Arthur was definitely talented, Alex soon discovered as he tried to pick apart his opponent’s guard with little success. His initial block had been an orthodox one, but after that, all his methods of blocking Alex’s punches and kicks were sword-based techniques. He’d parry the attacks with a straight-edged hand, swinging it like it was a sword to deflect Alex’s attacks. A left punch was diverted to the right. A straight jab was redirected over his head. Alex’s kick did more damage to his health gauge than his opponent’s when Arthur hit his shin while hopping over it.
“I hope this is not the best you can do, Alexander S. Ryker,” the prince boomed. “For if it is, then you might as well give up now!”
Alex clicked his tongue as he moved back. If his attacks weren’t going to get through, then his best option was to let Arthur attack him.
“Oh ho! Goading me into attacking, are we? Very well! En garde!”
Arthur’s attacks were fast. Alex vaguely recognized his fighting style as a form of fencing. He relied mostly on thrusts that were combined with quick slicing attacks. Fortunately, he only used one hand to attack with. For Alex, who had been fighting against Nyx and her ridiculous alchemical attacks that came at him from every conceivable angle, avoiding one weapon was easy.
As the two of them continued to trade strikes, Alex noticed that their health gauges were dropping slowly. Neither could land a good blow on the other. Most of their attacks were either blocked or dodged. He frowned.
I need to find a way around that sword hand.
“You are awfully good at fighting for a barbarian,” Arthur complimented as he thrust out his hand once more.
Alex dodged left, rotating his torso to evade the strike more fully. “And you’re awfully good at running your mouth for a prince.”
If this had been a real fight, Alex would have already ended it with his Aura of Creation, but it wasn’t a real fight. It was a simulated battle. This simulator couldn’t mimic Angelisian powers.
Alex watched Arthur’s sword arm come in swinging. He timed the attack. Three. Two. One. Duck. The attack flew over his head, but Alex became shocked when a foot filled his vision. The attack slammed into his avatar’s face. The health gauge dropped to 50%.
“Tch!”
Retaliating for the loss of his health, Alex feinted a high kick that Arthur tried to back away from, then threw a low kick that hit the boy’s shin. As Arthur’s avatar went down, Alex pulled his fist into his torso, then rotated his body and hyperextended his fist, which slammed into the face of Arthur’s avatar. The action resulted in Arthur’s health gauge going down 24%, which dropped his overall health to below half.
As the battle picked up in intensity, with the two of them throwing punches, kicks, counters, and trying to deceive the other, Alex found a smile working itself onto his face. His blood was pumping. He’d felt like this on occasion. It usually happened when he used that red power, but he hadn’t felt it since then, not like this.
Arthur looked like he was having fun as well. He was wearing a mile-wide grin as he threw attacks left and right.
Their battle continued as their health decreased more and more. Shouts and cheers echoed all around them, but Alex ignored all of that, focusing everything he possessed on defeating this guy. He wanted to wipe that smug grin off Arthur’s face.
The fight eventually came to an end when Arthur knocked Alex’s avatar onto his back, then thrust his hand out as though to impale him through the throat. At the same time that his opponent attacked, Alex kicked Arthur in the chest, resulting in the two attacks hitting simultaneously and dropping their health gauges to zero.
“It’s a double knock out!”
“No way!”
“That was intense!”
Alex and Arthur frowned at each other as the simulator announced that they had tied.
“It seems you truly are talented in combat,” Arthur said. “I had not expected that.”
“I didn’t expect a prince to know how to fight,” Alex said.
“A leader is also a warrior,” Arthur retorted. “However, while I acknowledge your skills in combat, I cannot accept a tie so easily. Let us have one more bout to decide who will emerge victorious.”
Alex was about to accept; he wanted to fight Arthur just as much. He was unsatisfied by the results. Sadly, neither of them would get to do any such thing because the lady who had come with Arthur, the woman wearing the severe bun in her hair named Gwenn, marched through the crowd.
