Sigismund and Gustava leaned on the fence in the dueling grounds as the healing spellcasters were brought over. While the crowd was still present, they kept their distance from Sigidmund and Gustava. The man who officiated the duel observed how they were talking together without any sense of hostility.

“It’s good to know that not all young people are throwing away their lives,” he muttered to himself. “Though, I don’t think either of their reputations are intact. Gustava challenged Sigismund to a duel without any offense against her, and Sigismund told everyone that he has no honor. Their lives won’t be easy, but at least they’re alive.”

The officiator heard footsteps behind him. He turned to see a tall, gaunt man clad head to toe in black clothes. This newcomer had a wide-brimmed hat and pale hair that hung past his shoulders. There was a grim expression on the newcomer's face that you could mistake him for a walking corpse.

“Sir William, I noticed that the duel has ended,” he said.

“Yes, it has. Gustava surrendered. She said that Sigismund cast some sort of curse on her,” the officiator replied.

“It would be unfitting for a member of the House of Lejon to lose to any enemy, and especially not a practitioner of foul necromancy.”

“She surrendered. There isn’t much I can do about that, Witchfinder General. Besides, necromancy isn’t illegal here or in the homeland of the Houses of Lejon and Myrksalr,” Sir William stated.

“That is a grievous mistake. Necromancy is among the foulest of witchcrafts. It is not tolerated in my homeland, and it should not be tolerated here.”

“Why do you hate witches so much? You use magic,” the knight said.

“There is a great difference between magic and witchcraft, and I will not see a member of the House of Lejon lose to a necromancer.”

The Witchfinder General then leaned close to Sir William and whispered.

“Or would you rather face the wrath of that household and the organization of witch hunters?” he said.

Sir William pulled up his visor and glared at the Witchfinder General, who kept his grim expression.

“So be it,” the knight whispered before raising his voice. “This duel is hereby declared a draw. With his injuries, Sigismund can’t fight either.”

Murmurs came out of the crowd.

“This is going to be just as controversial as the start of the duel. I hope you’re happy, Witchfinder General,” Sir William stated.

“A draw is fine, at least for now,” the Witchfinder General replied.

The witch hunter gazed at the knight’s face. William looked ready to strangle him.

“I understand why you’re dissatisfied with this,” the Witchfinder General said.

“I hope that you do. Stealing Sigismund’s victory like this is dishonorable,” Sir William told him.

“Perhaps it is, but this is the best outcome. Gustava will already be in trouble with her family for failing to kill Sigismund. If they learned that she surrendered…I don’t want to imagine what the outcome would be.”

“I didn’t think that Mr. Mercy Is For The Weak would care about something like that,” the knight scoffed.

“My cruelty is not for the sake of pleasure, Sir William. It is for justice. And, as a just man, I feel great sympathy for what Gustava has had to endure,” the Witchfinder General said.

“If you’re so just, why didn’t you stop whatever was happening to Gustava?” Sir William asked.

“The witch hunter organization owes a great deal to the House of Lejon. Opposing them would be madness,” the Witchfinder General answered.

“I just hope that Sigismund isn’t taking this too hard.”

Sigismund and Gustava completely ignored the announcement. They were too busy talking about something else.

“We might already be screwed,” Gustava said. “Everyone heard our talk. My parents will find out about it.”

“You don’t know much about the nobility, do you?” Sigismund asked.

“The only thing my parents taught was combat. They didn’t care about anything except getting revenge on you,” she answered.

“Perkele’s black goat, if you became a lady as you are now, you’d be terrible at it,” he said.

“You're right,” Gustava admitted.

“Don’t spend time blaming yourself. You have plenty of time to get better, and Athena Academy’s the best place to learn how to be a good ruler,” Sigismund stated. “Anyway, the only part of our talk that’ll get out is when I told everyone that I don’t care about society’s code of honor.”

“That’s it?”

“It’s the attitude of most nobles. They want people to follow the honor society wants them to, even if it gets them killed. Fuck. I probably threw myself into the shitter with what I said,” Sigismund groaned.

“At least we’ll be able to fool my parents. We just need to pretend we’re enemies whenever we’re in public. I hope it’ll be good enough,” Gustava said.

“We’ll try our best,” Sigismund replied.

“Alright, then,” Gustava said.

