Fast forwarding to the next day, the duel between the son of the family-head and one of the estate’s attendants is being held in a small area inside the backyard of the Blueseva mansion.

Ricardo and Imogyeran are preparing in two corners of the garden and are doing some basic stretching exercises as well as loosening up their joints before the match.

Most attendants are evenly distributed between the two people, while the higher ranking ones as well as some noble guests, that arrived simultaneously to this situation, are focusing their attention on Ricardo.

The guests include Gracio Gricielo, a representative of the Gricielo-family.

He is responsible for negotiating plans for a politically motivated arranged marriage between the two families and is evaluating Ricardo’s actions accordingly.

In the back of the crowd, Esteban is looking at the two children with distant, contemplative eyes while not taking a stance for any one party. Ricardo has noticed this and is occasionally shooting glares at his grandfather for that, but he does not budge when confronted with those.

Elise is worriedly standing close to Imogyeran’s side while positioning herself in the line between the two competitors.

Any attempts to dissuade the situation fell on deaf ears the day before, so she simply grants her friend her mental support.

At the time, that the sun reaches the highest point, one of the high-ranking attendants steps up on an improvised podium to look upon the crowd and asks both participants to step forward.

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At his cue, Ricardo takes sturdy steps forward. His outfit consists of a face-mask as well as

bolsters for his arms and legs. The boy’s torso is covered by a thin and gray piece of silk clothing. He is wearing the same fabric under the bolstering of his legs and arms and his hands are visibly without any protection.

On his left side, he carries an epee, a sword with a thin, pointy edge, that is used mainly for stabbing attacks.

This type of sword is less suitable for power-struggles and the encounter between two swords of its type are heavily influenced by the wielders’ abilities.

Ricardo stops his stride shortly before a stone platform in front of the podium and calmly gazes at his opponent on the far back-side of the space that is their yard.

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Mirroring Ricardo’s movements, Imogyeran walks up to his spot with an unreadable expression. Nobody knows what he is thinking, but whatever it is, it is not like anybody could find out by looking at him.

The incident yesterday has engraved this kind of thought into Ricardo’s head when he is looking at him.

Imogyeran’s clothing is made to be the exact same type as Ricardo’s but since the family did not have any pieces of equipment in his size, there are a lot of parts that are not properly adjusted to his body. Due to some last-minute fixes for better adjustment there are some patches here and there on the textile.

In addition to that, Imogyeran is wearing his usual clothing as an attendant for the first layer of his getup.

His sword is draped into a spot inside the belt holding up his pants. It is on his left side just like his opponent’s sword.

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The two of them almost simultaneously give the man their approval.

They slowly make their way to the middle of this platform and stand two sword-lengths apart from each other inside a red circle.

Ricardo is glaring down Imogyeran, who in turn does not show any agitation at all. The boy is simply staring into Ricardo Blueseva’s eyes without budging.

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The one, who reaches 5 points first or disarms their opponent, wins this duel.

Should Imogyeran Ashenwald win this duel, he will be granted the liberation of his status as an attendant of lower class and he may feel free to do, whatever he may wish to do with his future life.

Should Ricardo Blueseva win this duel, he will be granted full authority over the object, that is Imogyeran Ashenwald.>>

The attendant goes on for a bit longer about the rules and stipulations of this duel and after a while, he finally starts the battle:

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The fight starts.

Both contestants take a different approach to this match:

Imogyeran is focused on keeping a stable distance between the two of them and is passively observing Ricardo with his gazes.

Ricardo was initially planning to do the same but he sees himself provoked by the emotionless face of his competitor.

His footwork is neither a stride nor a sidestep but almost feels akin to a bull-rush, when he lunges straight forward to Imogyeran.

His opponent is easily able to predict his trajectory and dodges with relatively minimal movements and distances himself again to create his preferred stable distance.

He didn’t hit back even though he could have during this last exchange.

Ricardo is provoked once more and rushes in for a second attack.

This time he focuses on taking quick but stable strides forward.

The quick alternation of his leading foot is causing Imogyeran to continuously back away and be backed to the edge of the platform, that the two are standing on.

Predicting that he would dodge right, Ricardo launches a quick stab at Imogyeran’s left leg(from Imogyeran’s perspective).

He fails to land a hit.

Imogyeran dodges to his right while taking a step forward.

The distance between the leading feet of the two contestants is now less than two feet apart from each other and Ricardo has overextended his arm too far forward with his last attack, leaving him wide open.

Imogyeran is taking a wide stride forward to change the roles between his leading leg and his supporting leg. The distance between their torsos is now barely a sword’s length apart. Imogyeran utilizes this fact.

He flicks his wrist twice; first a swipe over Ricardo’s torso and then a stab at his leading leg’s kneecap.

Both hits connect and Ricardo is barely able to widen the distance between them.

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The shallow hit isn’t awarded points.

While Ricardo is recovering and trying to get his pace back, Imogyeran once again takes the role of an observer and keeps a stable distance between the two of them. His expression remains unchanged.

The two are back to the middle of this makeshift platform.

The two circle each other for a while.

While Ricardo is still recovering, Imogyeran stealthily shortens his part of the circling stride down little by little. This change also affects Ricardo’s perception of the circle, causing him to unconsciously tighten his circles over the course of drawing a few rotations.

Once the distance between their bodies equals about 4 of Imogyeran’s arm-lengths, Imogyeran takes a step forward.

Ricardo is a little late to respond and Imogyeran is executing a lunging attack directed at Ricardo’s torso.

The exchange ends with Ricardo’s attire being pierced as well as Imogyeran’s right shoulder being penetrated:

Ricardo managed to counter his lunge and was planning to slice through Imogyeran’s right ear, which Imogyeran blocked by raising up his right shoulder, the shoulder, that had been attached to the arm holding his sword up until now.

Both points are scored as valid and Ricardo launches another attack on Imogyeran’s right arm.

Imogyeran swings his arm into the air and lets go of the sword in his hand to switch to his left arm holding the sword.

The sword is then thrust upwards in an unconventional angle and he manages to graze past Ricardo’s chin, while the opposing strikes lose their sharpness due to Ricardo dodging and diverting the force in his upper body.

Only Imogyeran’s hit counts.

Imogyeran currently possesses 3 points, while Ricardo possesses 1 point.

Ricardo on the other hand has cooled down a bit and is taking a few steps back to recover his rhythm and pace, however he is oppressed by Imogyeran.

Every 2 steps, that Ricardo takes, Imogyeran is taking 3 short steps to stay close to him.

Ricardo loses his cool again and tries a swiping attack with his sword but Imogyeran ducks under the attack and attacks on his own. He hits Ricardo’s chest-area, slightly above his heart.

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Ricardo is still trying to regain his cool and to play defensively but he changes his tactic.

He is launching a desperate plethora of short stabbing attacks in a short amount of time, while letting out a roar from his mouth.

Imogyeran deliberately rushes into the 4th attack and lets it pierce through his upper arm.

The sword remains deeply stuck inside it and Imogyeran pushes through the pain without changing his expression: He launches a single, precisely aimed stab from below to disarm Ricardo.

Ricardo has his hand pierced and lets go of his sword.

He can’t believe what happened in the last exchange and falls to his knees

Now, the realization starts to settle in.

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