The walk back to my carriage was uneventful, so there must have been some serious effort put into keeping things under wraps. The street was empty except for the occasional patrol and well-dressed official on some errand. The sun shone bright over the grand buildings that made up this part of town. If I took too long though, I would surely get mobbed by ladder climbers looking to get an in with the very soon to be new Baron Masler, so I made haste back to the estate.

Despite the recent change on ownership, it seemed unlikely I would find the funds to fix the place up any time soon. I could ask Duke Wellsworth to arrange for renovations, but I don’t want to think about what such a wasteful request would do to his impression of me. Maybe it would be better to leave it as a symbol of the rot that took over the family? It’s too bad that there’s no social media in this world to spread the word with. The new master of the Masler house vows to leave the deterioration of his estate as a constant reminder of his family’s misdeeds. Nothing like a rebranding to revitalize an old favorite.

Moreover, isn’t it natural that the staff be replaced after they served such a corrupt old bastard without saying a word? Then there won’t be any trouble with some old nursery maid noticing something off about me! I could feel my hands shaking again. Everything was lining up just perfectly.

***

The classroom’s atmosphere clearly changed when I entered. A couple whispers were exchanged out of earshot, but no doubt they were about me. The question would be whether the prevailing opinion was that I was a traitorous son or just in what I did. There was indeed some pondering to do. I had only missed two periods thanks to how early the trial had been held, but I hadn’t been able to keep track of what was going on in the story while I was away. Moreover, it was be getting harder and harder to map things to the game. Jezbeth’s immunity to bad endings might not hold up for one. Still, there wasn’t much to go on yet and if there was one thing I could trust, then it would be her competence.

I met her eyes and tried to covertly signal that I wanted to meet. The iciness held therein told me that I would no longer find an ally in her. It had been a pretty big point of her character that she was loyal to a fault, so my own perceived betrayal would be no small thing to her.

When she finally arrived, Mary’s reception was much more warm than mine had been. No doubt it helps when you’re just pretty enough not to draw ire from anyone and you just came out of a trial as a hero, but it stung a little. If you can be so welcoming, can’t you give me some respect at the least?

The teacher for the period was my old friend Lucas Naher from the class assignments on the first day. Joy to the world, the clown returns!

“In our first meeting, we had to go through all those boring procedures like learning each others names and all that crap, but today we’re going to have a bit of fun! Or at least, I’m going to have fun, and you kids whose names I have elected to forget are going to play along or I’ll fail you!

First things first, a game isn’t a game if you don’t know the rules right? Your objective will be to get elected as a representative. The game will end when we have three. How you ask?”

Lucas, and no, I can’t bring myself to respect him enough to use his last name or title so Lucas is all he is to me, suddenly stopped then. Everyone sat waiting while I considered what to do. The trick to winning was simply to elect oneself before the rules were defined based on the game, but winning didn’t actually mean anything. As far as anyone who played the game could tell, this event had been a mini-game to introduce Lucas to the player with no other function.

From amidst the silence, Mary’s voice rang out, “I elect myself and as your representative, I declare that no others may elect themselves.”

“Looks like we have our first representative! Our first rule too it seems. Those other than Marilynne are not allowed to elect themselves,” declared Lucas.

I held my tongue and watched the other main characters closely. Phillip looked bored, probably not interested in the mundanities of an absurd game. Lorn on the other hand looked like a baby had stolen candy from him. Georn just looked puzzled. It was hard to get a read on him. You think you understand him one moment and then he does something either exceptionally genius or exceptionally stupid. Or both come to think of it. Elizabeth had tilted her head at an angle and seemed to be looking for the tear in space-time that had let this abomination occur. Finally, Jezbeth was wearing her usual poker face.

