Someone stepped out of the fog.
Directly between Claire and Rion, separating them without touching either.
"That is enough."
The fog cleared. Blue hair caught the moonlight.
"Professor Ard!" Rena took a step back. "How did you—"
"I declare Claire the winner of this duel."
"What?!" Rion's attendant spun toward Ard. "You cannot simply—"
"Rion can no longer fight. He is still standing and his sword is intact, but his body will not respond to him. He is feeling it now, several points of intense strain across his muscles and joints. Claire, on the other hand, can still continue. She is injured, but her breathing is stable."
Silence.
Ard exhaled. "If the duel continues, one of them will be seriously hurt. That creates work for the professors. I am choosing to avoid that."
Rion had blood at his temple, bruising visible along his jaw and arms. No deep cuts. Claire had several lacerations across her arms and side, but her breathing was even, her posture still upright.
"Take Rion to his room and call Professor Celi for treatment."
A pause. Then, reluctantly, "Understood." Rion was supported by his attendant and carried off toward the dormitory.
Ard glanced toward Claire and Rena.
"I will not thank you," Claire said. Her expression had not changed.
Ard did not respond to that, since he had not done anything worth thanking.
"I am sorry, Professor Ard! I should have stopped them sooner, but I—"
"No. Choosing not to step into an active duel was the right call. You did what you could." He turned to Claire. "As for you. I understand you may have felt something needed to be proven tonight. But you already know you are stronger than Rion. There was no reason to escalate to third-circle casting."
Claire said nothing.
"You already understand the rest. Tomorrow you will both receive a punishment from me. Not just you. Rion as well."
"...I understand."
"Rena, return to your room and rest. I will take care of Claire's injuries."
Rena understood immediately what was not being said. She straightened and bowed.
"Of course. Good night, Professor Ard." She turned and walked away, leaving the two of them alone on the training ground.
'Of all the things to drag me out here tonight.'
Ard was, privately, annoyed. He had still been sitting with his tea, talking with Lutra, when he had sensed the duel escalating. He had watched it for a while, telling himself it would probably resolve on its own. He had not particularly wanted to move.
'Third-circle casting. Of course.'
Another exhale.
"Claire. Any serious injuries?"
"No. Only some cuts."
"Good." He snapped his fingers. A soft green light gathered and spread across Claire's body, tracing each wound in turn.
"Healing magic?" She could not quite hide her surprise. 'Without casting.'
"I have stopped the bleeding and closed the worst of the cuts. You can return to your room."
"Ah..." A beat. "Thank you."
She turned to leave.
Ard watched her for a moment. He thought about what Celi had said to him that afternoon.
"Claire."
"Yes, Professor."
Her tone had shifted slightly. Quieter than before. 'Is it because I am her professor now?'
He did not spend time on the question.
"I apologize." He bowed.
Claire's eyes narrowed. Genuine surprise.
"Someone told me earlier today that I should. I thought about it afterward, and I think they were right. I was excessive in how I handled things. Making one of my own students cry, especially over something said in front of the entire class, was too far. So I am apologizing as Ard Le Ventias, not as your professor."
Silence.
"You do not have to forgive me immediately. That would be unreasonable to ask." He paused. "And I think I have some sense of what your life has been like. The parts that were not easy."
"Also?"
"Our situations were not entirely different. Both of us were pushed to the edges of our own households. Both of us had very few people who actually cared. I know what it feels like to be avoided and spoken about as though you are not in the room."
"Were you also... isolated?"
"At the mansion, yes. Because I was a demon, most of the staff kept their distance. That part I could accept. What was harder was the whispering."
He paused, then continued.
"One of the family's businesses was attacked without warning. Destroyed almost entirely. People decided I was responsible. I was four years old at the time."
He let that sit for a moment.
"It was not a small business."
Ventias cloth was known across the trade routes. Durable, resistant to tearing, it did not absorb odors and remained comfortable through long journeys across heat or cold. Merchants relied on it not because it was cheap but because it never failed. Beyond merchants, nobles from within the empire and beyond regularly sourced cloth from Ventias. Finer than most, and unlike coarser fabrics, it did not irritate the skin.
Which was exactly why it had been targeted.
"The main warehouse was attacked at night. The fire did not spread the way normal fires spread. Someone had planned it in advance."
Claire's expression shifted slightly. "There was a traitor inside the family?"
"Apparently. I never paid much attention to the details at the time. I heard later that my father had found them."
Not much had been salvaged. A few bolts of cloth and some boxes whose contents Ard had never known. Everything else had burned to nothing.
"The rumors started almost the same moment the fire went out. 'Demon child. Cursed thing. A spy sent from the demon realm.' The rest you can imagine."
He reached into his pocket and produced one of the small cakes Lutra had brought him earlier. He offered it to Claire. She shook her head. He ate it himself.
"Strange, is it not? Ventias cloth is said to be fire-resistant. Even lizardman fire cannot get through it. And yet it burned as though it were paper, leaving only a few pieces behind."
"Anyone who thinks about it for a moment would know that was not an accident," Claire said quietly, her hand at her chin.
"Yes." He swallowed. "But people are not interested in thinking. They want someone to blame, and they want the problem to feel simple. I was convenient. They acted as though they had suffered the greatest loss, when my father, the actual owner, barely reacted."
'Because he is a Duke. Of course he barely reacted.'
"Um... Professor. Why are you telling me this?"
"Because you should see that I have been where you are. Training hard, trying to prove something, trying to make something visible that people would rather ignore. We are not so different."