“Kyaaa! Crown Prince Arniaaa!”
“Do your best~!”
“Take that guy down!!”
The yellow shrieks rained on Arnia.
The man on the opposite side of the field wore the pleasant smile of a decent fellow, waving back at them.
I wonder what kind of faces they’d make if they heard that Arnia had picked Mashiro and Alice as his reward for winning.
Bloodbath? No — it’s already common knowledge that Arnia plays with one female student after another. The reason no ugly catfighting has broken out is that Karen, the official fiancée, exists — and these girls only care about forging a connection with the royal house.
Their real motive is just to chip up the slightest few points of favor.
That said, it didn’t look like every spectator was on Arnia’s side.
“Get pounded into the dirt! You bastard who stole my fiancée!”
“There’s been a string of broken engagements since you came to this academy! Time you got the same treatment!”
“Veret~! We bet on you! Avenge us~!”
Deep, gravelly cheers backed by considerable resentment flew in.
Status may not matter here, but openly addressing the Crown Prince as you, bastard — the smoldering anger inside those guys must run very deep indeed.
I could understand their resentment and frustration.
”……Just how many girls have you laid hands on?”
“Living surrounded by cute women. There’s no life more enjoyable than that, right?”
On that point, I agree.
I came to this academy partly to build a harem.
But laying hands on women who are already engaged to someone else is off-limits.
A man who steals like that ought to get kicked by a horse.
“You ever once thought about Karen’s feelings?”
“Nope. If she didn’t have the Lebetsenka name attached, I can promise you I wouldn’t have had anything to do with a charmless woman like that.”
”…………”
“Hah, don’t get angry. I’m grateful, too. She’s funded my playtime this whole time.”
So, Arnia continued.
“I really need her to keep being my fiancée (wallet) going forward, you see.”
”……You. Don’t talk anymore. Shut up.”
”——!?”
The current me has no benevolent side that helps people without calculation.
I understand, painfully, that kindness doesn’t come back to you. I won’t call such kindness hypocrisy, but I do think it’s a waste of effort.
But even so — I haven’t thrown away my dignity as a human being.
The sensibility to get angry when my friend is being mocked is still intact.
Anger bubbled and boiled at the bottom of my gut.
……I must reform this man, no matter what.
And for that, I have to make him display such an undignified spectacle that everyone gives up on him.
I’ll smash that pretty face until it’s pulp.
I’ll snap his bones so he can’t escort a single woman.
I’ll lay it bare that Arnia hasn’t the strength to protect the weak from the strong.
My name is already mud anyway.
What’s there to fear now?
“Y-you think a glare like that means anything!? You and I have a difference we were born with!”
The boastful words came with knees gone slack, his feet creeping backward step by step.
Is there a more comical posture for a man?
The reason he keeps spitting out brave words must be to cover his own fear. Or to deceive the women cheering for him.
”……Keep up that bluff, then. The moment I’m not letting my guard down, your chances of winning are zero.”
“Says the man who doesn’t even have a sword on him. Cutting your own odds — isn’t that the height of arrogance?”
“Arrogance? Wrong. I don’t carry a weapon because I pity you.”
I snapped on white full-finger gloves.
I don’t want my hands stained with this man’s blood.
I snapped my fingers, and a pure-white robe descended from above.
I caught the falling combat garment, rough, and threw it on, sleeves sweeping out.
“Pity for your ignorance — facing me and still not grasping the gap in strength.”
“You little……! No more chitchat!”
“Sure about that? Shortening your own moments of glory?”
“Judge! Sound the start!!”
Goaded by his irritation, the bell announcing the start of the duel rang out.
Following it, the voices flying from the stands grew louder still.
“Kuhaha! Idiot! Your only chance was to take the first strike! Now that you can’t use magic, you’re finished!”
“Spare the pep talk. Show it to me. That magic you’re so proud of.”
“Your acting’s first-rate, I’ll give you that, Reject. Hmph, fine! I’ll end this with the strongest spell I can wield!”
”…………”
I felt mana converging at Arnia’s hand.
A long, long incantation began.
Incidentally — by this point I could have killed him three times over.
……Is this guy actually strong?
But I can’t believe Alice misjudged his level.
To enter casting state with that kind of opening — is his head completely empty?
He knows we aren’t in the framework of mage-versus-mage, where both sides need to chant, and yet here he is starting his incantation at leisure.
He’s just exposing his complete inability to adapt — only able to act according to a template.
If I’d been after victory alone, the result would already be settled.
”…………”
“What’s wrong! Speechless with fear!?”
Arms crossed, waiting, I looked at the colossal flame-clad boulder forming above his head.
A scorching mass, undulating with a roar.
A boulder of enough volume to crush a person flat without effort.