They saw the magical healers arriving and walking towards them.

“One more thing before we get healed. I won’t be able to go through my family’s full training here, but I’ll still train beyond what we learn in the combat classes. I want you to train with me and let me know if the training is too much,” Gustava said.

“That makes sense. You need to make sure you don't push yourself. And if you get too much stronger than me, your parents will wonder why I’m still alive,” Sigismund replied.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“Those are part of it, but not the only reasons,” she pointed right at his face. “There’s no way I’m letting my first friend fall behind me.”

John Lancaster watched the duel with his hands gripped to the fence surrounding the arena. His hands were clenched so hard they turned white. The boy’s face showed pure rage, frustration, and jealousy.

“That girl…is way too strong,” he muttered. “And if Sigismund was telling the truth, he’s just as strong as she is.”

“We might not be able to crush that honorless dog in a duel if he’s that good,” a girl next to John said.

She was a bit shorter than him and had brown hair in a ponytail and furious blue eyes. Her clothes were just as expensive as John’s.

“Hey, John, do you have any ideas?” a boy asked.

He was taller than John but less muscular. His hair was blonde and his eyes green. The boy wore cheaper clothing than John’s; however, the outfit was still very expensive.

John’s frown turned into a smile. A low chuckle escaped from his mouth.

“You’re laughing,” the girl stated. “That means your plan must be very good, right?”

“It’s not that. I just found a pair of great rivals. I hate their guts for being stronger than me, but that just makes things better,” John said.

“Better?”

“More motivation for me to get strong. I’ll practice so hard that I throw up and kick their asses!”

“Yeah! We’ll crush that Sigismund guy for sure!” the boy smiled.

“No, I will,” John glared. “I’m going to become the world’s greatest fighter. If anyone gets strong enough to crush them before I do, they’re just another rival for me to crush. You’d better know your place.”

“Don’t worry! I will! I won’t get stronger than you!”

Disgust covered John’s face. He pressed his finger against the boy’s forehead while glaring at him.

“What the hell is with that attitude? My goal is to become the strongest. How can I get stronger if you’re not my rival?” John asked.

“But you said that I should know my place,” there was great fear in the boy’s eyes.

“Idiot! Idiot! Idiot! I was trying to make you want to kick my ass!” John pressed his finger down harder.

Then, he turned to the girl.

“You should want to crush me too, Marie,” John said.

“I don’t think that’s a good attitude to have towards your fiancée,” she replied.

“Then try to beat the crap out of me because I’m into that shit!”

“…what?”

John removed his finger from the boy’s face. He then walked away.

“Where are you going?” Marie asked.

“I have a plan to make everyone my age in this Academy my rival. I’ll start a tournament. There, I’ll be such an ass that everyone will want to crush me. Win or lose, I’ll have hundreds of rivals!” John declared.

“Can students even start tournaments?”

“We can if we talk to teachers about it. I know just who to ask too. He'll probably say that only students in our grade can enter. That limits my potential rivals, but it's better than having no tournament."

“I don’t think most of the students our age will care either,” the boy said.

“Why not?” John wondered. “It’ll be a chance to prove that they’re the strongest!”

“And you’ll get a bunch of people that way, but there isn’t any prize for being number one.”

“That’s a good point, Nathanial. I’ll need to arrange some prize…maybe a fresh fish dinner cooked by the best chefs I can find,” John suggested.

“I like that idea,” the boy said.

“It’s probably as good as we can do,” Marie added.

“You could offer to kiss whoever wins,” Nathanial suggested.

“Not a chance in hell! Why don’t you kiss whoever wins?” she asked.

“If I kiss whoever wins, no one will enter,” he answered.

“Hey…” John looked back with pure rage on his face. “If you dare say that my fiancée should kiss anyone other than me, I’ll crush you.”

“Don’t take it too seriously,” sweat poured down Nathanial’s head. “And besides, you’re going to enjoy it if you lose.”

“I only like getting the crap beaten out of me if a beautiful woman does it!” John pressed his finger against Nathanial’s head again.

“Could we please stop talking about this?” Marie groaned.

Ogier was resting under a table and preening his feathers. He had slept earlier; however, the velociraptor made sure not to sleep too much. Being in an unfamiliar location made him nervous.

