Before I knew it, I was sitting in my room with two other people. Riko Toyazoto, and Xara Femashito.

“So let me get this straight. You wanna duel me so that I’ll stay away from Xara?”

Riko nodded.

“I may be a lower noble, but I’m still considered the second strongest in my family! I’ve even stood my ground against a second year before!”

“Uh…Is this really necessary Riko?”

Xara seemed a little unsure about the whole thing.

“Of course! We’ve only met him today, but he’s already been trying to make moves on you! I won’t allow people to do stuff like that to my friends!”

“Um…Thanks.”

Xara blushed a little bit and looked to the ground.

Dammit. If I hadn’t already agreed to stop teasing her, this would’ve been perfect teasing material.

But what’s done is done. With a sigh, I looked at Riko.

“So you wanna duel? What do I get if I win?”

Now that I think about it, I’ve never really seen Riko’s fighting skills. None of the routes required much in terms of combat. It was just stated he was secretly quite strong. How strong was never really clarified. But if what Riko said is true, I’m actually curious about how a duel like this could turn out.

“If you win, then…then I’ll look the other way about your previous actions on Xara.

“Bzzt.”

I crossed my arms.

“Huh!?”

“That’s not a worthy prize for me. You gotta add a bit of spice to it. What’s a duel without a few risks?”

After hearing that, Riko tried coming up with something else.

“I’ll pay you two thousand copr!”

“I don’t need your cash. If you forgot, I own an island.”

I actually wouldn’t mind cash, but that little wouldn’t even be enough to keep me going for more than a week or two.

“I’ll lick your boots!”

“What are you? A masochist?”

“I’ll forgive you for trying to flirt with Xara!”

“That’s literally just a reworded version of the first thing you said.”

As he tried coming up with more suggestions, I sighed and finally gave him an offer.

“How about this, if I win, I’m allowed to talk with Xara without you trying to block our interactions. That sound good?”

“You mean to ignore all your future advances!?”

“No. I mean to just let us talk. If you wanna interpret it any other way, then that’s your thing. Do you accept those terms?”

Riko seemed hesitant before letting out a sigh.

“Very well. I don’t fear I’ll lose, but in case I do, those terms will be fine.”

With that, Riko looked at Xara for a moment before leaving the room.

Xara still sat there in her seat with her eyes glued to the ground.

“I’m surprised you didn’t try and tease Riko for defending me,” she stated.

I shrugged.

“I told you I’d stop doing that since you asked. Right?”

Xara’s eyes went wide as she finally pulled her head up.

“You’re actually gonna stop?”

“For Pete's sake. Yes! I’ve already stopped at this point. Just how untrusting can you be?”

Xara brought her attention back to the floor.

“Sorry. I just didn’t think someone with such a strange scent could be so understanding.”

What the heck was up with this girl? Was she always this cautious of other people?

With a sigh, I got up from my bed which I’d been sitting on throughout the conversation.

Walking over to Xara, I petted her on the head.

“Huh!?”

Xara looked up at me with embarrassed red cheeks.

“What was that for!?”

“You seemed down so I was trying to cheer you up. Or do succubi hate head pats?”

Moving away from her, I rested an arm on my hip while Xara looked toward the window.

“I’m…sorry. This all started because Riko was just trying to look out for me.”

I shrugged my arms.

“It’s fine. He seems like a good guy who's just looking out for his friend. That’s how you see him isn’t it?”

I looked at Xara who turned to me with an oddly blank look on her face before responding.

“Er. Yes. That’s exactly how I see him. Anyway, I should get going now. Goodbye.”

With an expression I couldn’t really read, Xara left the room without another word and I stood there...alone.

“That was certainly interesting.”

Well, almost alone.

“Yeah. Guess that’s just how things turned out.

“You seem oddly relaxed about the whole thing.”

Pulling the grimoire out of my bag, I looked out the window towards the slowly darkening sky.

“Meh. I just figured this whole thing would be a good chance to see just how skilled the MC really is.”

“The MC?”

“Ah. Nothing. Just be ready for the day of the fight. I’ll be counting on you after all.”

“Yessir!”

Thanks to Nia, I’ve been able to improve my fighting ability a considerable amount these last two weeks.

I don’t know how they’ll compare to Riko’s, but I still wanted to test what my limits were as well as see if he's as strong as the game claims he is. Meaning this duel was giving me an opportunity. And I planned to take it.

The news about my and Riko’s duel was already starting to spread all over the school.

Most of the students were ecstatic since they thought it’d be the perfect chance for me to be put in my place. And since I basically took Riko’s spot as the outcast in the original story, most of the student body supported him for challenging me.

In the end, we decided to have the battle at the end of the week.

The school hosted the event and cleaned up the small battle stadium held for duels.

Still, there were still a lot of things to prepare for beforehand.

“Are you sure you’re gonna be okay?”

Dianne gave me a look of concern.