I could grant that, in appearance alone, its raw power was considerable.
But it ends there.
There’s no way I’d feel fear of a spell with no finesse at all.
“Relax……a team of healing magic experts is standing by, right over there. You won’t die……normally, that is.”
“What are you trying to say?”
“You still don’t get it? I bought them off! Every one of them is my piece. They’ve already been ordered. To slow down their healing on purpose. Catching on yet, Ouga Veret……?”
Arnia ran a tongue over his lips.
I glanced over at the medical staff stationed at both entrances — they all averted their eyes guiltily.
Dragging unrelated students into this too…… he really is the genuine article of human trash.
“You die here. As a victim of an unfortunate accident……!”
”……You sure it was a good idea to spill everything?”
“Doesn’t matter. The witness — you — disappears here. Die in peace. I’ll put your cute, cute girls and Karen to good use!”
He must have been satisfied at venting every complaint.
The battlefield finally moved.
“Burst! Burn! All that grows of the earth, to ash! [The Scorching Downpour (Magma Rain)]!!”
Arnia hurled his raised arm down — the boulder cracked apart, broke into fist-sized chunks, and came down like rain.
The area was wide; no way to flee. It surrounded the field on all sides.
The volume of it was such that the earth itself transformed into a burning execution ground.
A combination of [Stone Edge] and [Full Flamebody], then.
Take one of these on the body and you’d be done for. Granted.
……If it hit, that is.
“Wh——!?”
Rather than fleeing the hellscape of flying flame-stones, I walked forward.
With the air of someone taking a casual stroll.
Light-footed, I closed the distance to Arnia.
“Wh-why……!? Why aren’t they hitting!?”
The answer is simple. I’m not perceiving the flame-stones — I’m only perceiving the movement of mana.
By narrowing the target to mana alone, my brain’s processing capacity ramps up vastly, and movement at this scale becomes easy.
The seemingly-dense [Scorching Downpour] — time it right, and there are any number of gaps for a single me to slip through.
A tilt of the head to dodge here.
“Cut it out cut it out cut it OUT! That’s insane! Where did you——!?”
A change of step tempo to dodge the impact there.
“Hit! Hit him! Damn it, damn it! I-it’s cheating! S-someone’s cooperating with him — that’s it! That guy’s pulling something underhanded——!!”
And, see——
“——You’re in my range now, Arnia.”
“Hii——!?”
“Your color’s gotten quite poor. But for a pretty face like yours, that pale shade actually suits you.”
“S-spirit of flame——!”
“At this distance, magic won’t make it in time.”
I drew my arm back like compressing a spring, then released.
“Gh…… kah——!?”
A handcut swung like a sword-draw drove into Arnia’s throat.
Unable to absorb the shock, he was sent flying backwards, tumbling.
“Right back at you with your own words. Quite the actor, aren’t you? I haven’t even hit you seriously.”
When I trade real blows with Alice, I put in maybe ten times that force……
But Arnia’s state looked like the match was already over.
His uniform was caked in dust; his face kissed the ground while his rear stuck up in the air.
The tumbling had been violent enough to break his belt, apparently, because half his ass was hanging out.
What an utterly graceless sight.
I heard pitying snickers from the audience.
He’d become the first prince in world history to have his half-ass viewed, but of course I wasn’t ending this here.
“What Karen suffered in humiliation was far worse than this.”
By saying it, I make his body remember just how awful his own conduct had been.
The pain will make him understand, and only then will he begin to feel guilt toward her.
The more I beat into him, the more those feelings swell.
Until they become trauma — until they shred his sanity — I carve them into his core.
And Arnia’s arrogant heart will break.
So that he confesses, I never want to face this again.
This is the [Operation: Crown Prince New Game] I’d drawn up.
“I’m going to keep hurting you. Come on, stand up! The match is just beginning.”
”…………”
“Hmph. Playing dead? A man with royal blood, using cheap tricks.”
”…………”
“Fine. Then I’ll stand you up myself, just as you wish.”
For no reaction to come from a taunt — he must really want to lure me into dropping my guard.
So at last he’s understood the gap in strength.
While he still has the will to resist, I’ll keep pounding until he can’t make excuses post-loss.
Taking the bait he was offering, I grabbed him by the collar——
“——Eh?”
Arnia’s eyes had rolled back, and he was foaming at the mouth.
……Huh? You’re joking, right?
Alice said he was stronger than expected…… eh?
Surprise loosened my grip; he slipped from my hand and toppled flat on his back.
When I’d lifted him, his already-loosened pants slipped clean off.
A little-finger-sized something cute came into full view.
A half-stripped Crown Prince, downed in a single hit by [Reject (me)], was now on public display before the assembled crowd.