Vermillion

“—I challenge you to a duel.”

Kei became speechless from Alexei’s sudden declaration.

He fought many 1vs1 duels inside the game — but this was a first for him in real life.

“What would your reply be?”

Alexei asked very courteously with his sword thrust out in front of him. Given his attitude, this could hardly be a joke.

Kei stood still, looking bewildered, but Alexei kept up his firm expression. Still, seeing how one of them pointed a blade at the other, the merchants and villagers seemed to guess the situation and started to noisily gather around the two.

“What’s going on?”

“Looks like a duel between love rivals.”

“Oh, maddened by love, huh?”

The onlookers whispered to each other. Despite feeling extremely awkward from being exposed to their gazes, Kei still asked, “A duel?”

“Indeed.”

Alexei gave a firm nod while squarely meeting Kei’s eyes.

“Why all of a sudden?”

“For you are my rival in love.”

Alexei’s high-handed attitude told Kei that further words would be wasted here, causing him to be at his wits’ end.

“Ahh, it’s come out, the Snowlander’s bad habit…!”

Dagmar spoke while holding his head as if enduring a headache.

“…Bad habit, you say?”

“I mean, the thing with the duels! Whenever there’s trouble, they duel! They duel over love affairs! And they even duel at the bark of a dog!” He answered while looking up to the sky in exasperation. “They try to solve literally everything with brute strength. And it’s love matters that make them go completely haywire. The Snowlanders allow polygamy, adhering to the principle of a strong man has to take a good wife. They even approve of marriage by abduction based on a duel. Whenever they find a good woman, they start scrambling for the husband’s seat each and every single time.”

“I-I see…” Kei spiritlessly commented Dagmar’s explanation.

Being a romanticist when it came to love, Kei could not wrap his head around their way of doing things.

“…Still, what would be the point? Even if we duke it out, it’d still be Aileen’s decision to make in the end, wouldn’t it?”

Even if a completely unrelated man won, how would that affect the woman’s feelings? Or did the Snowlanders simply disregard how the woman in question felt about the matter? Kei voiced his doubt with a frown.

Hearing that, Alexei relaxed on his polite attitude for the first time since the challenge and shrugged in response, as if declaring that Kei was merely stating the obvious.

“But even a love of a hundred years would turn sour, if the man the woman loves gets pathetically beaten up in front of her eyes, right?”

He responded jokingly, a faint smile on his lips, yet his eyes gleamed with maliciousness.

“…Really now?”

Silently, and faintly, the corners of Kei’s mouth rose up into a vague smile. It was clear what Alexei meant, seeing how he had declared it right into Kei’s face.

Kei told himself to stay calm and not go along with that cheap provocation, but he could not stop a muddy feeling spreading throughout his chest. Kei was by no means a quarrelsome person, but this time Alexei had gone too far. Kei could not stomach Alexei’s flippant attitude, his arrogant confidence that he would come out as the winner anyway, and his presumptuousness of treating Aileen like some kind of prize.

——As a matter of fact, I couldn’t stand this guy from the very start anyway.

He remembered the phrase irreconcilable enemy.

He momentarily closed his eyes — and his expression deepened even more as he finally cast away his hesitation to harbor ill will.

Both men had smiles on their faces, but each meant something else.

Facing each other in silence.

The atmosphere between them suddenly turned cold.

It felt like the morning mist billowing through the air was about to freeze.

“……”

The curious onlookers, who had initially surrounded them half in jest, could not speak up any longer because of the chilling sensation creeping up from under their feet, and merely stood still as they watched on with bated breaths.

“…W-Well, that’s just a snowland custom. You… right, not sure if you’re from Grasslander, Kei, but the point is that you aren’t from the snowlands, right? We aren’t in the north now, so there’s no need to accept that duel—” Dagmar wedged himself between the two with a faint smile. “There’s no merit in it for you, even if you were to accept the duel, nor is there a need to—”

“Right, there is no need to accept it.” Alexei interjected, standing with his arms folded while playing around with his dagger on his fingertip. “If we were in the north right, you’d be branded a coward if you ran from a duel. But you’re no Snowlander, and you’re a hero that took down the Grande Urs with one arrow… Even if you reject this duel, no one would call you a coward.”

Kei’s eyebrow twitched. Alexei’s sonorous words felt somewhat ironic to him.

“—Therefore, I will add some conditions for my side.” Alexei said and raised three of his fingers.

“First. I will only use a sword and shield.”

He first put a limit on his specialised weapon.

“Second. We will start this battle 50 steps apart.”

On top of it, he gave up his attack distance. Moreover…

“Third. You can use whatever weapon you want. You can use a sword, or the bow you specialise in, it’s up to you.”

Alexei’s declaration, accompanied by a fearless smile, caused the crowd to stir. The merchants who had personally witnessed the might of Kei’s bow were particularly bewildered, muttering that it was too reckless.

“…Looks like I’m being underestimated here. I won’t be able to hold back with the bow.”

Those words unconsciously slipped out of Kei’s mouth.

Due to Kei’s mutter holding the aggressive implication of ‘What if my hand slips’, Alexei responded by throwing his hands up.