“Of course I do. Why are you worried? It’s no skin off your back if I lose.”

“That’s not true! If you lose…”

Dianne stopped her sentence and went silent. I could more or less guess what it was. She was trying to fix the gap between commoners and royalty after all. If I lost, it would make commoners look weak and not worth anyone's time.

Putting my hand on her shoulder, I looked her in the eyes.

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“Don’t worry. I’ve got this.”

Keeping her gaze focused on me for a moment, Dianne finally let out a sigh and seemed to accept my words.

The week went on. A lot more hate started piling on me, but it was cool. I didn’t really care. And before I knew it, the day of the duel arrived.

With a sigh, I checked to make sure I had everything I needed.

Since this battle was meant to be a duel of our own values or whatever, we were supposed to wear whatever we wanted rather than something the school asked us to wear.

In other words, we could wear armor, as well as other gear if we liked.

Since I wanted to wear something comfortable, I decided to wear my old adventuring outfit.

So after giving a quick wash, I managed to fully clean the clothes and put them on.

Ready for the duel, I wore my crimson red cloak, a silver chestplate, a black t-shirt, and dark grey pants. Combine that with my dark brown boots and I didn’t think I looked that bad.

“Hahahaha! You look ridiculous!”

Others didn’t seem to agree.

Keeping my grimoire on my belt, I checked myself over one more time. Now we should be ready to go.

“Master. Bets are currently being put on as well as against your defeat.”

As Sirin appeared next to me, I turned to her. What she said caught my interest.

“Bets are allowed? That changes a few things,” I said with a laugh as I gave Sirin some orders before making my way out towards the battlefield.

Walking through the hall leading into the stadium, I saw none other than Xara standing there.

“Not seeing your friend off to battle?”

Instead of responding to my question, Xara grabbed hold of my hand.

“I wanted to apologize again. This all started cause I felt the need to talk to you about that teasing. And now you have to fight because of it.”

I shrugged.

“It’s all good. Besides, this’ll make for a good learning opportunity.”

Xara gave me a look of confusion.

“Learning opportunity?”

“Don’t worry about it.”

After saying that, I began walking past her.

“Just to let you know, I’m not showing him any mercy. So if you don’t want him to get hurt, talk him out of this right now.”

With those final words, I left Xara behind.

I arrived at the arena a few minutes later to find the stands surrounded by people booing and laughing at me. What a warm welcome.

Before long, Riko arrived. Guess that means we’re doing this.

Riko stepped up to the ring in what seemed like a loose set of armor that made it easy to maneuver in. He also was wearing power gauntlets of some kind. I recognized them immediately. They were a weapon the MC only glanced at in the game. Supposedly they have the power to convert your magic into powerful punches. But the less magic you use, the less impact it gives, and vice versa.

We both made our way into the ring in the middle of the stadium.

Someone who I assumed was the referee then began to go over the rules.

To summarize, since we were doing a magic duel, we were only allowed to use things that involved magic. And since the gauntlets were technically magic-related, they were allowed.

There was another rule stating we weren’t allowed to use stuff like magic blocking barriers and also weren’t permitted to kill our opponent. The battle was decided when one admits defeat, gets knocked off the platform, or falls unconscious.

With the rules established, the referee began the countdown.

“3!”

Riko gave me a rather menacing glare. I don’t remember doing that much to deserve his hatred.

“2!”

But now wasn’t the time to think about that. The duel was about to begin.

“1!”

Feeling the intensity emanating from Riko, I kept my eyes on the lookout for his first move.

“Begin!”

Riko charged at me instantly.

“RAAAH!”

He let out a shout as magic power began to charge into his gauntlets.

He drew in close and brought his fist towards my face when-

“Wah!?”

-Riko was suddenly sent backward by a strong gust of wind and he had to grind his feet into the ground to avoid falling out of the ring.

“What the heck was that!?”

I chuckled.

“You said you were around as strong as a second year, right?”

Out of nowhere, blades of wind that looked like they could cut the air appeared in front of me.

“Back in that hell hole, I acquired something. Something that helped me reach new heights in magic. Meaning had this been a fistfight, I never would’ve stood a chance.”

Riko attempted hitting me once more only to be knocked back by one of the sharp blades of wind I created.

“What’re you talking about?”

I chuckled.

“Using what I found down there, my magic was amplified much more than it already had been. Meaning I’m way stronger than I was before.”

That’s right. I may not have gotten stronger physically, but in the magic department, I had grown extensively. And with Nia’s help training this magic over the last few weeks, I could easily put up a fight against a small gang of thugs.

This means beating a single person would be a piece of cake.

“You said you were strong enough to deal with a second year? Then you never stood a chance against me in the first place.”

“What’re you-?”

Deciding to mess with him a bit, I gave him a wicked grin.

“I’m way stronger than any second year. After a reevaluation by the teachers, I realized something truly incredible.”

My mind flashed back to when I took some magic tests yesterday.

