Duel

…And so, it was decided that we'd be having a duel.

I'd said we wouldn't be using the arena…

"Kehma. Here, your blanket."

"Hey, Rokuko? Isn't that unfaircheating?"

"In the Demonlands, isn't equipping yourself properly for a duel a matter of courtesy?"

"…True enough. Courtesymanners, yes."

So this was a duel between me and Aidi, but with the [Divine Blanket] equipped and [Faint Resistance Lv9] switched on to cover my one and only weakness, sleep, my win was already locked in.

I draped the blanket over my shoulders like a cape.

I've won this one, gahaha!!

"Then I'll use Sebas."

"…Aidi, isn't that unfair?"

"What are you saying? I'm a weapon, so of course I'd have a wielder, wouldn't I? Rokuko was the one who invoked no-questions-askedfoul play first. Besides, set against the [Divine Blanket], this is a positively adorable little thing."

"Nngh…!"

Rokuko looked at me. Since it was entirely true that Rokuko had been the first one to throw the rules out, I didn't think she had any grounds to complain.

Besides, with the [Divine Blanket] and [Faint Resistance Lv9], there was no way I could lose.

"…Well, we are using the [Divine Blanket] over here, so isn't that much fine?"

"Mmm, and my blanket is mine, which makes it effectively the two of us, me and Kehma… tch. Fine, I'll allow it."

"Ufufu. Thank you, Rokuko."

And since we wanted some condition under which Aidi could win as well, we settled on this: step outside the designated area and you lose.

It was rather like sumo, and the area was about the size of a ring, but unlike sumo, putting a hand or foot to the ground didn't count as a loss.

Those were the rules under which the duel started.

The duel between me and Aidi began.

"Well then, shall we?"

"Yes. Here we come. Sebas."

"Yes, Ojou-sama. Sleep, and rest peacefully — [Sleep]."

Right out of the gate, an immediate [Sleep]. But [Faint Resistance Lv9] was switched on over here, so it wasn't going to work.

"Fufufu. I've got resistance, so it doesn't work."

"…You've plugged the gap rather thoroughly, then."

"Now it's my turn. [Elemental Burst]!!"

Without holding back, I let fly [Elemental Burst] from both hands toward the pair of them. Even if it connected, those two would be defending with magic power, so it wouldn't be a fatal wound.

But Aidi and Sebas dodged the destructive bands of light I'd unleashed as though it were the most natural thing in the world.

"[Elemental Burst], [Elemental Burst], [Elemental Buuurst]!"

I fired them off one after another and didn't land a single one. Damn it, they're too fast!

"Good grief. Attacks don't work on us like this, and yet she tells me to win anyway. Rokuko really is something."

"Is it not a trial fitting for one who would obtain the Divine Sword?"

"True enough. It would be dull without at least this much of an obstacle."

Hey now, they're awfully relaxed.

In that case, let me narrow it down to one of them for now…

"Hup!"

"Whoops."

Sebas kicked me in the face — but it stopped about a centimeter short.

The absolute defense of the [Divine Blanket]. An ordinary attack left me unharmed. …Well, there were a few exceptions.

"Oh? You don't so much as flinch. You didn't even try to dodge."

"Sebas, did you always talk like that? Weren't you a lot rougher?"

"I trainededucated him. So that I needn't be ashamed to present him before guests. More to the point, you seem to have grown as well."

"My daughter's lover put me through my paces."

Thanks in part to Leona's special training, I'd become somewhat harder to rattle, and I could tell now when something dangerous was in the air.

"Is that so? How convenient. A warrior who's nibbled at the basics is easier to fight than an amateur."

"That's a bluff. I'm no warrior. I'm a Dungeon Master."

"And what, I wonder, can a Dungeon Master accomplish when he isn't in his own dungeon?"

"Fool. This [Divine Blanket] is Rokuko's. Which means this right here is my dungeon."

As I said it, I cast [Summon Gargoyle] without an incantation.

"A Dungeon Master's allowed to put out monsters, isn't he?! Go, gargoyles!"

"Hah! Now this is getting delightfulfun!"

"It is rather welcome to have an opponent my attacks actually land on."

While the gargoyles tied them up, I kept up the barrage of [Elemental Burst].

But against Aidi and Sebas, who had the Demon King style at their command, a gargoyle roadblock had only the faintest effect. Now then…

The gargoyle wreckage was starting to make the footing hard to see.

The marked line, the one you lost by crossing, was getting buried under the gargoyles.

About time I settled this…!

"…[Stone Pile]!!"

Modification. From every last fragment of the gargoyles, stone needles erupted with a thunderous rumble. The whole floor turned to spikes, and Aidi and Sebas leapt clear —

— straight toward me.

"The one patch of safe footing is right there, isn't it?"

"I knew you'd come that way!! [Elemental Buuurst]!!"

They came at me, and I met them head-on instead.

Narrowing the escape routes to herd them where you want them. That's the textbook play!!

"Gwoh?!"

Sebas went flying. But Aidi twisted her body in midair to slip past it and closed in on me.

Damn, I failed to finish off one of them…

"Kh?!"

"I'll be sleeping beside you, then."

And with that, Aidi slipped smoothly inside the [Divine Blanket]…!?

"Wh-why—"

"Oh my. Surely it's only natural that a Goshujin-sama's possessionbelongings can slip inside the blanket? Otherwise you wouldn't even be able to breathe, would you?"

"Huh? Uh, um."

"Then allow me to carry you to the rest areabed."

Saying that, Aidi threw her arms around my waist and hoisted me up. Wait, uh, hold on.

"D-Demon King style…?!"

"Fufu. Your beloved wife is waiting with both arms open, Goshujin-sama…?"

A Demon King style technique that disguised even the spirit, even the soul.

And by Aidi's hand I was hurled toward Rokuko, who had been sitting in the arena's spectator seats (arms spread wide, beckoning me over), and my out-of-bounds loss was settled.