After Royal Knight Commander Marcos Gildart had concluded the ceremony, a large rectangular stone tablet was brought forth. Upon it were the written rules of the Royal Selection.
To Crimson, it was all just a recap; he had already been taught the fundamental laws to avoid disqualification during his very first education session with Rei. The other candidates, with the exception of Priscilla, appeared as though they hadn't given any real thought to the actual struggle of attaining the role of Lugunica's next monarch. Their confusion made that clear; three of the girls wore expressions clouded by unfamiliarity, as if reading the rule about domains for the very first time. Whether it was due to confidence, arrogance, or sheer laziness, they acted as though it was all brand-new information.
To the girls, however, something stood out, or rather, failed to.
Crimson, who had been performing for attention just moments ago, was now deathly silent.
Where once he stood like an actor performing on stage, now he remained motionless, expression strained and unreadable.
With the eyes of the four girls quietly shifting to him, they noticed his complexion growing increasingly pale. Faint beads of sweat formed on his pale skin, giving him a sickly complexion.
The Duchess, Lady Crusch Karsten, though a disciplined and stern woman, felt a faint concern settle over her heart. What kind of shallow woman would she be if she had the resources to alleviate suffering right in front of her, at no cost, and chose to ignore it?
Her gaze lowered to the horrible burn scorched across the boy's neck.
That must be it, she concluded.
His current state must originate from that wound.
Clenching her gloved fist tightly, her eyes filled with determination, she leaned toward her knight, Felix Argyle, whispering into the twitching cat's left ear. All the candidates were required to stand in a line beside their chosen attendants, and Felix's long ears tilted down obediently to pick up his lady's voice.
"After the proceedings are ended, would you please offer to heal Crimson's burn?"
She gave the smallest motion toward the blackened flesh on the blindfolded boy's neck.
Felix, hearing his lady's words, curled his tail in veiled disgust.
"Crusch… may I ask why you want me to heal your—"
He forced out the word as if it were revolting.
"Rival?"
Crusch gave her knight a complicated look.
"No matter our feelings toward someone we dislike, if given the option between kindness and seeing them in pain, one should strive to be kind. If seeing a person in that state gives us more pleasure than pity, then we have failed in character, becoming the evil, we should be disgusted by."
Felix flicked his ears.
The duchess's words were going in one furry ear and out the other.
He turned his head toward the blindfolded boy, who appeared to be growing increasingly ill, with faint beads of sweat forming on his pale skin. Crimson's condition was visibly worsening. Yet, Felix's anger and satisfaction only deepened.
But underneath those surface emotions… There was something else.
Unease.
This boy's open challenges to the knights, to Julius, made him uncomfortable.
Logically, Felix knew Julius would crush him without much effort.
So why?
Why did he feel the urge to stop this boy here and now?
Opening his mouth with a forced cheer, he grinned at Crusch.
"As you command, my lady."
His expression was light, amused even, but his eyes… his eyes held cold resolve as they inconspicuously narrowed toward the boy.
As soon as the final rule of the Royal Selection, those set by the Dragon Stone, was read aloud, the ceremony came to a close. The crowd of white-coated knights began to gather around Julius.
The purple-haired Spirit Knight raised his voice loud enough for Crimson to hear, deliberate and commanding:
"I will wait for you in the training arena. Given your present physical state, I would not mind a postponement of our duel. If you wish to delay our match, then I will not hold your words of challenge against you."
It seemed even Julius had noticed Crimson's physical condition
With a stiff smile, Crimson replied, his tone carrying an unnerving intensity:
"I'll meet you out there in thirty minutes."
Reinhard was then called out specifically by the green-haired Knight Commander, pulled aside for an unknown private discussion.
Crimson didn't wait. He didn't even glance toward his knight as she finished speaking with Marcos.
Without hesitation, he exited the throne room quickly.
Felix watched him leave, his gaze sharpening.
An intrusive thought wormed its way into his mind, one he justified easily.
For my lady…
If there was ever a chance to rid her of an obstacle, one of the few real threats to the throne, then now, while he was separated from his guardian, was the time.
***
Crimson felt sick.
His insides were in a knot, and the temperature around him felt like it was burning.
His head was spinning.
Emotions, raw, tangled, and intrusive, clogged up the gears of his rational mind.
He had been suppressing the urge to vomit for far too long.
Walking alone through the castle passageways, he navigated using his Grey World effortlessly, his vision slipping through the thick stone walls like an X-ray. A mini map of the architect's layout. He scanned carefully, locating a washroom, then began weaving through the twisting corridors in a zigzagging route.
But even as he moved, he remained aware.
He was being followed.
A resentful cat was tailing him.
Felix's emotions, heavily suppressed, reeked of hatred and resolve. Crimson could sense it. He didn't need mind-reading to see how this would end.
