I'd Win That Fight Too

A nobleman caught in a deeply undignified moment — that was Dominic.

Under normal circumstances, a servant would have rushed over immediately with a towel.

But the servants here belonged to House Librata’s count, and I was his son.

I had told them to watch, so they were watching.

“Um…”

The servants fidgeted and kept glancing at Amelia — silently pleading with her to rein me in, since they couldn’t very well leave a nobleman sitting in the dirt.

Amelia herself stood with her hands folded neatly in front of her.

Perfectly still.

When everyone genuinely just stood and watched, the dirt-covered Dominic gaped at them.

“Are you all… collectively insane?”

“Young Master! Here, let me wipe that off!”

The coachman jumped down and began scrubbing at Dominic’s face with a cloth.

It barely helped.

Dominic trembled with barely-contained fury and fixed his glare on me.

“Rigen Librata! You know who I am?”

“I can tell you’re covered in dust, at least.”

“…I am Dominic Burzak, second son of Marquis Burzak’s house! Have water brought immediately! And a change of clothes! I’ll state my business once I’ve been seen to!”

“You’re holding my fiancée hostage.”

He flinched.

The people around me stirred in surprise. I pressed on.

“If she couldn’t come due to illness or some other circumstance, you could have sent a messenger with word. The fact that you came all this way yourself means you’re keeping her at your estate. You’ll call it protection, naturally.”

“Wh, what?”

“Do you really think I don’t know how these little games work?”

Detaining someone and calling it protection — that was the most elementary trick in the book.

The mood among the servants shifted sharply the moment those words landed.

Even faced with a nobleman, they were glaring.

He had come to pick a fight with their lord’s house, and everyone knew it.

I pressed the advantage and laid it out plainly.

“Fortunately, both families are marquis-ranked. Actually harming her isn’t worth the fallout, so she’ll be safe enough.”

“…For what it’s worth — she said she didn’t want to come here.”

“If that were genuinely true, you’d have brought a letter in her own hand.”

“…”

Dominic had nothing to say to that.

A shrewder man might have prepared a forged letter in advance.

Clearly, he hadn’t anticipated me meeting him head-on like this.

“Right then. What comes next?”

“…What?”

“You know I can’t just quietly accept this. Even if I wanted to, the family’s reputation wouldn’t allow it.”

There was no need to invoke noble honor.

If another man showed up holding your fiancée and you nodded along and stepped aside — that would follow you for life.

Of course, I had every intention of breaking the engagement myself — but that was something I had to drive, not be pushed into.

Getting it done to me like this would earn me the label of fool for years to come.

Dominic looked at me with fresh sharpness.

“What makes you think you can—”

“You came here for a duel.”

Among noblemen, clashes of opinion frequently ended in duels.

Especially when a woman was involved.

“Right, a duel—”

But before Dominic could finish, the carriage door opened from the inside.

Everyone glanced over instinctively — and a murmur rippled through the crowd.

“An… elf?”

“No — a dark elf…”

The one who stepped out of the carriage was a dark elf man.

Tawny skin, an eye patch over one eye — his appearance drew every servant’s gaze immediately.

This household was made up entirely of humans aside from Amelia, and other races were a rare sight.

Non-humans were also, almost without exception, breathtakingly beautiful by human standards.

“…”

The dark elf said nothing and took his place behind Dominic.

The fact that he had held his ground inside a carriage with six horses going berserk said enough about his capabilities.

Of all things — a dark elf, of all people, and dark elves and elves don’t exactly get along.

I studied the dark elf and asked,

“Hey, Dominic. Is he your escort?”

“Obviously! He’s a dark elf residing with our house. He came as my guard today!”

Dominic announced it with pride.

I had wondered how the marquis could send his son alone.

There was always the chance I might lose my temper over the detained fiancée and mobilize the house’s knights.

But a dark elf escort was answer enough.

An ordinary human who had dedicated his life to martial training could count on fifty years of refinement.

Elves and dark elves, by contrast, operated on three hundred years as a baseline.

All else being equal, the one who has trained longer wins.

“…”

My escort knight Garul had gone visibly tense beside me.

If it came to it, he’d be the one standing across from that dark elf.

I addressed the dark elf directly.

“What’s your name?”

“The name is Heinkel.”

“No family name. I’ll let that go for now.”

Heinkel — as the dark elf had introduced himself — looked mildly surprised.

What I’d just referenced was a specific element of dark elf culture, and he knew it.

I tilted my head toward the entrance.

“Now that introductions are done, let’s go inside.”

If it came to a proxy duel, it would be Garul and Heinkel going at each other.

That outcome was obvious.

I’d have to handle this personally.

The manor’s sitting room.

It had taken a moment to retrieve the documents from the vault.

Dominic had already arrived and was standing in the middle of the room, waiting.

“Good of you. Staying on your feet to keep the sofa clean?”

I smiled as I took my seat. Dominic’s expression curdled.

“The owner of the house doesn’t even come out to receive a guest. Where exactly is the count, and why hasn’t he shown his face?”

“He’s working in his study. I’ve agreed to handle this myself — so that’s what’s happening.”

“What? I, a son of Marquis Burzak’s house, came all this way and the count can’t even be bothered to appear? Ha! This is exactly why upstarts can never be trusted. Utterly uncivilized—”

“Hey.”

I shifted my tone.

The Roar.

I didn’t need to raise my voice. It was enough to put weight behind the words.

“My father’s not your friend. Watch your mouth, or I’ll bury you.”

“…”

Dominic snapped his mouth shut, though his face was still burning with indignation.

He couldn’t admit that he had nothing to come back with — not while he was being held down by me.

“Please, be seated, young master.”

Heinkel murmured quietly to Dominic.