“Prince Arthur, what do you think you are doing?” she demanded. “Did you not tell me you were planning to explore the city? Why are you playing human games?”
“Erm…” Arthur suddenly looked like a teenager who’d been caught masturbating to their father’s hidden porn stash. “I was exploring the city at first, but then I happened upon this game and one thing led to another and… hehehe… you know?”
“No, I do not know.” Gwenn adjusted her glasses, which flashed in the light. Alex had no idea how such an innocuous gesture could be so ominous. “However, you can tell me all about it after we return to your ship.”
“F-fine,” Prince Arthur muttered. He then turned to Alex. “However, let me say this. I do not know exactly what your relationship is with Princess Gabrielle, but a boy such as you cannot make her happy. I’ve watched you two. You seem content on keeping her at arm’s length for some reason. Princess Gabrielle is a woman who needs a lot of attention—attention that you do not seem to be giving her.”
Alex looked away. “I… I have my reasons.”
“Whatever your reasons are do not matter,” Arthur said. “What matters the most is making sure Princess Gabrielle is happy, something that you seem to be incapable of doing. I can make Princess Gabrielle far happier than you. Now, then. I shall take my leave. Farewell, Alexander S. Ryker.”
As Arthur disappeared into the crowd, Gwenn following close behind him as though to make sure the boy didn’t run off again, Alex thought about what the prince had said and couldn’t deny the truth in those words. He looked up at the ceiling several dozen meters above him and sighed.
So troublesome.
2
Alex and Nyx spent several more hours wandering the Entertainment District before hitching a ride on a shuttle that took them to the Outer District. Once there, they walked to Atreyu Academy, where they picked up Alice, Ariel, Gabrielle, and Michelle.
Dinner was not as lively as it usually was. That was probably his fault. Normally, he and Gabrielle would discuss their inventions during dinner, but that didn’t happen this time. Alex silently ate his meal, while Gabrielle spoke with her sisters. She would occasionally glance his way. However, they didn’t interact beyond that. The others also seemed to sense the tension and remained quiet.
Later that evening, while everyone else was watching something on the holovid, Alex sat on the porch, sipping some tea. It was expensive stuff. Earl Gray. Mars currently didn’t have a dome that created tea. It was all imported from Earth, which naturally made it expensive because it was being shipped between planets.
Alex used to have a lot of money before the incident with Nyx. While Jameson had often called him a peasant, the truth was that Alex, thanks to his patents and inventions, had a net worth of around 2.5 hundred million credits. Certainly, it was not on the same level as a noble family. Even minor noble houses were worth over a billion credits. That said, it was nothing to scoff at either.
The door behind him slid open.
“Alex?” Gabrielle’s voice. He turned to see the girl standing by the sliding door, head tilted, hair swaying. The clothing that she wore, cute pink shorts that allowed him a perfect view of her gorgeous thighs and calves, and a sleeveless top that did little to hide her bountiful assets, made him gulp.
“You mean she’s like sex on legs, right? Don’t you just want to fuck her into a coma?”
Alex gritted his teeth, even as he forced his lips to twitch into a smile. “What’s up, Gabby? Something wrong?”
�
�One of these days, I am going to close that mouth of yours for good.”
“No.” Gabrielle shook her head. “I was just wondering why you weren’t watching Titan Girls with us. Is something wrong?”
“Good luck with that.”
“Back before you arrived, I used to watch Titan Girls all the time with my sister.” Alex turned back to look at the dome. There was no sky, no stars. The dome lit up during the day using an artificial sun. At night, the sun went down and everything became black. It wasn’t yet time for the sun to shut off. “She would force me to watch it with her, so I became quite intimate with the characters over the past two years. To be honest, I’ve grown a little sick of it.”
“Oh… I was hoping you would watch it with us.”
Alex winced at the disappointment in her voice. It seemed he’d said something he shouldn’t have. Stupid move. He should have asked her if she wanted him to watch it with them.
