“And the winner of this bout is Leeeeticia! Give it up for our dark horse!” Trista’s well-modulated voice carried easily over the excited cheering of the spectators in the arena stands.

I stared at my opponent, breathing heavily as beads of sweat rolled down my face and onto the stone tiles that we stood upon.

“Well fought, Dame Leticia.” Rosette said, extending her hand for a friendly shake. In stark contrast to my exhaustion, her breathing was light and controlled, and though her skin shone with the sheen of sweat, she was hardly as exhausted as I was.

“...You too, Dame Rosette.” I replied, shaking her hand after catching my breath. “Sure as hell doesn’t feel like I won, though.”

Rosette merely grinned in response. “Don’t doubt yourself so soon, Dame Leticia. You fought well and with all your spirit. There was no way that someone as distracted as I could’ve defeated you.”

She was right. I’d noticed Rosette’s half-hearted strikes and movements even during our first few exchanges, her sword moving slower than usual and her eyes hazy as if she were far away on another battlefield. Despite that, she still managed to be one of the strongest opponents I’d ever dueled.

As a knight, this kind of victory wasn’t something that I could accept.

“...Maybe we can have a rematch when you’ve got your worries sorted out, Dame Rosette?”

“Of course, Dame Leticia. I look forward to crossing blades with you once more.”

As the two of us basked in our newfound camaraderie, an extremely loud and obnoxious voice completely tarnished the moment.

“I’M FUCKIN’ RICH!!!” Medrauta shouted from the stands, laughing maniacally as Viviane helplessly tried to cover her knight’s mouth. 

As it so happened, the odds had been completely stacked against me at the betting booth. I’d expected that to be the case since my match ranking was quite low and I hadn’t distinguished myself in duels either. Perhaps I had been holding myself back because of what my father had drilled into me all those years, but I’d only started becoming strong after finally earning my place as Rosie’s knight.

Regardless, it seemed like Medrauta had bet on my victory and won big. Her idiotic laughter and shouting had ruined the moment, but I suppose I’d have to forgive her since she didn’t bet against me.

I moved to the waiting room after Rosette wished me luck and bid me farewell, grabbing a towel to mop up the sweat that I was still drenched in. I was no stranger to perspiration, but damn was this tiring. Honestly, I don’t think I was this exhausted even after fighting the gauntlet.

“Yo, Leticia!” Brigitte called as she walked out toward me, handing me a flask of water. I gratefully accepted it and chugged down its contents.

“Thanks, Brigitte.” I grinned. “How’d your duel go? I think it ended a lot earlier than mine, but I was too focused on my duel to hear the results.”

“Eh, I don’t blame you. I don’t think anyone except Medrauta could get away with dueling Rosette without giving it their all. But to answer your question... Well, I lost.” Brigitte laughed. “I’ll get my revenge next year, though!”

“W-What!?” I exclaimed, my eyes widening in shock. “You lost to Kate!?”

I mean, I knew that Kate was one hell of a duelist, but I never imagined she’d be able to beat Brigitte! Sure, the two managed to duel each other to a draw during the entrance examination, but it’s been two months since then!

Plus, with Medrauta as her regular sparring partner, there were few first-year knights in the academy who could best Brigitte in a duel. Kate must be training really hard, huh...? I gotta give it my all too!

“Yup,” Brigitte said as she got up after noticing Trista glance at us quickly from the announcer’s booth. “She’s damn fast, and she’s got real strong now, ‘specially after nearly getting her ass handed to her by that imperial knight.”

I frowned. “Kate fought an imperial knight...? Why?”

“Huh? You mean she never told you?”

I shook my head. “No... She never even mentioned it. What happened, Brigitte?”

Brigitte pursed her lips for a moment as if in thought, shaking her head. “Guess that’s something you should ask her yourself,” she said mysteriously. “Anyway, looks like Trista’s about to announce the finals, so get going, Leticia! I’ll be cheering you on!”

I nodded and grinned despite the nagging question at the back of my head. “Thanks, Brigitte! Oh, and tell Medrauta to share some of that prize money, will you?”

“Hah! I’ll try my best!”

With that, it was time for the final match. I made my way back to the arena with sword in hand. My breathing had steadied now and I was no longer sweating, but the inside of my armor and clothes still felt quite stuffy and uncomfortable.

Whatever. I won’t even notice it once I start fighting, I thought as I looked up at the stands and found Rosaline. She stood from her seat and waved at me, her smiling face brimming with joy and pride. For a moment, I was so struck by her beauty that I forgot to wave back.

“Someone’s happy,” Kate smiled as she stood across from me, her sword resting on her shoulder.

“A-Ah! Sorry, Kate, I didn’t see you there!”

“It’s all good, Lettie.” 

Though Kate was still smiling, I couldn’t help but notice the loneliness in her eyes. Thanks to the festival and the tournament keeping me busy, I didn’t really have a chance to see her over the past two weeks, but now that we stood across from each other, I could feel that something about Kate had... changed.

“Um... Is something wrong, Kate? You don’t look too good.”

“What, really?” Kate laughed, but I wasn’t convinced. “Hm... Probably still a little exhausted after my fight with Brig, y’know? She was pretty tough.”

“If you say so...”

“C’mon now! It’s gonna start, so come at me with everything you’ve got, alright? This is our last duel, after all!”

“Our last duel...!? What are you ta—” My question was cut short as Trista’s voice boomed over it.

“And here we have it, folks! The exciting conclusion of this tournament’s dueling bracket! Two childhood friends square off for the right to hold the title of festival champion this year! Prepare yourselves for Dame Leticia and Dame Kaitlyn’s clash of the century! Duel... Start!”