The Roar wasn’t any extraordinary technique in itself.

It was built for battlefield use — for commanding soldiers.

But the fact that Heinkel remained completely unmoved by it was telling. The man had serious ability.

Dominic made a show of composing himself, pressed his expression flat, and sat.

All while working hard to pretend he hadn’t just flinched.

Clap.

I brought my hands together lightly to reset the atmosphere.

“Right then. Let’s get to it.”

“Rigen Librata, she deserves better than you! Someone like her needs—”

“Someone as dim as you? One verse is enough.”

Dominic choked.

The Roar’s effect still lingered, leaving him with no edge to bite back on.

In the silence, I turned to dark elf Heinkel and asked,

“This kind of move needs the marquis’s tacit approval to work. That right?”

“I am a guest of House Burzak. I’m not in a position to answer that.”

“Burzak would have sent some signal to Crocell before detaining my fiancée. Crocell didn’t give a clear answer — he decided to sit back, weigh his options, and choose when the moment was right.”

“…”

Garul, standing behind me, let out a quiet groan.

He hadn’t seen it coming. I explained for his benefit.

“On the surface this looks like a lovers’ quarrel. In reality it’s a power struggle between Marquis Burzak and Count Librata. They’ve had bad blood for a while, and Burzak decided this was his chance to flatten us once and for all.”

“You are quite different from the rumors.”

Heinkel looked genuinely taken aback.

Everyone’s surprise seemed to irritate Dominic, and he snarled.

“Rigen Librata. Enough talk. So — what are you going to do? She chose me over you.”

Now, how to handle this one.

As it happened, I had been wanting to test the next stage of my psychic abilities.

Fine. I’ll take everything he’s throwing.

“Pay first, then talk.”

“…What?”

“I understand the appeal of taking a shot even with a goalkeeper in the way. But a penalty kick isn’t free — you buy the slot. Shall we start at thirty million won?”

“What are you even saying?”

“You came here for a duel, didn’t you? If you want to duel me, you pay thirty million won.”

The Millennial Empire used won as its currency — the same unit as Korea.

I had been the one to standardize it, after all.

Dominic looked at me like I had lost my mind, then ground his teeth.

“Pay money to fight? Who in the world would ever—”

“Why would I fight you for free? And if you’re not paying, both of you die where you sit.”

“You think that’s actually going to happen?”

Dominic laughed at the threat.

He was banking on his family name and the skill of his escort.

Heinkel, by contrast, was more measured.

“If you’ll forgive my asking — might we see the basis for that claim?”

I held up the contract I had retrieved from the vault.

The contract with the elf, Melius.

“This is a contract stating that elf Melius will accompany House Librata to the capital.”

“And it’s written in the elven script. Do you understand what that implies?”

“…”

Heinkel’s expression turned grave.

Dark elves cultivate their craft over centuries — and so do elves.

Heinkel was now quietly wondering whether he might end up having to face Melius if things escalated.

Realistically, that particular elf wasn’t likely to lift a finger for House Librata’s sake.

But it was more than enough to make Heinkel doubt.

I looked at Dominic and said,

“There. All explained. If you want to settle this with me directly, you pay.”

“A direct duel? With someone who doesn’t have a single drop of magic? Are you trying to get yourself killed?”

“Hold on. Are noblemen even allowed to fight each other directly?”

I turned to Garul and asked.

“It depends on the line of succession. Anyone other than the firstborn has no particular restrictions on dueling.”

“Right, that’s how it was. Good. Let’s do it.”

I had written those laws myself, of course. I knew perfectly well.

I had said it deliberately — to lock in a direct duel between me and Dominic.

Heinkel, who had been listening, pressed a hand down on Dominic’s shoulder.

“Young master Dominic. Please, hold yourself.”

“What?”

“You must stay calm. Your opponent has no magic. A direct duel is beneath you, and if this escalates into something larger, the marquis will not be pleased.”

Dominic, who had been ready to boil over, pulled back.

Heinkel said firmly,

“I will fight in your place. Please trust me to handle it.”

“Hmm…”

If Heinkel stepped in, I would have to send Garul.

That was the principle of noble dueling. And Heinkel’s odds of winning were somewhere around ninety-nine percent.

Which was exactly what I had been trying to prevent.

I looked at Dominic.

“Are you scared to fight me yourself?”

“Don’t make me laugh. Who do you think—”

“So you don’t have the confidence to actually win her over me. Fair enough — I’m notorious all over this territory for being able to charm women, and you’ve got nothing to your name, have you? So you come with your fists because that’s the one thing you think you have an edge in — and now what? How does this look for you?”

“…”

“I’d win that fight too.”

I said it with a deliberate drawl.

Holding his gaze with a contemptuous look.

A simple provocation. But effective.

Because Dominic threw off the hand Heinkel had pressed to his shoulder.

“Is this son of a bitch so brain-addled from all the beatings that he can’t remember? Hey — you don’t remember crying like a child after I knocked you around ten years ago?”

“Did that happen?”

Young noblemen mingled with one another, of course.

But one glance told you everything — Dominic and Rigen had never been on good terms.

Dominic sneered.

“Clinging to that filthy beastwoman’s skirts and sobbing your eyes out — what a pathetic sight that was. I tried to handle things like a gentleman, but it seems you prefer earning the hard way.”

“Sitting down and earning it, actually. So, are you paying for the duel, or not?”

I propped my chin in my hand and watched him.

Dominic’s eyes narrowed.

The look of a man who refused to accept being looked at that way.

An absolute, unshakeable conviction that he was superior — stronger, better.

“Fine. I’ll break you in half right here and now!”

“We’ll serve the guest however he likes.”

The fish had swum straight into the net.

Time to fillet it.