Chapter 39: The Long Awaited Rematch

Mundane Mann decapitated his "brother" and stared at the severed head's peaceful and smiling face. Annerose watched him with sorrow in her heart.

To think that he loved his brother so much that he was willing to free his brother through death. Thought Annerose.

"Huh… Do I disqualify him or…?" The referee muttered.

"Let us continue the match." Mundane Mann said.

Ah… So your heart is so strong that you wouldn't be shaken by your brother's death. Very well. I shall answer your resolve with all my might! Thought Annerose as she readied her blade.

She has studied Mundane Mann's movements when he fought his "brother" and knew that if she lost focus, he would catch her off guard with his high speed. She concentrated and watched his movements.

Mundane Mann moves at high speed and was about to strike her from behind.

"There!" Annerose, who predicted his movements based off her observation, almost caught him with a slash, which would hit him had he did not stop himself.

"Huh!?" Annerose was bewildered, seeing her opponent stopping himself before her blade reached him. A perfect dodge.

What an amazing control of space… Ahh… How beautiful. She thought as she received his counter attack.

"Winner! Mundane Mann!" The announcer announced.

Mundane Mann carried the corpse of his "brother" out of the arena as the injured Annerose looked on with a sad smile as she struggles to stand back up.

You're going to… give him a proper burial, aren't you? The bond between brothers… How beautiful. Thought Annerose as tears fell down her cheeks.

"Mundane Mann…" Annerose muttered as she was escorted out by the medics.

Outside of the arena, Mundane Mann sneakily dumped his "brother's" corpse into a river before removing his disguise and sneaked back into the VIP booth as Cid Kagenou with a proud smile on his face.

Mundane Mann's match made a huge commotion and I could even sense some nervousness from Perv. The zombie Mundane Mann was disappointing as expected despite all the improvements I put on his body. That's what I get for using a weak corpse as a base and using his actual memory as the base for his artificial intelligence, which made him retain his original lazy personality. I still got a lot of experience from experimenting on him though so it's not all bad. But the fake Mundane Mann certainly didn't disappoint. Brilliant show, fake Mundane Mann. Now I want you to replace the real one as one of my Seven Wraiths. But that comes later.

"Hm?" I looked at the direction where Cid is currently sitting besides the stunned princesses. I could've sworn no one's sitting there before... Must be my imagination. Cid has lost his shonen protagonist aura that he had when he fought Rose so I've lost interest in him.

Claire and Beatrix's match went uneventfully. Needless to say they stomped their opponents hard. Imatry Notaloos tried his best but still lost to Claire. A random character like Rando Mook absolutely has no chance against Beatrix.

Claire entered the VIP booth after her match and started arguing with Alexia but I ignored that as well.

Now, the long awaited rematch is about to begin.

"Good luck, Sister! Make sure to kick his ass!" Alexia said.

"Language, Alexia! And thank you!" Iris scolded.

As we are about to exit the VIP room, my sister entered the room, walking towards me.

"Kick her ass, brother!" Charlotte said.

"Language, Charl." I scolded.

"Tee hee hee." She made the cute Tee hee face with her tongue sticking out and her hand scratching behind her head. I just smiled and pat her head while reminiscing the past, when she said that line when I first faced Iris.

Then someone else entered the VIP room accompanied by two guards, one of them being Glen of the Crimson Order, making a commotion.

"F-Father!" Iris exclaimed as she bowed before her father. Me and everyone else follow suit.

"Raise your heads." King Klaus said as he walked towards his chair accompanied by his guards. We raised our heads to face him.

"I hope you two would do our kingdom proud, Iris and Claude." King Midgar said, addressing us both.

"Show the world the might of Midgar!" He exclaimed before he sat on his chair.

"Yes, your majesty!" We both shouted in unison before we stood up and began walking towards the door together.

Before I left the room though, Charlotte tugged on my sleeve with a sad face as if guilty about something.

"What is it, Charl?" I asked.

"N-Nothing! Good luck on your match!" She replied as she let go of my sleeve with a sad smile. I left the VIP booth with Iris.

