"I can't believe you did this…"
The deadpan, yet at the sa ti scathing, words practically echoed in the mostly empty grand hall inside the forr headquarters of the Knightly Order of Knightily Knighting Knights. As for why it was demoted to its current, borderline desolate state, it had sothing to do with the building getting infiltrated by an enigmatic and rather unwelco guest not too long ago. Since its security was obviously compromised, the Entitled Knights unanimously agreed to vacate the newly established base of operations without even bothering to take the set dressings, such as the flags and the huge round table. As for how they managed to get it into the room in the first place when none of the entrances were even remotely wide enough… that was a mystery for the ages.
That said, it didn't fall completely out of use, as attested by the duo currently in the room. Both of them were wearing their full gear, as usual, including the helts. Honestly speaking, at this point it would've been stranger if they didn't. They didn't take their seat around the table but stood by the large double doors, and the taller one in the griffon-thed armor was doing his best to facepalm through his visor.
"I panicked, okay?" the girl in the unicorn-helt sulked with a voice that was once again considerably lower than her natural tone. Why she bothered with the charade even in the company of his fellow Knights was yet another mystery. Or maybe she was lowering her voice precisely because she was talking to her peers, and was trying to sound more mature and serious? I had no idea, as I couldn't see into her head, but if she was trying to do that, I'd say that sulkily admitting that she ssed up wasn't made any more authoritative just by dropping an octave.
"This isn't a trivial matter." Mr. Griffon spoke with a mixture of disapproval and exasperation that reminded of an overworked elentary school teacher trying to have a serious discussion with a kid he already knew wouldn't listen. "Entering into the heart of the Magi's territory was already a questionable decision, but this? An Arbitration is not a tool for resolving sibling quarrels."
"It's not a simple quarrel. Also, I already told you, but I had to go to the school. It was necessary to inform brother about the threat this Bel of the Abyss represents."
"Necessary? There are nurous other ways you could've made contact. Insisting on getting directly involved with Leonard's mission was nothing short of foolish."
"No, it wasn't," she insisted, all but stomping her feet in the process. "I enrolled without any complications or raising suspicion, and we talked without anyone else's notice."
She sounded really earnest, so much so that if soone didn't personally experience her escapades in the school, they would've been inclined to believe her. Luckily for her, Mr. Griffon was one such person, and after a mont of silence that stretched further than the average reader's suspension of disbelief, he exhaled a long, tired breath.
"So you've already warned him?" She nodded, so Mr. Griffon emphasized the question, "When?"
"On the day I infiltrated the school," she answered, her choice of words making her enrollnt sound considerably more grandiose than it actually was.
"And yet you continued to attend the lessons despite the threat your presence posed to his operation?"
"I… I concluded that retreating right away would've been too suspicious."
"Is that so?"
"Yes. Since nobody investigated , it ans my cover is still intact, and it was important to keep it so. For Leo's sake."
Sir Griffon let out an ambivalent grunt and pondered the issue, though it was hard to fathom why. She already taunted Snowy a couple of tis, and even without the rest of the group already knowing about her affiliations, she didn't even bother hiding her animosity, so it was incredibly obvious who she was. The only way the man could buy her excuse was if he was completely ignorant of her conduct up to this point. Which he apparently was.
"Your presence is still a liability, but so long as you make sure you wouldn't be connected to him, I suppose his cover would remain intact even if your identity were to be uncovered."
"Yes. Certainly." Miss Unicorn agreed with a suspiciously nervous chuckle, and if this was a manga, she'd most likely have one of those oversized sweat drops on her head, even though she was wearing a helt. It was one of the more baffling artistic shorthands of the dium.
"But back to the original issue," the man with the griffon helt changed the topic at once, making the knightess twitch in apprehension. "Why did you challenge your brother to Arbitration?"
"I... can't tell you the details, but it's very important. Brother made a terrible decision, and this was the only way I could think of for stopping him in the heat of the mont."
"You can't tell ," Mr. Griffon echoed her but got no reaction. Since the girl remained silent, he slowly, very deliberately crossed his arms in front of his chest and let out a thoughtful hum. "It has to be a disagreent that cannot be resolved by words alone, and also sothing that ca about during the ti you observed him in the school environnt." He looked the armor-clad girl over from head to toe, and she subtly shrunk back from his furtive gaze. "Is this related to the Abyssal he's sheltering at his base?"
"Wha... What makes you think that?"
She was as transparent as sheet glass, and the man didn't deem her awkward question worthy of an answer either. Maybe for the better, as he also ceased trying to get more details out of her.
"In any case, your timing is terrible. Between the appearance of this dangerous new elent and the coming gathering of the wyrmbloods, we cannot afford either of you getting injured, or worse."
"I'll… try not to injure him?" she proposed a little weakly, but the man remained completely stoic.
"This is not up to your discretion," Mr. Griffon practically hissed in response to her comnt. "The rules of Arbitration are clear and concise. So long as both of you have accepted it, unbefitting conduct during combat would risk breaking your Oath."
"I know…"
Unicorn Girl sounded especially sulky by this point, and after a long silence, the man let out a shallow sigh in resignation.
"Are you sure you want to go through with it? The sixth clause allows the cancellation of Arbitration so long as one side admits their mistake and the other acknowledges their admission in front of at least one witness."
"I can't back down!" the girl suddenly burst out with an intensity that made her previous sullenness seem like an illusion. "I can't let brother…! I an, I have to open his eyes to the truth before he makes a huge, no, enormous mistake that cannot be undone!"