If Felix had truly just wanted to talk, he would've done so earlier, not now, not after he had made himself so deliberately secluded.
Reaching out to the stone wall casually, as if to inspect it, Crimson injected mana into it over a slow, controlled five seconds. He turned his back to the creeping cat, oblivious to the knight's approach.
He had been ambushed too many times in one life to count. Every single time, he'd survived by the skin of his teeth, just barely. To outsiders, it looked like he was untouchable. But to Crimson, it was always luck. That disconnect between how others saw him and how he saw himself only deepened the divide with his allies. They found his perspective unbearably negative, no matter how many achievements he stacked.
Ah, but that wasn't him.
When Felix began to approach, masking his intentions behind feigned concern, Crimson felt the shift. The emotional signature darkened, sour and cold.
Felix couldn't even hide it. Crimson could feel it bleeding out with every step.
How resentful could one person be?
He hadn't even gone all out in insulting the four women. He'd kept his words blunt but honest. Even when presented with countless openings, he chose not to twist the knife. He had hoped they would see the truth behind what he said and change for the better.
The only person he had harmed was Subaru. And even that had been… for Subaru's own good, avoiding the trauma that would follow with Emilia's abandonment.
The horrible acting, the fake concern on Felix's face, it made Crimson's stomach twist. Every smile, every step edging closer, every falsely gentle word…
He didn't believe a single second of it.
Just earlier, Felix had attempted to attack him. Rei's quick intervention had effortlessly stopped it.
That pathetic act only confirmed what Crimson already knew.
Felix didn't want to help him.
If, by some miraculous change of heart, Felix did want to heal him, then he would be way more forceful and say that Crusch ordered him to, not masking his clear dislike, even insulting him.
Felix just wanted an excuse to touch him.
And physical contact with this healer meant death.
Felix wasn't a front-line fighter, not in the traditional sense. His most dangerous ability was a touch that could silently shut down bodily functions. No visible wound. No resistance. Just an internal collapse.
It was one of the most painful ways Crimson had ever died.
Paralyzed. Fully conscious. Unable to breathe. Vision dimming. Organs failing, piece by piece.
It could last from minutes to an hour, depending on Felix's intent.
And yet... Felix thought this would work?
It only exposed his recklessness.
If Felix had been smarter, tactical, Crimson might've respected the attempt.
But this?
This was idiocy; it lacked foresight.
Felix had attempted to strike while Crimson was separated from Rei. It was the best shot he'd ever get. But also, the worst option.
If Felix succeeded in killing him, Crusch wouldn't walk away unscathed. She would be suspect number one. The other candidates, the merchant and the noble, would pounce on it. The incident would spiral into a scandal. The duchess's position in the royal selection would be obliterated.
So what was the point?
Now holding the struggling knight suspended by the throat with his Unseen Hand, Crimson felt a pulse of sharp impatience rise in his chest.
If his mind weren't fogged with nausea, if his focus weren't being smothered by everything he'd been enduring up to this point, he would've taken his time.
He would've enjoyed beating the crap out of this idiot.
Instead, he watched with cold indifference as Felix clawed desperately at his own throat, his face darkening to a violent shade of purple while Crimson grimaced slightly.
Without a word, he channeled mana from his core, directing it toward the small of his back and into his invisible grip.
Crimson's mana surged into Felix's body through forced infusion, a visible purple sheen forming over the demi-human's figure. This was one of the greatest features of the Unseen Hand: the ability to forcefully inject mana into another's body. It didn't help the strain it put on his mind to keep the hand tangible, but it was either this… or outright murder. And that would only complicate things further.
Crimson condensed the mana and released it.
The wall behind Felix, the very one Crimson had marked earlier, reacted immediately. The gravity emission activated with a low guttural hum. Felix, like a taut rubber band being released, snapped free from the Unseen Hand and was violently suctioned toward the wall. A smaller object pulled into a larger gravitational field, it was like falling sideways, or being yanked into a magnet.
The sight was almost comical. Felix flipped through the air in a blur before smashing into the far stone wall with a deafening crack.
Crimson didn't so much as flinch.
To put the impact in perspective: it was equivalent to falling from a 45-foot height, horizontally. Whether it was lethal depended entirely on where someone landed. But residents here, especially knights, were built differently. Excluding the real monsters among them, even a well-trained knight could lift four tons and match a ground dragon in a short sprint.
Felix truly was the best healer in the kingdom. He could handle a few broken bones.
After all, he hadn't earned the title "Blue" for nothing; he was the most skilled water attribute mage in the entire world. His healing could restore limbs, mend ligaments, reconstruct tissue… all without leaving a single scar.
So a shattered spine and a few fractured ribs?
That was nothing for a healer of his caliber.
Crimson walked away, not sparing the collapsed body another glance.
Breathing in deeply, he relaxed.
Crimson, no, the identity that no longer had any energy to act was Toyota.