It reminded me of my old school days, the atmosphere of hopeless confusion and boredom. The teacher playing some cruel joke from the front of the room and the students just roped along for the ride. They never called on me though. It was always either the girl in the front row with her hand permanently raised, or it was the guy on the football team who thought he was funny, or it was one of the kids in the corner falling or already asleep. Never the one who sat off in the back third but just far enough forward to signal she cared. Never the one who raised her hand with the majority but never alone. And there were so many of them sitting all around me. Slight variations in facial expression, but all keeping within a strict range of normal. Don't stand out. Don't get noticed.

Maybe it's because that was how the game made them, but it felt too practiced for that. The game focused on the top of society. It had the children of kings, dukes, barons, and counts, but the majority of the class were unlikely to inherit a title of any significance. To kill a commoner was a sign of weakness, an act of lowering oneself. To exterminate a lower noble house was simply eliminating those in your way. What better way not to be the unlucky pick than to be indistinguishable from the rest then? I remember learning that a zebra's stripes work as camouflage because they let them blend into the rest of the herd.

Even as the words began to leave my mouth, I could see the panic rising, but be that as it may, there was need to get a read on these lower folks. "I elect everyone who has never been to a high ball." A small handful of them must've been brought along as a retainer for someone once, but the rest erupted into chaos.

"Very good, very good. We have, let's see, something like twenty representatives now? Splendid!" Lucas announced. The last few who hadn't thought he would let such a thing occur were finally plunged into the maelstrom with the rest of them.

As if to not miss out on his chance, Lorn started putting forward offers to buy himself a spot as representative. Georn was similarly trying to get someone to duel him for their spot. An interesting interpretation of the rules if I may so myself. Mary was busy scribbling something on a piece of paper, so I took the liberty to find out what it was she was writing. It was packed full of archaisms and sentences so complicated that they probably meant nothing at all, so in short it looked like a legal code of some sort. Actually, I suppose it wouldn't be all that surprising if she was appropriating Argonian law from memory. Even once she finished with the first page and moved on to the second, the bartering hadn't let up at all. With how loud it was getting, it wasn't particularly difficult to add my own provisions to the already densely worded bill of sorts without being noticed.

By the time Mary had finished, both Lorn and Georn had become representatives and the whole list had been written up on the board at the front of the room. It totaled nineteen names and of course my own wasn't present. Somehow Prince Phillip's name had made the list despite that fact that he hadn't gotten up from his seat or said a single word the whole time. Despite the credit I attempted to give them, there were no real standouts among the low nobles. One boy had been quick to sell his spot to Lorn, but the question of whether that was because he wanted no part of this game or because he saw the meaningless of it still stood. Neither did anyone notice when Mary slipped her six page omnibus to Lucas and his face lit with delight. Given that it only took him a minute to read through it, I was probably right that it was borrowed directly from Argonian law.

Lucas said, "It seems that our game has ended. It took rather less time than I was expecting, so I will first explain the results and then get into what this demonstrated. First, our three winners! Marilynne has retained her title of representative, Darren seems to have been found his way into the title at the expense of the other eighteen of you, and whoever's the oldest is the third. Seeing as I'm a good deal older than you lot and nobody else here deserves it, I shall take up the title myself.

I'm sure that by now, some of you are wondering how this travesty came to be, so I recommend that those wondering read section 4, article 9 up to article 15 of the common law. Replace the language for succession with becoming a representative and add an extra line to include yourself and you'll get this." Lucas wagged the papers at the class.

"So why would I make you play such a vague game here in government studies? Without laws, you lot are just a bunch of headless chickens. Class dismissed."

***

The next class was once again martial training and this time I was able to arrive on my own without help. Wooden trainings swords were arrayed on a rack large enough that even completely splayed out across it, a full grown man wouldn't be able to reach the corners. In my hand, the sword felt light compared to the real thing. The blunted edge ran over my hand and I only felt the worn-down roughness of the hardwood, nothing like the way that the taut skin pulled at the edges of an incision, threatening to open things even wider.