"Is the eye-opening part still in regards to the Abyssal girl?"
"Yes! I an, no! I an… among other things?"
"You're making very little sense right now, Penelope."
Mr. Griffon's comnt (presumably) made the girl puff her cheeks in indignation. It was impossible to say for sure due to the helt, but her body language definitely gave off that impression.
"I'm not making sense!? Tell that to my brother! There are so many perfectly normal girls in that school, so why did he have to pick soone like her?!"
"… Are we still talking about the Abyssal girl?"
Miss Unicorn shuddered so hard her whole armor rattled and she hastily waved her arms in front of her as her tone took another one-eighty turn.
"N-No, of course not! Leonard would neeever do sothing like that! Seriously, he didn't!"
The more he floundered, the more skeptical the man in front of her appeared to be (though, once again, it was hard to tell through all the tal plates), and once she ran out of breath, he slowly exhaled as well.
"So Duncan was right. This really is all about your obsession with your brother's love life."
"No, it's not!" Miss Unicorn exclaid in a show of clear indignation that, incidentally, also broke her fake voice as well. "I an, yes, it has to do with him, and it might have sothing to do with his lover, but I'm not obsessed with him!"
"I said his love life, not him in particular," the Griffon Knight corrected her, earning himself an angry huff in return.
"Sa difference!"
The man slowly shook his head when faced with the fuming girl, completely unfazed by the barely visible yet almost tangibly scathing glare behind her visor.
"In conclusion, you aren't willing to compromise, and if Leonard was willing to accept Arbitration despite his slim odds of victory, I presu he won't listen to reason either." After concluding that by himself, the man raised a hand to his face and lightly tapped on the chin of his helt with his index finger. "He has accepted the challenge, right?"
"He… didn't refuse it?" the girl answered in a soft voice, prompting the man to raise his hand to his eye level again.
"Once we're done with this, you're going to review the Codex of the Brotherhood from page one. Understood?" Miss Unicorn slowly nodded, and after a long pause the man let his hand down and exhaled a shallow, resigned sigh. "Are you certain you're prepared to go through with this?"
"Yes, I'm certain," the Knight girl nodded, her posture full of determination… and her voice hovering sowhere between her normal and fake voice, kind of ruining the mont. Or rather it would've ruined the mont if there was one, but I digress.
"In that case, you better make the necessary arrangents. Was that why you ca to ?"
"Yes? I-I an, yes, mostly." When the man remained conspicuously silent, she quickly sputtered out, "Since I have no first-hand experience, I thought I'd ask for advice. Also… um… could I ask you to be my witness?" The request, for so wholly unfathomable reason, took the man completely by surprise, so she hastily explained herself. "I can't ask Sir Arnwald, because his injury still hasn't fully healed yet, and as for Duncan… He never really got along with my brother, so I'm afraid he would make the situation worse."
"True," Mr. Griffon agreed, if tentatively, and the Knight girl imdiately used the opening to lean forward and clasp her hands in front of her chest.
"Please, uncle! You're the only one I can rely on!"
Was… Was she trying to act cute? It was hard to tell with the armor and the helt and the false voice, but her body language certain implied that she was trying to appear that way.
"How co you're only calling uncle nowadays whenever you want sothing from ?"
"That's not true! It's just that… calling you that in front of others is awkward. It makes feel like I'm a kid."
"You are a kid," he pointed out, and the girl imdiately switched into sulking mode again.
"No, I'm not! Also, you owe one anyway! You lost my unicorn horn!"
"I did, but you got it back," Sir Roland continued to be the voice of reason, which only infuriated the girl even further.
"That's beside the point! The least you could do is to do this tiny little favor, right, uncle?"
At this point the two of them entered into a long staring contest. It was, unsurprisingly, broken by the man ever so slightly slumping his shoulders and stating, "Fine, I'll be your witness."
"Great! Oh, but don't tell the others about it! I need to do this alone!"
"You just recruited , so you're not doing this alone by definition."
"You know what I an!" she grumbled, yet it definitely felt like she was grinning behind her visor. "Thanks though. I would've beco a laughingstock if I got disqualified because I couldn't find a witness."
"Be careful. You can still end up as one if you lose the duel."
"Pfff! Like that would ever happen!" Miss Unicorn dismissed him without a mont of consideration. "Brother couldn't beat in a spar ever since we were ten years old!"
"Arbitration isn't sparring," the man pointed out with unwavering patience. "You'll put everything on the line to prove your point, and so will Leonard. If you underestimate his resolve, you might end up regretting it."
He also added 'especially if it's really about a girl' in a low voice, but she gave no reaction whatsoever.
"I… guess you're right. It's been a while since we last sparred so… maybe I should train a little? Just for my peace of mind! It's not like I'm worried about losing, but it never hurts to be prepared, right?"
"That's right."
"Soooo… Uncle Roland? Would you be my opponent? Pretty please?"
"… You are incorrigible," he said, yet soon they both headed to the spacious lobby of the office building they were in, and they soon began to make preparations for erecting a Purple Zone, most like to avoid collateral damage.
They were also, naturally, completely unaware of the fact that soone was observing their sparring session with every single fiber of their brain. I had no idea whether spying on the Arbitration opponent was unchivalrous, unsportsmanlike, or just plain unfair, but I couldn't say I cared. I was a sneaky little fly on the wall, and that's how I always did things. It served well so far, so there was no reason to try fixing what wasn't broken. Buzz-buzz.
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