Remembering those results caused my grin to grow wider.

“I’m not as strong as any second year, or a third year for that matter.”

Riko tried attacking a third time only to be knocked away once more. So I kept talking.

“What I learned was that I was much stronger! Stronger than all the other years!”

Suddenly, I appeared in front of Riko. Before he could respond, I formed a wind ball around my fists and drove it into his armor. The impact caused the armor to crack as I drove the attack in harder.

“No matter what year you’re in, no matter how strong you are, I am more powerful than all of you! I’m the strongest one here at this school!”

Pushing my fist in even deeper, Riko failed to notice my leg as I brought it up and aimed it at his side while using wind magic to add some extra power.

Unable to see it coming, my leg smashed into Riko and sent him flying out of the ring and into the ground below. Leaving everyone watching in complete shock.

The battle wasn’t even a minute long.

“R-Riko Toyazoto is out of the ring! The winner of this duel is Axel Savoncho!” announced the referee.

“...”

There was silence across the stadium. No surprise there. I did just take what was meant to be a big event and finished it almost instantly.

A few moments later, screams of anger echoed across the stadium.

“No way! He must’ve cheated!”

“Was that Riko guy really that weak?”

“What the heck was that!?”

The shouts of disagreement filled the area. Geez. If you hate it that much then take me on in a duel. Don’t just scream about how unfair this whole thing was. Nobles really were the worst.

With a sigh, I walked off the stadium when a voice spoke up behind me.

“We’re….We’re not done…”

I turned around to find Riko standing there with shaky legs. I guess he managed to push himself up. However, he looked like he was about to collapse.

As our eyes met, he looked at me as if I was the worst person in the world.

Pulling off one of his gauntlets, Riko grabbed the glove he had on his hand and he threw it at me with what little strength he had left. Hoping to immediately challenge me to another duel.

Picking up the glove, I looked at it for a few seconds before tossing it into the air and using the wind blades around me to cut it to pieces.

After seeing that, Riko’s eyes grew wide and he fell to his knees in defeat.

“Just give up already. You’ve lost this battle.”

Hearing those words, tears began to form in Riko’s eyes before he collapsed to the ground.

People were still shouting in the background.

Their shouting made me shake my head. Could they just shut up already?

Without another word, I left the ring right before Xara ran out to check on Riko.

Once I was out of sight, Sirin appeared next to me.

“Well?”

“I took care of what you asked. You’ve won a total of four hundred thousands silvr for betting on yourself.”

“Good to hear. That should keep me alive for a good while.”

I’d asked Sirin to put in a bet for me so I could make some cash. How she did that I don’t know. But now that it was over, I had plenty of money for food and other necessities.

As for Riko’s battle abilities, he was incredibly disappointing. I guess in the end, he really was the MC and nothing more.

After that day, word traveled around the school about our fight and how it unfolded. However, since the ones who were spreading the word were the students watching the match in person, they changed the fight to make it sound like the MC was just a weak noble who couldn’t even beat some commoner. Because of that, he’s been getting bullied as much as I was back when I first arrived.

I’d like to say I feel bad for him, but considering his bright future, I figured it would be pointless sympathy.

Plus, with the upcoming school trip, I didn’t have time to think about the MC and his heroines.

What trip am I talking about?

It’s a trip to trigger an event with one of the heroines. It’s known as the school-wide camping trip.

Since royalty and nobles normally never stepped outside their fancy palaces or ate commoner food, this was a trip planned by the school to help them all understand the hardships of the common folk.

If I remember correctly, this trip would trigger the event with the heroine Kimichi Romaiyozu. The tiger demi-human.

It starts when the school assigns teams they believe are well suited for each other and sends them out into the woods.

While the teams are out there, they’re required to accomplish a set of goals by the end of the week. The sooner you were done, the sooner you could return to the base camp filled with luxury stuff to make the rest of the week a breeze.

If you couldn’t guess, most royals hated this trip. Some have even tried to fake an illness so they didn’t have to join in.

Because of this, the school always brings in a doctor who uses some kind of medical magic to confirm a student's health. Thanks to that doctor, very few students skip out on this trip. Also, it was mandatory to go so there was no weasling your way out of it.

For me personally, I wasn’t that concerned about how things were gonna go. Years of adventuring experience go a long way in ensuring one's survival. Although I don’t know just how much of a requirement survival really was here since the place the school takes us to is meant to be a forest clean of any dangerous monsters. This means the most survival we have to do is search for food, cook, and set up a shelter among other basic camping things.

However, I was a bit concerned the students in my group might try to pull a stunt like the ones from before, so I’d already planned to bring Sirin along in her cube form just in case.

All and all though, I was ready to take on this trip. And as long as no one tries anything dumb, it should all go smoothly. I mean it’s not like some secret unknown threat is gonna pop out of nowhere and make things difficult…right?

Oh, how naive I was to think such a thing.