I was assigned to a group with two guys I hadn't yet exchanged words with and the son of the captain of the royal guard himself, Georn. I paired up with one of the two I didn't know for the first bout. Something akin to instincts floated to the surface and even started to form coherent observations. He held his sword in front of him with the ease that only came with regular practice. His feet were spread out slightly to improve balance and turned ever so slightly so that he led with his left shoulder. Even if these swords were light compared to the real thing, jabbing like you would in fencing was simply infeasible. Too likely that a solidly parried jab would leave you disarmed.

Unlike my opponent, I held my sword in just one hand, and contrary to my own advice, formed up as if I was fencing. This didn't seem to surprise my opponent and neither did it cause him to relax his guard in the slightest. His eyes were locked on the sword and something in the back of my head sang with his mistake.

The instructor's yell to begin sounded and I started into a lunging jab. My opponent's eyes stayed locked on the sword, timing the parry, then narrowed. Rather than extending my arm and ending my momentum, I brought my back leg around and twisted my torso to keep moving forward. I felt the weight of his parry push at my grip. It was an impossible angle for my fingers to hold, so I let go of the sword and crashed into him. With the wind knocked out of him it wasn't difficult to strip the sword out of his hands and hold it to his throat, signaling my win.

The other bouts were still going on around me with some pairs circling each other and others exchanging sword blows. It seemed that the favored approach was just to swing the sword and hope for the best. Only a handful of other bouts had finished and none of those had turned out like mine. Georn's opponent was clutching his hand and Jezbeth's opponent her shin.

The next round was against Georn while our opponents sat things out and tried to recover. Georn was fast, strong, and most importantly observant, so my tricks didn't work on him. Even my instincts weren't confident when he feinted and it took everything I had just to hold him off. With the occasional glancing blows that he got, I felt bruised and slow. And yet, it was exhilarating to keep pushing. The thwack of wood against flesh finally put an end to things as my hand lost its strength and my sword dropped to the ground.

We were among the last to finish even though it was only our second bout. This should be about the time then.

"My, what a spectacular bout!" exclaimed Elizabeth, exactly as she had in the game. "It is of course to be expected that the son of the captain of the royal guard be good, but this must surely reassure the royal family that their safety will be in good hands. And Darren, your skills are also impressive."

Georn's face flushed with pride at the compliment. I too played my part by staying silent. The game's Darren was about as tsun¹Term derived from tsundere meaning standoffish and cold. as they got, so I let one of them pick up the conversational slack.

"I've been practicing my entire life, so it is only through those efforts that I am this able. It is much more impressive that Darren is able to focus even with all that has happened lately. If it were me, I would be rendered lame with the shame that my own blood would commit such foul deeds," said Georn.

I held my still painful hand close to my chest and excused myself from the conversation. It was all that I could do to hide the shaking that was starting again. It was like the episodes that I would have back then. What was wrong with me?

***

"So you've come up with something so quickly? Pray tell, how may I repay this debt of gratitude?"

Duke Wellsworth looked completely different now that he was not wearing the robes of a King's Justice. It was now obvious that he didn't neglect training his body. He was built like a bear and could probably have wrestled one in his youth. His graying hair was starting to recede in his age, but his most remarkable feature was the way his eyes and cheeks sunk into his face. He struck an imposing figure, sitting behind his large desk surrounded by ornaments that bespoke power.

"Please excuse me if I come across as blunt, but I have come to ask your permission to be engaged to your daughter."

His ability to hide his emotions did not disappoint, but the gasp that I heard from just outside the room from the secretary ruined the moment. To be fair, it didn't quite feel quite right to me either. A marriage of convenience was about as far as you could get from the ideal of true love overcoming every obstacle espoused by the very same genre of otome games that I now lived in. More importantly though, such a connection would put me above the fray so to speak. It would be such a waste if the old baron gave up his life for me and I didn't continue on in his stead.

"I will pass the offer on, but this will be her decision and hers alone," the old duke replied.

***

"Yes, keep things quiet for a while. Let them believe that our operations were completely wiped out."