On the way we passed several knights and nobles who offered words of encouragements to us both, though most of them are directed at Iris.

After we passed through them, Iris stopped in the hallway.

"Claude…" She said as she took a deep breath.

"What is it, Iris?"

"Do you like Alexia?"

"That's sudden… But I do like her. As a friend."

"I see. T-To be honest… I had a talk with father the other day. He said that… although the initial plan was to have you join the royal family by marrying Alexia… Recently he has been encouraging me to…"

Oh? The king himself has decided that it is best that I am betrothed with Iris? The heir to the throne herself? Perhaps to fix her damaged reputation? Heh heh heh.

"I see. Do you dislike it, Iris?"

"To be honest… no. You're a good man, Claude. It's just… I've devoted myself to my duties as a princess so much that I… never thought about… marriage. Especially since I'm older than you by a few years…" She said with an uneasy smile.

"Isn't marrying your duty too?" I said in order to push her mind into the direction I want.

"Huh?"

"That's why marriages between royals and aristocrats are arranged. To ensure the security of their families. It was duty, not luxury."

"You're right, Claude. I suppose I was too naïve. Still, I hope we can get along better from now on." She said with a smile.

"I agree. We should go on dates sometimes."

"D-Dates…" She said with a blush.

"A-Anyway, let us go. I'm sure the crowd are excited to see our match. Hold nothing back, alright?"

"Right back at you, Iris."

The king is alone and both Iris and Claude are having a match. This should be the perfect opportunity to assassinate King Klaus but it should be King Raphael who did it with his own hands! The impact would be much greater if that's the case and the Cult's influence won't be exposed as we would blame it all on King Raphael.

We could then start a war between Oriana and Midgar. Lord Fenrir's faction along with the Thirteen Night Blades shall weaken Midgar from within. Then both kingdoms shall be ours by the end of the war… as long as nothing interferes with our plans.

But for now King Raphael needs to recuperate today so we can properly display him as a perfectly healthy and not at all manipulated king tomorrow. What a useless puppet.

Not to mention Rose hasn't shown herself yet. I need to be patient. With Lord Necromancer's assistance, this mission shouldn't fail even if Iris and Claude were to interfere and I, Perv Asshat, shall join the Rounds.

Now, let us see how strong these two Midgar prodigies are.

Claude Normann. It's been years since we last had a match. He rarely participated in tournaments due to independently investigating Necromancer and the Cult so I couldn't say how much he has grown since then. During his previous matches he obviously didn't show his true power. His current level of strength is still a mystery to me.

To be honest… I'm still sore about that defeat. That's why I've been training so hard. However, despite my training… I still couldn't accomplish much recently. Even Claude did better than me during the school incident.

I didn't hate him for the political pressures his sister gave me that led to my current predicament. I also didn't mind being betrothed to him. But my pride as a warrior cannot allow my constant failures to stain my reputation any further!

The disturbing things Alexia uncovered back in the Sacred Land… My father's reluctance to act on it… The existence of monsters beyond our imaginations…

As a princess… As the protector of Midgar, I must prove my worth here and now! Only then will I be able to do what I must do to protect my kingdom! And what better way to do that than to defeat the one who defeated me years ago? I must win this. I must!

I must become stronger… in order to protect Midgar from those monsters!

Iris adopted the Royal Bushin stance while I adopted the familiar Schlüssel stance. We stared at each other's forms while waiting for the referee to give us the signal to begin.

"Princess Iris Midgar VS Claude Norman! Match begin!" Announced the referee.

We both dashed at each other. Iris feinted a slash and went for a thrust which I deflected with a slight uppercut which turns to downward slash. Iris barely dodged it in time as it grazed her cheek.

I delivered another light downward slash and she blocked it before countering it with a horizontal slash, which I blocked too.

We end up going back and forth between slashing, feinting, dodging and parrying each other's attacks for a few seconds before she suddenly unleashed a mighty downward slash that broke parts of the ground it struck, sending soil and dust flying.

After I dodged said slash by stepping back, she moved in high speed to strike me from behind with another mighty slash. I turned back and delivered my own slash, which clashed with hers, our blades now locked with each other.