I pushed all unnecessary thoughts from my head the moment the trumpet blared. I could get the answers to my questions later, but I would never be able to forgive myself if I faced Kate without giving it my all.

She came at me with blinding speed, her sword flashing across the space between us in an instant. I parried clumsily and leapt away immediately, distancing myself from Kate’s range.

Despite everything I’d gone through, there was still such a vast gap between our abilities. A bead of sweat rolled down my temple and onto my cheek as I devoted every fragment of focus I possessed into watching Kate’s next move.

She held her sword loosely in her hand, a relaxed grip that allowed her to immediately change the direction of her strike even after issuing it. The tip of her sword remained above her waist, pointed at the center mass of my body.

Instinctively, I knew she would feint and then thrust at my chest. I inhaled deeply and exhaled, preparing myself for the attack that was coming. 

In a sense, fighting Kate was far more stressful than fighting Rosette. We were trained in the same knight order and sparred countless times during our tenure as squires. We both knew each other’s quirks and favored techniques. How she breathed, how she moved, how she advanced, and how she retreated. I knew everything about her, and she knew just as much about me.

It was the sort of intimacy that was born only from countless exchanges of steel and sweat.

W-What!? I winced from the force of her downward cut as I hurriedly brought my blade up to parry it. The steel of our swords screamed an ear-splitting screech as they slid against one another.

I’d barely managed to block her attack. It wasn’t as if her attack was particularly powerful, though. Rather, the difficulty was present only because I was expecting a thrust, not an overhead cut. Everything about her stance had told me that she would lunge forward and deliver that powerful strike, but instead she had simply slashed down at me with a simple, almost elementary attack.

In fact, her strike had been executed with such simple technique that it was almost a perfect imitation of the movements that a squire would learn when they first took up the sword. There was no rhythm to the strike, nor did the movement give any caution to defense. It was just a simple movement designed for practice and nothing else.

G-Gah! There it is again! I flicked my blade to the side, deflecting yet another simple cut. It was a horizontal slash this time, but it was made with the same rough and rudimentary technique that was normally exclusive only to squires. If she continued to attack in this fashion, it would be all too easy for me to counterattack.

But if that was the case, why wasn’t I doing exactly that...? 

I shook my head and tightened my hold on the hilt of my sword. I didn’t want this duel to end in such a fashion. I didn’t want to win against a Kate who wasn’t fighting with everything she had.

“What the hell are you doing, Kate?”

She didn’t answer. Instead, she just swung at me again with another overly simplistic cut that afforded her absolutely no protection. I stepped to the side and thrust the point of my sword into her ribs, drawing blood and causing her to stagger to the side.

She stared at me with an expression that I could only describe as despair. “...Of course. How could I have expected anything else?”

I flinched. “W-What...?”

Was I not supposed to strike her? Was I not supposed to counter? I couldn’t help but allow myself to be distracted as a dizzyingly vast amount of confused thoughts swam through my head. This... is a duel, isn’t it?

I faced Kate again as she advanced yet again. This time, it was a simple thrust that I smacked aside almost contemptuously. I didn’t understand what the hell she was doing with such rudimentary techniques that served no purpose other than to leave herself open.

Is she holding back...? Is she looking down on me? I frowned, studying Kate’s eyes. There was loneliness and sadness in them, I was sure of that at the very least. I didn’t know the reason for those emotions, but I would certainly get her to spit it out after the duel.

Other than that, there was determination and... something else that laid behind the sadness that muddied her once resplendent blue eyes. I couldn’t figure out what it was, but at the very least, I could sense the resolve and authority that each of her strikes carried despite their ineffectiveness.

Again, Kate came at me with another simple strike that cut diagonally across the air. I leaned to the side, allowing it to pass by me harmlessly. It would have been easy to finish the duel then and there if I’d just thrust my sword into Kate’s chest, but I didn’t want to win.

Not until I discovered the reason behind her actions.

Each time Kate advanced, I retreated, observing her tireless movements over and over again until something finally clicked. She wasn’t just swinging randomly with those simplistic cuts. It was a pattern of ten sequential movements with strange looking footwork interwoven between each attack. Every time she reached the end of the sequence, she would simply start it anew as if she were begging me to understand.

And at last, I understood.

“...Kate...” I murmured.

She didn’t respond, but a little of the loneliness in her eyes began to fade away. I smiled as I dived into the sequence with her.

I winced as the downward cut bit into my collarbone, just as it did ten years ago. Recovering quickly, I jumped upward in an idiotic attempt to dodge her horizontal slash. Normally, I’d never do something so stupid, but this was a reenactment, after all. Looking back, the past me certainly was a fool for even thinking it’d work.

I thrust my sword upward as I landed on the ground, my bleeding calf staining the stone beneath me. Kate allowed the thrust to connect, causing her to stumble backward as I rolled to stand, ignoring the pain in my leg.

Next is the thrust... I swung my blade to the side, deflecting the thrust while countering with my own. Kate flicked her blade, sending my attack off-target and retreating. I advanced, and we continued to exchange nostalgic blows.

Kate... How did you even remember... I swung down at her with all my might as we reached the end of the ten strike sequence.  ...the first duel I won against you?

Kate’s sword clattered to the ground as she fell beside it. I leveled the point of my sword at her throat, just like I’d done ten years ago.

“...So you remembered after all,” Kate murmured

“Of course.”

“...Back then, did you know you would win?”

I shook my head. “No. But I knew I had to, just like today.”

“Really?”

I nodded before looking to the stands and meeting Rosie’s eyes.

“Yeah. I can’t lose while Rosie’s watching, can I?”

Unfortunately, I never saw the sadness that dwelt within Kate’s bitter smile.

“...Nah. I guess not.”