Gabrielle walked onto the porch, slid the door closed, and sat down next to him.
“In that case, I can just sit here with you,” Gabrielle said in a cheerful voice.
“Always so vibrant,” Alex said with a smile. “I love how you can always smile like that.”
Gabrielle stared at him with slightly wide eyes, and Alex blushed as he realized how his words could be construed. However, he didn’t take them back either. Making up excuses, backtracking on his own words, trying to pretend he’d never said them, that wasn’t really his style.
“Thank you.” Gabrielle looked at her feet. She wasn’t wearing any socks, so her small, elegant feet were subjected to the slightly warm air. She wiggled her toes. “Hearing you say that… makes me really happy.”
“You’re welcome.”
Alex smiled, but it was a fake one. He’d caught sight of what she was doing, and the moment he saw her toes wiggle, he was reminded of what happened with Nyx. He recalled her moans when he had used a rag to clean her feet. More importantly, he remembered his erection.
The feeling of disgust came back.
Will I ever stop feeling this way?
“Probably not. Feeling lustful is in your nature.”
Shut up.
“I agree with Alexander. Now is not the time.”
Alex wanted to close his eyes, bury his head between his knees, and pretend the world didn’t exist, pretend the voices weren’t there. They made everything worse.
He had always had problems with his sexual urges. When he was younger, those urges had caused him to confess to Selene. After she rejected him, he’d avoided contact with other girls, partly because he wanted to avoid rejection, but mostly because he didn’t want to have those feelings anymore.
The only one he didn’t avoid was Jasmine, who was Alice’s friend. It hadn’t been so bad when she was younger. At twelve years old, the fourteen at the time Alex simply didn’t feel any sexual arousal toward her. Things got worse when she began to fill out. Once that started to happen, even she was not immune to being the subject of his very vivid sexual dreams.
He still refused to avoid her even after that. Jasmine was a precious friend. Not only was she precious to Alice, but she was important to him. Alex had shunted aside his desires, put up with the wet dreams, and pretended that he didn’t feel anything for her, even when it became obvious that she had feelings for him. He couldn’t allow himself to touch her. She’d be tainted if he did.
Gabrielle had changed everything because unlike Jasmine, who was too proper to confess, she had no trouble telling him exactly how she felt. She confessed to him every day. What made it worse was that she had no modesty. She slept naked in his bed, tried to take baths with him, and hugged him all the time. He was lucky she was so naïve because it meant she never tried to kiss him. Alex wasn’t sure he would be able to hold himself back if she did that.
I’ve done a good job of keeping myself from going too far, but now that Gabrielle is here…
Alex didn’t want to hurt anyone. He loved them. Gabrielle. Jasmine. Kazekiri. Nyx. Selene. They were so important to him—too important for him to let his lust harm them, to let his desires taint them. He had to protect them, even if it meant protecting them from himself.
“What matters the most is making sure Princess Gabrielle is happy, something that you seem to be incapable of doing.”
Arthur was right. Alex could not make Gabrielle happy. She wanted love and affection. That was why she kept trying to take baths with him, sleep with him, and why she hugged him so much.
If Alex allowed himself to respond to her feelings, let himself return her affection, there was no telling what he would do. He might end up doing something he’d regret for the rest of his life.
“I can make Princess Gabrielle far happier than you.”
He probably can. He doesn’t have the same problems I do. He can make her happier than I ever could.
Maybe it was for the best that Arthur had shown up when he did. He could do what Alex couldn’t: give Gabrielle love and attention, without having to worry that he might one day hurt her with his filthy desires. Ariel would never realize how right she was when she called him a perverted beast.
Those were his thoughts as the domes artificial sun slowly went out.
INTERLUDE II
CONCERN FOR A FRIEND
The days passed slowly after Gabrielle accepted Prince Arthur’s offer for a date, or that was how they appeared to pass for Kazekiri. Maybe it was because of how worried she was. W-well, maybe not worried, but she was concerned.