"You're still as skilled as ever, Claude." Iris said.

"You've gotten better too. But…" I said as I pushed her back, surprising her because she didn't expect me to be this powerful.

"Ughh!" She relented and jumped back.

Not giving her a chance, I chased after her and prepared to deliver an uppercut, which she blocked but it sent her flying to the air.

"What…?" She exclaimed as she saw me jumping to chase her. She braced herself for impact as I delivered a downward somersault slash, clashing with her blade and sent her crashing to the ground.

"Ughh… So strong…!?" Iris said as she slowly stood up and prepared herself for another bout.

Iris, who is proud of her overwhelming power, was once defeated by me who is more skilled. But now that she found herself beaten in a contest of strength as well, she gritted her teeth in frustration.

"HAAAAAAA!" She unleashed the full extent of her magic power, huge red aura envelops her body.

Hooo… This ikemen is pretty strong. Though I recognized his stance, which is a western medieval sword style. Is it a coincidence or is he a reincarnator too? Just like me and the Necromancer?

"Iris is… getting pushed back…?" Alexia said in bewilderment. Most of the audience felt the same. They didn't expect him to be that strong.

"He's pretty amazing, isn't he?" I said.

"I'm sure you can get to that level if you actually try, Cid." My sister said from beside me.

"I can't see Pooch ever trying something. He has no desire to stand out." Alexia said.

"Hmph! My brother always tried his best to be better! I know him better than you!" My sister said.

"Is that so? Heh." Alexia smirked and my sister ain't having it.

"What is that face for? You looking for a fight?"

"Will you two shut it so I can properly watch my brother beat the crap out of Iris!?" The ikemen's sister shouted and the two of them glared at each other before shutting up and paid attention back to the arena.

"Oh, looks like Iris is getting serious." Alexia said as we watched Iris being enveloped by huge red aura.

I can already see that he already won this match. I hope he can win against Beatrix tomorrow so I can face him in the finals. I wonder how I should end this play? Maybe after beating him I should say some cryptic lines to him before disappearing. Yeah, that sounds dope.

Oh, that reminds me… I will have to face my sister tomorrow! I shouldn't have killed that other Mundane Mann! I could've trained him in the ways of Shadowbrokers for a day and then let him fight her tomorrow! Oh well. If I have no other options I could just rely on the ol' reliable excuse, even if she would be mad at me for not watching her match.

Iris charged at high speed, intending to give me a full powered downward slash. Parrying this blow normally will destroy my steel sword no matter how much I reinforce it with magic and dodging will still cause the shockwave of the impact to send me flying.

With one hand in my sword's handle and another grabbing the blade, I maintain proper balance of my sword as I blocked Iris's strike. She was shocked I was able to block it without letting my sword break as she didn't expect me to use halfswording method. My sword still got dented from the blow though.

I pushed her sword away and with the same momentum moved to perform a halfsworded stab on her stomach.

"Uaghh…!" She grunted as I pushed her to the ground with my sword still lodged in her stomach and pinned her down there. She grabbed my sword to prevent it from digging deeper while trying to escape.

"No… I can't…" She muttered as she gets more and more desperate.

"Give up. You've lost. If I keep this up, you'll die." I said.

"Ughh…." She eventually relented with a frustrated face.

"Winner! Claude Normann!" The referee announced.

I walked away, passing medics who are there to carry Iris to the infirmary.

Author's Note:

Poor Mundane Mann was dumped to the river by his "brother"! How cruel! And Iris is once again defeated.

J-More: I love how Anerose used the neck crack in an actual useful way lol

Answer: She was so proud of it.

DarthRevan00: I notices two mistakes in chapter 40, it should mean Hier seit ihr, not hier seid euch, and it should say alles ist nutzlos not alle sind nutzlos , great chapters like always

Answer: Ah. I mistook the personal pronoun between object and subject. I even used the wrong conjugation for ihr (you plural). Thanks for the correction.

primenidus: Awww man

Answer: Them Cliffhanger. ;)