“It’d be too disadvantageous for you if it was close combat. And there would be no fun in winning against an archer in a sword fight. There is no point unless I crush your everything head on. Besides,” his smile suddenly turned ferocious, “it’d be a pain if you started to complain that it all would have turned out differently if you had used a bow after the battle. I have to remove any grounds for excuses.”

“…Quite a confidence you have there.”

“Of course. Your skill with the bow is certainly threatening. But the Snowland warriors are only considered full-fledged once they master every weapon type including the sword, shield, bow, spear and ax. And I’ll teach you why I chose to go with sword and shield from among all those choices.”

“Heh. I look forward to that. But… I don’t know whether those are your favorite sword and shield, but I hope you won’t complain if they get broken?”

“Haha. Can I take this as you accepting the duel?”

He asked in pure bliss — his expression was already like that of a beast. Being asked, Kei used the opportunity to weigh the risks and gains once more in his mind.

The returns were too light, practically nonexistent — and yet the scales still tilted towards that side.

He clearly understood that there were no merits in accepting this duel.

It was actually a very irritating situation. If he denied it, Alexei would most likely pull back. But in return, Kei’s honor would take damage. If he accepted it, however, he would just be doing what Alexei wanted. Just the fact that he was dancing on his palm pissed Kei off.

If he was going to end up pissed off either way, it would probably be better to choose the side where he could punch him to his heart’s content.

Kei pondered with clear, yet heated emotions in his heart. If he did not accept it after all these provocations, it would sully his pride as a man.

Besides, I’m a hunter.

Kei had decided to become a successful hunter. Not a simple huntsman, but a big game hunter that could take on monsters on the level of a Grande Urs.

—If so, how could he not put down this mad dog that was right in front of his eyes?

“—Hooold it right theeeere!!”

Just as Kei made up his mind and was about to answer, a yell came from the bystanders with Holland rushing over with loud footsteps.

“A duel!? I can’t have you decide something like that without consulting me, the person in charge!”

Holland barked with a tone teeming with blame. The brunt of his anger seemed to be directed at Alexei.

“This is between us two. It doesn’t concern you.”

“Like hell it doesn’t concern me! I am responsible for this caravan, and he’s a hired escort! He still has work to do, even if only for half a day!”

“Another half a day is a problem for me too. It would be difficult to fight later if I let this chance go.”

Alexei responded without showing any care towards Holland’s anger.

If the caravan kept heading north, they would be reaching the outskirts of Stronghold City Urvan within half a day. But the escort mission formally lasted until they reached the urban areas, so Alexei might be worried that it would be difficult to find a suitable location for a duel, even if he challenged Kei to one.

On the other hand, the pioneer village was relatively safe since it was close to urban areas, and it wasn’t hard to find an open field. Considering the conditions Alexei had mentioned before, it would certainly be better to hold the duel here. It was possible for them to head outside once they reached Urvan and fight there, but whether Kei would bother going that far for this duel was another problem.

“Still—”

“Even if his health should get in the way of his work after the duel, I’ll take on the escort role in his stead. Naturally, for free.”

Holland tried to argue back, but Alexei only scratched his head and turned around while looking as if it was a pain to deal with this.

“Even if something else happens, I swear by my ancestor, Alexander’s name, that I will take full responsibility.”

Hearing his oath with the blade held up, Holland’s eyes darted around with his expression showing how troubled he was.

“…Hey, Dagmar, what do you think about this?”

“…Don’t throw the problem at me.” Dagmar responded with a bitter face. “Honestly, if both sides agree, I’d tell them to go and get it over with quickly… Troubles over not following proper procedures is much more of a pain to deal with.”

Dagmar glanced at Alexei and Pierre with reproachful eyes. Alexei feigned ignorance, while Pierre, who was in the crowd of onlookers, awkwardly averted his eyes.

“…Dagmar, I would like your opinion as the mediator for the escorts.”

“Hmm. Well, leaving this muscle-brain aside, the problem is Kei. Setting aside if something like the “Grande Urs” from yesterday shows up… I’d say there would be no problems even if we omit Kei. We worked in a team of six people from the start, and we have the little princess Aileen’s magic as backup in the worst case too.”

“I see… You two, there would be no accidental deaths, right?”

He looked somewhat suspiciously at Kei and Alexei while brushing his beard.

“…”

The two men in question responded with an eerie silence.

“You can’t be serious… There’s no way I’ll be able to allow it then.”

“I’ll be careful.”

“I’ll take the proper measures.”

The two quickly responded.

“Good grief,” Holland scratched his head. “Do whatever you want,” he added with a sigh.

“Then, once again…”

Alexei turned towards Kei in good humor.

“I challenge you to a duel.”

“Very well, I accept.”

With his dignified declaration, the audience stirred and Alexei nodded in satisfaction.

“Good. I suspect the conditions I mentioned earlier work for you? As for the place—”

“Mgghh, can’t you be a bit more quiet?”

Suddenly, the tent rustled behind Kei. Turning around, he saw Aileen coming out while rubbing her eyes.

“…Wait, what?”

In front of her were Kei and Alexei facing each other, surrounded by a crowd. She blinked her eyes in confusion, noticing the strange atmosphere.

“…What’s going on?”

Receiving her inquisitive gaze, “Hmm,” Kei pondered. “Sorry, but we decided to have a bit of a duel in regards to you.”

†††

————– End of Part 1 ————–