Oi, oi, oi——!
What’s going on……why is he unconscious……?
I haven’t even executed ten percent of the operation!?
If he drops before I’ve completely smashed his heart, the plan can’t move forward!
“Don’t mess with me! My feelings aren’t satisfied with this!”
I grabbed his collar and shook, but only his head and the thing below kept wobbling.
His consciousness wasn’t coming back. He was out cold.
“Damn it! Fine, I’ll kick his crotch and force him awake!”
“Stop! The match is decided! Stand back!”
“Wha——!? Hey, let go!”
I’d raised my arm — and several of them locked me up at once, pinning my arms behind me, dragging me away from Arnia.
Medical-team students loaded him onto a stretcher and started preparing to move him to the infirmary.
“Uoooo……! Karen…… my engagement with Karen……!”
“Eh!? H-he’s being dragged off……!?”
“To care for Miss Lebetsenka this much……”
“Inhuman strength from sheer fury……! Hey! Some of you, over here!”
“Arniaaaaaa……!”
I tried to force my legs forward, dragging the students restraining me along, but I couldn’t catch up.
The stretcher carrying the unconscious Arnia shrank smaller and smaller in the distance, then vanished out of the arena.
“Damn it! Daaammmn iiit!”
Crumpling to the spot, I drove a regret-loaded fist into the ground.
A single hit like that — Arnia is definitely going to write off as a fluke……!
He’ll say it was just bad placement and brazenly carry on exactly as before.
If that happens, there is no way Karen will choose Arnia.
The hot resolve she’d shown me before the duel was only because she believed I would reform him.
But…… but with this……
”……Don’t be that crushed. You did great.”
“We were wrong about you, man.”
“The rumors really were true after all. Leave the rest to us.”
The students who, moments ago, had been blocking me clapped me on the shoulder and then, for some reason, walked over to the announcer’s booth and started talking to someone there.
What are they scheming this time, the ones who just got in my way?
“Just leave him alone for now.”
“B-but we have the victor’s interview to——”
What!? Victor’s interview!?
Time eaten by that and I’ll lose my window to course-correct.
Before I’m fully checkmated, I have to explain the situation to Karen.
If I convince her, she may at least hold off on breaking the engagement.
Of course I’ll take responsibility for reforming Arnia myself.
For that — I needed a moment to speak with Karen, calmly.
Let me bail before I’m surrounded again.
“I’m going to Karen! I have an important conversation to have with her!”
Shouting that as my excuse for skipping the interview, I tore out of the arena.
I heard ear-splitting cries behind me — most likely a storm of booing.
Ignore. Just ignore.
“Karen! Where are you!?”
“Ah, Ouga! Over here, over here!”
“Lord Ouga, we’ve been waiting. Miss Lebetsenka has moved to the Headmistress’s office.”
“Right! Thanks!”
I’d been frantically searching for her — when the two of them, coming down from the stands, told me where Karen was.
I thanked them and immediately sprinted toward the Headmistress’s office.
The Headmistress is handling the post-duel cleanup. Most likely, she’s helping persuade Karen’s father.
There’s a real chance the conversation is already proceeding without me.
I hadn’t been told that was happening.
Given her personality, I’d assumed Karen would stay by my side and be cheering me on right there at the field……
“Hah……! Hah……!”
I dashed up the staircase and reached the door to the Headmistress’s office.
My shoulders heaving, I didn’t take time to settle my breath — I took one step to burst in, and the door opened first.
“Ah, Ouga!”
A radiant smile blooming across her face, Karen leapt at me the moment she saw mine.
I caught her on reflex to keep her from falling — and a click of the tongue flew at me.
Not from Karen, of course.
Tracking the source of the sound, I found Karen’s trash father standing there, veins popping on his forehead.
Pushing past that trash father, out of the room came the Milfonti master-apprentice duo.
“My, my, what passion. Just as I thought — they really are a perfect match. Right, Reina?”
“Yes, exactly as Sensei says.”
The Headmistress with her cheerful, friendly smile, and Reina with the same patched-together expression as always.
What a mismatched pair — but I haven’t got the bandwidth for that right now.
“Headmistress? I don’t understand what’s happening……”
“Fufufu. Your wish has been granted.”
“My wish?”
So that means Karen made up her mind to start over with Arnia——
“——Your formal engagement to Miss Lebetsenka has been officially recognized.”
“Yes!! …… Eh?”
Hold on? What I heard isn’t matching what I expected at all…… no, no, surely I misheard.
I mean — there’s no way that trash father would acknowledge an engagement to me, a man with zero magic aptitude——
“Here, the paperwork. Properly signed by both families’ representatives.”
“Let me see that!!”
I snatched it, panicked. The document laid out a number of contractual terms regarding the engagement between me and Karen, and at the bottom were the names of Karen’s trash father and my own Father.
Both family crests were stamped as well.
That wasn’t even the shocking part.
For some reason, the signature and royal seal of Arnia’s father — the King himself — were also affixed as witness.
”……Eh, ah…… huh?”
Th-that means my engagement to Karen has been officially recognized by the King——
…… Huh? There’s no way to break this.
And from now on I’m being asked to conduct myself as the fiancé of another ducal house, with the King’s recognition.
Why is the King so readily allowing his own son’s engagement to be dissolved?
I don’t get it…… I have absolutely no idea what’s going on……
While I was standing there dazed, unable to keep up, Karen tightened her arms around my waist.
I felt a soft, plush sensation against my chest — something you couldn’t have guessed from her silhouette — and my eyes were drawn down to her involuntarily.
“Um…… I know I’m not much…… but I’ll change, from now on. I’ll work hard to be a good wife……so, please be good to me, Ouga.”
Looking at the cutest smile she’d shown me — since our reunion, no, since the moment I’d ever met her — I……
“……aaaaaaahhh”
…collapsed on the spot, crushed by the stress of my free and easy harem life slipping away.
◇ Next chapter, I’m planning to explain what the Headmistress and the King were thinking behind the scenes, and that’ll wrap up Chapter 1.
Chapter 1 picked up multiple heroines, but Chapter 2 is going to focus on one new heroine. Whether Karen actually has big boobs — well, we still don’t know (straight face). ◇