A scent wafted into the room. Ogier recognized it as his mother’s and got up right away. Another scent put him on edge. It was that boy that his mother showed such hostility towards. The velociraptor walked over to the door, preparing to make himself look bigger to get that boy to run away and leave him and his mother alone.

The door opened, and Ogier spread his arms. His arm feathers made him look even larger than he would have without them. He let out a goose-like hiss at the male human.

“Calm down, Ogier,” his mother said. “Sigismund isn’t going to hurt you.”

Ogier surveyed his mother and the boy. He couldn’t sense any hostility from either of them. The velociraptor was confused. Why didn’t they still hate each other?

A baffled cluck escaped Ogier’s mouth.

His mother explained, “Sigismund’s a friend. He’s helping me out.”

Ogier understood that friends were humans who weren’t related or mating but did stuff together. However, his mother's words weren't enough. The velociraptor's instincts told him to be cautious around people he didn’t know well.

The velociraptor lowered his arms; however, he gave Sigismund another hiss.

“I’ll stay away from him for now,” the boy said.

“That’d be for the best. It’ll take him a while to get used to you,” Gustava replied.

“Right. Well, I’m going to bed now,” Sigismund stated. “I want to get up early for classes tomorrow. We can’t be seen walking there together.”

“I'm going to bed too. Make sure to close your door to keep things quiet.”

“Are you sure? There’s still light out,” he said.

“I’m sure. Ogier might need me when it gets dark, and I want to rest up for that,” she replied.

“Alright, if you say so,” Sigismund shrugged.

They went to their separate rooms. Gustava laid down on her bed, and Ogier joined her. The velociraptor fell asleep right away.

It was midnight when Sigismund was jolted awake by a series of loud clucks. He went to the door of his room and swung it open. Ogier was running all around the dorm. The raptor jumped onto a table before running across it. This dragged the tablecloth along, and Ogier took it to the ground when he jumped down.

Gustava was following him, trying to grab the velociraptor. Ogier evaded her grasp. He dragged the tablecloth into her room before running out again. The dinosaur jumped out of the way just in time to avoid another of Gustava’s grabs, clucked, ran over to Sigismund, and hissed at him.

“What is going on here?” Sigismund asked.

“I woke up to Ogier clawing at the door. I thought he had to go out, but he just wanted to run around. He thinks me chasing him is playing,” Gustava answered.

“Shouldn’t he be cautious since he’s in a new place?”

“Our room is pretty small, I’m here with him, and it’s night. All that must have emboldened him,” she said.

“What does it being night have to do with anything?” Sigismund wondered.

“Velociraptors are nocturnal,” Gustava explained. “This is the time when they hunt their prey.”

Ogier ran over to the front door and started scratching it. Gustava rushed and grabbed a piece of rope and a collar before attaching them to Ogier’s neck. The velociraptor’s claws were cutting into the wood. Gustava opened the door.

“Now, he needs to go out,” she sighed.

Gustava walked Ogier out of the room. They passed through the dark, empty hallways before making it outside. Ogier went to a nearby bush and squatted down. With a sigh, Gustava looked away from Ogier, grateful that he was domesticated to the point where he could be trained to not crap indoors.

A few minutes passed, and Ogier didn’t stand up. Concern flowed through Gustava. Was Ogier sick? She looked at her pet.

Ogier’s eyes were fixed on something in the darkness. He was crouched lower than if he was relieving himself. Gustava couldn’t see what the velociraptor was looking at; however, she knew that his eyes could see at night much better than hers.

“Please, Ogier, just go inside,” she said.

The velociraptor stayed quiet. Then, with a sudden burst of speed, he leaped through the air. Ogier's leash was just long enough for him to get to his target. Ogier’s feet came down first as he spread his arms to keep himself stable.

Gustava came closer, seeing Ogier’s largest claw pinning down a squirrel. The velociraptor bit down on the unfortunate animal. He ripped its head from its body and crunched it between his jaws before swallowing it. Blood and brain matter from the head leaked out of his mouth.

“You know, Ogier, my grandmother once said that a cute thing like you wouldn’t hurt a fly,” Gustava recalled. “If only she could see you now.”

Ogier looked at her, clucked, and stepped off the squirrel. He then motioned toward it with his head, inviting Gustava to eat too. She just sighed in response.