Toyota walked quietly toward the washroom, his footsteps light, almost absent. Rei and Rom followed behind at a cautious distance. Elsa was… who knew where.
At the entrance to the room, he paused. The thick, black-painted wooden door creaked slightly as he pushed it open, but he didn't step through.
Instead, he turned and waited, letting Rei and Rom catch up. Both wore questioning looks.
Then, with no effort to hide his emotions, Toyota turned and smiled, a weak, tired smile.
"The duel in the training ring should begin soon," he said. "Can I please have some time alone?"
His voice, which had previously mimicked Subaru's bright cadence, had shifted. It was lower now. Slower. Natural. And unmistakably worn down by exhaustion.
Rom stepped in front of Rei, face stern.
"Boy—"
At the word, Toyota's expression twitched, as if unintentionally insulted. Rom caught himself.
"Crim," he corrected with a sigh. "What are ya planning to do with this old man? And why'd you want me to hide yer name from the kid?"
Toyota immediately understood, Rom was referring to Subaru.
He wondered, briefly, how the old man might've reacted if he had seen Subaru curled up and unconscious on the floor like that.
A tired chuckle slipped from his lips.
"I'll answer your questions… after I lose the duel."
Rom's brows rose in confusion, his eyes narrowing. "If ya know you're gonna lose, then why challenge that purple-haired brat?"
Toyota gave a knowing smile but didn't answer. Instead, he turned his back to Rom and opened the door to the washroom.
He barely began to close it when a black leather-gloved hand caught his shoulder, firm, yet oddly gentle.
He was spun around, face to face with Rei.
Her eyes were filled with a fierce concern.
Without a word, she reached up and gently held his chin, lifting it with delicate care. Toyota offered no resistance. He simply stood, hollow.
"Cancel or postpone the duel," she said quietly, but firmly. "You need to get that treated. I would recommend Felix, but after the stunt he just pulled, I refuse to let him anywhere near you."
Her normally calm blue eyes were alight with cold fury as she spoke of the healer. It was the first time Toyota felt genuine relief that he wouldn't have to explain what had happened with Crusch's knight; she already knew enough.
He slowly pried her fingers from his face. They were still warm from concern, and letting go of them felt strangely difficult.
He tried to smile, but the expression came out warped, like a puppet forced to mimic happiness. There was no life behind it, only fatigue.
"I can fix it myself…" he murmured. "Just… can you give me a moment alone to think?"
His voice wavered near the end, brittle with the effort to contain emotions threatening to spill.
"Please… give me some time."
The second plea came out softer, like an echo.
Then Rei's eyes widened in alarm.
Toyota's weak smile dropped. He frowned, sensing the shift.
"What…?" he asked cautiously, his heart suddenly racing. "What is it?"
Her blue eyes were locked onto his face.
If that was the case, then whatever had startled her must have been something on his face. But… he didn't feel any blood. He hadn't begun bleeding from his ears again, had he?
Confused, he asked, "What's wrong? Wait, did that slap from Crusch mess up my face or something?"
Rei shook her head. "That's not it, but… uhm, your tears."
Toyota recoiled as if electrocuted.
"Tears?"
Rei froze. Her voice lowered, filled with hesitation. "Tears… are rolling down your face. Haven't you realized?"
His breath caught in his throat.
Rei was scared?
She had spoken so forcefully moments ago. Now, her voice trembled as if his behavior unnerved her.
Slowly, timidly, Toyota raised a hand to his cheek. His fingers brushed the warm droplet clinging to his skin. It had slid down, pooling where the blindfold's edge met the bridge of his nose.
Bringing both hands to his face, he felt around for the moisture that came with crying. His brows furrowed.
"…Huh? I'm… crying?"
Rei nodded, her expression stricken with quiet concern.
"Y-Yeah. You're crying. What's the matter? Did… did the pain from your neck cause this…?"
"I'll be fine," he said curtly, pulling back.
Without another word, he forcefully closed the wooden door between them.
(AN: I have had to redo this chapter 4 times, at first it was from Felts Pov but I didn't like it, and the second time, I speed ran everything skipping straight to the duel, but it felt too rushed with no emotional beats, the third I did from Rei's Pov and it just felt uncomfortable, with her inner thoughts being possessive and murderous. This was the best attempt I could get.
For those of you big brains who have noticed, I really dislike Felix and will only make him more of a scumbag as time goes by, so show me love by hating his character.
We will be united in hatred (CUE EVIL CACKLE)
I know that I didn't release on schedule, but ultimately, I want to make a good fanfic, so if I don't like something, it gets erased.
I've set an official release schedule: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Although when I get bored, I add extra.
Bonus chapters will drop on Saturdays if my demands are met. 🔫
Trade deal:
You give me 150 power stones, and I give you a bonus chapter.
"Sounds fair, right?"