It was the last school day of the week. She was sitting with Gabrielle, Selene, Serah, and Ryoko, which was where she’d begun sitting every day since Gabrielle first arrived. As she worked on an upcoming report she had for her law enforcement studies (law enforcement studies was a class that people looking to become police officers could take to move further ahead during cadet training), she glanced at Gabrielle out of the corner of her left eye.
Gabrielle sat right next to her, in between her and Selene, elbows propped up on the table and brow furrowed as she set her chin on the butt of her hands. Her wings were currently folded against her back. Everyone had gotten used to those by now. Her expression, while not depressed, did seem somewhat destitute. This was more or less how she’d been since the day she accepted Prince Arthur’s offer to go on a date.
It’s clear that Gabrielle doesn’t want to go on a date with that Prince Arthur guy, so why did she agree? Is she trying to make Alex jealous?
Kazekiri didn’t know much about Alex’s and Gabrielle’s relationship. She only knew the basics. Gabrielle’s father controlled most of the galaxy. He was trying to marry Gabrielle off. Alex was protecting her by pretending to be her fiancée. Those were the basics, though she also knew that Gabrielle loved Alex. The girl had said so herself, and Kazekiri didn’t think she was the type of person who would lie about that. Far as she could see, the problem was Alex.
How does he feel about Gabrielle? Does he… love her?
Rubbing her chest as a slow ache spread through it, Kazekiri wondered how Alex felt about Gabrielle. He clearly cared for her. He let her live with him, so he must, but did he love her like she loved him? Kazekiri wished she knew.
Wait. Why do I want to know about Alex’s feelings?! It’s not like I care about who he likes!
Kazekiri shook her head. Yes, she didn’t care who Alex liked. He was just a friend, so whoever he liked was none of her business.
Still… what if he does like Gabrielle?
Of course, if Alex liked Gabrielle, she would support him. Naturally. They were friends, so even though she thought he was reckless and headstrong, she’d do everything she could to help him. Because they were friends. Just friends.
Homeroom ended eventually. She separated from Gabrielle and the others. Most of them had different courses. Selene’s focus was on baking and home economics, Serah was learning how to be a maid, and Gabrielle and Ryoko were focused on engineering, though Gabrielle also had secondary courses in math and mechanica
l sciences.
Kazekiri wanted to be a police officer, so all of her courses were geared toward learning the ins and outs of being an officer. Her classes were law enforcement studies, physical education, weapon safety, and hand-to-hand combat.
Law Enforcement studies was by far the easiest. She had already memorized all of the laws and rules that Mars fell under, and she’d even gone ahead and learned the Mars Charter, so she knew all about the history of the laws currently in place. This knowledge was what had put her at the top of her class. It was also because of this knowledge that she’d originally been given the nickname Rule Book.
Despite being in great shape, her worst subject was hand-to-hand combat. Maintaining physical fitness was one thing. However, learning to fight was another entirely.
To date, Kazekiri had only won five out of the 27 spars she’d participated in against her fellow students, and she had yet to win a single fight against their combat instructor. Granted, she didn’t expect to defeat Instructor Monica in a fight. The woman was an ex-police officer who’d been a part of the Special Forces, and her talent had been in weapons and bare-handed fighting.
Her hand-to-hand class consisted of only 13 people and was made up mostly of boys. There were only two other girls aside from her. One of them was a talented fighter named Tifa who, according to rumor, used to be a delinquent. The other was a girl who had no fighting aptitude but was a great shot. Her name was Lilia.
Neither girl really talked to Kazekiri, though she knew that was partly her fault. During her first class with everyone, she had berated both of them, Tifa for picking a fight with one of the boys, and Lilia by telling her not to wear headphones while in class. Since then, neither of them spoke to her unless required, and when she sparred with Tifa, the other girl always beat her up pretty badly.
A Most Unlikely Hero, Vol 6 Page 11
