent one of the entourage. Plus the whole master and apprentice dynamic of DM and DMG would work well if the otome game development. As for Chris, I was thinking more of Black Luster Soldier since it is more iconic.

xfel: Honestly, I'm not surprised. This fandom isn't big to begin with. I am also probably one of the most, if not the most, prolific writers for this fandom in terms of just spitting out snippets. It's a pretty safe bet that most firsts for the fandom belong to me. That being said, you should explore Spacebattles since that one has a fair number of unique snippets that either I haven't touched or beat me to writing.

Rakan: No, Marie needs to die in the beginning both to establish the pecking order, create shock value, and set the course. The most I would extend Marie's presence in the chapter is to make a prologue in which she notices how absent Angelica is and worry about how easy everything is falling into place.